Back to Kalo_Dawg's Profile Kalo_Dawg's Profile

(Episode 1 and 2 spoilers) - TL;DR at the end
Ragna Crimson is an edgy shonen at its core. If you're a 13 year old teen, new to anime, and you're into things like tokyo ghoul, owari no seraph and stuff, you'll probably enjoy it. On the other hand, if you're already a long time anime watcher, it'll feel like more of the same recycled stuff - basically a very mediocre experience that'll bore you

Story 6/10
Cliché "I will kill all the titans/vampires/dragons" plotliine that has been reused a thousand times. The author decided to add the most bullsh*t magical time travel plot no jutsu into the ... midst in order to make MC super OP right off episode 1 (but considering your typical shonen with dumb sh*t powerscaling, he'll still get his ass kicked somehow).
There's also some dumb plot points further down the line which I won't spoil but it's ironic how he goes through so much to save the girl and then just abandons her after emotionally crushing her lol

Art 6/10
I mean, it's not bad, but it's definitely not spectacular - definitely not on the level of ufotable, studio WIT or MAPPA shows. Sometimes the characters' faces/eyes are off by just a tiny bit, to the point where it becomes uncanny valley material - that was probably what bothered me the most

Characters 6/10
Edgy MC who wants to "Kill all the dragons" but has the personality of a wooden board, classical precious bubbly friend who gets relegated to side character status, another girl who also wants to "Kill all the dragons", random crazy b*tch, classical evil villain - it's nothing noteworthy

Pacing 6/10
I have no fcking clue how they managed to turn 1 single chapter of the manga into a 40+ minutes episode. Wait no, in fact, I do know how - by needlessly stretching the non-existent plot for 30 minutes and showing us over and over again the same cutscene of the girl dying/MC screaming. They used her death scene so much that I even started laughing after a certain point.
I understand that they were trying to build up the characters to make us care about what was going to happen, but they completely failed at it, so it just became a drag

Voice acting 6/10
Nothing spectacular or noteworthy. Can say I laughed a bit after hearing 3 times in a row the dude scream due to the girl's death

Sound design and OST 6/10
Nothing spectacular or noteworthy

TL;DR
Overall, it's a super mediocre anime that struggled to get my attention and even getting to episode 7 was a chore. I'm sure you've realized by now since I've repeated this as many times as the anime repeated the poor girl's death scene, but the only thing I can say about this anime is that "It's nothing noteworthy". Especially if you've already seen a lot of anime and are aware of all the tropes/clichés

As a long time fan of the Resident Evil/Biohazard series, I can say this movie was average. If you just want to see your favorite characters do cool stuff, ok sure watch it, but if you're looking for an actually good entertaining story, it's a pretty big dodge. If you've never had contact with the resident evil series, then don't even bother watching, because unlike past resident evil movies, this wasn't very entertaining

Enjoyment: the most important factor
I don't mind a movie with a stupid plot nor other bad characteristics, as long as it's fun and keeps me entertained. Was this movie fun? Hell no. ... Halfway through the movie, I remember thinking to myself "Man, when does this end?". Unlike previous Resident Evil movies which had a big Unga Bunga element to them but were still very enjoyable with tons of cool moments, Biohazard Death Island is a chore to watch. It felt like running through the Sahara desert, desperately wishing for water, but you can't even see a god damn mirage of an oasis

Plot:
It's more of the same. Random crazy person with some past trauma tries to use new zombie virus strain to do evil stuff, and our main characters have to stop him. Along the way, a bunch of civilians and side characters always die, but no one really cares because it's not the main characters

Characters:
I mean, it's the protagonists of the Resident Evil games. You get to watch all your favorite characters interact with each other and do cool sh*t... but then there's the random generic villain number 59# and 60# who no ones gives a sh*t about. I legit just finished watching the movie and have already forgotten their names

Voice acting:
I rarely talk about the voice acting, but god damn, it's kinda bad. Some characters' voice acting is noticeably bad to the point where you laugh due to the complete lack of effort. It's as if they just did 1 single take and the director was like "Yeah whatever, let's go with that"

