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Jun 23, 2020
I was initially very turned off by Hunter x Hunter. Long-running anime intimidates me and there's a lot I hate about shounen anime. A lot of my friends started talking about it, so I decided to give it a go because I knew next to nothing about it and wanted to know what the hell was going on and why everyone liked it. I was expecting some stupid "power of friendship" bullshit like Fairy Tail, but I was so wrong. I thought I'd watch the first arc then drop it, but Hunter x Hunter is now one of my favorite anime of all time.
Somethings I've
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hated about most shounen is the meaningless battles that drag on way too long, tons of half-baked characters that you're somehow expected to care about, 'power of friendship', and boobs everywhere. For Hunter x Hunter, these issues are either way less prevalent, or nonexistent. This review will contain some minor spoilers, but nothing ridiculously major.
Starting off with the art and sound. The art and animation are great, especially since art in long-running series tends to get lower quality as the show goes on. The art style, while not anything super unique, is still unique enough to be recognizable among lots of anime with painfully generic art styles. Many of the character designs are iconic, and most of them I think look very nice. (I'm sorry, I love Gon, but I think he and some other characters just look goofy. That's just my personal opinion.) For the voice acting, the sub is great, while the dub is kinda hit or miss. I absolutely hated the opening when I first started the show for some reason, but it really grew on me. They keep the same opening the whole show, just different visuals and alternating between two versions of the song. I didn't like the second version, simply because it wasn't the first version. I liked most of the endings, except for the fourth one (ew). I occasionally watched the endings because I liked the songs and visuals, and I watched the first one every time because I'm partial to screamo music. Also, the character songs and character themes and the soundtrack overall is amazing, and I listen to it often.
The story of Hunter x Hunter completely reverted my expectations. I expected some optimistic adventure anime, but over time I feel like it almost turned into a seinen. The later arcs, like Yorknew and Chimera Ants, had extremely dark themes and plot points, but it wasn't super sudden. There were signs in the earlier arcs that the show isn't all sunshine and rainbows, like the main character's backstories, and the anime-exclusive Zoldyck Family arc, which shows how abusive and toxic the family is. I'm not a fan of super happy stories, so I loved it when it took a darker turn.
As for the individual arcs, I loved all of them. The Hunter Exam was a great first arc and I loved seeing the main four together. It was great at introducing the characters and even the dark themes early on. The Zoldyck Family arc, besides being barely long enough to be considered an arc, was still very enjoyable and I liked learning more about the Zoldycks. Heaven's Arena was also very enjoyable and very important since it's when they found out about Nen. I loved seeing Gon and Killua's interactions, and Wing and Zushi were great supporting characters. Yorknew was my favorite arc. It was when the show started really getting dark and focused on my favorite character, Kurapika. The Phantom Troupe were great villains. Normally I find shounen villains boring and forgettable, but HxH's villains overall are great, and some of my favorite characters are the villains. My favorite episode in the show, episode 47, is part of this arc. I hate isekai anime, but I loved Greed Island despite it literally being an isekai arc. The villain was disappointing, but I still loved watching the boys train with Bisky, and Bisky became one of my favorite characters in the show. I have a real love-hate relationship with Chimera Ants. The first half was so slow-paced and just boring to me, but I understand that slow build-up was necessary for the second half, which I love, to pay off. It's very clever and well-written, but God did I struggle to get through the part, though it was totally worth it. I also loved the Election arc. It's only 12-episodes but still my second favorite arc. It made me so emotional, I loved seeing Leorio again, I loved the new characters, I loved pretty much everything about this arc.
I love the arcs all individually, and the story as a whole. My biggest qualm about the show is that they created a great friendship dynamic with the main four, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio, then split them up really early on. Splitting them up eventually was great for character development and story-telling, and to make the watcher more emotionally invested, but I still believe having them together in the first arc (well, technically first two arcs) splitting them up, only for them to meet once more and then never again, was a dumb move. I wish we could've gotten more interactions with them and the fact that they were together for such a short amount of time makes me pretty upset.
