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*Disclaimer...?
First of all, now that I realize Aida Miou's side of the story is also getting animated, I'm gonna conserve all judgments for it. Yaaaaaaay!!! Miiiiiraaaiiiiiinooooowaaaaataaaaashieeee
Also I understand A-1 only helped and the real animators are Qualia Animations, but it's really likely that this new studio came from A1, which then means they contributed way more than just a subservice. So point still the same. But if the third movie is much (or at least a little) better I'll delete this right away.






Fuck you A1.
...
I think through this one it's finally official. A1 doesn't give a jack shit about making a good anime.





When I first heard that my beloved music series was getting animated, I had nothing but doubts after the last one's...uh, unfortunate turnout. I'm of course referring to Shaft's adaptation of Kagerou Project. Then again, adaptation is a kind word here.
But when I heard that it was getting done by A1 who love to make adoring girls more adorable than humanly possible, I had my hopes. And even more so when I heard that they were making a movie out of this, and not a series. While I would've personally wanted to see Enemoto and Miou and hear Sana's voice every week, a movie would spell lots and lots of budget, and that meant fluid movements, uncringey (at the very least) dialogues, and infinite moeflower. This was one of those anime that would benefit from having a shameless display of infinite moedom. It's a simple series of music videos with a simple storyline, there's nothing complicated. That's one of the greatest thing about Honeywork's works.



Before I go any further, though, let me be clear; the music was amazing. I seriously can't get enough of Sana's voice in my ears. Not to mention some of the greatest voice actors/actresses of our generations were hired into this thing.

My point is: and for what?

There's no point in even saying spoiler-free or there's no revelations. It's a simple love story. I mean, it's in the FUCKING TITLE. The girl loves someone, and confesses to him, and gets cold feet and goes back on her confession, have some troubles along the way, and lo and behold, ends up dating the guy. Wow, who could've seen that coming?

So what the hell is so complicated about all these?

There's nothing difficult about making girls in love look cute and talk like they're girls their age, and same with boys. #genderequality. But what exactly did we get?

They just made a two-hour-long version of the music videos.



And I mean it. The dialogues were blatant copies of the actual song (yes, because people talk like they sing all the time) and character design was borderline unwatchable. But to be fair, the animation was good, except it wasn't. We got the one-frame bullshit we are so sick of watching by now in a FUCKING MOVIE, and even worse they almost basically REUSED some of the illustrations from the music videos.

Why in the hell would I listen to someone talk about a song I love for two hours instead of just, you know, watching the actual song?

There was no point in this movie at all. The only exceptions were maybe seeing the characters move (which was halfly done and sometimes not done at all) and listening to Sana and the voice actors/actresses' renditions of the songs I love and enjoy. But, and here's the thing, if this is all they were good for, how is it better than watching a nicodouga mad video of a new song by honeyworks? It isn't. It really isn't. I actually wanna see that happen now.



The characters were a joke. The actual characters in the music video are top-notch, of course, but they were almost shamefully underused. For example, we never got to see what the hell happened to Aida Miou. This chafed me up so much because she was my most favorite character. What even is the point of her besides giving the angry fans time to calm down and put down their pitchforks? We never got any glimpses of her problem or her issues, and we never even saw if she ended up with the guy.

Then they at least focused on the main couples, right? Yeah, no.

Fair enough, they got the most screeentime. But here we see time and time again, their lacking dialogues and cheap animations. They at least got all of their stories out, so I guess that's a start...




Overall, I was just too disappointed to give this movie a fair judgment. If I didn't know about the original music video series I would've given it a 6 at the lowest. But here's the thing about adaptation; they're adaptations. There's a reason people raged on Death Note and Ghost in the Shell more than the other hollywood garbage regularly produced. They are supposed to satisfy the fanbase. At least Death Note and GitS did their best. Both went out of their way to fit a mainstream audience, changed the settings to not simply make a remake, and gave no commission to the budget.
Yes, I know, comparing hollywood to anime movies is harsh, but here's my counterpoint.

Sagiri.



So no. Fuck you A1.
You had time to give Sagiri her own animator in the trashiest show of the season, if not of the year (of course I exaggerate) but you couldn't give two fucks to give Honeyworks and their crew a proper adaptation, in a movie, in a story simpler than the Giving Tree?

Fuck you A1.

The fall of 2012 is remembered by most as the fallen age of sword art online, and it is remembered by some as the beginning of psycho-pass. Some remember it as the year of love, releasing four sensational anime containing or immersed in romance. The following season may be remembered as the restart of gintama. Perhaps some remember the rise of love live.

However, to me, save a single season, the entire year of 2013 will be remembered as the year Shinsekai Yori was introduced to me.

Shinsekai Yori, also known as From the New World, a well-known name given to the second movement of Dvorak's 9th ... Symphony, is, simply said without bias or of personal lenience, a masterpiece. It is the reason I immediately denounced Tomino Yoshiyuki's claim, father of Gundam, when he suggested in an interview that the former masterpieces such as Evangelion, Grave of the Fireflies, Ideon or Gundam will never appear again. He was wrong; it has appeared, and no one noticed. Not even the father of Gundam.

Shinsekai Yori's premise is simple; it's a retrospective future Japan, and it is the closest description to a utopia...on the outside. A world where the entire human species is capable of wielding PK, aka psychokinesis, referred to in the anime as cantus. It is a power only restricted by one's imagination, and as long as the user's imagery supports, anything is possible. It's a world devoid of worries of food or water or other necessities. It's a world without poverty or personal differences. It's a world neglect of crime. It's a perfect world......

Or so you'd think.

The entirety of the anime is dedicated to revealing the facade of this make-believe utopia, with the message "from the new world" echoing to the past clearly and loudly:

What would you do?

A simple, short message that no one in the generation of people"s" could answer. Politicians tried and failed. Lawmakers tried and failed. Religions tried and failed. Kingdoms tried and failed. Democracies tried and failed. Civilizations tried and failed. Scientists tried and failed eternally.

The beauty of Shinsekai Yori is this: perfect depiction of reality. Generations have tried and tried and tried, utilizing every bit of emotional and practical resources throughout the ages with different civilizations and governance, and the result is a world engulfed in fire and ashes. The forefathers died at the hands of a tyrant for us to send more generations of youth into hell bent monstrosities. Our ancestors worked tirelessly for education, and in the end we were able to secure a worldwide system of brainwashing schools and parents. The firsts of us invented ungodly technological advances so that we may find the quickest and easiest methods in which we could ruin strangers' lives at the tip of our fingertips and convince the better part of our generation to buy items of "priceless" worth.

The future is bright and unknown. This has been true for every part of every generation. Future always holds the answers, the treasures and values unparalleled. Future is a rainbow; full of color, waiting for us in the roads ahead. It is, therefore, too late when we realize the terrible truth;

There is no rainbow. There is only ever the reflection of the past lights, past greatness, and basking in its brilliance is beyond our physical capabilities. We will continue to seek the future, longing for its brilliance, and it will be just a little beyond our reach, and it always will be.

The bright future will never reach us.

As for its demerits, the art is of no brilliance. It is certainly acceptable, as it won't be eye-cringing enough to stagger the storytelling process, but it is worth no praise either. It is one of those animes where the sole greatness of an anime is wholly contained in the story and not in art or sound or anything else.

in discussion of sound, there is no noteworthy need to mention soundtracks, but it is without its flaws. The overall theme of mystery and terror is kept steady throughout the anime thanks to the wonderful compositions of three different artists, and the two character songs by the voice actresses Taneda Risa and Hanazawa Kana are of superb quality and of similar theme to the story. The art and sound are of no great quality, admittedly, but they do a wonderful job of adding onto the surreal, mysterious and screeching mood of the story.

