- Last OnlineNow
- JoinedAug 20, 2017
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Feb 22, 2020
24 of 24 episodes seen
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1
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Dr. Stone was equal parts amazing and frustrating to watch.
Amazing, because it was like watching an anime version of Sid Meier's Civilization, with a great MC, a likable cast of characters, an extremely interesting plot, and some awe inspiring moments that truly gives you an appreciation for the complexity of science.
Frustrating, however, because it was too childish to be as great as it could have been.
You can't really knock the fact that it's childish, because you can tell it was designed that way on purpose. Dr. Stone is a very cool educational series, clearly designed to peak children's interest in
the sciences. Half of every episode was dedicated to them explaining the way things worked in science, from chemical reactions to light bulb technology. But, because the aim of this anime is strongly directed towards smaller children, that hurts the overall plot, flow of the story, and even decision making by the characters.
Had this anime been a purely Shounen, or preferably, Seinen anime, it possibly could've been an all-time great, rather than just really good. (And it was REALLY good.) But, it missed the mark on many occasions because of it's childishness and brought the anime down. But, at the same time, really hit the mark right on the nose in other places. It's only the fourth anime in my life to actually get me misty-eyed. It takes a special anime to do that, and that is why Dr. Stone is equally frustrating and amazing.
Let me give some examples: SPOILERS AHEAD! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
A short explanation of this anime, is that everyone is frozen in stone for 3,700 years by a mysterious phenomenon, that is still unexplained. Senku, the MC, is also frozen but maintains his sanity by counting for 3,700 years. His petrification wears off, he figures out how it happened, and then duplicates the process to free people he think's he'll need, starting with his closest friends, Taiju and Yuzuriha. However, his next choice is to release Tsukasa, a guy with the dumbest moniker in anime history: "The Strongest High School Primate." (Just so incredibly dumb). It wasn't his initial intention, but he was forced to do it to save himself from some lions.
Tsukasa doesn't want the world to return to the way that it was, where the elites ran everything and polluted the Earth. He determines that Senku will bring it back with science, and then tries to kill him. Senku survives and ends up in a village where he prepares to resurrect a modern scientific society, and stop Tsukasa, who has taken over his formula for removing the stone petrification, is releasing only warriors and killing the rest of the people by shattering their statues. It's now the kingdom of science against the kingdom of insane environmentalists/socialists and Senku must prepare the village for the "stone wars" when Tsukasa comes to kill them after the Winter.
Now, if this was a more mature anime, it would have been far more exciting. But, again, it was an anime created to excite young kids about science, that also just happened to be really, really entertaining. And so, you get decisions that bring it down like this:
Senku decides that the best way to defeat Tsukasa's coming invasion is to build...cell phones.
This strategy is absolutely ludicrous. An enemy is going to come barreling down on your with scores of warriors, and you're going to stop them by having a communications array? Nonsense. In a more mature anime, Senku, recognizing he didn't have the resources or time to create enough gunpowder for guns, would have obviously made the wiser choice to look to make different weapons, that would've given them a landslide advantage and would've been millions of times easier to build: Like rapid fire crossbows. That alone would be enough to kill everyone Tsukasa brings, especially considering the island layout of the village and that they only use spears. Catapults, flamethrowers, poison gas bombs using the glass containers and gas from the methane pits, ballistas, basically ANY projectile weapon other than guns. But, he chooses a communication device, because it's a childish anime, and they want to show kids how cool telecommunication science is. It's clear Dr. Stone doesn't want a scene with the heroes shooting arrows into the scores of people in a one-sided, bloody massacre. Which became clear when they didn't kill a single invader when Senku made them Katanas. But, that kind of decision brings the anime down a few notches, because it's not practical or realistic.
This immature logic based upon trying to show the wonders of science created all sorts of ridiculous decisions throughout the anime. While, even I myself, thought it was cool to learn how various gadgets and chemical reactions worked, I couldn't help but to be annoyed at the idea that while they are on a countdown facing death, they repeatedly kept stopping to build things that would not protect them, and wasn't even associated with the "cell phones" just to be nice to each other. Why are you stopping to decorate a tree for Christmas? To build a telescope for someone's birthday? The people who burned down half your village, and stabbed your family member in the gut, are coming back to finish the job, led by the strongest fighter on the planet, who nearly killed your leader once. Where is the urgency?
Instead of urgency, it was more important to show how things are made and have heart warming moments. And while it warmed my cockles and all, it didn't make sense story-wise. It was elements like that, that makes me wish that this story was hijacked like one of the many SAO or K-On clones, and redone for adults. Because what Dr. Stone is as a world, is truly incredible. It really needs a retelling for people 25 and up. This may be the first time I've ever WANTED someone to create a clone of a popular anime.
But, even though that may be the case, I still loved so much about Dr. Stone. Senku was such a breathe of fresh air as an MC. A borderline sociopath, extremely intelligent, cuttingly sarcastic, and would work just as well as a villain as he does a hero, it was refreshing to see an MC like him. You get sick of seeing so many earnest do-gooders. And you need someone who is a little screwed up in the head to be the hero sometimes.
The main cast of characters were great, too. And they made a really fantastic creative decision early on, by removing Taiju and Yuzuriha early on and replacing them with Chrome, Kohaku and the rest of the villagers. I don't think I could've made it 24 episodes with Taiju as his main sidekick. Chrome was a vast improvement. But, many of the cast were enjoyable and interesting. On a side note: Suika might be the cutest character in anime today.
