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Apr 17, 2025
Story & Characters: Insomniacs After School is a sweet, sweet high school romance series that has far more depth than I was expecting from a series in this genre. Ganta Nakami has serious issues sleeping at night and doesn't really know what to do with his time that he's always awake. That is, until he takes a sudden interest in both astronomy and photo taking. Put these together and you get the basic plot for a character that has a lot he wants to do. That's not without his number two - Isaki Magari, another high schooler who stays up all
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night due to a lack of desire to sleep.
Both characters have a surprising amount of depth to them. They really don't start out as much more than normal school kids. Ganta isn't exactly an outgoing character and really only has the time for his best buddy, student president Tao Ukegawa. Their friendship is pretty special because they share a lot together, some of which is super secret. This gives the audience an idea of who Ganta really is, without putting it in a monologue all the time. Ganta lives with his single dad and the story behind their family is pretty shocking. Isaki also had a pretty tough childhood and I really like how they incorporated details of her past into the story, especially in the last few episodes. Her reason for being an insomniac gets a little dark in an otherwise lighthearted anime series, so while it felt like it didn't fit at times, I'm very glad that they included it. She's otherwise a bright and cheery character, always on the move to the next big adventure.
One of the reasons this series does so well for itself, outside of the characters, is that it gives Ganta, a normally bland student, a reason to do "something" with his time. He mentions several times how boring he is, and even mentions that he left behind a decent hobby due a foot injury. It's not even all because of Isaki - he seems to actually care about stargazing and photo taking now, and his drive to get things done well for both him and his classmates makes this series all that much better.
There are a few characters worth noting outside of Tao, including the energetic Motoko. Her parents owns a restaurant, and they build a lot of her personality around what comes with being inside a lot around customers. She's cheery, cocky and a can be a bit of a bully, but she's really nice inside and adds a lot of this group. Kanami, one of Isaki's friends, I'm not as high on, due to her not adding as much to the plot. I'm not really sure what she does other than be another body. Yui owns an arcade and really pushes Ganta for his new hobbies. The friendship these two have is really something special, including adding some emotion into an otherwise monotone character - both of them, that is.
One of the things that school romance has an issue on is building it's story, without some episodes feeling like "another day". Insomniacs After School actually does a good job at getting away from that formula and adding in more reason to each person's new day. These were done really well, even if it sacrifices pacing for in favour of some more depth to its story. I'm not entirely sure if the facts regarding Ganta's photo taking hobby were all necessary true, but if they are, that's an impressive amount of knowledge, crammed into a series.
One area that this series might drive people nuts is Ganta's indecisiveness. This isn't to say it isn't a match for his personality, but this lack of ability to decide right away drags the series at parts where audiences may want the plot to move along. This happens a lot in slice of life and romance series, so whenever this happens, there needs to be more depth to the story in order for this not to frustrate audiences. Ganta in himself is a boring lead, but his character development gets staggered at these points.
Once we get to the ending, our character start to find more meaning in life and have a better feel who both them, and others around them are, through our journey. I wasn't terribly high on how this series ended from a story perspective and to me, it's more about how we got there, rather than the ending itself. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 8/10)
Art: This series' animation is very consistent, which I'm very happy to see. LidenFilms has had some pretty questionable looking series such as Otherside Picnic and Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka. This was easily better than those two by a mile. (8/10)
Sound: Not much to say here other than you got what you should likely expect in a romance series. Tracks were fine all around and voice work was also strong. It's sometimes hard for me to take Adam Gibbs (Ganta) seriously because of his work with My Teen Romantic Snaafu, but he was good here. Jad Saxton (Isaki), who feels like she's been around forever, was fantastic with Isaki. (7/10)
Overall: Insomniacs After School is another teen romance series that should get some looks for any fan of the genre. It has more character depth than a lot of other series in the same genre give them and has a strong story to back it up. This one's definitely recommended to anyone there, assuming Ganta doesn't drive you nuts first. (8/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 17, 2025
I'm one of few who were a little underwhelmed by season one of Solo Leveling. I felt like it didn't do enough with its characters and felt like Jinwoo simple wasn't strong enough, though not in the physical sense, to carry the show on his own like they had him do. Add the staggered pacing and over-the-top dramatics, it simply didn't do enough for me. Skip forward to Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow and I actually am impressed with what they've done here.
Story & Characters: Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow has a lot going for it
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in that Jinwoo's journey is a little more interesting this time around. The first arc takes Jinwoo and multiple other hunters into a new type of portal that is far more dangerous than any of them really signed up for. What we realize this, things start to go south very quick, and its this sense of danger that really starts this season out well. It's not that it's Jinwoo's life that we feel is in danger, but also with those that he feels he should be protecting. There's urgency and some real anger, from one of our new characters Chul. I like him fine enough, but I feel like he represents a lot of the problems that Solo Leveling previously had, in that these antagonists kind of all feel the same. They didn't use him in the same way as some of the previous characters like this, something I think they finally figured out, so it's not as annoying as it might've otherwise been. That being said, I really like how they showcased Jinwoo's new found powers with the Necromancer and Song-Yi, another new character, was incorporated quite well here.
