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It started out so good. So damn good. The first episode broke free of so many clichés I thought I had found greatest gem in the dirt. "Well it was made by the Sunrise, makes sense" I thought. It's fitting that they would spearhead anime into new territories.

Then Tusk appears, the most generic lucky sukebe shonen protagonist to ever shonen. And the anime turns into an epic tale of his quest to conquer some princess *****, while netorin her from the villain who is so laughable he needs to be seen to be believed. Tusk is really the ultimate of self-insert wish fulfillment fantasy for ... your average Otaku. Impenetrable plot armor and all the women of the land are willingly lining up to be penetrated by him because he is just such irresistible hunk of a male specimen. The Faux female protagonist mainly exists there to be a trophy for him.

The nosedive in story quality was honestly impressive.

You may see some reviewers here calling this garbage misogynistic, and I can't help but to agree, despite not usually being overly bothered by such things. So if that is something that ticks you off, you are going to have a real bad time with most of the central themes and plots.

TL:DR: Cross Ange is cliché trash with bait-and-switch start.

It's not boring, but don't bring your brain along for this ride.

The animation and sound were fantastic, so the action was entertaining if bit over the top, but good lord the story is such a trainwreck.

It seems like there is effort to make some grand statements about society and human nature but the writers had zero interest in making a coherent world and they just toss massive reveals about the nature of this world with maybe one tenth of the needed explanation that such information needed.

Characters and society don't have any kind of logical reason behind their actions, writers just thought "this seems cool" ... and then wrote that into the script. The moral of the story is cliché and so ham fisted it is actually comical. (A cross, really? Honestly why stop there, nail the hands while you are at it and give them a crown of thorns.)

Minor spoilers example of incohesive attempt at making a statement:

There are riots occurring at one point, and the authorities respond with violence. This is treated as horrendous crime, and pointed as proof positive of how corrupt and evil the authorities are. "How could you do it, those are innocent civilians!" people cry out! Oh and by the way those innocent civilians had been lynching criminals on the street and were storming the police HQ while screaming that they will kill all the criminals in there. So yeah just your average peaceful protesters, how tyrannical must the government be to put a stop to some wholesome street executions.

Aaah 2021, what wonder will this year bring us? Well I decided to go through some backlog with my anime and found this little gem. Who said only bad things happened in 2020?

Fairly unique setting and interesting plot, goodness me how fun! By the end of episode 12 I was hooked and ready for more! And so I went forth to look at the original manga source...

...aaand I find out that the author has dropped the series in December 2020 after a year long hiatus citing health reasons. So, yeah. Maybe not watch this if you don't want a story that is permanently unfinished.

I honestly ... didn't think 2020 could retroactively suck more than it did already but what do you know, here we are.

If Uzaki was the first slice of life ecchi romcom I'd ever seen I'd probably give it a solid 8 or 9. Basic humor is funny and I admit I chuckled a few times. A nice cheery piece for a crap year. And I really couldn't care less about the supposed drama over Uzakis' character design.

BUT. I've watched enough anime that by the second episode I could already predict how whole rest of the show would go. And by god did the stuff that irked me get on my nerves when I could see them coming.

While Uzaki is fairly entertaining, the MC is bland sauce ... and worst of all, a male tsundere. I used to enjoy tsunderes but after watching them sputter their awkward sexual tension that goes nowhere and act like the worst kind of possessive partners without actually being in official relationship for over 10 years of watching anime I can tell you I have very low tolerance for badly/blandly written tsunderes. And MC Sakurai is just that.

Speaking of sexual tension, Japan has some very odd notions of common sense. One of those is that if a boy and girl of nubile age sleep alone together in the same apartment, the boy WILL have sex with the girl. Consent is optional. So every time we get ecchi anime you see boys getting all flustered in such situation because they are supposedly going to have sex automatically. Except ironically in anime that never ever happens, the boys always pussy out (pun intended) and nothing happens. In fact I am convinced that Uzaki could grind naked on top of resident vanilla MC and he still wouldn't do anything with her, and it's just insulting that the anime expects any adult to even entertain the remote possibility of something happens. It really really doesn't help that the side characters keep egging the main characters on, and keep going to the tune of "Will they do it? Did they do it" over and over until you just want to grab them by their throats and scream: " Of course they didn't do it, nor will they do it! The sky will fall before anything like that happens with these two! What is the matter with you?!?"

And most of all, it is 12 episode adaption of a long running romcom manga. I knew what it would mean but I still powered through because I hoped for Uzaki to defy the norm and have some actual meaningful relationship development. But nuh-uh. You want to see actual progress, you either hop on to read the manga or wait for a couple of years for more seasons to come out sonny. Well that's my assumption anyway, might be that the manga has progressed as little over the course of 5 volumes as anime did with 12 episodes.

Second season has been announced so fingers crossed we actually get something, but I've been around long enough not to get my hopes up.

Have you ever heard the story of the Dim protagonist?

I'd think so, it's a trope that is horribly overused in Japanese storytelling. The Dim protagonist is the type that thinks he/she has no-one who loves them in the entire world, even when a busload of people are directly telling them they want to have babies with them. The Dim protagonist will wail on the loneliness of their existence even as someone is giving them a kiss so deep they reach the tonsils. When this protagonist is set in a harem setting it becomes exponentially excruciating.

Hamefura has one of those dim protagonists. Whether the uniqueness of ... the setting, or the fact that protagonist is female, is something that can make you overlook the tired character trope is up to you.

But personally by the end of Hamefura I had lost all the goodwill because the main character is the dimmest dimple that dimped past the dimple parlor.

