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They literally took the second phase of the Hunter Exam and made it into a whole series, and to make matters worse, it's not the Togs writing it.

This show, people take things wat too seriously, fighting over food and probably ending up fighting a ham sandwich at some point.

Imagine a series about the Red Cross fighting the UNHCR over a strategic cave that has tons of strategic mayonnaise. Just kidding. This series doesn't even have Food Court Intrigue.

What this show sorely needed was a god-damned Ramadan Arc wherein everyone would be fasting and doing crap that actually matters.
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Is the story unique? If it was ... predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up?
• It's about as unique as a döner sandwich in Berlin.

Do you think the art style is fitting for the story?
• Art style is a spice to a story's main course, but since the actual story was food then the art style went right along with it through the intestines and crapped right back out.

Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid?
• They were unusually hungry.

Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way?
• F*** no they're losing their shit over food.



Verdict: KO by Premise

The way to success is consistent mediocrity.

One Piece is a manga that embodies the idea of 'comfort fiction,' a long quasi-episodic repition of events with the same characters.

The best thing about one piece in one has to be: familiary

Mind you, this is not a bad thing. Comfort fiction is an important part of life. It helps us wind down without having to worry too much, and is good for our mental health.

But one can wonder if the series could have become more had it taken more risks and had a proper plot to follow.

OP plays out like an arcade game. Same conflict over and ... over, a boss fight to show you how awesome the main shonen hero Luffy is, so we can all cheer him on, then we get our performance evaluations aka the power levels in the form of bounties.

The worldbuilding is interesting. You have about four major mysteries, but they are spread over a thousand chapter, and they are starting to feel very thin. By now, the author's just milking the curiosity over the same questions instead of coming up with new ones. It's a big world, build it accordingly, with more details.

The plot itself, barring the action/fanservice, could be cut down by three quarters. But the remaining 25% is pretty damn interesting, and when it did come on, I got very excited.

Overall, this is about the same quality as your run-of-the-mill shonen, but one thing it does uniquely, is that while it does not peak as high as others, it remains constant. Other anime may go from great to bad, while OP remains consistently decent. Which explains the allure it has.

I always thought the manga got way worse after the timeskip (and it soemwhat did with the awful newer arcs) but after that it stabilized once again with the very enjoyable two arcs we had recently.

I gave the characters 2/10 because they are pretty one-note. No nuance whatsoever. Just one character, one 'gimmick' and most get boring pretty quick unless they just make rare guest appearances.


Overall One Piece is an okay manga that is a good way to spend time, but not where you'll find great writing.

To you, 2000 years from now.

Simply put, Shingeki no Kyojin is the best manga to have ever come out. But it hadn't always been so.

This manga started out simply as a 'shonen that doesn't act like shonen', where generic 'big 3' manga hardly ever take risks, staying on the middle lane, they hardly ever risk dividing the fanbase. They are specialized crowd-pleasers. Shingeki no Kyojin does the opposite. It takes the biggest risks and actually shifts the plot from one direction to another, so you never know what to expect. More importantly, you know you're getting a fine, profound, thought-provoking, unique piece of FANTASY FICTION. ... Something you have never read before. When you get into the world-building, you stop to muse about the world, about the big and small 'what-ifs' and that's highly rewarding.

The world building is dense. Usually shonen manga have like 4 or 5 major mysteries over 600-1000 chapters. But here each chapter is its own mystery, and the overarching mysteries are grander, more creative and very, very rewarding.

The first arc was excellent, but as you keep reading, you realize how wrong you were. Because you see, future arcs will ADD to that arc. They build on it, and your perspective shifts. You now have seven or eight ideas tied into the first arc. Then the third arc comes and creates even more connections, and the light bulbs keep firing up. The arc wasn't excellent, it was genius. In every sense of the word. For arcs to come and not only be deep, emotional, impactful and complex, and on top of that ameliorate previous arc? What the hell? We're getting spoiled here. This defeats the logic. If the arc was already a 10, how can it be improved? An 11, a 12? Maybe.

George R. R. Martin said that there are two types of writers. Gardeners and Architects. This is by far the most architectonic piece of fiction you'll ever see. Even Arrested Development bows in deference to the tie-ins and foreshadowing this manga has. Isayama is after all, the perfect architect of writing.

This is a manga where each arc is 'Chimera Ant Arc' level.

From me, one day ago, thanks Isayama.

Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann! JUST WHO THE HELL THINKS THIS IS GOOD?!!
*No Helping It Soundtrack*


Guren Lagann is like an eco-friendly waste disposal facility, it's well-organized, looks clean and colorful, and gives off a cheerful vibe, but ultimately it's still garbage.

Story: Rather than going ham on this and have people "enlighten" me on how this is an "over-the-top, just-for-fun, turn-your-brain-off", I'll just explain why it fails even down that road. See, being over the top requires turning a cliché idea into a truly enjoyable one; something witty, or bizarre. TTGL does not offer that. It simply offers explosions. Then offers bigger explosions. Sadly, this only makes ... them less impactful.
Over the top is when a squirrel conjured out of a first poses a threat on your life. TTGL is so much the opposite of over-the-top, that an explosion which is supposedly of a "big bang explosion" impact seems nothing more than your every-day Ki-blast. It tries to show how grand a battle is by having people in one instant fight among galaxies, but that just makes it look like galaxies are a zoomed-out back-drop.

This show completely fails at scoping and execution of scale, achieving the opposite of what it aims for.


Will you enjoy the story if you're looking into something deep? No. The show does try to dwell on bigger ideas here and there (one scene 3 episodes apart on average), but they never follow up.

Will you enjoy it if you're looking into something over the top as in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Hunter x Hunter, the Devil May Cry video games"? No. The show has no wit or ingenuity.

Who will enjoy this? If you like a monster-of-the-week format, and an extremely sped up version of Dragon Ball Z minus all the charging episodes, and the build up, or basically just explosions, this might be for you.




Characters, Interactions & Dialogue

The characters are one-dimensional, each one represents your typical shonen archetype. The hot-headed never-give-up main character, the nerdy, analytical, uptight buddy, the tsundere angsty nemesis, and so on.

Characters by themselves have nothing interesting to offer, and unfortunately neither do their interactions with one another. From the annoying Ted-Mosbian "Bro" exchanges that make you cringe, to the shouts of never giving up, (not even with a courtesy speech), the characters have no chemistry at all.

The dialogue, as you might find, is weak. It fails to express because its aim is to be as loud as possible. The show also suffers from the "audience" syndrome, where they feel the need to show you how awesome characters are by having some audience (random useless characters, or the entire planet) praise them endlessly. This is basically anime's version of laugh-tracks found in Sitcoms.

Art & Animation

The art is quite sweet. It's got some pretty-looking settings and the designs for some mechs are pretty original. Unfortunately, animation does not keep up. I'm not sure if the anime had a good budget or not. Because there isn't anything to animate well in the first place. For a show with so many battles, there is no "mêlee fights with sakuga choreography. Mostly it's just countless "bulbs" of explosions engulfing your screen.

Music

Not much to say here, I'll keep it short, great opening, good OST, some tracks are marred with corny Bro-rap.


In conclusion, this is one of the worst shonens in recent years, but it serves as a good reminder that pretty covers aren't all. You might fight enjoyment only if you are a die-hard shonen/Michael Bay fan.


Overall score: 3/10