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Apr 1, 2024
An anime that behaves like a regular TV show for an adult audience. This is the best way that "Japan Sinks 2020" could be described, it is an anime that just does not aim to be one. While arguably over 90% of all anime shows out there tend towards fantasy, the supernatural, futuristic sci-fi, or just have characters with some superhuman capabilities, the show we've got at hand is one of the rare ones that remains entirely realistic at all times and never really breaks into over-the-top action or any other clichés commonly associated with this sort of media.
Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 parts from a very
...
interesting concept: Japan sinking into the ocean due to a mass-scale natural catastrophe. Now, while the premise is indeed interesting, it's merely adapted from the novel "Japan Sinks", published in 1973, and it is one that's been adapted to other type of media: movies, manga, TV shows, etc. This, of course, adapts this story to anime and sets it in the modern day... and it doesn't really work too well, due to a myriad of factors. It is worth nothing that Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 is not a direct adaptation of the original novel, and instead takes a lot of creative liberties with the source material while still working with its core, so much of what you will see in this anime is an original experience.
Now, where shall we begin? Perhaps the most notorious thing about this ONA is that it entirely breaks out of the regular topics that this sort of media normally deals with, by touching into MANY taboos that anime has always avoided; while most series tend to focus on plots set in alternative worlds, or have a really partial, idealized or superficial vision of Japan and its society, Japan Sinks 2020 jumps straight into the mud by portraying topics very few anime touch on, in a considerably realistic manner: drug use, addiction, rape, mental illness, sociopolitical issues, and the actual impact of death and destruction on people's lives and psyches. Throughout the 10 episodes this animation provides, there's no shortage of controversial things to be found, many of which might just be rather shocking due to their portrayal being gruesomely realistic for what pretty much is a bunch of drawings with motion. Many characters will sometimes die in sudden, and at times brutal manners, leaving the viewer little time to even process what's going on. The absolute breakdown of society as a result of the catastrophe illustrated by this show demonstrates how many individuals can and will let their moral values go down the drain. Everything to be seen here comes off as bleak and depressing, like a bucket of cold water to the average anime viewer who might usually be used to more lighthearted stories, or at least ones that draw a noticeable line between reality and fiction.
Reality, and fiction. Yes, a line is drawn somewhere, but in the case of Nihon Chinbotsu 2020, said line is considerably blurred. Regardless of how we may look at things, this is definitely a sci-fi show, because it's simply not geologically feasible for Japan to completely sink into the ocean, so the events to be found here remain entirely as a theoretical concept, but within said theoretical concept, we get a very real and very gruesome depiction of what an event like this one could (and likely would) be like. One great thing this anime manages to do is keep you on the edge of your seat, because the plot develops itself in a coherent manner and carries a constant tension, never truly allowing the viewer to feel calm as they expect the unexpected. However, while the story provided to us is rather great and captivating, it is also considerably rushed, and that brings me back to the very first sentence in this review, which points out the main issue with Japan Sinks 2020: this is not a plot designed for an anime.
TV shows normally have episodes that last 40–50 minutes. That's double the runtime of the average anime's episode. In this time, a single arc or event can be developed in a lot more detail than in the roughly 20 minutes of content anime tends to provide per episode. Considering this anime has 10 episodes, the plot is just bound to have a quick pace; that's a bit over 3 hours of actual content, excluding OP and ED; it will likely take you longer to read the novel this is based (or more like inspired) on, which has some 300 or 400 pages. The speed at which the plot develops leaves little space for reflection or for some better character development; some heavily shocking events will sometimes happen, such as someone's sudden death, and the characters won't even really stop to mourn or at least mentally process what just happened, because that would take minutes away from the short timespan in which the plot develops. The end result of this is that every single event here lacks any more impact than perhaps an initial shock, and it then hardly seems to carry over to the rest of the plot.
On top of the plot not really working for an anime format, the animation is... bad, honestly. The art style aims towards a certain type of realism; it's not flashy nor colorful, instead it uses muted, more realistic color palettes and reduces all the eye candy to create a much grittier image that is much more compatible with what's being portrayed. While the animators did a great job with that, the animation still is rather uncomfortable to watch at times: the lines are rough, the different camera angles make the animation look awkward at times, the art style tends towards being realistic, but looks too rough, while the animation often times falls short in terms of detail, and at times attempts at being realistic and instead just creates some rather ugly frames. At times, this feels like an anime from the early or mid 2000s, and it breaks immersion. However, one highlight that must be mentioned is that whenever it comes to portraying the misery of such a disaster or death, the art and animation goes out of its way to be detailed and gruesome: the death of some characters is portrayed in brutal manners, some of the scenes to be seen are way too gory even for the average anime, and the depictions of the ruins of a Japan is very good.
The character design is very realistic, but also feels plain and uninspired in its visual aspects. The voice acting isn't exaggerated, it feels considerably casual and make all the characters feel much more human than in other similar media. However, one big issue to be mentioned here is that the characters' personalities are just BAD, and their development is BAD. This show, being a Netflix original, naturally goes out of its way to be uncommonly multicultural, as we see that many of the main characters are not Japanese, or are just half-Japanese. While this is in no way an issue, and if anything, it is a breath of fresh air for the usually-copious anime character design, it does feel rather forced. The ethnicity and origin of the characters does play a role in the plot, but it feels like it does so only for sociopolitical commentary, as it never actually takes any major incidence. One thing that is often just annoying about Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 is how its characters feel completely disconnected from the events happening around them; they'll start speaking English randomly, for seemingly no reason, or they will do something odd that feels completely unnecessary, such as taking some 5 minutes of an episode to rap about how they feel, and while this might work to show a sense of normalcy in the face of disaster, it just doesn't feel natural, and that's in huge part due to how rushed the plot is, not really allowing for events to take any impact or for the viewer to properly notice any shift in a character's personality or mood.
Now, lastly, there is one more issue with Nihon Chinbotsu 2020, and it is probably the one that can be the most annoying: it is many times absurd. How so? Well, perhaps in the way it portrays society's breakdown, tending towards something that's more similar to The Last of Us' scenario rather than what many might consider to be a more realistic outcome in which a lot of people don't just become completely uncivilized criminals. Perhaps it is in the way that seemingly all characters die in very unlikely manners. Or perhaps it is in the way one can predict which character will die next, and how. Or perhaps on how it would seem like the protagonists manage to survive almost all situations by the skin of their teeth. As the plot advances, it gets rather annoying and tedious, and all the shock from the events seen in the earlier episodes fails to replicate in the later ones due to it becoming somewhat formulaic.