In conclusion, Shinsekai Yori is a masterpiece. It is a perfect parallel of the real by the introduction of the surreal. It incorporates the complexions of the society without unreasonable claims. It was an unparalleled experience to watch this anime, and it is not a suggestion but a necessity.

Go on and feel the reflection of our world, "from the new world".

We live in a world where realistic relationship is a fantasy fairy tales and novels make up.
Humans continue living by tricking one another, being a phony, lying even to themselves and hiding our own motives.
Even if someone comes to you and say "You can be real to me, because I'll be so to you too", you won't open up to them, and in fact close your heart towards them, thinking they have some motives under their back.

"But still, I want something genuine."
-Hikigaya Hachiman

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Zoku, commonly called in the west as My RomCom SNAFU Zoku (called in this review ... as romcom snafu zoku) is one of those harem anime that contains moe, cute girls being cute, unrealistic setting of girls getting attracted to main characters and main character having the solution to all problems.

If anyone, however, calls this anime as "just one of those stupid moefag harem anime", they are sorely mistaken.

The first season of RomCom SNAFU aired and was finished some time ago, interesting a number of anime fans for its unique style of problem-solving, an unorthodox main character who has lived a majority of his life as a loner, after his hurting memories in his middle-school. Along with the socially inept Yukinoshita and 'too' socially apt Yuigahama, the three members of service club solve the students' problem in a wrongly manner, unable to come up with a more 'correct' and 'proper' solution. This fresh pace of romantic comedy called attention of numerous viewers as the popularity of the first season left some in cliffhanger and others in relative nonchalance.

The second season also follows our protagonist, Hikigaya Hachiman (henceforth called Hachiman) as he continues his work as a member of service club. The other two members of the service club, Yuigahama Yui and Yukinoshita Yukino (referred to by their last names in here) as they finally tackle the source of the problem of their falsified relationship.

The story itself follows--or appears to follow--the conventional style of a harem love comedy anime. Hachiman saves a number of people from their problems and gains hearts of famous--some even idolized--girls and even boys, despite the fact that he is referred to as the 'outcast of society', especially the society that Hachiman's classmates populate. Yuigahama and Yukinoshita are both expressed, in all of SNAFU's media mix including the orignal work, as the beauties of the school that a number of male students take interest in. The new additions of the casts, Isshiki Iroha, Kawasaki Saki and Yukinoshita Haruno are all explained and shown as above-the-average girls, although they all seem to take interest in a dead-eyes protagonist such as Hachiman.

However, this anime is not a love comedy.

The anime centralized more in the difficulties Hachiman, Yuigahama and Yukinoshita face in their twisted relationship, as they all tackle the perhaps most difficult question in all human relationships--whether it is that of romantic nature, of friendship, of envy, of anything--

"What is genuine?"

They know that the relationship they have led up to that time is nothing of genuine nature, and therefore can be broken upon a single trouble. They know that the partnership they have believed in season 1 is nothing of genuine nature, and therefore can be betrayed upon a single misunderstanding. They know that the friendship they have relied on until then is nothing of genuine nature, and therefore can be destructive upon a single word of that cold bastard called reality.

The story of RomCom SNAFU is not something that cannot be thought of by an amateur writer. The scenario itself is not superficial, as it contains no unexpected plot twists or well-crafted surprises incorporating the beginning of the show. However, the settings and scenarios are not only described well, but also illustrated realistically. Although it is unlikely that people would live a love-comedy-like life, but if they did, this is how it would happen. The solutions Hachiman offers to the students' requests and the outcomes of his decisions are welly illustrated. If there is something all writers can be proud of, it is accurate depiction of reality.

The greatest problems RomCom SNAFU Zoku faces as an adaptation are the favoritism the producers play towards certain characters and their failure in controlling the pace of the story.

The first problem is evident upon the difference in Hachiman's reaction to Yuigahama and Yukinoshita's romantic approaches. While he evidently shows interest to Yukinoshita's approaches, he seems to show nonchalant to rejecting reactions towards Yuigahama's approaches, despite the fact that the original and season 1 shows Hachiman's equal reactions towards the two heroines. These kinds of favoritism is a double-edged sword as while it may bring up the specific heroine's support, it may also be shown as a political motive to sell more, which can and is viewed negatively.

The second problem is evident in the end of the anime where it ends in a cliffhanger. Although the anime has controlled its pace magnificently for both original work followers and first-time watchers, the anime's extreme pace of squeezing an entire volume of the story into two episodes or less cannot be viewed as anything more than rash judgment. It has unfortunately even reached the end of all released volumes and showed the preview of the 11th, unreleased, volume.

As these are not minor problems, the story segment which could almost be viewed as a masterpiece was pulled down severely, even threatening the overall enjoyment of the anime.

In the case of art, the second season excelled in comparison to the first as all the characters were drawn beautifully and accurately to the original work, to my personal enjoyment. While there were some questionable emotional depiction of the characters, the overall quality was superb. The heroines' emotional distresses and Hachiman's struggle, especially at the climax scene, proved that Studio Feel is capable of delivering the internal conflicts RomCom SNAFU is famous for. Except for minor quality breaks here and there, and the undersized hands in comparison to the characters' heads, I have no complaints against the animation quality.

As for the sound, the two voice actors, Hayami Saori and Touyama Nao, and Yanagi Nagi returns as the singers of the openings and endings. The new opening, sung by Yanagi Nagi, the singer of the first season's opening, excelled in all qualities of a good song. Its lyrics depicted the internal struggles discussed in the anime perfectly, its rhythm was catchy enough to stick in the mind in a short span of time, its quality was over-the-head with the use of Yanagi Nagi's soft yet pained tone, as if singing about a regrettably parted love.

The endings' qualities were superb as well, as both voice actors performed magnificently in their duets, solo (in the ballad versions of the ending) and in their character songs. Touyama Nao asides, Hayami Saori is one of the few voice actors who are recognized widely for her performance in singing. Touyama Nao however performed over-the-top as well, in comparison to her usual songs, to my greatest pleasure.

The OST's were the same as the ones used in the first season with some additions, one of them being the piano version of the opening, and it was a great choice for the producers to have used the same OSt's since it closed the gaps between the second season and the first season, which were widely opened by the art style. The OST's themselves were also a wonderful collection of music, my favorite being one played at bright times in the service club's everyday life.

And, in the case of the anime's characters, there is nothing I can say other than how wonderfully they are portrayed. Their reactions and thought processes are very humanlike, which is the most any viewer can ask from a writer. The characters themselves were very lovely as well, perhaps because of their humaneness. Hachiman, for instance, shows his humaneness over and over again through the portrayal of his internal struggles, not just with his relationship with the members of service club, but also with him himself, who suffers a severe identity crisis in the matter of his validity as a provider of solutions in the first place.

Another likeable aspect of the characters is the fact that none of them are perfect. Hachiman, as explained above, solves questions presented to him in an unorthodox--and downright morally wrong--methods. His personality asides, he feels a great deal of self-hate throughout the anime which increases more and more in magnitude as the story progresses. Yuigahama's habit of putting others before her--which seems to get assimilated as the story progresses, in contrast to Hachiman's and Yukinoshita's problem, to be explained afterwards--is constantly questioned by others, and before others, herself.

And, perhaps the central item used in the progression of the story, Yukinoshita's problem, is of greater magnitude than the other two main characters, in contrast to seemingly perfect surface that she presents. Her root problem, the conflict she holds with her mother and her sister, Haruno, is perhaps the hardest problem ever unearthed in the story, and definitely the most complicated one. However, her problem does not only stop there as her character is shown to have severely reliant attitude.

All these three characters are perfected because of their imperfection. Their imperfection proves their humanness.

