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- LocationGateshead, England, UK
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Jul 7, 2021
This review I'd been wanting to get to for some time now, as I do have loads to say on this anime in particular.
When I first heard about it, it was more or less when it was released on Netflix back when they were heavily marketing their original programming following the release of shows like Bojack Horseman and the Marvel Defenders series.
This was also at a time when Netflix as a streaming service was at the top of it's game in terms of success and quality, before other services that could actually rival it on even ground were introduced.
So when they announced they would start
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streaming original anime, I was curious as to how this 7 Deadly Sins would fair and I started watching it...4 years later, sorry I was busy around that time. Didn't really have time to make a start.
But when I did start watching it, I thought it was...good. Like I knew within the first few episodes it was going more for style over substance and I thought that was totally fine, an anime doesn't have to have a deep message to be good and I thought the 7 Deadly Sins was delivering it's fast paced battles and action really well.
The characters are even well characterised, they're essentially all medieval avengers style superhumans with their own backstories and unique powers who work off each other and supporting characters organically.
So if everything I've said has been good so far, that must mean the anime itself as a whole deserves high praise yes?
Well...not really.
I mean I still consider myself a fan of the show, in fact when Season 5 suddenly appeared on my Netflix account, I took a break from my Dagashi Kashi viewing just to binge watch it over a weekend. But there's one big inherent problem this anime has, and that's the fact it is actually really poorly written.
I did say earlier that it's style over substance isn't an inherently bad thing and I still stand by that, what gets me about the 7 Deadly Sins story is how completely oblivious it is to it's own flaws.
One big example for me is the implementation of Power Levels. Now anyone who knows Shonen writing will know what a power level trope is, it basically takes the skillsets of a character in a story and scales a number to them based on their abilities, like in an RPG or a character card in the vein of Top Trumps. It was Dragonball Z that essentially made this mathematical designation a common narrative aspect when the Z-fighters or their opponents were having their strength compared, and so the 7 Deadly Sins being a Shone inspired story, it includes this idea. Only it's treat with the utmost seriousness to the point where it loses any real meaning.
Whenever a character gets a character boost, another character will almost certainly say "Their power level is almost 5.1 squintillion" or whatever, and it just leaves you with the question, "well what does that mean?". All you've basically said is a number and we're supposed to feel something about that as the audience.
It comes to a level of ridiculousness when it starts getting applied to characters with almost godly levels of strength and ends up undermining their threat. There's two high ranking demons introduced later in the story who are basically viziers to the demon king himself and their power levels are said to be at "200,000". But I just ended up thinking, "oh that's fine then, all we need is someone with a power level of 200,001 and they'll be no problem".
It concepts like this and the fact that new characters, good and bad, are just introduced at the drop of a hat without real build up and character backstories are retconned more times than a convention for renewable energy fans got me to the conclusion that the story felt like a story campaign in Dungeons and Dragons that has gone on too long and the Dungeon Master was having trouble coming up with ways to raise the stakes as it went on, resulting in something that is actually funny to pick apart but difficult to take seriously in any capacity, no matter how much the show itself tries to.
Despite that all that though, I would still say it's worth a look if you're just after a brainless explosion fest of action with some decent characterisation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 6, 2021
Before I start, let it be known that I do not think this 2nd season of Dagashi Kashi is by no stretch of the word bad. I actually have a lot of positive things to say about it.
For starters, I like the new characters introduced this series. Hajime is an interesting character to add to the roster since she has an air of total obliviousness to her and is really likeable, Beniyutaka is an interesting idea of introducing a rival to the Dagashi store and without wanting to spoil the revelation at the end of the series, his connection with one of the established characters
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could have been a good way to shake up the formula.
But notice I said "Could have been", rather than "Was".
I didn't think I'd last long with getting to what I thought was the biggest problem with this anime. It was a missed potential.
