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Would recommend…. mostly

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is named the prequel of Jujutsu Kaisen, yet fulfills a different role. Instead of shedding light on “how we got here”, it's a movie worth of buildup for the character Yuta, a Jujutsu sorcerer who is in the same class as the second years Maki, Inumaki, and Panda, and for one of the major villains in the main story, both characters promised to show up later in the show. A completely cannon movie that works as a plug-in to the main franchise, it contains substance that most shounen movies do not have. Furthermore, adapted by MAPPA, and with the same ... writing team and directors as the cannon story, It was sure to succeed the manga variant, yet surprisingly it didn’t.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 adapts the manga counterpart almost identically, albeit a couple extra scenes which were handled well. While this is a strange thing to criticize it for, the manga for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was not formatted amazingly for a screen adaptation. It jumped around quite a bit, and really only focused on developing the characters Yuta and Geto, great development, but the surrounding story clunky and weird. The story was cut and paste, chapters taking place after large periods of time, and little substance aside from pure focus on Yuta. Half the scenes were under 2 minutes and were literally just jabbed together, containing at least 5 substantial time skips and 3 missions in its 1h 45 minute runtime. I was expecting MAPPA to add quite a lot more flesh and development to the movie, like scenes with the other characters, or more background information and buildup(like they did with jujutsu kaisen’s main story), but not much was changed. They added a few character cameo’s, a couple of extra fights, and cool animation, but nothing really substantially speaking.

Yet, I still recommend, the source materials' strength bleeding into its final product and saving the rather weak story. While the presentation of the source material was done rather strangely, the character development, and the subtle things that anime studio’s can do competed to a manga were ever present. The animation was constantly great, and the music was rather decent. The direction left more to be desired, and the final fight felt shallow, but the core story was a good one. It was not written like a shounen movie add-on until the final fight(which was like 50% filler) and the story outclasses in writing quality, most to just about all of what is currently adapted of JJK.

I do recommend, but know that it is far from a narrative masterpiece.

(Also, Regal I want my money back. I was never given the limited edition, promotional movie booklet, the whole reason I watched it so early and at the movies)

“Humanity Isn't Going Down That Easily. Two Million Years Of Human History Is Right Here Inside Me."

Dr. Stone is a hard sci-fi series that tells its tale in moments of extremity and comedy, logic and science, emotion and ideas. Drawn by Boichi, and written by Inagaki, the story focuses on the ideals of a single person to save the entire human race with nothing but science. A tale of mystery, but also adventure and war, Dr. Stone takes Minecraft society simulations to another level, and produces an extremely satisfying product to read, its end sparking many a feeling in its readers. 

The story takes place ... in a world that has seemingly lost all its advancement. After 3700 years of humans encased in stone, the first human breaks free from his dormant state and see’s the world, at least what’s left of it. A landscape drawn with such captivating horror surrounds him, a world back where life started, full of trees, wildlife and no human inventions. Animals roam freely, the skyline is clear, and a world with a completely different landscape, an earth that seems to have reset. Most scary of all, each and every human has been turned to a stone statue, which, when you break reveals that even their insides have completely turned into stone, a phenomenon that modern science cannot explain. Following the scientific genius, we witness his journey to save the world and bring it back to its original state, will nothing but the knowledge in his head. 

However the story isn’t nearly as simple as that, and Boichi does what Boichi does best, writing some extremely human characters. While Inagaki’s writings were what crafted the story, Boichi’s technical and character-driven hand places its touch on characters as seen in his previous work Origin. Characters who are brought back realize the splendor of the new earth and fight to keep it this tranquil place. Products of the previous world they refuse to let the world sink to what it used to do and instead create the ideal society. Wars of science and brute force break out, as conflicting ideas clash, and the greater scientist is guaranteed victory. 

You come to realize certain facts about human nature and how people operate and think. The story focuses on societies and how the world operates, as well as the main characters. As different socies are explored, different ideas are introduced, and different people are introduced, the story becomes larger and more expansive and their projects increase in their crazy nature. However, these ideals and moments are the background and the basis of all arcs, the surface level story a light-hearted comedy.  Yet, a good amount of time is withholding these tranquil scenes and emotional moments for the best times and for extremely well-drafted scenes. 

