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Horimiya is another slice-of-life, comedy, rom-com romance anime that failed to produce anything significant after the first four episodes. While the series initially tried to stand out by subvert expectations, it ultimately went back to the generic and cliche form.

Hori, the main female lead, and Miyamura, the main male lead, discovered each others’ ‘another’ personality after a fateful encounter. Hori was initially perceived to be a popular girl in school with a shitty personality, but she’s actually a kind girl and has house duties because her parents were not always home. Miyamura was perceived to be an anti-social otaku, but he’s actually the complete opposite. Now, this part was interesting. It means we get to see how their relationship playout. But the show had their feelings and relationship solved quickly in the beginning: They discover each other, understand each other’s compatibility, and fall in love. That is it. The show never delved deeper into their relationship because it just kind of ends. It never explored the more interesting aspects of their relationship because it wanted to be “different”.

In episode 3, Hori and Miyamura subconsciously confessed their feelings for each other. This was meant to be an impactful moment for both Hori and Miyamura. But the show brushed it over quickly, not giving the viewers enough time to process the abrupt half-hearted confession.

I also blame this particular problem on the pacing. To put it simply, many moments that needed to develop a deeper understanding of Hori and Miyamura’s relationship were either presented very simple and rushed, or they were just completely cut from the manga. Viewing this anime from an anime-only perspective only leaves a bad impression, and I’m not going to dispute that fact.

Since the main couple’s relationship is resolved rather quickly, that’s where the show had no choice but to go the cliche avenue. The relationship explored next in the show was a love triangle between the supporting characters: Yuki, Tooru, and Sakura. And as you can guess, it’s the same trite anime formula of a love triangle where eventually, one of the characters will win and the other losses. The one that lost is the character who tried her hardest to get her love interest, and the one that won is because of her special connection to the love interest.

However, I will say that the character that won had a more interesting personality and dynamic with her love interest.

The characters in Horimiya are just simply not interesting or particularly stand out. The supporting casts serve a set of personalities, and that’s what they are. They are forgettable because they only have one purpose to the narrative: To be categorized into different love circles and relationships. Whether that be Sengoku and Remi, or Tooru and Yuki, their relationships are never thoroughly explored. The show tells you that they have feelings for each other, but it never delved deeper than that. Without any evolvement of Hori and Miyamura’s relationship, the narrative and characters’ captivity fell apart quickly.

The artistic style used for its characters is the bare minimum. There’re no details added to make the aesthetics stand out. Its background settings are barebone art too, which is fine. It’s a rom-com romance. Don’t expect anything outstanding and substantial. However, the technique that annoys me the most about the show was when it uses chibi art for jokes--those jokes aren’t even funny. It’s repetitive and adds nothing to the enjoyment.

I was well aware of the drastic changes that were going to happen since I’ve read the manga. Still, the anime did a poor adaptation of the little moments that cultivated the relationships between the characters--especially between Hori and Miyamura. Those moments were either rushed or were completely cut from the anime, which had a detrimental effect on my enjoyment. Even for an anime-only, the faults can still be detected. Unless you have seen worse romcoms, Horimiya is not worth investing your time in.

Score: 4/10

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Black Clover is not for everyone, I’ll admit. It’s the trashiest to mid-tier Shounen series out there that manages to gravitate to a certain group of viewers: Shounentards, with its cliches, tropes, and generic power fantasy. It lacks anything substantial or impactful. It doesn’t reinvent the Shounen wheel or elevates it. It’s a lackluster written series that exists purely for entertainment for people like me--who self indulges in battle shounen without a second thought--even if it’s the same type of blueprint that I’ve seen before, but with its own modifications. Thus, I don’t have any hate or resentment directed towards this controversial series. I simply can’t.

I’ve been following the series since its inception. I’ve read and re-read its source material and, I can say it does improve--for a Black Clover standard, that is. This series received hate, backlash, and terrible reception since the onset of its TV anime. And to nobody’s surprise, it’s the most hated series of modern Shounen--2014 and onwards, right after the era of the big three. If there’s any advice I can give for people interested in watching this series, it is to go into it for pure entertainment. Be open-minded, have low expectations, ignore the hate, and watch it for yourselves.

Black Clover anime started ugly. The pacing, sheer predictability, genericness, and the dreadful usage of Shounen tropes turned off people--understandably so. But for me, I loved it. I loved it not because it was good, but because it was the purest generic anime that was not afraid for what it was. It knows its production was constrained. It knows its plot and characters took “inspiration” from previous works with few tweaks here and there, and most importantly, it knows its target audience. With this, once the show solved its pacing issues, it quickly flew from arc to arc with hype moments after hype moments, and all I did was to turn off my brain and enjoy the shit show.