After all of this, though, a question remains: is Japan Sinks 2020 a worthwhile anime? In more than one way, no. Should I watch it? Yes, it is worth watching. This is an anime that was not meant to be an anime, but it is also a story that wouldn't have been easy or even good if done as a regular live action TV show. It nevertheless is an interesting experiment in an industry that has perhaps become known for repeating the same concepts to boredom, it is certainly a breath of fresh air and makes for an entertaining experience, albeit a somewhat quality-lacking one. This ONA tries to be more than it can possibly be, and maybe it even falls short on what it can actually be, but it's still sometime worth experiencing. Yes, I give this a 7, and a "Mixed Feelings" review, because even if it's an engrossing anime, it is a bad one in a lot of practical aspects. You should go ahead and give this a try, though, because good or bad, it's undeniably a highlight in a massive sea of copious media.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 29, 2024
Let's look at the current year, shall we? Uh, as I'm writing this, it says here that it is 2024. Mind explaining to me why this anime came out in 2024? Because this is something that should have come out in the '90s, and should have promptly been forgotten and only kept alive in a few 30-year-old people's minds because of nostalgia from a time in which their brains weren't particularly capable of judging how good an anime could be.
The most attractive thing about Gekkan Mousou Kagaku is probably its English title: "Delusional Monthly Magazine". When someone reads this title, they'd probably expect something bizarre
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and out-of-the-box, but instead all this anime has to offer is an extremely formulaic fantasy pseudo-comedy that goes everywhere and reaches nowhere. Everything you may find in this anime has been overdone to a point in which it's basically impossible to create anything even remotely original or actually entertaining.
Gekkan Mousou Kagaku has a very simple premise: there's a lost continent of mystic humanoid creatures (i.e. furries), and our protagonists want to uncover it, however, there's an evil enemy that will always try to interfere with our protagonists' efforts. From this extremely basic, regurgitated idea, we get the same formula almost every single episode: characters find a lead > they go to some place and start working on the case > antagonists show up > a battle ensues > the antagonists lose and threaten the main characters with attacking them again > repeat until boredom. Apart from a few episodes, this is the same thing over and over again, and each episode feels loosely related to the previous one. This follows the exact sequence that almost all '90s and 2000s TV shows aimed mostly at children followed: Dora the Explorer, Pokémon, etc. It's pretty much the same thing, but even then it feels rather watered down.
The plot in itself is not only basic, but boring, uninteresting, and heavily predictable: from the first moment of an episode you know how it'll surely turn out; any suspicion you might have about something will likely turn out to be the case. The monotony of all this anime's events is only ever broken by absolutely nonsensical interventions by one character or the other, for what would seem to be some extremely low-level comedic relief that should be accompanied by a label that reads "For 3 to 5 years old". One situation I can mention is a battle suddenly turning into everyone dancing for seemingly no reason, and while this might break the annoying repetition, it also tears apart the flow of whatever the fuck's going on, and only confuses you while you sit there and wonder what decisions in your life led you to wasting your time by watching this of all things in the world you could possibly watch.
If how monotonous the entire thing is wasn't enough of a deterrent for anyone who enjoys even the slightest amount of entertainment, Gekkan Mousou Kagaku is probably the most generic anime I've watched in a while. Almost everything here feels generic: we've got a charismatic male protagonist, a co-protagonist that works entirely as (crappy) comedic relief and tends to be contrarian, a loyal pet, a duo of antagonists who look alike and speak at the same time, and their evil-looking, cryptic boss. You've got the same jokes being repeated over and over again, that one catchphrase from the protagonist that just comes out as annoying, very basic, usually low-quality backgrounds and an ambiguous setting in what seems to be a mix of Japanese and European culture, with both modern and old technology, which gives the anime a vintage feeling which is odd more than anything else. The characters are extremely plain, the only ones that have even any amount of depth are supporting characters that only play an actual role later in the anime, but all-in-all every single character here feels like it is made out of plastic and written by an AI, or a 15-year-old (or by an AI using a 15-year-old's prompt).
Is there a saving grace to this anime, though? Surely Gekkan Mousou Kagaku can't be ALL bad... right?... well, no, there really isn't. The only highlights that can possibly be mentioned are some small details in the animation, such as some drinks having smooth bubbling animations, or a few other minor effects, and perhaps the design of a few characters which feel a bit fresh when compared to most anime characters (namely Tarou and Gorou), but that really is about it. The animation is lacking, specially in the facial expressions department, as at times the character's emotions might hardly match their facial expression, if at all, while at other times they'll keep a poker face when they should at the very least show a TINY BIT of emotion. Not only that, but the animation is generally choppy. The color palettes are honestly a headache, this anime is way too colorful and that contrasts a lot with its setting, which feels a bit old school and as such you'd expect it to be more muted and serious. There's a huge mix of colors everywhere, and some of them make some really awful contrast, which reminds you even more of all those '90s caricatures which had a bunch of characters with color combinations that stood out (such as green and orange, or yellow and purple). Not to mention that almost every single episode has the same 10-second sequence EACH FUCKING TIME a character turns into a Motalian, in which their transformation is showcased. This literally should have been released in the '90s, not in 2024.
As for the rest of the technical aspects: the sound design is lacking and the soundtrack is just bad: the OP is some crappy trap with some pop breaks, but it's horrendously cheesy and unoriginal, however, the ED is somewhat solid, while the insert songs are entirely forgettable and uninspired. The voice acting is hit or miss, the characters sometimes feel robotic and their voice acting falls off at times, making certain scenes (specially action ones) feel incredibly dull, as if they weren't terribly boring already. One example is a scene in which a character puts on a serious facial expression as the camera zooms in on their face: you'd expect them to passionately scream their next line, but instead they just deliver it very casually, creating some extreme dissonance between image and audio, just to put some contrast on that, if you've watched Shingeki no Kyojin, imagine one of those scenes in which the camera zooms into a character's face in a high-tension moment, and the character instead of screaming something at the top of their lungs, they just casually say "Move forward"... it'd suck, right?
There's not much else to say, the truth is that "Delusional Monthly Magazine" is simply a bad anime that can only possibly appeal to furries or children. It is completely lackluster in quality and entertainment, every single aspect of this show is lacking, and in all honesty it wouldn't be a surprise if the entire script was written using an AI, not only because of how basic it is, but also because it tries to be deep while absolutely NEVER explaining a massive amount of lore that would at least allow the viewer to understand what the heck is the entire plot actually about. If it wasn't bad enough, once you get to the end, you just realize you sat through all this boredom just so that it all ends as if it was literally a children's book.