The second arc takes us through some of Jinwoo's everyday life, which he starts to take far more seriously, now that he knows what kind of limits he can play around with. This arc focuses mostly on him. Esil is the daughter of a demon king, who lives in one of the realms that Jinwoo visits. I actually really liked her, I felt like she added a new companion to Jinwoo's brigade for this arc. The personality is definitely weird, but this arc would be far more boring without her in it. I do like that they kept parts of this arc short and sweet too, because, aside Esil, there really isn't a ton to this until you get to its conclusion, which was done exceptionally well.
The final arc is where things really ramped up, and this is kind of where we start to be reacquainted with some older faces - including Hae-In, Gun-Hee, Jong-In and Woon-Ho. They're all decent characters, but my minor issue is that it feels like Hae-In should have had far more inclusion in her role throughout the story. We learned a little more about her during the course of the season, but if she's going to be a central character like it's kind of implied, I didn't feel like they did a very good job of making this seem.
During the course of the season, they introduce a swarm of new characters who have minor roles, and aside the fact that I'm absolutely awful with Korean names, a lot of them don't feel terribly significant. They go through the trouble of showing us who they are and mentioning how strong they are, but by the end of the season, they are mostly forgettable. They also kind of do the opposite with some other characters that feel like they're going to big later and leave us wanting to come back to find out, which I minded significantly less.
The finale of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow seems to imply there will be more, but with no official announcement, as of this writing, it's hard to say what their plans are. I'll definitely check it out because I like where they're going with the story, even if their use of characters still needs some minor work. (Story: 9/10, Characters: 7/10)
Art: This series still looks very good, but I'd be lying if I didn't mention some minor gripes with how they animated the final fight of the season. A lot of seasonal anime start to have quality issues as the series goes on, which doesn't tend to bug me a whole lot, but save the detailed animation for the end, not start. Animation is still strong, but not insane. (8/10)
Sound: I'd be lying if I said I was going to give this anything but perfect again. Hiroyuki Sawano continues to be a master in anime music, not to be held back by an insane OP, Reawaker by LiSA and Felix (of Stray Kids), and ED, Un-Apex, by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure. Voice cast was, again, brilliant, as kind of expected with anything voice directed by Caitlin Glass. She somehow gathered seasoned veterans from all corners of the anime VO world, including Johnny Yong Bosch, Patrick Seitz, Trina Nishimura, Christopher Wehkamp, Stephen Fu, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Zeno Robinson and Todd Haberkorn. Most of them don't even appear in seasonal anime unless it's a sequel to an older work. (10/10)
Overall: Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow is a good reminder that you can always do better after a slow start. While I'm not surprised, as season one was mostly setup, I'm very happy to see how much better this season is. This series is still likely a pass for anyone who doesn't like the "lead being OP" trope, but outside of that, I love what Solo Leveling does. I'm not sure where they go from here, but I think they'd be foolish not to at least consider having this series continue on. (9/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 24, 2025
Zenshu is, yet again, another otherly world series where our main character gets zapped to another world and things start to happen due to their appearance. It's nothing we haven't seen before. This series does, however, bring in some strong story elements that does make it worthy of the watch.
Story & Characters: Zenshu introduces us to Natsuko Hirose, who is an animator for an animation studio. As is the norm with workplaces of this nature, they must meet very strict deadlines and Natsuko takes issue with anyone who tries to get help her, but only gets in her way, at least, in
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her view. She's a bit of a prodigy in terms of creating strong artworks and has had that talent since she was in her early teens. Zenshu does a very good job at portraying who she was as a child, and growing up, as they dedicated an episode to her past, something that I actually really appreciated. Much of what series wants to do is tell us who Natsuko is, and it does a tremendous job at portraying her character development from start to finish. She went from being self-centred to open and kind.
Natsuko passes out one day while working on her storyboard, and zapped to "A Tale of Perishing", one of her very favourite stories when she was a kid. She loves it so much she memorized the whole series, and now, she gets to be a part of it. She meets Luke Braveheart, one of the nine legendary heroes, also known as the "Nine Soldiers" that are featured in the story. Luke is about as "Hero-like" as you can get, always putting the people's safety above his own, even at the detriment of his own health. It's a bit cookie-cutter, but he honours the hero name quite well. Much of the story watches his actions and his strength very much backs up his words. The main soldiers that we see are Unio, a mini unicorn who can transform to fly people to places and can use magical abilities, QJ, a mini flying robot and specializes in technology, and Memmeln, an elf who combined magic and bow-and-arrow skills to conquer her foes. All three are given some background info, and I thought they did a decent job with all of them. QJ's my favourite of the three, just because he knows nothing but happiness outside of battle.