In addition to that, Dr. Stone had some pretty awe inspiring moments. I actually felt a little wonderment, like I'm sure the creators were shooting for, when Senku and crew worked to make the really world-changing technology. Like when they recreated the light bulb and harnessed electricity. Those were great moments. But, probably no moment hit me harder than the flashback following his dad during the Petrification event. That whole backstory was very well done and when Senku shed a single tear, I almost did, too. Ironically, those episodes were the most mature of the season and were the best, in my opinion.
There was a lot to love about Dr. Stone. From the animation to style, to the hip-hop infused score, to the world building. It truly deserves it's 8 out of 10 score. It's a great anime. I just feel like with some stronger, more mature logic and themes, this could've been one for the ages. A true great. Like "original Planet of the Apes with Charleston Heston" great. It could be a 10, if they focused as much on the logic as they do the science lessons. It is illogical that Senku has an entire village of people at his disposal for nearly a year, knows that bats in caves produce the main ingredient he needs to break the petrification, and doesn't send anyone to find bats in the caves around them to grow his own kingdom of science. He even went into another cave and didn't even think to look for bats. They have to tighten up illogical thinking like that in future seasons to make this good anime even better. Sure, Lillian's song was beautiful on the glass record, but are we really to believe that a village founded by a singer has never heard singing or music before? Like singing wouldn't be passed down? The most ancient of tribes had music and signing all the way back to Ancient Africa. It makes no sense they wouldn't know music or singing. That moment for me, was Dr. Stone in a nutshell: A powerful moment just slightly undermined by weak logic.
I'm a nitpicky guy. These things matter to me. And so, I can't give Dr. Stone a 10. But, I can say, that it is highly likely that you will enjoy this anime. It's still very entertaining, educational and funny. It does deserve its high praise.
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Feb 18, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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2
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Man, this was HILARIOUS. Some moments had me in actual tears, it was so funny. You know you've done a great job when the viewer has a feeling of sadness at the end of the show, because they are going to miss the cast. And that's exactly how Joshikousei no Mudazukai made me feel when it ended. I am really going to miss these girls if they don't come out with a season 2.
If you enjoyed anime like Nichijou, Setokai Yakuindomo or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, you more than likely will really enjoy this anime. As the title suggests, it
just follows the random happenings of high school girls. The trio of stars here are the aspiring BL Mangaka, Wota (Akane), The stoic and almost android like Robo (Shiori), and the mentally retarded goofball, Tanaka (Baka). These three have some of the best comedic chemistry I've seen together as MC's in a while. But, far and away, the best character was Baka (Tanaka). She was just stone cold hilarious. She's the funniest idiot I've seen since Yoshiko Hanabatake from Aho-Girl. (Another anime you should check out. Criminally underrated for how funny it is.).
Surrounding them are your usual cast of weirdos. The Tomboy (Kanade), the Occult Hikki (Hisui), The Grade-Schooler (Saku), The Chuunibyou (Yamamoto), The beautiful foreign transfer student, (Lily) and the teacher that tries to keep them all under control. (Masataka). Of this cast of supporting characters, Lily and Yamamoto stand out the most. They were the funniest characters behind Baka. (If you don't watch this anime for anything else, watch it for the moment when Lily meets Kanade's mom. I laughed for 5 minutes straight.) But the entire cast is solid. They're all funny and likable. I particularly loved Yamamoto's interactions with Masataka.
The anime is a sketch comedy format, that just follows them from gag to gag, doing random things that high school girls do. Hanging out, shopping, going to the movies, studying, etc... And you would think that sounds boring, but it is most certainly not. The level of comedic dialogue is top notch, and keeps everything extremely entertaining, because very few of the jokes do you see coming. The writing is fantastic in that while using a lot of cliched character archetypes, they took great care not to rehash all of the same jokes you find in other anime of its ilk. (There are a few, but not many. You don't find yourself watching a carbon copy of Zetsubou Sayonara Sensei or Haganai, even though a lot of the same character types are used there.).
Sharp writing, great cast chemistry, fantastic comedic timing, and absolutely no poorly executed melodrama to drag it down at the end, makes this a wonderful anime to check out. Oh and special thumbs up to that ridiculous catchy OP. I'm probably going to be singing "Moon Dass Cry" for months. Either that, or saying: "Hey, can I say something amazing?".
Great anime. Watch it!
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Feb 15, 2020
5 of 5 episodes seen
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0
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
1 |
| Story |
1 |
| Animation |
1 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
What in the blue hell was this even supposed to be? Was it just an exercise in shooting children? Like, did the creator say: "I don't really care what the anime is about, or even if it makes any rational sense, I just want mountains of dead kids in it."?
I'm not even turned off by gore, the only reason I watched this is because people said it was the goriest anime ever made. (I still think Gantz is gorier, and also had a far better story.) But, this anime seems like it was created for the sole purpose of shocking people by
ripping kids to shreds and nothing else.
The animation was trash (even for 1994), the plot was utter nonsense and the characters, even the lead characters, were as deep as a puddle and complex as kindergarten math. It just didn't make any logical sense. And this wasn't like it was a movie. It was a 5 episode OVA, they had time to make things better, but just didn't.
SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!
