- Last OnlineYesterday, 11:49 AM
- BirthdaySep 9, 1999
- LocationHere and there, but mostly here
- JoinedSep 23, 2015
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Dec 19, 2019
The decade is coming to an end and there is no better way to mark it when it comes to anime than to have the last season dumped with a bunch of Isekai anime. It certainly is the most defining genre of these past years gaining much popularity, as well as memage and ridicule from those who cross it’s path. And now here we are this season with seven-ish or more isekai shows (depending on how lenient you are with the term isekai), with the most terrible one being this one.
Going past the trite part of the genre, the main hook/gimmick is that the band
...
of unsuspecting school students are actually world class prodigies. Each one coming from a certain subject, some of which make sense like science, medicine, and economics. While others not so much, such as the ninja and the swordswoman. Nevertheless they make use of their abilities to make do in their new nondescript fantasy world.
The idea certainly isn’t a bad one as it gives each character a clear and defined role that corresponds to their strength. The Economist using modern economic practices and game theory to overturn the established monopoly. The Doctor bringing modern medicine such as antibiotics so that people no longer have to rely on drugs with harmful side effects like opium. The Ninja and Swordswoman for how stupid it is provide the muscle to the group in order to defend them from threats. However, as with most things, the execution has a lot to be desired. While I don't enjoy comparisons, in this case i will compare this small part to another isekai anime known as Dr.Stone (don’t @ me). Dr.Stone also has the same idea of bringing modern science and ideas to a more primitive people, but what makes Dr.Stone more compelling is that you see for the most part the process in which it is done. This show however glides through it, going from making simple mayonnaise to anti-air craft missile defenses. They do give some in story reason for it, but even the reason comes off as a bit half-assed.
Not to mention that even though they are prodigies it is only to one subject which implies that they aren’t good at everything. It could have been a good way to showcase flaws or different traits in the characters, but since they are designated to their role it never happens, which could have been beneficial to fleshing them out. They just do what they are good at doing and it just makes the entire cast of characters and their actions feel flat and boring. The only thing that makes them a slight bit interesting is that they aren't all good messianic people. Some of them have thoughts and actions that can come off as outright horrifying. Yet that is skimmed across and the characters are brought up to be portrayed as righteous individuals when compared to the antagonists.
The antagonists, who mainly consists of high ranking people in a generic fantasy empire, are a joke. It's not that their weak, but more so that the are so mustache twirling dastardly villainous that it's hard to believe they it's portrayed so seriously. Sure they are supposed to be cruel and oppressive but it's so over the top. And it’s that over the top-ness that they only have going for them, as they are as disposable as they come. With each new antagonist being just a higher ranking official than the last one as a means to “increase the steaks” as the show progresses.
While the show is bad, it’s still quite enjoyable in a hammy kind of way. When a scene consists of a girl running alongside a missile and using brute force to guide it towards it’s target, it’s obvious that the show isn’t aiming for anything higher than cheap spectacle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Dec 18, 2019
Out of the door Kemono Michi was one hell of a romp to go through on a weekly basis. While it seemed like it had little going for it due to its use of a tiresome isekai gimmick, sub-par production value, and barely anything plot and characters. What it did have however is a great use of comedy that made the show an enjoyable ride due to how easily funny it was.
The comedy that Kemono Michi uses isn’t really anything exceptional, in fact I would consider it downright predictable. A sort of predictable-ness where you sort of already know what’s going to be the
...
punchline halfway through the set-up. Nevertheless the pay-off for the punchline are handled really well by going full throttle with the delivery and timing.
After a while however the jokes begin to run a bit dry due to how repetitive they become. The show is aware of this, and does try to make fun of how they do the same jokes and bits over and over. An example would be the wolf girl, Shigure, “finding” special expensive weapons that an adventurer dropped due to being knocked out by the main protagonist. As the show continues on with each episode, Shigure ends up getting tired of the bit as well. It gets to a point where they just end up cutting it out with only a few signifiers implying that she’s still stealing the weapons. But it’s self awareness is only a small band aid as even those get tiring as well due to it’s still incessant repeativness.
