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I really enjoyed the time watching this anime, but if you‘re looking for a show with a conclusion - this isn’t it.

The positives first: My Little Monster starts out with an unusually fast pace for anything romance-centric and goes further than some other shows go in their entire runtime in just the first episode. The characters are fun and interesting, but show very little development in the short 13 episodes. I loved how blunt and realistic the dialogue was at times, and some scenes had me laughing out loud. The art was pretty good - nothing outstanding, but pretty to look at and a nice ... colour scheme.

Unfortunately however none of the arcs in this show seem resolved at the end. Neither the main protagonists’ relationship, nor any of the side characters arcs or the questions about certain characters past that were brought up repeatedly throughout the show (sometimes even as the main point of the episode) but never attempted to answer.

All in all I enjoyed this show A LOT while watching, but it feels very unresolved as you finish it - somewhat like it was cancelled halfway through the season.

Cute and innocent slice of life anime.

I've been staying away from slice of life for years now, so I thought I'd give it a go now during exam phase as a treat inbetween study sessions that won't make it too hard to return to studying after an episode.
The concept of the main character is simple yet interesting to see play out, and it was painfully relatable at times. The plot was pretty predictable as far as the first season goes, but then again it's slice of life...
It had a couple of genuinly funny and heartwarming moments inbetween some cringier ones, and I was entertained.
It's just ... 25 episodes (and the second season is even shorter afaik), so there's really no harm in giving this a go.

Story: Predictable at times, annoying and slow at times, but also heartwarming and original at others. I've got little experience in slice of life, so I'm gonna go off my gut feeling and say it's pretty solid for what it is.

Art: The style is rather simple, but for some shots they really poured their soul into the details. However, I'm not quite getting over at HOW often they only drew one eye when the chracter was shown in side-profile. Those empty spots where the second eye should be kinda irked me.

Sound: Not outstanding, but the sound design carried the mood well and the outro was rather enjoyable too.

Characters: A pretty fun albeit somewhat stereotypical cast. Then again, it's high school.. I liked the premise of the main character a lot though, and as much of a Mary Sue as the male lead seems to be, he's precious, and the side characters in the clique are lovable.

Overall I think it's pretty solid, especially for the expectations I went in with. I don't want to compare it with animes from another genre too much, so with this being a slice of life high school romance/comedy - pretty good I'd say.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this. As someone who dislikes open ends, I was hoping this movie would leave me somewhat more content with the ending of the 2003 series, but I feel as if the movie left me more or less where I started - with some questions answered, some new added and overall the same level of satisfaction.

This movie introduced some interesting ideas that, similar to how I view the 2003 series as a whole, are intriguing to see play out as an "what if"-scenario - however while the 2003 series felt somewhat like a fanfiction version of brotherhood to ... me, this felt like a fanfiction continuation of the 2003 series.

It was interesting, it was entertaining, but I feel somehow less fulfilled than I did before watching the movie. The story was wild, and maybe just too off the rails for me to take entirely serious, and while the story-progression had big consequences, the stakes somehow didn't feel all that high for most of the playtime.

I feel like it wrapped up some loose ends from the main series (given that this is kind of a very long last episode), but even though I felt ready to dive into this new concept, it just didn't quite work out for me.

This movie is worth watching after the 2003 series, but the story could've used some more polishing. To be fair, it probably wasn't an easy task to write from where the show left off, but the story seemed to be lacking a convincing direction and pace.

I feel as if the writers somewhat wrote themselves into a corner with the introduction of their original plot-conclusion in the series, and the story here suffers from being unable to wrap up nicely what would need more time and setup to be wrapped up nicely.

*Includes strong comparison to Brotherhood, however as spoiler free as possible for both!*

Whenever I finished FMA Brotherhood, I've wanted to watch this version as well, but I always thought it was too soon to watch essentially the same thing again, so I held off and forgot about it again until the itch for FMA came back and I watched Brotherhood yet again, repeating the same loop.

This time I finally went ahead and gave it a chance, and I'm sure glad I did. Even though the 2003 version has a somewhat bad rep, I can say I enjoyed my time watching this version, and it wasn't ... boring at all to watch, because it strongly differed from Brotherhood essentially from the start - there wasn't a single episode I could've skipped without missing something.