Don't watch this, really, don't waste your time on this, there are over ten thousand anime out there, and 90% of them are better than this. There really is nothing to be found here.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 28, 2023
Failure. Perpetual, painful failure. The same process again and again, the same unwanted result. Can fate actually be changed?
Steins;Gate focuses on one man's battle against the world and all logic known to humans. "Mad Scientist" Okabe Rintarou, AKA Hououin Kyouma, an eccentric, seemingly paranoid delusional 18-year-old scientist who, unexpectedly, creates a time machine that allows him to send phone messages back into the past. From this premise, the entire story of Steins;Gate begins unraveling, and so the questions start: is it ok to change the past? how many times would you do it? why? and what would you do if the results from it were
...
unexpected?
Steins;Gate begins off as an extremely confusing anime, the first few episodes are hard to understand, as they feel like the paranoid delusions of a schizophrenic man: delusions of grandeur, an "organization" chasing after him, talking on his own, and other nonsense. However, as the episodes go by, everything slowly starts clicking into place perfectly. The pacing of the story might, at times, feel off, but it's nevertheless very good. It drives us to where it wants to, taking its own time, explaining everything as it goes while still allowing the audience to figure things out on their own with some logic, just to sometimes prove them entirely wrong, while still maintaining a completely logical explanation to all of the anime's events.
This anime was recommended to me as an emotional one: it was supposed to make me cry. However, I can't call Steins;Gate a sad anime, as this adjective doesn't fit its nature. However, one adjective that perfectly fits it is "grim". Few times have I watched anything as grim as this. Steins;Gate's story is architecturally designed to make you feel hopeless, to suffer as you see everything go wrong again and again, and as you see the protagonist's mind deteriorate more and more. The despair that this anime manages to induce at times is much greater than any other anime I've ever watched; it is a feeling of utter desolation, like everything is lost and all that's left is to give up. It's an anime that will pain you, it will mess with your head and toy with your emotions, while trying to make you pretend things are actually alright, since you and the protagonist are the only ones to know everything that happens.
The concept behind Steins;Gate's plot revolves entirely around time traveling, as previously mentioned. The way this is pulled off is quite simply amazing, the entire plot makes sense and doesn't seem to ever contradict itself. The interesting thing is that the way time travel is done throughout the anime isn't, generally, through some machine that physically transports you back into the past, but instead through changing the events of the past or transporting the protagonist's mind back in time. What defines the plot, however, is that the protagonist, Okabe, is the only person able to retain the memories of a previous timeline, which eventually becomes a truly despairing thing, as he's forced to carry horrendous memories as he loops back in time again, and again, and again. All of this works like clockwork to make you psychologically hurt, it starts piling up on you, and you begin to get lost in the story as it keeps branching, going back and forth, seemingly to no avail; it truly is despair-inducing.
Visually, the anime has some great animation and pretty good character design, but what defines it are its dark and gritty color palettes and locations. Not only is Steins;Gate's story grim, but the entire visual style too: it feels desolate, abandoned. In the anime's visuals, the shadows are harder than the sunshine, every single place feels dark and void of life, the entire world of this show transmits a feeling of impending doom, and while at first this sort of visual style definitely feels off for what starts off as a quirky sci-fi anime, it all quickly starts feeling normal as the plot progresses and everything progressively gets worse, to a point in which the entire world matches the audience's feelings perfectly.
The only thing I could possibly complain about in this anime is the sound design. At times, it feels a bit lazy, with some sound effects sounding compressed, sometimes not even feeling like they fit the action being carried out, and other times having the anime miss a chance to implement certain sound effects to add greater impact to certain scenes. Soundtrack-wise, I must admit that the OST to Steins;Gate was somewhat forgettable, it hardly stood out, and I can't remember any of it other than the OP and ED songs, both of which are not bad. The voice acting is, for 90% of characters, spot-on and pretty good: the voices fit their characters, and while at times the characters' personalities might not entirely fit the situation, the way their voice lines are delivered are always spot-on: the sadness, the happiness, the misery, all the feelings the characters experience are perfectly portrayed by their VAs, which makes for a very convincing experience.
I decided not to really spoil the plot in this review because I'd truly recommend anyone who hasn't watched this to go ahead and do it, and if possible, play the Visual Novel first. Steins;Gate was an anime I wasn't planning to watch in the short-term, but fate made it so I did, and I wouldn't go back in time to undo it. It's quite frankly a masterpiece in many ways, with a perfectly-written plot and an atmosphere that seeps into you and slowly consumes you. This is one anime that understood how to connect with its audience, eerily so, and therefore, I think this is an anime everyone should watch, including you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 25, 2023
Railroad crossings. There's one near my house, but it has nothing fancy, nothing to even stop you from crossing when the train's coming. I've had to wait next to it a few times in my life as a long freight rain passed by, however, I don't have any particular memories about it other than wanting to go out to the street whenever I heard the train's horn when I was a child. Fumikiri Jikan, on the other hand, revolves around a bunch of people making memories at a railroad crossing, memories they carry the rest of their lives. What an odd setting for a story,
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isn't it?
The best way Fumikiri Jikan could be described is with 3 words: A confused manga. Yes, you read that right, not "confusing", but "confused": Fumikiri Jikan is a confused manga, because it doesn't know what it wants to be, the feelings it wants to convey, or where it even aims to go. Throughout the 83 episodes in this manga (MAL currently says 85, but there don't seem to be 85 at all) the reader is presented with a plethora of varying scenarios and a wide array of characters with their own unique personalities. The structure of the manga is presenting us with a different couple of characters (at times it's a single character, other 3 or more) each chapter, with the story for each one of them generally being continued throughout the volumes. While one of the main topics of the manga is romance, it often times deals with absurd humor and even horror, so as mentioned previously, the manga really doesn't know where to go a lot of the time.