I still think it’s still an ok show, but it had a small good idea that couldn’t be stretched out into a standard 12 episode format.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 11, 2019
Mospeada is mostly known for being the 3rd part of the Robotech series despite not being part of the super dimensional trilogy like the previous 2 parts, Macross and southern cross. Nonetheless it surprisingly shares a series of commonalities to the other titles that it fits quite in and makes sense why this title was incorporated, or maybe it was just the trend of the time for many shows and this title just got lucky. As for the show by itself, it's a bit of a disappointment. The best description would be that it's a decent show buried underneath terrible decisions.
The story takes place in
...
a sort of post-apocalyptic earth where aliens have successfully invaded and taken over the planet. Humans still live on earth but have become "slaves", but for the most part are actually just complacent to the invaders. Another group of humans live in space such as on the moon and mars and par-take in operations to liberate earth. The main protagonist, Stig participates in this operation but it goes horribly wrong and Stig crash lands on earth and assumes that he is the sole survivor of the operation. This begins his journey as he travels across the earth to hopefully find other survivors and find a way to defeat the aliens.
Early along his journey Stig meets and travels with a variety of other people, creating a ragtag group of fighters. The first one is Ray who serves as a deuteragonist, and certainly looks like one due to his character designs and being more of a poster boy compared to Stig who has a more mature and controlled look and demeanor. Stig comes of more as a commander or mentor type while Ray is the more common young hothead protagonist you’d expect from the genre at the time. The other characters include Houqet a former member of a biker gang. mint a young girl looking for love. Jim, a soldier from a previous liberation operation. And yellow a man guised as a woman pop idol.
The recruitment of each of these members made the show interesting. Giving each character a basic background to build from and in some way showed a sign of progress. However as soon as they get all the characters get together the show begins to stagnate. While the objective is still clear and the way to get there is laid out via a map, the show becomes a muddled mess by being episodic with whatever the writers can get by with. From meeting ancient dinosaurs. to an entire episode focused on a fever dream. They do have some in series reason to them, but do nothing to advance the plot. Not to mention how hard the show tries to keep a status quo with the character especially on two episodes that are back to back. The first one having mint leave the group after finding someone to marry (although a bit questionable due to her character), and the next episode having some people deciding to disband. Yet in the end Mint comes back for some reason, and the other members decide to travel with them still.
The closest thing the show has to getting back a narrative is an amnesiac character named Aisha. She is found and goes along with the group on their journey. Along the way it’s shown that she has some connection to the aliens, and as it turns out she is an alien just like in Macross and Southern Cross. The difference being that they aren’t really humanoid aliens, but take the form of humans to be best accustomed with earth. But it’s these knew forms that hinder them as few becomes sympathetic to humans unlike the monstrous crab mechs of before.
The production value is ok at best with the only thing interesting being the mech designs. First being the motorcycle that transforms into a battle suit for the wearer. Unlike other mech suits that are wildly big this one is about the same size as the wearer. It’s more akin to power armor which makes it sort of unique in the anime mech landscape. The other one is that aircraft which is basically the same as in Macross. Having three forms of a regular airplane, airplane with limbs, and finally a full on mech. It does look like kind of a rip-off, but it isn’t used that much compared to the motorcycle suits.
It’s a shame that Mospeada panned out to be a disappointment of a show. There’s really something special their with it cast of characters and even a bit of the plot. Yet it’s so bogged down with a bunch of random nothing that it makes it a chore to watch at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 9, 2019
Southern Cross is an utterly forgettable show. It's only grip to relevancy is the fact that it's the third part of the super dimensional trilogy, and is the second part of the Robotech series. Even then it's a weak grip due to how niche the titles that it's in have become. There's really not much to the shows uniqueness from its plot and characters, the only thing of note is that the main lead is a woman.
There are three leads actually, and they are all women. The show however is more focused on one of them the most Jeanne. A capricious, spunky, stubborn girl who
...
serves as commander of a squad in the southern cross army. Following her and her team's actions during the war between humans and the Zor who were once native to the planet the humans are now colonizing. The Zor basically are this series Zentradi, but instead of it being a war between a culture and culture-less society. It's more between humans and thier ability to express emotions and the emotionless Zor who focus more on logic and rationality. As the war escalate it's the emotions that some of the Zor come in contact with that becomes their undoing. The last episodes get hectic due to the show being cancelled leading to a mildly unsatisfying ending.