Let's start with the art: This version is dated, and that's obvious. No matter where I looked it up, the resultion was as expected from a 2003 anime everywhere, and the frame ratio is unfamiliar and somewhat offputting nowadays (unless you recently rewatched ATLA or another medium in that aspect ratio like I did and were still used to it :P)

I've heard many times that Brotherhood essentially rushes through the first few episodes, expecting you to already know what happened in the 2003 version - however, I actually had the opposite experience: I never had any trouble following the storyline in Brotherhood, not even on my first viewing, yet I was VERY confused with the first 10-ish episodes of the 2003 version and would've probably given up if it wasn't for my Brotherhood knowledge filling the cracks and enabling me to put together the puzzle somewhat coherently.

The 2003 version offers a lot of new details and insight and indeed has a somewhat longer path to follow along the key events that both animes share, however I found it very hard to follow what was going on, even with the previous knowledge of Brotherhood. The first few episodes in particular introduce a bunch of plotpoints all at once that are stretched out further in brotherhood, however it omits key poiunts to the worldbuilding and how the universe works that would've been essential for me to follow the story, had I not known them from Brotherhood.

Additionally, the first episodes include timeskips that the audience is barely made aware of and last over several episodes, making me get completely lost on where exactly in the story I even was at some points - in the beginning I was unaware if things I was seeing at the moment happened before or after what I'd seen in the prior episodes. But sticking with the anime through that pays off!

While the timeline of when what happens is pretty different from Bortherhood and the beginning of the 2003 version felt rather rushed and confusing to me, after the frist few episodes it starts slowing down considerably compared to Brotherhood, leaving more time for certain developments.

I've heard numerous times how people say you can combine watching the two animes to get the best of both worlds, but I'd definitely disagree on that! Both versions differ strongly right from the start and key plotpoints are laid out completely differently, which leads to very different outcomes.

Pretty early into the anime, I've essentially started viewing it as a parallel universe or cinematically realized fanfiction, rather than a different version of the same story, because the laws of the worlds, the characters and their relationships are far from interchangable between the versions - it really is essentially taking the rough concept and characters as a base to tell a new story of its own.

As for the characters: In this version I really got the impression that the brothers are truly kids, while in Brotherhood I often felt like they were way older than they started out in canon. The 2003 version feels more lighthearted and over the top at times (especially in the beginning where the comedic faces fmab was often critizized for stuck out to me heavily).

Several characters get way more screentime than in Brotherhood, which was a pleasure to see, however unfortunately I have to confess that I wasn't able to build a connection to any of the characters in this version and didn't cry once, even though I felt as if this version gave me more time to get attached to certain characters - yet their fates didn't hit me, even though they still do when I rewatch Brotherhood for the xth time. Might be that the vibe of this version isn't suited to my emotional level.

I realized at many points in the story that this version felt less immersive to me, so while Brotherhood kept me on the edge of my seat and throughoutly invested, the 2003 version often felt like it was just going through it's motions as an entertainment medium should. Somehow the reactions characters had to what was happening around them didn't feel as "real" and relatable to me, which often reminded me that they were just chracters and made me myself feel a lot more grounded in my experience, while in Brotherhood I often lost myself in the story.

Apart from the characters feeling different, there was also a more fantastical element to this version, while Brotherhood felt more realistic. Several scenes early in the anime in particular (The priest fight, Scars interaction with the research, Lyras introduction) made alchemy seem more magic-based than science based in this version as compared to Brotherhood. This isn't necessary a bad thing though.

Initially starting into this show I was worried it could dampen my mood after finishing Brotherhood a 5th time, as this version has a reputation of having a worse plot, due to running out of source material. However, I still enjoyed this version plenty - it added a lot of fun new details and "what ifs" that I had a blast discovering.

It also added further background info that I didn't know I was misisng within Brotherhood, but that further enhanced certain plotpoints for me (even though I'm not sure just HOW canon certain parts are, since as said: many characters are essentially someone completely else with the same name and look).

Many of these new outlooks also changed the meaning of certain plotpoints significantly, like protagonists actively causing certain tragedies rather than helplessly experiencing them unfold while not being the trigger themselves.

