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Jan 13, 2024
Sirius made me realize something that'd been on the back of my mind for a while now, like a sneeze that won't quite come out. In a way, I feel like that describes the series in a nutshell.
The plot is the story of all time: a protagonist driven by revenge and a tagtag bunch of misfit hunters race against several factions to obtain a McGuffin, one of which involves the MC's sworn enemy, and which acts as the... antagonist, I guess. Now, formulas work for a reason: you just have to know how to work around them. Tales as old as time will continue to
...
be retold for generations to come, and thousands, millions will fall into obscurity, while a few will survive, even if not by name, as inspiration for future artists. As a creator, which one would you rather be? How do you wish to achieve that? What separates your tale from the rest? What gives it meaning?
Now, it's not to say that 'mediocre' series can't stand out in their own way (just look at SAO). There's a something that makes them stand out, a concept, an idea, a character, regardless of whether the product as a whole passes the MAL vibe check or not. That's fine. Quintessential Quintuplets, for example, might not be high literature, but its character interactions and surprisingly heartfelt story has inspired many with stories of their own, so that even if/once it's forgotten, its impact will remain and, again, I wouldn't call it the pinnacle of anything. It's aight, but it works.
What's aight and doesn't work? This series. Many others (maybe most), but this one was what finally got that sneeze out, except that, instead of catharsis, I got phlegm.
The characters, save for one, maybe two, feel like salad dressing diluted with water because the restaurant you got it from can't be damned to do anything above serviceable. The protagonist started out fine, honestly, a silent, strong type with an interest in botany, who's also kind of weird and out of the loop, and whose actions baffle the rest of the squad until they have the necessary bonding. See? Doesn't sound too bad. Alarm bells rang when at the end of the first episode he began screaming about revenge, but, sure, I told myself, sometimes people act very differently under extreme situations.
And then... poof. No more plant talk. No more quiet weird OP kid. For the rest of the series it felt more like I watched a puppet show where the puppeteer forgot to disguise himself, and no matter how much I tried to block them out, they were always there, with the face of someone who worked 70 hours this week and not someone proud at their own creation. The protagonist then acted the way millions of others have because that's what other stories have done, screamed about revenge when needed, had a breakdown when apt, cried when Emotional Beat happened, and like... sure, in a vacuum, the scenes might have been well-done, but people/characters have PERSONALITIES for a reason. Not everyone reacts the same way. By the end, he was nothing more than a vessel for the story to story, and for me to get depressed.
So if that's the main character, imagine the rest. EXCEPT! Except for arguably the second most important one. They were the only one whose actions felt as though he were the one in charge, consistent with what was established, and had actual conflict, both inner and outer, which lead to legitimately emotional payoffs the rest of the puppets failed to pantomime. They were my favorite by far, and probably the only thing I'll remember about this show once I'm done with this rant. A minor character seemed to be following the same line, but unfortunately he didn't have much screentime, and the puppeteer found his string, so his IQ dropped and he got drunk in order for the story to story. There's a third one I was fiercely protective of, moreso because her archetype is usually hated than her being or doing anything (because her archetype never is or does anything). I wouldn't call her good, though, just... she was cute. Yeah.
The rest are the water dripping off the salad dressing; you take it off and nothing changes. The antagonist was boring, had a glimpse of something more, then turned into an Antagonist because they also found his strings. When will anime stop doing that thing where their villain loses all semblance of self to laugh maniacally, gloat about conquering the world, and start indiscriminately killing allies to show how Evil they are? Stop. It's like hitting a candyless piñata. Just cancel the party at that point.
The plot is lettuce without condiment, and I already summed it up above. It doesn't matter. It exists because Stories have Plots. Themes? Eren Yaeger (story was called Sirius the Jaeger and got renamed LOL). Animation and music were great because P.A. Works. Seriously, what is it with their original shows (save for Angel Beats and Nagi no Asukara) having great production values but mediocre to terrible writing? Out of all things to emulate, why Guilty Crown?
So anyway, I wouldn't be wasting my time with this review if it weren't for the last episode, because it was, in my opinion, legitimately good right until the end. Why couldn't the rest of the series have had that, you know, actual humanity? Sure, there was still the antagonist being an Antagonist and the rest of the characters not mattering, but the final encounter and ultimate MC's goal almost reflected this story's sad excuse of a theme, on top of a resolution that could've been good had the GODDAMN puppeteer not found the strings. Stop it. Stop adding stuff you say elsewhere just because you thought it was "cool".
That's what this story lacks, I think: humanity. There's plenty of anime I enjoy and consistently rewatch that doesn't pass MAL's vibe checks, but which feel like the writer cared. That's all I ask for: heart. Hell, even Seikon no Qwaser did the revenge plot better, and that was a fetish show with plot as an excuse. It helps that the characters had actual chemistry (no pun intended If you know you know).
What did this show accomplish? A passable character, to make me want to rewatch a gross fetish show, and despair.
(PLEASE stop doing that with the villains. On my knees. Begging.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 10, 2023
MAL, of all things, was my first exposure to this anime. I had never heard of it before, and from browsing through the reviews here, I expected a trainwreck. Instead, all I got was another harmless, mediocre show. There's so many of those that have come and gone, that will continue to come and go, that it's weird to single this one out unless you know the context (which you almost certainly do if you're reading this) and how the author not only penned one of the highest rated anime on this site, molded the 'nakige' genre for visual novels and has since become (in)famous
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for writing stories with sad endings; he also hyped this up as 'the most depressing anime of all time'.