To provide some examples, after the dungeon expedition arc, Asta, Noelle, Yuno, and some other magic knight squad members were summoned for recognition medals. In that banquet, the show introduced more of its supporting casts. It demonstrated its power system, characters’ abilities, showcased some of its societal structure and prejudices, and then jumped straight to the Clover Kingdom’s invasion.

Throughout this invasion arc, it entertained me by never letting go of its accelerator. All the Magic Knight captains that were introduced previously got their moments to show off. Whether be their magic or personality, it showed all of it. The show then exploits each of its newly introduced characters to the limit by having them interact and fight alongside each other. The dynamics between characters such as Fuegoleon and Nozel, Asta, Yuno, and Noelle, Yami and Jack, provided the fun. It’s cheap, it’s lazy, but it worked so well for a braindead like me.

The other aspect of Black Clover’s storytelling is the seamless transition from an arc to another. If some terrorists brutally wounded a beloved character, the most logical route is for the main casts to go after them. And they do. If the vice-captain of the Golden Dawn is acting out of character, the most logical thinking is to seek out the true identity. And they do.

How do they do it? They do it by the classic shounen way: Tournament arc--my favorite aspect of mindless battle shounen.

But along the way, the show plants some seeds of suspicion--there’s something more sophisticated with the adversaries that the Clover Kingdom were up against. It’s these careful hints here and there that made the grand finale of Black Clover’s first saga a memorable one. And it is in my humble opinion that the first saga of Black Clover is one of the best of modern shounen. The finale wrapped up every plot point presented up to then, it concluded characters’ development until that point, and it answered every question along the way. Not to mention, the final plot twist was a phenomenon to be held.

Yuki Tabata’s writing isn’t anything revolutionary. He takes inspiration and does his own twists. He utilizes whatever skills he has got at his disposal and tells his own story within the Shounen genre’s confinement. And I enjoyed every second of it. I have no regrets.

As I aforementioned, Black Clover’s production was severely constrained. From the start, the anime lacked staffing--specifically, key animators and animation directors--and had an unsustainable schedule. Before the first episode of Black Clover even premiered, the Black Clover anime production team was given only 5 months of pre-production, for a long-running battle shounen. To put it into perspective, a 12 episode regular anime usually takes a year of pre-production. Thus, it’s no surprise that the animation in Black Clover declined significantly soon after it began airing. As that happened, it’s also reported that some of the staff working on the anime had gone through physical and mental exhaustion, which they eventually fell ill.

Now, why does it matter?

Well, it doesn’t--at least from a show’s quality standpoint. But then I don’t want to clown on Black Clover’s animation either because of this information. I know the animation and art are inconsistent; the consensus is that Black Clover’s animation is inconsistent. It can be mindblowing for a single episode, and then for the next 10 to 20 episodes can range from unbearable to mediocracy. I can list every single flaw of Black Clover’s art and animation, but then that would be repetitive since I’m sure those aspects have been talked about over the years. Lastly, I’m fine with it. I’m okay with its inconsistency in art and animation because I love this series. I grew up with it, I enjoyed it, and I’m willing to forgive its flaws.

If you have read this far, I just want to thank you for taking your time.

Score: 5/10

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I, who tends to stay away from Isekai anime, know that the Isekai genre has been plagued with absolute garbage shows. Even the ones that people claim to be exceptional and outstanding such as Re: Zero and Log Horizon didn’t manage to draw me in. The usage of tropes and concepts was unoriginal and uninspiring.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation still does use those tropes. However, it captivated me with the sheer amount of entertainment and a simple, slice of life story. And I believe that the show’s slice of life aspect is what made it stand out, and ultimately, made it propel itself to the top of my Isekai list.

For people that watch Isekai casually--people that aren’t adept in the field of Isekai--I believe this, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is one the best Isekai out there.

Unlike other popular isekai shows such as Sword Art Online or Re: Zero, the main protagonist isn’t destined for greatness. He isn’t given overpowered abilities that helped him to propel to the top with ease. He isn’t the stereotypical Isekai protagonist with no other personality besides being a walking, talking, omnipotent being that nobody can touch on a physical and emotional level. He isn’t this pure good person who desires to help others no matter their circumstances. He, Rudeus, the protagonist of this show, is a 34-year-old loser and a pedophile who was emotionally distraught from his previous life, got reincarnated into the body of a child, and was given a second chance.

