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Apr 12, 2023
Really hard to properly review this Anime, but first things first. Firstly, this is review about whole franchise as whole. I can’t be bothered to “review” them all separately.
Secondly, the optimal watch order is the Novel release order but, in the end, I settled with order as following.
Bakemonogatari (MAL entry) > Kizumonogatari movies (3 MAL entries) > Nisemonogatari (MAL entry) > Nekomonogatari:Kuro (MAL entry) > Monogatari Series: Second season (which splits into own acts = Nekomonogatari:Shiro > Kabukimonogatari > Hanamonogatari (has separate MAL entry) > Otorimonogatari > Onimonogatari > Koimonogatari) >> Tsukimonogatari (MAL entry) > Koyomimonogatari > Owarimonogatari (part 1 and 2 MAL
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entries) > Zoku Owarimonogatari.
Anyhow moving on to actual contents now.
Story.
I must tell monogatari franchise has very unique setting about just anything. Story in a nutshell feels like various mental issues take some sort of supernatural form and the whole franchise is about various characters growth and MC impact on those around him thus having goal of solving issues for others to essentially living better lives. Of course you can’t take the in a nutshell part 1:1, as it does have some actual different plot devices that goes much deeper when it comes to existence of those creatures. But anyhow, the way story is presented and how most things get wrapped up are fairly excellent. Very discussion heavy Anime but extremely fun and entertaining.
Characters
Without the doubt, all the characters are beautifully made, whenever you like or hate them, they are still well made. Everyone has their pre-defined stereotype that simply goes much deeper as character whilst offering plenty of character growth. Which is main focus anyways in this franchise thus why characters get a lot of attention and also praise from me. Hanekawa is my choice of “waifu” but Shinobu is also great. All other characters also have lot of charm to them, so it’ a great quirky Harem galore in a sense. Main character is essentially dumb cynic that oddly still wants to help others than deal with himself. But eh… living the harem dream at least. Overall, great growth, expanded stereotypes and tons of discussion heavy dialogues/monologues that share each other’s viewpoints, morals and such.
Visual / Audio
Most of OST/OP/ED’s are unique and great to listen to. Visual art style is unique and absolutely top quality. Voice acting is beautiful. I have nothing else to add.
Closing thoughts / Personal enjoyment
First time I watched Bakemonogatari A LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago and rated it rather low. Gave it 5 or 6 I think, but that was pretty much because I couldn’t keep up with dialogues and the jumpy art was hard to digest. But now that I’ve re-watched/finished the whole franchise from start to finish, I must say, I absolutely loved it, one of the best franchises out there that hit’s all the sweet spots. Great art, fun action, lovable characters, great fanservice, great story and story telling and excellent presentation as whole.
If you get hooked with first season, you will likely enjoy whole franchise. Just recommend watching in proper watch order rather than release order.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 12, 2023
⬛Review info
⚠ Reviewing Info: How I rate/review stuff is explained on my website which can be found through my profile. But TDLR; My personal opinion has much bigger weight than “critical” novel length “objective” mumbo jumbo.
⚠ Review layout: Minimal/Lazy MAL non-h
⚠ Review type: Anime
⚠ Note: Still testing review layouts. This line will be removed when I’m satisfied with the layout.
⬛Review (short ver):
⚡In a nutshell: Nostalgia hell trip with more fantasy twists and sweeter drama. A lot tamer than OG. A sweet friendship story. Smiley face.
NOTE: Review is about both seasons, maybe some spoilers as well.
🟢PROS
✅ Voice cast remains the same pretty much and they still have excellent voice and
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voice acting
✅ Characters are still very enjoyable (interesting & unique)
✅ Story / gore content is still rather hard to digest as prequels
✅ Satisfying finale
✅ As Anime original sequel It was pretty enjoyable overall
✅ Great music/ost
✅ Great emotional value
❔ More focus on fantasy and drama this time which I didn’t mind
❔ Story main focus is on 2 characters.
🚫CONS
❌ Visuals & gore a lot milder than prequels.
❌ Sotsu went towards trope that I’m personally not fond of (or the whole foreshadowing of first season)
❌ Very “screw you” story content
❌ Obviously, mystery element is much weaker than original series (because mystery is solved in prequels)
⬛Review (comments/longer ver):
Before I actually rant more about various content of Gou & Sotsu, let’s get few things out of the way.
1. THIS IS ANIME ORIGINAL SEQUEL. For sakes of normal human thought train. Watch from season 1 not pick this as starting point.
