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Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu is the prime example of a series that's perfectly comfortable in its own skin.

It doesn't try to set a high bar for itself nor does it try to stand out from the crowd. It finds a goal it's comfortable with achieving and achieves it in its own reasonable pace, that goal being a cute slice of life about a girl trying to make some friends. And you know what? That's perfectly fine.

The characters are charming, the plot is fine and the execution is pretty cute. It doesn't try to up the stakes, it doesn't abuse its own jokes, it doesn't try ... to be better. And while most people see that as a bad thing, I think that's the most reasonable thing for a show of this kind to do. More often than not, shows that try to stand out when they don't know how to end up falling flat on their faces. The jokes dry up, the characters become flat, the writing slowly dies and the next thing you know, it tries to be a serious drama. *cough* Zombieland Saga *cough*

But Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu isn't like that. It does what it does best, being a cute and fun time for everyone, and sticks to that principle to the very end.

And I have to say, I admire that a lot.

Now, not everyone is going to like that kind of show. This show basically runs on a flat line, so if you don't enjoy the first episode, there's no doubt you won't enjoy the rest. And while my score for this thing is a 6, I just needed to write this in admiration for its dedication to sticking to its roots and living them to the bitter end.

And maybe we should try doing that ourselves sometime.

Let's make one thing perfectly clear:

Kei Sasuga is a good writer.

She is capable of writing stories that are dramatic, emotional and, heck, even suspenseful. Some of the best parts of her writing are in how she takes and shifts the core of her characters and creates a dynamic relationship with the themes she wants so convey.

The problem is... she chooses not to be a good writer.

Full stop, the main plot of this manga is a piece o' garbage.

While the main premise is kind of interesting and could have gone in many more interesting directions, especially with regards to discussing taboo, it tries to be ... a serious and melodramatic Oreimo where the main guy actually fucks his sisters. And that's all you need to know, really.
The main character, Natsuo, is Dan Slott's Spider-man; a shitbag so fucking dumb and often so full of himself that he'd justify his often inane and hurtful actions with being "so in love, I couldn't help myself". He has ZERO regard for the feelings of people around him and it's a wonder he still even has friends.

Now, if you thought "wow, he's pretty dumb", he isn't the dumbest in the main triangle; that slot goes to Hina. If Natsuo is Dan Slott Peter Parker, Hina is Peter Parker in JMS's Brand New Day. In comic-speak, she's fucking *D U M B*. Her entire decision-making process exists solely to cause some big 10 chapter long drama arc. Every big decision she makes forces the worst, most unreadable drama imaginable that exist solely to prolong the life of this godforsaken series.

And then we have Rui, the poor soul trapped in this mess. I'll be honest, she's not that bad of a character. She has an engaging life goal, enough nuance in her dialogue to keep her from becoming a soap-opera style side-bitch like the other two and really grows as both a person and partner in a relationship. Too bad she's boring. I honestly feel like the author is actively avoiding all the most interesting parts of her character and write her solely to create fluff and sex scenes the author can reuse later as a big flashback when the next big series-breaking drama arc happens and resets the relationships of the main love triangle for the 4th time (Wow, maybe she *is* Dan Slott).

Okay, now remember what I said about Kei Sasuga being a good writer? I wasn't lying.

Do you know what the best part of this series is? Why I kept reading the 200+ chapters anyway despite my main gripe with the shitty drama?

It's the side characters. This ensemble of side characters is probably one of the most compelling casts in any drama manga I've read thus far. The characterization and themes present in this side cast is so engaging. You have a hostess who struggles with the trauma of returning to her dreams of becoming an actress. You have a young writer who wants to become greater than himself for the sake of both his family and his art. You have a girl who shifts her unrequited love from a struggle to a huge step forward through her realizing the growth the man she loved saw in her. And many more compelling, even diverse stories, touching on themes like insecurity, depression, personal identity and artistic jealousy. Heck, one of the latest arcs (barring the ending) was a suspenseful story on toxic masculinity and stalking.

It's fascinating how so many compelling stories could come from just one long series, and it's one thing I appreciate about it.

But honestly, the biggest problem the author has with these great stories is HOW FAST SHE BLITZES THROUGH THEM. These arcs, on an average, last about 4-5 chapters, while some of the worst shit she's ever written is about 10+. Like I said, she seems more interested in cultivating bad drama for her trio of idiots than actually writing something great, which she's shown to be clearly capable of doing.

Art wise, faces are pretty okay if not really stiff sometimes, but holy shit, why are all the girls' boobs made of balloons? Other than that, nothing to report.

Paneling is pretty standard stuff. Nothing good, nothing bad. It was pretty exceptional in the 'stalker arc', but then became business as usual afterward.

Overall, if you're willing to sift through a WHOLE LOT of bad shit for the gold mine of good side characters and stories in this manga, then I'd say go for it. But if not, you're better off reading something else, or going to a friend who reads this and ask for which chapters aren't shit.

Zombieland Saga is a comedy about a group of zombie girls being marketed as idols by a red suit-toting weirdo through unconventional and sometimes embarrassing means of gaining popularity.

Zombieland Saga is an idol drama about a group of zombie girls on a quest to become idols but are held back the the implications of their deaths, their past traumas, their memories and the era they lived in.


Zombieland Saga works great as either show.


Zombieland Saga doesn't work at all as both.

...
By trying to juggle these two ideas, it becomes a tangled up and comes short of fulfilling either of those premises satisfyingly. It's not that the show transitioning between these ideas are jarring (in fact, it does that just fine), but rather, by trying to keep the first half of episodes comedy then leaving all the heavier stuff for later kind of chokes the pacing of those. As a result, character arcs and story threads, while fine, leave so much to be desired, especially with regards to Sakura.

