Back to PakiUSA's Profile PakiUSA's Profile

STORY: 7/10
CHARACTER: 8/10
ART: 8/10
SOUND: 10/10
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
OVERALL: 9/10

A surprisingly entertaining anime, never expected that after reading the long title of "Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records"! It starts with a bang, delivering perfect episodes that balances out fresh Comedy with serious Action very well in a Magic Academy setting. Sadly, it can't end on the same note as new arcs with new characters are introduced late in the game that aren't given much exposition. Still they do a good job with explaining the magic of this world logically, making it sound both interesting and realistic. This is further supported by the shows focus on the students ... to NOT just become a bookworm, rather participate willingly to field work as well. However, I would have liked more explanation with the makeup of spells and their mana cooldowns. In addition, I would have liked more types of magic used during combat rather than the few we get to see. And the competition arc needed a bit more flare to it cause at certain parts they came close to mading me felt like I was in Hogwarts! And while the plot is nice, the storytelling is weak which is why some things go unexplained like what’s the use of gems when casting strong magic or what’s the secret behind Rumia being an 'Amplifier' or what is really an 'Amplifier' in this world? The current story arcs don't have a conclusion and they leave an open end to the series, so I would have liked more closure, who doesn't? Plus, the last few episodes felt rushed and I am not a fan of it! We also get to see a lot of blood in this show, but then again the anime isn’t exactly 'Rated R' since it refrains from showing violent deaths. And while they couldn't get their storytelling right, they did a better job with their characters.

The main characters all get fleshed out pretty well and have their moments to shine! But the spotlight wasn't consistent with the girls, since the show would focus on each individual while the others would remain more of a side character like Re=L for instance. She is a weird one who apparently has only 1 strategy on her mind, which is Attack! And I’m afraid no matter how much our MC squeezes her brains out, she will remain a thickhead forever! However, she is scary and despite her deadpan look, her unpredictability can make you her enemy or a friend in a matter of seconds. Removing swords from the ground and stabbing people is all she knows! Rumia, on the other hand, is strongminded but comes across a bit naïve as well as an optimist which is further explored by her insight and desire to help people with magic. Regrettably, she's also the unlucky one who finds herself in the 'damsel in distress' situation all the time which gets boring so I would have liked something else from her. Albert comes across cool and mysterious but turns out to be a good friend who apparently has a thing for cats! And 'White Cat', ahem, I mean Sistine has quite a temper, I particularly enjoyed her frame of inner struggle dilemma which she gladly overcomes. (Side Note: I found her parents funny!) While she comes off as a hardworking student from a prestigious background, her relationship with Glenn is the most interesting thing about her. The have a rocky start but they do warm up to each other eventually. I particularly liked this setup since the 2 are polar opposites of each other so we get to witness the classic romantic tale of Opposites Attract! (Though they still need a lot of work for us to take them seriously) Thankfully the MC is always at the centre of the story cause he's just amazing! I loved his quick remarks and his constant trolling nature despite being a lazy bastard as the title entails! He's very strong as well with a rich yet dark history that's moderately explored but it’s his attitude and resolve as a magician and teacher that helps him in standing out! Radars is hella lot of fun to be around as he makes fun of his students and teachers. Thankfully this is just an outer layer, like a mask, to hide away his true self which is dark, gloomy and bloody. Constantly haunted by his past mistakes, he wants to erase all of that with something useful and positive. And lastly, Celica was left as a background character which sucked cause she’s so powerful, but she seems to have more going on in the next season so I won't complain for now.

Voice Acting is top notch across the board with Josh Grelle stealing the show once again! He just has so much fun with this role and it clearly shows with his Comedic line delivery like ‘Later Nerds!’ or ‘You may now kiss my A**!’ which always springs a smile to my face. Glenn's expressions are on point which helps in delivering his lines across and that makes him a fun Main Character. The smile of Rumia mirrored her mother’s which was a nice touch. Sistine, voiced by Rachael Messer and Celica, voiced by Morgan Garrett had a certain flair to their accents which helped them in standing out. Sistine rages of fit or screams are well done and Celica’s concern for Glenn is shown by the warmness emanating from her which further bands the Big Sis, Little Bro kinda relationship between them. The animation is simple but beautiful when it wants to be, especially the magic casting parts. I liked how healing spells represented bright colours with soothing sound effects while dangerous spells had sharp colours with quick and loud sound effects. The OP is catchy due to it’s upbeat track that can easily be assigned as your ringtone, but I didn’t like the ED very much as it sounded very generic.