The one big problem Fumikiri Jikan has is that it is rarely able to maintain its composure. We'll be presented with these different scenarios which are either wholesome or melancholic, and more often than not, the story progresses in a beautiful way just for the punchline to be something either disgusting or unfunny which ruins the entire mood. This happens too many times throughout the chapters to a point in which you'll read everything with skepticism, because you'll likely end up disappointed. Another huge issue with this manga, which might be more personal, is that it often times will make you uncomfortable through indecent and disgusting scenarios: an incel lusting over a girl, the bottom half of a donkey trying to "hook up" to a teenager, an old man wearing thigh highs practically harassing a school girl... These try to be funny, but they just inevitably come off as creepy. As a final issue to be mentioned is that Fumikiri Jikan is generally repetitive, and ends up going nowhere: the different sets of characters often times carry out the same sort of conversation, with the same outcomes. The highlights throughout the entire manga probably are the individual, unique chapters that present us with more original and specific scenarios. However, most of the time, it's just the same exact thing, over and over again, and it becomes predictable quite quick, and since most of these characters tend to develop feelings for each other, we're basically caught up in their romance which almost always ends up being inconclusive, blue balling the reader without giving them a satisfying resolution.
Moving away from the plot(s), the art style is, for the most part, good. The character design is at times unique, and at times somewhat generic, but not bad at all, with the backgrounds being probably the most detailed things of all: for a manga about railroad crossings, the mangaka went ahead and made detailed depictions of real-world crossings across Tokyo, and each chapter is somewhat nice to look at due to the level of detail of the places they take place in. However, over the last volumes the art style starts getting a bit irregular, with some chapters having oddly three-dimensional characters which feel entirely off. Other than that, one thing more than a single person might dislike (myself included) is the amount of fan service: Fumikiri Jikan has a lot of it, and while thankfully it's not every chapter, it sometimes goes really far with it and for no good reason other than to appeal to the weirdos or for (generally ineffective) comedic impact.
So, what is Fumikiri Jikan exactly? It's... its own thing. It goes everywhere it can go to, without ever really reaching a destination. It has ups and downs, it sometimes fails to be funny, and it sometimes makes you laugh out loud. It can make you feel sad or melancholic, and probably make you feel creeped out or disgusted not a minute later. It is a manga that most people will like and dislike simultaneously due to its sheer inconsistency. There's probably something for everyone in Fumikiri Jikan, but probably not everything for anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 21, 2023
How much can you convey in 3 minutes? Is that enough to tell a story?
Fumikiri Jikan is a 12-episode anime with 3-minute long episodes, with each episode focusing on a different pair of characters interacting at a level crossing. These topics go places: from friendship, to love, to the absurd. Being the first work of newcomer studio EKACHI EPILKA, this anime provides an interesting concept that's easy and quick to digest, while capable of making the viewer laugh, feel weirded out or even feel emotional.
Each episode just revolves around two characters having a dialogue, or one character having a monologue. Most characters have two episodes
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dedicated to them, and between the couples we can include two siblings with a cellphone addiction, two friends with one of them being in love with the other, or an old man reminiscing his first love. The stories we get to see vary a lot, and they're not always necessarily followed episode by episode: for instance, the first pair of characters only shows up again in the last episode. This kind of makes it a bit harder to keep up with the plots, but it also creates enough variation as to not know what to expect next.
The thing that's just great about this anime is that it doesn't overstate its presence; it's fast-paced, simplistic, it gets to the point quickly, so it makes for an enjoyable watching experience when you want to kill time. Humor is a constant in all the episodes, some having it as a secondary theme, while others being totally focused on it. Love is also a recurring theme, even love between siblings (yeah...) and between an old man and a teenager (yeah...). The stories can be unique or mundane, but they never fail to entertain.
However, one of the main issues with this anime is how inconsistent it is: some episodes are plainly great, while others are just awful. Two of the episodes, for instance, revolve around some guy obsessing over a girl while having dirty thoughts that will make most people just feel really creeped out. Another episode revolves around a naked man (off-screen nudity, thankfully) speaking to a teenage girl, asking her to help him cover up his private parts. This heavily contrasts with the more wholesome and just truly enjoyable episodes. Another issue Fumikiri Jikan runs into is that, at times, it starts off great just to completely ruin the mood at the end, namely in the way certain situations are resolved, such as the old man finding his first love's daughter and falling in love with her... that just ruined a whole nostalgic, melancholic story that was certainly emotional, by ending it in a plainly disgusting way.
Quality-wise, the soundtrack is alright, the sound effects as well, but these don't necessarily take a lot of protagonism due to how short the episodes are. The animation, on the other hand, is mostly mediocre, and so is the character design. The animation feels too static at times, while it's not necessarily bad, it feels dated, but it's forgivable considering this is the studio's debut. The character design is, for the most part, plainly uninteresting, with some characters just looking so alike that it's easy to confuse them, with their facial expressions being simplistic and their emotions not being conveyed as well as they could be.
Fumikiri Jikan is, nonetheless, a really good experiment and an anime that feels more like it was done as a hobby, rather than seeking popularity or anything similar: a work of passion, one could say. It's something I'd enjoy watching again, and it has a structure that allows for an endless amount of different stories, with different themes; it's a shame that there was never a 2nd season, but the 36 minutes of content that's left for the records is probably enough to satisfy most people.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 20, 2023
Death. Desolation. Guilt. Loss. Suffering. Depravity. A trip down the deepest, most harrowing aspects of the human condition. Elfen Lied is the one anime that was not afraid to reach extremes to tell a story.
Released in 2004, Elfen Lied still holds up quite decently to this day. While its animation and sound quality are obviously subpar to the average modern anime, it makes it up by having really great scenery and a fantastic plot and lore. A Diclonious, a humanoid being with "vectors", invisible hands, and a desire to exterminate the human race; this is the main focus of Elfen Lied's plot. The story focuses
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on Kota, a college student who moves to a town he used to visit as a kid, in which his cousin lives, and on Lucy, a diclonious who escapes the facility she's being held in.
Elfen Lied gives us a story that has no filters whatsoever, dealing with every single piece of depravity and darkness that our world has to offer. Murder, rape, child abuse, inhuman experimentation, animal abuse and other extremely dark topics come together and bind to shape the characters and the world in a way that explains the events that take place through the 13 episodes of the anime. While a good chunk of the appeal of Elfen Lied revolves around gore and nudity, these only complement the plot and work as a way to allow it to develop the way it does. The diclonious are a mutant race which are basically genetically coded to exterminate humans, but they're not unlike humans, as they also have feelings, emotions and desires. However, humans are known for being judgmental, and throughout the events of Elfen Lied we see how diclonious are discriminated against, provoking their murderous instincts, which contrasts with their human condition.