The animation is fine. I enjoyed a lot of the comedic storyboarding, the hilarious character acting and expressions in early episode (1-5), as well entire sequences of Tatsumi Kotarou's screentime and dialogue.

Music is kinda shit. I didn't remember a single track, much less the BGM, so not much comment there other than forgettable.

The voice actors did a splendid job and, again, a ton of the script from the comedy episodes were fantastic and the did a good job with those.

Overall, it's a fine show. It's freaking hilarious when it wants to be and the writing is pretty alright, if not really unsatisfying. I recommend it if you have the time. (6/10)

I need to write this.

I feel compelled to write this.

A single 'tags' box can't possibly contain all of my thoughts and feelings for this season.

So, before we get right to it, heavy spoilers, if there's anything worth spoiling anyway.

Ready? Okay.

... Love Live Sunshine S2 is shit.

After S1 set the bar for what was, most likely, to be the best season of Love Live ever, maybe even surpassing the masterful S2, ended up being the corniest, most obnoxious, most mind-numbingly boring, most underwhelming experience I've ever had with a piece of entertainment. Yup, this thing is down there with Terminator Salvation and Bioshock 2. But, to be fair, it's not exactly Final Fantasy X-2. How do I say this? It's a piece of shit but not entirely.

Unlike the older seasons, it looks prettier. The soundtrack is nice. And the 3D animation is nice to look at, not like the awkward CG models they used in the original. The 2D animation is a lot slicker and more animated, allowing for a range of expressions in body language (which they didn't do at all). As for the girls themselves, DO YOU SEE THAT DETAIL? The amount of work they put into making the girls a lot prettier and flashier is impressive. As a training animator myself, I can just imagine the sweat and tears put into the lineart per frame.

Hm, what else... Yup, that's it for the positives, I think. Now let's tear this thing apart.

One of the key things that made Love Live so good was how they utilized drama. Whenever there was a situation the characters couldn't handle, it was always given due care, embracing an amount of subtlety or loudness that always fit the situation. Yes, even the massive outbreak scene in the original S1. The way they build up scenes with music, voice acting, blocking and camera angles manage to convey the emotions the characters are feeling. The other key thing was silence. The characters would only talk when they needed to, and convey what they needed to. This is true for the original and Sunshine S1. The scene where Chika expressed her disappointment and sadness over getting zero votes was masterful. It is a very good example of saying what you need to say: "I'm disappointed, I'm disappointed". Just from these lines alone, you could feel all the emotions pouring out from her, and the strength she lacks trying to cope with the situation. This is a scene I remember to this day, and I've only seen the whole season once, last year. It's masterful, and embraces what Love Live stands for - following your dreams and growing to become better.

See all those great thing I said about Love Live? THIS SEASON HAS NONE OF THAT.

The way drama is handled here is exactly what I expected of Love Live before I watched the original; corny, loud and meaningless. The school is shutting down, they failed to save the school but they have to get up and do Love Live anyway! How do they convey these set of events? In the laziest way possible. Chika is on the brink of losing hope, the group of schoolgirls can't convince her out of it. What saves the day? AN EVEN BIGGER GROUP OF SCHOOLGIRLS. Even at the ending, when they're closing up the school. This is the perfect moment for silence, letting the feeling sink in that 'this is the end and we need to move forward'. But NOPE! Gotta keep telling each other and letting the audience know that "we'll be together foreeeveerrr *heart* *heart*". The way they resolve every instance of drama is just plain lazy. I don't know, but they always feels set up, like it's just there just so something can happen or they say things just to consume empty space when there's no need to. The biggest thing I want to address is the Saint Snow arc. This could've been an amazing arc, rivaling the original S2's Rin and Nozomi episode. But nope, it was a rushed and inconsequential set of episodes about characters that had 0 to no buildup. Ruby is such a disappointing character. She was at least fun and felt involved around S1, but the way they utilized her for this arc, getting involved with Leah because she also had a sister and she was seemingly concerned, doesn't work for me AT ALL. As for Leah, her problem just felt plain shallow to me. Not that it wasn't. Losing the whole competition is something very demoralizing for the two of them. ... So why didn't they show that it was? This is another problem with the show: not putting in good buildup or drama when there was a dire need for it. This arc was in DIRE need for some good scenes, showing the tension between the two sisters, building up Ruby and Leah's friendship while developing the two in some way that it shows us who they are. The series tries, but it falls flat on its face because the scenes really just don't work for me and just feel empty without the proper backing. Ruby building up the confidence to make her own decisions? Great! Where's the part where you established that?? It really just doesn't work for me.

And while we're at the topic, let's talk about the characters. S1 built up these characters to have possibly amazing arcs because of how well established they were, and how their unity felt organic and something that could potentially create amazing and fun mini arcs for the group. But here we are with S2, where the main dilemma is the group's refusal to put -chan at the end of Dia's name. What happened to all the dynamic characterization in S1? You can't possibly tell me that all the things that made each character interesting somehow disappeared after S1? Where did You's confidence issues go? Dia's love for idols? Kanan's love for the sea? When did Aquors' determination to follow their dreams, be free to be themselves and shine yet keep asking themselves what it means to shine?? And turned the girls into uninteresting one-note characters that say the same things over and over ("Buu Buu desu wa" is the most ear grating thing I've ever heard in my life)?
Well, not entirely.
I missed one positive thing about this season - the dog episode. The way they gave Yoshiko and Riko this fun and unlikely friendship over a dog and make them realize things about themselves and each other.To make things better, both subtlety and silence were present. How Yoshiko expressed how she didn't really believe in the occult but did it anyway because she felt something special from it and Riko receiving those words from her reminded me why I loved Love Live so much. And it gave me hope that maybe the series would go back to being good again, but nope it became boring the following episode. I honestly don't even remember what happened. What happened again? And what sucks is that they tossed away this relationship almost entirely after, turning Yoshiko back into a dry joke instead of bringing out her internal dilemma.