Yes, the pedophile side of his character is disgusting, and I would be lying if this side of his character didn’t initially turn me off. Given the context of the sins he committed in his previous life, it just added more fuel to the fire. Thus, I understand some people’s discontent towards his character.

But, Rudeus’s desire to change and the changes that he made are what made him likable. Throughout the show, we see him grow out of his emotional pain in his previous life. Through this, he became more open to others, which came to the likable side of him. He started to give life advice to people around him. One of them being Eris, who’s a child with anger issues. She’s violent, impatient, and emotional. More often than not, she’s physically abusive towards Rudeus. But, Rudeus, who has already experienced this treatment in his previous life, treats her back with patience and care. He slowly wears down her usual tendencies before starting to change her. He supported her during tough and emotionally high times.

That’s what made him likable. That’s what made him stand out among other Isekai shows. It’s by far the most refreshing take on an Isekai protagonist. Rudeus’s pedophile instinct shouldn’t be dismissed. It needs to be addressed. But that shouldn’t dismiss the characterization he got, either.

Mushoku Tensei doesn’t follow the conventional Isekai plot elements and outline. Instead, it’s a well-paced, methodically put-together, and brilliantly executed slice of life. The show takes its time to build its world and its rules. Once it’s established, it sticks to it and never abuses it. The show takes its time to develop characters’ relationships, which are beneficial in the long run once it shifts its main focus to more of a conflict-heavy route. And as I mentioned, Mushoku Tensei does a great job balancing the slice of life elements with its pacing. Never once in an episode has it lost my attention or interest; that’s because it presented its information in a consumable way. Thus, it never felt too overwhelming or too fast-paced. It does enough to leave viewers wanting more.

For a show with a fairly large cast of characters, Mushoku Tensei does a good job keeping the characters relevant and fun to watch. Each of the secondary casts of characters has their purpose in the story--whether be a plot point or have a significant influence on Rudeus--but they never overstay their welcome. One such example being Rudeus’ parents and their influence on him. They taught him the importance of being a good, open-minded person. And I know this sounds cliche, trite, and cringe, but these moments’ execution and presentation were genuinely heartwarming. After they’ve served their purpose, the show moves on while still keeping their importance in the narrative. To me, at least, this is a very well handling of its casts because they aren’t being sidelined completely.

The production studio for Mushoku Tensei did an amazing job of bringing the world and its characters to life. For a new studio that’s join ventured from White Fox, the animation and art quality is breathtaking. In the show, the scenery and composition shots were put together in a way that flows and pleases to viewers’ eyes. The great sense of directing of its action and non-action scenes adds more enjoyment to its narrative. Mushoku Tensei’s unique and authentic character designs made each of the characters stand out--even the secondary and nonessential characters. With its medieval-fantasy setting, the world is also thoroughly explored.

Looking at Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation as a whole, the series is a very enjoyable, captivating, and beautifully crafted simple story. It has its flaws. But the great things contained within the series outweigh the bad. With its great voice acting, sound, and presentation, the series is nothing short of being amazing.

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Akudama Drive and Great Pretender were the only two anime that stood out to me in the year 2020, and both of them were originals. While the two weren’t adapted from particular source material, such as manga, light novel, or webtoon’s manhwa, they were still able to cater to an audience, respectively. Great Pretender, by WIT Studio, was a Japanese crime comedy anime, and Akudama Drive, by Studio Pierrot, is a Japanese Cyberpunk inspired anime. The most prominent and well-known series such as Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, and the critically acclaimed 1988 film Akria for those who’re unfamiliar with this sub-genre. If you’re a fan of any of those series, this show is worth the investment.

The story follows a group of criminals, generalized by the name of Akudama, as they were assigned a job to rescue a prisoner named Cutthroat, who was held by the Kansai Police force, for a large sum of money. As with these types of Cyberpunk shows, the setting is a very futuristic and technologically advanced city--but with the 80s vibes. In the first scene of the first episode, you’re presented with breath-taking visuals of the city that then transitions from the mist skyline to the convoluted city streets. From there, it unravels its futuristics from the intricate details of lights, buildings, and inner parts of the city to the mundane life of its citizens and its societal structure. With these first transitional shots, it sets up the tone and expectations of the show from episode one, which then the show exploits the already established structure to introduce the rest of the casts and build a foundation of the story.