This is one of my favs from last year, it even ended up in my Top 5 Anime list of 2017! It’s not perfect as it tries to cram around 4 arcs in just 12 episodes, so you can tell when details are omitted out. Still it's very good for it's 1st season and I have high expectations for S2. I hope they organize their storytelling better and improve the screentime for their characters along with some further development. Also, if they had refrained from rushing their story, this anime would have made a bigger impact with the audience. I also thought the costumes for the girls were too showy which didn't make sense and I absolutely adored the short theatre skits at the end of each episode. Overall this certainly made me laugh and care for the characters and I would love to see their next adventure in the coming season. (P.S. where's the Comedy tag cause this s*** is funny!)

STORY: 7/10
CHARACTER: 10/10
ART: 8/10
SOUND: 7/10
ENJOYMENT: 9/10
OVERALL: 8/10

I knew this anime would be different just based on the quotes at the start of each episode and I wasn’t wrong. This show takes pleasure in cheerfully stunning its audience by strongly commencing with an interesting setup that only gets diluted as the show proceeds yet still manages to land strong with its ending! The story is nothing unique since it revolves around students trying to top their class by making more points. What works in this standard setting is the play along of strong, interesting characters which help elevate the plot to an enjoyable watch. The point ... system introduced into the story felt oddly fresh, working in the show’s favour since it brought about essential character development. This leads me to the last arc, which was both a blessing and a curse! The pacing issues became more evident here which hurt the show’s momentum. (Personally, I felt like the story started losing steam once they got out of school). And now this anime has some backlash due to that 1 fanservice episode, I don’t mind it much since I understand it’s importance. But I would have rather opted for this episode to be allotted on story instead because it could have helped wash away the few plot holes that exists! However, the way how this arc wrapped up was more than satisfactory, making it my fav arc of the season!

What truly sets this anime apart is its characters and the point system really helped establish their different personalities. Furthermore, we get mini arcs for various people that help shed light on them without taking away the spotlight from our main characters. (Solid Writing!) I liked how each class was represented with respect to individuality, from the bullish domain of class C leader to the dual leader contest among class A, etc. This really helped establish the students of other classes as real people rather than some background characters, which also meant they presented a real threat to our MC as well. If I were Ayanokouji, I would seriously watch out for Sakayanagi because she played her cards very well this season! (I feel like she will be a hard roadblock to climb for Ayano since she might be on to him) And some character arcs do not conclude, most probably left for another season. Horikita is the main girl of the show who’s an interesting person, coming across as a mere tsundere at 1st glance but turns out to be just more than that. Her surprise relationship with the student council and interesting setup of falling from grace (metaphorically) to class D has her uptight and fixated on a single goal. Yet it’s this ironclad sight of hers that alienates her from the rest, making her unpopular and unapproachable in class. But enters a boy and her life changes! Slowly, but surely, Ayanokouji breaks down her defences and his efforts aren’t wasted because his constant efforts makes Horikita more likable, eventually ending up on good terms with her classmates.

And now to Ayano who’s easily the most unique MC of 2017 and by far the best aspect of this show, I mean the air is filled with intrigue as you slowly peel off the layers from this guy! It was a pleasure to take this journey with him despite the show trying to present him as an uninteresting character. Behind his deadpan look and those cold, lifeless eyes reclines a manipulative and calculative mind which misses nothing! His attention to details will catch you by surprise and his attitude to problem-solving makes us spellbind to him since it provides a stimulating mechanic to the already evoking plot. I mean look at how well he was able to tame the once smart and proud Horikita towards the end! Ayano is viewed and presented in the anime as a troubled individual with a shady past. His early life is just as mysterious as his present (Only shown a few short scenes of where he grew up) but once you understand how he was raised, you get to know Ayanokouji better. (And the teacher knowing all this was astounding) You recognize with his way of thinking, his view of all other people beside himself, his obsession with winning by trumping over everyone, his choice of avoiding all spotlights in order to pull every string by controlling everyone, all of this starts to make sense once you glimpse at his past. Yet you don’t fully realize this until the very end when the curtain is lifted to reveal the final act! This is because the story itself presented him in a manner of making me think the best for him despite the anime dropping hints of otherwise! We were being misled into thinking he wants to connect with his new classmates and cares about what they think of him. But that was all an act! Which is why the twist at the end really hammers you with reality by opening your eyes to the truth. The truth being, he prefers to remain in shadows, he prefers the role of a puppeteer, they all are playing his game! After all he did build a strong class by uniting everyone behind a capable leader which gives him the safety of time and space to micromanage everyone! He is devoid of any other emotion aside from winning, whatever else we felt never really existed or at least they never came from his side. Top marks to the writer for perfectly giving us viewers a full realized character!