The character aspect does not stop here as the anime provides deep insights for all the characters' personalities. Hayama Hayato, the seemingly perfect protagonistic character, Isshiki Iroha, the seemingly manipulative 'typical' high-school girl, Miura Yumiko, the seemingly antagonistic character, Ebina Hina, the seemingly comical relief girl of the story, Tobe Kakeru, the seemingly comical relief boy of the story, Zaimokuza Yoshiteru, the seemingly otaku delusional of the story, and Saika Totsuka, the seemingly boy-girl of the story, are actually much more than they appear to be.

And there is nothing I can ask more than a group of complicated, human-like, interesting, fun-to-analyze characters such as them.

Overall, the anime was an enjoyable experience. The cast of characters with the voice actors' amazing acting was superb. I was more than satisfied with the amazing quality of the animation itself and the songs. I found the seemingly-romcom-like story to be more than interesting.

However, aforementioned problems did quite an impact on my overall impression of the anime, enjoyment included.

While the minor problems such as the crash of art quality, severely skipped storyline or unsatisfying depiction of the characters' emotions were manageable and not bad enough for me to drop my impression of the anime too much, I found the almost malicious favoritism and extreme cliffhanger to be not only questionable but also downright disappointing to the beautiful quality of the anime the producers have shown up to the end.

It is true that such a cliffhanger boosts the sale of the original work, in addition to the bluray sales and possibility of the third season, but a cliffhanger ending without a speck of feeling of resolution when a third season is not even planned is nothing but malice and political motives. I found this move of Studio Feel to be downright insulting.

However, it is true that, while the cliffhanger ending may raise some unwanted and negative attentions, the story itself and the quality was top-notch, with my interest to the original work and the series boosted.

RomCom SNAFU is indeed not a masterpiece. It has its downsides, its misgivings and its imperfections. However, it would be a sin to call this a bad anime, or in fact, a normal anime. It is an anime almost guaranteed to capture the viewers' attention.

And for that, I salute at Studio Feel and Watari Wataru for releasing Hikigaya Hachiman's adventures to the world.

However, it is true, despite all its positive sides, its fulfillment and its epicness, that the sole world I would use to describe Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru as "INCOMPLETE".

Therefore, I cannot, in good conscience, give this anime any more score than a flat 8.

Fortunately, I can also say with confidence that this is not the end of Hachiman's journey, and that even if it is, there is much enjoyment that can be experienced by this anime.

Long story short, you MUST watch this series.

And I'll leave it at that.

Thank you and happy anime.

WTF is this shit! I'm never gonna like this!
-Me, at episode 0

Characters are paramount to any anime.
Not only are they the people who speak for the creators of the anime, but also they are the selling points of anime. Anime goods and character songs will not shine if the character themselves are not enjoyable.
However, cliches are scary things.
No matter how adorable tsunderes are, no matter how adorable megaderes are, if anything are overused, it turns into a cliche, and the more repetitive the cliche becomes, the weaker its effects become.
After being introduced to a multitude of characters, ranging from tsundere childhood friends with blonde twintails, ... tongue-sharp seniors with black stockings, overly mature middle-school girls listening to whatever the main characters say and siblings/cousins with a little-too-strong attachments to the main characters, I have grown numb of the 'moeness' of characters and began to freeze my heart on the sights of heroines.

"And, that day, I met with destiny."
-Aki Tomoya

Saenai Kanojo (Heroine) no Sodatekata or saekano, as will be called from this point on, is a light-novel based animation done by A-1 Pictures with the original creator as the script writer and the original illustrator as the original character designer. I have not read the light novel or the manga based on the light novel, and thus I only know the anime adaptation part of the saekano media.

There are absolutely no spoilers in this review, but some terms I use may indirectly suggest minor plot events.

Story: 7

The story centers around the main character, Aki Tomoya, on his attempt to create a game after his inspirations of meeting the girl of his dreams. Having gathered the genius writer, Kasumigaoka Utaha, and the best illustrator he knows, Sawamura Spencer Eriri, Tomoya attempts to produce the best game revolving around the meeting of the main character and the girl of his dreams.
And SHE appears! (dum-dum-dum!)

Saekano's story itself is a mediocre one, using the cliches used in other anime to tolerable level, not introducing an unnecessarily huge plot twist to captivate the readers, which actually tends to turn them away, or capture the viewers' attention through numerous fan services, which also tends to turn them away. It does not stagger in any point of the story and follows through the general theme quite well, as a semi-harem semi-love story with a plot to create a successful game.

That is not to say that there are no misgivings in the story as saekano has its own downs as well. The appearance of two new characters (especially Hyodo Michiru, who appeared at episode 9) and unnecessarily excessive fan services at few episodes made the story segment of saekano to not stand out as an outstanding anime.

However, considering that the anime was only twelve episodes long (excluding episode 0, which was more of an ova than a prequel) and also considering the fact that saekano covered for its late introduction of characters by giving them enough screen time when they appeared and covered for excessive fan service by progressing with the story and character development whilst also showing fan services, thereby catching two birds in one stone, the story deserves quite a praise.

Art: 7

As usual, A-1 Pictures showed how much they excelled at creating love comedies.
The overall quality of animation was very good, with episode 0, 1, 2 and 3 showing enough quality to make the viewers wonder whether they were sponsored to create saekano. The character designs were flawless as Kasumigaoka Utaha's signature black stockings were animated to a worrisome level, Kato's numerous outfits were designed almost two for every episode and the illustrations shown from time to time in the game and Eriri's drawings in quality beyond expectations.

As the anime progressed, however, the anime quality dropped significantly, with Tomoya's hair not being colored at the last episode. All the quality drops are expected to be fixed at bluray releases, but based on the tv animation that aired, the quality of episodes 4, 7 and 8 were almost questionable.

These were compensated, of course, by pushing the anime budget to important episodes, such as episode 3, 6 and 12, but it is difficult to give the art dimension of saekano any more than a 7.

However, the story and art weren't the strong point of saekano.

Character: 10

Kato Megumi is the most well-made, yet the most unused character I have had the chance to meet in my otaku life.

She has the most unique character, which is quite similar to that of a real girl's. She is not honest but not tsundere, she is fun but not a gag character, she is quiet but not emotionless, Ayanami Rei character, and she is normal but does not follow any cliche of a normal character.
However, she is, for some reason, very attachable.
Borrowing the line of the anime, she is adorable at times when she does things that are unlike her, but in the next line she returns to her normal, semi-invisible self who is void of what otaku culture call 'moe'.
She is probably the most human-like character I have ever met.
That is not to say that other characters are not lovely. Kasumigaoka Utaha shows her character as the sharp-tongued senior, Sawamura Spencer Eriri shows her tsundere qualities, but if Kato was not in this anime with the character that she has, I would have never succumbed to like this show as much as I did.

It is not even a question. The character section deserves a 12.

Sound: 7

OP/ED: 5
Putting my personal feelings into this, since I cannot judge the opening and ending songs without putting aside my personal feelings for them, I feel like Haruna Luna, the singer for the opening and one of my favorite singers, is not particularly good at singing bright-felt songs. Her voice and excellent mood bringer is more suited for minor keys such as "Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau" from Fate/Zero. She has been progressing in her skill at singing major keys over the years with "Snowdrop" and "Ai wo Utae" from Monogatari Series: Second Season being a hit overseas and in Oricon charts. However, her singing at the opening, "Kimiiro Signal" was a little less than unbearable to hear. Perhaps it was because her pitch was off at times that I felt a cringe in my eyes from time to time, but I felt like this opening was, put simply, not the best song Haruna Luna has sung.
The ending was very neat and bright-felt as well, but in here, I was a little taken back at the lyricism. Since I am not Japanese and understand Japanese language very little, I do not mind the lyrics that much at any time, but the lyrics were too repetitive that I again cringe my eyes.
But the songs were not the worst I've heard, and both of them were not unbearable. I didn't mind listening through it while watching the anime.