A girl named Ordinary Person--later adapts the name of Swinder--who coincidentally joins the group after being arrested and sent to jail for a trifling incident: Not paying for her food at the spot. With this arrest, the show presents a strict and controlled society, which correlates with the setup atmosphere from the first transitional shots. At the same prison, she meets the rest of the cast, who’d later form into a group with a mutual goal: free Cutthroat. With their violent entrance to the prison, it immediately initiated a police pursuit of the Akudama. The police force is the representation of its utopian society, which again, cultivates what was established early on. From there, with no significant spoilers, begins the fun. It’s revealed that their meeting with Cutthroat was a devised plan by a Black Cat--who later revealed to be a different being entirely. The gang was tasked to seek out the truth of their utopia. Throughout their excursion, we experience how each gang member interacts, discovers, and learns to trust and rely on each other. As the show progresses, the bond between the members grew, which helped deliver some emotional moments later on in the series.

The aesthetics of Akudama Drive is perhaps the major selling point of this show. There’re many elements that the show does right with this type of creative field--those being the art, animation, designs, coloring, and atmosphere aesthetics. The artistic expression, along with its settings and characters’ designs, bolstered its dark utopia atmosphere and helped to ground the series, which further enhanced the show’s relatability. Alongside its top art, the fluent animation of its fights, motion, and detailed designs of its characters were the highlights of the show as well. Each of its characters got its own distinct hairstyles, clothes, and body types that make them stand out in this convoluted cast show. The directions of its fights and motion were displayed conveniently to deliver an even bigger impact to its already flawless animation. Akudama Drive, without a doubt, is the show that’s the most eye-pleasing of art that I’ve witnessed in the year 2020.

I don’t find the characters in Akudama Drive to be particularly unique or memorable. As each of the main casts barely has any depth and development. I see them as a group of misfits, which I believe is what this show wants to covey. Each of them embodies a personality and quirk, and that’s what they are throughout the show, with a few instances of conventional developments that don’t mean much. Most of their behaviors are the personality types that we’ve seen numerous times. To name a few, the show has a savage, dumb, but buff guy that’s used for strength and comedy. It has a quiet and reserved but omnipotent in technology/electronics expert. A level headed but apathetic person that has the characteristic of a “man of few words.” Individually, they aren’t amusing to watch. As I’ve aforementioned, it’s their personalities that play off each other as a group is what makes it mesmerizing.

Akudama drive is one of the few standouts of the season and 2020 as a whole. It’s a captivating show that’s unconventional and unique. It has sufficient appealing elements while staying faithful to its genre. If you will, please give this show a watch.

Score: 6/10

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There are people out there that wish for an anime like this. An anime that disregards the fundamental notion of a relationship. These anime were written to appeal to people who have no idea or concept of romance between two characters and how they’re explored, developed, and executed. All they care about is the end goal that satisfies their inner fantasies. If you’re the type of person that’s mature and wants a fulfilling romance comedy anime, then please avoid this trite, and quite frankly, boring show. Exert all of your wills to suppress your desire to click and potentially watch this anime because it’s not worth it.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I prefer romance anime that gives me a sense of progression. The most important aspect of a romance anime that provides this is the characters’ relationships. For a show to pull this off is to have objectives. An end goal. This show, Tonikaku Kawaii, has none. The story revolves around Nasa, a perverted kid that got rammed by the classic Truck-Kun. Fortunately for him, he didn’t die and get isekaied because he was saved by a girl, Tsukasa, who has a body of steel. Upon being saved and being perverted as he is, he immediately proposed to her because this meant that they were destined to be together because of fate. And, of course, she accepts it. But only if they get married. This was the element that killed the show. Because they are married from episode one, the show threw away any possibility of exploring their relationships and developing the characters. To keep people watching, the writer has to make the characters do the most mundane things in life. Such as buying wedding rings, beds, furniture, and visiting Nasa’s family. This doesn’t mean it’s terrible. It would’ve been okay if these elements served a purpose, but it didn’t.