I feel a need to address the songs, because really, none of them were memorable for me. They sounded like the filler songs you'd play in SIF. None of them stuck with me at all. They felt cheesy, boring to listen to and I'd occasionally pause in the middle of them to get a drink.

It's relatively easy to get away with the phrase "It's just an idol anime. What did you expect?". It's hard to explain to people that the Love Live is a great series and could be a very meaningful experience. What this season is is precisely what people who haven't seen the show think the show is - just another cute girl anime. Just another corny, boring slice of life show with some music.

This show is an utter disappointment. And I seriously hope future installations strive to do better. But, to Sunrise, this season is probably a smash hit so I'll hope instead that a more competent director or writer comes around. Love Live set the bar high, and I seriously hope someone steps in and meets the quota next time around.

What does it mean to shine?

In lieu of the mainstream media and audiences embracing 'dark and mature' storytelling in favor of 'childish junk' catered towards 12 year olds, this question shouldn't even be relevant in today's world. Yet here it is, in all of its glory. And for the past six years, only one franchise dared to ever raise that question in the 2010s.

Love Live has enjoyed worldwide popularity, and not just because it has cute girls and really nice songs. If such were the case, then that would mean stuff like Show by Rock! would be popular. Sunrise doesn't just take what it sees ... and rolls with it, adding irrelevant junk and catering to '"realistic", cute-girls-need-to-suffer fags' and 'wish-fulfillment' like IM@S does, but instead, takes the whole package; by creating story about girls striving to shine, and really, that's all it needs to be. "So, how different, then, is it from other idol shit like Aikatsu?" I'll tell you why.

Because Love Live succeeds at it. Especially Sunshine.

I'll be the first to admit that I was downright skeptical when this was first announced. I was worried it was going to be a copy of the first season, making the same formulaic recruitment episodes and drama, and the mistakes that plagued it. And oh boy was I wrong. I mentioned earlier that Sunrise takes the 'whole package', so what exactly is in it? It's everything about idols. From the way they dress, what they sing down to the girl's personalities and the struggles of adolescence. However, they didn't always succeed at using it. Let's date back to the first Love Live season. While superb in its own way, there were things that prevented perfect enjoyment, such as issues with characterization and drama, as well as circumstances that made little to no sense on the part of some character arcs. All of these problems were whisked away with the advent of Love Live S2, which is probably the most inspiring piece of media I have ever watched. No teen melodrama or action-induced fantasy isekai story is able to say "go do something better with your life" better than this particular second season has, filled to the brim with sad and happy moments that touch my heart deeply. And after just one year after Muse ended their story, Sunshine arrived.
Seeing as it'd be another first season, you could understand my fear. But Sunshine does more than just correct the mistakes of the first season. It takes the very concept of creating a school idol group and makes it its own. Sure, the entire ordeal is formulaic on paper, but the way it blossoms is just so spectacular and uplifting, its as though its not Love Live at all. Yet at the same time, it is.

At first glance, the character designs look about the same, with some copied tropes from the previous series (e.g. student council president, the clumsy one, the shy one, the "futsu no onna" one, the groper etc.). I'm not gonna surprise you by saying "OH! BUT THEYRE DIFFERENT!", no. Essentially, they are different takes on the trope, and this is necessary if Sunshine really wants to tell a new kind of story. What makes these characters stand out and shine on their own is the way they are characterized, and this has a lot to do with the involvement of Muse. It's actually amazing how much influence a group of characters that aren't even there have on the story. In Sunshine, Muse have moved on from singing school girls to living, breathing gods. From the way they're only seen through posters to the way the characters talk about them with revere and divinity. Heck, in one of the episodes, one of the girls sends a fan letter to Honoka (from the first 2 seasons) but it sounds more like a fucking prayer than fan mail.
Essentially, Idol anime are character stories, taking the viewer through the journey of a girl to become the number one star. And while some anime require about a hundred episodes to make a story whole, some only need as few as 13.
Sunshine is rich with flavorful characterization, often using visual directing to do most of the talking rather than outright telling. The use of common/cheesy phrases and emphasis of tone help bring out what these girls are, pulling away from the idea that every teenage girl is a dark, wild and emo Chloe Moretz and instead giving the audience something very different. They give them dreams; desires, none poisonous, but awfully human and representative of who the girls are inside and out. From painful outbursts to soft-spoken sympathy, Sunshine embraces the use of imagery and dialogue to tell us who these characters really are without (mostly) words. A girl seeking acceptance taking a stray hand, a girl who hasn't once dreamed of breaking out of her shell witnessing it on a magazine cover, the desire to shine brighter than diamonds with everyone you've met; there are simply so many things to take from these characters, and in only 13 episodes. Sure, it can be lacking at times, but what the series delivered was more than enough. I'm not going to say what exactly was developed and how; that's for you to experience yourself.
Side-characters were also great, but a bit underused. Of course, with idols, you're always going to have competition and just from simply existing, Saint Snow captures that feeling of intimidation almost perfectly. From their music, to the way they walk, they were certainly very captivating, not only in terms of fear for the main cast, but in their outright beauty. The rest of the cast were your supportive sisters and classmates, and were utilized well if to help the series lose that feeling of insularity.