Now onto the characters. There's very few that I hate, I even love a lot of the side characters and villains. I love the main four. They all go through great character development over time. I instantly loved Kurapika and Killua, but also grew to love Gon and Leorio over time. Leorio came off as a douchebag in the first arc (thanks a lot, stupid English translation), and I thought Gon was generic, happy protag, but they showed that Leorio is truly a good person who cares about his friends, and Gon is far more than an optimistic protag. Kurapika is one of my favorite anime characters of all time. He is so well-written. besides the main four there's still so many other great characters, such as Bisky, Hisoka, Illumi, Alluka, Chrollo, etc.
I binged this show in 11 days (probably would've been faster had it not been for the first half of Chimera Ants), and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I made a bunch of my friends watch it. I also tried to get my brother to watch it but he said no. I liked it enough that I'm watching the 1999 anime and reading the manga and am pretty involved in the fandom, and I usually avoid fandoms. I got into Hunter x Hunter many years late, but I regret not getting into it earlier. It was an anime I didn't expect to like but I ended up loving it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 14, 2020
Corpse Party is a franchise that is very important to me. I played Blood Covered when I was ten (yeah, I was WAY too young to be getting into this stuff) and found out what anime was through the games. I still adore the games, they're some of my favorite games. Corpse Party Tortured Souls was my first anime, besides Sailor Moon and Pokemon and other childhood anime. It's the anime that got me into anime, but... it's not very good? Amazing I'm such a big anime fan when THIS is the first thing I watched.
This is not going to be a spoiler-free review for
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the anime and game, because I will be pointing out the difference between the two. Although Blood Covered is still a great stand-alone game, but the franchise itself has a very complex, long story, but when adapting it into anime, they turned it into a 4-episode OVA... This could've been great, had they made it longer, and actually followed the goddamn story, but they clearly didn't care about the story. They just wanted to make some gory, edgy bullshit. This anime is known for being shocking and gory, but that doesn't make it good.
This anime is super fast-paced, they condensed the whole game into 4 episodes, less than an episode per chapter. Instead of you uncovering all the bits and pieces of the lore on your own, it gets info-dumped at the end. Instead of feeling the suspense of discovering the mysteries of Heavenly Host and the Sachiko Ever After Charm, you just... watch teenagers get brutally murdered. This anime doesn't care about the story or any of the characters and their development or backstories. Hell, the characters' backstories are only really mentioned in the special, Missing Footage. With the games, you get to know the characters and their home lives, so when they die, you feel bad for them, because you're emotionally attached to them. In the anime, I wouldn't have cared watching them die if it weren't for the fact I was already attached to them from playing the game.
In the game, four of the main characters died, Seiko, Mayu, Morishige and Ms. Yu. These deaths all have a place in the story and make sense. Seiko's death acts as character development for Naomi and also puts despair into the characters and the player, with the most cheerful character dying. Mayu's death gave us more insight into Morishige's character, showing how reliant he was on her and how despite his stoic nature, on the inside he was unhinged. Mayu's death directly causes Morishige's. Morishige commits suicide after realizing he had taken pictures and touched her corpse. Ms. Yu's death is foreshadowed early on, with her stating she's willing to die to save her students, which she does. She sacrificed herself to save the kids. These deaths all make sense. The anime, however, kills almost everyone in nonsensical ways for nonsensical reasons.
The first two deaths stay relatively the same, just not as effective since the aftermath and the effect of their death isn't explored as much. It doesn't really show Naomi's mental distress and self-blaming. Once a character dies, they're forgotten. the anime doesn't realize or utilize what makes Seiko's death so emotional. Naomi just gets over it.
And Morishige's reaction to Mayu's death is done so poorly. Rather than feeling so disgusted with himself and so alone now that Mayu, the only person he cares about, is gone that he kills himself, he just... goes crazy? He chases after Yuka, which also happens in the game, but it's before he finds out about Mayu's death and is to show that Yuka is scared of him and that he has lost his mind to some extent. Morishige is harmless in that chase scene. If you get caught, he asked you why you're running and the chase continues. He's a creepy guy, but you're still supposed to feel bad for him. In the anime, he tried to murder Yuka during the chase scene. Now instead of being a character you can feel bad for, he's just a silly villain. He's as bad as Kizami. Speaking of which, he dies by being stabbed in the neck by Kizami, who 'saves' Yuka, and later tortures her to death. We'll get back to the torture stuff in a second, but anyways, having someone murder Morishige because he 'went crazy', eliminates any sympathy you have for him. Rather than a tragic story of a socially awkward kid committing suicide after his only friend died, it's just crazy dude gets stabbed by another crazy dude.