As for characters, despite how it's lead on, the two other female leads get shafted early on. There's Marie who tries to one up Jeanne whenever she can, and Lana who comes off as being a model soldier for others. The only other characters of note are Bowie due to his implied background, his dreams and desires, and is also a fundamental figure who pushes the plot. And there's also some German named pretty boy who was brainwashed by the zors until bring freed,but becomes the less interesting part of the show. everyone else is one-note.
When compared to its predecessor, Macross, Southern cross is rather average in terms of production value. Backdrops of countryside and cities look par for the course during it's time. Character designs are somewhat decent, but forgettable. The odd changing of proportions that makes things bigger or smaller from one scene to the next. The animation is ok, but has a lot of stuttering even with basic panning and zooming. The only interesting thing are the ridiculous battle suits that the characters wear despite not serving much of a purpose due to them fighting in mechas. The mechas themselves following the same philosophy as Macross with changing into three different shapes. This time Turning from a hovercraft, to a walking cannon, to finally a common mech.
The soundtrack is decent 80's pop funk. It's nice to listen to, but sometimes doesn't fit well with many scenes. Mostly due to the soundtrack being mostly upbeat even during more sad or somber scenes.
It's not a bad show, but It's certainly dated and doesn't have much to it that can't be found in other shows. It only seems worth watching for those who have a passing interest in seeing the little footnotes in the history of much more well known anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 3, 2019
There’s more interesting things to say of Macross as a show than about Macross and it’s story. From it’s conceptual beginnings as a parody of Gundam before getting scrapped. Being the only show in the Super Dimension series that lifted off into a franchise. It’s use of pop culture as a tool which lead to the iconic duo of pop idols and mechs the the franchise is now known for. And also being two of the three super dimension series that became part of the Robotech tv show. The last one being something I watched a bit as a kid and now as I
...
am older, am seeing where some of it came from. Of course it’s not like the show has nothing to offer as it focuses on being entertaining, and does a good job at it.
Despite the shows plot being about a war between the United Earth and the extraterrestrial Zentradi, it mostly takes a back seat to the human drama and romance of the show. Macross isn’t concerned about the technicalities and logistics of war most notably being the city inside the titular named spaceship that seems like a pain to reconstruct every time the Macross changes forms. Instead is more focused with the emotions and feelings and how it affects them during the war and how the war sometimes affect them as beings. Them being the main two characters Hikaru and Minmay, two people who meet by chance and early in the show get trapped inside the giant spaceship, Macross. Both of them forming a unique relationship during that time a la suspension bridge effect and maybe could have been more until they are rescued. Both of them then going their separate paths with Hikaru being a pilot to defend the Macross from the Zentradi and Minmay becoming an idol. Neither of them ever having the time to be with the other as they meet each other less and less as time goes by.
As time goes by, so does the plot as well as it mainly is still about the macross fighting the Zentradi. Everything else about the plot is rather subdued lacking the impact and iconography that one would expect for a show/franchise to last so long. From the fighting, to the counter attack, interesting side characters/antagonists, ‘inter-species’ relationship, and even planetary devastation lack the sort of punch in the gut the show seems to attempt to deliver. Even the use of pop-idol songs as a tool of war only comes in ⅔ of the way into the show and even then it’s rather flat. The only thing worse than being non-impactful is how contrived this show is, especially when it came with the addition of Misa and Kaifun as part of the love triangle. With the way they end up playing out being dumb but understandable at first, then to out right ridiculous by the last 6-ish episodes due to how socially unaware they all are.
The art and animation of the show usually corresponds to how much action the show has. With the beginning of the show having so much action, the character designs and background art were ok; while the animation was decent. While the show later on having more appealing character designs due to the show focusing on human drama as the show was coming to a close. The most consistent thing were the Valkyries unique detail especially on it’s airplane mode. The way the voice acting and sfx may sound are a bit dated, but are still ok. The soundtrack is rather decent but feels par for the course for it’s time and the idol-songs being ok, but over uses one song a bit to many.