The art style for characters were good and distinguishable. (For me Ayano’s look reminded me of Karma from “Assassination Classroom”) I liked how you could tell at 1st glance which characters would be popular and which a troublemaker. The animation was nicely portrayed delivering on the Action and Drama well. The best thing were the eyes of the characters, they had a certain incandescent glow to them which always managed to get my attention. The OP is deceptively cheerful while ED is more on the calm side. The soundtrack is particularly good during the upbeat moments of the story. Voice Acting was good on both grounds, though the Subs were a tad bit better than the Dubs.

In conclusion, I had a blast with this anime! It’s nowhere Perfect but it far exceeded my expectations and that counts as a win! While pacing was a little off and some parts of the story were predictable but the sheer writing brilliance in the character arc of Ayano brings a whole new level of uncertainty to the plot which only increases the audience excitement. The show leaves on a high note, doesn’t give everything away but grand enough to make us desire for more so let’s hope for S2. Because I am very thrilled to see how Ayano is going to reply to the following, “Icarus did no heed Daedalus’ Warning”

STORY: 6/10
CHARACTER: 2/10
ART: 2/10
SOUND: 7/10
ENJOYMENT: 5/10
OVERALL: 6/10

When you keep on repeating “I Remember Everything” every single episode, then YOU DON’T FREAKING REMEMBER ANYTHING!!

So, we start in a world with a ridiculous albeit interesting premise of humans tasked to remember their past lives since it stirs their hidden inner powers! They have a school where students are trained to become warriors, so they can stop the monsters that pop up at random. Moroha happens to be in this school even though he hasn’t ‘awakened’ yet so it begs to question how he even got admitted in the 1st place! Anyway upon remembering his previous life, ... it turns out he had 2! One where he’s a White shining Hero and the other where he’s a Dark Cold Antihero. And this is where the anime caught my attention because I was expecting some serious character development for our MC, thinking they would further explore the struggles of Moroha trying to find a middle ground between his past 2 lives. That would have been great right? But the creators decided to deem all this unworthy by skipping through it and opted to only present us with titbits of his previous lives in a sloppily rushed manner! Which seems to happen at the worst time possible, usually during the climax of a fight where the MC simply remembers a half-assed memory which provides him with a spell or technique that helps him defeat that specific monster! Repeat this a few times and all tension has vaporized since the MC just swoops in and safes the day without any trouble! Even the story isn’t coherent, with the show moving in no particular direction except for a series of pointless events that happens one after the other and Moroha comes out victories and unharmed every time cause he’s our MC! This doesn’t help the fact that whatever little story does exist, is filled loop holes. For instance, you meet the S Rank group and it’s suggested they are under constant pressure from government jobs with no time for themselves. Yet all we see are these S Rank chaps moving around at their own freewill with no worries in the world and doing whatever they feel like doing!

The characters are mostly kept to the background except for the 2 leading girls, so you pretty much forget about the rest. The lead girls are a red haired Tsundere who’s only contribution is being the MC’s sister from the past life and her over clinginess to Moroha really made her unlikable. The other one is the dark-haired girl with a rich family background and we don’t see much from her either, though I really wanted to know more about her interesting past. You have a Principle who only shows up when it’s time to use the teleportation gate and the rest aren’t worth mentioning, in fact you forget we are in a school with tons of other students. We hardly get any real character development, for all the girls are present just for fanservice with big chests and googly eyes at the MC while the guys are mostly kept at the background with 1 or 2 exceptions. They planted the seeds for some great personal growth for Moroha but sadly it was lost to a standard hero who would do anything to protect the people he cares for. (You know the cliched hero trope) Elena managed to stand out at first with her own tragic story but once her arc was over, she was side-lined to being just another girl! And while some of the comedy worked, like the jealous fights between the girls, I feel like they stole precious time for the actual plot to prosper! I mean think about it, we don’t get anything about their life from the past, so we can just forget that. But then we don’t even get a lot of info about their current lives either which pleads to query, when are you going to progress your characters?