Visuals:
The visuals are overall pretty good. My only criticism is that some characters' movements seemed really stiff, and I feel that the fight choreography is worse than in the past movies

Conclusion 5/10
If 10/10 is the absolute best movie you ever watched, and 1/10 is the worst most garbage movie you've seen and 5/10 mediocre, I'd say this was a solid 5/10, pretty average overall

TL;DR A short and satisfying otome* villainess manga that doesn't try to artificially stretch itself with senseless drama nor filler content. It's straight to the point and gives you a sweet ending with closure. Overall, a pretty good read if you're short on time and don't want to get invested into a longer story 8/10

PLOT: As for the story, the synopsis on the MAL page summarizes it pretty well, but if you didn't read it, here's my own summary. It's a about your typical Victorian-era villainess from an otome game* (dating sim where you seduce/flirt with guys; MC is the villainess who tries to sabotage ... the game's female lead that's seducing everyone, including MC's fianceé). Anyway, MC recovers her memories from her previous life the day before she gets condemned by everyone for her bullying/harassment. As such, she only has 24h to try and change her cruel fate

CHARACTERS: It's hard to have much character development in 18 chapters, but I can say I like most of the main cast. Being an otome game, a lot of the capture targets have stereotypical personalities, but who cares, they're the antagonists of the story and obstacles that the MC has to overcome

ROMANCE: It has romance - short but sweet. Won't spoil who the male lead is, but it leaves you satisfied

Overall, a pretty good read if you're short on time and don't want to get invested into a longer story. I recommend this

TL;DR This manhwa is the perfect representation of a lot of modern series: really interesting start; dumpster fire of an ending, even worse than Game of Thrones lol. Essentially, you shouldn't get invested because there's no good payoff

I'll go ahead and say it: this manhwa was most likely axed, or the author was forced to rush its ending due to deadlines/contract/lack of interest
And because of that, I feel as if season 1 and 2 are completely different stories altogether. As such, I will try to evaluate them seperately

Season 1 - overall a pretty solid experience. Has an interesting premise, male lead + female lead have ... good chemistry, the story is entertaining and sometimes even comedic. I'd give it a score of 8/10

Season 2 - Oh boy, where do I even start lmao. From the rushed story pacing, to the decaying quality of the art, to the nonsensical plot points, it's pretty bad, and I quote "if it smells like sh*t, looks like sh*t and tastes like sh*t, then it can only be sh*t". The first half of season 2 is still pretty digestible, but the author suddenly felt the looming axe, so he fit all his planned plot points into like 10 chapters. It's such a fcking joke how bad it became. 3/10

So yeah, don't bother reading it. Unlike sh*tty stories where you know from the start that they suck ballz, this manhwa baits you with a great season 1, only to then bring utter disappointment aftewards

TL;DR absolutely phenomenal manhwa. At first, it starts as a good comedy but close to the end of the main story, it turns into an absolute must-read meta story for anyone who's tired of otome clichés. The art is legit the only criticism I can give, and even then it's still beautiful, especially the comedical facial expressions

Characters: at first glance, most of the main characters start out as typical otome stereotypes. The charming prince, the honorable knight, the mysterious mage dude, yada yada. But they are memorable and likable, especially once they start growing as people. The side characters are charming and lovely - even ... weeks after finishing it, I still remember Gandalf, the butt head dude, etc. The naming sense is quite funny since except for the male leads and the original female lead, everyone else has sh*tpost names

Character development: Amazing. A story where the characters aren't one dimensional, thank goooood - you can actually see the male leads, the MC and even the female lead all slowly and subtly change during the story. Not only that, you can see how their relationships change over time and it gets you so invested into the story

Plot: What might at first look like a comedical gag manhwa that almost seems like a random internet sh*tpost ends up becoming really meta and deeply exploring both the impact and reasoning of a lot of tropes that are shown in otome manhwas.
To avoid spoilers, I won't go into it in great detail, but it's definitely worth it, especially the last chapters of the main story. I'll give you a gist of what happens on the first 5 or so chapters:
It's the story of a girl who one day gets transported to the world of a reverse harem novel she read - super cliché, right?She incarnates a random side character, but as a side character, for the first ten years of her new life, she can't even find the male leads. She can't even remember the details of the novel, like a normal person. And even when she meets the male leads, naturally none of them have any reason to like her. So she decides to simply watch the main story unfold by itself, but her actions slowly start distorting the original story and slowly making the characters change
The plot has a nice ending that wasn't rushed and even has 30+ chapters of epilogue for more content. I was very satisfied by the pacing