The story splits itself into three parts - the beginning, middle and end - fairly evenly. The beginning takes its time to make us acquainted with the Tale of Perishing world. We learn very quickly that Natsuko gains the ability to quickly draw, and bring whatever she draws, to life. These tend to be very powerful, and even knock her out for multiple days after using this ability. The story takes its time, sometimes too slowly in my opinion, for us to learn that not everything Natsuko knows about the story is actually true. This can be a bit of a turnoff for some audiences, though I'm glad I watched it through. Some of the stuff she draws is so weird, but grants us those few minutes of seeing how they interact with the world, and fight off the enemy monsters, known as Voids.
The middle's goal is to build up our roster as we are introduced to other soldiers, as we get to know more about the world. Destiny is a dancer, who has a love for children. Her goal is to build an orphanage and even though I didn't think much of her as a character, I loved what they did with her in the finale. Justice was easily my favourite of the soldiers. He is basically a human-dragon hybrid that insists that he's good for nothing anymore, especially because he's lost his ability to fly. But time and time again he brings about good in the series and slowly becomes possibly the most lovable character in the entire series. A character that I didn't like, even with her limited screentime, was "Bird". It feels like she only served to annoy and even though she said her signature one line once, did we really need to hear it five more times within the next two episodes?
After the middle is all said and done, the final act enters where things REALLY take a turn for the worst. And when it starts to turn, everything starts to crumble even more. This is easily the best part of the series. We can see what's going on the Tale of Perishing, and then they manage to make things worse and worse. It gets so dark during multiple instances and, while I thought the last ten minutes or so felt a little rushed, I thought they accomplished what they set out to do. We see a large problem, and we got our resolution. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 9/10)
Art: MAPPA is in charge of the animation for this series, well known for other animating other beautiful works such as Attack on Titan and Takt Op. Destiny. They really do a good job here, bringing to life Natsuko's works, as well as the flashy animations from our action sequences. Nothing ever felt cheap and I was happy to see the series done well by the animation. (8/10)
Sound: OST work was solid, along with an awesome OP in Zen by Band-Maid. But voice work is where the series shone. Madeleine Morris (Natsuko), well known for her work as Rudius in Jobless Reincarnation should basically feel at home with Natsuko. Young character, zapped to another world and gets to work their magic. She was fantastic here and does enough with her voice to make it at least a little different from when she voices a young male. Luci Christian (Unio), Alexis Tipton (Memmeln) and Dani Chambers (Destiny) are the other big names on this series, all performing very well. I'm not super familiar with Ryan Negrón (Luke), but I thought he was also exceptional. (9/10)
Overall: Zenshu does a lot to make this series feel very different from the other Isekai series out there and I would say that it does feel like a bit of a unique experience. Pacing issues aside, I felt like the story always felt very engaging, even though our main villains were basically nameless husks that killed everything in sight. This series brought in fantastic characters and a story that always drove to the end. Any fan of the Isekai series should check this out, especially because our story ends after the credits roll. (8/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 7, 2025
Like many series before it, Girls Band Cry tries to make you care about our characters through their music. This isn't anything we haven't seen before - K-On, Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night and Fuuka to name a few - but as the anime industry starts to get more and more of these music-related series, I can't help but try a bunch of them out.
Story & Characters: Girls Band Cry actually starts out very similarly to Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, in that we have our main character, Nina Iseri, who can't quite seem to be able to find where she wants
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to be after just finishing high school. She's had a lot of things happen to her that make her feel like the world is against her - this ranges from bullying in school to unsupportive parents and peers. Look, finding our way in life sucks when you feel like you don't have a direction to take, so Nina's situation might feel familiar to some. I feel like whether you connect with her will kind of align whether or not you appreciate this series for its characters or not. She feels like a bit of a brat in the early going and I get why people may not like her all that much. There is some growth as the series goes on, but she sticks to her beliefs, for better or worse.
After stumbling upon Momoka, ex of the band Diamond Dust, they decide together to form a band. Momoka isn't nearly as deep, even though I feel like the framework is there. She's seriously passionate about her skill in writing music, but man, she really likes giving up when the situation starts to go south, even a little. This is probably her only flaw, because she's pretty smart, but it shows up in the series more times than I'd like.
After creating their "group", they realize they only have their vocalist and guitar player, and end recruiting Subaru, a drummer who comes from a family that isn't particularly supportive of her passion for music either. I do like that they went about her story in a different way than Nina's though, and that kept the early episodes feeling fresher than it could've. She keeps her focus on reality really well, and even feels like she has to play babysitter to Nina and Momoka at times. I liked her.
As the story progresses, the girls' group starts to take form, and their dream starts to take a mold. However, there's a lot that gets in their way, and most of it does feel fairly realistic. Things aren't exactly given to them for free, and I like that this series tries to focus on that over anything else. There are times when the pacing does feel a little quicker than it should be, but it was never a huge issue.
Rupa and Tomo round out our band as their bassist a keyboarder and both are strong characters. Rupa feels lot like Kaori from Whisper Me a Love Song, in that she puts on this smile 'all' the time as if she's kind of playfully going with the flow. Her backstory isn't very deep and she loves to drink, but near the end of the series, she's a fantastic character when she's being serious. Tomo is a great second to their duo because of how different she is, and she's almost overly serious. She takes everything like it's a life or death situation, and I really appreciated her character because of her background. It just kind of works.
