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Oct 1, 2015
Honestly I wasn't planning on watching Charlotte just because the synopsis sounded not so special and the trailer wasn't too interesting either, but I watched it anyway just to see how it went as there was a lot of excitement surrounding it and I had absolutely no idea where it was coming from at the time. I actually did not find out the name attached to the series til I was a few episodes in having not watched any of Jun Maeda's stories. But Charlotte only proved that's it's possible to take a simple superpower story and completely botch it by getting too complicated.
Story:
Kids get
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magic powers which they some how lose when they grow out of adolescence. An organization is formed to protect these kids. A huge organization that is literally in broad daylight in the form of numerous schools in Japan. MC, Otosaka Yuu, uses his ability to advance himself throughout middle school with no one the wiser before being caught by the superpower police, the student council of the special school.
Afterwards, the idea of hiding your abilities is frequently reiterated throughout the start of the series, but the main characters seem to try their very best to make sure that someone can find out. Partially this is for comedic effect, but nonetheless it completely disregards any notion of secrecy the show constantly mentions. At one point the head of the student council tapes someone using his ability and shows it to a normal who can't believe what just happened, but absolutely nothing comes of this. It's video evidence for Christ's sake. Can this really be called caution and secrecy?
The crew goes about collecting ability users and getting them to agree to stop being blatant idiots with their abilities so they won't get caught. This was the perfect time to make thoughtful cases of how kids used there abilities had to stop doing so. But they were all straight forward. The only occasion where someone used there ability somewhat discreetly in public and was forced to stop was MC in episode 1, and there was no somewhat controversial case in which you have sympathy towards someone perhaps needing to use their ability based on circumstance and the student council having to stop them anyways.
The show later takes a absolute turn towards hell. Some ridiculous plot is revealed in which the cast's fear of being caught by researchers comes into play and is revealed in the most convoluted way possible. It felt like I skipped a good 5 episode when I watched that one, that was how hard to plot twisted. Since I could hardly take the show seriously before, I was definitely couldn't be bothered when things actually got serious.
Characters:
Another point that fell flat, mainly because the MC was butchered for the sake of a terrible plot. The first episode was interesting as we got a main character using his ability like an asshole. It would remained interesting had he occasionally took the risk to due continue doing so, yet he does not.
The characterization becomes inexcusable when MC has his little passage of character development after learning to continue living when his life hits the dumps. This is completely ruined when it was inevitably revealed that he could just use a time travel ability to fix it. What the hell? Why did we have to go through all the horse crap? His characterization is literally taking a step backwards in time. Why wasn't the time travel immediately revealed instead of yanking me around first, or better yet, not revealed at all? I'm sure most people are still busy thinking of the "FEELS BRUH" here. At this point I would drop, but I'm more than half way through and I finish at this point.
Otherwise there are no noteworthy characters. MC's sister isn't cute, she's damn annoying. Speed guy is funny, but nothing more than a source of comedic entertainment. Tomori, the student council president, hardly has a set character. She's too much at once, which simultaneously makes her too little with this number of episodes. This again has to do with the flipping from the serious side of the show to not so serious.
Overall:
I won't deny that I was somewhat entertained here but it wasn't in the most positive way. I said earlier that I would've dropped the show, but that wasn't because I was bored with it, but because I was becoming increasing dissatisfied with it's direction. But I wanted to see just how ridiculous it got.
The ending of the show seemed to be going down a solid path, but in the end they should've left the last episode up to viewer imagination. Even so, we got to this path by trudging through troughs of garbage. It would've been best had the show just stuck to whatever antics it wished and tried not to be serious, because it just turned out contrived. This show can be summed up like this.
It sure felt like summer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 20, 2015
I've only done review for poor shows so now here's a good one. After the experiencing the incredibly strange and very disappointing Prince of Tennis, I was hesitant to pick up another tennis series. But after marathoning a slightly slow but promising first season, I continue into the even better second season of Baby Steps
Story and Characters:
Maruo Eiichiro continues on his path to professional tennis, having only just started playing 2 years previously. Maruo goes to THE LAND OF THE FREE, to do some training and improve. The show keeps things interesting and continues to show how he grows and improves at the sport. In
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this aspect it may be the best sports anime. It details Maruo's training regimen and the numerous hours he spends while being believable. Along with that it shows different strategies and techniques needed to win matches, making viewers interested in the show and the sport itself.