Being a comedy romance anime, this show doesn’t disappoint you in failing to conceive the most cliche and certainly not funny jokes that rely on anime tropes. And unlike Kaguya Sama, the jokes are trite and mind-numbingly terrible. Throughout the show, an explicit reliance on comedy is formed by each passing episode: The protagonists’ perverted nature. Nasa and Tsukasa blush at each other 24/7 as if they just met. Every word out of their mouths made the two go red and insecure in a matter of seconds. This component is used heavily to the point that it isn’t even cute after 2 episodes. Let alone funny. The characters are as one-dimensional as it gets. Tsukasa is the most dedicated and well-behaved wife fantasized by a writer who clearly knows close to nothing about writing a female character. She’s what an 8 to 9-year-olds boys’ brain thought of as a perfect wife as a kid. She cooks for her husband, she shops for her husband, she defends her husband with no hesitation, and she certainly won’t show any other emotions besides being a typical happy girl. I hate this type of stereotypical cardboard of a character the most. Nasa is every perverted protagonist out there that has no other desirable character traits. He thinks about anything and everything nude and willing to execute it. Such as causally squeezing his wife’s breasts, asking his wife to wear her underwear so he can see how cute she is with his own two perverted eyes. This scene was not even funny. It was cringe. Nothing about him is likable or attractive. Not surprisingly, the rest of the cast are vulgar of this too.

With the lazily written story comes a lazily animated show with no distinctions that stands out in this already saturated genre. Everything looks bland and non-captivating. From the foreground to the background, the colors don't stand out. Characters’ hair, eyes, and faces are copy and paste of each other but vary in color. There’re no extra details put into these character designs that makes them distinguishable. Besides their personalities, they’re all analogous to each other, just like the other conventional shows in this genre. To conclude, this show is not worth watching unless you’ve nothing else better to do.
Score: 3/10

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Haikyuu: To the Top, or the 4th installment to this series, was painful to watch--especially the first four episodes. What this season suffered from what the last three seasons excelled on was the pacing. Haikyuu has always been a series that delivered its character growth, memorable moments, and most importantly, hype through its volleyball practice, games, and playoffs. This season, the series decided to change the formula by having training and character backstories that served no purpose.

For the 1st half of the 2nd season of the 4th season, you were overwhelmed with boring expositions about some characters’ motivations and personalities that felt daunting. This season was building up these characters as if they were the key components to the overall narrative. But they weren’t. Almost none of the flashbacks had any purpose to the plot, and their mini-arcs were mostly resolved in one episode. Thus, making it feel like a bunch of unnecessary fillers. The only backstory that mattered was the Miya twins: Atsumu and Osamu Miya. However, the season fixed itself by modifying its focus, which was the match between Karasuno and Inarizaki Highschool. Once the attention was on the match, only then the story began to pick up its pace. It was like the series itself recognized it has been dragging its feet and got itself back on track. Throughout the second half, the season had episodes dedicated to characters’ mini-arcs that were set up at the beginning of this 4th season, like Tsukishima and Ruunosuke. Suffice to say, their moments were more entertaining and memorable than those in the first half of this second season. Perhaps because I was more attached to them since they’ve been established since season 1.

Similar to the story pacing early on in this season, the animation wasn’t at its best. Few shots of character movements felt stale and poorly animated, actions felt wonky, and character designs were sometimes disjointed. It felt like an unfinished product. But then again, much of these are fixed later on.

Haikyuu’s 4th season didn’t live up to the previous three seasons’ qualities. With its pacing issues, lack of focus on the plot, and mediocre animation, this season is easily the worst in the series. If the problems were to continue from the first half to the second half, this season certainly would’ve deserved a score of 4 or below. It’s a season that’s barely watchable and has a few good moments later on. It’s nothing revolutionary. It’s just below average.

Score: 4/10

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“What...Just Happened?” - Jin, Mo-Ri (Episode 12, The God of Highschool.)

I vividly remember months before the premiere of Tower of God, and what would eventually be the premiere of The God of Highschool, people in the anime community--especially some of the prominent anitubers--were hyping this two anime nonstop. They touted these two as the anime that would change the landscape of the anime industry and would bring in a “new era” of content. Those were some big claims, even outrageous. For me, the one show that I immediately think back to whenever there’re claims like these is Attack on Titan. Mainly because Attack on Titan delivered what people claimed it would do back then. It succeeded to usher in not only new anime fans but also changed the landscape of Anime.

These two, however, failed miserably.

Not only did these two fail to deliver big impacts, but it also failed narratively. But out of these two, the painfully clear one was The God of Highschool. This show hangs on the backbone of animation and fights. Not storytelling, plot, characters, or world-building. And as you can guess, this show was inevitably going to crash and burn before it even got off the runway.