What also carries the show is how realistic the show is in how things develop, and how the science keeps getting more and more absurd to carry out, in a world that has nothing but stick and stones. Inagaki, with each arc doesn’t hold back, bringing a great number of different kinds of antagonist, requiring a degree of science that keeps increasing, but in creative ways. The wit and creativity of the science inventions and projects never fails, creating rising stakes, but also a degree of intrigue in what scientific invention is to be explored next. Bombs don’t get bigger or even created, paper is, missiles aren’t shot, chemical formulas are thrown. 

However the story isn’t perfect, neither does it adopt the tone of Origin. The story has 1 large issue in its writing, and that is the story arcs in the first half. A background story of stopping the stone petrification and finding the source is there, and the themes lay heavily inside the often jovial and comedic manga. The story does a great job organically integrating this larger plot into the smaller arcs, but the basic plots of each arc, while executed extremely well, lack a lot.

Spending a whole arc gathering resources to solve pneumonia, saving a damsel in distress, were both arcs that suffered from an issue that the whole story faced. Pacing. The story was a mess of pacing, where years took place in a chapter, where 50 chapters were a couple days, where a whole character arc over years took place in a chapter. The first half suffers from pacing that stretches the arcs too long, arcs that are nothing but to setup the endgame that the last 100 chapters provide. Furthermore, the first half while really enjoyable and full of special moments, doesn’t prepare you for the tonal shift and the seriousness of the second half, and instead provided a light-hearted mystery that was an enjoyable read, with series elements. 

The second half is a perfect combination of Origin and the first half of Dr. Stone, where the stakes feel extremely real, and the light-hearted story with darker elements, becomes a story that has both light and darker elements. It’s a perfect blend, where the final 100 chapters flow so organically and without a hitch that reading it week to week was nothing but an uphill ride of excitement. 

The art is drawn by the Korean photographer, graphic designer, and one of the best artistic designers Boichi. The Characters while enveloped in comedy, each have realistic traits, moments and stories that they go through the story, creating an incredibly real cast of characters. The only thing that they suffer from is being forgotten, characters after their arcs, cast away, and often never seen again. The story and path of science is explored almost perfectly, and the main character, though seemingly a genius, seemingly the perfect guy shows small cracks, small moments that really develop him.

Dr. Stone is worth the read and following the 10th volume is nothing but a fantastic ride of a story. Thank you Boichi and Inagaki for this wonderful story.

(Currently, read 2 of the light novels. Halfway through the third currently)

The Hidden Dungeon that only I can enter is best described as combining a children’s story or fairy tale with ecchi. It's not bad, in fact the writing is solid, it's just that there is nothing compelling or particularly special about the story that makes you think, “I really like this”. The first book follows the fairy tale diagram and plot points to a tee, simplistic yet still interesting in nature.
 
As someone who came in with tempered expectations after hearing about the anime, the first book was a pleasant surprise. Nothing amazing, but ... nothing poor either. The Hidden Dungeon that only I can enter follows our main protagonist who is part of an extremely poor family. After finding out that his job is no longer accepting him and his life generally sucks, he decides to go questing to a dungeon, where he stumbles upon a woman in a dungeon who grants him her powers. This is the light at the end of the tunnel and realizing he can become an adventurer, he applies for the hero school, and it follows him there and through a larger plot point later. It’s a light, and rather average read, akin to a book you would read in year 5 in terms of writing quality. However, unlike those stories that contained implausibilities upon reread, these are not found, and instead just a rather solid and childish book in nature.  Again I must compare it to a fairy tale with how the dialogue and the story flows. 

The only issue with the franchise lies in the continuations, the books following the first story. Lacking a larger plot each book is quite literally an entirely different book, and while the first book had a rather decent plot, the other books feel both unnecessary and have no convincing plot nor reason to enjoy. Similar to Geronimo Stilton where each book was a one-off, it lacks in what made Geronimo Stilton successful, the inclusion of different worlds. Geronimo stilton in each book would recreate the world and his beginning issues with its introduction, before exploring an entirely new world or part of their world, before coming back and solving these issues. However the Hidden Dungeon that Only I can Enter, simply takes the fairy tale ending of everything being successful, and then explores mostly the same areas with a minor event happening midway through acting as the plot, before transforming into a slice of life. However it also lacks what makes slice-of-life stories work, interesting/new character interactions creating a literal slice of someone’s easy life, with no serious conflict. 