The way Elfen Lied manages to be impactful is in the way its story is told. Its plot isn't rushed and the different aspects of its lore are explained gradually, as to not confuse the viewer. Our main character, Kota, lives through the trauma of his sister and father having died, while Lucy lives with the guilt of the things she has done to someone she loves. Kota and Lucy eventually meet, while Lucy develops a second personality after escaping the facility she was held captive in. As the story progresses, we get to know more about their past, and why they are who and how they are. The story then progressively introduces more characters, all of them with equally messed up backgrounds. Then, as everything moves forward, so do our characters, as Elfen Lied has a very good character development (for most characters, at least), as we see them change their ways of being and thinking at a coherent pace, unlike other animes which either rush it or delay it too much.
Elfen Lied's visuals are amazing, to be fair. The character design is quite good, with that of Lucy's (and her alter egos) having a huge meaning in the lore. The scenery and backgrounds still hold up very well to this day, with some real beauty in them. The gore is detailed and ludicrous, there's just a certain degree of satisfaction you get from watching the gory scenes throughout the anime (most of them, at least) due to how well they're made.
The voice acting is, for the most part, good, but the sound design tends to fall off a little bit, but that's probably because it's hard not to compare Elfen Lied to modern animes which a much greater production value. The soundtrack is one of Elfen Lied's strong points as well; while there aren't that many tracks in it, and a few of them are a bit overused (namely the main theme song), the atmosphere it helps create is great; the anime's atmosphere is thick and tense, it has a great power to transmit a sense of both melancholy and dread into the audience, fully enveloping them with the fucked up darkness the story isn't afraid to touch on. Very few animes manage to make someone feel as uneasy or emotionally impacted as this one.
The entirety of Elfen Lied also works greatly through its allegorical aspects; the story, lore, characters, imagery and else make a lot of reference to religion, to a point in which Elfen Lied can almost be interpreted as a metaphor for the Bible at times. The attention to detail throughout the whole show is amazing, although it's quite easy to miss when you don't pay attention. This results in the entire lore having great depth and an even greater impact than it already has.
Generally, I aim my reviews to those who've already watched an anime, as I tend to focus a lot on specific plot points, effectively spoiling the entire anime, however, I can't bring myself to do this with Elfen Lied, as I want this review to hopefully be read by someone who will be interested in watching the anime after reading it. If your heart can take this and your stomach can digest it, Elfen Lied is a must-watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 18, 2023
Days' exclusive DVD OVA is probably the best 40~ minutes made for the whole series, and ironically, it's because it's barely centered around football and it instead works more like two comedy slice of life episodes.
What we get in this OAD is basically just the Seiseki's Football Club members messing around and having fun. The first episode has them hitting up on girls in the beach and then playing beach soccer. The second focuses entirely on a game of cards in which we get to know a little bit more about some of the characters' personalities and a tiny bit of background (although certainly nothing
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important).
The only football we get to see in this OAD is during the beach soccer match, which is rather short and while it has the typical exaggerated stuff Days is notorious for, it makes for some decent entertainment since it's not to be taken seriously. Most of the first episode is pretty much a lot of fan service for most characters, as we see them topless, showing off their muscles, as we also get a bunch of background or minor female characters in bikinis. The second episode is much calmer, in it, we get to know some minor information about the characters, such as their love stories, what they like in life, or some childhood memories.
This OAD isn't important to the lore of Days nor showcases anything important, but it's nonetheless fun to watch and switches up the anime's formula by focusing almost entirely on the characters interacting with each other and having fun, instead of training and playing football. Quite frankly, Days could have worked amazingly as a regular slice of life anime with its characters, as they make for a lot of amusement in the way they all relate with each other, but since that wasn't the case, at least we've got this OVA.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 17, 2023
What do you do when death is coming for you and you can't escape it?
Another, released in 2012, is probably one of the most popular animes out there, and not necessarily due to its plot or characters, but rather due to how gruesome, unnerving and dark the whole show is, having a rather considerable contrast with most animes of a similar genre or theme. Anyone who grew up in the '90s or 2000s surely got to watch, at some point, one of the Final Destination movies, which were about people dying in freak accidents after they were the target of a premonition. Another is pretty
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much an adaptation to anime of these movies, as how the plot develops is pretty similar.
In the small fictitious town of Yomiyama, there's a class in 3rd year of high school which has been cursed for decades: there is always an extra person in the class, said person being actually someone who's already dead, but resuscitated and is now in the class, with this extra person causing a curse to occur by which members of the class and/or their direct family die in the most unlikely of ways. From this premise, we get a rather regular development: an issue arises, characters try to solve it, and after bad things happen, it's all solved and we get a "happy" ending, so to speak.
Before getting into a more in-depth analysis of the plot, I'll start by pointing out what makes Another a great anime and a rather unique one: it's unsettling, atmospheric, and it has about as much impact and suspense as a well-made horror movie. Sitting through these 12 episodes was unnerving, the slow-pace of the anime and the heavy atmosphere in each one of the scenes creates a sense of uneasiness that's hard to shake off; you always sense something is off, something is clearly wrong, but you never can put your finger on it. The dark color palette, the sinister ambient music and the desolate visuals Another puts in front of you build up a world in which it feels like everything has come to an end, as if everyone was a ghost. Yomiyama looks like it was taken right out of a Silent Hill game, with its streets being gritty, its buildings appearing to be in a state of disrepair, and seemingly having a permanent bad weather. Watching this alone at night is sure to give you goosebumps.
The setting is just great, every single emotion this anime tries to convey it manages to do so flawlessly, there's almost never a moment in which something feels calm, the unexpected is always around the corner, and the writing of both the story and the characters is made to constantly make the viewer doubt, taking 180° and 360° turns all the time in good fashion, not overusing these tactics to create surprise, instead keeping it subtle and limited as to not turn the anime into something predictable. Given Another's dark tone and heavy atmosphere, even the more light-hearted moments with more of a comedic tone to them can feel at least some degree of anxiety, as the short-lived moments of wholesomeness are quickly shattered by tragedy. The animation is pretty much flawless, the backgrounds, the character design and their facial expressions are clear, meaningful and greatly add to the overall atmosphere, with some scenes being just simply amazing in terms of animation and how well they can transmit dread into the viewer.
Then, the thing that pretty much defines Another is the creativity in the way that each character meets their fate. There simply aren't that many shows, anime or not, that manage to achieve a similar degree of darkness and just make the viewer go "holy fucking shit" with the death of its characters. It could be argued that the people (or person) who came up with all these ways to kill off the characters is a bit fucked in the head. From falling down some stairs and being impaled by an umbrella, to the structure of a building falling down and entangling someone's neck in cables, asphyxiating them to death, the death of the characters just works as a reminder to the other characters and the viewer that, seemingly no matter what anyone tries to do, death is inevitable for those related to the class our characters are part of.