It wasn't, but it's really not THAT bad. I feel like this is more of a 'the higher you are, the harsher you fall' scenario. After a series of underwhelming shows that tried to capture the magic his early work had, I think this was what tipped people over the edge. The author seems to have tried time and time again to live up to his reputation while forgetting how he got there in the first place, which presumably wasn't to make 'the most depressing anime of all time', but simply to tell a good story.
'The Day I Became A God' features a main character who feels more like a tool than a person, a main girl coldly designed to be endearing and appealing, and side characters that exist because that's what stories do, yet might as well be decorations. Narukami Yota, the MC, is a vessel for jokes, and as such, his personality changes according to the situation. Not once did I get a grasp of what he's actually like when he's not yelling as a reaction gag or acting ridiculous because the main girl told him to. I've seen my fair share of blank slate protagonists and I'm numb to them at this point, but this is the first time where the MC is so devoid of anything that it caused deep existential dread. I really feel bad for him. He's no more than a pawn in Maeda's pursuit of his goal, and he deserves better.
As other reviewers have pointed out, Hina is the star of the show. She's designed to be this way (as pink-haired anime girls so often tend to be for some reason) and as such, she's the main source of comedy and the emotional core. Like Yota, however, she feels more like a tool than a character. I liked her, but I saw through her right since the beginning. I've watched more than ten animes in my life, and at least three have been Maeda creations. so I knew what would happen to he in concept. As such, it was hard to get invested or feel for her plight since it was so obvious. She, too, caused existential dread, though not for the reasons the story wanted me to.
Other side characters include the kuudere childhood friend, Best Friend(TM), the imouto, the haughty teen genius, you name it. You've seen these people before. You'll see them again. Strangely, they felt more human than the main characters. Yota's parents were lovely, for example. The episode that touched me the most featured said childhood friend reconnecting with a loving, yet distant father. Conversely, the haughty teen genius feels like someone stole the trope of a trope of a trope, and the Best Friend(TM) is, well... yeah. You don't even need me to tell you.
I don't think the length of the show is to blame here, for there's plenty of 12/13 episode anime that more than flesh out their characters. Again, I think it's the result of them being tools to make the audience cry rather than actual people, which is counterproductive if what you want is emotional attachment to them, but I digress.
As expected of the studio, the show looks beautiful, sounds beautiful. Character designs (aside frorm poor Yota) are pretty nice.
Plot-wise, given the genre, I didn't expect anything particularly thrilling, and even the more outrageous events had enough set up to feel natural within the context of the story. I liked the comedy more than I thought I would, though poor Yota's screaming got grating after a while. It's fine. It's an okay anime. Had the writer been anyone else and I don't really think it would've gotten as much flak as it did, not only from disappointed watchers, but from Maeda himself. He should've let these characters live. He should've let himself be an artist more than a name. In my opinion, it's not that he's a 'hack' or that the quality of his writing has gone downhill, but that he's too trapped inside what he thinks is his brand, and as such, this story feels like a product.
I think the ending is order of magnitudes better than the one in Charlotte, so there's that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 21, 2023
I'll start this by saying 90% of the reason behind the rating is the male lead, as it usually tends to be with series of that sort. With that said, the remaining 10% is what made me drop this.
I'm used to reading/watching questionable stuff and often find enjoyment in it, but something about this manga set my fight or flight response off from the beginning. I couldn't exactly tell you what it was. The male lead? I've read worse. The weird way in which his actions get portrayed as cute? I've unfortunately also read worse. The way he contrasts against everyone else's blandness? I think
...
that might be it. I don't even remember what the female lead's name was and I just finished reading. She's cute and nice enough, but I can't really think of any legitimate way to describe her aside from non-committal adjectives that might as well describe 99% of female leads out there. I found her non-reactions to Hananoi's creepy behavior amusing at first, but at some point it began to feel as though the story itself wasn't aware of how his behavior might come across.
In a vacuum, I think Hananoi is easy to relate to being a 0 social skills loner who hides behind books (like a lot of us probably are), it's just the way the entirety of his existence seems to revolve around the female lead after he meets her. It's genuinely worrying. I can't tell if the story is expecting the reader to find this cute or if there will be come sort of commentary on the subject along the way. Again, there's a ton of highly questionable stories I've enjoyed that fail to acknowledge a potentially disturbing premise (I unironically like Junjou Romantica and rewatch it often ffs), it's just that usually they'll at least have some point of interest like a good sense of humor, charming characters, even a bile fascination factor, but this has nothing. All it does it make me worry about the female lead and everyone around her.
It kind of reminded me of Momokuri at the beginning, where the female lead does things like collect the male lead's trash for her shrine. The things she does are way more extreme and she's arguably more obsessed, but she also... you know, has friends, ambitions, interests other than her boyfriend. Besides, a lot of the comedy comes from her unhinged behavior, and it could be that this manga tries to do the same, but so far none of the jokes have landed for me. It feels more like having an unstable boyfriend whose entire life revolves around you is supposed to be the fantasy. I don't know, maybe I can't like this series as much because it's just not enjoyable to me.