OST & Insert Songs: 9
The sound part of saekano actually shines at the OST and insert song, including character songs. The OST's were, as expected of a love comedy, very cheerful and simple. However, they were very wisely used that even with a simple tune of violin or some background music of a xylophone, the mood was severely affected, and thankfully in a good way.
Insert songs are, simply put, a good surprise. I have never been a fan of character songs, but when the character songs were used as insert songs, with their lyrics accurately portraying the moods of each heroines, I felt refreshed and liked the music. Even the songs themselves are enjoyable to hear as they have been written quite well. Kato Megumi's character song, Mb, is a song that is currently on my playlist, and I enjoy listening to the music without the accompaniment of the anime as well.

Voice Acting: 8
The heroines were cast wonderfully, and I have no comment to make about any of them. Yasuno Kiyono made a perfect portrayal of Kato Megumi as she acted by...not acting, Ai Kayano made a perfect voice for Kasumigaoka Utaha as she voiced her in the cool, calm way that she usually spoke at times, and spoke in upbeat or irritated tone when she lost her cool, and Ooishi Saori made a perfect voice for our tsundere childhood friend, Sawamura Spencer Eriri.
The problem, or rather, the voice actor that I would have liked to see an improvement from was Matsuoka Yoshitsugu as Aki Tomoya.
He made a great portrayal of an otaku male protagonist as he voiced passionately while talking about anime with hints of crying in his voice, while enraging at people who saw anime in a bad light and while being calm at times. However, although this was the purpose, I found his continuous gags quite irritating and found his switch from funny to serious quite unnatural. Personally, I would have liked someone with a more comical voice and yet with a more serious tone at times, such as Miyano Mamoru as he portrayed Okabe Rintarou from Steins;Gate flawlessly.

With that, I gave the whole sound portion a flat seven.

Enjoyment: 10

I have not waited a week for an anime this much ever since.

It would be a lie, of course, if I say that I loved every moment of every time of the anime, but it is certainly true that I have not liked a love comedy harem anime this much ever since I saw my first anime.

I have not liked a character this much either, and I am quite surprised by how much I like Kato Megumi myself.

Quite simply, it was a pleasurable experience. The comedies were good, the story was good, the character development and the characters themselves were fun to watch, and I have realized that this anime is worth much more attention.

Overall: 8

I wouldn't go and say this is the best anime of 2015, or even just this cour, because it is not.
However, it most definitely is the best love comedy I have watched ever since I started watching anime.
I guarantee that you will not be disappointed by watching this, whether you are a girl or you are a boy, whether you watch anime for story or watch it for characters.

It is, every bit worth watching for.

"This is the story of the beginning of my end."
-Araragi Koyomi

Prequel Story: Kizumonogatari
First Story: Bakemonogatari
Second Story: Nisemonogatari
Third Story: Nekomonogatari Kuro
Fourth Story: Nekomonogatari Shiro
Fifth Story: Kabukimonogatari
Sixth Story: Otorimonogatari
... Seventh Story: Onimonogatari
Eight Story: Koimonogatari
Ninth Story: Hanamonogatari

And, finally, the grand tenth story being tsukimonogatari, nisioisin and shaft has proven us two great things.

One, this story is, for the lack of a better term, a gift from God to the anime world.
Two, Shinbo should reeeeeeaaaaallly get working on kizumonogatari any time soon.

After six years, 15 arcs, 65 episodes and about 1,300 minutes of showtime, monogatari series anime adaptation project is nearly its end.
So when I heard that the monogatari series was about to end, I just had one thing to say.

'Bout time.

I'd like to think of this as the beginning of the end of a six-year-long journey that I started because I was looking for good anime at the time, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, after learning about different things such as 'the power of character', 'the strength of a loli', 'the eroticism found in toothbrush' among other things that I would have otherwise never even turned an eye on, monogatari series has now become almost a part of me.

So, as I review this anime, I will try to keep down my personal feelings towards this anime as mutual as possible.

Well this was certainly too long an intro. Let's get on with the review.

Story: 6

To be truthful, I really didn't find the point of this story.
How I feel about tsukimonogatari's story is like how I felt about nisemonogatari's story. It certainly was necessary to the monogatari: second season, but it seemed too polarized to the motifs and overall mood of the story of bakemonogatari, and thus make me disappointed, if anything.
It isn't to say that there was not a figment of story at all in tsukimonogatari, and neither was it filled with fanservices and the so-called 'moe' factors everywhere. There indeed was an acceptable storyline in tsukimonogatari, and it was not too horrible either.
But, when I rethink that this is a story that, chronologically, comes out after koimonogatari, I can't help but feel disappointed.
Of course, there is the idea of a 'tension-break'. Since the tensions of the series has been hyped severely throughout the entire monogatari: second season, the viewers' minds have to be relaxed before entering into the grand finale, which I pray to God Shaft's animating.
Still, since there was nothing noteworthy about the overall storyline, I give story segment a 6.

Art: 9

Oh, Shaft. You've come a loooooong way.
As usual, the animation style of Shaft was clearly shown throughout the animation as the characters' neck bent into weird angles, the zoom-ins and scene changes were incoherent but appropriate and the characters stood with one leg or danced Platinum Disco.
But the animation quality itself was as usual superb.
The animation of Shaft doesn't have to be talked about a lot. It can be just summarized with one line.
It's great.
Moving on.

Sound: 7

Ah yes, ClaRis, now more like...ClaKar though, since Risa retired and Karen (I can't stop thinking that this stage name was based on Araragi Karen in this...) came in.
And the character song by Ononoki Yotsugi.
And of course, the usual bgm by Kousaki Satoru.

Regarding the BGM, it was...well, it's getting tiring, listening to the same ost over and over and over and over and over again. Of course, it's still good, but I can't help but feel like it's a little overused.
It's not to say that there were some new BGM's here and there, but there were too few of those, and I hope that changes in owarimonogatari, or any other animation done by Shaft, for that matter.
For that, BGM gets a flat 5.

Next, OP/ED.
Claris and the character song was actually nicer than I thought they would be. The character song was not as catchy as the three legendary character songs of monogatari series, renai circulation, platinum disco and mousou express, but it certainly was good. It was catchy, and the voice actress of Yotsugi did actually amazingly, that I almost thought she used to be a singer before becoming a voice actress.
Claris, or ClaKar, or whatever, actually exceeded my expectations. I half-expected the new member to be not as good as the last one, but she fit her role perfectly as the replacement for Risa, and went on from being a replacement to being a respected member of Claris.
Of course, that's not to say that the OP/ED are without faults. Character songs are only admired to a selected number of people, and even if the number of people who enjoy the so-called 'moe' songs are a majority in the otaku subculture, it stands out that the song such as character songs or Claris-themed music are not admired to every member the subculture.

As for the voice acting, well, what can I say.
Shaft seems to have this 'circle' of voice actors/actresses that they use and use, and I took the liberty of calling it the 'Shaft Seiyuu Circle'. And one thing I like about SSC is that all the voice actors/actresses in it are, for the lack of a better term, AMAZING.
There's the voice actress that shook Japanimation subculture, Horie Yui, the voice actress who got the first place for 'which voice actress do you want to merry', Eri Kitamura, the most famous voice actor in asia (not proven), Kamiya Hiroshi, the voice actress with the greatest talent at creating characters, Iguchi Yuka, the voice actress with perhaps the biggest variation of voice acting, Saito Chiwa, the voice actress who voices a grown woman and a loli at the same time, Sakamoto Maaya, the voice actress who got famous through her amazing singing, Hikasa Yoko, the voice actress who voiced five minutes of monologue without mistake, NG, recuts or re-do's in Inou Battle wa Nichijou no Naka de, Hayama Saori.
And of course, perhaps the most famous voice actor/actress in the Japanimation industry, Hanazawa Kana.
I think I need to just say this out loud at the start from the next time. Shaft Voice Actors/actresses are AMAZING.
10/10, no doubt.