Oh God, and Ms. Yu's death. her death was foreshadowed a lot. She ultimately sacrifices herself to save her students and help them escape. In the anime, however, her head gets decapitated by a board while she's in the middle of a conversation with Ayumi. It's all for shock value. it's so sudden it makes you gasp and get grossed out by the gore and Ayumi's screams, but besides that there's no emotional response, because the deaths in this anime aren't emotional, they're purely for shock value.
Back to Yuka's death. I feel like Yuka's death was just an excuse to have a torture scene, or to give Corpse Party fans who hate Yuka the opportunity to watch her die. Not much to say about it, it didn't piss me off as much, it was just cheap. Now for the other characters that they killed off only in the anime. Yoshiki was my favorite character, and watching him try to protect Ayumi, his crush, and both of them ultimately surviving in the end was satisfying, even if Ayumi was kind of whiny and annoying sometimes. In the anime, however, they just killed Yoshiki last minute, for no reason. In the anime, he saved Yuka (who ended up dying anyway) and sacrificed himself so the others could escape but... that was Ms. Yu's job. But oh, they decapitated her for shock value so now Yoshiki has to take her place! Ayumi acts as a damsel in distress through certain parts of the story, with her getting possessed and crying. A lot. You play as Yoshiki and save her, so both of them making it out alive was a great outcome for them, but instead, they had to use Yoshiki as the sacrifice because they threw Ms. Yu in the trash. And it's not even accurate to his character. In the game, he didn't want to go back to the school to save everyone else, since he and Ayumi were already safe, showing that he can be a bit selfish, but the anime doens't care about the characters, they just want more gore.
Now onto the last death, Satoshi. Satoshi is supposed to be considered the main character but he's my least favorite. I thought he was boring in the game. Yoshiki would've been a better protag in my opinion, even though Satoshi, Yoshiki, Ayumi, and Naomi all kind of share that role. Anyways, at the end of the anime, Satoshi goes home with Ayumi and Naomi, the only characters left, and when they get back... only his arms returns? Then the anime ends. What. Why. You just really had to throw in one more character death, didn't you? The original game had such a sad ending, what the fuck is this?
God I just ranted for so long. Anyways as for more minor things like art and sound, I like the opening but don't really remember any of the other OST. The games have an amazing OST. The opening is sung by Asami Imai, Ayumi's voice actor, just like many of the songs from the game, so it fits right in with the game's soundtrack. And the art... ugh. The art style is very basic. It looks like they tried to follow the game's art style, which looks like a basic anime style, but has enough quirks to make it recognizable, and botched it. Also, everything is so dark and grainy. I know they're in a dark, haunted school but come on. It's so dark I can barely tell what's going on.
Anyways, if you wanna get into Corpse Party, just play the games and skip this anime. There's really no point in watching, it doesn't add anything to the story, just painfully waters it down.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 4, 2020
Citrus was my ex-girlfriend's favorite anime and my god, does that explain a whole lot.
Anyways I knew this anime was about some weird step-sister incest shit, but I still watched it because I just felt like watching something shitty. I was prepared for the incest shit, not for how rapey the show is. To be honest, this show could've been at least decent without all the gross shit. God, I just want healthy lesbians relationships in anime, not gross, yuri shit, and THIS.
First of all, Yuzu and Mei are sisters? What the fuck? Step-sisters but still sisters. "Oh well it's not biological so it's fine."
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Legally? Technically in some states, yes. Morally? It's still gross in most cases. If they were raised as siblings, or see each other as siblings, then it's gross, because they still have a sibling relationship. Step-siblings are still siblings. I have step-siblings and since I saw them as my siblings the idea of dating one of them makes me wanna die. Yuzu and Mei weren't raised together, but they call each other their sister and stuff. And the show is all "Oh! Look at these sisters making out. Isn't that so hot?" It's like they wanted to write some gross incest crap but decided to use the "Oh, well technically they're step-siblings!" as an excuse.