2. I saw prequels A LONG TIME AGO, so I will be comparing them to these
3. This specific review will have spoilers as there are few specific things I want to rant about.
4. Have a nice day. ~NIPAAH
Okay, so let me elaborate about the pros and cons a bit for starters. I absolutely adored that pretty much most of voice cast (especially on main characters) were the same, they all have lovable, unique and interesting voices as in the old prequels. Plus, characters themselves are still as I loved them. Although, Rena felt a lot moronic here from what I had in my memories. Now with the whole cruel torture / gore element I felt Gou & Sotsu were a lot tamer. Prequels had very detailed and disturbing gore and torture scenes, this Anime had more of quick blood splatters and death scenes. Also Gou & Sotsu went towards fantasy element much stronger. Prequels extreme strong points are psychology, horror and mystery. Whilst Gou & Sotsu excel at fantasy twists and character drama. Character drama mostly about Satoko and Rika as they are main focus here.
I do honestly remember a long time ago, when I first picked Higurashi series, one of my first 100 Anime I’ve watched when I started anime back in 2008’ish, was absolute disturbing horror element and constant feeling of unease and simply feeling depressed about characters.. Gou & Sotsu do manage it, to an extent. Yes, it has some gruesome scenes, but the unease element was much weaker whilst feeling of “being depressed” was great. Each arc I finished I just felt “………can we have anything nice for them? Poor poor, Rika…. Poor everyone” Shame that the details of deaths and torture sequences were that tame in comparison to prequels as that gave great shock element value to the prequels.
Story itself is essentially bunch of same stuff we saw in prequels, but different time loops/worlds. While story itself takes this time around a different approach. Gou is essentially foreshadowing to Sotsu. Sotsu approaches timeloop from another perspective whilst unveiling of every loop cause and the twist. Overall Gou I quite enjoyed. Sotsu I enjoyed as well, but a bit less. I’m not fond if time loop is shown again but from another loopers perspective. Find this type of mystery / twist a bit dull. But in the end of the day, they were both enjoyable, just not as god tier as prequels.
Now to more SPOILER part of review and mainly me ranting about characters and the story being presented in Gou & Sotsu. You know…. Rika probably has one of the worst fates ever when it comes to characters. Having to relive same period with absolutely hellish outcomes and dying in various manner on top of that is just absolute hell, especially when you have to witness death of close ones or insanity of close ones. But with Sotsu first part, I honestly somewhat hated Rika a bit, the whole dilemma of fulfilling your dream with your most loved/closest friend… being stuck for hundred of years in hell loops, trying to achieve “good ending” yet being screwed over… yeah. But why I hated her a bit? Mainly because once she achieved good ending and dragged her best friend Satoko to her dream, yet still by the end of the day she didn’t consider Satoko at all, eventually ignored and abandoned her… thus making Satoko feel extremely betrayed, hurt and lonely. And such thing makes a great plot element for Sotsu. Hurt Satoko becomes time looper herself. And obviously, her damaged state takes the turn towards worst and thus making Rika relive all hellish loops again. Because why not. Although end became battle shounen for whatever reason, I still loved how both embraced their ability, fight in every loop and make it so dramatic and enjoyable… and how the whole thing got wrapped up, did honestly make me tear up a little bit. By the end of the day it was sweet friendship story I guess. Here though, it was sweet for them, but I personally felt really lonely, jealous and depressed when it came to Satoko and Rika relationship….but that to that.
To wrap everything up. Prequels got their mystery unwrapped, explained, presented and given satisfying wrapping as finisher. Gou & Sotsu present new story twist, great nostalgia and fun times. (In a sense). It’s essentially “bonus round” for old Anime fans. I liked the idea of this Anime, I just wish they would kept up with the shock value the prequels had.
⬛Total Score 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 1, 2023
⬛Review info
⚠ Reviewing Info: How I rate/review stuff is explained on my wordpress blog, which can be found through my profile. But TDLR; My personal opinion has much bigger weight than “critical” novel length “objective” mumbo jumbo.
⚠ Review layout: Minimal/Lazy MAL non-h
⚠ Review type: Anime
⚠ Note: Still testing review layouts. This line will be removed when I’m satisfied with the layout.
⬛Review (short ver):
⚡In a nutshell: Song powered magical girls with cool transformations.
NOTE: Franchise review.
🟢PROS
...