Art-wise, it's fine, but with how much eye candy you can find in shoujo it really doesn't seem that special. I don't know, maybe it gets better as it goes on. I hate dropping series and this is the first manga I've dropped in years but I just can't bring myself to continue. There's nothing interesting happening, every character but the male lead feels like white noise, and said male lead could easily be the villain of a horror story. There's just so many other things to read these days, similar premise or not, that there's just no reason to keep going for me.
If this is the sort of story that appeals to you, though, by all means, have fun reading it. I picked it up in the first place because my almost 30-year old cousin is obsessed with this series and collects the volumes. Teenage me would've outright hated this. My sister also enjoyed it a lot and it seems to be mostly recommended, so maybe I'm just an outlier. Who knows. Enjoyment, or lack thereof, is subjective is nothing to be ashamed about after all.
EDIT: Due to said cousin, I read up to volume 9, and pretty much everything I've said still holds up. After several volumes of nothing happening, the story randomly got packed with the usual shoujo tropes (childhood friend crush, creepy teacher x student subplot, male lead is 1/4 English (it's always England lol), a 'fight' between friends that lasts half an episode, etc.) so it went from boring to derivative in the worst way possible. There's an anime coming out, though, so there's that. Cheers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 6, 2022
For such a high rating, it was weird to see so many reviews with mixed feelings. Then I read it. I get it now.
Some people say it's a "deconstruction" and thus deserves merit for it, even though deconstructions have been a pretty popular thing to produce and consume lately not only though anime/manga, but all forms of fiction. It's not really anything special anymore. (Some people talk like trope subversions were invented in the 2010s...) With that said, I found the concept and characters to be entertaining enough to keep flipping pages even with the paper-thin plot, lack of world-building, or clear sequence of events.
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It felt like the kind of series to read with your brain turned off, with it occasionally trying to say something meaningful, and that's the thing... it was those times that made me expect something else. The hype made me expect something else, though I still did my best to judge the series for what it was regardless of popularity. In the end, it felt like opening a big gift box during Christmas as a child, only to get socks.
Plot-wise, there's little to speak about. Plot is what I care for the least, so this didn't really bother me. Nonethelelss, the lack of direction really began to show near the end, with conflict escalation getting too big all of a sudden, and turning almost nonsensical. Certain story elements seemed to vanish out of thin air or lack a proper explanation. Characters got introduced and killed off so fast remembering who was who felt pointless, because, in some ways, so was their presence. I don't think every event and character needs to be crucial to a story for it to work, but when out of dozens less than a handful actually change the course of things, that's when things get hazy for me...
...speaking of which, I did like the characters for what they were. I've read others complain about the main characters being rude and obnoxious, but they felt fine to me. I actually liked Denji a lot at the beginning, but it never really felt like he went anywhere or did anything important. At first, I thought the (possible) in-universe explanation of him having no heart given his fiend side was the reason, but at some point, it just felt like an excuse. If the main characters are so apathetic and uncaring, it's kind of hard to... you know, care. The squad dynamic falling apart near the beginning due to the first major character death actually hit hard, and I think it worked to establish that anyone could die, but it just... kept happening. Over and over again. Again, at some point, it felt as though every character except for 2-3 were going to die at some point, so why care? The one character I did really root for had death flags all around them so I expected them to die, and the way it happened was extremely cruel, but then it felt as though it had never really mattered and nobody seemed to care, either. Is this the "deconstruction" people are talking about? People die when they are killed? Why isn't the Akame Ga Kill anime adaptation lauded as a timeless classic for showing that people die when they are killed?
Again, I felt as though characterization was at its strongest at the beginning. I liked Denji even with him being an apathetic asshole. I liked Power because she was an apathetic asshole. I liked Aki for being the heart of the group despite trying his best to be stoic, Makima for being a manipulative, yet intriguing bitch from her first appearance, Beam for being a good dog shark thing, etc. They all had their "thing" and that was fine. I wasn't exactly looking for deep character studies. Out of the characters I mentioned, however, only two really seemed to become something else than that "thing", which is probably why I liked them the most. They felt the most 'human', if you will.
I'm really left wondering if the "deconstruction" is meant to be about a squad of humans forming contracts with monsters to fight monsters, and how this so often results with death not only from the monsters and the humans involved, but also innocents. If so... okay, I guess. Nice. Is it because Denji is not like other girls because he doesn't fight for revenge or to protect others, but because he has to? If so... okay, fun. Is it that getting attached to your found family can and will get you killed? Is it that people die if they are killed and nothing matters? Maybe I just don't get how deep and philosophical this manga is or whatever. Maybe it's because I rewatched Madoka recently so the overpowered MC who doesn't know they're overpowered until near the end didn't faze me, or the mysterious mentor figure with ulterior motives, or the veteran slowly opening up only for that to be their greatest/last mistake, or the big unsurmountable enemy the main squad must face lest the world be destroyed that ends up being a plot device more than the actual final boss... among other things. If you know, you know.
Overall, it's pretty good, i think. It's an enjoyable read, fun concepts, surprisingly funny at times (I never thought I'd laugh at a puke joke), but that's it. My enjoyment of it was severely dampened by how hard it is to care about anything when characters are clearly not the focus and the story feels directionless, and how, if it has all the breathtakingly philosophical themes other people have claimed it has, I didn't "get it". At some point, I wondered what the point was, and if there was a reason to keep reading, which is a shame because of how excited I was at the beginning. I can't recall the last time anything, game, book, manga, has made me feel not disappointed, just... numb? And not in the way a series that shakes my perception of the world does, but in the way I would as an eight-year old upon holding a pair of socks I thought would be a new toy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 12, 2019
I seem to be in the minority here, but I just... yeah.