Nonetheless, the show still manages to somehow be an entertaining watch. It still has enjoyable and bouncy characters, incredibly cheesy but fun moments in it’s story, and some themes that it showcases although never really explores. Despite being old and a bit dated, it’s still worth giving a chance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 28, 2019
spoiler warning for the weak minded
Just about anyone who has had any interest in the action and adventure genre may have come across the monomyth aka the hero’s journey. A term popularized by Joseph Campbell about a common narrative template that has been used through many ages and cultures of stories about heroes and adventures. While it has been argued that the monomyth and it’s details are considered too broad and general that it can fit the description of almost every story. It didn’t stop people from accepting the idea of the hero’s journey and integrating them into their own works. In some way the
...
popularized use of the hero’s journey in modern writing helped retroactively legitimize the hero’s journey, if it hadn’t been already. Now comes Demon Slayer which is the latest to follow the template of the hero’s journey and does it to a t.
Demon Slayer doesn’t wear the hero’s journey on its sleeve but more so is the sleeve itself. By just grabbing an image from any search engine about the hero’s journey will provide a good road map of where the show will go. As the show follows a young man named Tanjirou living a normal in the woods with his family. However one day when he returns home he finds his family slaughtered and the only survivor being her sister, Nezuko, who became a demon. Despite being a demon she still retains some of her humanity that stops her from attacking her brother, and it’s that humanity that gives Tanjirou hope that he can cure his sister which becomes his call to adventure. He is given supernatural aid by a man who is in the Demon Slayer corps who is initially met with hostility as he tries to kill Nezuko, but then relents due to Tanjirou’s perseverance and gives them a chance by directing them to a man who can help them. As they go to meet the man they are faced with a moment where Tanjirou refuses the call, because in order to continue the adventure he must become a demon slayer. This becomes a problem due to Tanjirou’s nature as he finds it difficult to kill another being, even if they are a demon, nonetheless he decides to join for his sister's sake. The man they were meant to meet becomes the mentor figure for Tanjirou and puts him through many trials and training in order to prepare him for his adventure. With the Selection exam finally allowing him to cross the threshold and become a demon slayer, allowing him to journey deeper into the supernatural world. And that’s all the narrow examination i’m going to do as the point has hopefully been made, which leads to the grander narrative.
Despite following the classic hero’s journey story, Demon slayer is still a Shounen Manga and like most shounen manga it is long running. Demon Slayer is in the more moderately long side when compared to other manga in it's demographic, and it's only halfway through the first triple digit of chapters. With such a long form of storytelling in order to not stagnate to long on a certain point in the journey, stories such as these tend to do repeat certain points of the journey again in a different form or adding new parts that they didn’t use before. It makes the journey less of a complete circle but more so arcs of varying degrees. Story arcs that have as well been a main aspect of many long formed series especially in shounen series. Demon slayer for the most part has two major arcs. The first one stretching from episodes 1 through 10, and the second arc for the remainder of the season with a bit of the 3 arc at the tail end. While having story arcs aren’t a bad thing in capable hands, they sometimes tend to feel disjointed with the tiniest threads connecting them together or worse, being detours and a waste of time if they offer nothing of substance. Demon Slayer does fall into one of these categories, but luckily it’s more the former than the latter. Thanks to the magical bird of plot convenience taking them not only from one arc to the next, but also from one location to the next. With each one conveniently being more tied to the plot then the next. Anything else about the story is standard action shounen fare with a couple of hiccups. It has an evil group/organization with a x group of members that are fought in more or less ascending orders, It has a group of well trained warriors who help the protagonist along the way, and so on and so forth. None of it helps or hinder the show, which is something I can't say for the characters.
Tanjirou basically carries this show for most of the season. He serves as a good main protagonist for the show and is better than most shounen oriented protagonists in general. He still shares traits with many of them by being a bit loud and hot headed, but it doesn’t come as annoying due to it not being his defining characteristic. The same goes for his intelligence as he isn’t portrayed as too smart where he over analyzes everything but he isn’t dumb back of rocks either. What defines him the most is his level of compassion towards others, even his enemy. He’s still able to fight and kill demons like any slayer but that doesn’t stop him from feeling sorry about them, which is usually missed by other slayers. Tanjirou certainly isn’t a complex, nuanced, or even iconic character, but what he does have makes him endearing. His sister Nezuko however could have used better treatment for her character. Anything that could have made her interesting is neutered. Dialogue? Put a bamboo in it. Personality and internal conflict? Hypnosis. Screen time? In the box she goes. It’s truly a shame especially in the moments when the show tries to reinforce this idea of their sibling bond, but their lack of having much character dynamic holds back those moments that could have had a lot of impact.