✅ Great transformation
✅ Vocal music power/magic presentation is great
✅ Story starts strong
✅ Plenty of fun characters with pre-set stereotypes
❔ Cute nakama power presentations
🚫CONS
❌ Songs become a bit lazy thus waning in their effect
❌ Season 3-4 pretty weak (story)
❌ Odd art quality drops
⬛Review (comments/longer ver):
Review is overall thoughts up to XV (season 5)
I’ve always enjoyed a great vocal powered magic, Anime. (Remember watching mermaid melody back in days) and this Anime does such genre a fairly great justice. Let me get the main complaint out of the way, the story starts well but sadly season 3-4 were pretty dull story and character ‘wise. Didn’t simply generate the same amazing emotions as first 2 seasons, but thankfully season 5 turned up the notch again.
Anyhow, whilst the story presents the usual magical girl tropes. Character drama, growth, new villains, new powers, new transformations, this one orientates more of mecha’ish designs. Drama itself for most part is enjoyable but sadly most villains’ storytelling and drama is pretty disappointing, but in the end still enjoyable. It’s quite a rollercoaster to be honest, you get moments where you kinda support villains but then you get disappointed how silly it will seem to you and so on.
As far as character cast go, we have tons of fun stereotypes, a bit of everything for everyone. Their growth and development? I guess it does exist, but I didn’t really pay attention to it as it wasn’t focus for me. They did go through various drama scenes thus growing emotionally, but I don’t remember there being anything overly serious. At least for me.
Art, animation is good if it comes to combat and transformations. Very flashy, lot of cool looking moves & powers, but art of everything else is pretty random. I remember some scenes looking like at some sort of paint art whilst other scenes are poser art quality. But overall, it was still good enough to be called good.
Music, OST is great in this Anime, probably the strongest point. But ey, music queen Nana Mizuki has lot of tracks here, so vocal part of their magic songs are beautiful. Openings and ending as also fairly good and other OST is noticeable, thus overall I think the Audio element was amazing in this Anime. Obviously had some tracks I didn’t like, but in the end as whole, I loved music.
Finishing words, if you like “power of music/songs” type of trope, then this Anime is great. Offers you plenty of music, transformations and emotions packed in “important fight songs”. If you also like modern take on magical girls with semi machinery transformations, then it’s also solid Anime. But if you seek for some sort of high tier story writing & depth then you won’t be enjoying this show as much.
I did enjoy 3 out of 5 seasons quite a bit. Season 1-2 were absolutely stunning for me when I first watched them years ago, now I finished season 3-5 and yeah as mentioned season 3-4 was pretty dull for me in comparison, but season 5 returned the charm.
⬛Total Score 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 18, 2023
⬛Review (short ver):
⚡In a nutshell: The densest and most impotent vampire within the clusterstorm of names.
❔NOTE: Review is about whole franchise.!!!
🟢PROS
✅ Clean art design
✅ Vast amount of girl types
✅ Gud pantsu galore
❔ Attempted plot depth
❔ cheesefest
🚫CONS
...
❌ No power progression for MC
❌ No direct approach towards romance
❌ Disappointing loose ended finale
❔ cheesefest
⬛Review (comments/longer ver):
I see no reason to make separate review for each season as story is tailored together. Anyhow, long story short. It’s very straightforward Anime with clean visual design. It has great concept of harem but ruined by extremely dull MC and who somehow never does more than suck girls blood. By the end of it I expected him owning actual harem or settling down with someone. But sadly this whole Anime leaves you hanging on various aspects.
Also, the story itself whilst it simple, it’s also overthrown with unnecessary amount of organization names, group names, historical plot names and character names. So half the time story feels like some sort of memory game and I honestly couldn’t remember most of them. Even if they try to toss complexity to it, it’s still underwhelming and unnecessary with plot deliverance.
While fanservice is direct and not overly sexual, Anime still offers plenty of innuendos, but sadly where all of it stops. Overall, I found first few seasons fairly enjoyable due to its generic straightforwardness and blatant service. But then it simply became dull, as I felt that main character didn’t become any stronger (aside new familiars.), no progression between relationships of characters and so on. Oh, and Kanon and Sayaka are my selection of waifus for this Anime. And I’m tired of hearing quote “No, senpai, this is OUR fight!”. Still, main gripe I had or have in general with these sorts of Anime is where tons of hot Anime chicks thrown themselves on MC but MC is denser than osmium and when girls end up taking more direct approach MC just yeets away. This type trope I’m fine with dumb af childish lucky-lords like “to-love-ru” or so. But with characters that are fairly serious, it just feels painful. It wasn’t even about “being respectful” towards his harem…
To sum it up, don’t expect story depth or character development from this Anime. If you want panty shot galore, with pokemon combat and nonstop feeling of being “Left hanging” then it’s solid Anime to check out.
