What's this? An isekai anime where the characters actually start inexperienced and we get to see their development rather than them innately having some special ability or inner "hidden power" that makes them unique? Sounds good!
Except it is not. It is just so GOD DAMN B O R I N G.
Okay, maybe the fault's in the eye of the beholder. I've mainly been watching (life-action) series and movies where plots and character developments are more often than not much superior to how it is in anime, and I'm somewhat out of my "anime phase", or at the very least, I'm much less inclined to forgive
...
several anime tropes bullshit. I've put this disclaimer as a heads up for the upcoming cynicism which some people may judge as "unfair harshness" (which might be, but I really don't care). Although... 2017-weaboo me was also pretty bored with this and dropped it. I should've listened to him. Also, another disclaimer, I've only watched half of the anime. I was planning to finish it, innocently expecting the second half to be better than the first, but as reviews point out that's how it goes till the end I just decided to drop it.
You guys like structured reviews, right? You actually read reviews here, don't you? Unlike RYM. Okay, so I'm gonna take this seriously.
STORY
Bunch of kids just suddenly pop up in a fantasy... medieval world? Aside from a cave, a goblin-ridden city, the adventurer's town and that town's goddamn tavern, there's nowhere else. It feels like the writers know how overused and generic this setting is to the point they don't bother worldbuilding, instead relying on some cheap explanations on guilds and monsters and expecting the readers to just know how fantasy settings work. Essentially a stock photo lore.
And the plot, man with a demon avatar, what's the plot? Tell me about the plot, I beg you, you say. There's no plot. The plot is "let's watch those kids grind until they get better lol". Not to say that wouldn't be a fun plot if it didn't rely on them fighting for some five minutes every three episodes against a bunch of goblins that look the exact same.
And it's so slow. Good lord, it is slow. That's what kills it. It's just babble, burble, banter, bicker bicker bicker, brouhahas. Elephant talk. Characters talk for most of the episodes on dialogues that are supposedly for character development purposes, which is weird considering they feel like they have no personality to develop to begin with, and some really archetypal conversations that only happen in animes: boys mentioning the girls are flat (as in, small-boobed, hooray for superficial jokes; meaningless infighting that would probably get some real enmity in real life but are depicted as if the characters don't mind the insults thrown at each other; characters pretending they're introvert and introspective but constantly blurting how they feel over minor things; big-boobed girls prying out of their windows naked sightseeing two characters just hanging together and making a fuss out of it; characters acting like a possible romantic relationship is outrageous and yelling to each other about it. Or, to put it in another words, the type of dialogue you think people have when you're in your first year of High School. Yes, the exact type of stuff I want in my "let's watch them grind in a relentless world" setting!
So yeah, the "story" is boring. The setting is bland and there's no plot. It's a slice of life. The primary concept of "inexperienced mates grind to get better" isn't really interesting when the world is not explored nor presented in an enticing way and when the fighting scenes are even shorter and more spaced out than Dragon Ball Z.
ART
It's cool. Looks very often like watercolour paintings, which is something I don't recall seeing in anime. And since the anime's a lighthearted shonen with some bleeding every now and then, it's not out-of-touch with its concept. The animation isn't particularly good but it's not bad to the point you actually notice it.
The main character designs are just as bland as the background characters', and that's actually a compliment because it just furthers the idea they're no more special than anyone else in this world.
SOUND
The OP is okay, not my thing albeit I find the guitar riffs pretty dope (and I can't get enough of the Cotton Eye Joe-esque fiddling at the intro). Didn't like the ED but then again I never do. The sound effects are okay I guess, and some of the songs used are fairly decent if not downright good. (there's like a song with double bass here. Nice.)
CHARACTERS
What can I say? Cliches.
The lovable, fatherly figure leader; the kind brute; the meaningless shy fanservice girl; the brave girl; the "hot-headed" (also known as obnoxious and loud) dude; the rounded-and-bland protagonist, and the "cold character" who's actually an insufferably antipathetic prick because sad backstory :(.