It made some sense in the beginning, when it was just a mad scientist tinkering with a power he didn't understand, creating a weapon that went out control. I even dug the world shattering results of that. I'm all for apocalyptic animes. But, episodes 4-5, were just like..."What?". Especially the ending. How does Mel have any relation to Elaine and Diane? How did she even live? Why is she inside of Genocyber? How does that work? Why is there a baby? How did the Mayor's forces even know Mel had powers? Or that she even existed? Why did they want her dead? Completely senseless.
But, I think the worst part of the whole anime is that it has no discernible message. Is it "War is bad?". Because if that's the message, I would think wiping entire countries off the map would be worse. "People who kill children deserve to die?". Well, Elaine and Diane killed more kids than anyone, billions of them probably. Which also helped to make this anime even worse, because who do you root for or get behind when the protagonists blow up billions of innocent people?
This anime might actually manage to be worse than MD Geist 2, which is one of the worst of all time. And just like MD Geist, it was ugly looking, pointless, shallow, senseless and clearly created just to display shocking gore.
Utter trash.
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Feb 11, 2020
1 of 1 episodes seen
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2
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
It's been a while since an anime has given me a feeling of childlike awe. But, that's what I felt watching this WILD anime, Promare. Trigger's unique animation style has always been legendary in the world of anime, and Promare is no exception. It's just an explosion of colors, graphics and lots of triangular shapes. It's a little hard to follow at first, but your eyes quickly get used to it and you soak in some amazing moments in a highly entertaining anime.
Promare makes one thing clear: "We're here for stuff to go boom.". This is Michael Bay on
LSD. Don't expect long expositions, tons of character development or teary sentimental moments. This is about lights, lots of pink fire and action. That's not to say that Promare doesn't have a great story underneath it. It wouldn't have the score it does if it didn't. A mutation has caused some humans to turn into "The Burnish" and due to discrimination, they ended up setting the world on fire. In the aftermath of that, humanity recovers, but ends up continuing their discrimination against the Burnish. This leads to some pretty heavy moments. The best way to describe this world is something like the X-Men Comics, where mutants are feared and hated.
The Protagonist, Galo (an obvious ripoff of Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) is a firefighter in this world, who works to put out fires along with his crew. But, don't ask me to name any of his crew, because they're only on screen for a cup of coffee. Galo ends up facing off against Mad Burnish, a group of terrorists setting fire in the city, and from there a crazy, fast-paced adventure begins.
And by "fast-paced", I mean breakneck speed. The movie pretty much just goes from one explosive conflict to another to another, all the while gaining in size and scope until, as usual with Trigger, you're watching a Mecha the size of the planet spit fire across the entire solar system. That's all Promare has come to do. Wow you with big and explosive fights.
As visually amazing as Promare was to watch, and even as solid as the story was, Promare wasn't without faults.
The top fault is obviously the lack of character depth or plot development. It doesn't really strike you until the movie is over, how simplistic it was. But, it's unavoidable really, considering this is just a movie and not a 12-24 episode series. I truly wish it was a TV series and not just a movie so it could've fleshed out more characters. For example, it really seemed to want to develop something romantic between Galo and Aina, but it just didn't have the time to do it. A huge loss was the lack of time to tell the story of Governor Klay. He could've been a far more fascinating character given the dichotomy between his personal disposition and position in society. At the very least, we could've learned more about the rest of the Rescue Squad with more time.
The world also could've been explored much more. With a full series, they really could've gotten into the intricacies of being a persecuted Burnish in society. That really would've built up more emotional depth for them later on. But, these are things they didn't have the time to do and so they just didn't do it. They went with what they did best and it really worked. This is a summer blockbuster type of anime.
Another flaw was one they actually knew they were doing, and made a tongue in cheek joke about it, actually titling something "Deus X Machina" later in the anime. The end battles of the anime were full of this. It chipped off a bit of the edge of the anime, to be honest. I hate Deus Ex Machinas, even if you do try to break the 4th wall to try and get away with it. Only JoJo's Bizarre Adventures can get away with that.
But, other than these flaws, the anime was fantastic. Great score, great animation style, great action, great movie.
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Feb 11, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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2
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
Babylon, while an entertaining and engrossing anime, hurts itself by trying too hard to be smarter than it really is. It spends hours hashing out whether or not suicide is the right moral choice, but, also skips over fundamental aspects of the story like telling you the motivations of the villain, Ai Magase. It will spend entire episodes philosophically trying to determine the meaning of "good vs. evil", but doesn't even bother telling you what Ai is, or why she can do what she does to people.
SPOILERS AHEAD... AND BEFORE I BEGIN: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS ANIME IF YOU HAVE
A HISTORY OF SUICIDAL THOUGHTS OR WANT TO HARM YOURSELF. SEEK HELP.
Babylon is a 12 episode discussion about a crisis facing Japan: Suicide. This is framed within the opening of a new city in Japan called Shiniki. A city established by powerful politicians with motives to create a better society unencumbered by regulations in Tokyo. But it's quickly hijacked by the politician they picked to be the Mayor: Kaika Itsuki. Itsuki, with Ai Magase (The main villain of the plot) quickly form a political suicide cult and pass a suicide law, allowing people to kill themselves with dignity.
Herein lies the first problem, because the law sounds like it's making suicide legal, but how can you outlaw suicide in the first place? What are you going to do? Arrest the corpses? So, you pretty much have to add your own logic to the plot here and just decide they're talking about assisted suicide, even though most of the people killing themselves are doing so without any assistance.