⬛Total Score 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 13, 2022
⬛Review info
⚠ Reviewing Info: How I rate/review stuff is explained on my wordpress blog, which can be found through my profile. But TDLR; My personal opinion has much bigger weight than “critical” novel length “objective” mumbo jumbo.
⚠ Review layout: Minimal/Lazy MAL non-h
⚠ Review type: Anime
⚠ Note: Still testing review layouts. This line will be removed when I’m satisfied with the line.
⬛Review (short ver)
⚪ In a nutshell:
Overconfident naïve witch on a grand adventure who never learns. Witch spice of edge.
◽ PROS
✅ Great animation
...
✅ Great power/magic presentation
✅ Episodic location storytelling is great
✅ Fairly enjoyable side characters
◽ CONS
❌ Main character does not grow at all
❌ Value of main character is pretty much non-existent
❌ Very naiive and moronic witch girl who has too much power
⬛Review (comments/longer ver)
So, about this Anime. I did love the episodic story telling. It was great, each place main character visited had it’s pros and cons, but for viewers enjoyment they always had something going on whereas main character was tossed for sakes of interaction of whatever was happening in place she was visiting. But honestly, that sums it up. I loved the animation and the feel of it. And each location story was fairly enjoyable on it’s on
But now comes the big downside for me. I felt that the main characters purpose was probably most pointless one out of this type of adventure / episode Anime (i.e Kino’s journey, Mushishi) . Yes she had a grand reason for adventure, but what was most annoying I felt that every time something “different” or “dramatic” or “traumatic” whatever…., happened on each episode, main character would grow from it. Become smarter, become more cautious. But nope, we still get narcissistic overconfident naive witch girl, who lollygags around, putting her nose into various issues and by the process essentially ignoring the ones that need help, or helping essentially those who shouldn’t been helped. Meaningly, MC has no sense of Justice or responsibility. Even, on the most serious episodes, next episode is like absolutely nothing happened. That is my main gripe with the show. And that reason alone lowered score for me by 1 point.
Other than that, Anime has beautiful animation and fairly good OST. Magic presentation is done well and witches look great. World itself is fairly fun with various uses of magic and their own quirks.
Anyhow…. If you like episodic Anime to get short stories of various circumstances with witches and magic, then give it a try. But if you expect journey of main characters growth, then be prepared to be disappointed.
⬛Total Score 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 12, 2022
One Piece Film: Red 8/7/9/9/9
First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on my wordpress page. Which can be found through my profile. Although TLDR; personal feelings over „objective“/"critic" mumbo jumbo.
NOTE: Been a while since written anime “review” . So probably will be testing layouts for a while before settling on one.
❉In a nutshell: Powered music done right and tons of nakama power.
✦Story
So this time around we get sort of a idol type approach with one piece movie. Anyhow, for the most part I felt that the storytelling was very enjoyable. It starts essentially with slow burn progress whereas you get to hear tons
...
of great music, but over the course of the movie it gets more and more dramatic. Which overall I felt it was done right. We also get the usual comical relief on less dramatic scenes as well. Although some stuff regarding the plot felt very dumb though, but eh, that happens often with OP.
Anyhow, as far as story goes. The progression “steps” were great and overall movie was quite enjoyable and even emotional enough.
✦Character
Firsts things first, we get to see tons of characters to show up again and for whatever reason everyone teams up with everyone, which felt like ultimate nakama power type of character presentation, which I found rather idiotic, but eh.. whatever.
Only real worthwhile mention is the main character of the movie “Uta” aside being fostered daughter of Shanks, she had somewhat interesting character in her…, but her “backstory” and the whole drama of herself and her actions was the main focus, which overall was great. She was essentially insane and coping, which was entertaining to watch.
✦Art & Sound
Lots of great music with Uta and animation was top notch, plenty of detailed moments with very flashy combat and very fancy song presentations. Although, full blown CGi moments were awkward like usually it is with 3DCGI moments in the Anime world….
✦Enjoyment & Overall
All things considering it was a great movie, visited it even in cinema, since we had it here in our country. Lot’s of very enjoyable music, fun fights, good drama & did even get emotional a bit on few occasions.