What they try to do with side characters is make them feel impactful, while only lasting an episode or two. Nina's dad, Hina, Subaru's grandmother and Ms. Miura all bring a certain chunk to the story in this regard. This series is basically all about our five girls.
As the series progresses and our group gets closer and closer to their dreams, they do their best to get there, without trying to shortcut anything. This is a quality that I find severely lacking in seasonal anime due to the short length, and even though this series is an original work, others have still fallen victim to this flaw. Every other episode ends in a song, which kind of makes this feel like it should be 6 longer episodes, rather than the 13 present here. That's not a bad thing because I binged it for the most part, but more an observation than anything.
As we get closer and closer to the end, there's not a very clear path to where our girls want to end up, aside being popular and professional. While this is fine, it does feel like there are gaps that feel almost necessary in terms of preparation and planning. This series tries to emphasize drama a touch too much, leaving no time to show the right way to do things in much length. Maybe that's a limitation that would make this series too long and slow, but they could have mixed it up a little more. All that being said, once our girls start to perform, the "fun" gets ramped up to 10 immediately, right until the end. I didn't love the way this series ended, but it was solid enough. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 8/10)
Art: If you're someone that doesn't like full CG series, then this series will be an issue for you. Full CG series have come a long way since the days of Knights of Sidonia, one of the early series that I know in this art style, but I thought Girls Band Cry did just fine here. Toei Animation doesn't suffer from the typical seasonal art decline that tends to happen, which is appreciated. I found after the first episode that the style wasn't nearly as much of problem for me. (8/10)
Sound: There wasn't a shot in hell that I was giving this series anything but a perfect score here. The music in this series absolutely ruled from the craziness of Voiceless Fish to the excitement of VOID. I loved basically every musical tune in this series and that just kind of matches the band style with me. It's exciting, has passion in the vocals and sounds awesome. I'm also a bit of a sucker for piano in rock tunes. They even add some extra audio effects to the concert versions of the tunes to make it feel more like "live" in some instances. The OST matches a similar style to the music in a calmer way, many of which are rehashes of some of the songs. Voicework was strong all around, even though I believe the VAs are musicians first and voice actresses second. It's really impressive. (10/10)
Overall: Girls Band Cry was easily the most fun series of the year, even if it wasn't the best. The music was just way too good to pass up and the rest of the elements of the series was strong enough that it deserves high praise. It might be my favourite in the genre because of that. A lot of work was likely done to get this series off the ground because of the music work involved, but it pays off big here. This is a series to give a try for anyone looking for a music, coming-of-age series. (9/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 12, 2025
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian had all the makings of a successful Rom-Com, and, I think it came out with moderate success. That being said, it's kind of obvious where this series lost points.
Story & Characters: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian has a pretty standard story for a school, teen romantic comedy. That is, girl meets boy in class, they crush, they get closer, success. We're not at the end yet, but that's essentially what happens. The formula works for the most part, though there are some issues along the way.
Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou is a recent transfer
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to her school where, where she gets immediate attention due to her angelic looks and mature attitude. Her goals don't seem over ambitious, but she stands up for herself... for the most part. She has a Russain background, hence the anime title, and whenever she feels embarrassed, she speaks in Russian, thinking no one else can understand her. Masachika Kuze is in her class and comes off as a bit of a slacker. He spends much of his time playing a gacha phone game and it isn't unusual of him to fall asleep in the classroom. Because of his background, he actually does understand Russian, and that's honestly where a lot of the gags come into play.
I've always been a huge fan of school romance series - Horimiya, Just Because and Tsukai Ga Kirei to name a few - but I've never been the biggest Rom Com fan because I'm not really watching anime for the gags and giggles. Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian changes that for me, as I found the series very funny throughout the entire runtime. I find myself laughing due to two things: Aaron Dismuke's amazing ability to play Masachika and the strong writing. It manages to make the interactions between Alisa and Masachika a lot of fun, something I don't usually mesh with.
This series starts off so well that I thought I was in for my favourite anime of the year. We find out so much about our main duo off the hop, we're surrounded by hilarious misunderstandings and nothing gets too out of hand. Yuki Suou, Masachika's younger sister, Maria Mikhailovna Kujou, Alisa's older sister, and Touya Kenzaki, the current student council president, all create a fun little group that you can't help but laugh along with. They mix in serious moments with funny ones and it really does work for me. Yuki is givena weird hand because of her family situation, but is headstrong, and aiming to always one-up her brother. Maria doesn't have too much going for her in itself, but I liked how she interacted with the rest of the cast. Touya is there for the sarcasm, which is similar to Masachika, and this is the type of humour I like. It feels like Ayano, another classmate, is suppose to have a bigger impact than she does, but I was never really a fan of her.