Before we get into the “story” of this show, if there’s any, I want to touch upon the pacing and the structure of this show. My gosh, for the first time in a while that I have felt a show’s pacing is this bad. I mean it’s abysmal how they handled the pacing. 90% of this show is constructed in a sequence of fights. The majority of the episodes consist of back-to-back fast-paced nonstop martial art fights, and that’s it. That’s all it offers. It’s a show that gets you hooked then kicks you out the door in an instant. Not giving you much room to breathe and take it all in. And this repeats over and over until you’re just tired of this shit. Funny enough, the fights worked at the beginning of this show because it was invigorating, but after you’re done watching 4-5 episodes of this shit, you’ll be drained. To confuse you even more and add plot holes, the show introduces some of the most overpowered and unexplained power system: Charyeok. This ability is bestowed upon a person when he or she makes a contact with a supernatural entity--at least that was what this show said it would be before going off and randomly granting this power to every single character of this show. This power can be used and shaped by the will of its possessor. Because of how rushed this show is, you’ll just have to accept the fact that they can unlock these powers with no buildups.

Now, the plot. If you were going into this show expecting a coherent story, then you’re in the wrong show. This pile of dogshit knows that it lacks plot points, so to try and deceive you from the lack of plot is by feeding you fights after fights. At the time I’m writing this, it was reported that the producers at MAPPA crammed 130 and counting chapters into 13 episodes. A manhwa’s first 130 chapters worth of story and developments were being glossed over in favor of fights. Jesus Christ. The producers and the director must have lost their minds for thinking that they can form a coherent story with this. In anyhow, the story can be summarized in one sentence: Three high school students that were on steroids came together to participate in a tournament and a religious cult is after them because they’re evil. That’s it. No build-ups, no clarification of their motivations, no world-building, no explanations for the power system, no developments for the main casts, and the list goes on and on. Initially, I was going to accept that there won’t be any plot developments and this garbage would end with the main trio moving on to the next stage of the tournament. An okay ending for what this show has presented thus far. But out of nowhere, the last few episodes turned into a clusterfuck. To simplify, the last few episodes turned into Humans vs God. You read that right.

Apparently, the evil cult got the ability to summon a horribly CG animated golden statue from the sky that was going to crash on to the tournament dorm. This ugly statue is what they call “God”. Before you get the chance to grasp what was going on, you’re thrown into large scale battles. Everyone just suddenly started brawling at each other and initiating chaos within a city. As you watch, you see people being slaughtered left and right, you see a group of lunatics chanting battle cry, you see the buildings on fire, you see the city being blown up, you see the main trio battling against an underdeveloped main villain, and you probably will see a couple having sex in the middle of this chaos and wondering what the fuck is going on.

The character writing of this show painfully displays its old generation of shounen. And I don’t mean your Narutos, Luffies, or Ichigos. I meant the worst aspect of the main characters of the old generation of shounen: characters that drive on fighting. Jin displays the character traits of early Gokus. They have no other motivations or personalities besides their love for combat. That’s why they don’t influence the story and their environments much. Characters like Luffy, for example, are the main component that pushes the story forward. Or characters like Naruto that have a clear motivation and they’re the story. The story and everything else revolves around them.

What’s Jin? If he’s taken out of the story, nothing changes. He could easily be replaced by a nobody, and the story would remain the same. That being the main character participating in a tournament and meets a couple of friends, and they fight together. He doesn’t influence the story because the plot has been set for him. That being the tournament. He doesn’t even have much of an impact on characters around him.

Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra’s motivation to participate in the GoH tournament ended way too early. After Dae-Wi’s friend died, he lost his purpose in the show. The only reason he still participated in the tournament in the first place was that he’s part of the main trio. And the same problem applies to Mi-Ra. As the series progressed, it lost its characters’ purpose. What once was a mildly interesting trio turned into a one-dimensional lunatics that love punching and kicking.

The only thing that kept me from giving this garbage a score of 1 is the animation. The fights, choreography, details in character designs, lighting effects, and the smoothness of the animations were great. There’s clear evidence that the animators worked their asses off for delivering the fights in this show, unlike the staff who worked on Tower of God. The camera movements were smart and helped to deliver the impacts of these fights. The color effects of the background and stage were reflective, the smooth animation of hand to hand combat was mind-blowing at times, and the overall animation style makes the show feel alive. Unlike the paint animation of Tower of God. It at least showed that the animators cared about what they were animating even if they knew this show was doomed to fail. But that still won’t excuse this show’s overall problems.

At last, I want to end this review by saying that I wanted The God of Highschool to succeed. I wanted Tower of God to succeed. Just like I stated in my ToG review. I genuinely believe that Webtoons can be turned into a major adaptation field for future anime projects because I believe Webtoons can bring something new and fresh. But, the adaptation of The God of Highschool and Tower of God proves that there needs to be a big commitment put into these adaptations. Because clearly, the anime industry doesn’t know how to adapt Manhwas, yet.