Character: 10

As usual, this is where Monogatari Series shines.
The author of the original light novel from which this anime series is adapted into is nisioisin (real name unknown), and he/she is indeed superb at creating characters. Nisioisin makes characters look and feel human, and make the characters stay faithful to their role until the end. The characters may develop, but then nisioisin makes sure that the characters get their developmental chapters.
There is not much to say. Tsukimonogatari's characters are adorable, lovable, attachable, realistic and reasonable set of characters, much more than I could ever hope them to be.
I can give no less than a 10 for character.

Enjoyment: 9

Well, this was fun.
Monogatari series, in my opinion, is a series meant for one purpose.
And that is entertainment.
While there may be some intriguing thoughts and plotlines that makes us startled, in the end, monogatari series, and i quote nisioisin, is written "with 100% out of hobby."

Overall: 8

If you are a monogatari fan, then...well, I don't actually understand why you are getting advice from me to watch this, but anyhow, I will be veeeeeeeery surprised if you found this not enjoyable.
If you are not a monoagatari series fan and has not watched even the first episode of bakemonogatari, I suggest you to HURRY UP AND WATCH IT because you are missing out perhaps a golden age of anime history.
Happy anime. Happy new year.
May you watch more and better anime as the years go by.

There is no greater love in this world than the love of your family.

I'm not exactly going to review this anime. Let me just say two things, and I'll list out some quotes from the movie, and I'll be done.

First, this movie made me realize that crayon shin-chan isn't just for kids.

Second, some animes in the world may have mediocre story, mediocre art, mediocre sound, but may deserve no less than a 10/10.

These are quotes by Nohara Hiroshi.

... "Those who believe they have gotten big have no right to be big."

"The antonym for justice isn't evil, but another justice."

"My life isn't not interesting! I almost want to share the happiness of having a family!"

"Like I'd have any regrets on a world without Shinnosuke!"

"We aren't heroes who save the world. We are fathers who want future for their children."

"I'm never letting you go again, Shiro, Shinnosuke. Never again."

"It isn't life if it goes as planned."

"There are no parents who tell their kids to die!"

"There are people who can work for me, but there are no replacements for father."

"No matter what happens to my body, I protect my family!"

"Idiot! It's admonishing, not educating! There is no point if you don't do it yourself!"

Gen Urobuchi is usually referred to as the "Christopher Nolan of Anime".
This claim is, to be fair, a bit flawed, as one is a script writer and the other is a producer, but when these two are put under comparison, many can see some similarities.
For the oneiromantic science fiction thriller "Inception", there is Psycho-Pass, a criminal-investigation science fiction thriller. For the infamous sequel of the Dark Knight Trilogy, "The Dark Knight", there is a prequel of a famous game with a similar taste of ending called Fate/Zero.
And, before and after the release of the movie, Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled From Paradise is compared to the infamous ... sci-fi thriller that shook the world this November, Interstellar.

Before I begin the review, I'd like to mention that Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled From Paradise, henceforth to be called Rakuen Tsuihou in this review, is one of the first attempts, and most likely the best attempt at creating a full 3D motion animation picture done in Japan animation exclusively.
Also, *THIS REVIEW IS ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT ANY SPOILERS TO THE CONTENT*. Any information given beyond the explanation shown at myanimelist.net's description page is unintended.
Then, without further adieu, let us start the review.

Story: 7

Putting aside the fame of the script writer or the amazing animation, the story itself is actually not a grandiose one. With the description of Rakuen Tsuihou at myanimelist.net at December 16th, 2014, the date this review was written, being "Gen Urobuchi's original anime movie", there is not much I can reveal, except the fact that there are two main characters, one female and one male, from different uprising and different beliefs.
Gen Urobuchi has been gaining notoriety from the anime subculture fans known as otakus through his fluid style of writing, creative world settings, lack of fanservice and shocking plot twists. His works in Fate/Zero, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and its sequel movie Rebellion story and Psycho-Pass has been praised by many of the members of the community.
However, for better for worse, this movie lacks any of his key styles of writing except fluid pace and creative world setting, which is understandable and even admirable, considering that the movie is only an hour and 43 minutes long. The pace was quite packed, as to not make the viewers' attention fly away, but not too packed as to confuse the viewers. The setting of the world was quite well-made that it could have easily been remade into several more movies or a whole tv animation of 2 cour or more.
Still, that is no excuse for receiving no praise from the story segment of this anime. There was, in exchange for moderate pacing, no plot twists that made people go on their feet, nor was there absence of fanservice that drew people more to the story than the characters.
At best, this story deserves neither a praise nor a criticism. It was an enjoyable plot for a 100-minute-long movie, and for that I gave it a flat seven.

The problem is that this was made by Gen Urobuchi.

For a movie for which the only description is "Gen Urobuchi's original anime movie", it does not deliver Urobuchi's style. Because of this, there is bound to be a severe underrated reviews that should follow, and Urobuchi almost deserves reviews more critical than my own, which is why it is stated at the beginning of the story segment of this review that I will put aside the fame of the script writer of this anime. If one does not linger on the fact that this is a film made by Urobuchi, the anime should be a pleasant experience.

And above all, there is another reason that this anime should be pleasurable.

Art: 10

3D animation has been done in Japanese animation several times before, and some has been praised for its deliverance while others failed miserably and were criticized severely. However, there has been almost no case of a full-3D animation that has received a praise.

Rakuen Tsuihou is undoubtedly the best attempt at full-3D animation in any reported case in Japanese animation.

The animation was done by graphinica with no works in the past worthy of mention except maybe Hellsing Ultimate, which was not a personal animation project. Despite the lack of worthy mentions, however, graphinica delivered a spectacular performance of full-3D animation. Although this may not be as fluent yet as some of the earlier works done in Disney's Pixar motion films such as "Frozen", this anime's 3D-rendered model of a character is closer to the general form that is shown on Japanimation, or the so-called moe animation, than the characters in Disney animation films.
The detail of the animation of superb. From the little detail of the facial expression to the movement of the hair and the edge of the characters, everything was very similar to the orthodox movement and animation of the general Japanimation.
Then there is the battle scene, which was genuinely awesome. The movements of the robots or "mecha" as called in the anime community were not at all awkward unlike many of the other 3D animation of mecha shown.
In a word, this is a "revolution" for 3D animation. This is most likely not a first attempt at animating everything on the screen with 3D modelling program, but it definitely is a splendid attempt at it. It is not an overstatement in saying that this anime deserves praise simply over animation.

Sound: 7

The OST was (not the ending theme), without hiding the truth, horrible.

First of all, it did not do a good job of supporting the scene presented on the screen. Moreover, it was almost a pain to hear some of the battle themes in the anime. The repeated sounds and basic tone of the music was too basic that it felt like listening to an anime theme song of early 90's.
For that, I give OST portion of the sound sphere a low 2.

However, the other two portions almost forgave the OST's misses.

First of all, the voice acting was splendid. Kugimiya Rie's performance deserved praise over praise as she voiced from teenager to grown woman to a child, with mood changes clearly shown in each tone of the voice. Miki Shinichiro's voice acting was just as splendid as he was able to clearly voice the feelings and tone of the character presented to the viewers. Kamiya Hiroshi's voicing of the robot was splendid as well.
For this I give voice acting a perfect ten.
And as for the ending theme song sung by ELISA, it was quite literally a musical in my ears. I felt myself melting over the beautiful melodies of the music. I could feel her music in my bones.
And, for this, I give voice acting a 9, with average of 7 for the score of sound segment.