Romance: Pretty great. No sh*tty misunderstandings, no random questionable harem endings, no sudden forced romance without chemistry - our MC is such a sigma gigachad in her own romance and even in helping everyone make their feelings clear as day to avoid drama. My only issue is with the male lead - he's a bit too possessive for my taste, but if you dislike him, don't worry since the author wrote alternate endings for the other male leads

Art: probably the only thing that might seem off-putting. For male leads who're supposed to be super handsome, they look kinda iffy. But the unique style really grows on you

Overall, one of the best otome isekai manhwas I've read. Really a breath of fresh air after being drowned in a sea of generic tropes like "Reincarnated as a villainess who ends up acting good and inevitably seducing all the male leads" or "Reincarnated as side character who ends up making everyone fall in love with her" or "Reincarnated in a random novel and for some random reason I can remember every single detail, so I will use it to become OP and have a harem" or "Isekai'd into a novel and using my modern world science knowledge I built some random military logic defying business"

This is probably one of the most frustrating, infuriating and headache inducing manhwas I've read. TLDR at bottom
Beneath its pretty art lies a sea of superficial stupid characters, a bunch of dragged out arcs with chapters that feel absolutely useless, senseless plot armor, nonsensical power scaling and comically evil villains that barely get punished for their actions

Art 9/10
Legit the only thing that's good about this manhwa

Plot 3/10 - *very minor spoilers that won't affect your reading experience
This is another typical murim plot about an underdog who everyone hates that magically stumbles upon some secret plot no jutsu and ends up becoming super OP; also his ... dad used to be super OP. I'm not against cliché stories, as long as they're entertaining or stand out positively. Unfortunately, that's not the case
Anyway, as a former noble, he ends up joining a group of bandits and from then on, it's just MC reacting to a bunch of external factors. He has absolutely no goals other than "protecting his bandit family" nor does he have any sort of action himself. Every single plot point is about some random external people that try to piss him off and then he reacts to them, because the MC has barely any personality or dreams outside of OP character who protects his family. Instead of trying to i dunno, become the fcking pirate king or something to actually have the status and political influence to protect his family, all he does is passively wait and scratch his nutz, so that the author can show off his skills when the next villain suddenly decides to piss him off
A lot of plot points are basically nonsensical - if the characters had even a single brain cell, there would've been no conflict at all. Half of the fights on this manhwa could've been avoided if people had common sense.
Most of the villains who show up end up getting no punishment at all. One dude even tried to r*pe the girls from MC's bandit family and all he did was kick his ass and let him go. That same dude was later caught blatantly lying to his superior and once again, suffered basically no real punishment at all. Another villain, due to a case of negligence that lead to a misunderstanding, nearly kills people from MC's family - once again, they fought and then there was no real punishment at all. A bunch of demon cult infiltrators were found but they let them go, because reasons lmao
The worst about all of this is that everything is so freaking artificially dragged out. Every chapter ends as a cliffhanger. Every chapter barely has any plot progress. Most fights are like this - random dude underestimates MC and messes with him/his family, tons of talking, MC fights and overpowers him - CLIFFHANGER - more talking, villain gets serious and uses secret skill, MC looks like he got hurt - CLIFFHANGER - MC is actually fine and uses bigger skill, MC wins fight, but lets villain go after giving him a beating, more talking, villain swearing he'll get revenge - CLIFFHANGER

Characters 3/10
Characters have barely any development at all. I legit don't give a single sh*t about any of them from how absolutely lifeless they feel to me.
MC's strength feels completely undeserved; his bandit family's strength also feels undeserved since they also get OP due to plot no jutsu magic; everyone's character motivations are weak af or just make no sense at all
Villains feel petty, incredibly arrogant and just annoying - author always loves to shove the sexual assault trope for some characterization. Instead of being actually threatening, they're like annoying flies that you wish would disappear; and obviously, there's no tension because you just know that MC can beat every single one of them. But none of them get actual real punishment and end up returning later just to mess with the MC again, so it just gives you the feeling of being constantly blueballed/cucked after every fight
Characters are stupid, rash and act nonsensically - a big part of why this manhwa is so bad