When have standards fallen so low than anything remotely subverting a dead genre becomes 'groundbreaking'? Is something really good just by virtue of making fun of something else, regardless of execution?
It's not a secret that this show is heavily... borrowing... from other shows. Comparisons have risen. Defenders say 'but ___ doesn't have this joke or that!' which only makes one wonder: if this is so good, why do you feel the need to constantly say the shows it rips off aren't as good?
Given the concept and premise, I'm not going to criticize this based
...
on the characters or setup itself, but rather, the execution.
I'm pretty easy to make laugh. I can and will enjoy all sorts of trash for what they are, too. I must say, to this show: exaggerated faces shouldn't be the peak of your comedy. What else is there? The protagonist is extremely OP and way too cautious. I mean, it's what the title says. Other than that... what else is there? The protagonist destroying the world more than the things he's supposed to save it from given his nature? I mean, yeah, it could work, and it could work pretty well, but repeating this exact same joke violates the principles of 'jokes become less funny with each successive repetition'. You can pull the running gag tirade if you're clever about it, but this show seems to believe that the hero causing nuclear levels of destruction to make sure a slime is dead while explaining this with a deadpan expression and the goddess freaking out was hilarious the first time, and so it ought to happen every other episode the exact same way, with the exact same timing and punchlines.
Comedy and horror are two sides of the same coin because they both rely on surprising the audience; with horror, you scare them and with comedy, you make them laugh. Essentially, though, to make these genres work, you have to play on expectations and keep them at the edge of their seat, and if the joke/scare is too obvious it should be because that's what the audiences look forward to as opposed to thinking 'oh no, they're not going to do THAT, are they?'.
Like I said, I'm not hard to please. I'll be cackling at the most inane things, which shocked me when I realized, halfway through the fourth episode, that I smiled only then (I don't remember for what, though it was with the show, not at it). Some of the jokes had a prety good foundation, but the punchlines fell flat by virtue of being things we have seen so many, many times already. Again: if your comedy relies on some character making exaggerated expressions, then you've failed at it.
With the serious but strange and expressive but relatively level-headed duo, it's to be expected that one of them does outrageous things while the other one reacts. That's fine. The problem is, all she does is scream and wiggle around as if to distract the audience from the fact no amount of wit was put into the joke. If she's not doing this, she's doing that classic 'scream into the sky' reaction which, quite frankly, tends to kill jokes for me more often than make them funnier. Compare and contrast to the how it's most obviously ripping off, KonoSuba, which isn't exactly guilt-free when it comes to repetitive gags but keeps finding different ways to set them up. Another show which I think suffers from the same issue is Seitokai Yakuindomo, but even that one managed to bring a surprise every now and then. Moreover, both of those shows actually made me laugh.
At some point, i wondered, too, what can I actually get from watching this show? It's depressing me and it obviously has nothing else to offer beyond the attempted comedy given it falls into the trap of 'make everything as cliché as possible and make fun of it so people won't notice' as well. I'm not saying clichés are bad or that a generic premise dooms the show... unless that's all there is.
Again, have our standards fallen so low that any piss-poor attempt at satire is to be applauded and defended for 'not being like the rest'? Does something being satirical give it the excuse to be creatively dead in every aspect? There is no tension, no depth to the characters, absolutely no feature of interest when it comes to the world, no laughs, and so I must say: what else is there? Moreover, should we, as consumers, just take in whatever we can and keep feeding mediocrity on the basis that 'it's not AS bad as ___'?
Again, not saying we're bad for watching trashy shows. I watch trashy shows. I like trashy shows. I rate them relatively high unless they piss me off in some way. I don't, however, justify their trashiness. I won't get defensive if someone else doesn't like it. Why should I? Why should we?
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 12, 2019
Kiznaiver was... something.
Something strange.
At times I could see what they were trying to do. At times it succeeded--and very beautifully, too--and at times it made me feel like an AI had been told to write a series based on an algorithm.
The general premise has a vaguely-shaped world split by a vaguely-mentioned war with a city being set as an experiment by vague, mysterious higher figures wherein people would try to get united via a 'kizuna' experiment consisting of using people cosplaying as the dog thing from Paranoia Agent to kidnap teenagers (carefully selected so that they were to be as different from one another as
...
possible), do clandestine surgery on them and have them share physical pain because of it in an attempt to see if they managed to understand each other that way.
Here we have 7-deadly sin gimmick that doesn't even involve the actual sins unless you scrutinize, but that's fine. Each kidnapped teenager represents a 'modern day sin'and is pretty much forced to cooperate and 'bond' with the other teenagers until the end of summer.
Teenagers? Bonding? Learning to empathize? Kidnapping? Sounds like a decent enough premise, right?
Within the first half of the first episodes, the series's weaknesses begin to creep through. Granted, we can take in a silly premise. Granted, we've seen enough characters who randomly get white hair due to trauma to accept them with no second throught. Granted, we have seen brick-faced waifus and tsundere childhood friends and quirky crazy comic reliefs enough times to grow numb to them, too, but... that's the problem.