Character: 9

For a film with only 100-minutes, the characterizations and developments are actually pretty well done.
For the clearly-fanservice-heavy character, Angela Balzac, there is a "respect" given for her. She is not our everyday tsundere big-boobed annoying teenager that gives headache to the male lead. Her actions and her growth are perceived actually rather well throughout the film. Her characterization and her back story, as well as her development were all present without taking up too much screen time, which I cannot complain for. The same is done for Zarik Kajiwara, who is not just an overpowered know-it-all main character that today's anime world adores and tends to follow upon, but a man with considerable reasons behind all his actions and with much characterization and development without, again, taking much too much screen time. Frontier Setter, as well, is quite a nice character that showed favorable character despite being on air for the least time among the three characters.
An argument could be made that Frontier Setter's development and characterization are rather speedy and not full, and this film being a 100-minute-long should not be an excuse for that, but it actually is a valid excuse. If this were a tva with 1 cour or less it would not be an excuse, but when it's a film where people choose to go watch it or not, it is valid an excuse. To top it off, the argument that Frontier Setter's development is rather slim and too hasty is not false but an invalid argument. Frontier Setter is not a main character, but a side character that appears halfway through the film. There is not expected to be any kind of development for said characters. However, despite being a side character, Frontier Setter shows quite a lovely characterization and a considerable development, making it almost seem like a main character despite being a side character.
For this, I give character 9/10.

Enjoyment: 8

To be honest, I was a little let down myself.
I have expected to see more of urobutcher (pun intended) in this anime, especially being that the female lead had a voluptuous body (refer to Tomoe Mami from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and Funahara Yuki from Psycho-Pass...) and the premise and the preview to the movie showing a lot of promises towards the stellar version of Psycho-Pass.
That is not to say that this was not a pleasurable experience.
The animation quite literally made me go on my feet, with art and facial expressions of the characters being beyond superb, and the ending theme song pleasing my ears. It was a pleasurable 100 minutes. I would have loved it more if there was a dark theme to this or some kind of plot twist, but I perhaps should not have had my hopes up, since I would end up underrating this show.
For that, I gave 8/10 for enjoyment.

Overall: 8

Granted, it was a letdown for a work done by Urobuchi, but it is a film pleasing to watch. I highly recommend watching this film.

Then, happy anime-ing.

"Teamwork makes the dream work."

-Anonymous

First of all, let me come out and say that I have never played volleyball in my entire life, and prior to watching haikyuu, I had just about no knowledge concerning volleyball, or haikyuu the manga.
I first came to know it because for every episode of Chihayafuru (another sports anime that isn't a major game), comments kept telling me that Chihayafuru was a good competitor against Haikyuu, and being a Chihayafuru fan myself, I was interested.
The overall theme of Haikyuu is volleyball, but there is little to no leading female characters in the whole anime. The main focus team consists of ... male, and I was a little skeptic that the infamous sport for women was played by men, and was a little worried that some feminist viewers might take this the wrong way.
While holding this skepticism, I started watching Haikyuu.

Story: 10

And what a great choice it was.
A sports anime tends to follow the general trend of genius transfer-team problems and reconciliation-infinite wins. Although this increasingly mild out throughout the years, the general structure of any sports anime, or sports tv show, for that matter, follows this trend. And, Haikyuu was, arguably, also a follower of this combination.
But?
One word that sums up Haikyuu would be "climax". Every episode, every minute, every second of this anime feels like the climax and keeps the viewers on the edges of the seats at all times. Every second, the anime builds up to the result of this move, and shows the result of that move. Every other second, the anime makes the viewers ask, "What happened?" "What'll Hinata/Kageyama do now?" "What was that?" "What will happen?"
Besides the thrill of watching haikyuu, there is the theme that I could not like more that the anime holds almost religiously, which is the fact that VOLLEYBALL CANNOT BE PLAYED ALONE.
On the surface, it is a "duh" idea. Volleyball needs at least two spikers, a libero and a setter. Volleyball has to be at least played by two people.
But this is what makes this anime awesome.
Although this has disappeared over the years, sports anime tend to show an overly talented main character who takes care of everything, or the op main character in layman's term. In fact, this is a trend that is not just in sports anime but in all kinds of anime in general. Now, before we see an anime, we almost have to make an assumption that the main character is going to solve the problem.
This is NEVER shown in Haikyuu.
Sure, we have two "centers" of the story, Hinata and Kageyama, and they provide a mild solution to the problem, but the show still does not make these two solve every problem they encounter. Haikyuu respects the other characters and lets other players shine as well. In fact, the show makes it so that if the two main characters try to solve everything on their own, problems arise and they ultimately fail.
I could not like this cliche-breaker more.
The only small problem this had was simple.
This is not the end.
I was...for the lack of better term, teased to my nth degree and left hanging.
However, I say it is a small problem because I can almost forgive it. I have enjoyed the show as it was when it aired, and could not ask for a better time management. In fact, if this anime rushed and finished the whole thing before I could understand what was going on, I would have given this a 1/10. So, I did not mind the lack of an ending, but i still want the sequel.
As for the actual volleyball itself, as I said, I never liked or watched volleyball and knew close to nothing about the rules of volleyball, and yet I still liked it. The anime guided the viewers nicely through the terminologies that non-volleyball viewers would know, and made sure that everyone knew what was going on.
For this, I give 10 out of 10 for story.

Sound: 9

Freakin' SPYAIR.
For those who don't know who these guys are, go to google and type Samurai Heart, buy mp3 and play the shit out of it.
The other songs were nice too, including the second part's ending, which was a nice head-chiller after getting hyped from the awesomeness of the actual episode.
The first ending was beautiful as well, but not as good as the second ending. The opening for the second was not as great as the first either, so overall I give 9 for OP/ED.

As for the voice actors, I could not ask for a better voice actor for Kageyama and Nishinoya, and I was quite surprised that an anime with a voice staff this big could get such a fitting voice for each character.
Problem is Hinata.
I personally had no problem with Hinata's voice, but I could understand when people say that his voice was annoying, as I felt that way at the start as well. He is not bad at pronunciation or anything, but he is...well, you have to hear it to understand it. I gave 8 for voice acting.

Lastly, the OST was quite splendid. As this was a sports anime, it was critically important for the OST to do its job and keep the viewers' hype from chilling. And, cutting out the boring lead-in, the OST did its job. The only problem i had was the fact that there was no song I wanted to keep it for myself, and for that I give 9 for OST.

(9+8+9)/3=8.67 or just 9

Character: 10

There is not a single side character in this anime. Everyone plays a part, or at least, everyone who got longer than 30 seconds of airtime got a part.
We have Nishinoya, the libero of Karasuno team, playing the "cool guy" role. We have Daichi, the captain, playing the strict but kind captain. We have Tsukishima, the blocker, playing the harsh but actually nice guy. We have Kenma, who literally just appeared in 3 episodes, influencing the whole Karasuno team in more than one way.
The development for the main characters is also a job well done. Kageyama goes from the self-centered setter to a team-rounded setter, and Hinata goes from the spike-obsessed volleyball otaku to...well, actually he's still spike-obsessed volleyball otaku in the end, but we see a lot of change in Hinata as well, as he was only the physically sharp chibi at the start, but ended up being the greatest bait.

But as our parents, grandparents and everyone who is smarter than us once said, nothing in our world is ever perfect.

Art: 6

The animation studio in charge of this was the infamous Production IG, known for its high-quality motions and bizarre artstyle that needs people to get used to.
Unfortunately, there still was the bizarre artstyle in haikyuu, yet the high-quality motion was gone from existence.
....Yeah, I know.
I would rather have the people see the actual anime and judge for themselves, but if I am to list some problems,
1. There are waaaay too much still pictures.
2. As IG repetitively proved to us, their artstyle needs some getting-used-to.
3. They reuse the same animation for receiving and spiking way too much that it makes me cringe.
4. When the characters are talking, although they must have been exhausted from running and jumping all over the place, there is not a drop of sweat on their face.