The problem I have here is that the story takes a bit of a nosedive in the second half. After our initial "how do you dos" are done and over with, the series leads into one specific "arc" for the remainder of the series and it simply isn't that interesting. It plays around some of Alisa's fears and makes her worry, but there wasn't anything nearly as solid as in the first half. The conclusion, while finishing the arc, didn't feel terribly satisfying to me either. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 9/10)
Art: Doga Kobo has a strong reputation for taking on a lot of slice of life or romance series such as Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie and Jellyfish Can't Swim in the night. There's a lot of shine and polish and I'm a huge of a fan of the style they use here. Some of the later episodes don't look quite as great, but all in all, it's a strong showing. (9/10)
Sound: The OST was mostly fine, but the OP was excellent, and this series somehow had a different ED with each episode (who DOES that nowadays?). Voice work was exceptional, as Aaron Dismuke (Masachika) did what Aaron Dismuke does best. He's simply a wizard in this genre, though his other work is obviously nothing to scoff at either. It very much reminds me of his performance in "Fuuka". He's so good in these moments. Sarah Natochenny (Alisa) meshed so well with him, backed by the fact that she actually knows Russian. Aaron Campbell (Touya) has been on my radar for a little while now, and he's impressing me more these days - though he's been doing more voice directing work lately. Top to bottom, the cast is exceptional. (10/10)
Overall: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian would have easily been a 9 if not for the drop-off in the back half of things. I'll be interested in where they take the story in the, already announced, second season. Can they keep up the light, funny moments, or will the story bring back another uninteresting arc? The second half was still funny at times, which means at least that's consistent. I'll be checking it out when it comes back, for sure, and I think any audience whose a fan of Rom-Coms should too. (8/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 10, 2025
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict is part 3 of the four-part series for the Bleach sequel, and it's still amazing.
Story & Characters: There's really not a ton to expand upon with the story, and, given the landscape that we already have, that's perfectly fine. Ichigo and friends finally make it to the castle where Yhwach is standing by, and the entirely of the Soul Society needs to find a way to stop him - by any means necessary.
Something that often gets expanded upon with new characters in a final season are more backstories. That's something that happens once again with a
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few of the Sternritter and while the stories, particularly with Bazz-B. While these tales are solid on their own, inserting them into the main story really breaks the continuity and pacing of the series. It's so hard to implement well, as something like Demon Slayer has struggled to do this properly. I'm mostly okay with the way Pierrot Films has gone about this because it builds something up for our characters. We even get some background story on Nanao, someone who we haven't seen much during our Bleach journey. It's unique and her weird relationship with her captain makes a lot more sense now.
Some characters from the past return, affecting the story in different ways. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but it never really feels like they're totally there for a reason, outside of "save the world". It's fine, but nothing mindblowing. Fight sequences, however, bring no indecisiveness to what's going on, and while we did get a bit too simple with some fights, there's no question that they're flashy, and display just how strong some of our cast members are. We obviously haven't seen everyone at full power yet, and that leaves us with more to chew on when the final season airs. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 9/10)
Art: Animation remains consistent throughout the season for the most part. This is the studio that also did Naruto, and I was expected some amount of lower quality at some point because of their history. I'm happy to report that the series looks solid. (9/10)
Sound: Monochrome, the ED by suisoh, was probably my favourite tune this time around. I wasn't too high on the OP though. Voice work remains strong, with more returnees from the first series bringing in strong work, including Lucien Dodge (Yukio), Cristina Vee (Riruka) and David Vincent (Grimmjow). Terrance Stone (Mayuri) might've put together my fabourite performance this time around though. (9/10)
Overall: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict remains strong, even if it's still not as good as the first season. There's tons of action, plenty of story weaved in throughout and we can tell we're finally building up to the final showdown. I'm very excited, as should each and every other Bleach fan out there. (9/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 10, 2025
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka tries to do a lot of different things at the same time, but the problem that it kind brings upon itself is that it doesn't do any of them particularly well.
Story: Before the events of our main story, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka introduces us to a group of magical girls who are fighting a war against the Disas, large monsters that fight to kill. After winning the war, though not without a few casualties, the remaining five magical girls, dubbed the "Magical Five", disbanded and went their separate ways. Their leader, Asuka, decides to retire as a magical girls,
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where she hopes to live life as an ordinary school student. But due to events unfolding in front of her, we soon see that she can't escape her past.
The story itself has an interesting concept - magical girls who have military-like powers in order to fight. Each one has their own unique powers. These were fun because of the variety the combat scenes could have brought to the table. The problem is that the series never really got all that interesting. Most would brute force their way out of a situation and it rarely led to any interesting fights. Kurumi had a wider array of tools, but the rest were pretty boring in general.
The series tries to be a more violent version of, say, Madoka Magica, and I do like what they were going for. This series gets pretty bloody. While this dark twist on the magical girl genre is welcome, I'm not sure they did enough with it.
The association that act as our antagonists clearly have some long-term plan on what they're doing, the problem is, once it starts to reveal itself, the series ends. This is always a drawback to any adaptation that only adapts part of the source material, and we barely get far enough to start to figure out what they're up to.