Then there is Inosuke and Zenitsu two other demon slayers that the main character meets along the way. Inosuke is a belligerent bi-shounen boar boy and is the more tolerable of the main duo mostly due to the fact that he gets some development. Going from a loud very aggressive person who does things by himself, to being less aggressive and is willing to help out with others. He also doesn’t scream as much, but i guess that’s due to the fact that someone squeezed his neck once really hard. Zenitsu on the other hand is harder to warm up to. He is a coward but that’s not the problem but more so what branches off of it. 1st is that Zenitsu’s coward personality serves as much of the comedy for the show as he is sort of a comedic relief character but it’s less funny and more annoying. 2nd is that he doesn’t develop much as a character or at least it’s aligned with the fact that his development is inside him the whole time and he has to go to sleep to unlock it.
As for the other characters. It’s hard to say. The other demon slayers that have any relevance are the pillars, the veteran warriors, who are like the captains and commanders you would see in other shows. They are the most tropey of all the characters but that’s mostly on their character designs and limited screen time and dialogue. The demons also get little characterization, only a tragic backstory to make them somewhat sympathetic. The only one that gets a bit more than the rest is the final antagonist of the season, but it’s really not much.
Demon slayer also boasts great production value all around. The soundtrack is great and it accompanies the show very well. Sporting both orchestral and traditional Japanese music that range from the slow and sad, to the loud and triumphant. And at times both intertwine to create a beautiful symphony. There’s also the choral singing that brings a mysterious and supernatural feeling to the show. Not to mention the mention the abundant use wind instrument music that along with the singing compliment the show which focuses on the character having breathing control in order to fight properly. Of course some tracks do fall to the wayside,but it doesn’t detract from how great it is overall.The art for the show is really good with striking character designs, use of color, and thick use of lines that lends to the visual appeal. Also the fact that it’s done by ufotable that gives their shows a certain polish that adds a beautiful flare to the animation and action scenes. However it still has some moments that bother me to some extent. While it’s true that the CGI is better than most other shows due to how it’s used, it still has a few blemishes here and there. This also carries on to the metaphysical attacks that the demon slayers use with their attribute appearing from thin air. They do look great and it gives them a nice visual flair but sometimes they look weird especially with tanjirou’s water version as the “foam” still lingers on screen for a bit more and just looks weird. Finally i’m not a fan of shows changing visual styles for the sake of comedy or at least very few do them right and demon slayer isn’t one of them. Nonetheless, the combination of its sound and arts is a sight to behold as it sweeps you off your feet and makes it easier to forgive the bullshit power ups this show has.
Demon Slayer is one of the more decent shounen oriented series to come out in a while. While it does play safe in terms of storytelling, it’s still serviceable for the average viewer. I just wished it was as beautifully done to the same level as the visuals and audio of the show. This is a show that I would happily like to see a continuation of, with the hopes of improvement. Maybe then the show can ascend to greatness that the show wants to be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 27, 2019
Finally an anime that adheres to my taste -Kakyoin 20XX
*spoilers warning for those who are weak.
Okaasan online (OO) is a rather odd but inevitable anime to come out recently. Riding the wacky train of high-concept isekai premises, with this one being “what if the main character went to another world, but with his mom”. Okasan is able to land firmly in between the too ridiculous to take seriously, but not too ridiculous that you can’t make a small adaptation out of it. While it’s obvious that this entire work was made just for cheap thrills so that anybody can watch it ironically, and for others
...
to ogle at waifu bait until the doujinshis come along. The show, intentionally or not, ends up showcasing some interesting themes that ended up with me wanting to write this review about it.
In the beginning OO is presented as a show that really doesn’t care about it’s own story. It takes a lot of tropes from recent isekai anime, and includes a mom with them. It’s mainly used for the sake of humor, but that’s really the beginning and end of the joke. Haha, isn’t it funny that the mom is journeying with the main protagonist. Haha isn’t it funny that the mom is more overpowered than the child, ha ha ha.
