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Black Paradox is one of those manga one has to have a specific taste for to fully enjoy and understand what the author intends to deliver. Junji Ito is a pretty unique manga author, not quite giving me the ero-guro I massively have read but curiously maintaining the crocked art style as one would see out of ambitious authors like Kago Shintaro and Uziga Waita. Junji Ito gave himself a pretty solid name in horror style any kind of horror manga enthusiast should give a chance.

The story starts pretty straight to the point; four different individuals find themselves together, each one having a reason to ... commit suicide. It’s hard to fully give in to the reasons they reached the conclusion to take this terrible decision, since the character development is pretty unique and strongly attached to the plot and how the story will progress. Without giving too much, each one of these characters have an unique situation that brought them to want to quit life. What their own reasons have in common is self-image, being it physical or mentally, their self-image affects them as in making them highly insecure and even neurotic to the point of wanting to die.

Even thought they are pretty decided to commit group suicide, an other-world situation makes their plan go down the drain. It’s hard to explain without giving too much of the story, but the own selfishness of the act of quitting to live is altered as soon as an opportunity of being greedy and gaining a new life purpose who fills the void of being empty and self-aware. Greed is a well-hidden message on the manga itself, opposite to the dementic and irrational nature of the manga, the message appears to be well-thought. Of course, there are many unreal factors, even ironic that end up making the own cliché into a well-thought doubt of what is reality or not.

Besides touching thematic such as greed and selfishness, the object that depicts greed is highly associated with the meaning of life which the protagonists so highly wanted to reject, that object’s origin is from a play of words that ends up to be explored by the author in a literal sense on the progress of the story, that mindset might seem a bit psychotic, but also highly creative and well thought upon. The own insecurities of the characters, that made them consider suicide, become figurative doors, such doors being the true core of their will to live.

Of course, most of the stuff I’m saying makes no sense, but so are the works of Junji Ito and other authors who focus in horror and psychological works, they need to be deeply analyzed for one to understand their true value. It’s also important to have in mind that their might exist a play of words, unspoken superstitions and Japanese folklore integrated in most horror Japanese manga. In this one in particular, there is a play of word that depicts the objects that the main characters will greed upon, so pay attention to that.

The art isn’t the best, It’s ok, which coming from a short horror manga is not that important either way, I take more into consideration in this kind of horror/psychological piece that exists a really detailed, confusing and dimensional art style, which unfortunately the author doesn’t give us.

The entertainment value also depends on the person who reads. Some parts the dialogue seems a bit too overdone and boring, but since it’s a volume long piece it’s pretty easy to keep reading and finish without much boredom involved.

Overall, I would recommend this manga to everyone who wants something short and well-thought off. The art isn’t the most amazing trippy art syle I’ve seen, but the matters that the author makes about the real meaning of life, of human emotion, of the insecurities of self-image (mental and physical), greed and dementic behavior are subjects that will make the reader think a lot about the impact of their own actions.

I don’t usually give of a review this early into a series, but since I can tell how things will sort of along the episodes I feel a need to give my honest opinion regarding my current and future expectations of what will come out of this show.

Once I saw the Seinen and Slice of Life tags I was hopeful. Finally a show that will approach the unpredictable waves of life, It’s always a nice fresh air to watch something different after a long journey of constant Isekai binge-watching.

Our main character is Rikuo. Rikuo like many people around this times faces a lack of ambition. ... This lack of ambition makes him work at a convenience store, a place where usually part timers, make money for college. He has a degree, but won’t go forward with life, and settles for the routine to keep him from getting hurt. One of his enjoyments in life was his crush, which he never confessed to because he also lacked the sense of worth.

After a while dealing with monotony, his former girl friend crush appears once again on his life, and also a quirky younger girl that apparently knows him from somewhere. Rikuo is faced with the past and the future when he can’t even settle himself in the present.

We later find that Rikuo, Shinako and Haru even though they are in different life situations have trouble dealing with the past. Dropping school, having a respectful job or having an ‘’embarrassing’’ job, no matter how it looks in today’s society, doesn’t matter since we all are human and we all are emotionally scarred by personal fears.

Yesterday wo Utatte set a high bar for me since the beginning. The saturated color palette, the realistic vision of the main character really got to me. I was expecting a rough, bittersweet journey of this show, like a journey of a person finding its meaning on the world. This vision fell down right quick after I acknowledge the deception.

Even though the thematic is interesting, new and rather useful for people who actually can relate with any of the characters, the fact that the romance is the motivation of their change is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. Realistically, it isn’t love that solves your lack of ambition, a grievance or a sense of miss. It may help but, it’s all about how YOU deal with it by yourself.

I don’t like this approach, and I can tell there is going to be love triangles and clichés, which are a turnoff since I am about the age of the supposed adults and they still act like teenagers. I just wished this show went in another direction.

Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic is a light and enjoyable slice of life about a group of friends. The story focuses around the contrast between two different cultures that the group faces, since two of the girl's are English.
This anime will keep you engaged with it's comedy, fanservice and obviously, the strong bound that the girls share.

I was quite pleased when the second season came out and watched every episode in the day of its release. I found the first season OK, so I didn't want to have high expectations for the 2nd season.

Well, let's get started with the ratings

Story 6/10
I have to give a low ... score in this category because since we are talking about a second season we have to take into account the previous seasons, and in fact, Kiniro Mosaic has a more complex storyline than Hello! Kiniro Mosaic because we have the growth of the relationship between Shino and Alice and Alice's arrival to Japan and her fitting in with this new culture and by result, with Japanese people. The second season is basically Shino and Alice's bound getting stronger along with their other friends and other than that there's nothing new into it from season one to two.

Anyway, even tho the story didn't had any progress there's a continuous line that does not go down but also doesn't go up. There is always something new in every episode and it does not fail to contrast two different cultures and countries, being that the main goal since this anime started.

Altogether I think this category deserves a 6 out of 10 because although Kiniro has a captivating story, there is no progress and leaves a bit to be desired.


Art 7/10
Kiniro has a good art, nothing innovating or unusual since the first season, except perhaps the change of area beyond the typical school which I was already getting tired of.
There is a greater diversity of places in this second season, which undoubtedly is a plus in my opinion.

The characters are well designed according to their personalities and stereotypes, like we already known from the first season.

The environment in which the characters are part of is light and colorful as in every slice of life involving school, and like already said above, I liked the change of space that occurs throughout the anime.

I evaluate 7 of 10 in this category because although having a nice art that appeals the observer I can’t simply give more to something that isn’t innovating facing other Slice of life anime of this type.


Sound 7/10
Well then, regarding the sound, I can say it was good.

The opening and ending are enjoyable to listen to, I even heard them a few times but I ended up passing them forward since they weren’t that catchy (no opening beats yuri yuri, sorry).

Despite this, I can say that both the OP and the ED are suitable for the anime and captures perfectly the purpose, that it, the strong bond between the characters.

The voice actors were properly chosen for the characters even though Alice’s voice still annoyed me a little. I can only applaud to Karen’s voice actor that did an exceptional job with her accent even tho she is Japanese, each time I heard her voice I could not help but smile or even a laugh, it just fits that character really well.

Regarding the sound I give 7 out of 10, because although the characters mostly have a voice actor suitable for them, the music we hear throughout the anime did not have any connective role, the only times I noticed some kind of sound was when showing images to summarize a day they spend together, for example. There was nothing great that would capture the senses of the viewer but it was not that bad either.


Characters 7/10
Oh wow, the characters… this is going to be complicated since they are so unique!

Let’s start for the bad part… Shino and Alice were the main-main characters in season one, but in Hello Kiniro Mosaic I couldn’t be much happier that they let the other characters prove themselves out. I was really happy for that since I love Karen and Ayaya so much!

In my opinion there’s nothing intriguing in Alice and Shinobu. As I said before, Alice’s voice and personality are irritating and Shino and the other tennis girl are really scary, they take their love for blonde hair to a new level… I couldn’t find that funny at all. SCARY. Shinobu and Alice are the typical cute-looking airheads, I can’t even ship them.

In other hand, I couldn’t help finding Aya and Youko so cute together, who doesn’t like the tsun girl trying to voice her feelings correctly cute? And Youko is the typical boyish girl that has a soft heart for her little twin brothers that are a good add to this season.

Karen was my favorite indeed! Who didn’t like Karen? She is upbeat and fun to hang around with, I would love a Karin in my life, even tho she is rich and spoiled she still is humble and a good friend, for me, the best character in the whole anime.

I really like Karen-chan messing around with Kuzehashi sensei, another character that I wanted to hear more about, her reactions are really cute and show how an adult can be dorky and insecure like high schoolers.

The characters in general were good. Some of them are very good and some a bit boring so I'll stick with a 7 out of 10 because I like Karen, Ayaya and the new teacher a lot.


Enjoyment 7/10
Since I watched one episode per week I didn’t had time to get tired of it or even miss the anime.

I watched every Sunday each episode in its release thinking of my favorite characters, since I wanted to laugh a bit and there’s nothing better to do in a Sunday, so why not watch a single episode of Kiniro?

It’s enjoyable if you watch it from time to time, but it would be boring if it was watched in a row. That’s why I will give it 7 out of 10.


Overall 7/10

Overall, I liked this season much better than the last one because my favorite characters were more active and it’s much better in terms of FANSERVICE and also COMEDY.

For the ones that are thinking of watching, first watch the first season and if you already did then proceed with this one cause you won’t regret it, but remember to not to watch this all in once, since it can may get a bit boring since it lacks of action. My advice is to watch one episode per day or even vary a bit on anime with other genres.


Hope my review is helpful, thanks for reading.