You know what's going to happens before it happens because you've seen literally everything within Kiznaiver before. The characters are as recycled as the plot elements and themes, and this wouldn't be too bad with good enough execution (or else pretty much everything would be unenjoyable) but Kiznaiver tries to be Another Trigger Show without seeming to understand what has worked for their other works in the past.
To elaborate: Trigger's characters are not the best. They're fun, they're unique, they're easily recognizable, but their role in an absurdist battle anime is not the same as their role in a character drama. Tropes and gimmicks don't make great characters; depth does, and that's what Trigger lacks. That's what ended up fucking Darling In The Franxx in the ass (ep. 19 onwards notwithstanding) and it's what affected this show the most.
Did this have the potential to be great? Absolutely. I must admit I was quite charmed the first episode or so, but it soon became clear that we'd see no more of these characters than their quirks. Good character dramas demand depth. Would Toradora be as acclaimed if Taiga had been nothing but a tsundere? Would Anohana be remembered as fondly if Jintan's hikikomori status had been nothing but a funny haha quirks? I'm not saying every anime out there has to be a deconstruction, but if your characters are 2D, how are they supposed to keep a story based on them compelling?
I'm part of the crowd that believes this would've greatly benefitted from 24 episodes instead of 13. Had they given everyone an arc and not just one (1) character and this would easily be one of MAL's darlings.
Trigger is known for larger-than-life, gimmicky characters and humor, but that doesn't mean all their works have to be like that. The humor detracted rather than contributing, but the Gomorins were pretty cute and it was easy to see they didn't take themselves too seriously. Until they did. Not only are the cardboard characters a problem, but also the tonal dissonance. Am I supposed to laugh or feel bad for them? Why would you ruin what is supposed to be an emotional scene with a joke? Again, it's like they're trying so hard to stay Trigger that it holds them back more than anything at this point.
It's not bad to stray from your roots. Not everything has to end in a giant robot fight and not every episode has to have forced humor in it.
Ultimately, I feel like them trying to hard to make this fit their mold ended up in the series's demise. It was rushed, it was tonally dissonant and it felt like they were yelling at you 'Feel this way!' instead of letting empathy surface naturally. Kind of ironic, all things considered.
That said, I really liked the concept of some of their characters (Agata beginning as an apathetic, detached individual and slowly thawing along the way, in theory or Yuta being this pretty boy hiding a massive complex behind an arrogant facade). Some scenes were genuinely very well-made and you can tell the director did what he could with what he had. I'm really torn about this series because it had all the ingredients, yet fell apart in the making. I don't know.
In a nutshell:
a) Great character ideas, bad execution
b) Interesting, if weird, premise, bad execution
c) Generally pretty good directing and cinematography
d) Very good art and soundtrack
Most importantly:
e) Stop making characters gimmicks dammit!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 30, 2019
(WARNING: As I'll be basically describing what pissed me off about this anime the most--the plot--spoilers will be unmarked and abundant.)
I will start this with the question we're all asking: what happened?
Did the authors run out of ideas the last 25% of the show? Were they on drugs? Did they remember it was an Evangelion homage and forgot homage /= ripoff? Did they remember they were Trigger and had properties like Kill la Kill and, in a way, Tengen Toppa, and so they had to set the final battle in space to keep the streak up? Did they spontaneously start hating this show and
...
decided to sabotage it? What HAPPENED?
Unless you're new to anime or have taken the wise decision to avoid sites like these and do something productive with your life (Then again, you're here...) you've probably heard of this anime. If you don't watch much beyond Naruto and BNHA yet had the poor decision of playing an opening song from them on Youtube and it took that as you being suddenly interested in 30-minute long video essays about drawings with giant eyes, then you've probably heard about this anime. Even if you're sure you've never heard about it, you have, believe me.
To say it was hyped back when it air would be an understatement. Being from A-1 Pictures (Your Lie In April, Magi, Seven Deadly Sins) and Trigger (Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia) wasn't enough; it, too, openly paid homage to some of anime's most beloved titles. In a community that had been all but starved of good mecha lately, this made us think, naively, that perhaps not alll hope was lost.
The first few episodes introduce us to some vague, post-apocalyptic looking world where dinosaur mechas try to destroy humanity as it fights back with waifu bots piloted by children. Not exactly groundbreaking, but promising enough. It sets up various plots and mysteries: what is the nature of the dinosaur mechas? Why are children the only ones who can pilot the waifu bots? Why do the mechas have boobs? What is this vaguely dystopic world and how does it work?
We, too, are introduced to the surrogate main character and, of course, the show's main selling point: the pink-haired waifu.
Let's start with Hiro.
Unpopular opinion: I didn't find his character to be bland. In fact, I found the clashing protagonist archetype to be a pretty interesting concept. Like your classic protagonist, he's determined and brave, skilled but unfocused; like post-Shinji protagonist, he's also weighed down by poor self-confidence and is quite notably an introvert. While not really memorable, he served his purpose and, in my opinion, stood up enough on his own. (Then episode 15 happened.)
Now, for pink-haired waifu. Zero Two, part dinosaur mecha and part human is... something.
Unpopular opinion: I didn't like her. I didn't like her when she was introduced, when her backstory was info-dumped, or when she finally began to open up. I could understand her as a character and I can understand the obsession behind her (emotionally distant characters the audience can fantasize about 'healing' will always be popular it seems), but I can't bring myself to like her. At the beginning, her cold disposition seemed interesting enough, but then she just had to do that thing where the eye candy gets inexplicably attached to the surrogate character so they can feel special and loved and I... no. Just no. If anything, she felt gimmicky. It's like she was specifically designed to attract as many people as possible rather than be an actual character.