The incest isn't the only problem I have with this show. It's also super rapey. The characters sexually assault each other many times throughout the show and it's portrayed as sexy and romantic, and even brushed off as a joke. It seems that every time Mei kisses or touches Yuzu without consent (or vice versa) they get even closer. Ew. Sexual assault and abuse aren't romantic. Mei and Yuzu are such an unhealthy relationship. This is some Stockholm syndrome shit. Also didn't Yuzu, who is 16, go on a date with Matsuri, who is 13? Um? Also kinda gross.
They could've created a story similar to this without all the incest, sexual assault, etc. They were trying to go the whole 'forbidden love' route when the step-sibling aspect wasn't needed. The fact that they're both girls could've been forbidden love enough. Homophobia still exists. Make them not step-sisters, make the forbidden love aspect the fact that they're gay. And get rid of the weird rape shit. Boom. Fixed it, now it isn't gross. Or hell, if you wanted them to remain sisters, get rid of the romance and focus of their sisterly bonds or some shit. Just not this. We're really sick and tired of all the lesbian romances in anime being some weird, creepy shit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 3, 2020
Ouran High School Host Club was one of my first anime and I loved it. I think I was about eleven the first time I watched it. I recently rewatched it. It has been about two years since my last rewatch, and I still really love it but ignoring my nostalgic bias, I've decided to look at it with a much more critical eye.
This show is still a very fun watch, with an almost episodic structure. The humor is very lighthearted (for the most part, but I'll get into my issues with the show's humor later). The characters are all for the part very likable,
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although purposefully tropey. I still think it's a very good anime and I'm glad I can say it was one of my first shows. Although for a 'romance' anime, the romance wasn't really there. Characters such as Tamaki and Hikaru had canon crushes on Haruhi, but they never really go anywhere. The show seems to be pushing for Tamaki and Haruhi (although I like Hikaru with Haruhi more), but the ending is very inconclusive. I guess if they had gone with the manga ending I personally still would've been upset though because I didn't like the manga ending. Even though it kinda failed in the romance department, it still did great in the overall entertainment and humor department. Like I said earlier, for the most part.
My biggest qualm about this show is that god, some of this show's humor aged horribly. First off, Hikaru and Kaoru pretend to be in an incestuous, gay relationship to appeal to fujoshis. this was honestly one of the jokes I didn't have much of a problem with because I always thought it was satirical, but I can see the issue. Same with the shota/male loli jokes. I don't know if they were satire or not, but that's how I viewed them. Now onto the LGBTphobic, sexist, and just downright inappropriate jokes that aged horribly. First off a joke about Hitler, where the Zuka club does the "Heil Hitler" salute with a flag that looks an awful lot like a Nazi flag in the background. What the fuck. And a transphobic slur was used as a 'joke', more than once I believe. Like I know this show is from 2006 and stuff like this was a lot more normalized but what the hell?
This show feels like it was trying to appeal to an LGBT audience and then it backfired and they ended up being homophobic and transphobic in the process. The main character, Haruhi, is obviously non-binary, yet the show stressed "Haha, Haruhi is a girl!!" so much. I don't remember any quote in particular, but I do remember a lot of homophobic remarks in the show. (The 'homosexual supporting cast' joke was kinda funny though). There's also a lot of sexist themes, like when Haruhi saves some girls from being sexually assaulted and Tamaki yells at her because "You're a girl, you should've had the boys handle it!". And then in the same episode, there's a scene that makes you think Kyoya was going to rape Haruhi to 'teach her a lesson'. EW. I may have been eleven the first time I watched this, but god, I don't know how all this stuff went over my head.
