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Nov 14, 2020
Alright, this anime hasn't finished airing yet, but I felt like I needed to review this. Haikyuu was one of the best sports anime and it remains on top (no pun intended) mainly because of the previous seasons. Don't get me wrong, this season is not underwhelming at all. It's just ... lacking the feeling of the former ones. It could be because of all the hype it's been getting, but as i watched the episodes 5 and 6, it did start to get a bit boring. Let me jupm into details.
Story:
Unfortunatelly, while the story itself is not that bad, the pacing is wayyy
...
too slow. This has been a problem in the past, as Season 3 is literally one(!) game but I was hoping they wouldn't drag this so much, since there are many other -both main and side- arcs that need to be explored. This Inarizaki match is lasting a bit too long for my liking. Tanaka's arc was kand of... unimpressive and for the most part he seemed tired and just angry. There have been some cool moments in these episodes, but at some point it becomes repetitive and there are only so many times you can be amazed by on-point tosses and 'monster' serves. They're much more expected as well. But admittedly, they are cool, and that's why I'm giving the story a 6.
Art:
In the beggining of the first part of To The Top (s4), I didn't really like the new artstyle. Yes, I have grown to like it, but I still wonder whether it would've been better if the artstyle had remained the same. The action and rapid motion of a volleyball match is on point though, and I have to say that this is more of a matter of a personal taste rather than of objective value. Akaashi's new face and general style is unforgivable but I guess Kageyama and Atsumu make up for that.
Sound:
I feel like I'm giving a lot of sixes, but I didn't love the soundtracks that much this time. I'm going to update if I see any change in my soundtrack's liking, but it's not my preferred genre of music so I doubt that.
Character:
There's really not that much I can say here, and it's only fair to wait a bit. The only character who I can say has shown some development is Kenma, and boy, was that a good episode. I'm giving the characters a 7 because of Kenma and some other supporting ones that I liked, and I'm waiting for the other episodes.
Enjoyment:
Haikyuu has always been an enjoyable anime, so I can't rate this anything below 6. Honestly, it has gotten repetitive, but I need to cut this anime some slack- it's a sports anime, its' main theme is the said sport! The Inarizaki match is a bit less intense than I would like it to be, but it's still fun to watch. It's not something I would rewatch, but I never fill in the rewatchable score on MyMAL, because there are only a few noble anime that I enjoy rewatching.
Overall score:6
Overall, I had high hopes for this one, but turns out it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Still, the word 'fair' that comes with the rating 6, is exactly what the first 6 episodes are. We can only hope for a better and more intense second half. (Crossing my fingers that they don't rush the timeskip...)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 6, 2020
Howl's Moving Castle is a Ghibli movie I've rewatched many times, not only because of the beautiful animation and the wonderfully melodic songs, but also for the deep story and hidden meanings. The more I watch it, the less flaws I find. I have wanted to sit down and write a proper review on this one for some time, but never really got down to it until today. Please be informed that I have not yet read the original novel from which this movie is based on,and so I am solely reviewing the Ghibli adaptation. So without further ado, let's jup right into it.
Story; this
...
movie is about Sophie, a young girl (probably in her mid-twenties) who owns her dead father's simple hat-shop but is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch. We follow her as she meets a young wizard named Howl while trying to break the spell. Thus, she gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king in the war that's on-going and they slowly begin to fall for each other. At this point, I have to admit that I would like some parts to be explained more thouroughly in order for the story to be complete. Also, I would like to point out that I do understand not emphasizing on the war situation, since it is of little importance who is battling whom. That being said, there still are some questions left unanswered, and some parts do feel a bit out of place(ex. Howl's childhood, how Howl went from battling the wizard to standing outside the door out of which Sophie comes out etc.) which is also the reason I rated the story with a 7. Another reason for this rating is that if you aren't already a Miyazaki fan you will probably need to watch some parts twice or maybe even watch an explanation video to better comprehend the hidden messages and meanings. Despite that, I like how the story progresses and I do appreciate how some parts of it are not vey easy to grasp at first -this is a Miyazaki film after all. I find it very interesting how the story teaches without being preachy and the lessons learned are sublty represented in character changes and in the character's physical appearance as well. The pace of the story is predominantly good and for the most part it flows nicely and is exciting and suspenseful.
Art/Sound; I've rated these two with a 10 and that's why I honestly don't have anything negative to comment. I love Ghibli's artstyle and they never fail to create stunning panoramas and fitting and attractive character designs. The music is a variation of soft but lifting, and rich but pleasant melodies, and the voice acting is spot-on. I watched the japanese version, and I loved the voice actors they picked for this one a lot, with Chieko Baisho as Sophie and Takuya Kimura as Howl. From the clips I've seen, the dubbed version is also a good one, with Christian Bale as Howl (!)
and Emily Mortimer as Sophie, but I would suggest the japanese version, just to stick to the original one.
Characters; the movie does a great job at developing the characters who I think come to life in such a powerful way, that it seems entirely real and unique. Miyazaki once again skillfully uses the animation and shows what his characters are thinking and feeling by carefully chosen gestures and facial expressions, rather than relying always on dialog. Although sometimes the characters' personalities remain stable, the physical and emotional changes they undergo bring out a higher truth that is seldom given such artistic and natural freedom.
Enjoyment/Overall impression; I very much enjoyed this movie, and the only thing I can think of that I actually kind of disliked, was the somewhat abrupt ending -I did wish for more detail on what happened next but I guess the way it ended was a bit more ...how do I say this, artistic and relaxed. Clearly, as a classic Miyazaki film, it is one I always reccomend to anyone who's got time to spare. It's true, this is not the best one of his films, but it is one of my personal favourites, and one that I might just watch once again after finishing this review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 5, 2020
Okay, I'm going to be blunt and try not to waste your time.
This anime is boring as crap. It's not necesserily bad, but it is very mediocre, and I will explain why.
Story; Kakegurui's story is basically non-existent. The show follows the story of Yumeko Jabami, a new student in Hyakkaou Private Academy(basically a gambling school) who's obsessed over gambling. Throughout the whole series, the only thing that happens is gambling via various games that are mostly card-games. Nothing else. Literally. Everyone gambles like crazy, putting insane amounts of money at stake, without ever giving a damn whether they lose it all or not, obviously.
...
Heck, students gamble their lives and literally no one cares! This "pattern" is repeated again and again, until Yumeko finally gambles with the "President" and the anime ends in the most anticlimactic way possible. And of course, Yumeko wins all of the games she plays, even when the odds seem to not be in her favor because she's just too good for everyone. Most of her opponents lose miserably, but we never see the result of the dramatic loss, so the anime never really shows the importance of losing huge amounts of money, or your own life, thus making these high stakes unimportant and boring. Overall, the story is not interesting at all, and i was tempted to drop this anime lots of times.
Art; the art is alright. I rate it a solid 6 because i believe "fair" (6) describes the art perfectly. It's not anything great, but it's not bad either. Their weird face expressions put me off at times, but I have to admit that the consistency of the artwork was a big plus. Despite that, I've seen studio MAPPA do better than this, hence the 6.
Sound; the songs were pretty boring, and not even once did I listen to them through the end. I have to admit that the beginning of the opening song is cool, but the rest is just a repetitive boring beat.
Characters; now here is the big problem with this anime. First of all, there is no character development whatsoever. Literally, nobody in the show undergoes through any change and so they never develop as characters. I understand that it is a difficult task to develop all the characters within 12 eps, but noone? Really? Some characters are insane just because (Ikishima), some others are insane mainly due to bad parenting (Sumeragi,Manyuda). Yumeko's personality is defined by her gambling obsession and Ryota gives me the impression that he has no purpose in this anime (other than maybe representing the male population since there are 3 guys in total?).The only reason I didn't give this a 1 is because of Meary or Mary, who is the only one with some sense of logic, and one who actually realises the impact of gambling (this happens after she loses everything she has because of Yumeko, so it's understandable that she learns from past experience).
Enjoyment; as I previously mentioned, I did feel like dropping this anime once or twice (or maybe thrice), but kept watching just for the sake of it. I didn't have a bad time, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. It was pretty boring and there's no way I'm wasting my time rewatching.
Overall; Maybe it's because I'm not very fond of gambling, but I found this anime tedious. It lacks variation, both character-wise (as all of them are obsessed maniacs) and story-wise. I don't think that Kakegurui is entirely bad, but since I can't rate it with a 4,5 it gets a 4. I would give it a 5 because there were times when I felt that the show was trying to be interesting and worth, but seeing that it failed miserably made me choose the lower rating. To sum up, this anime is annoyingly dull, at least for me, so I can't really recommend this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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