However the story isn’t bad, just a simple and light read. The first book is quite good, and the rest is readable, never painful, but at times grueling to read. Furthermore, the first book wraps up everything quite nicely, allowing you to read the first book with really good closure.

Destiny Lovers, or Desuraba, was a manga that’s first four volumes were incredible, containing some of the best tags applied in the most creative and hilarious manners. The fifth volume had its mistakes, but it was still decent, however, the 6th through the 8th were consistently bad, adding the unattractive older male tag, and the brainwash tag, finishing with a clearly axed ending.  A series of highs and lows it was generally either in a high or a low, rarely a mix, and its first arc was both ironically and unironically amazing. 

Destiny Lovers is an extremely good ecchi manga that actually uses its ecchi ... in an enjoyable manner, and cares so much about its story. Opening up with the main character in a prison cell surrounded by five other males, they all seem to be suffering with some sort of short-term memory loss. None of them know why they might be there, until they find out that they all have one thing in common. Their Purity. Furthermore, a group of 5 women are trying to rob them of it. It’s the kind of opening that is a red flag, yet the story pulls off the plot in a manner of extremism, creating ridiculous scenarios, hilarious circumstances, and some actually good and real characters in the process. It’s a series that works due to the irony, and extremism, almost not taking itself seriously, yet still builds up an actual mystery that works and happens in the background. 

What drives the story is the question why the characters are in a facility, combined with the malicious intent of the girls, and a chance to escape to outside world. Hints have been dropped why they are in such situations, but nothing big enough, and the story perfectly balances action and thinking times. Each “episode” is followed by “theory time”, as the characters bring up small details and hints that they discovered. Subplots are developed, and while the story acts like prison school in its tendencies, care and attention are deliberately placed outside of the ecchi, creating a compelling story to go along with it. The ecchi scenes are also really well done, as they are creative, develop the characters for future scenes, and reveal information that we learn in “theory time.” Furthermore, the length of the first arc is perfect, just long enough to develop and establish the whole circumstances and mystery while staying fresh and never having a repetitive section. The first arc is exactly 50 chapters, each roughly 12-15 pages long (compared to the weekly 20-22 pages long), and ends on a low high note. However good things never last.

I rated Destiny Lovers a 9 at first, but the last arc was so bad, that it dragged the manga completely down. While I recommend the first half, the second half should be ignored.

First, the second arc is bad at the core, not to mention the external factors. As I previously mentioned, what made the first half so good was that the story was necessary, to the point, and used a tale of extremism so as not to ruin and ruin the immersion of its borderline dumb and ecchi story. However, the second arc has literally no reason to exist, a massive flaw that bites it in the back. While the first arc at first could be argued the same way, it used a subplot, mystery, and stakes to divert that train of thought, and focus on other parts of the storytelling. However, the second arc has none of that, with a start that starts as mediocre as the beginning but never uses anything to actually bring retention. The mystery and intrigue that the story contained disappear when no mystery is present anymore, exposition dumps by their “captors” telling them all they need to know. The story also ruins the ecchi by making ecchi moments between the people mandatory to survival, creating ecchi and not so kind scenes, adding the unattractive older male tag with one who acts, looks, and works in that manner. Combine this with a completely new cast of characters that the author never explores(except for the unattractive older male) and the story falls into pain that contains only few decent moments, and a plethora of bad scenes.

Finally, the ending has much to be said or rather ranted upon. Pulling every Dues Ex Machina that was possible only in the extremist half and then taking it seriously, hurts the storytelling and finale as a whole. Furthermore, it pulls the offscreen solution card, fine in other cases, but not in the situation that the story ends. Not with the number of plot threads that the second arc opened up and never explored nor mentioned when after they were used as cheap plot devices. 

Overall I would rate it a 4. The first 4 volumes were absolutely stunning and amazing, a hard ecchi series with care and detail put in its plot and characters. I do recommend reading the first half, as it is a solid 9. However, the second half not only ruins what makes the first half so good, but takes place in a completely different environment creating both a completely different style of story, and completely destroys the world and characters that the first arc made. Its almost infuriating, and I would recommend just reading spoilers, or a synopsis of what happens in the second arc, rather than actually reading it. Its that bad getting a rating of 4/10 from me.