This is still an old favorite for me, and I'd still recommend it if you can overlook the problematic aspects, but certain aspects would definitely not fly today. This show aged like milk.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 2, 2020
To sum up this show in one sentence, this is the most Trigger show Trigger has made. If you're a Trigger fan like me, you'll appreciate this. It's a goofy show that's just a collection of 'Trigger' tropes and references to Trigger's other works such as Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, and Inferno Cop. And these are just subtle references either, they're very blatant. Inferno Cop is literally a recurring character throughout the show, and there are entire episodes dedicated to Little Witch Academia and Kill la Kill references, where Sucy and Guts make guest appearances. If you're a fan of Trigger's other works
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this is a fun, short watch for you. It's basically just fanservice (not in the sexual way) for Trigger fans, so if you aren't a Trigger fan, you won't appreciate this.
Into the specifics, the story is but on the back-burner. The plot is still fun and enjoyable, but this show is meant to be silly and not taken seriously, so of course, the story isn't a masterpiece. The appeal is in the art, humor, and like I said earlier, the references to Trigger tropes and shows.
The art in this show is super nice, just like most Trigger shows. It has lively, inventive animation, pretty, saturated colors, and an art style that's like a mix between the chibi-ish, more western style of Panty and Stocking, and the style of Kill la Kill. The character designs are also extremely cute, especially Midori and Lalaco.
This show is a very entertaining, quick watch (it's only about an hour and forty-five minutes long) and is perfect for fans of Trigger. The art is colorful and fun, the show itself is silly and entertaining, and overall it's a show you can just turn your brain off to and enjoy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 2, 2020
The first time I heard of Beastars I instinctively went "Ew". I didn't allow myself to like anything with anthro characters because I didn't want to be seen as a furry. The first thing I saw of Beastars was a video of the scene where Haru tries to have sex with Legoshi. Yeah. Not a good first impression. I dismissed Beastars as some weird furry porn garbage. I think a lot of people did or are doing the same thing, without even giving the show a chance. After seeing so many people praise Beastars and after watching BNA, another anime I initially dismissed as furry
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trash but actually really enjoyed, I decided to give it a go and boy, was I surprised.
One of the other reasons besides "Ew! Furries!" that I dismissed this anime was that it's completely 3D. In the first episode, it was really jarring but I quickly got used to it. Looking back on it I actually think it looks good. The main reason a lot of us dismiss 3D anime is because it's not what we're used to, but just because we're not used to it doesn't mean it's bad. Beastars looks very good for 3D anime and even manages to look expressive and artistic with such a limited style.
Now to what really blew me away with this show: the story and characters. Despite the characters literally being personified animals, they managed to feel more human than most human anime characters. They feel like real people, with real struggle. Legoshi is a super-realistic representation of social anxiety and (probably) autism. The sexual aspects of the show that originally made me not want to take it seriously actually turned out to be a big part of Haru's character. It's actually a very well-written aspect of the story when you just look at it through a more mature lens. Louis, the last main character was the one we saw the least during this first season, but his egotistical personality and past that was revealed already set him up to be an amazing character and I hope we get to see more of in the next season.
The story itself is also amazing. It's a drama that explores a lot of dark themes and provides political commentary on prejudice. The story isn't super melodramatic and annoying, yet dramatic enough to feel realistic and interesting enough for you to keep watching. I binged this show in a day when before I started it I thought I'd drop it after an episode or two. It's so well-written and realistic (well, as realistic a story about anthro animals can be) I was so surprised. Some aspects are very slice of life-y, and even as someone who gets easily bored from slice of life, each episode was very entertaining.
Don't dismiss this show because "Ew, furries". That would be a mistake. It may not be for you but the amazing story-telling and characterization should be acknowledged. You should definitely give it a go, and if you don't like it, that's fine, but this anime is certainly not just the furry sex bullshit I originally thought it would be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 1, 2020
This originally wasn't one of the anime of the Winter 2020 season I was interested in until I saw all the praise it was getting on Twitter. I saw tons of memes of the opening, praises of the character designs, and people saying it was already a contender for anime of the years just based on the few episodes that were out at the time. Because of all this, I decided to give it a go. I was unfortunately disappointed.