TL;DR save yourself some brain cells and go read another manhwa. If you want to look at pretty pictures, you're better off searching random posts in pixiv than reading this blueballing garbage

IN SUMMARY: it's a must watch if you're a fan of slice-of-life or music genre - it has really good animation, banger songs and guitar riffs, comedic moments, likeable characters, no senseless fan service, actual character growth, so to me it's a solid 8 or 9/10. After watching it and even reading the interviews with the studio staff, it's clear bocchi was a passion project with a lot of love invested into it, much like season 1 of One Puch Man.

Just a brief comment before I start, the top negative reviews are only placed so high on MAL because they're flooded with hundreds of "Confused" ... reactions (which places them higher on the list), since me and many other viewers are legit confused at wtf they were snorting to give this show such a bad review. One of them is legit a wall of text simping over Mio from K-on and how it's better than bocchi the rock, but I digress, this isn't K-on so let's move on with the review.

--As for the visuals, they are gorgeous and quite diverse. The visuals can be divided in 2 parts: when they play on stage and the regular daily life. As for the daily life, there's a lot of visual comedy in this show, and you can see how much effort they put into it with how smooth the animation looks. A single comedy sketch from bocchi has more frames and better artistic style than the entirety of season 3 of The Seven Deadly Sins. After all, Bocchi's reactions are a big part of this show and they went all in on it. There's even stop motion with dolls and real life shots. The creativity is really out of the roof

As for when they play on stage, man I absolutely love it. They actually filmed the band playing the song and used it as a reference for the animation. And man, the "camera work" is incredible. When I first saw the first person POV shots that they do from the guitarist's point of view, and even from the POV of the headstock of the guitar, as a musician I nearly *rgasmed.

--OST is a banger. At the start, I expected some cute kawaii~ songs with high pitched singers that would make my ears bleed - fortunately I was proven completely wrong. The songs are great and most of all, the guitar solos and riffs slap hard, which makes sense since story-wise Bocchi is the best out of all the band members. The hardest part in making a music anime about a good guitarist is making said musics have a guitar that actually sound cool. And they nailed it. During certain solos, I actually thought "Dayum girl, Bocchi slaps hard!". Even during the songs' verses and bridge, the guitar is still slapping hard (e.g. in the songs "Guitar, Loneliness and Blue World" and "That Band"). Just search the full version of them on youtube and especially the instrumental versions of the songs are so nice.

And the attention to detail is fantastic. There's this one concert where they played subpar due to being extremely nervous, and you can actually hear it subtly on the song and the instrumentals/vocals. The sound department legit recorded that song a second time and asked the musicians to purposefully play/sing worse than usual - and it's so incredibly nostalgic as someone who played in bands, because I experienced the same situation in the past when I was a newbie. It encapsulates really well how out of sync you become and what happens when you're really nervous on stage and lose your focus. This whole show is a nostalgia bomb for people who played music in bands during high school/college

--The voice acting is pretty nice; there's not much to say. The main cast is made of the new generation of VAs, and they're good, especially Bocchi. I think she transmits well the anxiety vibes of the character. They have chemistry and are overall likeable and unique

--The plot is quite unga bunga simple, yet some of the negative comments somehow failed to understand it - I'll explain it without spoilers except for episode 1 obviously. Bocchi the rock is the story of a girl with social anxiety who wanted friends. She started learning the guitar with the purpose of making friends, she ended up falling in love with the instrument and became really good at it but still remained alone because she didn't change as a person over those 3 years. Change comes from within - instead of using the guitar to meet more people, she kinda used it to escape her problems. Eventually, she ends up joining a band due to circumstances, but once again she's forced to face her social anxiety since she has to interact with her band members and also her stage fright makes her play really poorly. Due to her band and the need to play publicly, she's forced to very slowly grow as a person (main character has actual growth, wooow I know, pretty shocking nowadays, am I right?). It's a simple but relatable coming of age story
Some comments mention how it's BS that she starts playing so poorly due to stage fright, but it's a real thing. One of the best pianists I've met always messed up during live shows, especially during her solos, due to stage fright. One of the singers with the most amazing voice I've heard during vocal lessons was an absolute mess when singing in front of a live audience - her voice would become muffled and squeaky like a mouse