However, while Another works amazingly as a horror and gore anime, it has a huge weak point, which pretty much ruins the anime for me to a great degree: its plot. I've tried to wrap my head around it, have it make sense, but it just really doesn't work. It honestly just feels as if Another's storyline was an excuse to animate gruesome deaths and a dark world, made with just enough effort to not make it be terrible. What's wrong with it? Well, it's just not logical. So, students from a certain class die every year due to a curse of sorts, and it's been going on for decades, yet nobody even thought of, I don't know, getting rid of the class altogether? Or finding out who the extra person is by looking at records? And once everyone starts dying again, why do they keep the class going? Why do students keep going to school after seeing their friends and teachers die in the most gruesome of ways? It simply has no logic whatsoever, it's just not grounded in reality at all, and sure, this is an anime, it doesn't need to be grounded entirely in reality, and it's not that hard to ignore all of this when you're enveloped by its atmosphere, but the moment you become conscious and give it at least a bit of thought, it becomes annoying that the whole plot develop the way it does.
Not only is the plot nonsense, but it's also confusing. The way the curse works is either too complex, or explained really badly; there's an extra student who's been there because 26 years before the anime takes place, someone died and everyone pretended this person was still alive, so then there's always someone in that class who is dead and might or might not be related to it? And apparently everyone forgets this person was dead to begin with? And because of this person's existence people have to die? And people try to solve this by PRETENDING someone in the classroom doesn't exist, even though this solves nothing???
If this wasn't confusing enough, there's something to add on top of this: we get to know that the entire fucking plot could have been solved from the beginning had ONE character spoken out and told the truth. Mei Misaki is a cute, mysterious character, which at the beginning makes us think she's some sort of ghost, before the plot is explained further. Mei lost one of her eyes when she was 4 years old, and it was replaced with a doll's eye, which gives her the ability to know who is dead or who is close to death. At the beginning of the anime, we see Mei inside a hospital's elevator going down to the morgue to deliver a doll to her recently-deceased twin sister, who was her cousin because she was actually adopted due to some confusing technicality. Mei's twin's death is what sets off the curse, but she never speaks out about it, which makes others think the whole reason the curse happens is that our protagonist, Kouichi Sakibara, speaks to her, someone whose existence was supposed to be ignored. Mei's inaction not only leads to practically everyone hating her and Kouichi, as they blame them for the curse happening, but we also learn that Mei knew who the dead person was from the very beginning, but didn't want to say for vague reasons. Again, her inaction leads to over a dozen people dying and everyone wanting to kill her.
Then, as the final plot twist, we learn that this time around the dead person wasn't a student, but instead was a teacher, which happened to be Kouichi's aunt. This is all foreshadowed throughout the anime in a really subtle manner, but it makes for even a more confusing thing, because then we know that their class was the ONLY one to have two teachers, and all the previous years the curse involved a dead student. To make things even more annoying and confusing, we end up roughly knowing that, apparently, Kouchi had been in Yomiyama for over a year, in which time Kouichi was murdered (in front of Mei), and he met Izumi, another character, once, which gave Izumi a déjà vu some 3 times throughout the series. This, however, is hardly explained, so we're just left to wonder what actually had happened and WHY EVERYONE FORGOT EVERYTHING???
The entire plot is confusing and illogical, and it's hard to keep up with it, to a point in which more than one person will just give up on trying to understand it halfway through the anime. One of the things that also just make the whole plot be just bad is that we get to know what's going on even before the protagonists do, we get to know why people are dying, the cause of the curse and other things before the main characters in various occasions, which simply ruins the element of surprise once they do get to know it; it's way better for the viewer's knowledge of the plot to develop alongside the knowledge of the protagonists, and this is something Another ignores.
Now, apart from the plot, there's one other thing that's bothersome: the anime is too exaggerated with its tone. While the whole atmosphere and world of Another is praiseworthy, the way the characters act, the way the world feels and basically the way everything is feels simply too inflated. Almost everyone in the anime has this sort of shut off personality, always being rather moody, the whole town simply looks like it's in a state of disrepair to a point in which it's too convenient of a setting, and it's almost always cloudy or raining. There reaches a point in which it becomes a bit hard to take things seriously, if you disengage yourself from the anime's ambience. Other than this, the only other thing that's lacking is probably the sound design, as at times the sounds we hear are of a crappy quality, and there could have been a greater potential for gruesomeness and morbidity with the deaths of characters with a bit better of a sound design.
The question, though, is: is Another a good anime? Is the anime's crappy plot bad enough to make it a bad one? No, it's not. Even if Another is weak in that regard, it's simply great in almost every other facet, and it makes for a greatly enjoyable experience for anyone who likes horror and thrillers. Even if the anime can be slow-paced and boring at times, it knows how to create strong emotions and cause an actual sense of uneasiness in its viewer, and that's commendable for what basically is a bunch of animated drawings on a screen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 15, 2023
Good. Bad. Mediocre. The continuation to Days once again asks a complicated question to answer: is it a good anime, or not?
Days: Touin Gakuen-sen! gives us an extra 3 episodes focusing entirely on Seiseki's final match against Touin to win the qualifiers. The characters, the music, the atmosphere and everything else is exactly the same, as this is merely just a direct continuation of where the 24th episode left off. It was only to be expected that they'd take so many episodes to cover an entire match, but one thing probably nobody did expect is for this OVA to be considerably better than the main
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anime, and oddly enough, even if its quality is superior, it inevitably falls into the same issues that plagued Days: a triangle trying to fit in a circle.
These 3 episodes provide us a more entertaining experience, but also a more frustrating one: the match lasts 2 and a half episodes, as the first half of the first episode focuses mostly on Chikako spying and studying Touin, and Tsukushi training. As soon as we get into the match, the first 10 or so minutes are probably among the most enjoyable in the entire series, as we get to see a proper football match without annoying dramatizations or a total ignorance for the rules of the game, but this doesn't last long, as immediately after the 2nd episode starts, Days takes its usual touristic route and decides to totally forget what the fuck the anime is supposed to be about by, once again, bastardizing the most beautiful sport ever conceived, as if to piss off its audience.