Before getting into the things I didn't like about the show, I will say that artistically, the show is done very well. The opening was very
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nice both musically and visually, but unfortunately overexposure to it through all the memes it was getting made it lose it's magic a little. I can agree the opening is a little overpraised, it's not one of my favorites or even my favorite of the season (I liked the JSHK opening better), but it was one of the memorable aspects of the show, along with the art and character designs. Anime has a habit of making teenagers look like 20-something years olds. Although there are teenagers who look older, it's nice to see character designs like those of Eizouken, which just look like awkward teenage girls. Despite being very simple, these designs instantly became recognizable by the anime community (especially Kanamori). Now for my favorite part of the show, the setting, and backgrounds. The setting was so creative and unique I actually enjoyed looking at the backgrounds because they were so interesting. Small things such as the faculty office being in an empty pool was so cool to me.
That's unfortunately where most of my praise ends. After taking some time to watch the first two episodes I was actually excited for the rest of the show to come out. I waited for all the episodes to air so I could binge the rest and... it was an extremely boring binge. The first two episodes set it up to see like a fun, adventure show, then around episode 3/4, it fell flat. The show began to feel stale and repetitive. It felt like there was no conflict, except there was, but it arose and vanished in absolutely no time at all. The school or student council will get mad at the film club over something and Kanamori will argue with them then the conflict is just over and ignored. Or the club will be running out of time and unable to compromise so everyone gets mad at each other. Then Asakusa just goes on a walk or something, comes back and everything is fine and they're able to finish it. Or they bring up issues like budget and then ignore them. The little conflict they did set up lasted like two minutes, and that's not even an exaggeration.
The show became a boring drag to finish. Even the aspects I liked got stale, such as those hand-drawn, 'imagination" scenes (idk what to call them so I call it that). They all felt the same and after a few of those scenes, I would just go on my phone because I wasn't interested.
After hearing that Eizouken was a 'masterpiece', I was very disappointed. It could have been really good but messed it up. If you are interested in this show, I'd still give it a go. I'll watch pretty much anything, but these more slice of life shows aren't really my favorite, so if you are a fan of that stuff, don't let me make you take it off your plan to watch list. It's probably not really made for me, but I still wanted to share my take on this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 1, 2020
God. I really wanted to like this anime, I really did, but I just couldn't.
The interesting, colorful art, cute character designs, and comparisons to some of my favorite anime was what led me to watch this. Sadly, I can't say the greatest things about this anime. The first episode is just one huge info dump then the next episode stuff just starts happening and they present the story, which intrigued me at first, in the least enjoyable way possible. It was just hard to follow.
Here's what watching this anime feels like. There's this book with an amazing, intriguing story, but someone spilled their water all
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over the book. Now the words all melted into each other and the book is a sopping wet mess, so you wait for the book to dry off and then go to read it. Oh no! The words all bled together. They're still legible, but barely. Now instead of enjoying the story, you're just trying to figure out what the hell the book even says. And now you have a headache.
The concept is so intriguing to me but it feels like almost NOTHING happens in this show. Except things are happening. The way they present it is so long-winded and nonsensical that it feels like nothing is happening. You have to sit through a bunch of boring stuff to get to the good parts. The first 5 episodes were a snore-fest and yeah, sometimes you gotta get through some boring episode to get to the good part, but not when the show was only ten episodes and not when they're honestly just wasting time. This story would've worked a lot better as a movie.
The way the show is presented is really colorful and vibrant, yet bland at the same time, which makes it hard to pay attention to because it's so boring, which then makes it hard to comprehend what's happening. When I finished the show I thought "What the fuck just happened". I was so confused I had to go read summaries of the episodes and when I did? I thought what was being described was really interesting and seemed like something I would love. The thing is that the plot would've worked better as a 1 and a half to 2-hour long movie. Instead, they made it a ten-episode series, making it twice as long as it needed to be. Maybe one day I'll give Kyousougiga another shot and try to pay more attention instead of staring at the scream like a zombie, but as of now, I couldn't get into it. It had such an interesting story but managed to execute it in the least interesting way possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 1, 2020
I'm a big fan of Trigger/Gainax, mainly Hiroyuki Imaishi's work. Weird, energetic anime is my favorite kind of anime. When I heard Imaishi worked on this I added it to my plan to watch list and eventually got around to it and... I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting.