Score: 2/10

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If the mangaka and the director of Fire Force at David Production had one major flaw that they could have learned from the first season of Fire Force is the pacing. The pacing of Fire Force anime was so dreadful to the point that I fell asleep or was distracted for the majority of season one. Because of that, I had to rewatch numerous episodes that I missed. And We’re six episodes into the second season, this aspect of the anime has not even been considered to be modified.

To elaborate, this season has so far displayed nothing but fights. These fights look stunning, but I can’t appreciate it because it’s nothing but spectacles. There’re no emotions. No one in these fights feels any sense of danger. An Evangelist was thrown through numerous concrete walls and stood back up like it was nothing. Shinra was blasted and engulfed with a huge fire but he came out not having any burns when previously we have seen people been burned alive. On top of that, between each fight, there’re expositions about flashbacks, techniques, inner dialogues, and so on. All of this nonsense consumes the majority of each episode. By the end of it, you got nothing but stale talking and some flashy scenes that bear no weight and serves no purpose to the plot.

Speaking of the plot, all we know so far is that the Fire Force company and the Evangelists want to capture a girl named Inca. She’s the fifth generation fire pillar that has the ability of Adolla Burst that can be used to discover a link to another realm. Which could then lead to the clues of a phenomenon that occurred before season one. And of course, the Evangelists are after her because they want to initiate a precedented event called the “Great Cataclysm” to bring chaos. You know, the generic villain group motivations.

The Evangelists’ great idea of capturing their prey is to make noises. Not a small one, but an enormous one that grabbed the attention of Fire Force company #8. Since the Fire Force already knew where Inca was in the city of Tokyo, the anime and the writer could have easily turned the current dull fights into a hyper chase pursuit. Which could have elevated the enjoyment of this anime significantly.

There’s not much depth to any of the characters in Fire Force since the first season was wasted on dragged out plot points and fights. Given by this season’s directions, I don’t expect much from them besides their usual quirks. To summarize, Shinra is the conventional shonen protagonist that has the typical motivation of a shonen protagonist. Besides his desire to be a “hero” and save his little brother and has some creep personality, he’s pretty much one dimensional. It’s also revealed that his power is linked to another source and there resides a demon/devil. Which he could use to enhance his abilities. Sounds familiar? (This is pretty the only thing that I’m interested in about his character, btw.)

Arthur, he’s probably the only character that could grow on me and become interesting since the reveal of his back story. But we’ll see. As for females, they have their unique traits and can do things as the members of the fire force. Except for Iris and Tamaki. Iris just stands around and prays, and for the majority of the time, Tamaki is used for unnecessary fanservice and cliche jokes.

The biggest appeal of this show is without a doubt the animation. Adapted by a competent studio, David Production, Fire Force gets the top-quality production values. It’s no secret that whenever there is an action sequence, you’ll be guaranteed with visually appealing aesthetics. From the animation of expulsions, lighting effects, backgrounds, colors, sceneries, etc, they’re all top-notch. When it comes to character designs, however, there’re not many distinctions. Many of them have analogous facial expressions, drawings, hairs, and whatnot. And only having the animation as the single positive aspect of this show isn’t going to carry it.

For anyone who genuinely loves this show and thinks it’s a 10 out of 10 is beyond me. And so in conclusion, is this show worth watching? Hell no. However, if you’re a seasonal diver like me, you might as well dig through this season’s garbage in the hope to find some hidden gems. If not, at least your anime list has expanded.

Score: 3/10

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Re: Zero. A series that exploded during its first season and it was at the peak of its popularity before the four years gap that diminished its momentum. Similar to Attack on Titan, Re: Zero brought something that was fresh and original -- in a sense. Especially when compared to a conventional Isekai. While Re: Zero was able to keep people hooked through its gores, shocks, and dark tone, it was never able to make people care about any of the casts. And unlike Attack on Titan, the world-building in Re: Zero is nonexistent.

I mention world building because if the anime failed to develop any relatable cast, then at least make the world realistic. If not, make it believable. It failed at that too. All we get to see in the anime is characters traveling to different locations to uncover mysteries. After one location is reached, the anime moved on to the next. This is the problem. There are no breaks for explorations, which is detrimental because the audience couldn’t care less about what’s happening on screen.