The first episode was incredibly stunning. The second and third, a solid 4 out of 10, The fourth was an absolute train wreck, and while the following episodes had the large element that made the first episode so good, the show got bad extremely fast. Promising an intriguing mystery with supernatural aspects, and a dynamic similarly as lovable as In/Spectre, the show instead after the first episode not only disconnected itself from the world, but changed from a gripping mystery, to a bad slice of life detective show. Copious amounts of fanservice, 1 dimensional girls who like the mc because he is the mc, ... disconnected arcs, and lack on continuity further ruined the show, as well as changing what made the show so good, bad.
What made the first episode so stunning and encapsulating was the combination of logical but room to be explored supernatural elements, mysteries that were actually mysteries, a compelling narrative that was to be followed, interesting character dynamics, and a cliffhanger ending.
However, what the rest of the show brought were plain bad 4-year old level mysteries, bland and annoying harem elements, unnecessary fanservice, boring dialogue, and a main character who has to many relations, is good at too many things, and seems to be the smartest person alive, despite being built up as an everyday guy. Its boring, unnecessary, and almost feels like an insult to the first episode, as when the supernatural elements are brought up again, its just dumb and feels like a fanfiction written by a 10 year old who liked Naruto, full of spelling mistakes and dumb powerups.

Following the stellar first episode the storyline jumps between the past and the present, where the two main leads fight some villain organization that is never explained. However, those are the decent episodes. The majority of the show takes place after the poorly written detective superpower show with these high school fangirls of his each claiming to be geniuses, when in actuality just show skin to the main character, where their detective mysteries are expertly dumb. In episode 2 he helps this girl find a lover she was looking for in the by using alien tech(that is supposed to be super secret), straight off the heels of fighting monster aliens that hijacked on a flying plane with super powers in which they fought it out to barely survive. Their company is the good guys, yet they are the bad guys, and despite trying to keep an air of reality there is literally an episode where a werewolf captures the main character, turns into a girl who is the leader of the organization, who unsurprisingly likes the main character and takes him to her lair. From there she pulls out a mini Godzilla and shows it to the main character for absolutely no reason. Following that Siesta comes in a giant Mech(which apparently America had the whole time) fully equipped with missiles ,flying powers and superpowers in which her and the Godzilla battle it out in new York, destroy half the city, and then when the battle ends in their victory, nothing on the news is mentioned and New York is back together the next day as if nothing happened. And then to top it off, he is helping a Idol girl the next episode with stalker issues.

There is very little to say about the rest as no substance is retained. The female characters are all 1 dimensional, each appealing to a different male audience as they flirt and tease the main character in different manners, and relevant for fanservice and as waifu's for only newcomers to anime. Male characters are literally nonexistent outside the first episode(Check if you want to, the only other male character outside that a villain, coincidentally the 1/6 villains that is male), and the story is boring as the main character choses all these “mysteries” for no reason, aside to move the plot forward. The comedy almost never lands, the emotional moments are bland and overused, yet they spend to much time watching them cry, letting your thoughts drift to, how did this show even get here.

Every villain is Defeated due to talk no jutsu, and the animation is absolutely appalling. This is 7 deadly sins level of appalling. The Bland and dumb 15-minute fights that end in talk no Jutsu never have any decent Choreography buildup or logic in them, and so many frames and sequences are gritting to see.

A huge disappointment. The opening is really good, the animation in the first episode good, but lazy in all the other episodes. What made the first episode so good was what made all the other episodes bad, as whatever was good in the first episode, and there was a lot, went to the opposite extreme. I can’t bring myself to watch the show, and the only reason I have completed it is to write this review. Don’t even bother watching the first episode, as good as it is.

Erased but better.

Ore Ga Doutei wo sutetara shinu ken ni Tsuite is similar to Erased in both premise plot and execution. When the main character at 40 years of age dies to his old high school friend, he resets back to his high school days, where he tries to piece together exactly how he died and what lead up to it. While a lighthearted story near the beginning chapters the story defiantly starts to get deeper and breaks past the almost childish and simple but intriguing story that erased told, creating such a deeper narrative and characters. Exploring both the main characters future and present ... the story quickly changes from a story only about his friend, but about the main character, and 2 others.