One real problem this series had was an annoying amount of "plot armour". When you have a healer on your team, your ability to recovery from "anything" is apparent, and basically reversing any damage that gets inflicting got old in a hurry. Characters would get emotional, and then it would all be better. I didn't mind it the first time, but after a few times, it gets very silly.
Another minor issue was the series had some very uneven pacing. Fights, story filler, anything were all very brief, so it feels like the plot is all over the place at times. The focus on different parts of the world didn't help either, so you're never really in a familiar setting more than once. While this isn't an issue in itself, the series does very little to explain why you're at a certain spot or why we care. The final 'arc' was done decently, mind you, and I actually like where they left off the characters - far too many anime end the series very quickly after the final fight. (5/10)
Characters: Our characters are an mixed bag, but I really couldn't attach myself to Asuka. She's an exceptional fighter and has a caring heart, but she always feels like a follower. For wanting to be retired, it doesn't really feel like it took much to pull her back into the magical girl world either. Kurumi fared a little better. She has a caring side, but also a bit of a psychotic side too. I do like the friendship she shares with Asuka, which makes her feel much more significant than the other magical girls. Nozomi and Sayako are Asuka's classmates and I actually liked them a fair bit. Adding ordinary citizens into a story like this, when done well, pays off and I thought they integrated them into the story quite well. For all the issues with the story there were, these two probably weren't part of them.
Most of our enemies don't mean a whole lot due to the story length - Queen is clearly the one pulling the strings but she's barely around. Abigail seems like her #2 and while I thought she was a good villain, she really is only part of a couple episodes. Giess and Chisato are decent characters. They fit the story well and have some decent backstory. There were a lot of very minor villain characters in the first half of the story and I couldn't say any of them felt memorable. Other side characters kind of just feel like they were there. Mia, Tamara, Mr Iizuka, Ise, Yoshino and even Tabira don't have enough story to call them good characters. (6/10)
Art: For the decent animation this series had, it feels like this was a bit of a budget work. Fighting scenes had the potential to look amazing, but there are so many times they use still-frames with panned shots going from one side to the other. This happened so often and really takes away from the battles, short as they may be. The series looking good aside one issue - the character models all looked incredibly awkward. They just always look ugly. (5/10)
Sound: Music and sound matches the series attempt at a military-style magical girl work, which is good. VO work was pretty good too. Tia Ballard (Abigail), Mikaela Krantz (Giess) and Sara Ragsdale (Kurumi) were all strong. I love Morgan Berry (Nozomi) and Bryn Apprill (Sayako) as a pairing - they were fantastic here. I'm never really over the moon on Trina Nishimura (Asuka), but she was okay here. (6/10)
Overall: Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka was mediocre in basically every possible way. Nothing really felt exceptional, and there are a handful other series in the genre - both military and magical girl - that probably do a better job at any of these. (6/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 30, 2024
Whisper Me a Love Song. THIS is the anime that I was probably most excited about at the beginning of 2024 aside from Solo Leveling. And I made that known in my MAL Blog Post. Bloom Into You was the closest comparable and that series is extremely near and dear to my heart - it's even on the same streaming platform - HiDive. But man, as everyone else has mentioned, the production issues this series had created so many issues for what probably should have been an easy 8 or 9/10.
Words cannot even begin to express how I feel about how
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this series was handled. Yokohama Animation Laboratory and Cloud Hearts couldn't have handled this project worse, outside of not finishing it at all (I've actually heard that they're essentially the same studio). People were worried about this series in the very early stages when the air date had to be pushed back two seasons later than originally planned - apparently the studio had a bad rep from prior. When a few episodes were delayed, there were leaks coming out that production was being halted and delayed because of EXRTREMELY poor working conditions. There's always going to be that grind in the anime industry because of the demand to get seasonal anime out on time, but it got really bad to the point that some of the work had to be outsourced. As of June 10th, when the eighth episode aired, production on the eleventh and twelfth episode hadn't reportedly gotten started yet. It sounds like a massive fumble for a series that really could have been something bigger.
Story & Characters: Himari Kino has her first year of high school and has possibly the most carefree attitude that I've ever seen in a school anime. She has zero worries in life and proclaims to everyone that she loves them. This is obviously a bit of a steep slope to go off of because of what you and I know as 'love', she defines as more as being friendly, or happy with said person. When she goes to the school's opening ceremonies, she is immediately amazed by the band that plays, mainly, the main singer, Yori Asanagi. Himari eventually catches up to Yori and tells her that she loves her. This completely takes the introverted Yori by shock, but what starts out as an innocent interaction between two different characters, ends with a decent-feeling story.
Himari is a decent character - she's happy to help anyone in need of assistance and still puts her best foot forward when she sees something that needs to be addressed. She backs up her beliefs with her actions and develops quite nicely as the series goes on. I was actually kind of worried where they'd take her because some series take the light and bubbly character and does nothing of developmental value with them. She's certainly not the best of example of this, but she's still decent written. Yori probably doesn't have as much depth though. She feels very withdrawn to a point where I could see her inability to speak her mind - as shallow as it may be - very often. Her strengths lie in her ability to create music and follow through in that medium. Whether that feels like a strong secondary character to you, I'll leave up for debate because I can see both sides.