The same issues as in Days are present in Days: Touin Gakuen-sen!. The second episode is probably one of the most frustrating things I've ever watched, as it mostly consists of Seiseki failing every single one of its shots on goal, as they all hit on the post, are miraculously saved by the keeper, or are stopped in some EXTREMELY unlikely way by one of Touin's field players. This doesn't happen two or three times, but like seven or eight, to a point in which each time they shoot you'll just be wanting to turn off your screen because you know you'll get annoyed. This leads into predictability, as Touin goes ahead and eventually scores, putting Seiseki against the wall, which then OBVIOUSLY leads to its players doing some more inhumane feats to first draw, then win the match with a goal right at the last second. To be fair, it makes for some decent entertainment, as the OVA certainly keeps you more interested in the match, but the outcome is very clear even before anything happens, so it kills the excitement and much of the catharsis that's supposed to come with Seiseki finally finding glory.
While here we get a decent continuation for a mediocre anime, one which fairly manages to entertain, the very fact that it's just a direct sequel to it leaves one issue abound: the characters are still empty and unrelatable. We don't get more background on them other than a few short conversations in some flashbacks, most of them about winning the tournament or just short conversations before the final match, and the most we get is a few flashbacks of Tsukushi's childhood, focusing on his dad and his death's impact on Tsukushi. These flashbacks are lame, short, and fail to appeal to emotion in any meaningful manner, so they don't serve much of a purpose other than to simply fill in some empty space. Another thing that must be criticized about this OVA is that it ignores many of the other characters in the anime, specially those that show up during the credits of the 24th episode: Nozomi and Sayuri, who got together to watch Tsukushi's match on TV. Junpei, who was watching the match on a tablet in the countryside. Kazama's friend who were the first to play football with Tsukushi. Kazama's mom. These characters are completely forgotten, and we don't even get a few frames of them reacting to the match.
Other than these things, there's really not much difference between these 3 episodes, and the 24 previous ones. The obnoxious aspects of the anime, such as the crowd commenting on everything, or Tsukushi constantly crying, are not really present here, and thank God for that, but as I said, the same issues persist: this hardly resembles actual football at times, but at least not all of the time like in Days. The soundtrack is the exact same: uninspiring and boring. The art style and animations were mildly improved, but they're largely the same as 2 years prior, and the 3D animations are still there, and they're still awkward and just bad, but at least they're not used nearly as much.
Naturally, watching this without having watched the anime wouldn't make much sense, but it's honestly a shame that the anime wasn't more similar to what we get here, because had that been the case, it would have been much better. The triangle that is Days: Touin Gakuen-sen! is certainly smaller, so it almost fits the circle it's trying to be inside, but it still struggles to do so. The OVA closes with a rather inconclusive ending to the series, as we know that they'll play another tournament, and Mizuki sort of makes it sound as if there would be another season to the anime, but this never came true, and at this point, it's unlikely we'll ever get anything else. This will leave more than one person with a sour taste in their mouth, as we'll never get to see things like Mizuki's prediction of Tsukushi becoming the captain later, or the mildly romance-tesque relationship between Tsukushi and Sayuri or Chikako and possibly Kazama, as it's hinted at certain points throughout the series.
If you've watched Days, go ahead and watch this. Otherwise, there's no much point in paying this any attention, since sitting through like 6 hours of a mediocre anime just to understand and experience this OVA would be a headache.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 14, 2023
There are good animes. There are bad animes. There are bad animes with a good focus on their plot and theme, but good animes with a bad focus on their theme are... rare, usually, and Days is exactly one of those rare ones; an anime which fails to be what it pretends to be, but that isn't necessarily bad in and of itself. What causes this dissonance, though?
There are a lot of sports animes out there, and many of them focus on the most beautiful sport of all: football. Days is a football anime focused on the Seiseki Prep School's football team and their struggles
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to win it all, and has an awkward kid, Tsukushi Tsukamoto, a kid who never played football before, as its protagonist. This already sets clear expectations as to how the anime will develop throughout its 24 episodes, and the predictions anyone may make out of this are most likely spot-on: yes, we get to see Tsukamoto improve with time and go from being useless to being a good player. So, the anime sails with this predictable premise and then tries its best to be unique and provide good entertainment and a good focus on its topic, but fails incredibly at doing so.
Going back to the first thing said at the beginning of this review, Days is an anime that works out as one, but that has a completely mediocre, and at times outright bad focus on its main topic, which once again, is football. It's not that this anime doesn't entertain or lacks the aspects that make an anime be good, but it just doesn't work out as a football anime because the vision of the sport we get throughout these 24 episodes is highly bastardized and dramatized to a point in which it just annoys the hell out of anyone watching it because they're interested in the sport. The characters, the humor, the plot, the development, the action, the drama, it's all at the very least decent, but this whole show tries to put a triangle where a circle should go, and naturally it just doesn't work out.
The way Days develops is fine: there are the episodes in which we get to see the characters living day-to-day lives, training and bonding with their team, and then come the episodes in which Seiseki plays a match, and it's in these episodes that the train that is this anime gets derailed or crashes against a wall. While the "regular" episodes are somewhat enjoyable, albeit repetitive, the matchday ones are unexpectedly boring, slow-paced and irregular. Each important match tends to span 2 to 3 episodes, and the biggest issue they have is how their pacing is completely off and keep the viewer rather confused instead of entertained. They generally just show the characters running around the field, fighting for the ball, shooting, passing, defending, marking, and else; just regular football stuff. However, in the middle of all these we get some peaks of action almost always followed by some sort of flashback or a long monologue or conversation between two characters in which they basically trash talk each other, and not only does it ruin the fun, but it feels completely off and kills every single bit of anticipation or emotion you might have, it's REALLY annoying when a character is standing right next to their rival's goal and instead of just shooting, they stand there have a monologue.
However, the irregular pacing and annoying length of these matches is not the only issue: one of the greatest issues Days has, and the one that just makes the whole anime be mediocre at best, is that it seems to completely ignore the rules and customs of football. Fouls which should be a card are completely ignored (there are instances in which some characters are literally kicked in the chest and no foul is called), sometimes the anime conveniently ignores corners or offsides, just to remember they exist a few episodes later. The players sometimes just stand in place, with the ball on their feet, having a casual chat in the middle of the pitch. Strikers are tasked with marking other strikers, teammates fight with each other over idiotic stuff, the ball going off the field for a throw-in is sometimes dramatized to a point in which it makes no sense, as the characters more or less try to give up their lives to prevent that from happening. The flow of the matches make no sense, sometimes you can have one team defending with 10 players and failing, and a minute later they're counter-attacking at an inhumane speed. Inhumane, this is the word that defines many of the things that happen on the pitch: players jumping extremely high and staying in the air for seconds, balls that swerve unrealistically, players dribbling as if they were Messi on steroids, or doing things like a bicycle kick while being entirely surrounded. Then, you've got some players which are incredibly good, and players which are seemingly useless and don't seem even able to play the sport. The amount of things seen here is really baffling for an anime that grounds itself in reality.