Going technical, Sunshine not only looks better, is animated better or sounds better. It also FEELS better. It's taken the spirit of Love Live and turned it into something so engrossing and captivating to watch. The short moments on stage are always spectacular, showcasing lots of fluid choreography and outstanding cinematography that puts the original series' efforts to dirt. . While newcomers will be engulfed by the simply beautiful direction of these sequences, old time fans will be welcomed again by the feelings and passionate emotion present in the film or even, dare I say, the Final Live. The music is also fantastic. Every track resembled what was happening at the moment of the series and creates a wholly immersive experience when listening to the tune and lyrics. The best example I can give is Saint Snow's performance, 「Self Control」. It was certainly the most memorable moment in the series, not only in introducing Saint Snow as an idol group or a threat, but as professionals; a pair that knew exactly what they were doing and knew how to do it good.
The backdrop work and animating are nothing short of ecstatic. There is more fluidity in the character and mouth movements, use of lighting and colors are beautifully done and the sound quality is great. There is simply no reason not to watch this in 1080p, if only to get the full experience of the series. On part of directing outside of character drama, there is a whole slew of hilarious moments. Some great, some just okay but nothing ever a bad joke. The timing of the jokes and delivery are a lot better than in previous seasons, where it was usually out of nowhere or just downright unfunny at times. Slice of Life moments had great presentation, making use of attractive sea-like colors for reflection and energy of the scene, to drive out the boredom.
This is money very well spent on Sunrise's part.

Love Live! Sunshine!! recaptures the beauty of the original series through different lens and delivers something that exceeded all of my expectations. It is the second series this year that's made me feel so emotionally captivated, enough to make me shed tears. 2016 wasn't so great but with gems like these, any year can be truly memorable. I look forward to whatever Sunrise has in store for the franchise next, or if we're ever getting that Yohane spin-off that's in high demand right now.

8/10

Divine Gate is an asshole; a literal asshole that opens and closes like a tunnel, and inside are all the worms and dried shit from when someone eats shrimp at a local diner, much like yours unless you're one of those special snowflakes who rinse their asses. In other words, it's full of shit.

Now let me be the first to admit that I was pumped for this. I saw the PVs, I liked the art of the phone game and fanboyed at the fact that HITORIE was doing the opening song. And who could blame me for feeling this way? I wasn't expecting a lot ... but I was expecting something. Lo and behold, the first episode was one huge edgefest. And from then on, I stopped caring. So why am I writing this review? Basically, to inform you, the potential viewer, to stay the fuck away.

Let's start with the story. In its premiere, Divine Gate introduces us to a world of... I have no fucking idea. And that, right there, ladies and gents, is the biggest problem of Divine Gate. In a fantasy type story, it's mandatory that you explain the way your world works in a smooth and organized way, having important information matter to the viewer and giving the details early on without going through an infodump and most series do this through good use of exposition, much like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and even Sword Art Online. Divine Gate explains diddly-fucking-squat. I can't call the world building anything because there is none in the first place! They show us all these neat aspects but put zero effort into explaining what they are, how they work or why we should give a fuck in the first place! And the results? Plot holes as far as the eye can see! The story takes all different kinds of directions that constantly create these subplots that ultimately amount to nothing. To give an example, this is what the usual Divine Gate episode boils down to:

- Characters are doing something
- Characters are suddenly doing something else
- Several second shot of some aspect of the world we've never seen before nor will we ever see again
- Back to doing the characters being ass
- Something bad happens
- Resolved with shitty action
- Several minutes of edgy dialogue
- Characters being ass again
- Roll credits

On the topic of the characters, they all suck ass. Let's start off with our beloved main character who can out edge even the roughest square in the galaxy, Aoto. While he is your stereotypical emo kid with a darker than darkness itself past, the creators decided they wanted to make him worse by making him probably the edgiest character in the entire season. How edgy you ask? Throughout episode, we're shown him eating only cold food so someone found the reason why. And the answer? Drumrolls please!!--------- "Just like your cold heart, you can only eat cold food". Yes, it was even better than you could ever possibly imagine! Thanks to this new discovery, scientists everywhere decided to add an entirely new shape into the world of geometry called the Aotogon, consisting of an infinite amount of refined edges only possible in a fucking anime. The rest of the cast were stereotypical and awfully one-note with piss-poor development and just as shitty dialogue, including edgy fire-user, edgy staff-user, edgy-trio no one cares about, edgy-round knights, edgy-male saber, edgy- evil clown, edgy-deities, edgy-top hat, edgy-dad, edgy-brother, edgy-BFF and fucking Santa Claus.

Now I have a bad habit of writing reviews for shitty series that just happen to have good art and animation, but not in Divine Gate. Studio Pierrot has proved time and time again just how shitty they've been doing the past few years. Ever since Naruto saw its end, the quality of animation and direction deteriorated and this is has never been more evident in this show. The CGI looks terribly dated and unpleasing to the eye as were the colors that didn't have a good sense of contrast. The animation itself is fuzzy, glitchy and makes for some pretty bad action sequences and this is mostly the fault of the direction which didn't stand out at all and was sub-par at best. The score is overall unmemorable save for a few piano pieces that are stuck in my head at the moment that I may forget very soon.
We're finally boiled down to the question, does Divine Gate have any merits? Yes, it does. And that was with the opening song, HITORIE's One Me Two Hearts. If I had to choose the best opening of the season, it was definitely this. It sucks the viewer right into the series through some decent imagery before going right into the chorus with a huge BOOM! "NEE! SONO KOKORO KAISHITE YO, TOBIRA WO AKETE SHIMAU KARA!". Not a reason to watch, but is still worthy of acknowledgement.

So did I enjoy Divine Gate?
...Meh. It's easy to stop caring about the series and just laugh at everything bad about it. It may make you want to stop living but I can assure you, this show can only go so far.