Also, why is she so damn similar to Lucy from Elfen Lied? Both are pink-haired waifus with horns who angst about being not quite human and who were experimented with, who had a childhood friend who forgot about them and taught them humanity and love, who are cold and uncaring at the beginning of the series except for said childhood friend who they've reunited with by coincidence, who are obstracized, who are very powerful... need I go on?
Aside from the surrogate character and the waifu, we get their tropey, quirky squad of friends. Twin-tailed tsundere? Check. Nice girl with a nice personality (have I mentioned she's nice)? Check. Fat character with a fat personality (have I mentioned he's fat?) Check. Last and least I don't know what anime has with this type of character, but she's EVERYWHERE, and everyone seems to hate her yet she keeps popping up.
Yes, I'm talking about Ichigo.
Ichigo is Hiro's childhood best friend, who is also in love with him and who is there as a plot device to artifically keep the main couple apart. Seriously, this character is everywhere. Why is still a thing? The worst part is, I feel like she would've actually had potential had she not been shoehorned as a gimmick as well. I didn't hate her even after the infamous episode 14. I just feel bad for her.
While the first few episodes focus on Hiro and Zero Two, these characters each get a mini-arc of sorts in an attempt to flesh them out. The intention is appreciated, but it's so obvious that they're trying to make you care and develop them they might as well be saying, "Look! Look at this character! They have an episode all about themselves! Love them! Get attached so we can kill them off and make you cry and buy figurines!" This is a problem that weighs down the anime as a whole, but I'll go more in-depth about it later.
Anyway, Ichigo's story is about her love for Hiro (of course it is) and Hiro and she have a friend named Goro whose story is about his love for Ichigo, and the nice girl who is nice has a story about love, as does the fat character who's fat, and there's a character set up to be the rival but he ends up being extremely gay for Hiro and... that's it. It's so in-your-face and methodical it's hard to even take these characters seriously.
On another note, there's a character named Zorome who is the classic hothead comic relief who keeps messing up so the hero saves the day and makes himself look good, and his episode is probably the closest thing this show has to legitimate development. Not only does it have a rare instance of good world-building, but it also has what is presumably the closest thing this show possesses to character depth. A character with blind admiration towards adults because he wants to know if his life has a purpose beyond fighting/if he'll be like them someday? I'd pick that over surrogate character and his waifu problems even if I liked him.
The story goes along with these walking tropes fighting the dinosaur mechas, having bonding moments, discovering the world around them. Beach episodes ensue. While it's apparent after the first few episodes this will be nowhere as good as the things it tries to emulate, it works. It may be playing it safe, but it's entertaining and it manages to add themes about sexuality and what being a person really means. It may be as subtle as a brick to the face but, again, it does it's job.
It's ok. It's an ok anime.
Then comes the last third.
To specify: after the mini-arcs for each secondary character comes the backstory episode, thus revealing a lot of the mysteries, wherein there remains no real feature of interest in the story given the rest is so uninspired in basically every level you don't have to watch the rest to know what will happen. While it has one of the clichés I hate the most (spoiler: main characters and forgotten first meeting), again, it works. It's ok. It's an ok episode.
The problem is, again, there is basically nothing else to the story. Because of this, the writers went full desperation mode and twisted the tropey friend group into an opposing force against the main ship for no reason other than plot... for about an episode. Everything got resolved after that, had little to no consequence, and Zero Two and Hiro finally got together. What makes it worse is that such a pointless episode happened right after what's regarded as the best of the series (as backstories tend to be).
The problem then is that the writers have run out of conflict again, especially not that Zero Two and Hiro are together, so we have a bunch of episodes about basically nothing. Honestly? I didn't mind that much. Seeing the characters frolic and trope-bond was nice, especially now Zero Two's character development was over and she got over her hurt self and Hiro healed her. Seeing her interact with the rest of the squad was among my favorite things from the show. This, however, brings yet another problem, and it's that Zero Two's character essentially concludes after that. She stops worrying about her lack of humanity. She opens up to people. She gets together with Hiro. Since there is nothing more to her character, there is nothing left to tell about her. All the semi-interesting things about her vanish in favor of her having 'I love you' 'I love you more' conversations with Hiro.
Something similar happens to Hiro. The moment he gets together with Zero Two, his entire life becomes Zero Two. His friends stop mattering. His ambitions stop mattering. The traits the show desperately tries to tell you he possesses seem to vanish. Like Zero Two, he becomes a zombie, an unfortunate puppet to keep you watching until the end as you reminisce the time where either of them had any semblance of a personality.
There's a dumb pregnancy subplot where nice girl who is nice gets paired up with a character who was obviously in love with Hiro until the plot forced him not to. She wants to have kids, they bang, and since it's dystopia the oppressive government finds out and essentially disrupts the peace, thus creating an illusion of conflict. Since this is DiTF, this soon dies soon, and so the writers decide to have a second backstory episode in an attempt to get the stagnant waters moving.
This, episode 19, is singlehandedly the worst episode in the show, and it's where things really spike downwads. While the world-building had been shaky at best before, this is where it outright becomes stupid. Want to know about why the world is post-apocalyptic? They farm energy off MAGMA, molten rock, which somehow kills the planet and makes the dinosaur mechas attack. They're revealed to be a reptilian society with a loli blue princess who then proceeds to reveal she's not a bad guy at all and is actually trying to save the planet from... aliens.