In the midst of all this, the protagonist Zen, is drawn in. What starts off as an investigation into the powerful politicians who violated the law to create Shiniki and manipulate its elections, quickly turns into Zen trying to find a way to take down Itsuki and Magase. And that is where the anime shines. Right in those middle episodes where it's more of a detective drama, with Zen and his team of prosecutors trying to find a way to bring down Itsuki and Magase, which is difficult as they can't prove they've actually broken any laws by passing the law for dignified (assisted) suicide.
This part of the anime was BRILLIANT, and I would put it on the same level as the anime "Monster" or the first season of "Psycho Pass". It was tight, dramatic, mysterious and intriguing. The investigators discover that Magase has the ability to influence people to commit suicide and desire death just by speaking to them. And they are determined to take her down, culminating in a tense standoff at a political debate over the Suicide Law. These episodes were excellent.
And then it went off the rails...
Things start to go wrong in the aftermath of Zen's team trying to take matters into their own hands to stop Itsuki and Magase. Things don't go as they plan, to say the least. But, After these events and their fallout concludes, the story switches to the United States and starts following the President Alex Wood, instead of Zen. The story shifts to more and more cities adopting the Suicide Law, and follows "The Thinker" doing WAY too much thinking, about how America is going to respond.
The idea that a small, new city in Japan passing an (assisted) suicide law, would suddenly become a point of global concern that would include the UN, CIA and FBI was ludicrous. As more cities began passing the law, it became less ludicrous, but they kept raising the bar of ridiculousness, going as far as having the Prime Minister of the UK threaten War against other countries if they supported laws allowing their OWN citizens to die. (What?) and having a scene where the President is called upon to talk a citizen of Shiniki down from the ledge of a building on live T.V. Just super unrealistic for what was such an intelligent thriller.
Still, it wasn't so bad that it destroyed the anime, but it definitely pulled it from the ranks of "Monster" and "Psycho Pass" easily. But, the story really suffered from switching the focus from Zen to Wood. It was a very odd choice to push the MC, chasing down a criminal, to the back of the anime to focus on the strained musings of a new, somewhat boring character. But, that's what they did. Just very long conversations with the President talking to pastors, world leaders, Zen....mayors....his staff......his wife.......his kid......himself........a random stray cat.....about suicide and good and evil. For days, man. HE DID THIS FOR DAYS.
In the midst of this, however, there's still Zen tracking down the ever mysterious and supernaturally powerful Magase. It became a bit frustrating, as those parts were good, but they were so sparse, because the director felt we needed to see President Wood touch his nose for the 193rd time while saying "Hmmmm...". And what made it even more irritating is that after he would think for DAYS on something, he would get an epiphany that was totally mundane. If you think for days about a problem, and then your "Aha" moment is: "Wait, I don't have to worry about this at all, THEY can handle it!"? You're an idiot. "Thinker"? No. "Idiot.".
At any rate, it all comes to a head when the G7 come together to discuss the suicide laws, at the same time Itsuki convenes a summit between the 7 cities who passed the suicide laws in Shiniki. (Which leads to the aforementioned moment of the President talking the girl off the building.). Ai Magase makes her move against the President of the United States and that leads to a pretty shocking, but deeply unfulfilling conclusion and the biggest problem with Babylon: crucial elements of the story went completely unexplained.
Who was Ai Magase? You get the idea that they wanted you to think she was Lucifer in female form. Evil incarnate. And that's why she could merely whisper a suggestion to mankind, and make them kill themselves and could change her appearance completely. One problem with that: They ruined that explanation by having Zen meet her Uncle, so she was a normal human being. So, exactly how could she do what she does as a normal human? Explain it.
Why did Ai Magase do what she did? What was her motivation? They explained Itsuki's motivation through his Son, but what was the plan with her brainwashing other city leaders to pass this law? They kept talking about Magase and Itsuki's grand global scheme, but it was never really revealed. Did Magase want the whole world to be under the suicide law and then convince everyone to kill themselves? If so, why? We don't know. What did she even want? Why even bother with a law when you can just whisper and get people to commit suicide with or without a law? Why did she target Zen? Just because his name meant "Good"?
All of this went unexplained because they tried to be "clever" with a Sopranos style ending. A stand off between Magase and Zen, that ends with a "bang" to black and a post-credit scene with Magase getting off of a bus later on. I guess they did not get the memo that people did NOT like the way the Sopranos ended. And this ending sucked, too. What happened to Zen? How did she escape? Who was she? What the hell was it all for?! I guess they've left it up to us to figure out. And that's just lazy storytelling cloaking itself in "mystery".
In the end, this was an anime trying too hard to be intelligent and philosophical, and forgot to perform the basic tenants of story telling. It's like if Plato couldn't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It's disappointing really, because if they just kept this in Japan, had Zen and Magase work towards a final standoff inside of Shiniki and explained key elements of Magase's character and agenda, this probably could've been an Anime of the Year candidate. It was too smart for its own good and thought itself out of being a top tier anime.
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Feb 7, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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1
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
"What's this? Another Isekai? Meh...might as well. Oh? This is actually kinda funny... Wait a second...this is actually good! Well, that was a surprise."
And so it goes with Shinchou Yuusha, the 296th anime in the long line of Sword Art Online and Konosuba Clones.