All in all: This was a drastically different show and story from Brotherhood and that from early on - around 20 episodes in you could barely still feel a connection between the two, but as treating it as a a form of "what if", it was still a very entertaining show. I'd recommend viewing it as a completely disconnected medium from Brotherhood altogether.

Certain plotpoints in this version were interesting ideas that I loved figuring out, but there are still a lot of questions left unanswered for me after having finished the anime itself (have yet to watch the movie), and some things just don't seem to add up no matter how I turn them. Also while certain ideas introduced in this version seemed very intriguing, I didn't feel satisfied with the way they were handled in most cases (minor spoiler: apart from the case of Lust in particular).

I feel as if already having seen Brotherhood greatly improved my enjoyment of this version, as it motivated me to stick with it through more confusing patches and see it through to the end. As a standalone, I find it to be a fun time, but I don't think it would've left much of an impression on me by itself.

One thing that I do wanna point out in comparison though, is that I enjoyed how this version forced them to confornt their ideals. I've heard a lot about the 2003 version being the "darker" version of the two, and I didn't necessarily feel that way, but I felt that this version had a slight leg up in that (small spoiler) they had no choice but to take or use lives of others.

While I found myself enjoying the way they handled certain plotlines more in this version than in Brotherhood, overall I felt as if the 2003 story created more questions than it answered. Unfortunately I also couldn't find myself to care much for the characters, even if my favourites were harmed - I felt a certain disconnect from the show throughout the entire runtime and never managed to immerse myself to the point of treating this as more than a potential parallel universe to what "actually" happened.

Brotherhood might spark similar feelings for people who watched the 2003 version first, but I unfortunately wasn't able to view this as anything but a fleshed out "what if".

I felt compelled to give both story and art and therefore also the overall rating a mark lower than I did, but I'm giving out bonus points in consideration of the anime being almost two decades old at this point and having been in the shoes of being the first and the one that had to figure out where to go from the point where the source material was depleted.

I'm a bit torn on this. All in all it was a fun movie, but I couldn't help but think that with a little rewriting, this movie could've been completely standalone and wouldn't even have necessarily played in the FMA universe. Ed and Al are there and do their thing, but I can see the movie playing out more or less similarly without them. I'm not saying they were useless, but rather that the movie seemed disconnected from the rest of the story - not like an OVA episode that plays in-universe but disconnected to the main plot, but rather it seemed like the chracters ... where taken completely out of their universe and placed in a different movie script (which kiiiiinda happens on a smaller scale). Mustang, Hawkeye, Winry and Armstrong also show up, but more or less only as a cameo - which did feel rather forced at some points, but helped the story feel more "in universe" and actually connected to the rest of the franchise.

The movie was alright I suppose, but at the same time I didn't really feel like I was watching FMA. The story itself seemed shaky at some parts, too, I'm not sure if it was underexplained or actual plotholes, but parts left me confused and at other parts I could swear that isn't how alchemy worked in this universe before. That being said, I still enjoyed the story. Kind of a 6 1/2 for me.

On the technical side of things the mixing stuck out to me. I'm not sure if this was an issue with my streaming provider, but the fight scenes were super loud while the dialogue was almost inaudible at points - I kept having to rearrange the volume to hear something while not bothering my neighbours.

Also the art seemed surprisingly dated and rushed at some points, considering this released after Brotherhood and had a movie-budget. The original chracters at times looked like they were borrowed from another early 2000s anime. And Ed in particular stuck out to me as not really looking like himself at times, with the proportions being off and his eye colour (while looking really pretty) not matching up with the usual - it seemed more green than golden at times, which was a bit odd, given that his eye colour is even described in the dialogue in Brotherhood. Same thing went for Hawkeye, but that was more forgivable, given that she isn't the literal main character. It kinda had the feel of a fanfiction or new interpretation of the franchise, rather than an entry in the existing interpretation (which from the release date I'd have sorted as playing during Brotherhood).

little 2-3 minute parodies of scenes in the series - this is probably most fun to watch when the memory of the original scenes is still fresh, but I can also imagine it to be fun to come back to every now and then randomly. for what it is, it's very entertaining and worthwile~ I really enjoyed watching one or two episodes inbetween my chores.

Not all jokes hit for me, but almost every episode had at least one hilarious moment. Definitely helped me "getting over" having finished Brotherhood again a bit because I had somewhat of a void to fill, which often happens after (re)watching ... an anime near and dear to me.
all in all: bite-sized fma fun!

re-posting my list-comment as review, originally written May 9th 2021:

SNK Season 4, Part 1.... I just watched the ENTIRE thing up to now over the weekend. I've been glued to my seat the entire time, but I gotta say the start into this season is rough. If you've watched season 3, you know there's some key-elements of the setting that are changing with where we are at the plot now. I was prepared for that, but I wasn't prepared to (mild spoiler) follow completely new characters I have zero connection with for essentially the first 4-5 episodes. This is normal when you start up a ... new anime, but after having grown accustomed to the familiar and beloved characters it's a little hard being thrown into this "everything new"-feeling unexpectedly. I settled with it and started getting invested again after the first two episodes, when everything started taking shape, but it was definitely a rougher start than the other seasons (even season 2, which had a similar out-of-place feeling in the beginning). In hindsight, I appreciate the different viewpoint we're getting and the plot is very interesting, but when you're not prepared this can be a bit irritating.

Sooo.. let's start with the animation; there's been a studio change between season 3 and 4 and there's very different viewpoints about the quality of animation here. I'll just outright say; I watched EVERYTHING up to season 4 in 3 days and didn't notice the studio change until I checked up episode-discussions on reddit once I was caught up. This of course is mainly influenced by the fact there's been a timeskip anyways, so any odd feeling when looking at a familiar character just went straight to - "well, there's several years between the seasons" for me. Quality wise I really like the style they're going with, but I also enjoyed the style of the 3rd season a lot and find it pretty similar in how they're using lighting and making the animation look a bit more realistic as compared to let's say season 1.

Alright, plot - I can't deduct points for hating where this is going, because I'm throughoutly enjoying the ride. The (mild spoiler) new titans are super interesting and I'm dying to figure out the last few leftover questions from earlier seasons. Also the political side of things that started getting heated in s3 is very in focus again, but entertaining. There's some new characters I really enjoy (some that I hate, but that doesn't make them bad characters, but hateable characters) and lots of conflict waiting to be resolved.

This season is less about unveiling the mysteries and questions we have regarding the underlying plot and worldbuilding and more about conflicts driven by the characters in the present. I can't wait to see how this all ends, but for where we are right now I'll have to grade it slightly lower than s3 and 1 because some tropes that appear here SEEM more predictable than what we've had in earlier seasons, so I'm putting high hopes into this being the groundwork for another very unexpected but rewarding twist and an ending with hopefully no loose threads. (With the revelation of season 3 it feels like too many new questions to answer in just one more season, especially with how the fourth so far has mainly been adding new questions instead of answering any).

The opening is dope! Probably my favourite after the original and before s2!? again; amazing music, as in all of the series. the music is really a 10/10 in all seasons and greatly adds to the overall quality

all in all it's a great continuation to SNK and largely stays in the same ballpark for me quality wise - I'm substracting a bit on the story-front for now (not knowing how some things that seem predictable might pan out later), but adding a bonus point to chracter, because not only are new characters added, old chracters are expanded on - I'd like to give it a 8 1/2 for that, but since that isn't possible, and I'd like to give the story a 8 1/2 aswell, we're going with 9 for chracters and 8 for story, but both are kinda shaky decisions that might change with a rewatch or seeing how the story/characters develop further with this basis.

re-posting my list-comment as review, originally written May 9th 2021:

As said in my comments to season 3 part 1; I'm compelled to give both parts of season 3 a 9 individually, because for me they only become a 10 when judged as an entity.

Most of my points for this season where already mentioned in my writeups for earlier seasons / part 1 of this season, but as for the episodes of s3 pt2 in particular: The reason I'd deduct a point when looking at ONLY at the second part of the third season is (extremely minor spoiler?) that the day started at ep 1 ... of part 2 lasts until episode 7, which only leaves us with 3 1/2 episodes to go. Now, is this a BAD thing? Not necessarily - a BUNCH of things happen and this runtime is filled to the brim with action, info and PLOT. It's needed! But this is the reason I want to look at the season as a whole, because just looking at the second part feels a bit odd, given that 7 episodes out of the 10 feels basically like one very long episode, which makes sense for the full season as a whole, but makes JUST the second part feel a bit disjoined as a standalone.