Deaths in this anime, regardless of the importance of the character that suffers it, is predictable and poorly executed. There's neither the shock of when a character gets unexpectedly obliterated nor the dramatic fallout of when a character has an adequate buildup prior to his death. And since characters are so unidimensional, their loss the cast is genuinely unimportant and to make us feel emotionally afflicted by it the writers just make everyone act like a collective group of hysteric madmen, yelling, sobbing as loud as the sound mixing allows, and adding in some dramatic piano music. Bear in mind I'm not saying deaths are insignificant to the plot or the characters, just that they're insignificant for our enjoyment. It advances the plot, but as far as we're concerned, there's no difference in anything.
And can we talk about how weird it is that the tavern is always filled to the brim with so many characters from different groups but outside of it there's not a single soul except our main cast? The world is depopulated and expressed only through the lens of the protagonists. There's no overarching issues, no particularly interesting mythical beasts, no hierarchies, no large conflicts. There's no one particularly noteworthy. There's just humans, goblins, and a giant called Kobold that's supposed to be interesting but is just as bland as a level 5 boss fight in some JPRG.
ENJOYMENT
Imagine you decided to watch Naruto because someone told you it's "different from other shonen". And all you watch, for some reason, are the insipid filler episodes. How much would you enjoy that? As much as I did watching this.
Now, to be fair, some of the battle scenes had tension and were interesting, but after yet another party vs goblin brawl I couldn't help but to yawn.
OVERALL
I'm giving a "4" because under the perspective it actually means MEDIOCRE. (Because mediocre for me is worst than decent.) It's not bad, it's just mediocre. I mean, if you don't mind mediocre that develops way too slowly, try it out, but if you do, don't.
Verdict: high school anime but in fantasy world
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Oct 27, 2020
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar
(Anime)
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What's this? An isekai anime where the characters actually start inexperienced and we get to see their development rather than them innately having some special ability or inner "hidden power" that makes them unique? Sounds good!
Except it is not. It is just so GOD DAMN B O R I N G. Okay, maybe the fault's in the eye of the beholder. I've mainly been watching (life-action) series and movies where plots and character developments are more often than not much superior to how it is in anime, and I'm somewhat out of my "anime phase", or at the very least, I'm much less inclined to forgive ... 
Jul 8, 2019
Mob Psycho 100 II
(Anime)
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Spoilers at minimum.
I must say I am in conflict whether to rate this 9 or 10. But since I'm trying to keep my overly generous grading system at bay, I'll be more cautious and opt to assign it to the lowest score deserved. My indecision boils down to Mob Psycho II's excellency in exploiting its characters. Few animes offer such a beautiful, impacting and meaningful development as the one seen in the second season. Mob's growth as a person has always been the anime's focus, but in here it becomes exponential - slowly learning new things through pleasure and pain, advised by his friends and enemies ... 
Feb 19, 2018
Hametsu no Mars
(Anime)
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1. An anime that plays Moonlight Sonata, Ride of the Valkyries and other royalty-free songs is not worth watching. Heck, next thing you know it's playing Kalimba by Mr. Scruff
2. The problem isn't that this is incohesive. In fact it's primitively cohesive. It's just not coherent. Why are things happening the way they are? I don't know, man. 3. Every scene takes at least 10 seconds. Bad guy choking your friend? Better wait 10 secs to shoot a single bullet. 4. Pretty cool plot twist on the ending which demonstrate this had potential that was thoroughly wasted. 5. Are there characters? They don't do anything at all, their ... 
Jan 8, 2018
Nekomonogatari: Kuro
(Anime)
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This "review" contains minor spoilers (unless you watched Bakemonogatari and prolly knows what Nekomonagatari will talk about).
From the very beginning of the Monogatari Series there was something uncanny about it that really caught my attention. After a while, I'm finally able to vocalize it: I really love the honesty. It doesn't mean that the characters are bluntly straightforward, it just means they don't hide things betweem themselves or at the very least to the watcher. I hardly see implicit things, there's no second intentions - when Araragi is horny and thinks about sexual stuff it's crystal clear. You don't have this looming presence of sexualization ... 