As the series progresses, many other characters' stories start to unwind and I have some mixed feelings on how well they turned out. Shiho's was likely my favourite because it really attempts to tug at some serious feelings. This is not a past that is easy to read and not shed a tear or two and her attempt at getting by life is extremely admirable. My problem with her was how they executed her arc. I'm not familiar with the source material to say for sure, but it feels like her story jumps around a little too much. It doesn't feel cohesive until it's pieced together, rather than building up her story until the conclusion. It pays off, but it was a little awkward to get to. Aki is another strong character whose trope may feel all too familiar to Bloom Into You fans, but even if it feels familiar, I like what she does with what she's given. It's not to build drama, but instead, to make sure those around her aren't dragged down by what she is. Momoka is the final character worth mentioning because of her connection to Shiho. She kind of brings a lot of storylines together and, outside of the bumps along the way as I described in Shiho's arc, it is decently written.
Similar to how putting our characters together and piecing their arcs into one story had minor issues, I'd say the overarching story also had minor issues. The first and most obvious is that I don't believe enough attention was given to Himari and Yori. One of the issues that seasonal anime has when you're only adapting a piece of the whole series is that you have to stop eventually. A lot of the material that introduces new characters with a story that keeps you interested in them comes very early this time around, leaving limited runtime for our main couple. Sakura Trick had a similar issue, though I wouldn't say to this extent. There are still some wonderful moments being shown and developed, but a big part of me wonders if our main duo's relationship gets challenged much later in the source material, especially because of the position that Himari is put in. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 8/10)
Art: With all the production issues that Whisper Me a Love Song had, it should come as no surprise that the place that they suffered the most was the animation. The first couple of episodes looked half decent, but as you go on, the quality seriously begins to dip. In music anime, the performances are always the most important part - think Sound! Euphonium or Fuuka. The first big performance they had was such a mess. Heavy CG and choppy-looking animations were only the start. They also really overuse stand-still backgrounds while our characters are moving in the foreground. The Himari-Yori moments were still decent, but I would have loved to know how this would have been handled by another studio. (5/10)
Sound: Music and the OST were fine, but a lot of it ends up sounding too similar to each other. Follow Your Arrows might have been my favourite, but the rest was kind of just okay. Voice work was fine for the most part, but Himari's personality leads to some high-pitched stuff. (7/10)
Overall: I wanted to not just like, but love Whisper Me a Love Song, because of how much I've seen of other Girls Love anime. Even with a non-perfect story, I was ready to give this series high praise, but sadly, it's kind of just good. Fans of the genre will probably still be fine with it at the end of the day, but this series is not a good way to introduce a new fan to it. I might go back and rewatch it, especially if HiDive ever dubs it - though I can't see that ever happening now. But this series was not nearly what I hoped it would be. (7/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 27, 2024
I was actually pretty suspicious that I should bother watching Oshi No Ko Season 2, as I was pretty lukewarm on the first season, even considering some of the more shocking moments during the season. However, after watching it, I'm glad I tuned it - it was excellent. I'll assume you've seen the first season for the purposes of this review.
Story & Characters: Oshi No Ko Season 2 leaves us off with Aqua, Akane and Kana, among others, agreeing to take a role in a play. The play is known as Tokyo Blade, sourced from a local writer's manga work.
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The first few episodes are mostly setup and us getting to know the new faces around the series. There's a lot of names to take in and while it's all done through narration, the series still does a decent job at filling us in who everyone is, as well as what their responsibilities are. Between now and last season, Aqua and Akane are now in a relationship - though, it's mostly introduced to us as done for business purposes. Ruby and Mem-Cho take on more of a supporting role this time around, as the first half focuses on the play, while the second half has the gang going off on their own.
While Aqua, Akane and Kana are our familiar characters that take centre stage in this season, there are still some decent supporting cast members present. Melt was present last season, but takes on a bigger role this time around with being a major character in Tokyo Blade. He's often picked on for being a somewhat subpar actor and goes through a lot in order to both better himself, and gain acceptance of his colleagues - in that order. He's a decently written character and if we end up not seeing him much more in the future, that's perfectly okay, as I felt they left him off quite nicely. Sumiaki returns for a more prolonged period and he was a lot of fun. His role does kind of limit to his involvement in this season, but I loved what he added, especially because this series isn't exactly the lightest piece of work. Akane has quickly become my favourite character because she always seems so sincere and putting her best foot forward for her new business boyfriend in Aqua. Her past is obviously troublesome after she tried to hurt herself in the last season, but she's more than just a pretty face. She's not focused on during this season, but she is present as a side character through the entire season - whether she's hanging out with Aqua or Ruby. I didn't love the idea of passing by how she got together with Aqua as an in-between thing that happened though. Abiko is the Tokyo Blade writer and she does come off as sheltered and unfamiliar with the world around her, maybe unironically. She comes off a harsh, but they actually developed on her character quite well.