This particular clone follows Seiya and Ristarte. Seiya has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But, don't feel sorry for him, because Seiya is also rude as hell and super OP. So, he'll be okay. Ristarte is yet another Goddess in over her head tasked with saving yet another world under threat by yet another demon lord.
She chooses Seiya as her champion and off they go to destroy the baddies.
Or, wait...they would, if Seiya didn't keep running back to the realm of the gods to prepare more, because he's pathologically cautious.
SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!
It was that moment, where Seiya ran back and left the village at the mercy of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Chaos Machina, that this anime got my attention. A hero that runs away from the villain and actually leaves people to die? That's new. And then with that moment being followed by a bloody decapitation? In what is supposed to be a comedy? Well, I'm in.
The anime didn't disappoint from there. The story itself, didn't really do anything new as far as overall plot. "Get stronger, beat stronger villains, finally reach the main boss." But, some of the mechanisms they incorporated in that story were funny and interesting. It continued to alternate between hilarious moments and surprising brutality for an Isekai comedy. The fight scenes were decent, (the "mirror moment" was especially cool), although the fights were more about showing how smart and well prepared Seiya was, than they were about adrenaline pumping action. The fights were generally short, since Seiya was pretty much ready for anything.
One thing that did stand out were the training sessions, when Seiya would return to the Divine Realm to have gods train him. Usually, that's the most tedious part of an anime, when the MC has to grind. But, here, they made it funny, by pretty much showing how Seiya's intense nature changed the nature of the gods themselves. Another interesting aspect was that Seiya rarely needed his crew and let them know it at every chance. While they explain why later in the show, it was still pretty funny while it was happening.
The best part of the show was that explanation in the penultimate episode, where they detail the backstory of the main characters. If I had never seen Madoka Magica, I would probably have been blown away by that episode. But, I did. And so the impact of that backstory didn't hit nearly as hard as it could have if it was the first time and I hadn't seen it done with Homura Akemi. Still, it was a pretty great explanation of events.
Overall, the story which I assume is just this one season, was pretty well told and it worked hard to keep you entertained throughout. However, the anime has several flaws that brings it down a notch:
1. Mediocre animation. The animation was cheap looking. Not terrible, but not really current for 2019-2020. I think better animation would've helped the fight scenes in the anime.
2. The cast was pretty shallow outside of Seiya and Ristarte. Mash and Elulu were just kinda placed there to fill time and be the butt of some of the jokes as Seiya dismissed them as his baggage handlers. Nobody else really had much time in the anime to develop. I really would've liked to have seen more of Valkyrie and Adenela.
3. The ending was predictable. At first it was a little surprising, but you knew they would somehow go with the happy ending. So, that was a little disappointing. I guess they're going to set up for season 2, but they really shouldn't. Not because the anime was bad, but because I think it wrapped fine enough and a second season doing this again would just seem excessive.
But, overall, this anime was pretty good for another Isekai clone. Not quite as funny as Konosuba (Which is the measuring stick for all comedic Isekai) but funny. Not quite as dark or brutal as Goblin Slayer (Which isn't really an Isekai, but close enough.), but still has some dark and intense moments. It had a cohesive story, was never boring, had two good main characters and I enjoyed watching it.
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Feb 1, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
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3
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
Take Konosuba, swap out Kazuma with a Pro-Wrestling furry lover, make the comedy about half as funny, and sprinkle a bunch of animals and beastmen in and you pretty much have Hataage! Kemono Michi. Fortunately for this anime, being half as funny as Konosuba means you're still pretty funny. And that's what saved this from being a total waste of time.
Outside of the funny moments, which were plentiful, literally everything about this anime is the definition of mediocre. The plot is mediocre. The characters are mediocre. (Although I did like Shigure), The animation style is mediocre and looks low budget.
The ending is mediocre. Just everything about the anime screams mediocrity. But, it keeps you laughing, so you keep going.
Hataage Kemono Michi is as thin of a story as it gets. A princess summons a hero from another world to battle monsters attacking her people. The hero, Genzou, turns out to be a pro-wrestler who loves animals and gets violently angry whenever anyone even talks about threatening them. Instead of killing the beasts, he decides to pursue his dream of opening a pet shop where he can teach people to love the monsters that attack them. Through this, he meets Shigure, who is clearly a riff on Aqua. She hates being poor, loves chasing money, and has questionable morals. (She was also my favorite character.), Carmilla (Who is the Dustiness of the group, but instead of her gag being a masochist, she's an alcoholic. She even has the same habit of being beaten up and nearly eaten by monsters just like Dustiness) and Hanako (Who I guess would be the Megumin of the group in that she's a royal loli who is actually the most powerful of the quartet but can't show it. Megumin can't because she can't control her power, and Hanako can't because she's trying to hide her identity.). The only one that isn't the same as a Konosuba character is Genzou himself, because he's nothing like Kazuma. (And seeing how awesome Kazuma is, that's a loss for this anime. If you were going to rip off the cast of Konosuba, you should've just gone all the way.) But, even though the majority of these characters are similar to Konosuba, they are far less intelligent and far more one-dimensional than the cast of Konosuba.
The Konosuba ripoff doesn't stop there, however. Of course they join a guild, and just like in Konosuba, they cause more trouble for the members of it than they help. They spend their time doing quests and chasing money to get out of debt, but end up broke, anyway, just like Konosuba. There's also a lot of ecchi-based jokes and humor, just like Konosuba. It's kind of shameless really, that they just so blatantly lifted so much from Konosuba and then tried to smother it in a bunch of furry jokes and pro-wrestling, so you think that its different.