Overall, shitty world building, shitty characters and pretty bad production has earned this series a 3/10. I do not recommend this series to anyone unless you're a masochist or if Konosuba wasn't funny enough for you.

The Winter season of 2016 is nearing its end and one of the first series to come to a close is the widely popular ERASED, a series that literally everyone and their mother watched and it is thanks to this popularity that, as of now, it sits at the top of MAL's Top Anime list with a whopping 9.08! So is this show as great as people say it is? Well let's find out!

ERASED owes its popularity to a number of reasons. Reason one, it's a time travel story. It is an undeniable fact that the science fiction concept of time travel has been popular ... since its conception in Mark Twain's 1889 satire, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Since then, the idea has boomed in almost every form of media, to almost any kind of story, thus earning it immense popularity that exists even today. Meaning, anything that is time travel related is sure to be eaten and gobbled up by audiences like a birthday cake. Anime hasn't escaped this either. Throughout the years we were given films and series like Steins;Gate, The Girl who Leapt Through Time and so on and these titles gain massive popularity mostly because of their premise and what they delivered. In short, everyone loves time travel.
Reason two, ERASED is a romantic mystery. And everyone loves those too. Satoru is an ideal character. Despite being a failure in life without many friends, he was a determined person who and this appealed to us. He chose to save his mother and a girl he barely knew to change the dark future and stop a mysterious killer. He expressed feats of bravery and spirit we could only ever hope to have through quick wit and action by attempts at foiling the killers plot. The story itself showcased the trials and tribulations of Satoru as he fought and fought against the dark force that he knows he must overpower to protect his friends and family while trying to save himself from being caught by the killer himself in the process. Does it make you feel excited? Of course it does. We're all suckers for this kind of thing.
And finally, reason three, and the most powerful aspect of this series, the audiovisual direction and presentation. I can talk all day about how fantastic ERASED is at its presentation. Through clever use of score, animation and cinematography, A-1 Pictures was able to create a truly compelling visual experience. You can tell, almost immediately, that there was heart put into the creation of ERASED. Captivating atmosphere, perfect pitches on ambience and tone, amazing timing of the score and use of the characters facial expressions. The voice acting was also superb and the two voice actors who were casted for Satoru did a great job conveying a single personality through two voices; an incredible feat in and of itself! Accompany that with a great OP song by Asian Kung Fu Generation and the mesmerizing ED ballad by Sayuri, it's no wonder the audiences are eating this thing up!

Now we put these three together and what do we have? ERASED, a time travel romantic mystery with great direction and main character! A series that deserves its lasting popularity!

...

...

...

Alright, now that all of that's out of the way, let's talk about why ERASED is garbage.

Like I discussed earlier, ERASED is a time travel story and it is true that people love these timeless tales of time. However, I never said ERASED was a good time travel story, much less timeless. Ugh. ERASED? Timeless? Boy, that'll be the day. Alright, let's get this rant underway.
Now, time travel stories all have their own sort of deal on how the actual time-traveling worked in their world, whether it be through a Delorean, an alien stopwatch, a cellphone powered microwave, literal "leaping" through time or waving your hand at nothing. In ERASED, we have this thing where the main character experiences backtracks every time something bad is going to happen to him or when he is in deep shit. The series calls it Revival but isn't there a more suitable name for it? Something like, I don't know, it's on the tip of my tongue-- DEUS EX MACHINA?? Now, hear me out, there's nothing wrong with this kind of time travel. We've seen it before in other stories, all working in different kinds of ways but if you're going to do this, at least EXPLAIN what you're doing. Because in all 12 episodes of ERASED, Revival has been nothing but a one-way ticket out of deep shit for the main character every time it's convenient for him. That's not to say that time travel powers that come out of the blue are bad. Let's take a similar method of time travel from the video game, Life is Strange. In the game, the main character can travel back in time anytime she wants with only the wave of a hand, however, there were always consequences, each of which the main character discovered through using her abilities. From what we got from the series, Revival is a flawless, unpredictable and cheap system made for getting shit done at pitch perfection and literally NOTHING ELSE. There's no sort of challenge for the main character thanks to this and any kind of explanation with regards to time travel or anything else about Revival is swept under the rug. And pretty much the closest thing we have to details about Revival is all intuition. Literally just guessing how it works happens to work in Satoru's favor. For a series that brags as a time travel story, its actual time travel is pretty shit.

Earlier, I discussed that ERASED was a romantic mystery. Yeah, a garbage romantic mystery. But let's split the two for a while and begin with the romantic. Like I said, Satoru was an ideal character. Aside from having the qualities of a romantic hero, he had flaws, interesting dialogue and an intriguing personality. But there was a reason Satoru was the only character I mentioned in my words of praise and I will start off the reason why with my biggest problem and disappointment with the series and that is Hinazuki Kayo. While she was introduced as this lonesome girl with a mysterious personality, the series decided to crush the potential of her character into dust and turn her into a plot device to encourage Satoru to keep acting. What gets on my nerves is this is the 2ND TIME A-1 Pictures has done something like this, only much much worse that other time. And what a shame, really, for someone with that much potential and intrigue to be remolded into some mediocre character constantly victimized to appeal to the viewer's emotions. Their relationship felt genuine enough to be friendship but constantly distracted itself with its entire 'knight in shining armor' act. Gotta protect that smile. The rest of the characters, including Satoru's classmates, Yuuki-san and literally everyone else save for Satoru's mother, Yashiro and possibly Kenya, are all flat, underdeveloped and were literally made for the background or to get Satoru to act or into some monologuing (Yes, I threw Airi into the list too. Fuck me, right?). To address the three I counted out, Satoru's mother expressed a kind of loving connection to his son and in a way that expressed her own feelings and how much she cared for him. Yashiro, the teacher, has a special relationship with Satoru, in which he is a figure he looks up to like a father and something else which I will not mention. And Kenya, who expressed sympathy towards Satoru's goals by his own beliefs but you can say the same for a few other characters in the series. The overall storytelling was mediocre with rushed pacing and half-assed subplots which were just all over the place. It's almost as though the writers had no idea how to tell their story. Sure, they had it. But it felt like they had no idea which direction they wanted to take. For example, Kayo's mother. Her conflict came out of nowhere and was resolved in a flash after seven or so episodes of hating her. That's a pretty dumb move if I've ever seen one. And that's just only one of them. Overall, just messy messy storytelling.