The animation isn’t good either with bad character designs, poor use of CG and the inconsistencies with sloppy movements and facials really begs the question who made this! The size and speed of the characters conflicted each other at times and this is a 2015 release! I did like the magic display though and the power demonstration during the Russia arc were good, but it isn’t enough to save the show from the rest of the mess. Music too follows this route by delivering moderate OP and ED that never sticks the landing but. Yes, there is a but! Some parts of the soundtrack are good, especially the main theme ‘Dragon Heart’ which is usually played during the big moments in the anime. I just wish the rest of the anime had this soundtrack’s level of sophistication for it was a joy to behold the symphony at play! This memorable piece of music always managed to get my attention and I loved every second of it.

With all my ranting so far, you would be expecting a serious low figure for this anime but despite all I just said, the show did manage to make me smile at times. And I truly enjoyed the potential of the story which the anime never bothered with. Add in the bad fights and boring drama, and you are left with mostly bad show with little hints of good in it! I just wish they had toned down on the fan service and focused more on their material cause the anime really had a chance. Sigh! Maybe it will get remade in the future, for now it’s not worth recommending to anyone. And you can catch the soundtrack online which is this show’s biggest standout so no need to sit through the entire episodic season!

STORY: 4/10
CHARACTER: 4/10
ART: 8/10
SOUND: 3/10
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
OVERALL: 5/10

Crap!! The anime has a much higher rating than I was expecting!! Well I didn’t hate this anime, but I didn’t like it either and I am not going to watch it again to make up my mind!

Anyway, here it goes; the anime starts strong with a cool setup of Mechs run by magic and ridden by humans in a Fantasy-esque world. Add in a nice world building aspect filled with strategies and politics, you are bound to expect a hit, yet the Story and Characters hinder the overall feels of the anime. I didn’t mind the narrative style ... of storytelling but when they added plot jumps to that just for convenience, I suddenly wasn’t a fan of it anymore! Early on it becomes apparent a lot of stuff are being cut out, so a lot of info delivered feels unnecessary which takes away the fun from the show as more time was needed for viewers to settle in with its story. Add in the fast-paced plotline to an already weak story and you have a show with very little depth to it! Plus, it didn’t even make sense because for a world where science has advanced to such a degree where giant manmade robots are created and can be ridden to battle, yet they can’t manage to solve their monster problem? They could have at least invented something to help give them a chance against those beasts. And our MC here gets reincarnated into this world, but they never really show how or why this happens. So, I am assuming he took someone’s life which is wrong right?? Plus, the fact that the MC is a powerful person with a Mega brain of a genius & loads and loads of magic within him just cause he’s the MC didn’t sit well with me! I wanted more explanations and logic to this! Which is the same reaction I had with the concept of this world’s science and I blame it all on those damn time skips! The final arc is set to a ridiculous pace where the anime is desperately trying to wrap everything up, thus leaving such a giant mess of plot holes that has you questioning “What the hell is going on?” All of this leads to the show failing to connect with you since there is no real weight to it, so the sad or triumphal moments feel empty and hollow, the character motivations and emotions feel and look unreal, as if you are watching a bad play on stage!