Jan 5, 2018
This review contains spoilers for the main series because, well, this is after the main series so it's kinda hard not to be
This little special is that sweet "happy ending aftermath" we all love. Well.... These goofy characters are in goofy and funny situations just like in the main series prior to Mayori's death and the absolute narrative twist. If you liked them, you're in luck, this is A LOT like it! If you prefered how things were after the twist, with that electrifying, motivation-led steamroll... sorry. Prior to Mayori's death, Okabe was Kyouma. After it, Okabe was Okabe. Well, in here, Okabe's... Kyouma. I find extremely ... 
Jan 5, 2018
Steins;Gate
(Anime)
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What a twist Steins;Gate is! I don't mean the plot, I mean it as an anime. If you intend to watch it, DON'T DROP BEFORE EPISODE 12.
(I'm assuming you read the description on MAL, if you didn't, uh, description spoilers I guess) The first twelve episodes of S;G are pretty much "plot establishing". They're rather uneventful, seldom filled with suspense, energy and mad-ass time-traveling as one would expect. They're weak, in my opinion. The plot is interesting but slow; the characters are unrealistic and rather shallow/unidimensional (rather doesn't equal completely, by the way) and I found myself often pissed off with how ridiculous some events and ... 
Dec 25, 2017
Bakemonogatari
(Anime)
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FIRST PART OF THE MONOGATARI SERIES
+notes to self in order to compare with other Monogatari animes because comparisons Bakemonogatari gets it right in several aspects. An excellent starter for the Monogatari series, witty and extremely ironic, I'd say that the most interesting thing is its deconstructed view of itself. It sees itself as an anime and acts accordingly, as a form of art and as a fictitious medium; it's not surprising to see blatant surrealism, symbolism and an eclectic usage of audiovisual elements to convey a message or even self-referential wall-breaks that feel all too natural. Is there fan-service? I guess so, but even that is ... 
Dec 20, 2017
Shelter (Music)
(Anime)
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Spectacular eye-candy, full of vastly impressive environments and truly interesting landscapes. It has a pretty crappy 'story' but I would expect nothing else from a six-minute-long short of which four minutes are all about showing the main character hanging around the beautiful world she creates. I frankly see no substance on this even if they do attempt to do so, but it's not like I expected a narrative to begin with.
Pretty enjoyable assuming all it took was one-tenth of an hour. Definitely recommend if you're, I don't know, on a school break or waiting in a queue. It's six minutes long, I see no reason why ... 
Dec 13, 2017
Gake no Ue no Ponyo
(Anime)
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Ponyo is just like infancy. Cute, genuine, fantastic, carefree, heartwarming, when everything is blossoming with colors, is cheerful, when everyone is friendly and well-spirited, even if their actions seem initially a little shady. Nothing bad ever happens, everything ends well, there's absolutely nothing to worry about at any moment.
A movie without conflict might seem, initially, pretty shallow, but if anything Ponyo ends up being more of a slice of life type of thing than a movie as we know of it. So much so the attention to details is painstaking - the characters' movements are genuine, realistic and offer extreme continuity. If Ponyo is holding ... 
Dec 13, 2017
Uchuu Patrol Luluco
(Anime)
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"One of mankind's greatest gifts... are internal jokes, cameos and references." ~ Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ. You're right, man. Tengen Toppa meets Kill la Kill meets stupidity. If you didn't watch Tengen Toppa nor Kill la Kill, this will lose at least 85% of the fun. If you didn't watch Little Witch Academia, this will lose one episode of fun. Don't take it seriously. This is a joke. This is a very, very stupid, nonsensical joke. Luluco is basically Trigger Studio goofing around, making a bunch of references and homages to the couple of their (modern) most acclaimed shows & sporadic references to their lesser popular stuff, like for ... |