Still, the animation had some quality points too. The animation for receiving and spiking, although it was used way too much, was superb, and the movements of all the characters, at least during the game, was very fluent.

So, I give art 6 out of 10.

Enjoyment: 10

But I still liked it a lot.
I found myself regulating my breath from the feeling of my heart exploding over and over again, and kept my eyes glued on the monitor for the entire time I watched the show. I loved the development of all the characters and I never skipped through out of boredom.

Overall: 9

Thank you, Haikyuu, for a great adventure.
I could not recommend this more, but I suggest to wait until the bd version comes out, because I am expecting a better animation in the bd. Still, if you can't wait for the bd for certain reasons, I suggest you watch this the next chance you get.
Then, until next time, happy anime-ing, and may the anime be with you.

There are numerous characters and their characteristics that exist in anime community, starting from the most common and arguably the most famous, tsundere, to kuudere, darudere, megadere, yandere, dandere and many more. However, those who have either read or seen any of nisioisin's--the writer of monogatari series and katanagatari above others--work would know that the characters he make are quite something else. They are obviously not normal, thus letting the story progress without boring the viewers/readers, but they are complex. They get angry like a normal person would, they get happy like a normal person would, they cry like a normal person would, and most ... importantly, they think like a normal person would.

Of course, people may argue that some of the characters of monogatari series and nisioisin's characters in general do NOT think like a normal person should, and I agree. However, letting aside the abnormality and the comical setting nisioisin's characters convey, they are the most human characters in perhaps the entire anime world.

Then, without further adieu, let's begin the review to the ninth part of anime adaptation of the monogatari series, hanamonogatari.

Story: 8

An anime must not bore the viewers.

This is not just for anime. Movies, TV shows, music, etc. The entire purpose of any entertainment is to entertain the viewers.

The light novel, hanamonogatari, was actually published before the third arc of the monogatari series: second season, otorimonogatari. By Shaft's airing hanamonogatari after the end of monogatari second season, the viewers' attention was captured before it faded away in the dull and peaceful mood hanamonogatari inevitably created. By putting hanamonogatari after koimonogatari, the last arc of monogatari second season, a not-too-surprising factor became a ground-breaking factor for the hanamonogatari to capture the viewers' attention. (For those who do not understand and have seen the show, scroll to the bottom)

Hanamonogatari also successfully captures the attention of the viewers by doing what all stories of monogatari series did: eroticism. Although it is a very controversial issue, eroticism is a powerful tool to draw in viewers. It might give certain age or gender groups displeasure, but as long as the severity of sexual content is not too high, it serves as a strong hook to the readers.

But most of all, the beauty of hanamonogatari is in its ability to surprise the viewers and prove it can do something in the last 16 minutes.

Plot twist at the last second is something that is not recommended, and naturally not done well, by many anime of all genres. They can give the viewers displeasure by its quickened pace of story and unsatisfying resolution. Hanamonogatari, however, uses this wonderfully. Although the story gave a sense of melancholy and resolution a minute earlier, hanamonogatari managed to quickly, in literally matter of minutes, completely change the mood of the story and resolute it beautifully.

The reason I gave 8 instead of 10 despite saying all these is the same reason I did not give 10 in any of the monogatari series franchise.

The talk can be boring.

Hanamonogatari contains quite a huge amount of dialogues and monologues rather than action and facial expressions. Because of this, the viewer/reader can get easily bored. Sometimes, by Shaft's bizarre adaptation from the book, and by revealing an important plot point, this is resolved, but a conversational anime definitely is not enjoyed by everyone. It certainly gives boredom to some viewers, and for those who have trouble reading subtitles, it can make the readers miss important details.

Despite the heavy influence of conversation/monologue, however, hanamonogatari manages to re-spice the height of the story by continuously surprising the viewers or by the use of bizarre anime production, this is mostly not noticed or unnoticed, but hanamonogatari's method of story-telling definitely is not for everyone. Plus, because of the eroticism, it adds up to the reason hanamonogatari is not for everyone.

For that, I gave story eight out of ten.

Art: 9/10

As mentioned in story, Shaft does a great job of animating.

It is not that it has remarkably high-quality battle scenes like Bones or ufotable, or that it has an unbelievably fluent movements like Production IG or Kyoto Animation. Shaft covered up the flaws of the original hanamonogatari it was based on. By the use of colors and random shots, shaft again proved that it was able to deliver the message of the anime viewers.

The only misgivings of Shaft is that there are limits to the number of people the bizarre adaptation can influence. Some people might get distracted by these bizarre adaptations and some people might be confused on what the anime is trying to say. Above all else, the flashing texts that are used to manage air time and also deliver messages are quite distracting and might get the viewers confused.

Still, there is no question that Shaft is the best weapon that can send any of nisioisin's bizarre works to its highest heights. Shaft did the best it could do with the choices that were available that, before the first of monogatari series, bakemonogatari aired, was a risky course of action.

Art itself is also a job well done. The characters and the background, via the help of famous animation studio such as PA works, were done in quite a high quality that is not always present in Shaft's animation.

For these, I gave a nine out of ten in art.

Sound: 6

The opening and the ending were not too bad, which I would give normally about a seven. They followed the usual catchy and beautiful themes that the past op/ed themes of monogatari series were infamous for. The voice actors were remarkable as well. Sawashiro Miyuki was able to convey Suruga's feelings quite well throughout the anime, which was not easy considering that Suruga's feelings changed from jumpy to serene to serious to so-happy-that-she-could-cry to so-sad-that-she-could-cry. The new character of the series, Numachi Rouka, was also given a well-known voice actor, Asumi Kana, who is famous for method acting--in this case, voicing--that gives her the ability to "be" the character she is voicing. I would give nine for the voicing, minus one for araragi koyomi's a-little-too-nonchalant voicing.

The problem was with the BGM.

The number one job of the BGM is to do its job. When the anime calls for battle themes, the BGM must give a sense of power and rush to the viewers. When the anime calls for a foreshadowing, the BGM must give a sense of mystery. When the anime calls for happy mood, BGM must do so.

However, the music failed to give a sense of foreshadowing.

A huge portion of the anime is based on talking--about 9/10, roughly calculated--and thus, the BGM must do a proper job of keeping the viewers interested while forming a mysterious environment. While the other monogatari series' animations did not require this as much, hanamonogatari did, being that it was a nonstop air from episode 1 to episode 5. The music failed to keep the viewer interested and sharp-minded and in the end made me miss some important details of the storyline.

Normally, this would seem like not a big deal, since it is just factor of BGM's work that was not done well.

However, if it is hanamonogatari's BGM, it is a big deal.

It is almost safe to say that any talk-based animation requires a BGM that does its job wonderfully, and Kousaka Satoru, the composer of most of BGM's of monogatari series animations, does this quite well, but Haneoka Kei, hanamonogatari's BGM's composer, did not reach up to Satoru's works. It is not to say that one is greater than the other, but hanamonogatari, an anime that aired for nearly couple of hours, requires the support of BGM more than others.

For this, I gave hanamonogatari's BGM a three out of ten.

With nine in voice-acting, three in BGM and seven in op/ed, I finally gave 6/10 for the sound portion of the anime.

Character: 10

Kanbaru Suruga was the narrator.

THE KANBARU SURUGA.

The infamous pervert of monogatari series.

One of Nisioisin's finest qualities is his ability to make characters unpredictable. He can make a main character a total pedophile, a villain the final heroine, a heroine a villain, a gag character an important plot character.

Kanbaru Suruga is infamous for her voyeurism, constantly making erotic jokes with Araragi Koyomi, the main character of the monogatari series in general. However, when she was the narrator, as opposed to the expectations, she was quite serious-toned and rarely made a joke. Her being a narrator showed what she "truly" was inside, and not the character setting she kept on building.