--No senseless fan service, thank god. I'm not against ecchi, but damn, the number of shows with great potential that are ruined by out of context panty shots, gravity defying boob physics, yada yada. This one is completely safe

In conclusion, Bocchi the Rock is the dream adaptation of any mangaka. The studio managed to grab a mediocre 4-koma and turn it into something really special, so I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did

I don't know if the director has severe myopia or something, because he completely missed the whole point of the manga

The original series is a satire, a hilarious comedy about an edgelord that was isekaid, and a story that makes fun of all the classical edgy isekai OP MC tropes. It's essentially a gag series, in the same sense that One Punch Man makes fun of all the fighting shows - it's so exaggerated and stupid that it leaves you with tons of memorable fun moments. The manga is so incredibly fun, which ended up setting the bar too high
The anime basically just seems like ... an edgefest- legit the first episode was a perfect indicator that it was going to be a trashy sh*tshow. They didn't go hard enough on the satire, and tried too hard to make the MC look edgy cool (when he's supposed to look completely edgy goofy/aloof). Essentially they screwed up the charm, the comedy, the joke timings and the original goofiness of the story that made it so enjoyable
It's as if they ended missing the entire goal of the show and actually turned this satire into another generic harem isekai edgy MC story

I don't want to be that guy, but please go read the mnaga. It's so so so so much better and this anime has done it a huge disservice. Fck, I haven't felt this disappointed since Tokyo Ghoul Root A

*No Spoilers*

TL;DR: To keep it short: if you like good romcoms and wholesome love stories, definitely watch it (specially this third season). Considering nowadays' constant stream of garbage and low-effort anime romcoms, Kaguya-Sama is like an oasis in the middle of a desert. It's as if you were on the verge of falling off the edge of a cliff but that one bro suddenly grabs your hand before you fcking die - that's kaguya-sama s3

Season 3 of Kaguya-sama is kind of a finale to a romcom that actually manages to do everything right (unlike most other anime romcoms that suffer from horrible bland main characters, ... repetitive writing, indecisive protagonists, senseless fan service, forgettable side characters, unrealistic harems). A simple story, a diverse cast of very interesting 3 dimensional characters, that actually make you invested in them - and the more you get to know about them over the 3 seasons, the more the whole premise of the story starts actually making sense instead of sounding like senseless BS (the whole "If you confess, you lose" crap). I can't stress enough how good the characters are and how much they will grow on you

Not only that, the anime series is one of the best manga adaptations I've seen - the love and effort that was put into it is out of this world. The animations, the voice acting, the amazing OST - you can really tell how much thought and budget was put into this. I have no idea who or how many people the author had to blow for this adaptation, but considering the insane quality, big RIP to his jaw, neck and possibly anus

This season of kaguya-sama will leave you giggling like a little school girl, cheering and smiling for the amazing lovable cast of diverse characters.

I'll keep it short and simple: whether this show is a 7 or a 10 or whatever, just give it a chance and watch it

Spoiling a bit of the first and second episodes, this is a story about a spy who ends up having to play pretend family for an infiltration mission. He adopts a girl, who coincidentally is a psychic, and marries a woman, who coincidentally is an assassin.

SpyxFamily is a homage to all the old spy shows and it's a perfect balance of everything: comedy, action, heart warming moments, yada yada. Fortunately, it received an amazing adaptation, that was made by people who ... clearly showed a lot of love in doing this project: the art/animation is absolutely phenomenal, the OST is on-point, it has one of the best banger ED I've heard, the voice acting is spot-on

All in all, it's worth a watch. And the fact that it has pretty much zero "fan service" makes it comfortable to watch with your family, kids or even friends