All of this is extremely far from any sort of realistic depiction of a football match. Days takes way too many liberties for dramatic purposes, and said drama is often times either useless or cringeworthy, such as characters going "you will not get past me" just to be dribbled and left in the dust. Then, all of this becomes really predictable: "oh no, they're about to shoot, but someone clears the ball just in time, and now we're in the counter-attack, but our shot hits the post", that kind of stuff happens over and over again, and it just becomes really boring after the second time. Another issue to be found here is not only in the way the matches are played, but in every single aspect surrounding them and the sport: fans seemingly can't stop commentating on what's going on, with useless remarks as "Seiseki's keeper cleared it!", "they're a 2-1 and there's not too much time!". Coaches range from being decorative, to being pushed around by players who should never have more authority than them, to being completely inept. Substitutions are completely forgotten at times, injuries are sometimes a bit too odd, the instructions given to the players sometimes simply make no sense, and there's generally a lack of any sorts of planning on how to play a match, no tactics. Then, you get the players screaming at each other in the middle of the match, stuff like "mark the number 8!", "he's getting ahead of you!", "he's about to shoot", and that sorta stuff which is quite clearly not the case in any actual football match. Another issue is that everyone has a really, REALLY delayed reaction to what happens in the pitch, with characters sometimes taking an entire minute to celebrate a goal. All of this becomes really annoying, really quick, and it never improves, it's the same formula over and over again.
The characters are varied, and it's possible that the character design and character development are Days' strongest point (if we ignore the fact that most of them look much older than they are). Seiseki's team has a lot of players, and many of them take a bit of protagonism in at least one or two episodes. Their personalities are well-defined, their roles are not too hard to understand, and the way they interact in and off the pitch lets us know exactly who and how they are. However, there are issues. One problem is that most characters almost entirely lack any sort of background, and the few that do have one don't get more explanation than something very basic: Kazama's mother abandoned him, that's all we know. Tsukushi's mother's in a wheelchair and his dad died when he was 5, that's all we know. Kimishita lives with his dad and runs a sports wear store, that's all we know. Chikako wanted to be a writer, but was rejected, that's all we know. That's the degree of character background that we get here, and this all makes it almost impossible to really relate to them, because we don't know about their lives, their struggles, what they like, or their reasons to play football. The anime at times tries to more or less create some kind of emotion or melodrama by trying to point out some tragic things, such as Tsukushi being somewhat poor and his mother being disabled, Kazama's mother abandoning him, or Mizuki's grandfather dying, but it's all too superficial and short, and it's quickly forgotten about. The most you really get to know about the characters at a more personal and individual level is through the eyecatches which give us some (usually comedic) basic info about the characters, and that's about it.
Now, while the character development is alright (although somewhat delayed at times), there are a few characters that are really annoying, and some that take a big role in the story, but are almost entirely irrelevant for the viewer much of the time. The protagonist, Tsukushi, is probably one of the most annoying anime protagonists ever. His awkwardness and his unpredictable emotions are annoying to see, and his kindness and cheerfulness quickly become obnoxious. He has a habit for crying over anything, and he does this throughout most of the anime at random times. Another of his habits is running to make up for his lack of skill at the sport, and so like a fifth of the anime's running time is basically scenes of Tsukushi running around. His behavior when he's in the bench during a match becomes quickly irritating as he tends to constantly shout "SEISEKIIIIII!" at the top of his lungs. Then, there's the predictability of his awkwardness which always puts him in scenarios in which everyone laughs at him. He's almost entirely insufferable, and he only becomes even remotely likeable by the end of the anime after he matured a lot in a short amount of time. Then, there's the co-protagonist, Jin, the one who got Tsukushi into football and who is a bit of a star. While he's rather important at the beginning, he quickly loses ground and by the end of the anime the most we get from him are short scenes in which we know what he's thinking, and that's about it, he has a huge role in shaping Tsukushi and the team, but is often times forgotten. Similarly, Chikako is a character that has a bit of an important role, but very rarely ever gets any amount of protagonism, with her personality being really unpredictable, and her character development making almost no sense, as she decides to become the team's manager even though she knows nothing about football right after she gets mad at Tsukushi for trying his best, because apparently this reminded her of herself. Makes little sense.
Finally, on some of the more technical aspects of the anime: the visuals are just ok, but a bit dated for a 2016 anime. One big problem is that Days uses a lot of 3D CGI, specially during matches, and it's AWFUL: somewhat-low-poly 3D models making weird animations at low framerates on a 2D background is a pain to see, and it's just incredibly awkward. The scenery in the anime is lacking, and while the characters look alright, with somewhat realistic faces and expressions, there's some sort of indecision on whether the anime wants a more realistic kind of art style, or something more cartoonish and regular. The soundtrack is mediocre: both openings are kind of lame, and while both outros are kinda good (specially the second one, in my opinion), the insert songs are uninspired, basic, and overused. There are 2 or 3 pieces that are used throughout the anime multiple times, with a few that have somewhat sporadic appearances. By the time you're halfway through the anime, these tracks will kill any sort of emotion a scene might try to transmit due to the fact that, by then, the viewer will have heard these tracks far too many times, and they're just not good, they're really mediocre when compared to the OSTs of many other similar animes.
So, all of this leads us to the one big question: is Days good or bad? And this is one of those questions which can't simply be answered in a binary fashion. Days is hardly a "good football anime", but it's more of a "good anime about football"; these sound similar, but are different. Had Days been an anime about any other thing, with the same characters, the same sort of focus, development and such, it could have been a really decent experience, but instead, we get 24 episodes seemingly written by someone who has no knowledge of football whatsoever (with many of them having like 3 minutes wasted with a recap of the previous episode). Anyone coming to Days looking for a good experience in an anime specifically about football, they won't find it here. As mentioned before: Days is a triangle trying to fit in a circle: much of it will be inside, but the edges stand out, and what defines a triangle is the edges. For anyone who enjoys the sport, sitting through Days will probably be more of a headache than anything else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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