This importantly comes together so that at no point does Maruo have a strange or illogical jump in skill and neither does it make his opponents look weak. You continue to see just how difficult MC's training is and how hard he works with weight training, jogging, drills, and all the other crap no one wants to do. The show doesn't preaching about working hard though. Maruo works in the most effective way possible. MC then goes onward to reach the All Japan Junior tournament, competing to be the best young player in Japan and eventually go pro
All the players represent different playing styles and personalities that are interesting and believable. In sports and shonen anime at times characters can be ridiculous exaggerations of certain personalities and archetypes found in real life but that isn't the case here.
A few things I did like was after MC played someone who used various "dirty" tricks, the lesson at the end wasn't that you can't use tricks to win, you have to use them in the right way. In the end the player need to use the tricks to back his tennis, rather than making them the center of the play.
Animation:
The animation does it's job. Though there are sports anime with better animation at certain moments, Baby Steps never has issues with poor animation or episodes where time and money is clearly being saved for later. That being said this is a case of you'll find the best of the animation in the OP.
Overall: 8/10
Everything makes it truly interesting to see how far the MC can go. Though matches don't create the same excitement and some other sports anime, they're still interesting and moments in between are never dull
Season 2 steps up from last season and I eagerly await a third. Baby Steps is one of the best sports anime out and it's well worth watching
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 19, 2015
Aoharu x Kikanjuu proves yet again how easy it is to take an interesting idea and stuff it full of unnecessary complications.
Story and Characters:
The story starts as Tachibana (actually a girl) mistakenly accuses a guy of seducing his, I mean her, friend. As compensation he has her join his airsoft team. Other than the strange fact that Tachibana never cares to correct people as to her gender, everything starts out okay. But this later becomes an unnecessarily large conflict when it's state the team MC join doesn't take girls.
Unfortunately the show becomes less about airsoft and more about the ridiculous drama and conflict between
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MC's team, Toy Gun Gun, and another team Hoshishiro. The airsoft battles are okay, but you'd expect more in the way of strategy. The show draws little actual interest towards airsoft, which is surprising given that it's the main reason most people would pick up the show
Everyone takes their games seriously. Way too seriously actually. It's stated in episode 1. No training or skill is shown and it actually makes the viewers take it less seriously. As You'll find that the characters are simply a fujo's wet dream, with a neet homo manga writer, a guy who works at a host club, a sadist, and finally a boy who's not really a boy who ties it all together.
The strangest thing is Tachibana's sense of "justice". It's never really explained where this comes from though he mentions it frequently, and it's outright thrown out the window and turns into simply being her self-admitted selfishness later on. So it's just his own little meaningless character trait. The characters aren't good, and neither is the story.
Art:
Brain's Base put a lot into this and you can tell. Unfortunately for them it doesn't look like they'll get much out of it as preorder sales are abysmal. It would be more appropriate if they threw their money at making season 2s for their actual successes, even if they may not sell as well a the first, rather than throwing all their money into such a poor story.
Overall: 3/10
I actually enjoyed this series for around the first 6 episodes. It was a bit silly but it was fun to watch. But towards the latter half too much dumbly written drama and poorly attempted characterization came into play and it was hardly about the airsoft. I just wanted it to end.
It wish I would've been able to end the season saying this is a show I didn't regret watching because it seemed that way when I started. It proved that you can't pander to multiple crowds at different ends of the spectrum and get positive recognition.
Hopefully I never again have to write a review in which I spend more time correcting "his/he" to "her/she" again. If you want a show about actual airsoft, this isn't it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 12, 2015
After stumbling upon this series and seeing a couple of pages I decided to check it out because it looked gory and the name sounded interesting. It's a good thing that I didn't expect much, because that's just about what I got. This is one of the edgiest manga I have ever read.
Story: 2/10
The story revolves around the main character who is bullied for whatever reason by various classmates. It's not really explained, she's just really bulliable I suppose. She holds no dislikable qualities, and hasnt done anything to harbor any ill feelings from her classmates. She passively takes it until she's nearly killed by
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being pushed into traffic. This enlightening experience pushes her punish all of her classmates, whether involved in her bullying or bystanders, thus the name "Revenge Classroom".
The main character uses various methods to ruin the lives of those around her and destroy the class. She wrecks her classmates socially, psychologically, and physically. One surprising thing is the list of targets excludes her teachers and school staff. You know, people who directly observe school issues and have the authority to deal with it. But somehow the girl so passive about her bullying is now decides to go after those who were as powerless to save her as she was to save herself in the start. Her first realization after getting hit by the car was "kill or be killed" but screw that let's take everyone out whether they intend to harm you or not.