Now let's talk about the mystery and holy shit, does it suck.
Look, ERASED. If you're going to be a mystery, at least try to BE one. In your grand set up, you had it all, really. Mysterious kidnappings, a hidden culprit and a character determined to get to the bottom of this. But you were missing one little, teeny-tiny thing. It's called BEING A FUCKING MYSTERY. Satoru spent nearly all season connecting with Kayo and getting her as far away from the murderer as possible through the knowledge he gained. The show's first mistake, there was almost NO detective work done. What does 'detective work' mean? It means looking for clues, it means guessing, it means interpreting information and most importantly, it means HAVING SUSPECTS. Every clue and piece of information literally leads to only ONE GUY in the entire series and everyone and their mother knew immediately who the dickbag was. Where the fuck is the challenge there? Some of us even knew too early on who the culprit was! Hell, Satoru was even literally handed to him a list of suspects WITH THE CULPRIT'S NAME ON IT and what does he do!? He ignores it! Oh great! Just great! First we have no other character who could possibly fill the culprit's shoes and then you choose to IGNORE A LIST OF SUSPECTS. Well done, ERASED! Well fucking done! There's also the common excuse that Kayo's relationship was more important than the mystery as a whole but there are so many works that can handle both aspects and make them go hand-in-hand creating a truly genuine romantic mystery. Need an example? "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. It's, like, 5 bucks on Amazon.
As mentioned earlier, I have zero qualms with the art and animation as they were superb in creating the definitive atmosphere of ERASED. However, the series makes an attempt at being a metaphorical work and ultimately fails; that is, the obvious explicitness of the symbolism, conveying of themes, messages and whatnot. And these make for some pretty lame use of imagery and exposition that barely work to make its point (e.g. blue butterfly, the Last Supper shot, Airi's chocolate story, Yuuki-san's plane) or if it was trying to convey some inner meaning from them other than what the audience can see from a mile away (Spider threads). What weirded me out the most, though, was how the director kept making contradictions to the narrative. Putting tension where it doesn't belong and making the audience imply something that is completely false. To cite an example, Satoru conversing with Yuuki-san. When Satoru mentioned Kayo, suddenly, the scene became tense, Yuuki was in distress and from his body started shaking, as though he were trying to hide something. What the fuck even, ERASED. Here you are, trying to lead the viewer on when you explicitly said at the very FIRST episode that Yuuki-san was innocent, 100%. Why are you making an effort to make it look like he was the culprit!? WHY!?

As for the conclusion, it was as bad as one could imagine from a mystery without a mystery; a mess of conveniences brought about by, yours truly, "Unexplained Revival"-san and his colleagues, "plot convenience"-chan and "hand touch triggers memories"-sama along with special guest "retarded killer motivation"-kun.

So to sum it all up, while the appeal is evident and there is a very good reason for the series' popularity, as a narrative, it was underwhelming tale that was hidden under the guise of great audiovisual directing and animating; a strictly (and disappointingly) deplorable work that relied too heavily on a good story they had no idea how to tell.

4/10

The reverse harem genre is not one I particularly dislike. When decently executed and well developed, we have a show that can leap bounds with its potential. I had this same hope with the harem genre. Big surprise, I lost my mind after the hundred thousand and eleventh panty shot and gave up on it entirely. But by then, I still had high hopes that the reverse harem genre could possibly be a more fruitful experience than actual harems. I hadn't seen many shows in the genre but from the good things I've heard, I stood firm on my ground, ready to explore!

That was until ... I saw Dance with Devils.

== Story (3/10) ==
Dance with Devils is a series that uses unique concepts, an obscure structure (musical) and an above average production value to create, by far, one of the worst written series I've seen this season. Now those are pretty big words considering the amount of praise the show gets so allow me to make a few points without going into spoiler territory. So there's this Grimoire that supposedly has the power to control the world and that vampires and devils are in some big fight. Our main character, Ritsuka, who appears to have some connection to all of this, is thrown in the middle of it. Her brother, an exorcist, must now protect her from the evils and teach her about the whole thing while keeping his own secrets. Now, I don't know about you, but this just screams Star Wars. However, unlike George Lucas' magnum opus, Ritsuka does not side with her brother and train to defeat the bowels of vampire and demon scum continuously attacking her, but instead? REVERSE HAREM. WITH HELLSPAWN. Yeah, try to wrap your mind around that. But unlike most reverse harem I've seen, instead of a girl surrounded by horny well-groomed gentlemen, she's surrounded by horny, self-indulgent not-so-gentlemen. In short, it's a fetish series. Fine, you can say the same thing about GochiUsa or K-On but at least there was substance. At least there was meaning to their activities and relationships. Dance with Devils? It does nothing but take these bishounen figures whose priority lists consist of ways to seduce the main character. Of course, there is some romance to keep the critics happy but it's rushed to the extent of being fake. You can make it 'look' as romantic as possible but the lack of chemistry and meaningful dialogue other than "Remu", "Okasan" and "Grimowaru" make it, unfortunately, unbelievable. And no, "You'll be mine", "Chow-Chow", "Woof Woof", "Ritshukah" and disturbing groans and moans aren't romantic either. The element is almost if not completely non-existent. As for the story, though it started off, well, just fine, everything else was just pure bullshit. Aside from the usual bishie per episode formula, the story is full of plotholes, conveniences and, finally, deus ex machina. The lore is barely explored, the villain's motivations are not so much as glanced, the overall scale of the war is never measured or explored and, finally, the grimoire; the single most important thing in the series is never given an origin, an explanation, a thorough discussion other than what it does and its name, just about everything. Maybe I'm being nitpicky but, in all seriousness, the entire focus on this one powerful item makes it more interesting than any of the characters.