The plot while simple and possibly cliché when first hearing it, is nothing but a vessel to develop characters, and create the narrative so that all the events could happen as they do. Truly a psychologically based manga, it takes a different approach from others. Instead of creating a psycho, sociopath, or some killer with deep rooted motivations, it brings possibly the most human, and realistically mature characters in the future, ones who have been through so much and see the world in a dark light, juxtaposed with their bright and cheerful interactions as high schoolers. Switching seamlessly between slice of life and seinin, the story’s concept while bringing almost nothing to the table sets up for some amazing characters.

The main character isn’t the best character I’ve seen by a long shot, but his past, or I should say future self, is so grim, so real, and the conversations so deep, that his few shortcomings are quickly forgiven with the creation of such a layered deep and mature character. Revealed in quite convenient chunks, the future character nonetheless and his interactions with his classmates, are full of solitude, unrest, and loneliness, as he wallows not only in guilt, past regrets, and a life that is exceedingly dull, but the struggles of living. The Female lead is also such a real and resounding character as often in these future “flashbacks” as she is the one who questions his methods, his morals, agreeing and disagreeing, bringing her unique lens, and also covered in a pit of solitude and guilt.

The story isn’t a murder mystery, and isn’t nearly as driven as Erased, flowing naturally, and smoothly never too slow, but at times quite fast. Time isn’t accentuated a lot in the manga(despite time travel a large part), more small simple interactions aimed to change the future at the forefront, so to fix cracks and repair relationships at the focus of attention. The mysteries at the beginning were quite dull, and the danger at times did feel quite plain, but the story did its job in keeping a semi-interesting plot and story. It gets better near the end but never gets amazing, the characters and backstories really the point of focus.

It’s a short read, the art is quite good, and all round good. Definitely worth the read.

Disclaimer: This series does contain sex scenes

Warikitta Kankei Desukara is a extremely real, raw, and depression riddled story about the toxic, and twisted nature of people and their motivations told through the excessively immoral relationship (the 18+ parts not the yuri)of a female teacher and a underage female student exploring their feelings and things like depression, belonging, loss, and being outcasted through heartbreaking dialogue, and expressive S*x scenes that are not there for pleasure but to show the character progressions and their most inner feeling only revealed during these intimate moments. The art is all-round incredible, the characters are so real it feels like you ... are actually reading a book, rather than a manga, and the story progresses so realistically as it hits on every note it needs to. For those looking for another thing to make their cry of feel things, this is perfect for you.


Possibly what makes the story so good, is not only the themes explored but the so very realistic and layered and complex characters that the story uses to explore these. Each character is their own character full of wrongs and rights, motivations and goals, where none of them are right, and each either develop or do not. The characters and story fall into the type of manga that does not feel like a manga but real people, and the writing skills to create such a diverse and complex characters must be commended. Many people from discussions I’ve read dislike the characters due to none of them being a perfectly moral characters, which is one of the draws as they are not supposed to be. However they aren’t like Redo of Healer characters who are bad and the scum of the earth for no reason, they are like that because they are so realistic and are complex and deep. These characters are not there because they are good, or are there to make you feel good. They are all people who cannot be forgiven and should not be forgiven.


The themes mentioned are not lightly touched upon or are brought up with a character, instead, the core of the tale explored through the characters, dialogue, and their actions. Written by someone who either has experienced or done a lot of research on these topics, the story nails each on tits head with its characters art and moments, and the overall message is not even for a page lost, as it stays true to its guns and methods. Each character brings a layer of it, and the combination and blending of them all together it makes the The theme and overall message is extremely well done, and feels so real and convincing as it may very leave a long lasting impact on how you see things. Its ending is not a happy one but a understandable and emotional one.


If you do have the slightest interest in the series, I do suggest that you do give it a shot. Its short, not dense to read, has some incredible art, and some fantastic characters and themes. Again this is not a sweet or wholesome tale to read, but real and raw, and its low score is possibly due to that, and the 18+ scenes that people misinterpret as yuri baiting.

There was this time when this manga had promise. There was some good development with the characters, some tear inducing scenes, and the characters had some fun interactions. But past chapter 166, after an emotional, and amazing arc concluded, the show resorted to the fatal flaw of every romance/harem manga. Making the dialogues and inner thoughts all, “I want to ask her out, let me do that” and then proceeding for the main character and female character to blush and get interrupted each time it happened. Ruining what was a good dynamic and promising arc beforehand, Rent-A-Girlfriend can no longer be looked at as ... a decent romcom with plenty of mistakes, but a manga that you should not read.