This is not a full review, but rather explanation why I feel Overlord stands above the standard.

Something are good because they are good, and somethings are good because they are something that others are not. For me, Overlord is good not because I feel it objectively shines above all other in terms of story and characters (though I feel they are certainly above average), but because it scratches a very specific craving I've developed over the years with excessive anime consumption.

To put it short, I've had my fill of holy savior protagonists, the messiahs, the good boys, the infallible morally just protagonists. I am also ... sick to death of the edgelords that talk all dark and edgy, yet also never do no actual harm to anyone who isn't literally so evil they eat babies for breakfast. Also I am sick of settings that make antagonists facing these protagonists so reprehensible that killing them is a just act and their assets spoils of war for the side of justice. In short, black and white morality in all aspects.

What I wanted, was either a pragmatist or a hedonist who, upon given powers far greater than those around them, would act as I would assume most people would act if they had the chance: self-servingly. Source: History of the humankind.

Overlord is not perfect, but it scratched that itch of mine that has been growing for years now. Here we finally have a protagonist that does not act as would be morally good, but as how he will reap the greatest rewards. And the world around him does not conveniently make all of his opponents so cartoonishly evil that him killing them and taking all they have defaults to just actions.

Have you ever put off something because you know it will hurt/disappoint you? That's what my experience with Tensei shitara Slime. I put off watching it for a year because I just knew it would hurt me. I really wanted to like this one but alas it was not to be.

There are lots of issues with it, but if I was to single out my biggest gripes, they'd be the OverPowered protagonist done wrong and protagonist himself as a character. Other less major issues to note are bad worldbuilding, predictable plot and inconsequential supporting cast. These matters are honestly very simple and others have written ... much of what I think in the most helpful reviews so I'll focus on my major gripes.

So, how do you do OP protagonist wrong? Well, him blasting through every challenge with a spring in his step is one sure way to do it. By the halfway point of the anime they could announce that Rimuru is about to face god and you would assume god is about to get dunked on hard judging by how things have gone so far. He faces enemies of mythical scale with his posse and suffers no casualties or severe damage. And worst of all, he is still growing in power with no hints of there being limits to it. There are less stakes here than in your average Saturday morning childrens cartoon. A good way of doing OP protagonist would be to have him face at least one enemy of equal or above level or give some kind of limit to the protagonist power growth or have him be OP from start but with knowledge that there are still credible threats to him.

Then there is is his personality. I was really hyped after the first episode, when he declared he is going to bang every woman he meets if he gets the chance, after regretting living to near 40 while being a virgin. I thought, "Finally! Isekai protagonist that will go full hedonist when given the chance at new life with great powers!". Tensei Shitara took my hopes&Hype and proceeded to punch me in the gut with them. When he gets human form, does he turn himself into a big hunk of a man and do every woman in sight? Nah, he sticks to androgynous loli form and never even kisses one of countless 10/10 beauties that cling to him. Just reiterate, this is the same guy who died vowing he'd lose his virginity the first chance he gets if he gets another chance at life. This, topped off with his massive messiah complex, that the world around him accommodates fully, makes it really hard to root for him. I was prepared for Tensei to disappoint me, but I didn't think I'd get bait and switched by it.

I watched this expecting a nice lighthearted slice-of-life comedy to fill a gap between some serious and gory animes to keep my Chi in balance.

I was treated to 12 episodes of student with full mental faculties bullying and manipulating a clearly special needs child. (Has no impulse control, has no control over the volume of his voice and incapable of recognizing basic causal relation.) That's the premise for 12 24 min episodes. If that sounds like something you enjoy, Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san provides.

I hope that teachers in Japan don't actually use their mentally challenged students with no volume control as target practice for ... throwing chalk. That's a legitimate thought that came across my mind as I watched this.

It wouldn't be so bad if the story actually progressed somewhere, but 12-episode adaptation syndrome is in full effect, so story goes nowhere.

Well...
If you've never seen a harem anime before Bokutachi wa benkyou ga dekinai isn't the worse pick you could take. But if you have, you are likely able to predict all of the plot in advance. As someone who has seen frankly too many series of this type, the plot was simply eye-wateringly boring.

And there is of course the fact that this is based on an ongoing manga and is only 13 episodes long season. As any veteran will tell you, this means that the plot and relationships will advance absolutely nowhere. Plenty of tease of progression but all of it never amounts to anything. ... Most often this type is just meant to tempt viewer to buy the manga, so fully expect the last episode on the note of: "Our crazy groups hi-jinks have only just begun, Teehee!"

I write this review, my first on myanimelist, in hopes of saving any other poor soul that comes here seeing the glowing reviews and scores, for ye be warned:

If protagonist that is self-centered beyond any reason is not what you look for in your entertainment, avoid this anime like the plague. For Tomoya(protag), only thing in the universe that matter is himself and his interests, all else is secondary. I fell genuinely sickened by him as character, and the idea that I should relate to him is staggering.

A few crowning moments of his behavior: Telling a member of harem to cut ties with a blood ... relative because he's of the opposite gender, while Tomoya himself is nose-deep in his cousins boobs. When a member of harem seriously is pondering her future plans, Tomoyas first instinct is to ensure she stays where she is most convenient for him, without a single thought of the affects on her future.

To add insult to injury, the anime insists that this boy is just the thing every popular girl could want, and they will keep coming for him no matter how much abuse and manipulation he dishes out.

LNs' translated to anime often are hamstrung by not being able to show character development in the short time they have, but I cannot imagine how something as despicable as Tomoya could ever grow on me.