The characters are just as one-dimensional as it’s story with little or no development despite having a huge cast. Ernesti is our MC who’s unrealistic in every sense! He looks like a girl yet he’s a boy! (Or so we are told……😉) I found this very distracting because it was hard for me to take this guy/girl seriously! I did like fact that the anime pokes fun at this issue by pointing it out. Anyway, he is blessed with plot armour and seems to never make any mistakes which automatically takes away all tension from the situation. He was just too good at everything which made him boring. In other words, he was too OP for my liking because he always seems to be ahead of everybody else. Even though I found his hyper and charismatic nature funny due to his reprising habit of talking nonstop about Mechs, but I didn’t like the fact he wasn’t developed more than a smart nerd. He does have his moments to shine and they mostly come with his obsessive nerdiness to robots! (I think he secretly gets off to it!) This however turned out to be a double-edged sword since the entire show only focuses on Ernesti. So, if you don’t like him, then you probably are going to be bored here. Also, it’s not just the focus of the show, rather the entire anime is arranged from Ernesti’s point of view which does more bad than good in my opinion. Cause while the MC’s ambitions and passion for machines were nice to behold, he is completely oblivious to everything else around him. Meaning when people die, the anime never takes it seriously just cause Ernesti never took it seriously which is a big mistake. The rest of the cast were kept to a minimum and only allowed one type of personality, so they come across bland, making it harder to care about them as the focus of the show is on the MC only. The evil scientist turned out to be a good villain in some respects, (his pokerfaced delivery with some lines were hilarious!) I particularly enjoyed how the fight between him and the MC was really about their ideals, thus they focused only on trying to one up each other! Though I didn’t like the clichéd ending to the last arc and the comedic tone with which the villains were presented.

The one area where this anime delivers hard is its art style and animation, both of which were terrific! The CG for the mechs weren’t ground-breaking but they were better than I asked for. I appreciated the efforts put in by the team in giving us one great mech fight after another. I was at awe at the handiwork of all the little details with design, clearly indicating the artist love for Mechs. Now the animation isn’t perfect as some CGI just falls flat and the lagging framerate in some places are noticeable, but the rest of the animation is pulled off in such a fun and frenzy flair, that you can’t help but forgive the errors! Same deduction with its art as well which is well-done, especially the magic portrayed here with all its vibrant colours and shades. And while props to the anime for doing a great job with their Sound Mixing which successfully sucks you in by bringing the action closer to you, the same cannot be said for the rest. Both the OP and ED failed to deliver, I found them very bad as they didn’t fit with the tone of the anime!

Overall this isn’t a bad anime, it sets a standard for itself from the beginning and just never rises over it, rather sticks to it the whole time. First time I am seeing an anime where it clearly starts off on a Fantasy element, yet ends as a Mech! But this anime needs a Redo because there are chunks of good stuff in it, it just needs to be organized in a better way. If you enjoy Mech battles then you will find this very entertaining but outside of this, there isn’t much present in the anime as nothing else stands out, so you can’t recommend it to others. The show brings about good ideas but implements them poorly and they bring about many interesting characters but barely give them a chance to make an impact and that is why most of the show feels empty. It’s a good one-time watch if you can get past 3 episodes, otherwise this one isn’t for you.

STORY: 7/10
CHARACTER: 8/10
ART: 10/10
SOUND: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 8/10

What starts as a copy & paste of countless other generic Harem+Ecchi anime turns on itself by delivering a decent character driven story including some great Action and good Romantic elements! Three episodes in and you are already losing interest at what’s unfolding in front of you but hang in there! Just like our MC here, this show follows suit by working its way up from its cliched fest of tropes set at the beginning! It brings nothing new to the table, but it succeeds in executing the same old concept very well. (More than you would expect!) The ... Action scenes had real build-ups, clearly defining the reasons for all characters wanting to win their battles to reach the final tournament, thus making the fights feel more personal. The powers displayed aren’t ground-breaking by any level but the way they were performed brought a lot of excitement to them. The love story also took me by surprise which is a rarity in such anime’s, so it was enjoyably refreshing. The Romance may have started on a corny note, but it gets well-developed by launching it on a slow pace. The characters don’t just fall in love with each other, rather they are confused by their own feelings and convincingly approach their confession of desires to each other on a more natural note. So, towards the end, I genuinely bought their relationship as I had witnessed an authentic chemistry between them which is worth rooting for!

The characters introduced look generic, but the anime lets their personalities to shine in order to stand out. The MC has a noble and hardworking attitude mixed in with a kind and tolerable demeanour that splits the fans on whether liking him or not! (I frustratingly found him ‘Too Nice’ at certain points!) He’s disclaimed by his family and nicknamed as ‘The Worst One’ for his lack in magic skills yet it’s his perseverance and desire to fight back that makes him very interesting. Despite showcasing tremendous set of skills like ