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Feb 26, 2024
Kabaneri of the Iron fortress was made by the same studio and the music was composed by the same person who did Attack on Titan. But not only that: the premise, the setting, characters' motivations, themes - all of these were undoubtedly inspired by Attack on Titan, so it was universally proclaimed as an AoT clone. The anime was fairly popular at the time but the more seasons of its grandfather have come out the less people have kept talking about or even remember Kabaneri. But how ironic it would be if Kabaneri is far and away better in every aspect then Attack on Titan.
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Naaah, I'm just kidding. The very first impression Kabaneri of the Iron fortress gave me is how unapologetically it tries to recreate the AoT vibes without doing something that would set it apart or shifting the focus from action to character drama and, thus, appealing to a different audience.
In essence, mankind is on the verge of extinction and the reason is kabane, the mix of zombies/ghouls/titans/legion. Humans now only live in cities surrounded by rampart and use trains to move between them. The setting is grandiose but it's an anime-original and it has only one cour and a movie. You can write a good story with that runtime but, again, by shifting focus, but it didn't do that and the story ended up half-baked. The first arc is pretty straightforward: one city gets overrun by kabane and the survivals leave for another city by train with our two main characters on board: Ikoma and Mumei. Also they are Kabaneri: half-human, half-kabane, but it's not important for the plot. This arc is pretty decent and I don't have complaints. But everything after the evacuation arc is a complete mess and I can't find better words to describe it. The story here is terribly structured to make a proper breakdown, the tone completely shifts pulling the later seasons of Attack on Titan, I guess, and the main characters loose any sliver of personality. Ikoma's motivation is to liberate humanity but he doesn't enroll some military organization nor he continues to work as an engineer to mass produce the weapon he invented to effectively annihilate kabane; so he decides to hang out with Mumei instead. Mumei seems to have some depth at first, but ends up docilely obeying her "Onee-sama", she basically becomes a pawn. The villain of this arc has a single digit IQ, they want people to fight kabane, but they destroy cities they live in. Like, dude, if people only fought kabane who would make weapons to fight them.
The world building is more consistent than the story, because it consistently sucks. If you want to know the origins of kabane, the current status of the world, why Mumei uses a stopwatch, or how kabaneri are able to keep the human nature having kabane's strength, just forget about it. The world here has no name, and the only information that this is Japan is from the opening and I don't know if it's intentional or someone's oversight. No information about how many cities there are or if other countries are destroyed by kabane either. There's also no feeling of "humanity is on the verge of collapse" and the whole tone is rather there are few runaway animals from a zoo. Every city including the capital has some sand castle level of defense, so it's enough just a bunch of soldiers to open the main gate and let a train or kabane inside. Kabane themselves can run at cheetah's speed but most of the time move at a crawl, they also can turn people in kabane but sometimes decide to simply kill them.
I could probably tear into the technical part because no one would protect this show anyway, but it's actually excellent. I don't know who was responsible for writing but animation, music, direction, and storytelling weren't affected by that abomination. The direction and the storytelling is actually better than in AoT but they are totally useless when the story is this bad. And maybe if the technical aspect was much worse Kabaneri would have been at least considered a guilty pleasure show by some.
It was 2016 and the Attack on Titan hype was gradually declining, so Wit decided to utilize what remained, but so obvious clone wouldn't have been as popular and the writing wasn't improved, quite the opposite. Mom can we have Attack on Titan, no we have Attack on Titan at home.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 16, 2024
Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 has become infamous for terrible working conditions and a lot of crunching, but does the amount of effort poured into something represent the quality of the product? Don't get me wrong this anime has really good fights and also the fight scenes are fantastic; have I already said how amazing the action is? And I'm not dissing the animators: I fully understand why some of them thought about committing suicide. It is everything aside from fight scenes that's mediocre to say at least, assuming, of course, the adaptation is faithful and didn't butcher the manga. The JJK manga has nothing outstanding
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to deserve such incredible production, there are plenty of other shonen manga that could've been taken its place: AoT, Fire Force, Tokyo Revengers, etc. In addition, this season could've become one of the best anime adaptation but due to the worst management JJK has only established itself as a battle shonen with the best fights, which isn't bad but it had the potential to be even greater.
The world building is the easiest thing to bash. Some may argue the concept is unique but its execution is sloppy. But attributing the idea of collective unconscious to the author is giving him too much credit. Some other media e.g. Persona already did a better job using it. So, human negative emotions are the source of cursed energy and this energy creates cursed spirits, and people haven't discovered this energy as well as spirits for thousands of years even though this stuff regularly claims people's lives. BUt pEoPLE caN't SEe tHIs ENErGy! Like yeah, sure, people also can't see radiation either and, nevertheless, we are aware of its existence and its affection. In Japan highschoolers keep people safe, as they always do. And it was unknown what was happening in other countries, and only at the end the anime offhandedly mentions how little cursed energy other countries have without explaining why, despite a lot of them having a bigger population. That could've been explained, for example, by stating that the idea itself of collective unconscious is mainly spread in the East in contrast to the Western civilization where individualism is predominant, but it would've been too smart for JJK I guess. Also all cursed technique are overly complicated, there are no rules nor any limitations: sorcerers can easily create energy out of thin air and then easily disperse it. So, it's more convenient to tread all techniques as magic.
The story eeeh... it has a little of it. The second arc, which is like 17 episodes long, is a series of fights back to back, that's it. And given the quality of the story of the first season it isn't bad, double down on the best the franchise had: action; and get rid of everything that get in the way of it with the exception of dramatic scenes, which is kind of whatever, JJK isn't a drama to be honest. The first arc contain most of the story and it's on the same level as the first season.
This season could've been the best anime from a pure visual perspective, but after a certain episode the quality starts degrading reaching the lowest point in the last episode presenting the aftermath of the arc via a slideshow presentation. Although, even that lower quality still surpasses the majority anime adaptation, but the difference is glaring, nevertheless. Worse the shot composition, worse the cinematography, the direction in non-battle scenes has just gone, even the action scenes were affected in some degree. The first 6 or to be generous 12 episodes is peak of the adaptation and the second cour should've been delayed. Also, the ost isn't mediocre but it just doesn't contribute anything to the fights.
With all that criticism in mind, there is just nothing better than JJK if you just want to see some crazy action. The closest thing is probably demon slayer but its story is no better and its characters really made me root for the demons to kill them. JJK2 was lucky to get so much care, but the animators, unfortunately, paid for that with their mental and physical health.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 4, 2024
It feels like almost every A1 adaptation initially gets praised by general viewers to be later claimed overrated by armchair critics and snobs. Therefore, the only thing I heard about Erased is how bad the ending was, which usually means that the quality of the writing was sloppy and the ending just made it obvious. Another opinion is that the ending is the most important thing in the mystery genre and everything else is secondary no matter how good it is, which I disagree with. Nevertheless, it turned out there was no bad ending and the show now is extremely overhated.
It goes without saying that
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the the whole murder mystery subplot isn't impeccable and may have plot holes. However, it's not a fault of the ending because the chain of problems starts with the first episode. The police is chasing after Satoru because he is suspected of a murder he didn't commit. The victim was killed with a knife, which doesn't have Satoru's fingerprints on it, so he obviously isn't the killer. This problem could've been easily solved by Satoru accidentally touching the knife or the culprit applying Satoru's fingerprints beforehand. And there are a lot problems like this one that could have been easily solved without a complete rewriting. But everything aside the murder mystery is really good. The chemistry between characters is the main strength of Erased, which is usually poorly executed even in mainstream shows like AoT. And most importantly, the character growth is the main point of the story; Satoru remembers his traumatic childhood and it still bothers him and gets in the way of his life. His ability symbolizes his whole personality and disappears when he can finally move forward.
The artstyle lacks details but the good animation compensates for that. There are also details in the direction that make this show stand out e.g. the black bars make some scenes look like a film was used. The OP and the ED are catchy, and also the OP has the second version playing a role in the story.
Erased has glaring issues and a lot of them could've been solved but the show is still good. Some may think it is a mystery show with everything else serving as a setup, when, in reality, the story builds on the mystery but also goes far beyond it. And it is the reason why Erased was misunderstood and overhated as a result.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 29, 2024
Up to this season the only strength of the story of Attack on Titan was its original concept, there were no interesting characters or proper world building. The first season was focused around survival of humanity but the pacing was off, the second season tried to build a character drama but the characters' dilemmas were too ambiguous. On the other hand, the story in the third season acquired a distinct vision and after 57 episodes started answering some questions. And as it did so I couldn't help but grow apathetic to all of the characters and I'm not just talking about the few last episodes.
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However, that last twist, which surpassed my wildest expectations how the story would progress, made me curious about Attack on Titan again. In the end, that spurred me to go through the whole story to see how everything lines up with each other.
My generalized opinion on the story is under this giant wall of text.
In the second season the government found out that Eren possesses an ability to control Titans and now decides to make a strike: it accuses Erwin of abusing his power, arrests him, and orders other members of the Recon Scout to hand over Eren and Historia. The Recon Scout refuses to do so because in this case Eren would be eaten. The government sees it as an insurrection and dismantles their entire department. The Military Police and the Recon Scout had a tense relationship before but it's never escalated any further. The Recon Scout has been wasting a lot of human resources dealing with titans outside and it wasn't that peaceful inside the walls either: a reaper who kills dozens of Military Police members, drug dealers, human trafficking - and it's only the tip of the iceberg I assume; so the Military Police had their hands full as well. Neither department had spare resources to clash with each other but when they started the whole system somehow kept working. And it was pretty bizarre when no one in the Recon Scout has thought that sacrificing Eren is their best option, because their chance of winning is slim. In the end, Military Police with Kenny's help captures Eren and Historia. By the way, Kenny is a complete psycho, it's impossible to sympathize with him, but he sets the tone for this season for sure. In order to find Eren the Recon Scout resorts to the same method they despise the Military Police for - torturing, so now both departments have a lot of things in common.
Meantime, Eren is imprisoned in the Underground Chapel, he finds out that his titan ability is inherited from his father, who stole it from the royal family, and that that ability was used to alter memories and build the walls. In addition, Grisha also killed some members of the royal family and even though Historia's father was witness to that, Grisha could peacefully live within the walls and talk to the police. Eren is also told that his ability can be used only by the royals, which isn't true because Eren using it was the way you found out he possesses it. It was intended that Historia, who is a royalty, would inherent Eren's ability but she refuses, so her father decides to use Syringe on himself, which turns him into a titan. Eating other person is necessary to inherit their power but, for some reason, her father ignores Eren, which begs the question of how this procedure works, because in each case that happened before and will happen after the titan would always eat that person.
Erwin believes that overthrowing the current monarch is the only way for the Recon Corps to win. He's also partly motivated by his father's death, who was killed for doubting the extinction of humans outside the walls by the government. So he's motivated to proof to himself that the current government is not representative and his father death is unjustified. Before being imprisoned he teams up with the commander of the Garrison and during his judgment a solder misinforms the governors about a wall breach. The coincidental timing doesn't surprise them, they believe it and refuse to evacuate the locals with an excuse that it would lead to a commotion. They could conduct a partial evacuation as they did when Wall Maria was breached and also now they have means of controlling titans but no. Their inability to read the room makes other commanders to turn their back on the governors and the king, and then arrest them.
The first cour ends with obliteration of Historia's father, who acquired the nature of a titan, and establishing that Eren's ability to control titans doesn't work at will. The preparation for the next operation begins and it includes two objectives: retaking the outer sector and then investigating the basement; there are a lot problems here. Gaining control over Wall Maria consists of just patching the holes with the hardening ability and killing the titans inside. This doesn't include restraining of Reiner and Bertolt, who breached the walls in the first place and it won't be hard for them to do it as many times as they'll wish. There is a counter-argument that fighting against them is a part of the objective, because now they have thunder spears as a strategy against the Armored Titan and, unfortunately, in this case they are destined to loose as they already did in the second season. They don't have a strategy against the Colossal Titan's steam, maybe they'll also have to fight against Ymir or the Ape Titan, and on top of that they'll have a disadvantage of fighting on the enemy's territory. Second, there are no reasons to not execute these two objectives simultaneously: the main force retakes Wall Maria and keeps the titans busy, while a small group of people retrieves the information from the basement. In a worst-case scenario the accomplishment of at least one objective is guaranteed and the basement could potentially have some useful information that would help in retaking the sector.
In contrast to the expedition from the first season where a special formation was introduced to traverse through infested with titans lands, this time the offensive force is going to the Shiganshina district like a caravan consisting of merchants. It could have been fine because they're moving at night, when the majority of titans are dormant, they also have a map; however, they don't have a compass, and navigation with the help of landmarks is impossible during the night, but whatever. During the sealing the corps gets ambushed and divided into two groups: the first one is fighting against the Colossal and Armored Titans and the second group is protecting horses necessary for retreating from a... boulder bombardment?! Digging trenches is too advanced technique for them so the second group chooses to stand still and wait for the volley that will sweep them. Erwin decides to sacrifice the remnants of horses and solders to distract the Ape Titan, while Levi will be annihilating it. Erwin willingly agrees to lead the soldiers even if it means that he will never investigate the basement, and it is completely out of his character because he is on this battlefield only for this reason. It probably shows that he's not as cold-hearted as he thought of himself, nevertheless, it still doesn't make sense because he could've been the one who would've offered to accomplish those 2 objective simultaneously; he would've been in the charge of the group who just needs to take the shit out of the basement and then return to the HQ and, thus, putting himself in less danger as Levi wanted. And in case his character development is necessary here: after he investigated the basement, Erwin feels empty because that knowledge didn't bring back his late father and being right about the government doesn't make him satisfied, so he either starts to care about people surrounding him or he sacrifices himself during the aforementioned distraction as a punishment for being so foolish and egoistic. In summary, these outcomes much more line up with his motivation the anime itself established. The battle of Wall Maria ends: the Colossal Titan is eaten and Reiner is severely injured, so they've got like 10 or so hours till he regenerates and can breach the wall again. Levi asks Eren for the location of his house, which is funny because it hints that Eren didn't tell it beforehand and if Eren and Mikasa didn't make it through the second objective would've never been accomplished or at the very least they would have wasted days combing through the city ruins.
The last few episodes reveal a lot of important information and also turn the sieve of the story into dust. The group finds a photograph in the basement, which serves as another evidence that humans outside the walls are still alive and the king used his titan ability to erase that information from the memories of almost all citizens. In that case, why was the Recon Scout established in the first place if their goal is venturing outside the walls. There is a chance they'll find other humans and they did - Grisha was found and taken inside. But neither he nor soldiers that found him were killed as the opposite to what the government did to Erwin's father. The whole memory thing seems dumb because sooner or later people would find out those secrets anyway, but I don't want to concentrate on such things because humans don't behave rationally all the time. Grisha is Eldian just like every citizen inside the walls. Their race is currently being oppressed by another country - Marley - for more than 100 years because an Eldian ancestor made a pact with the Devil and had used that power to oppress other races until Marleyans fought them back. 100 years is long enough for people to forget about the crimes some other nation committed and start organizing political movements for their rights or use modern medicine to cure that 'curse', but nope, Marleyans are still treating Eldians like garbage even after 100 years. Although, we can assume that Eldians have stopped being humans since the day of making a pact, and, therefore, Marleyans don't feel any sympathy. That assumption has one critical flaw: Eldians are still acting like humans and are able of critical thinking, even those who possess titan abilities; they don't commit crimes just because they are Eldians. The only exception are titans who don't possess titan abilities but the only one who turns them into titans is the Marleyan government itself, Eldians don't do it on their own.
This process is a severe Marleyan punishment of Eldians for something like overthrowing the Marleyan government or attempting to restore the Eldian Empire. Grisha and his group are accused of the latter, so they are sent to Paradis Island, the same island where the Eldian capital was established, where they are about to get turned into titans. But Grisha gets saved in the last moment by the leader of the group, he also gives Grisha a mission to inherit his power, infiltrate the Eldian capital, and also inherit the titan ability of the royal family. Grisha agrees but the inheritance happens off-screen, so it's not clear how Grisha could remember all of that, keeping in mind that people don't usually remember what happened several hours before, but hey, maybe Owl left a note. As mentioned, sending Eldians away to the island and turning them into titans is a severe punishment, Marleyans don't do it to keep the capital in check, which begs the question of why there are so many titans on this island. That punishment is pretty piquant by itself: Marleyans, who aren't in the best relationship with Eldians, are sending them away to Paradis Island, where the king has an ability to control all titans, so in other words, Marleyans are deliberately reinforcing the army of a potential enemy. But maybe Marleyans don't deem it feasible because Paradis Island is too far away from Marley and is an island, to boot. Then why did the king promise to use the titans including those who are walls to attack Marleyans in the case of a new war; who are they going to attack, Bikini Bottom? Or was it just a bluff?
Upon the successful accomplishment of the operation the Recon Scout returns to the HQ and the newly established government decides to disclose any information about the past and the people outside the walls without issuing any statements or changing their external policy because why should they. And several months later the Recon Scout mounts another expedition, but this time there are no titans except for one they don't kill and it's not because they're sympathetic toward the people of their own race, they killed and tortured bunch of Eldians who were in Military Police after all. The scout gets to the sea and Eren looks at the horizon and ruminates about killing all people who traumatized him, showing he hasn't changed at all since the very first episode. Aaaand the credits roll. Haaaaaaaaaaaah.
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Despite all of that "rant" or "nitpicking" as some may call it, I could've forgotten about the majority of those inconsistencies and wouldn't have payed that much heed to the rest of them. In contrast, if someone wrote something similar about an anime they didn't enjoy it would mean it ended up on their list of the worst stories, but I have only two major complains about the story: the character writing and the storytelling. Attack on Titan didn't do a good job of making me care about the characters in the previous seasons and the third season exacerbated it. Every character now suffers from the same problem like in some Western crime drama: they all are gloomy and pensive, they ceased to have any personality or depth and these who aren't sad are psychos who enjoys killing and torturing. That is a pattern every character follows to the T; in the first season they were making fart jokes ( literally ), and now they are sterile. The only exception is probably Sasha, who was playing a role of a relief character in early seasons, and now, in contrast, she feels more human than anyone else. Unfortunately, she has only 5 minutes of screentime here. The second thing is a modern trend of subverting expectations and I've already experienced some media ( e.g. Nier Replicant ) where in the middle or nearer to the end of the story some crazy twist flips it on its head, so I decided to break down the whole story ( I already regret it ) to see if it's done so the viewers would forget about the plot holes. In short, yes. And instead of initially building a good story with the main theme of discrimination and oppression, a lot of effort was put into creating that feeling of surprise, which led to the kind of stuff I wrote above and not only in this season. Off the top of my head, I can remember that Eren was eaten during his first assignment, but that titan didn't inherit his power. As I already said I don't care about such small things and I would rather be fed to a titan than make an analysis of the previous seasons.
The action sequences were good in the first season, they were good in the second season, and they are still good if not better. The issue I have with cg is how specific they are about where to use it: in one scene a titan can be full cg but in the next scene where only his leg is shown it's hand-drawn. Maybe the studio believed they did a good job blending 3d and 2d, but in reality they didn't, so only this thing is jarring not cg itself. I also glad they split this season into 2 cours because there were no pacing issues. On the other hand, masterfully executed fight scenes accentuate how much less effort was put into everything else. Constant inner monologue explaining motivations of characters, or even worse, explaining what just happened even if the animation conveyed it very well, lackluster shot composition during dialogue, and frequent flashbacks that constantly were ruining the immersion. Wit tried to appeal to shonen audience and didn't think about making the show cinematic on the whole, which probably wasn't a mistake from a financial perspective. The OPs and EDs are still solid and the Red Swan op is probably my favorite. I put this OST above the second season ost but it doesn't eclipse the ost from the first season, though.
I would definitely have liked Attack on Titan more if I had watched at the time the third season came out, the expectation wouldn't have been that high and I wasn't picky about shows I watched. Now my taste has changed and I tired of the 'people are bad' narrative that oozes from every side of a political compass and now mainstream shows are also doing this. The characters didn't feel real and neither of the conflicting sides agreed to talk to each other, so they decided to reach the piece by killing each other until "only one human remains".
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 13, 2024
Zom 100 is an anime about a zombie apocalypse and, at the same time, isn't about a zombie apocalypse. As contradicting as it may be sound, it makes sense acknowledging that zombie apocalypse, at some point, turned from a genre into a formula every show seems to follow to the T. That formula has gotten so stale so choosing it as a premise is akin to admitting one's own unoriginality. Zom 100, on the other hand, straight up ignores all tropes and oozes with creativity in comparison to media of the same genre and even to anime in general.
As every other show about zombies
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the story begins slightly before the calamity. The main character Akira works his ass off for a company sacrificing his both physical and mental health. Constant overworking, an abusive boss, unreasonable demands from clients make Akira treasure every moment he is at home to the extent of depriving himself of precious sleep, because falling asleep means waking up next day and going to work. And a lack of confidence in finding a new job compels him to stay at the company to the very end. There is no surprise he treats the catastrophe as a salvation, it finally breaks the vicious cycle after all, even though without his consent. If it was some other anime, the main character would die from overworking and would be reincarnated in another world, so props to the author for originality.
So after the zombie apocalypse happened, how does the anime handles striving for survival, searching for a vaccine, attempts to recreate civilization, or emotional moments like when a character finds out that their best friend or relative was bitten and they are about to turn? Basically, it doesn't. Of course, because of the genre some bits of these are still present in some form but the main focus is on a different thing. Akira just accepts that he probably can't survive for long enough and decides to spend the time he was given doing staff he always wanted. So the story is episodic and bearing in mind that, first, the premise is quite original for anime and, second, there is a reason for him to goof around in the middle of the apocalypse and also how good many arcs are executed make the story really enjoyable. The rest of the main cast is good for the same reason: they have distinct personalities, so every of them sees the collapse of civilization differently. The only moments the story falls short is when the show presents a conflict between characters. In my opinion, it's far less fun, especially the final arc where the antagonists are a bunch of edgy teenagers, who are angry at the world and use the state of chaos to inflict even more damage just for the sake of it.
The first episode is the best first episode of last year and the best first episode of anime I've watched. It got everything: amazing animation, smooth transitions, black and white color palette representing the mental state of the protagonist, black bars showing how confided the world around him is, and amazing cinematography. The only missing thing is dismembering by those black bars. That's how you make a good first episode instead of just stacking several episodes together until it gets feature movie long. The other episodes aren't that stellar, though, so it's a glaring step-down but they are still good overall. CG is fine but it really stands out how less detailed something like cg cars are, it's a zombie apocalypse, god dammit, add some dents and scratches. I want to mention voice acting, specifically Beatrix's seiyu: her Japanese accent is pleasing to listen. The opening is unique because up to a certain episode it uses the visuals from a previous episode in order to avoid spoilers, I wish every other anime did the same.
Zom 100 is a perfect example of a show that is fun and, at the same time, have a deeper meaning behind it, and the production quality is great as well. I don't sure, however, if it will keep delivering the same quality, given that the first cour already has weaker arcs. Maybe those narrative-driven arcs will be executed better in the future and the bucket list didn't get repetitive, to boot, so there is a hope.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 5, 2024
Ruroni Kenshin is considered to be one of the greatest shonen series even despite all negative information about the author. Plus, the fact that an old show is still talked about made me intrigued because it usually means that a show did something really outstanding for its time. However, an anime I watched has nothing like that and either it is a bad adaptation or the show gets better after 40 episodes or maybe the fame of the franchise is the result of pure nostalgia.
The story itself is too simple: the anime doesn't try to use the full potential of the themes it presents, the
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characters don't undergo any changes, and it is episodic. These are properties of any simple story and what makes feel like a children story is a narrator that butts in and explains primitive stuff like what the opium is. The story was too primitive for me to be fully invested and the story structure didn't help. Episodic format is good for creating diverse situations and maintaining good pacing and Ruroni Kenshin partially succeeds in it but its every arc lasts only several episodes and it was underwhelming how every conflict was resolved. There is one character, who is really pissed on the government for what it did 10 years ago and he has been planning to overthrow it since then. And the only thing it took to stop him is to talk to him; it's cheep to think that you can really convince a person to stop doing something they've been doing for years. And every other arc concludes in the similar anticlimactic way.
The show did a good job in portraying the early Meiji era. That was a significant period in Japanese history that led to drastic changes in law, culture, and politics. And seeing it all shown in the anime was the only thing I fully enjoyed. This setting also presents a great opportunity to create compelling villains, who would refuse to accept a new government and, thus, acknowledge only the old law. Nevertheless, the villains are still cartoonish as hell and even if sometime they are motivated by the political changes it never becomes the central part of a conflict. Every other character is also simple as villains with the exception of Kenshin Himura, who has a background of a successful warrior. In the end he becomes a pacifist but the anime doesn't give any details why it happened neither it provides any philosophical background for the decision.
The animation outside the battles looks good in general and during the battles it can range from acceptable to just fine but never exceptional, so in comparison to modern shonen the animation looks dated. The ost again is good but none of the tracks is memorable. The OPs and EDs are worth skipping: uninspiring songs and even more uninspiring visuals.
I don't see any reason to make a remake of the original Ruroni Kenshin, if the goal wasn't to put everything in animation. It has an episodic format, which was perfect for 2000s but not now; the fight scenes isn't on a par with modern shonen as well. It's still going to appeal to the fans of the og show and to people who wanted to watch RK for whatever reason and now the modern filler-free version is available.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 20, 2023
The first season of Attack on Titan presented a unique world, which was unfortunately put on the back burner putting emphasis on action scenes. The second season's got a chance to elaborate on the world and the characters. In practice, it is just more of the same with some polishing. The most notable difference is sprinkled elements of black comedy. The characters in the first season were usually dying in pretty gruesome way, this season, in contrast, uses timings to make every death look ridiculous.
Surprisingly enough, the second season barely mentions any characters that were in the spotlight in the previous season. This arc is
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mainly focused around Ymir, Krista, and a couple of other characters. Eren also continues play a significant role and after the development he's got at the end of the last season he isn't as dull as he was before. But speaking of another four aforementioned characters, I really struggled to understand the motivation behind their actions. Attack on Titan now keeps in secret not only the lore but the backstories of the characters as well. With all that mysterious plot, I can't think of story anything but pretentious, and it surprises me that I need to use this word describing a mainstream show. The characters are talking about having no choice or having a traumatic background. But out of context it's hard to sympathize with them because their actions are bizarre if not psychopathic. Ymir is the only character that at least has a brief backstory, which feels like an exposition dump in comparison to everything else.
As this season was going the expected for a sequel way I had some time to muse on the story as a whole and, unfortunately, sometimes it falls apart. The kingdom uses the walls as a defense strategy, which isn't very effective in the real world but it works when your enemy is brain-dead giants. However, the first season demonstrates that some titans possess human intelligence, so why had the kingdom not been attacked for more than 100 years, or why after that were there years between several attacks if the titans crave the extinction of humanity? Also there is no point to waste money on the reckon/scout corps, because they have hardly achieved anything for 100 years: neither they found out the origins of the titans, nor they figured out their intentions. Their every expedition leads to great human looses and bears no fruit, why would I respect them more than the military police, which at least doesn't treat humans as disposable resources. Marlowe, the guy who wanted to reform the MP, I don't even remember him being mentioned in this season.
From a technical perspective the second season looks the same. The pacing has been significantly improved, there are fewer recap segments and none of them is 3 minutes long. There are more soundtracks in this season than in the previous season, which was two times longer, so no more ost repetition, nevertheless, I personally still prefer the first season ost. Also I gained more information about the lore from the ED than from the show's storytelling.
This season is extremely safe sequel, it does everything you expect from a sequel but nothing more. I didn't want repeat my previous review, so I decided to concentrate on flaws, which can also be attributed to the first season as well. In the end, the strength of Attack on Titan so far is unexpected plot twists and crazy-ass actions, and for that reason it remains enjoyable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 10, 2023
Maybe it's just a me thing but I hardly can compare modern anime originals to anime adaptations, they even have a dedicated category on different anime awards. There can be really good ones but nothing can't hold a candle to adaptations, because taking already a popular material and adapting it is safer than do everything from scratch. Psycho Pass is an example of an original anime that has a right to compete on equal terms, but there is something I really need to get off my chest.
The story takes place in the city, where its every citizen lives by relying on the Sybil System also
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referred as Panopticon. It is similar to Orwell's vision of dystopia, where every action or even thought is observed by the system. The quality of world building and storytelling were keeping surprising me throughout the entire show: every time I noticed some plot hole the show slapped me back with new information completely eliminating any discrepancies. The anime even managed to solve the problem of responsibility: if a society was controlled by A.I. who would take responsibility for the possible mistakes A.I. would make from time to time; and even if that model of A.I. was perfect, it would still need a period of time to build and test it. Here will be no details how they did it but it more complicated and, at the same time, more straightforward.
The main characters are employees of the department responsible for investigation and persecution of criminals. Their hierarchy is built upon the system's assessment of a personality and exposure to criminals negatively affects that assessment, therefore, some people with a low rating serve to do all dirty work. Akane starts working there fresh out of college, when her colleges including the low-ranks also know as Enforcers have been working there for a while and almost every of them has their backstory about how they ended up in the bureau. Initially, I wasn't invested but after seeing their chemistry and the development of some of them, they've eventually grown on me. Also, given the world the show presents, it would be a waste not to make a compelling villain with the motivation of not a rebellious teenager, however, with all moral ambiguity it's hard to know villains from heroes.
**THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS ENDING SPOILERS**
Up until the final episode it seemed that everything would to be resolved and the sequel would about different characters and in a different city or it would be about the events before the main story line. In reality the ending is open and I don't have issues with that, but the ending undermines everything the anime has done for the past 21 episodes. You see, this world is a dystopia, where people can't choose their own future, where people with a low rating are cooped up for mandatorily treatment for life; in the first episode there is a woman who gets abducted and raped, and after rescuing her the system assigns her a low rating out of her high level of stress, and thus, possible irrational actions (I wonder why) and allows an Enforcer to execute her on site. Nevertheless, Akane gets convinced that the Sybil System is a benefit to society because in contrast to other countries where there are murders and riots something like that would never happen in this city... wait a second. And keeping in mind the regularity of crimes, uncensored sources of information, and mistakes in predictions the Sybil System makes now and then, I'm surprised how the government has been able to exist for so long.
The show came out in 2012 so it wouldn't be fair to compare it with the modern releases, especially with Heavenly Delusion from the same studio; it looks decent by today's standards, so I guess it was mindblowing back then. It also has some bits of visual storytelling but it's few and far between. The OPs and EDs, on the other hand are goddamn bangers, as well as the visuals of the OPs with a lot of foreshadowing and these bits of visual storytelling, the second opening had a hard time to compete against TK, though, but I think bright color palette mitigated that. The ost is pretty good too.
Psycho Pass has brought up several times the question: what a crime is; in my opinion, a crime is any violation of the law, nevertheless, the law is created by humans and it constantly changes with the development of mankind and the problem occurs when the system responsible for designing it is detached from the rest of people. The show has really amazing story, good characters, and elaborated world building and, for some reason, the ending doesn't match up to any of these. The ending ditches that question and instead the main theme is a history cycle and conformists not able to break it, apparently. The importance of an ending everyone decides for themselves and it also depends on the show. Personally the ending was pretty whack if not shitty but I still enjoyed everything else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 30, 2023
The first season of Attack on Titan puts fun into the center. This is a type of show you wouldn't regret binging on the weekend or recommending it to someone. Having finished it I now understand why so many people consider it the best gateway anime, even if it's not their favorite. It's addicting, it doesn't require much experience of watching anime or other media, and doesn't have taxing elements like a complicated world building or power system.