This characteristic of any character is not easy. Making a complex character is sometimes harder than writing the story itself. However, Kanbaru Suruga, Araragi Koyomi, Numachi Roka, and pretty much all of the characters in hanamonogatari are complex. Trying to understand them as a certain type of one archetype of character is difficult, if not impossible. They are very human-like, as said, except for the inevitable character settings they show.

What can I do but give a ten for the character?

Enjoyment: 9

Despite the music's failure, I quite enjoyed this. It has been a while since I clapped to the end of an anime and smiled in content. It had been more than I could have asked for a story with Kanbaru Suruga as the narrator.

However, this is definitely not for everyone. For those who does not enjoy eroticism and severe verbal story progression, this is not an anime for you.

For this, I gave 9 out of 10 for the enjoyment section.

Overall: 8

Great story, great animation, and a perfect character.

For those who have not watched this yet, or any of the monogatari series' animation for that matter, I have only two words for you.

WATCH IT/THEM.

As always, may anime be with you and happy anime-ing.



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Kaiki's alive. Koimonogatari aired after this, we wouldn't have been as surprised.
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Before destroying that "not helpful" button, let me explain myself.

I don't doubt at all that No Game No Life was a good anime, and definitely worth spending time to watch. It is arguably the best anime of 2014, first and second cour combined.

However, it is also true that this receives too stellar reviews, and not to mention, too glamorized.

As always, absolutely no spoilers, but some of the terms used may suggest indirect minor plotlines.

Story: 7

... I HAVE A POINT.

Indeed it was a rare-sighted anime with a code geass genre. The setting of both the characters and the actual site are wonderfully done, not to mention the amount of brain works the anime used. It was not the usual "mc wins because he's the mc". The characters had to actually work in order to get what they wanted.

However, overall, I have 3 scenarios in the anime to which I cut down the points for the story segment.

First and the biggest disappoint was the othello game. It indeed had some interesting ideas that got me curious, but the author failed to deliver the feeling that the main characters had to fight to win. He seemed to show the "main character wins because he/she's awesome shut up" cliche, which disappointed me enormously since I was enjoying the anime over my head.

Second disappointment was the ending. It felt rushed, and not too ideally. Since at this point it is almost a certainty that this anime is going to get a sequel it isn't too big a problem that the ending was unsatisfactory, but nonetheless the hook for people to watch the sequel was too rash as it bore more questions than the rest of the anime did. The final episode alone could get several hot anime debates, and compressing all the foreshadowing and resolutiion into just one episode was honestly too much. If I were to clearly say what I'm disappointed in it'd be how the anime producers poorly divided and scheduled the episodes.

Third, and really more of a minor discomfort than disappointment was the complexity of the characters' conversations. This also has lot to do with the producers' problems, but some--mostly towards the end--of the explanations are unfriendly to the viewers and too complicated for the short span of time they are presented on.

Normally all these would not make a huge deal as it cut off 3 whole points, but all these were presented towards the end, thereby enlarging the disappointment. If an anime is initially mildly disappointing but godly towards the end like FMA brotherhood, Clannad or Steins;Gate, the excitement and enjoyment doubles, but getting disappointing as the episode progresses leaves a long disappointment and lowers the value of the animation as a whole.

Even so, being that the disappointment was not large enough to make me turned off from NGNL as a whole, I gave story 7.

Art: 8

NGNL is one of the first anime with its art style. It wasn't "one" of Madhouse's tries--it wasn't "one" of any anime production company's tries. It was the first anime with this style.

Naturally, this turns off some viewers who is more concerned with artstyle than story or any other factors, which, in anime world, is quite a majority. Some people who like kyoani's style of unnecessarily detailed animation watches only those similar to it, such as A-1, Kyoani or J.C.Staff.

To begin with, Madhouse has a sort of "alienated" animation style, as they are either too beautified to the point that it is hard to recognize the lines and borders of the eyes or eyelashes. While many people don't find this too harsh an issue, some beginning animese would find this a little hard to ignore.

But this doesn't mean that the amount of graphics and details the production studio put on the anime was superb. The battle scenes were almost unnecessarily detailed, the skies looked almost real and the scenery--the scenery was good enough to bloom the entire animation as a whole. Sometimes I would find myself awing at the beautiful scenery that I miss some conversations between the characters.

In other words, if a sequel came out with the same art, I would not hesitate to give a 9, or even a 10, but since this was the first try of the Madhouse, I cut off a huge portion of the art segment.

Sound: 10

This. Game. Was. One. Of. The. Best. Openings. OF. ALL. TIME.

One of my most liked singers so far, Suzuki Konomi, showed what she could do at her best. I couldn't skip through the intro like I usually did with other anime and listened through all of them.

The ending was spectacle as well. Ai Kayano was and still is hands down one of the best singing voice actors of all time. The song itself was fit for Ai Kayano's style of singing too, which embellished the quality of the voice.

BGM's were naturally pieces of art too. Above all, they did their jobs. They created a sense of danger when they needed to, sense of comedy when they needed to and sense of height when they needed to.

But above all, the quality of voice actors the anime used!

First in the line we have Ai Kayano, one of the best voice actors for silent characters, playing Shiro, a silent little girl. We have Matsuoka playing Sora, who needed to play the idiot's role, straight man role and the devil with human's mask role, and through Sorata from Sakurasou and Kirito from SAO, he has proven his worth in all three roles. Another small girlish boy was done by the well-known Kugimiya Rie, a girl with gap was done by a hysteric expert, Iguchi Yuka and another silent yet somehow fearsome girl was done by Noto Mamiko, expert in silent ghostly characters.

Not to mention, the people who watched Sakurasou knows that Matsuoka and Ai Kayano played Sorata and Mashiro from Sakurasou, respectively, which is a laugh since in NGNL they played Sora(ta) and (Ma)Shiro.

Character: 8

For a short, 12-episode anime, it is best to keep the number of casts to minimum since it gets difficult to follow and develop them if there was a huge number, and NGNL follows this rule perfectly as it only casts 11 characters, side characters included.

The reason I gave only 8 even at that was in the unsatisfactory development of Miko and Kurami.

After the othello game, Kurami seems to be given an important role, but her development is replaced with fanservice. This is also a character development in its own way, but even still, she wasn't given as much a development as the story seemed to develop her.

But this could have been easily ignored.

The problem was in the unsatisfactory development of Miko.

She almost seems to be the last boss of the series, but in the end, she gave in too quickly and showed no behind stories, pasts, goals or anything on those lines, and acted in the cliched "kind ruler who becomes mc's ally".

However, the rest of the characters were developed quite nicely, especially the main characters. The producers and author succeed in telling the viewers that they have more to them than just cliched main characters who won't lose no matter what. Stephanie Dora, another main character, also proved to be more than what she conveys to be.

Enjoyment: 9

Like I mentioned at the beginning, this is undoubtedly the best anime of 2014 so far. It manages to rouse all the necessary points of a good anime, with a little disappointment that almost can be forgiven at the breathtaking battles of the main characters that involves not a giant sword or an almighty power but brain and strategy.

Overall: 8.5 to 9

Even if I said all these, there are differences in people's opinions on an anime. While some people enjoy a dark story where it tells the root of humans, some people enjoy an anime where a boy is surrounded by beautiful girls. Some people like anime where main characters are almighty and some people like anime where main characters are weak. A good anime is an anime that makes all these different viewers say in unison that "it was good".

No Game No Life is definitely for a lot of viewers. It has a sense of both the main characters' weaknesses and strengths, sense of ecchiness, sense of moe, and most of all, sense of a strategic fight. I cannot recommend this anime enough.

If you haven't seen this anime yet, go watch it. Don't mind what other people say about the anime and only mind whether you enjoyed it to your heart's content or not.

Then, as always, happy anime-ing.