The show also certainly doesn’t care about having a narrative drive, especially in the beginning of the story. It doesn’t care about reason or purpose, only results which are getting to why this show exists in the first place, anything else doesn’t matter. Why is the government able to send people into a video game? Doesn’t matter. Why is a video game used as a parent child bonding program? Doesn’t matter. What’s the end game in order to complete the program? Obviously for parent and child to be closer. How is this gauged? DOES NOT MATTER.
The first few episodes of OO are rather aimless. Treading the same waters of other shows of its nature by doing similar riff,gags, and references to JRPGs and videogames in general. The show also has a handful of mom puns, or at least it has many things in this world that has some variation of the word mom jammed into it. The mother’s name is “mama”ka, the protagonist's name is masato which is shortened to Ma-kun, the currency of the world is called mam which sounds close to mom, and pretty much every city and town has the word placed into it, etc etc. They do lessen as the show continues on or at least aren’t that annoying.
After those few episodes the show tries to build some sort of narrative, and it does so by using its themes as a sort of glue so it can have some cohesion. Since during their early aimless travels, the protagonist and his mother picked up other young players to join their adventure. Since the game is mainly about parent and child bonding it would seem odd that the other players they recruited aren’t without their parents which becomes the whole point. With Wise, one of the players they picked up along the way, becoming the catalyst of what this show is all about. The first main “story line” deals with the party dealing with wise's mother who is causing trouble in the game. It’s during this story line that it’s revealed that wise’s mother had been very neglectful of her, and despite the game being an attempt to reconcile, the mom ends up abandoning her.
It becomes obvious that the shows main themes are about parenthood, motherhood, and interpersonal relationships. The entire parent-child bonding program becomes more than just a ploy to show case hot milfs, but to also showcase themes that while may be obvious, they at least make the show more interesting from other derivative isekais. With the next storyline being the opposite of the first, this time having an overbearing parent helicopter over her child in some vicarious fashion. And the final storyline not really having an antagonistic parent, but more so rebellious children who are a mirror to the main protagonist.
Of course interesting themes can only go so far because the writing still sucks. The characters are pretty much dragged from place to place by one of the admins, Shirase, in order to solve these problems and for the storylines to happen. Two of the main storylines resolving with a Mom v. Mom battle via might makes right, with might being the plot bending over backwards for Mamako to always be the winner. Not to mention how Mamako is pretty much the second coming of jesus christ who can do no wrong and becomes way to preachy about being a mom. The only criticism towards her comes from her own son, and even then it really doesn’t matter anyway.
Then there’s Wise and Medhi the two supporting characters whose storylines with their mothers we go through, as they both have interesting characterization by their personalities being a result of how their mothers treated them. However those personalities end up being the only thing about them and also just become jokes. Which is very much the case of Medhi who has a kind personality the show in front of others, and also a malicious personality that’s filled with contempt towards others, especially towards her mother. It portrays how screwed up she has become from how her mother had treated her, but in the end it’s later portrayed like some dumb sadistic quirk that makes her say one-liners every once in a while. Not to mention that their mothers, who get shafted after their story lines are over, were being manipulated the whole time they were in the game. They were still presented as no-good parents before the game, but it was that manipulation that made them 10x worse. So it’s hard to tell whether a character like Medhi got her personality before or during the start of the game.
Sure the show is a comedy and all of this shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but that serious stuff is the only thing the show has going for it since the comedy is mostly stale. So it is a shame that such interesting themes are stuck in such a “plot”, with such ideas being ripe for examination and exploration, and the current setting being a perfect place to facilitate it. There are many possible types of combinations between the parent and child relationship such as an adoptive child, siblings of any degree, or even a NEET child just to name a few. Even the inclusion of a father character, which this anime is lacking despite being a PARENT and child program, would be enough to double or triple the number of possibilities.
There’s also the chance of exploring themes about gender roles, sex, and sexuality. Given that the story takes place in a video game it shouldn’t be too far off for a character to change their sex or appearance with a few switches and dials. Imagine for example a story line that has an old fashioned strict parent who joins the game with their child, but the child “Accidentally” became the opposite sex. However the matter of fact would be that the child did it deliberately because they could: 1.gauge how their parent would feel 2. see if the parent can accept them at that moment and 3. slowly indoctrinate them into the liberal gay agenda. Speaking of gays, what if the main character was gay. The anime does show that Mamako is fine with Masato being in a relationship as they do a sort of potential bride interview as a way to recruit party members. While it’s obvious that it’s done as a joke it would be interesting to see what would happen with their relationship if he was gay. Would Mamako be accepting of him? Well of course she would, she’s basically Jesus II . But would a mother like her but not as benevolent be as accepting? Who knows but it would be interesting.