The first cour is tightly focused around the protagonist, Eren Jaeger, who, in my personnel opinion, is the least memorable among the main lineup. He has pure unquestionable
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moral views, his main goal is revenge, and even the anime says that he doesn't have any outstanding talents aside from the passion to become stronger. The latter cour, which switches between multiple characters and their different perspectives, fixes it, and for that reason alone I liked it more. The characters introduced in the second cour are more colorful and diverse than the first cour characters, where the majority of them are students. But in their defense, they also get better in the second cour, including Eren's mates, who initially gave me the wrong first impression. Many characters will die very quickly, nevertheless, the show isn't as gruesome or devastating as Made in Abyss for example, simply because their deaths are used to convey the omnipotence of the titans rather than the cruelty of the world.
The setting with the wall and titans is a clear reference to the Great Wall of China, where the Chinese also built a wall to protect themselves from the people much taller than them. Let's forget for a moment that walls isn't a reliable defense strategy; in order to stay fun Attack on Titan sacrifices the world building and dedicates a lot of attention to the fantastic action scenes. But the price of these action scenes is high and the anime pays for them with its pacing. The first cour is action heavy, nevertheless, it feels slow because the space between action sequences is filled with static, to be more specific - needless exposition through dialog. There are also summery sequences at the beginning of each episode that can last up to 3 minutes. The situation improves during the story orientated episodes, though. Another personal gripe: the show quite generously places glaring red flags like 10 seconds before that event happens, I understand this is a shonen and the target audience probably won't notice, but c'mon.
As I already mentioned, the battles with dynamically moving camera are breathtaking, can't imagine how they pulled that off in 2013. I also like the design of the titans, who are quirky and terrifying at the same time, and the visual style with muted colors and thicc outlines. The OPs and the EDs are just fine in contrast to everything else, but this a type of complain that it's good but not great. The ost is done by Sawano and his name says about the quality more than I'd ever say. It's also interesting to see the evolution of his style and "Sawano drops" in particular. But what's the deal with the names of the tracks, they are cursed, man.
Attack on Titan is a perfect balance between the captivating story and the colorful characters. It does everything to be entertaining, at that, it sets the foundation for the future seasons. However, there is still room for improvement, which, I hope, will be done in the next seasons.
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Watching the highly acclaimed, popular show way later it came out looks like a hipster's attempt to prove everyone they're not a hipster and they aren't afraid of watching mainstream. But in reality Attack on Titan caught my interest back in 2019 with the announcement of "the final" season. And I thought I just wait until the anime adaptation is finished, didn't expect it would take 82 years. Kept me waiting, huh.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 14, 2023
The first episode of Pluto caught me off-guard. There are no OPs or EDs, the protagonist is a middle-aged man, it's set outside Japan, and this and further episodes are 1 hour long. Pluto has definitely much in common with western tv shows, however, it still has a lot of elements that are usually attributed to anime. And I am still to this day uncertain about my opinion as well as the show is uncertain about its origins.
From the get-go Pluto presents a murder mystery, but I didn't notice any investigations or twists in the first half. The detective's just visiting the possible targets and
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warning them. The whole mystery affects the story in an anticlimactic way by killing some characters in the first half and then in the second half having some bits of interrogation. In the end, characters solve the mystery off-screen and then provide the viewers with the answers.
The anime also doesn't focus on a specific characters, depending on the circumstances, the show switches from one character to another. These character arcs badly need extra screen time, they feel short and detached from the main story. As I already mentioned Pluto is set outside Japan but it's not based around a single country, so the arcs take place in different countries including Japan. Characters in anime usually speak only in Japanese or Engrish even if it is an anime about Vikings, so I cut Pluto some slack here, but there is absolutely no difference between nations. Sci-fi genre can change the world in any possible way, but given that architecture and national languages are still present, the cultural homogeneity is more an overlook rather than a conscious choice. It's even more noticeable if you look at the design of the robots: every one of them is inspired by Japanese vision of sci-fi e.g. the destroyed Swiss robot, for some reason, is a precise copy of Tetsujin 28-go.
The only outstanding aspect in the show I can think of is the presented take on the transitional state between an android and human. Most androids are programmed to behave in a specific way, nevertheless, some androids are allowed to choose their own personality but it would take ages to brootforce all 9 billion personalities. In that case androids are accommodated with irrational emotions to take the burden of rational choice off. But the ability to act irrational barely makes them humans, maybe more alive but these are different things. And only in case when instead of rejecting these feelings and trying to get back into the comfort state of being a machine, an android chooses to deal with these emotions, it can be considered a human.
This adaption has no technical issues at all, but in the current era where every popular manga get at least a decent adaptation in contrast to how it used to be 10 years ago where every anime adaptation was a coin flip Pluto has nothing fascinating whatever it's the ost, fights, or cinematography, maybe only the backgrounds have some of beauty.
So yeah I feel conflicted about my feelings: Pluto has a good meta narrative and the lackluster story and characters. I also want to give a shutout to Netflix for choosing/approving the poster that spoils some key plot moments.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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