Characters: 1/10
The characters are just plot devices to drive the edginess of the story. There is nothing here. Everyone's crazy, an asshole, incompetent, or a coward, actively screwing themselves over.
Art: 4/10
The art conveys what it needs to in no exceptional fashion. Not terrible, not good either. Fails to convey emotion and is unappealing
Entertainment: 4/10
Will prove to be the manga's only redeeming quality. There is some entertainment to be had in the crazy events of the novel, but they'll grow old quickly because the story backing it is so weak and nonsensical. The main character hatches various plan and is maniacally manipulative which may hold reader's interest and serve as the main reason to read
Overall: 2/10
I'm not going further because the manga just loses it's appeal. And when translations take time that becomes a huge issue. If the whole thing was done I may have finished it to see how everything turned out. Dumb fun at best, this is nothing to look to deep into.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 20, 2015
Alright, this is one of the most popular shows last season so I found it reasonable for it to serve as my first review for the season.
Story 2/10:
The story is surprisingly bad. Episode one was almost perfectly copied from popular WIT series Attack on Titan. The premise is pretty generic. Main character is trapped and enslaved in a city by vampires along with many other kids. He ends up the sole survivor as he and friends attempt to escape from the city of Vampires. He then vows to get his revenge. Oh boy. He joins the military force to combat the vampires and for some
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odd reason the MC goes through school while receiving his training. His school life was irrelevant other than for making friends so the school setting was unnecessary as he could've made friends anywhere else. The setting is extremely unnatural considering the situation
The story continues to progress predictably while MC meets a typical cast of characters which I'll get into. But the absolute worst thing about the series is the dialogue. It's beyond generic and incredibly predictable. From "I'll kill all the vampires" to "I'll make sure no one dies lol". Just as no one seems to think before they spout whatever trash they want to say, they author doesn't seem give much thought to what dialogue can convey. It's as if he tried to take every cool sounding line from previously anime and manga and apply them where possible only to receive the opposite effect of what he hoped.
The weapons systems is retarded. They are controlled by demons and you must make a contract with a demon using some arbitrary and nonsensical show of "willpower", Which will lead to yet again some more predictable scenes. The fights are strangely favorable to MC and his party even though the power level between humans and Vampires is revealed to be huge. The upper level Vampires never go all out for whatever reason and constantly miss chances to kill, in contrast to episode one where the kids are cut apart in seconds. The thing I realized about this series is there is nothing unique about it. There is nothing that make it stand out and be recognized as "that anime". This isn't simply in comparison to AOT, but many good or at least decent anime. This goes back to the blandness of the dialogue, and the blandness of the characters.
Characters 2/10:
Not much to say here. The character are all dull as I said. The MC is a typical angry little kid who wish to exterminate the vampires. He spouts the expected edgy lines all throughout the first few episode thinking he doesn't need friends to kill, he wants to hurry up and kill, etc. He meets a typical shy kid who seems completely useless but can actually be somewhat helpful, and a typical rival character who is an ass but is actually nice on the inside. Shinoa was actually decent and entertaining as well. Maybe that's why I remember her name along with just a few others. Her smug playfulness drew an interesting contrast with her serious attitude on the field. But that's about it.
Strangely enough with all the emphasis on teamwork you'd think there'd be more tactics in fights but I guess not. The vampires didn't appear enough to do anything other than say the usual antagonistic lines and how things seemed interesting. MCs friend survives and turns into a Vamp, no surprise here. The show does a terrible job drawing sympathy for the viewer for either side, though it clearly aims to do so with MC's friend being turned while MC fights the vampires and a few other reasons.
Art 6/10:
The character designs are good but the animation can be inconsistent with one hilarious episode standing out in terms of poor quality. The water color-esque background are unique and works well for indoor scenes, but outdoors draws an huge contrast with the 2D character figures which can be annoying. Fight scenes were done decently at best, as seems WIT is saving the shekels for AOT.
Music 6/10:
Many people take the opportunity to shamelessly cream themselves when Hiroyuki Sawano is revealed to be handling the music composition for an anime. This is certainly not on the level of AOT or Kill la Kill and it's not anything special. It's has some good moments but nothing else.
Entertainment 5/10
Even with all I mentioned the series managed to remain entertaining enough for me to at least complete it. I may or may not be watching season 2, but I don't feel like I've completely wasted my time somehow. Maybe I still retain hope for the show to get better and haven't been completely let down (considering my expectations were pretty low in the first place)
Overall 3/10:
If you like something generic yet can kill time without causing you to die of boredom, this may be the show for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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