Now there is a simple reason behind the show going bad and dragged out. It was good. It was more than good. It was profitable due to how the story had gotten so good. The main character developed from the worst mc in anime history to a great character, each of the girls got development like all the harem manga do, and there were plenty of heartbreaking moments, as the show got quite real at times. It made a 180 from the horrible first season utilizing that and making it better. Unlike many of these harem and Rom-coms that thought that changing the environment and characters slightly would make the formula better, Rent a girlfriend changed the heart of the problem: the repetitive dialogue and situations. But then, possibly my favorite (Rom-com, Romance, comedy?) fell from its highs, both diminishing its great characters, and bringing no substance and changing from an actual story to episodic encounters with the same blushing childhood friend interaction we all have seen at least a million times in these tales.

Rent a girlfriend was a really enjoyable tale that had a bad start, one long but really good arc, and a horrible and borderline insanity inducing arc. In case it wasn’t obvious by the title, the story is about a person who “rents Girlfriends” to get over his breakup. While defiantly not a cool move, the story does redeem itself in the beginning with its female characters, who while are not amazing, are interesting enough to keep watching. Before the good arc the manga was still pretty decent, the art was really good, the female characters were written interestingly, and the plot was focused on developing these female characters and their relationship with Kazyua, creating some “interesting situations.” There was plenty of variety in each of the little mini arcs with the characters, aside from Kazyua, and while he was a horrible and annoying main character, it was built as a foundation for the development in future arcs.

The show like many in its genre relies on fan-service, and introducing more and more female characters, but one standout thing about these two elements, is that they were used almost as they were supposed to. While the fan-service elements are few and far in between, aside from the beginning where the author goes way to hard in, it is used to highlight the scumminess of Kazyua. And as much as unlikable he is(And he is very unlikable for a good 100 chapters) the show decides to develop him using the female characters, as they develop themselves. As the show progresses it explores the female characters, as they all do, but here it works. Despite being a lighthearted comedy, some moments are pretty deep and work really well, especially with the character of Chizuru.

However, that being pushed aside, the story devolves pretty fast. Maybe by coincidence the anime ended its cour as the phenomenal Chizuru/Kazyuya arc ended, and unsurprisingly the manga plummeted in quality extremely fast. The previous arc had so many good character moments, and development of Kazuya and Chizuru, but it all goes out of the window with the new arc, where each 3 chapter mini-arc leads to a confession where he/she inevitably fails.

Have you read Nisekoi and were annoyed with Onodera and Raku’s interactions, as they never were more than, “I like him But I am too nervous to ask him out”, and “I like her But I am too nervous to ask her out, “ and meanwhile it was obvious as well as annoying as none of the interactions were slightly different or brought anything new, each time and interaction making you hate them, as the other girls are going through all sorts of trials and he just Stands there blushing ignoring all their interactions. Imagine interactions like that but increased 10 fold, and instead of some variety with different girls, its just the same thing over. Their characters quickly lose the depth and ideals that they started with, but its not just them, its the whole cast.

The drop in quality is so sudden and such a drop that its hard to put into words. The three other girls either get sidelined and forgotten about, or diminished to a single character trait. They each had developments, but that is sidelined for the one trick pony it inevitably becomes. MAJOR characters are thrown out the window, all for the sake of sales. People dislike how some manga (like tagaki-san) have one main dynamic and nothing else, but what they don’t realize is that sometimes it’s the characters or it just works for others. However, this annoying loop of confession after confession where it is obvious that nothing will happen, but the author keeps saying “Maybe they will”, causes annoyance that comes from all the potential it had, and ruined.

I’m sorry. The manga had promise and the first 166 chapters were amazing. But now its lost that all. And I was one of the few people who liked the whole thing through. Either read it to chapter 166 and stop until it is finished before skipping to the last arc, Or don’t pick it up, and make up in your head a much better story.

Note: I do have it as an 8 on my profile but that’s because it has some great highs, and I believe that despite that the subsequent 30 chapters have been objectively bad, he might put in a good arc near the end. The 4 I gave it, is representing what the story overall currently stands as, and the 8 is me hanging onto the past and hoping for a good ending.