Before I get into what I didn't like, I'll get into what I did like: the art and animation. A very unique art style and incredible, lively animation. Not to be an Imaishi fangirl but pretty much everything he works on looks so good. The biggest enjoyment I got out of the movie was
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looking at the animation and comic book-like art style.
The story of Dead Leaves didn't feel very important, but that's how a lot of Imaishi works are. The art/animation and humor is more important. Like Space Patrol Luluco. It focuses on being silly, entertaining, and pretty, rather than having a super masterful story. It's style over substance, but in a good way. Dead Leaves is the same way, while the art held up, the humor was where the movie lost me.
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, which is just toilet humor, sex jokes, and cuss words the anime but with cute girls, is one of my favorite anime. I'm not a prude and I do love some gross humor. FLCL, which is WTF the anime, is also one of my favorites, so I do love some weird shit (I know FLCL is very metaphorical, but I can also appreciate being weird just for the sake of being weird). However, Dead Leaves steps a little over the line of what's too weird and what's too gross for me. I didn't find myself laughing, just cringing, and waiting for the scene to end. For example, there's a scene where they forced all the prisoners to shit with a tube or something? What in the actual fuck was that? During that scene, I was so uncomfortable I just mentally checked out. There was a lot of cringey, gross shit that made me want to turn off the movie, but I forced myself to get through it. I love absurd, weird, edgy bullshit but this was too much. The whole movie I was just thinking "If anyone walks in on me watching this I am going to kill myself." Because it gave me an insane amount of secondhand embarrassment rather than enjoyment.
I'm one of those anime fans who preach about why FLCL and Kill la Kill are masterpieces and how "Actually the whole thing is a big metaphor!" and "You just don't get it!" I'm also one of those anime fans who thinks Panty and Stocking is the peak of comedic genius. But OH. MY. GOD. Whenever I see people praising Dead Leaves and calling it a masterpiece I just think "Are you okay? What possessed you to think this was a masterpiece? Are you on drugs?" Is this how everyone else sees us FLCL/Kill la Kill/Panty and Stocking fangirls and fanboys? Maybe now I finally understand why people look at me like I'm a weirdo when I say those are my favorite anime.
Anyways, the only really good thing about this movie was the comic book style art and use of Imaishi's animation style. The story was put on the back-burner (although that's to be expected from Imaishi's work) and the humor was just fucking stupid. If you didn't like FLCL's weirdness or any of the other anime I mentioned, I would absolutely NOT recommend this movie to you. And even if you do like the anime I mentioned, I still wouldn't suggest you watch it. If you think you can handle the gross shit, grosser than Panty and Stocking (especially since the art is more edgy and gritty, it just enhances the grossness), maybe give it a go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 1, 2020
Although this is mainly my fault, when I saw pictures of Blood Lad for the first time, I was expecting a serious vampire anime. Without looking at the genres or reading the synopsis, I went to watch it and was surprised to be introduced to a weeaboo vampire and a shit ton of jokes thrown at my face. This was fine, I love comedy anime, but the comedy in this show just wasn't very funny. I actually almost dropped it in the first half because I was painful bored. The story wasn't interesting to me and the jokes were unfunny. The second half, however, I
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did find entertaining at the very least, though the same problems were there, just less prevalent. Most of the jokes weren't funny and the story was mediocre at best.
Now into the specifics. As for the art. I did like the art style, though I feel like some aspects were poorly drawn. Like the eyes were sometimes way too big and the boobs. I'm not one to get upset over big anime boobs but the boobs in this show just looked stupid most of the time.
As for the characters, they weren't very interesting. The character who interested me the most was Bell and even she wasn't very intriguing. Also, some parts of their character just made no sense. Bell being in love with Staz felt randomly thrown in there and Staz's personality was inconsistent. This may be a little nitpicky, but these are things that bugged me.
I think Blood Lad is what to me, your average, mediocre anime looks like. Silly, dumb jokes, fanservice, trope-y characters, etc. It's an anime you watch when you're bored and want to watch something mindless, not something you analyze or recommend to others.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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