But that’s enough wallowing of what could have been. Even if the show did these things, given the writing of this show, I doubt it would be even be good.
As for the production value of the show, it’s all right. The only thing worth of note is the character designs, more specifically their eyes. Their designs were done by an artist named Pochi who’s known for a manga that also focuses on the bonds of an older and younger family members. What makes the characters in this anime distinct is that the characters have white pupils. While having characters with white pupils isn’t anything new, it’s done in wholesale here. While i guess it is cute on the other hand the more you look at it the more uncanny it gets. As you stare at Mamako, her gaze pierces yours as she looks deep inside your soul. And as you try to do the same, you are only met with an endless white void. The abyss stares at you but you aren't able to stare back. Averting your eyes is the only option and in doing so your are met with her chest. Beautiful maternal breasts that can comfort and soften even the most hardened of people. So yeah, it's nice shit I guess.
As I was writing this review I think I finally understood why I was so interested in the themes in this show and why i bothered continuing on. It mainly boils down to there rarely ever being even a modest amount of anime about parent-child relationships. One does pop up every once in a while, but even those aren't really that focused on parenthood as much as OO is, albeit OO is very preachy about it. I guess it goes to show that writing isn’t the only way to make a show interesting, just having themes and a parent-child relationship that sometime teeters into incest can work just as well.
Anyway the scoring is a bit skewed because i had to put a 10 on characters so i don't hurt Mamako's feelings
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 25, 2019
The current state of the isekai genre in anime is a rather odd one to say the least. You really can’t go a season without at least one show being an isekai. Granted that due to the over abundance of anime being produced every season, it’s not like the situation of other genres are any different. Nonetheless Isekai for the most part is the more scrutinized and mocked of the genres just for the fact of being an Isekai. It certainly is not without reason, when compared to the much more abundant High school centered anime, the later gets a lot more slack. This, I
...
personally believe, is due to the fact that you get what you expect in terms of narrative from a high school anime which lends to the show being focused on character tropes. Isekai on the other hand also has to deal with story tropes which would be fine if it weren’t for how they dealt with them. Isekai really has a tough time breaking away from many of its narrative tropes that for a genre that is about being sent to a fantastical world, they all start to feel the same. More shows have tried to break from the mold by being widely different in terms of story, making fun of the genre, and sometimes having an aspect that resonates with a large audience. Many of them still end up becoming the same shit they set out to distance themselves, but at least they tried.
However there are also another type of isekai that don’t even bother trying at all. In fact, they just end up doubling down on their genre tropes without bothering to go beyond the framework of the trope. Each new work repeating the same tropes over and over again until they become more blander than the last. So much so that it’s honestly seems like a joke of which studio can produce the most blandest of them all, and when it seems like one has topped them all, another comes to take its place. For me, Isekai Cheat Magician is the one that now takes the top, being the peak of distilled story telling where anything in terms of uniqueness or interest is hard to come by.
It’s hard to find anything to say about this show that I can't say for any other isekai genre. character(s) get sent to a pseudo-European fantasy setting, they gain some unique overpowered abilities, and they go on a miscellaneous adventure while trying to find their way home. Any redeeming factor that this show has is mostly countered with how devoid of personality it all is. The main protag isn’t a dweeb, but he doesn’t have much of a personality. The female duotaganist, the mentors , the creatures, and factions all are just lacking in personality and impact. Even the production value just feels devoid of any substance or even style, Just the most basic of basics that it hopefully doesn’t come out so laughably bad.
The only reason i didn't score this show any lower is because it’s not infuriating to watch, in fact I feel some sort of pity this show. I feel bad for the author who wrote this, i feel bad for the studio who made this, I feel bad for the people(except me) who watched this, i feel bad for you having to read this. It’s an odd sense of sadness, and it’s probably one that will roll in again when the next one tries to top this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 23, 2019
Hensuki otherwise known as Pervlove is pretty much what it sounds like. A sort of highschool romantic-comedy, but this time it is centered around more “perverted” characters. And by “perverted” I mean that each of the characters falls into one fetishistic categories such as masochism, sadism, olfactophilia, etc. Many of these fetishes which have already been done before in previous anime, especially masochism and sadism since they both go hand in hand. But Hensuki isn’t here to present something new or to reinvent the wheel. It’s here to be another derivative unabashed light novel harem comedy and nothing more, as mandated by god.