The two things that they use to try and differentiate themselves from Konosuba and Isekai in general were both a blessing and curse for the anime. The Furry angle produced a lot of funny moments. But, the gag of Genzou's overabundant love for animals ran thin towards the end of the anime. The Pro-Wrestling angle was never funny. I don't even know why they made this guy a pro-wrestler, but it hurt the anime more than helped it. Outside of a few funny suplexes, it was just kind of silly and really limited the combat of the anime to just pro-wrestling style fights for the most part. And what was bizarre, is that they decided to go the route of pro-wrestling style fighting, but the animation was too mediocre to make it exciting. And it's like they knew they weren't good at it, because almost all the fights were like 20 seconds long.
I'm savaging this anime, but truth be told, I was entertained by it. But, I was entertained in the way you're entertained by any gag anime; you're just waiting for the next joke. You're not waiting to see some mystery solved, or any kind of credible plot development, or what ultimately happens between characters, because you can figure that all out before it even happens. You're just waiting for the next time someone punches Dustine--I mean Carmilla in the gut, or waiting for Genzou to do something weird like sniff a dog's butt. It's the most basic and simple of entertainment, but it's entertaining, nonetheless.
And that's what Hataage! Kemono Michi is. Just a basic isekai anime. If you didn't watch this and you watched something else, you wouldn't miss out on anything special. If you did watch this, you wouldn't feel like you were completely cheated. It's a "take it or leave it" kind of anime experience.
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Jan 12, 2020
24 of 24 episodes seen
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4
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
One of the greatest animes of all time. Period.
Vinland Saga, as you know, is a story about a kid whose dad gets killed by a viking and wants revenge. If that was all this story was about, then it would just be a very well animated, but mediocre, viking/pirate anime. But, that is only partly what this anime is about. The main story is actually following the greatest villain in the history of anime: Askeladd. (Yes, a better villain than the Furor, Aizen, Hisoka, Dio, whoever.)
SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Askeladd is the viking who killed Thors, the strongest
viking of them all. But, he and his friend Bjorn, do it in an underhanded way. The way they do it, pretty much traumatizes Thorfinn, his son, and makes him absolutely obsessed with getting revenge. This revenge story, while necessary, was probably the weakest aspect of the story. It made Thorfinn a one note character. A very cool one-note character, but a one-note character, nonetheless. Everything he ever does in the anime, is totally focused on getting revenge. Almost every word he speaks, every action he takes, every thought he has, even every dream he has, is all focused on this obsession. It's understandable, given the circumstances, but it didn't allow for a very broad or nuanced character.
Fortunately, many others in the cast were more varied and vibrant as characters, but none more so than the true MC of this anime: Askeladd. Askeladd, the leader of a small army of vikings spends his time raiding different villages and killing people. But, as war breaks out between the Danes and the English, an opportunity to shape the fate of the Danish kingdom falls into his lap. And that's where things really get good, and you see just how nuanced and complex of a character he is. He's cunning, humorous and charming, but also ruthless, vicious and hateful. One episode you might find him cool, the next episode, he might do something so terrible you feel like: "Well, he's gotta die for that.". He was just an overall amazing character that you could either love, or hate, or both.
The cast overall was good. But, it was Askeladd that carries the anime to one of the best ever. Beyond him, the overall story was amazing as well. Most of it is focused on the battlefield, where Vikings are invading English territories alongside the Danish army, as the King is getting revenge against England for killing Danish people in his country. The King, however, is getting old and there is an internal fight between who will succeed him, his older son Harald, or his younger weak son, Canute. Because of these intertwining storylines, you get a mixture of awesome war battles and palace intrigue. There's never a moment that's not interesting in one way or another.
In addition to this, the animation was fantastic, as well. Two things really stood out from the animation, and that were some of the fight scenes, especially when Thorfinn would fight, and the emotion drawn on the character's faces. They did a really great job animating how they felt in the moment.
But, even beyond that, this anime had those special moments. The moments that just differentiate an anime from the rest of the pack and become a moment remembered by fans, everywhere. (When the Furor's true identity is revealed in FMA, Zero Requiem in Code Geass, Kenshin and Kaoru's final scene, etc...) Great moments like these may differentiate from person to person, but I think most people would agree that Askeladd's reaction to choosing between Wales and Canute, would be one of them.
Vinland Saga is pretty much close to perfect, but not completely. The first episode, for me, was boring and uninteresting. Which, oddly, a lot of my all time favorites seem to be in the beginning. I wasn't really captured by Gintama, One Piece, Hunter X Hunter or Black Lagoon in their first episode, and those 4 are all in my favorite anime of all time list. In fact, I just binge watched this entire show over the weekend, because when I watched the first episode when it came out, I dropped it. I only gave it a second chance out of boredom. I'm just glad it didn't take me years to give it another shot, this time. The first episode was kind of "Meh", as they were just kind of setting the table for the anime, introducing people, etc... But, episode 2 it immediately picks up.