What was Shonen Jump thinking, cancelling this? I tell C could have been so good, but shonen jump has just cancelled it.

Knowing that it is cancelled changes the story completely. While the story lost itself at times, had incredibly fast pacing at times, the show knew what it was: a weird and wacky take on the crime genre, a show with so much heart and flavor. The show revolves around the division I, a special division who has police detective AIOI, known for falling in love with criminals and capturing them herself. Her methods are constantly unorthodox, she’s a yandere without the stabby-stabby or ... obsessiveness, just the extreme love, and the side characters were starting to shape up as good comic relief. The story set up a main antagonist and goal quite quickly and uniquely and it was looking to be around a 75-100 chapter crime story. Now for a crime story its really not about the mystery and detective elements, those elements almost non-existent. This isn’t some Sherlock Holmes or 5d chess game, but decently complex mysteries that the main protagonist solves in an almost slice of life atmosphere. Its sounds boring in concept, but AIOI is such an enchanting character, not to mention her interactions, that the crime aspects are easy to overlook. It can be better categorized as a slice of life crime show, but with a moving plot and well thought out schemes.

However re-reading the beginning chapters its almost astonishing the drop in quality. While the first chapter was amazing, the later chapters made me forgot one detail. The beginning was pretty bad. Like AIOI’s Yandere tendencies was executed terribly, not to mention the bland side characters and simple plots. As a weekly series it kept my attention and interest, but as a binging series not so much. The story in the beginning and the way it is written feels to clumsy and awkward, fumbling around to keep the story and gimic somehow going. However around the 20th chapter things had started to look better and the writing was getting better. The mediocre/bad plots was replaced with a slightly better one, and improvement was surely on its way. The main gimic still needed some work but it was going to be explored with the main antagonist, and the side characters were slowly improving, but then it got cancelled.

Its hard to evaluate it, as so many things set up and prepared for the future are ignored, like the main antagonist who seemed incredibly interesting, and caused AIOI trauma and depth to her character. Just by the little we knew from him was definitely a Moriarty type villain, and the final arc with him would have been amazing, not to mention the increase in writing quality. It had the idea, now it needed the good writing. The show was putting things in the background, characters and small hints building him up so well without directly mentioning him. However due to being cancelled it looks like we will never see him. To describe the manga, it would be a slice of life mystery with a moving plot and narrative, with unique characters, interesting villains, and such great heart and flavor. The dynamics are extremely fresh, its definitely a shonen, and the story had a lot of out of the box ideas and innovations.

Despite being cancelled the final chapter was quite decent as it embodied the heart of the show and wrapped up quite a lot of loose ends. However as an overall product, I can only say Average. 6 out of ten. A decent short read that does not requite attention, a promised story that did not deliver. Its not something that you need or should read. Its something you just pick up on a Sunday afternoon, read through the whole thing, are sidelined by the abrupt ending, and think, “well that was okay.” Then upon re-read or further inspection start to see the story fall apart. Rest in peace I tell C, my favorite new shonen jump show, you had so much that you could have achived.

Vivy is a mystery-action-thriller anime original written by the author of Re-Zero, and is animated by Wit Studio. Containing a Kuudere idol combat songstress Ai, and an incessantly chatting robot from the future, they carry out the singularity project, a project to change and prevent certain events that trigger a war of AI and humans, where the AI wipe out the humans. It isn’t the most deep or profound thing ever, but it does have its moments and peaks, and is ever so reminiscent of some of the best thriller movies. Only 13 episodes long, yet packing in so many, action, adventure, and mystery, Vivy ... Flourets song, is with no doubt the most unique and consistently amazing show of this season.