They really went there.
ALIENS.
REPTILIANS AND ALIENS.
The thing is, Kill la Kill is full of what are essentially a list of stupid, nonsensical plot twists and manages to make it work because of the show's overall tone. Tengen Toppa takes a similar approach. Both shows have dramatic moments, but have a silly tone and don't take themselves too seriously. Darling in the Franxx seems a lot more down-to-earth and nuanced, so these twists are... bizarre, to say the least.
Why didn't the reptilian princess tell the humans about the aliens so they'd both team up to defeat them instead of wasting time and energy fighting the humans? What's the in-universe explanation of this? How does the magma not obliterate the glass it's being contained in? Why do reptiles have boobs? Why do the robots have boobs?
Not content with this moronic turn of events, the story has the reptilian princess sexually assault Hiro and then try to make her sympathetic and self-sacrifice once she sees Hiro and Zero Two's WUV even though she basically tried to kill them minutes ago. Thus, she kills herself. She has been fighting humans for heaven know how many decades and all it takes for her to say, "Fuck it, I'm done," is a pair of teenagers crying after the trillionth fake out death. This happens as the alien invasion is taking place and it saves them, somehow, so I suppose it makes some sort of sense, but then Zero Two astrally projects and transfers her soul into the waifu bot she'd been piloting to fight the aliens? Anyway, there's the trillionth and first fake out death after that. By this point, the story is already beyond salvation, yet it manages to get even stupider when it's revealed she is fighting the aliens whilst possessing the waifu bot and her body is cast away on earth as a catatonic, wandering thing whom Hiro desperately clings on. Admittedly, this could potentially be very dramatic and sad if it weren't for the past episodes destroying any semblance of suspension of disbelief the audience might have had.
As this happens, there's a particular scene I despise where he says his life has no meaning without Zero Two and is basically going to go and fight the aliens, even if he dies, if there's no point to living anymore. The fuck? Where is the brave, kind Hiro who cares about his friends the show kept trying to sell? He's known (sans their childhood episode) Zero Two for a few months at most and apparently it's enough for him to basically engage in a suicide mission and abandon his dreams, worldviews and friends? What is this show anymore?
And yet, somehow, it manages to get even stupider. Not content with butchering its characters, it throws whatever integrity may be left to sleep with the fishes and quite blatantly begins to rip off the shows it was already "paying homage" to, included, but not limited to:
a) Waifu character is a clone.(Neon Genesis Evangelion)
b) The battle escalates to space because aliens are the real enemies. (Kill la Kill, Tengen Toppa)
c) The aliens/villains are made of pure energy and want to make other sentient life forms 'throw away' their material body. (Tengen Toppa, NGE)
d) Giant Naked Rei.
e) Macro-sized final battle where spiral power beats the anti-spirals.
f) Instrumentality fails because the writers didn't like End of Evangelion.
I shit you not, the waifu bot Zero Two possesses actually turns into a planet-sized Zero Two, with a distinct shot of the metallic chest bouncing and turning into boobs.
I must ask: what happened?
At some point, it even reminded me of Guilty Crown, another mecha show with a pink-haired waifu, the difference being that Guilty Crown was stupid from the start. This really, truly had potential even with the cliché storms. Even though the 'what makes us human' theme is basically in every sci-fi story ever, the sum of the elements--Zero Two's hatred towards her animalistic side, the way adults act like automatons, the way children are indoctrinated into complete subservience, among other things--might have made for a very interesting take on the subject. It could've been a legitimate exploration on the utopia/dystopia line and where's its drawn, yet this society collapses entirely (and literally) the moment the alien twist shows up. It's barely foreshadowed and completely wrecks any themes the story might had been building to.
This tried hard to be the new big thing in anime, and it could've been. It had the hype, it had the audience, it had the team qualifications. Like Guilty Crown, however, it took far too much from other shows to properly add into their own, thus collapsing into itself. If anything, both shows have ended up as a case study on what NOT to do. Had they been their own thing instead of trying to hard to emulate past successes and, well...
P.S. Asterisk Wars, Guilty Crown, Darling in the Franx... is there some correlation between bad anime and pink-haired mascot characters?
P.P.S. I could've mentioned the gratuitous sex metaphors, but plenty of other (better) reviews have done so already. This show is all but a PSA for the Japanese to procreate, which makes it all the more amusing that, given the ending is happy, everyone ends up having 3-4 babies (and counting). These people were way too optimistic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 27, 2015
I guess I must be tsundere towards shoujo in general, rather than plain masochistic. The reason? I tend to dislike the genre because of all those generic heroines, bastard love interests and utterly pointless love triangles among countless other things. Yet because of series like Natsume Yuujinchou or Lovely Complex I keep torturing myself through all that wangst and forced drama. And, admittedly, it's worth it more often than not. Such is the case with Ao Haru Ride.
The premise is nothing out of the common--the two main characters used to like each other during middle school, got separated and then found each other again years
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later. However, they had changed, and not for the better. The female lead, Futaba, has drastically altered her persona in order to be accepted. The male lead, Kou, has become a cold, condescending asshole as a shield against the rest of the world. It's no wonder they initially dislike each other.
Mostly.