== Character (2/10) ==
And speaking of characters, the comparison doesn't say too much. Though I can simply say they're all terrible, let me go into further detail. Let's start with Ritsuka. Though she's praised to be 'different' than your Mary Sue, she's, really, no different from your Young Adult female lead stereotype. Only this time, retarded. Though she shows strong resolve, an independent will and the potential to actually be the next Luke Skywalker, she's retarded. How retarded? Let's set an example, shall we? We're set in a point in the story where Ritsuka's been tricked enough times to convince her that TRUSTING DEMONS, VAMPIRES OR THE LIKE IS DANGEROUS (She should have caught on the first time), TO LISTEN TO HER *EXORCIST* BROTHER AND THAT HER SCHOOL IS PRETTY MUCH DEMON HEADQUARTERS. One day, a creepy,tall, dark haired man with this tormenting look and aura is ripping flowers apart, openly admits he is a devil (-ish) and persuades her to come with him to some special place, the same exact way she's been tricked by everyone else. What does she do? SHE LISTENS TO HIM. HIM! THIS DUDE THAT CAN PASS OFF AS A ZOMBIE IN THE WALKING DEAD. Now, I get it, maybe she's overly trusting and it's a part of her personality, right? And that he may have actual details to what she's looking for, right? Yeah, keep that in mind the next time you interact with Hellspawn. As for everyone else? Again, this is a fetish series. Characters other than Emo Liar and Saint Onii-san (They're literally what I just called them), we have "Brad from the Football Team", "Man-Dog", "Masochist Zombie" and my personal favorite, "Chow-Chow". These four exist to trigger some sort of desire from the viewer and I see them as nothing more. Argue all you like about meaningful character and development but all I see are a bunch of Misexcuse of a male cast with hobbies that range from verbal seduction, singing, stalking and kidnapping. Dog man is slightly decent but not one I'd say that stands out from the rest of the stalkers. Like I said, the villains are pretty damp and lame with no other worthy motivation other than serving their leader or "GRIMOWARU" "GRIMOWARU". Heck, not even the Church faction gets a prolonging role in this series seeing as how they're the ETERNAL ENEMIES OF HELLSPAWN. But who cares? REVERSE HAREMS FTW.

== Sound (5/10) ==
Now if there's anything remotely good about this, it's probably the music. Since this is a musical, there are surely a lot of songs. Well guess what? There's one every episode! Though some of them are great, particularly the first and last songs that did add a bit of an impact, others were typical and boring pop-bishie seduction songs that I don't even want to recall. The overall soundtrack is a snore but the voice acting was pretty top notch, if to bring the character to life was the goal. The OP song was... okay. Not something I'd listen to again as it has this very ominous tone that tries to clash with modern day rhythm that completely misses it. As for the ED, I can't say much about it as I always skipped it. If about five bishies singing is your thing, I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

== Art and Animation (6/10) ==
As usual, Anime Studio Brains Base, known for work like SNAFU and Durarara, far excels at creating above average art and animation. Though most of the design is silly, it has a sort of flare to it. The animation is smooth, the expressions feel natural and nothing felt wrong with it. Smooth and crisp as can be.

== Enjoyment and Overall (3/10) ==
As much as the technical was good, this was, honestly, a chore to watch. I had to push it several hours out just so I don't have to watch it and when I do, it's always so slow. If you like reverse harems and think highly of the genre, this could be an unbearable experience for you.

Success stories have always had a spirit that the Academy and many others have deemed inextinguishable. The soul and passion of the fight to victory has always had an undeniable effect on us humans, who have always had the hidden spirit of desire; the very desire to go the extra mile and make it to the top. And it is in these stories where we see this undeniable burning human passion. We see it in Daniel's eyes in his final match in the Karate Kid. We see it in Rocky, prepared to fight Apollo Creed with everything he has. We see it in Drumline, as ... the monolithic stage overshadows our heroes. We see it in Alan Turing in his struggle to break Enigma in the Imitation Game.

We see it in μ's, in their fight to the Love Live Championships.

Love Live Season Two is an anime that has been described by most as 'better than season one' or 'the best idol anime ever' but the series has gone above and beyond those simple standards and has become one of the most inspiring success stories I've seen in a very long time. The story is as simple as it can get, with nine girls aiming to winning the School Idol competition known as Love Live. Though it's hard not to admit the faults of season one, the difference between the two seasons is interstellar. As I stated, the burning passion and struggles from films like Rocky or the Karate Kid is very evident here as we see, finally, what makes idols so special. Before seeing this series, I had always thought idols to be like generic pop singers only with a cutesy side to them. You can tell how obviously wrong I was. From what I've seen, idols have a very distinct nature and goal, to shower emotion over the audience in their own unique spectacle. This is what I learned from Love Live and from no one else, as the girls of μ's struggle against themselves and each other. As the curtains come to a close and story of μ's nears its end, we're welcomed with one of the most powerful finales of all time. You've felt this sensation before. When your little brother made that game winning goal? Or when you aced your exams? Or when you got your crush to like you? It is the spirit of achievement and reflection that make this anime truly an inspiring experience.