True to its thriller and mystery genre, the show takes twist after twist, sprinkling a perfect amount of them, but never falling in the trap of having everything a twist, like many of its genre likes to do. The directions the show takes are surprising each time while logical in hindsight, and plenty episodes start off at random points and time periods, relying on you to slowly put the pieces together as it goes along. The story follows the two of them executing different missions in different points in time, each mission a mini thriller movie and each mission showcasing the different thrillers, with the goal of preventing the future war with AI. The show is episodic, arcs of 2-3 episodes then 5-10 year time skips in, creating an episodic feel, but using that fully to its advantage. Each mini-arc presents a whole new environment, a whole new world and point in time as the science of AI and the world is vastly different to the previous one. It brings a whole new environment with new variables, and new spice, creating each episodic encounter really feel like a whole new show. It’s a show that explores the growth of AI as its main concept, and uses the timeskips as a way to chart their progress and each mission does have consequence, not isolated incidents like Jojo pt3. None of the twists or what to expect is expected, and yet the show maintains its air of logic throughout. Despite each arc being highly engaging, the next one tops it, as the show explores the world and AI in such a unique format. The show is an action mystery thriller, and its obvious by how the story flows. The missions are all great in their own right, as they all maintain their variety also not two having the slightest similarity. The plot defiantly isn’t the most unique or out there concept, but it’s the execution that makes it work so well.

The vast majority of characters are AI robots, and yet the amount of development, and unique concepts tried are done extremely well. This is further amplified as the show constantly isn’t sticking it in your face trying to say that it is deep, something that some stories which I won’t name, try similar things creating inherent problems within. The show again while lacking with unique concepts, turns that into a strength especially with the idea behind AI, and their singular mission that they are to carry out. Within each time skip the AI are always a focus, and the show does what it can to flesh out and show how while they might have changed with certain functions, they really cannot change in full, as they simply are “AI”, created things by humans. Although that doesn’t stop the show from humanizing these robots in almost every possible, making you want to believe that they are no different than humans. The main character obviously is the one AI who refuses to believe that, and due to that is on a constant mission to prove otherwise, but luckily her moments in proving the opposite are few and far in between, as they almost fail in making it an interesting point but still keep it in the back of your mind. Her development as the robot who wants to be a human is done extremely well, but not just hers. The AI that she meets and the ones that she interact all receive development, but not as a result of her "shedding light and acting human" but because they are good characters, who develop throughout time, even if they are AI. As for the antagonistic characters, the show explores the good and bad of each side, each villain and obstacle credited with understandable motivations and goals. Not to say that every character is given a Naruto backstory, just that each gets small amounts of developments that explain their processes up to, and bring to light certain motivations weather good or bad. The antagonistic forces are perhaps just as interesting as the main characters, as their organization is one that we get to see change throughout the time skips,amounting to decent minor villains.

As for the main character duo, they are perfected in terms of goals, and dynamics. They share the same goal, but like every great foil depend on different methods, with the main character obviously choosing the perfectly moral path, and the futuristic AI choosing the objective and more likely to win path. Another nice subversion is how the main character’s perfectly moral methods do not always work, and sometimes it’s the Objective robots methods who work. They are perfect foils for one another, and not just their characters and goals, but their dynamics. Full of life, and plenty of funny moments, it’s the quintessential, “have to work together but don’t want to” and “wants to work together and annoys the other” movie and anime trope done extremely well. There’s comedy, moments of trust, and moments of annoyance, and they work extremely well in tandem.

The greatness of the show continues with the animation clearly that of Wit Studio, with animation that never ceases to amaze. Fluid and creative fights that utilize their environments, still and picture frames with detail on the extreme, animation of things that look less like animations and moving objects, (Squishy objects as one example), and colors and so many types of animation depending on how things are. The designs are given careful thought, both human and robot, and each fit their environments. The background frames are done well, and the animation is clean throughout, virtually no moments in which it makes you stop or criticize.

The show isn’t perfect, but why that it a standard or a need is completely baseless, as what it strives to be works plenty. It’s an thriller movie with more depth, and action movie with better action, an anime original with originality in execution. There are some of slow moments, cliché scenes and predicable outcomes, but media has been so overdone, its hard to find any show that is completely unique in everything, as, as soon as it has been done, others will do the same. At the moment however, this is pretty close to being completely unique and new, its only pitfall being the over-reliance on its finishing action scenes with Sakuya ending to each mini arc. Aside from that it’s a thriller show, and should be viewed as that, the character depth while done great only a secondary factor.

If there was one thing I regretted about watching the show, it was that I didn’t watch from the beginning. This series is best experienced weekly or with some space in between the episodes, as it is a thriller. However, the tension and mystery did not degrade upon binge watch, although it defiantly leaves you on the edge of you seat in certain episodes. If you are still reading this, give the show a watch, but beware of a slightly slow start, as the show is “good” for a while, but only gets “really good” later on.