Surprisingly, Futaba is quite likeable from the beginning. From what I've read, she's relatable enough for people to root for her from the very beginning. In my case, I mostly relate to Kou, but that's because I relate to asshole male leads in general. Ironically.
Speaking of which, Kou turned out to be intriguing from the beginning as well, mostly because, like Futaba, he does have depth beneath the usual archetype. Kou's sadness is palpable the way Futaba's own loneliness is, which make them all the more real.
Sadly, sans Kou's older brother, the rest of the cast seems fairly dull not because they lack screentime, but because they seem closer to their own archetypes than the main leads. We get the lone wolf, Murao, the girly sweetie-pie, Yuuri, and the overly-energetic dude, Kominato. Their actions and thoughts are too predictable which is disappointing because they do have potential.
If I were to mention the anime's highlight... it would be the art. Those watercolor backgrounds can be plain spectacular at times, and the animation, along with the soundtrack, effectively conveys an atmosphere fitting the story's themes. The art style has to be one of my favorite among shoujo. It's detailed without being over-the-top and very distinctive as well. In fact, I may or may not have initially read the manga because of the art. It would've been among my top 20 had an idiotic character not been introduced halfway just for drama, apparently. But that's another story.
Ao Haru Ride is not groundbreaking, but it's good. It does try to convey a message rather than just mindlessly entertain. The characters do grow and mature, Kou even more so than Futaba herself. There's a fair share of genuinely tender scenes and a couple that really did 'tug at my heartstrings'. I'd consider it above average, but not among the best of the genre. Except for the art. I'm in love with the art. Damn Sugisaka Io.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 24, 2015
Expect no gunfights, bastard boyfriends or manly men trying to pierce the heavens. Based on an award-winning novel, the movie's also gotten a fair share of recognition, and I can see why.
Fourteen-year old Kobayashi Makoto has just committed suicide. Meanwhile, a soul carrying a heavy, unknown sin is suddenly chosen to go back to life in Makoto's body as a 'trial' to try and find out what it did, and how to redeem itself. Everything else is unwritten.
It is said that there's nothing harder to work on than a blank canvas, and the soul finds out the hard way. In a way, we do,
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too. While the story itself is nothing breathtaking, the way the concept and themes are handled is arguably the best aspect of the movie. To me, few things are less satisfying than a work of art that will never truly end--the sort of movie, book, game to leave a mark and change my views on life. I can safely say Colorful achieved it.
The animation, I'll admit, was nothing really stunning. The CG could be off-putting at times along with the real-life backgrounds. However, the art style itself turned out to be very pleasant, more leaned to a realistic style. The soundtrack was spot-on. Along the art, it effectively conveyed a tranquil, somber atmosphere, greatly complimenting the story's themes. Compared to the other aspects of the movie, though, it almost seemed a bit lackluster.
I can't say much about the characters without spoiling. Aside from the main character, most of them have very little screen time except for the nameless spirit guiding 'it' and Sano, an outcast that always seems to be following 'Makoto'. However, they still managed to achieve a significant amount of depth, as most of their problems were implicit and left up to interpretation. The main character can come off as cold and even cruel at times, and 'it' should. It only makes its own development all the more outstanding.
The twist at the end was, as every trope and trick nowadays, fairly predictable. And certainly fitting. It really does go along the rest of the movie in a way no other ending would.
To me, it's not a work to be taken lightly. If watched correctly, it will leave you thinking. What does it really mean to be alive? To breathe? To exist?
As an extra, the fact Makoto was an artist only made it all more symbolic. Colorful, as a whole, really twisted the ways in which I see the world--and the hues.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 22, 2015
I have to admit I have a certain something against shoujo, and this show reminds me why. It's so... generic. So generic in fact I have difficulty thinking what exactly to review. Unpopular, average girl is paired up with the school idol due to certain circumstances... what's not to love...?
The main character, Erika, is easily dismissed as another generic female lead. She has absolutely nothing to distinguish her--save her tendencies to lie, and I got to admit she has a sort of talent to it if she can keep up with the other two girls she hangs out with. I find her to be fairly
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shallow, however, as she doesn't seem to mind having fake friends as long as she isn't alone, tends to dismiss her only actual friend, and made a certain remark about loners being losers that made me dislike her from the start.
Okay, fine, that last one was personal.
The rest of the cast doesn't get any better. Kyouya is another hot dude with temper issues and who can come off as a jerkass, but has a hidden nice side usually revealed by petting cats, or in this case dogs. Oh, and bonus points for having a dark past.
The closest thing resembling an original character is Erika's friend, you see, and I can't even remember her name.
The art is okay-ish, nothing that stands out, sound is fairly generic. The story is... well, what story? So Kyouya covers Erika's lies and pretends to be his boyfriend while torturing her mercilessly in secret? And that's about it. The rest are overused devices such as the sick episode or the Declaration of Protection. And let's not forget about the main lead soothing the broody guy's heart and making him fall for her. Please.
A highlight is the comedy. It legit made me laugh and the dynamics between characters weren't terrible. I actually kind of liked Kyouya, maybe because he tortured Erika, whom I despise, and I'm rather fond of the trolling type of people.
Overall, it's... well. Just an anime swimming in the middle of mediocrity, relying solely on wish-fulfillment, a hot guy, and maybe some comedic value to be popular. Definitely not something that will make you think, but then again anime like these come in handy when all we want is to get out of reality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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