That being said; I feel like the studio reached it's peak animation-wise in some scenes, and you can really see how they developed when comparing it to their work on the same characters (titans) in earlier seasons.

I'm glad I always skipped the opening, bcs it basically spoils the entire ark, and it's (for me) the second least memorable opening song following the one from part 1 of season 3. Not judging openings here though, that's just a sidenote.

The reason this still get's a 10 is that this has AMAZING plot-payoff. (minor spoiler if you care for expectation-levels) The third season in general makes the anime SO WORTHWHILE and rewarding to watch. The last few episodes in particular just exceed any expectations you might've had when going into this, unless you'd been spoiled previously or your brain works very different from mine. I don't know WHAT I expected, but I'm very surprised the revelation of the big questions that we asked from the very beginning managed to be both VERY DIFFERENT from what I expected but not disappoint me in the slightest. In hindsight, I wish I had mapped out what I expected the answer to be, because this is so absolutely not what I expected, yet it makes absolute sense.

Again, I only give a 10 to season 3 as a combined entity, but I can't bear giving it a 9 for how I was glued to my seat for an entire day binging all 22 episodes when I should've been studying.

This season is the reward that has been building up since episode one, and it's amazing! It opens interest in further developments, but at the same time it feels like a very satisfying "ending" - which kinda leaves it up to the viewer if they wanna figure this out altogether once and for all and follow through to the end, or if they're content with the answers we got for our original questions and want to leave it at that.

re-posting my list-comment as review, originally written May 9th 2021:

it's a little hard to rate just the first half of the third season on it's own, because I watched the entire thing in one sitting.. that fact alone should speak for itself though! So this includes the first 12 episodes of season 3! First off; animation-wise I feel like there was a huge development between season 1 and 3, and I feel like a big part fo that happened after season 2 and during season 3! This can also have to do with the locations and source material they were able to work with though. ...

Alright; Season 3 is where you really get the satisfying payoff for sticking with the anime. Still - this goes for all seasons - the pacing is great and there's zero dead air. The third season manages to unveil a lot of secrets that you've been rooting for to learn about for a long time, while adding new questions and keeping the suspense for how it all pieces together! We also get to visit some details and characters in earlier seasons that I never questioned, but getting the added information and background feels extremely satisfying and rewarding.

This season has some elements that are very different from the first two seasons, mainly the focus on human-interaction and politics that wasn't as prominent earlier. All in all the story is just SO compelling that I'm willing to give this a 10, and at the same time I want to not give it a 10 to set apart just HOW MUCH I liked the second part of the 3rd season. That being said, I find it hard to judge the two separated, because (extremely mild spoiler?) the second part of the 3rd season is basically one very long episode cut up into several parts. I feel like both as standalone would be a 9 each, but together as a cohesive season it becomes a 10. The only deduction I wanna make is that it features the (for me) least memorable opening, inbetween some very iconic ones! the sound is STILL getting a 10 though, because the music within the series is just perfectly placed to draw you into the story throughout all seasons.

re-posting my list-comment as review, originally written May 9th 2021:

this season is just so..short? when I originally finished the first season of the anime I caught up with the manga at the time and it felt like there wasn't super much happing (yet), so I was surprised to find out that that turned out to be the entire second season. Compared to the other seasons it's just VERY short. Watchable in half a day short. You're JUST getting into it and it's over. That being said, that's just the material they had to work with and they DID wait years to avoid running out of ... source material.

This season adds important new plotpoints that'll pay off greatly later, but I remember (the same went for the manga) it felt a bit strange and unexpected (in a odd way) at first. The plot is my least favourite out of all season, but it lays very important groundwork for the later development of the plot, and also gives some interesting character development - which is great, because while I love the characters in attack on titan, it doesn't particularly shine in character development compared to other shows. Certain chracters gain some interesting motives and struggles here that make them more interesting!

The last ~3 episodes have the typical on-the-edge-of-your-seat grab known from the first season again, and add some VERY interesting elements to solve for the next season! I was inbetween giving this a 7 or a 8 (again, very short season and the plot is just not my favourite) but it gets the bonus towards the higher grade for the already mentioned 10/10 music in all of SnK and because it holds up very well against other animes I've watched - realistically it only falls off because i'm ranking it against other SNK seasons..