The plot of
...
Hensuki shares all the same commonalities with almost every harem story under the sun, even it’s “mystery”(which in this case are panties) that is the driving force of the show isn’t new. It follows our protagonist Keiki trying to find the wearer of a pair of coveted panties that were laid before him. To him they are the glass slipper that will lead to his personal Cinderella as it is clearly laid out in the show. With only a handful of suspects, many of whom he is already friends with, he ends up finding out more about them than he initially wished. As each of the girls that he tries to investigate quickly reveal some sort of kink with Keiki usually being the center of it, aaaaaand that's really it for most of the show. Just one new girl with a fetish after another, to the point that the entire Cinderella plot line easily gets sidelined. Because truly the story isn’t about the girl at the destination, but the harem that was made along the way. The mystery does get solved in the end and it’s so obvious due to the show trying to make it the least obvious.
As for the characters, I'll have you know that they aren’t just one note fetish machines, they also have one note personalities as well. The only two girls of note are the masochist senpai, sayuki and the sadist kohai, Yuika since they are the most prominent of all the girls. And honestly it makes since for these two girls to be the main showcase of the entire show as they are the exact opposite of each other in almost every way. They are the yin and the yang, the opposing yet balanced forces of the universe. They represent the philosophical and moral dilemmas that we face on a daily basis. To either be subservient or to be domineering, to be the ruler or the ruled, to spank or be spanked, and usually sticking with one our entire lives. Keike then serves as the conduit of this human condition, and instead of choosing one or the other he instead rises above it all. He, like many harem protagonists, becomes the Ubermensch in the guise of the Last man by just being a nice guy. It’s by this niceness that the girls love him. It’s because of this niceness that Sayuki want’s Keiki to dominate her, because she knows he will never hurt her. It’s that niceness that let’s Yuika make Keiki her servant because she knows he will never be resentful. And it’s that niceness that Keiki is fine with Mao using him as source material for her bl manga. It may sound a bit preposterous that despite so many girls fonding over him, he never goes after any of them and ditch the panties. But that’s the thing, those panties are his will to power, they are what drives him as a human and for the show to exist for 9 more episodes.
Neitzsche more like Beitzsche.
This show was made by two studios. The main one being, Geek Toys, an up and coming studio who aren’t really worth talking about. The other studio however is studio Seven, a studio that has some mediocre anime but it has some A+ hentai. It’s the main reason when watching this show that it has that weird feeling to it that it should have been a hentai, Besides the fetishes of course. The color pallet, the shading, the character designs, the animation, the directing, the camera angles and composition, all of it just screams HENTAI!!! And the reason why this all culminates into it having a hentai like feel is because it does look like a Seven’s hentai work, especially that of Nishikawa, Takashi. Takashi being one of the more prominent Hentai creators at the studio who created masterful works such as Otome Dori, Rance, Baku Ane, and so much more. Once you have seen one of his works it is impossible to not see how his creative genius had seeped into this anime. His creative influence is so potent and recognizable that even just looking at the color pallet of the show was able to give me a hard on. However as an anime it could only go so far in its ecchi-ness without being down right provocative. In the end, all that was left for me was a boner on my lap but nowhere to go :’(.
oh, the soundtrack is kind of decent although it can be annoying to some.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 23, 2019
I'm not gonna write much since there's not much to say about this show that hasn't already been said about last season. It still has the same production values,characters, and story structure. The only noticeable change is that they are one year older and that the main duo are a bit more closer to each other. nonetheless the show is still capable of continuing it's perpetually endless series of vignettes until either the viewer or writer gets tired of it. the show is well aware of this and does add something to the monotony by adding an off hand scene midway through the show, with
...
only those well versed in the takagi-verse will understand what it means. if they had continued with adding scenes such as that it could have made for an interesting framing device. in the end the end the show continues to ride on its cuteness and simplicity and not much else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