The first series was an episodic comedy romp that just tried to make you laugh and feel good about life and all it's eccentricity. The 2nd series on the other hand tries to be more serialised and tell a recurring story by introducing new ideas that could give it a bit more depth. But all these components are completely lost in the execution.
The episodes of series 2 are significantly shorter than the first, only being at 10-12 minutes tops rather than S1's 25 minute run time. This isn't a big deal considering the stories of the first series tended to only last that long anyway, the shorter run time becomes a problem with series 2 because it's trying to be something more than the first series.
The stories told in series 2 are way less episodic such as the continuing development of Kokonutso and Hotaru's relationship, the idea of a rival store opening up opposite the Dagashiya and Kokonutso's attempt at balancing his manga life goal with also running the store on his own while his father recovers in hospital (which by the way really made Kokonutso's inherent skill as a store business manager really blossom this time round).
But all these interesting ideas are squandered on a series that has way less run time to fully develop them and most story threads are left unravelled with the series ending on a cliffhanger that is still unresolved 3 years later.
Series 2 felt like it was building up to something, it introduces all these new interesting ideas in a really rapid fashion, but without a 3rd season to show us how these ideas can develop the setting and characters further, they just feel empty to see in action. Hotaru as a character bounces off the original cast personalities brilliantly and we never see her interact with Hajime, who is way more oblivious to Dagashi and so it could have been fun seeing her react to the candy-loving Hotaru in interesting ways. Same goes for new rival character, Beniyutaka the owner of the store's new rival business, which again without wishing to spoil, when the revelation of these two characters is revealed, it felt like it was a build up without a pay off.
Hotaru herself doesn't even appear in the series for half of the episodes, and while I don't want to sound like a Hotaru fanboy complaining that his waifu has been written out of the show and therefore it's wrong and ruined forever, her absence is used as a means to further develop Kokonutso's arc further in a similar manner to Kylo Ren and Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. That didn't stop the animation studio putting her face all over the marketing still. The very promo poster for this series has her stood at the front of everybody right next to Hajime suggesting they both get time together but their on-screen interaction lasts all of, what, 12 seconds? So it seemed like a tacky way of advertising a cult anime to rake in as much views as possible before realisation struck that the story was misleading. Or maybe I'm just being a bit biased.
Now I know technically the series ends properly in the manga and the anime is supposed to advertise that primarily. But I can't get a hold of that manga so easily so for me, this is where the Dagashi story ends (should a series 3 never materialise in the future), on an unresolved cliffhanger having developed a really strong connection with all these characters and just yearning for more.
So while there are loads of moments in Series 2 that could even technically surpass the original series, I feel like I can only give a cautious recommendation of it due to how unfinished the anime now feels after this 2nd series. Had Dagashi Kashi just been one short but sweet comedy series, I.E. Series 1 standing alone, it could have forever gone down as a real hidden gem of an anime series.
But as it stands, it feels like if Empire Strikes Back had flopped at the cinema and the entire Star Wars franchise had ended on a pessimistic cliffhanger.
I'm using loads of Star Wars analogies lately I've noticed...
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 6, 2021
So it's been a while since I wrote a review, obviously, but then again it had been a while since I'd watched much anime.
I moved out of my parent's home and into my own place since then and I decided I was in the mood for some Slice of Life anime.
And that anime was...Azumanga Diaoh. And it was damn great.
But AD got my appetite wet for more Slice of Life anime and by sheer happenstance I happened upon this Dagashi Kashi, an anime about working in a small Dagashiya, a sort of small corner shop that sells cheap sweets similar to Penny sweets in
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the UK.
Having worked in a newsagents myself for 3 years, I thought this would be so relatable, and I was right. The very feeling of the show brought memories back of working in a similar establishment, to the sheer mundane discussions with co-workers and customers to the various background items on sale, I felt right at home watching this anime series.
But that's my personal experience with it, how does it fair as an anime?