I do love powered music in the world of Anime. Symphogear & Takt would be superb examples, they simply much more fun versional than crappy western “musicals”. And in this movie it was over the top world building (in a literal sense)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 2, 2019
Heavy Object 8/8/7/8/8/8
First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
A rather military/strategy nerdy Anime with fun dialogues and very light-mooded war Anime. Comedy aspect was mostly sexual in a narrative manner, whereas some of light visual stimuli fanservice.
I found approach of fan-service rather interesting, especially since most characters went along to it and the world itself reacted to the most fanservice elements.
...
What I disliked about that same thing I mentioned, is that characters felt rather "loose" in a sense. But I simply went with decision that they are vanilla pervs.
Anime teases you with possible romance.. but there it stays.
Even though I really despise military/war by concept, I found the action part with fun dialogues very entertaining. So in the end I find it rather unique and fun Anime that is mostly rather light-hearted all things considering.
✦Art & Sound
I found art/animation rather fitting where objects CG was pretty neat and had some rather detailed animations to them.
Sound I think was good enough, but not really memorable or noticeable.
✦Character
Lot of very talkative oddballs that mostly end up talking sexual. Plenty of eccentric and fun characters.
Although romantically dense character in this type of Anime was rather frustrating plus his really odd "harem" as well...was a thing.
Other than that. Really fun characters.
✦Enjoyment & Overall
Mentioned everything I wanted to. Got nothing else to add, and as summary it's rather interestingly made nerdy tactics Anime with lot of fun dialogues and sexual talk.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 2, 2019
Anne Happy♪ 7/6/6/7/7/7
First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
A cute little odd moeblob. With tons of clumsy, unlucky etc.. stereotypes. Concept was fun, school was fun, episodes were mostly fun.
Not much else to add. Anoter SOL moeblob with great quirk. Story didn't shine any any manner though.
...
✦Art & Sound
Good enough. Both art and sound side. Opening was nice, everything else was good enough.
✦Character
As mentioned at story. Plenty of stereotypes focused on clumsy, unlucky and so on characters. Primary development was making friends and learning about each other. Other than that, cute girls doing cute things.
Could add.. Ruri was my favorite character, but her quirk was so damn weird. I seriously couldn't figure out at the start whenever it was literal or symbolism...
✦Enjoyment & Overall
Unlucky oddballs in a odd school doing cute things. Sums it up. For the most part I rather enjoyed it with few episodes/scenes being rather bland. As whole, I enjoyed it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 2, 2019
Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo 7/8/10/6/6/7
First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
To put it shortly. It is essentially mix of "Code Geass" and "Kakumeiki Valvrave" with rapist fetish direction.
I start of the story extremely unpleasant to digest and the characters didn't make it any better. On the other hand progression was very pleasing, had lot of impactful moments and few emotional moments. I found the world somewhat interesting and had fair bit of surprises.
I did really detest the heavy hand fetish/aspect of the storytelling, where rapists where everywhere. But by the
...
end of the day, it had rather "good" story to it with power of music that I really love in the Anime.
Surprisingly there is also romance element to it that actually did take it's course.
✦Art & Sound
Art was great, with some nice designs and fun battles.
Music was absolute bliss... especially the singing sequences. But soundtrack overall was superb.
✦Character
Too many rapists or rapey characters. Also i found female lead rather unpleasant and crude, whatever are the reasons. And very comical eccentric villain who by the end of the day is a disappointment.
Other than that. Plenty of stereotypes, romance growth, character growth, character changes etc.. is rather good.
✦Enjoyment & Overall
Remove the rapey aspect and tweak the female lead a bit. I would had personally absolutely enjoyed this Anime then.
Other than that. It was still rather nice Anime with great music.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 2, 2019
Kumanishi Bijutsubu Rough Sketch-senpai (Manga) 7/8/9/8/8
First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
I went in expecting simply good lewd fanservice with comedy, but once I were done with it. Instead of finding it lewd I found it extremely adorable and wholesome.
It had great balance between sexy approach yet extremely heart-warming love story.
...
I enjoyed it.
✦Art
Very pleasant Art style, and with the whole modelling fanservice approach with that hot thick girl who discovered surprising fetish she had and at the same time hew own feelings over time, was simply well presented.
✦Character
Not much to add aside main female lead being extremely adorable with somewhat kinky side. I did really enjoy seeing her meltdown and reactions.
Aside that, rest of characters are also rather oddballs and interesting. Did enjoy them for the most part.
✦Enjoyment & Overall
Expected sexy painting sessions. Ended with wholesome experience where ecchi element became simply a cute-fest.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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