Also, there is one mistake with the characters that broke reality and that was with Canute. Canute was terribly weak, possibly one of the weakest characters I've ever seen in an action anime. The man wouldn't even speak and he looked like a trap. But, after the caretaker who made him that way was "removed", he almost instantly becomes a super-confident leader. Like, ridiculously confident. It was unrealistic, for such a transformation to happen so quickly. Especially in an anime that made it a point to take years to develop Thorfinn from a bubbly kid, to a twisted, revenge-obsessed, killer. You might be going through trauma, but you're not going to go from being like Sawako Kuronuma to acting like Lelouch Lamperouge in a couple of days.
But, other than that? The anime was fantastic. Even the musical score was great, especially the ED of the second cour. It was just top-to-bottom awesome and is now one of my top ten favorites of all time. It's a true masterpiece.
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Dec 31, 2019
12 of 12 episodes seen
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20
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
1 |
| Story |
1 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
I hate this anime. It was doing so good, and then in the final few episodes it just got so stupid and illogical. I do not know why such a logically broken anime has such a high score. Is it because of cute animals? I don't know, but the ending was just frickin' dumb.
WARNING: MAJOR STORY SPOILERS AHEAD.
The anime started off well and was a bit surprising. I went into this thinking it was a comedy, but it's a drama. There's a little humor, but mostly it's a serious anime that imagines what the relationship between carnivores and herbivores would be if
they had a human society. In the midst of this, the likable MC, Legoshi, falls for a rabbit, Haru, basically because she talked to him once in a greenhouse. Even though he tried to eat her the first time they met. This is the first logic break, because he's apparently attracted to her forward and outgoing nature, when everyone around him seems to be outgoing and he's the only introvert in the show.
But, you can ignore this logic flaw and still get into a pretty bizarre, but definitely good story. Legosi struggles to define his feelings for Haru, while struggling to contain his own predatory nature. There's a bit of a love triangle going on with Legoshi, Haru and Louis. Louis is a very irritating and overconfident deer, who is tapped to be the Beastar, which, I'm still not quite sure what it is, but it has some kind of power over society or something. Because Haru is a rabbit who feels like she's weak, she sleeps with everything that moves. (Screw like rabbits. hardy har har, I guess.) She slept with Louis because of this and tried to sleep with Legoshi, because she'll sleep with anyone who wants it. This triangle with Louis, Legoshi and Haru provides some intrigue. Through this situation, you wonder if the anime might take a dark turn due to jealousy. I watched every episode wondering how this was going to go south, especially once the second grey wolf, Juno enters the anime, who has a thing for Legoshi. It really seemed like it might go the "School Days" route, because Legoshi could just eat Louis and Haru if he wants to and he seems psycho enough to do it. Or, Juno could eat Haru, or something. The wolves were kinda nuts.
But, just as this love square seems to hit a crescendo, between predators and prey, BOOM, they throw a completely stupid curve ball at you that destroys the story. Haru the Rabbit, is suddenly kidnapped by a group of lions who plan to feed her to their boss. (Which, BTW, the lions should've been females, they're the hunters. Males don't hunt for other males.) But, this is when it gets incredibly stupid.
What was a weird, animal, high-school, romance drama, suddenly turns into Die Hard, as Legoshi goes all Bruce Willis (Complete with the wife beater and broken glass) to rescue the rabbit. And with only a crossbow wielding Panda by his side, he somehow defeats THIRTY-FIVE LIONS. A wolf beating one lion is stupid. A wolf beating 35 lions? Come on, man.
The entire world's lore broke with these ridiculous episodes. The chief world breaking issue is the fact that suddenly, the lions have guns and the panda has a crossbow. Now, this entire world is based upon that idea that strong carnivores are a massive threat to helpless herbivores. But, if there are GUNS then why the hell are the herbivores so scary and helpless? SHOOT people who try to eat you. The playing field is level with guns, so the whole concept of the society falls apart and becomes senseless.
So many logic breaks happen after this. Just, so many. The Leo Group (The lions) are supposed to be terrifyingly powerful, but are easily beaten by two people. The Leo Group goes through all the trouble of kidnapping a tiny rabbit for the boss to eat, and they let her live like ALL NIGHT LONG. I mean, I get felines play with their food, but, seriously... The kicker, is after Legoshi is done doing his Bruce Willis thing, Louis shows up and kills the boss and then gives himself up to be eaten to two other armed lions while laughing like a nutcase. And it is barely mentioned. Louis was not a minor character, and his role in the anime was supposed to be extremely important, like a MLK bridging the gap between carnivores and herbivores. (Still not sure how). He disappears, and it might be mentioned 3-4 times by others. You'd think the whole city would freak out, but, nah...they're good.
But, the biggest plot hole in no one seeming to care? Is that of everyone who doesn't really care, it is Haru herself who seems to care the least. As she does not mention Louis again even once after he disappears. Rabbit thot is all about Legoshi now, like she never knew a deer named Louis. She was supposed to love him. That was established many times in the anime. But, I guess Legoshi was so manly in his Bruce Willis tee, she just completely forgot all about Louis.
I can't even explain all of the logic gaps this anime contained. Why is it unnatural for a rabbit to bang a wolf, but it's natural for it to bang deer, foxes, dogs and whatever the hell else Haru slept with? And why the hell do animals with keen senses of smell not know how to find people unless its convenient to the plot? What the hell happened to the Panda after the miracle fight? Did he just leave Legoshi to fight the boss? Is he dead in a pool of his own blood? Why the hell would he even follow a guy he had one conversation with to fight the most feared Mafia in the city? Why is a student from a love-story suddenly fighting a mafia anyway? Why does smelling scents make Legoshi stronger than frickin' lions? I don't know...