Well, very well it turns out. The banter-based feel of the comedy reminds me a little of Kevin Smith's Clerks mixed with the over the top visuals of Family Guy and the two actually blend surprisingly well.
A Slice of Life comedy is only as good as it's characters and thankfully they're all really great, with the stand out obviously being Haruto Shidare, the eccentric sweet obsessive trying to sway Kokonutso to take over his father's Dagashi store so she can hire his dad for her Dagashi company.
But the other characters are great as well, Kokonutso sort of being the only apparent sane person who reacts to all the mad crap going on around him much like any shop worker would.
The Endo twins, To and Saya, being great support characters that have a funny Brother-Sister dynamic and Yo, Kokonutso's father and owner of the Dagashi store, who you'd think initially is the archetypal patriarchal figure who thinks his son should focus more on taking over the business than wasting his time drawing Manga. But surprisingly, that's only the half truth. Yo, while wanting Kokonutso to follow his legacy, is actually very encouraging of his son's talents and it's actually Kokonutso who takes on a more mature role between the two.
I mean, this show is overall an animated sitcom first and foremost so nothing about it is deep or tries to get a message across. It's just a short, sweet and fun little series that wants to make sure you just enjoy yourself.
Much like the Dagashi the show is based around actually, thinking about it.
After finishing the first season, I immediately followed on to the 2nd which is treat like a separate series despite being a direct follow on.
And boy do I have a few things to say about this one...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 28, 2015
So as expected, once I watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, I was now invested in the characters and the world of Amestris. So I thought this would make it easier for me to try out the other anime interpretation of this series. Like Brotherhood, I was on and off with this series having watched the first few episodes on Funimation's Youtube channel up until they stopped uploading the English dubs (sorry, can't watch Subbed anime that's just me). So left it for the longest time. But then opted to watch it from the start after enjoying Brotherhood so much to see how it compared.
And how does
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it compare?
Weirdly is how.
I'm one of the few within the category of to have watched Brotherhood before FMA Original and I found the differences incredibly jarring. They're like two different shows nearly, especially in tone. Brotherhood, while dabbling in mature philosophical topics, had a fairly light-hearted tone with its cartoon pandas and saturday morning cartoon style martial art fighting. The original anime has a tone somewhere along the lines of the Batman cartoon with angst being the oxygen which the characters breathe.
Not that this undermined any of the quality, it gave a more grounded sense of realism and the over the top world-saving qualities of Brotherhood are replaced with a more realistic rendition of Amestris.
To put it into context, if either of the shows were to be a part of the real world, the original FMA would be the actual real world universe while Brotherhood would be a TV show based on the real-world characters if you know what I mean.
The origins of the homunculi in particular was a step in a different direction. They're nothing more than henchmen in Brotherhood while they're more integral to the plot concerning alchemy as a concept in this version.
And remember that point I said in my Brotherhood review of the fight scenes not being longer than necessary? Well the original takes that to a whole new level and barely has any fight scenes at all. And when there are fight scenes, they carry more visual weight to them. Characters don't have supernatural reflexes, they move just like an ordinary person would albeit with a bit more animated fling to it.
But again, the more realistic animation movements add more of a sense of tension than some other anime I've seen. It still beats Dragonball Z's notion of standing around screaming at one another while flashy lights in the background give you seizures.
A complaint I personally put upon this anime was its pacing in contrast to Brotherhood. While I don't think its pacing is terrible in any way, the more character focused conflicts encountered in the Original results in a slower progression of narrative. While in Brotherhood, an episode can start off at central city and be in the frozen north or the arid desert of Ishval by the end. The Original series tends to have 2 or 3 episodes centered on one location before the plot can move on. Admittedly its not as bad as DBZ's Namek saga or even Attack on Titan's 5 episode long Trost arc, it was still somewhat of a slog when comparing it to Brotherhood.