Prior to the introduction of the villains of the Witch’s Cult, Subaru, Emilia, and Rem were traveling to participate in an event that would make Emilia the next ruler of a nation. The villains then ambushed them, killing most of the soldiers and injured Rem. This then prompts the story to take a different avenue -- which is to unravel the mysteries of Witch’s Cult and bring Rem back to peoples’ memories. Upon the introduction of, what seemed to be, the main villains of this season, we never get to see them again. Because of their absence, however, there’s no sense of danger. And what we end up with is Emilia and Subaru traveling to different locations to uncover what was set from the onset of this season.

The casts from the 1st season were all pretty much underdeveloped and the ones that did got some progression stayed stale.

Emilia. With Rem being out of the picture due do coma, you would think that this is the perfect time for Emilia to shine. It’s entrenched from episode one that she wanted to help Subaru in any way she can. Besides her social status and connection to various eminent people to use as her leverage to gain information, she can’t do anything outside of that. Especially when it comes to situations that require physical need.

We all know that Subaru is the embodiment of a pure person that will do anything for the ones that he holds dear to. As it was shown in the previous season, he was willing to die for it. But, given the fact that he’s stuck in a loop whenever he dies, he won’t hesitate to kill himself over and over if it’s in the name of helping people. That’s why this is also the flaw of his character.

He’s still the same person. He hasn’t had any character development because of his sole purpose in the series. Because of how the series set the circumstances for his character, he doesn’t fear death. It’s a tool that he can use to change and manipulate the events to his will. Thus, the guilt of killing himself won’t have much impact on anyone. Not even himself. And no, flashbacks doesn't count as character development.

Overall, Re:Zero is a mediocre series with its own distinctive twits within an Isekai genre. It’s more of a slow-paced mystery series with not much of thoughts put into it. If anything, it’s certainly better than Sword Art Online.

Score: 4/10

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This shit was garbage alright, but I thought it was going to be the type of garbage that I would enjoy like of which the Highschool of the Dead. Don’t get me wrong, the first half of this show was enjoyable. It had an interesting premise, fights, ecchi fanservice, etc. The second half of this show was where it fell apart for me.

What initially was going to be about an adventure between a boy named Shuuichi and a yandere girl named Clair to find out the reasons behind her sister’s murdering of her parents, to the boring stale talking about nonsense with maybe a few actions here and there.

The show started it off strong. We were introduced to the main male protagonist Shuuichi who was bestowed with an ability to turn into a monster that resembles a teddy bear. This ability gives him an abnormal amount of strength, power, and agility. However, he doesn’t know how to use this power to his advantage -- at least effectively. This is where Clair, the main female protagonist, comes in. You see, she’s the yandere of this show, but not too extreme like the which of Yuno Gaisai. And she has a motivation that is at least understandable, unlike Yuno. Just like any Yandere, she is badass, cool, sexy, and can knock you out in one punch. She’s also merciless. If you rubbed her in the wrong way, you might as well be dead. What’s her involvement with Shuuichi? Well, she pilots Shuuichi’s monster.

Clair can pilot Shuuich’s monster form by going inside the body of the monster. That’s right, when Shuuichi is in his monster form, people can get inside it. However, just like any living beings, the monster’s inside is always hot and humid like a sultry day. Thus, you will always see her wearing bikinis or swimsuits because you know, for fanservice. And yes, there will be plenty of ass shots.

The premise of this show sounds all fine and dandy until the show introduced aliens. That’s right, ALIENS. Instead of focusing on finding the truth behind Clair’s sister, we have to follow our two main protagonists’ journeys finding these alien coins, basically the MacGuffins of this show. These alien coins are needed to be collected and delivered to the guy -- who’s an alien -- at some random vending machine somewhere in Japan. The thing is, what happens after they delivered the coins? Will the alien tell Clair about the truth of her sister? Or will the alien use the coins to summon an alien invasion? We don’t know. The show just introduces some of these random asspulls to explain these powers for the sake of explanation. What’s next? A full-blown war with other aliens? Fuck this show.

After the reveal of aliens, the pacing of this show slumped. It went from pure action to stale talking after Clair and Shuuichi joined a useless clan of people who can turn into all sorts of things. They have a common goal: collect as many alien coins as possible. Along the way, they fight other clans for domination. However, in all of these fights, Clair and Shuuichi were the only effective ones, the rest of Clair and Shuuichi’s clan were just useless.

This show’s production quality is surprisingly outstanding. Especially with the smoothness of the action scenes. Outside of that, the attention to background details, character designs, and lighting was mediocre.

This show isn’t worth watching because for the majority of the time there aren’t many things going on. The dialogues are plain and servers pretty much no purpose. Unless you’re in for full ecchi, it’s not an enjoyable show.

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