Then we get to the ending. The non-ending. The no reason at all for it to be a non-ending, ending, but is a non-ending ending, anyway.
After rescuing her, Haru is prepared to slut out for Legoshi a second time, but then her "instincts" make her jump into his mouth to try and be eaten by him, instead. I'd like to know what kind of animal instinct this is, that causes prey to jump into the mouth of their predators? I've never seen it in the wild, and I love nature documentaries. I was completely unaware that animals developed instincts to jump into predator's mouths, when they get horny. Just a completely dumb reason for them to not have sex. Especially dumb when you consider this rabbit has slept with dogs and foxes, who also hunt rabbits. No mouth jumping there?
After the awkward "I want to make love to you but my body told me to commit suicide, instead" scene, we flash forward to the festival, where Legoshi tells Haru he loves her again and she runs away (Even though she just tried to screw him less than 24 hours ago) which causes Legoshi to chase her to the mandatory "hill overlooking the city" scene, where he tells her AGAIN that he loves her, like it's the first time. And then, even though she tried to bone him TWICE, even though she said she can't live without him now, they DON'T get together. Instead, Legoshi says he'll become stronger for Haru so he can overcome his instincts and society that says they shouldn't be together. And what a specifically racist society. Only wolves and rabbits can't hook up. Rabbits and deer are fine. We can even have inter-species love hotels. But, no rabbits and wolves! Bigots.
Her response to Legoshi's declaration of becoming strong enough to apparently not have the instincts of a wolf, is "I'll wait." (Although she had no interest in waiting yesterday.) Why? Why are we waiting? Is he NOT going to be a wolf at some point? Hasn't he already NOT eaten her many times? And seeing how she jumped into his mouth and he still didn't eat her, shouldn't he be waiting for her not to be the world's dumbest rabbit?
This anime teaches us all an important lesson: If you're going to get drunk, do it after you finish episode 12, not episode 9.
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Nov 16, 2019
4 of 4 episodes seen
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2
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
3 |
| Story |
1 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
This is the most filler-ish filler that ever fillered in the the history of fillers.
And yet, at the same time, they were dastardly enough to put some key plot points for the main anime in this, so you'll miss it if you skip it. That's dirty pool. As such, I will tell you these main plot points so that you may skip this fillerish filler of fillers if you want to save your time and not be treated to games of tag, pig-chasing, meaningless fights and sub-par plots.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD: ONLY READ THEM IF YOU WANT THE IMPORTANT PARTS AND
WANT TO SKIP AHEAD TO THE NEXT SEASON!!
1. Diane has regained her memories of her 500 years with King. I am infuriated that they stuck such a big moment inside of such a fillery anime. I am doubly infuriated by the way it was handled. It was already hard to suspend belief that King behaves the way he does around Diane. He spent 500 years with her, the whole time knowing she cared deeply for him. He stole her memories because of that. But, throughout he keeps acting like a teenager crushing on the new girl. Imagine spending 182,500 days with a woman, seeing her naked, sleeping on her chest, telling each other you'll stay together forever, and then nose-bleeding because you touched her boobs. Boobs you literally slept on before. It makes no sense.
But do you know what makes even less sense? Is that the woman whose memories you took, at some point, come flooding back into her. And instead of exploding with shock, or happiness, or rage at you not returning...she says nothing. A lost 500 years comes flooding back into her mind, that the guy she's been hanging around for the past 15 years is actually like her soulmate, and she's just going to play it coy? And then when she finally reveals she remembers, she doesn't cry, she doesn't ask why you never said anything, she just starts subtly saying things you said to her and then kisses you on the cheek when you ask if she remembers. Nonsense.
And as weak of a reveal that is, they then stomp on it with sheer stupidity by having King get hit on the head by a brick and getting convenient amnesia causing him to forget what happened. And then the illogical cherry on this nonsensical cake? Diane just doesn't bother to remind him of what just happened. "This is fine.". THIS IS FINE?! You just remembered your love of 500 years, and he just forgot that you remembered him and you're fine with that? Screw you anime. Screw you and the stupid horse you rode in on.
Anyway...
2. Hendrickson is still alive and manages to break the seal and bring the demons to the world. Although, it looks like he died from breaking it, so he might be gone for good. (Who knows? Because no one seems to actually die in this anime unless it's in a flashback.) And don't get excited about him breaking it, because it's at the very end, and no important demon slaying takes place whatsoever. "Signs" of Holy War, is just that: All signs and no actual war.
3. Meliodas is over 3,000 years old and has apparently committed an act so abominable that all of the races came to hate him. We find this out from the giant Goddess horn, just before Meliodas smashes it to pieces.
That's it. Nothing else important happens. The entire first episode is all about chasing Hawk who, for some reason, after years of travelling with Meliodas actually believes he'll eat him. (Filler logic). The second episode is mostly Ban and Meliodas fighting a pointless fight in a box. The third episode is King playing tag with Diane. The fourth episode is Vivian stalking Gilthunder, because yes, they thought that was important enough to dedicate an episode to. But, at least that episode had a good amount of Merlin in it, so I was satisfied.
That's all. Time is precious and you'll never get it back. So, don't waste 90 minutes of your life on something that doesn't deserve it. You know all the important parts now. Skip this.
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