So after all that, which series did I come out liking the most? Its hard to say really cos both shows are going for completely different stories. This original anime wants to make you think about the philosophy of the human condition on differing levels while Brotherhood can best be summed up as "Edward Elric and his merry band of Alchemists have come to stop the evil power hungry bad guy".
But personally, I enjoyed Brotherhood more than this original if only cos my personal taste in media was quenched more with the former. But for what its worth, the original is pretty much on par in terms of quality.
The ending really threw me through a loop and I didn't know how to react to it. At least in Brotherhood, I knew where I stood. In the original, I felt lost on what I was supposed to take from it. Though having said that, I still haven't watched the films based on the franchise yet and I hear the first one follows on from the end of this anime, so maybe my opinions will change on retrospect.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 28, 2015
FMA: Brotherhood was an anime I was on and off with for years. My friend recommended it to me as an introduction to anime as it seemed to him, right up my street. I could have taken that any other way on retrospect.
I was given the first 2 volumes on DVD by him to watch. At first, I thought nothing of it cos at the time, I had this stigma against western anime fans that they were all, basically, weaboos and being associated with them, to me, felt like being associated with that one ugly kid in school who smells like beef.
However, once I got
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into it, I found Brotherhood to be very good. I found the worldbuilding truelly detailed and absorbing while the characters were all believable and fun to watch in their own way. Even the homunculi villains were entertaining in some form or another, my particular favourite being Greed. His arc is incredibly predictable but his character makes it more poignant at times during the story.
I found the philosophy of FMA Brotherhood quite intriguing as it can be interpreted in many different ways though I'll probably save that discussion for a blog post later down the line.
I even found the ending pretty satisfying if slightly jarring in contrast to the end of the world plot that occurs just before hand (and more so now that I have also watched the original FMA anime as of typing). Which brings me to the action. The one thing that stood out to me in this anime was how quickfire the fight scenes were. The only anime I had been exposed to beforehand (not counting the Pokemon and Digimon cartoons) were Dragonball Z and Attack on titan, both I thought had incredibly drawn out fight scenes which became more tedious to watch as I got older.
The fights in Brotherhood normally last upwards of 10 minutes not counting the 23 minute final fight episode, which is really all it needs to get its point across. The fight scene is something used in action media to keep the story from becoming bogged down in exposition and drama. Its something that is supposed to pump you up and get you really excited. That effect is lost when its drawn out to more than 2 episodes and it just slows down the story. FMA Brotherhood laughs in the face of that trope and instead has fight scenes that are fast-paced and over before you know they're occuring. The Alchemy concept makes for varied fight scenes in characters and abilities from shapeshifting, shadow powers, fire bending, weapon materialisation and golem-style suits of armour clattering together like monkeys fighting in a saucepan cupboard.
Speaking of Alchemy, its a very unique ability for both an aesthetic standpoint and a narrative plot device. Its used in tonnes of interesting and comedic ways while its also the crux of the mythos of the show, as well as the driving force for the main characters, the Elric brothers, to achieve their overall goal they set themselves at the start.
My only real complaint comes from the portrayal of Father, the almighty big bad of the conflict at hand. His origins are never truly explained and his motivation seems to just stem from some dumb xenophobia towards none-artificial life that is never really characterised. Plus after all the hype he gets about how powerful he is, his final fight scene with Ed Elric is completely...well, without wishing to drop any spoilers, its like a boss fight in a video game that ends up being won in under 3 minutes cos you spent all your time putting points into that one move you purchased yonks ago that has rapid attacks and makes you invulnerable while you're using it. It just took the conflict right out of the story for me.
But this is a nitpick on my end and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was the anime that got me into watching other anime shows, and so I think my score may come from some form of personal bias for being my first true anime.
But even without that, I still think everything in this show works to make it worthy of an acclaimed reputation.
No doubt once I completed watching Brotherhood, I made it my duty to try the original FMA series which I heard takes a different route to Brotherhood and is apparently commonly considered the better interpretation. So that'll be my next review...
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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