One reason I was worried about the second season of Oshi No Ko was because of the Tokyo Blade play. It very well could have overshadowed everything they built upon in the first season because it really doesn't have a lot to do with the overall plot. However, to my surprise, I thought it was executed quite well. I really like that they didn't take an entire episode to just have the play go through it's thing, then have our characters interact after. They blended in character moments throughout the entire series and gave us a lot of process as we were watching it. They made sure to not forget why Aqua agreed to star in this play too, they made sure to have him has his moments as well.
During the second half of the season, we were back on track with more of the main storyline, including background information on Aqua and Ruby's past lives as Dr. Amamiya and Sarina respectively. They give us a lot surrounding all of this during the course of five episodes or so, and, like with Akane's arc in the first season, it gets rather dark at times. One thing Oshi No Ko does well is balance between light and dark moments and even though I find mostly the latter enjoyable, they sprinkle it around enough, which I think helps it reach more audiences. They certainly want us to see more, as the last episode gives us a lot to think about where this series is going, especially with the introduction of Tsukuyomi. (Story: 9/10, Characters: 8/10)
Art: The animation feels pretty consistent throughout, but I still am not sure it's Doga Kobo's best work - Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie and the recent Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, two series that are more lighter in feel, might have been animation better, but giving a decent studio the chance to try a big name like Oshi No Ko is never a bad thing. It still adds a lot of pretty moments and certainly doesn't fall for the fall quality that seasonal anime are prone to. (8/10)
Sound: The tracks used in this season are still strong, but I both the OP and ED are probably not as good as the first season. Voice work does seem to have taken a step forward. I've never been a huge Shannon Reed (voice director) fan, but it does feel a like a few of the weird moments present in season one are no longer around. Kristen McGuire (Akane) and Jack Stansbury (Aqua) are still exceptional and Alejandro Saab (Sumiaki) predictably does an awesome job here too. (9/10)
Overall: Oshi No Ko Season 2 was fantastic, pulling me back in to a series that really doesn't have a good fit into any given anime genre. It fits into so many and does an excellent job and drawing out their existing story, even with a play taking a lot of the runtime. While I can't say this type of series appeals to everyone, I think most everyone should still give it a try. It does feel like they could be going for the long game here, as it feels like the conclusion to the story is way off, but I'm willing to stick around to see what this work can bring us. (9/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 7, 2024
By now, we kind of know what's going on with My Hero Academia Season 7, but it's insane that they've been able to keep up the high pace of action without really making me feel bored - which I feel was a downfall of a series like Naruto Shippuuden. My Hero Academia just does it better. I'll assume you've seen all the prequels for the purposes of this review.
Story & Characters: My Hero Academia Season 7's story basically hasn't changed since the previous season. The new Liberation Front, along with One For All, is making it their goal to create complete destruction
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upon the world, but have set their sights on Deku, being the holder of All For One. Now, with a world threat present, Stars and Stipe, the number one hero from USA has been called to the battlefield and it's up to her to turn the tide of the war.
Star and Stripe is awesome. Very early on, they present her backstory where she forms a bond with multiple army vets, none of which really come close to matching the spectacular strength that she holds. I loved it, making her scenes on the battlefield all that more fun, along with her quirk. After her brief arc completes, the rest of the season basically sees us with multiple groups of enemies fighting against each other - akin to the shinobi war that Naruto Shippuuden had. Most groupings that are create make sense from an emotional standpoint, though does have a tendency to drag the plot a little more than I would have liked. Toga's fight was one example of this, even though I kind of get what they were going for.
There aren't really more new characters added to the roster, even though this season has twenty one episodes in it. Most of our favourite characters are still present, putting everything on the line - Phantom Thief might have been my favourite from this season, though Shouto, Kachan, Fumikage and All Might are worth mentioning too. Whoever your favourite hero - or villain - might be, they likely got some screen time here. Some uneven pacing here or there is kind of to be expected, but the most upsetting thing might have been the ending because of the cliffhanger they left us with. (Story: 9/10, Characters: 9/10)
Art: Animation still feels very consistent, one thing that Naruto never seemed to be able to keep up. They do all their characters justice and I love how each scene looks and feels. (10/10)
Sound: Sound doesn't disappoint either with the OST bringing in a bunch of new tracks that fit what we are seeing on screen. I've never been high on the OPs of EDs that this series seems to offer, but that's very minor. Voice cast continue to be amazing, with Luci Christian (Ochako) and Austin Tindle (Phantom Thief) impressing me the most. Top to bottom, this voice cast is top notch. (10/10)
Overall: My Hero Academia Season 7 brings the action to the party with basically every episode featuring some fight or another. Even if you're not a big Shounin fan, this season would appeal to most every audience - it's that good, especially if you've been low on some of the previous seasons. With only one season remaining, I really hope they keep up the momentum, because it's been an awesome ride. (10/10)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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