Now, I have nothing against stereotypes. And when they're utilized correctly, they can do great things. In the first season of Love Live, we were introduced to, well, about nine archetypes that had adequate development to become a bit more three-dimensional. But the godly characterization of the series in only 26 episodes has turned our girls almost human. We're introduced to feelings and thoughts we never thought these characters could have, underneath their stereotypical exterior that truly defines their character as a whole. An example is Rin who expresses a very self-defeating nature, the same we see in people who suffer insecurity, in her arc which, I have to say, does extremely well to develop her character and features one of my most favorite μ's songs of all time (LOVE WIIIING. LOVE WIIIING). Honoka also gets a share of this, exceeding the 'genkiest is the leader' stereotype to a more definitive reason as to why she is the leader at all, allowing her characterization to truly define her as the one and only leader of μ's. But by far the best arc belongs to Nozomi, as, not only is her character expanded to degrees above and beyond, but it develops more the special relationship the girls have as μ's, the special feelings they share and why their separation would mean the end of it all. With all the characters given godly characterization, it's now not a story about Honoka, but about all of them.

Now, I can't end this review without going technical. The music of Love Live is one of its main appeals, as a lot of the fans came from playing the musical game on their phones. The best thing about it is how distinct each track is in terms of delivery and emotion. The rhythm endowed that matches each story perfectly really emulates how in-tie music is with the series, unlike some others that like to just play random songs for the heck of it (K-On anyone?). The animation is also above average which is to be expected coming from Gundam-Printing company Sunrise. The design is stellar and gives these different girls a sort of unique flare that gives them distinction and makes them special. If it were not for the blonde hair, the ponytail and the baby blue eyes, Eli would not be my waifu today.

If there were any way to describe this series, it would be inspiring. Being able to correlate both characters and story to the spirit of achievement, boiling with human desire and passion, in a way that is almost Grammy worthy makes this series truly amazing. Despite the somewhat flaky season one, season two is able to craft a story with meaning, emotion and passion.

With top-notch characterization, a definitive success story and roaring emotion, I can proudly say that Love Live Season Two is one of the best of the best.

(Written in honor of the Final Live and the end of the VAs's contract next year. You will be dearly missed, μ's)

As far as one episode OVAs go, which are supposed to be shorter and somewhat lighter than the usual which make for easy watches, this one was hard to sit through. Granted, there was nothing inherently bad about it--... Okay, maybe there was-- but there wasn't anything that stood out. Put simply, it's a steaming pile of self-insert mediocrity.

This is Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0.

--Story (3/10)--
The story starts off with a boy named Youtarou who, unsurprisingly, is as plain as you can get from an ecchi anime protagonist. He lives with his 19 (Yes, nineteen) sisters and is the only boy in the family. ... Yep, every man's dream come true portrayed in an anime. This is self-insert, people. Get used to it.
One day, after all the two second introductions are over, their nameless mother, like all harem mothers, comes in and tells everyone they're going on a trip to a, wait for it, HOT SPRINGS RESORT. Oh joy!
I'm going to stop here because spoilers but all in all, it's just one perverted mundane situation after another. The cast of females range from either your adult-like onee-chan, monotone faced imouto, gang of tsunderes and army of lolis.All in all, not much to say since nothing of significance happens other than overly dumb situations and the like. Maybe some parts were funny but that's just it. Some funny two seconds with an overly draggy and mundane 30 minutes.

--Characters (4/10)--
Again, our main character, Youtarou, is excessively plain. No redeeming qualities, no quirks, not even ability. Sure, his swimming technique is off the chart but that was more of a supernatural ability than a talent. (He could try out for a world record if he can withstand the current of a river near a waterfall). As for the girls, they're simply archetypes. Not that there's anything bad about archetypes but when nothing is done about them, nothing happens. Overall, a mediocre female cast. I can't break them down easily since they're simply overly similar to one another and literally have the same goal, that is, getting in onii-chan's pants. They're not even that fun as a whole to be honest. There's no interaction, no charisma and, disappointingly, no sense of individuality. It's as though these girls are hive-minded aliens that answer only to the mothership (Quite literally, too).
So, plain protagonist, stereotypical cast, equals... not very good.
Okay, fine it's a short. I get it. It's 30 minutes long. But if I can't even sit through just that long of seeing these characters' 'interaction', then Houston, we have a problem.

--Art and Sound (4/10)--
The art was above average. Granted the female cast was very boring, their design was something to commend. On paper, these characters looked and felt like individual people, like real siblings that had different mindsets. If only it was as I expected but still, these girls were cute so that's a plus on the design.
Animation was iffy, since it wonked a few times, the occasional derp was there and the 3D was off-putting. Granted, there were some good movements here and there which was above average.
In terms of sound, both the OP and ED sound horrendously generic and there really wasn't a lot of soundtrack to listen to. Voice acting was top notch but lacked a sense of individuality.

--Enjoyment (4/10)--
A steaming pile of MEH. Nothing caught my attention, nothing left an impression, nothing made me want to see it again. Overall, Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 is a short OVA that adds more meaning to the word 'MEH'.
If you want to watch a neat short story, turn to Saekano Episode 0.
If you want a good short story, turn to Garden of Words.
If you want a great short story, turn to Kowarekake no Orgel.
If you want a masterfully crafted short story, turn to Tsumiki no Ie.

If you want a short story that bathes in its shit like the rest of the schlock, this one is for you.

--4/10--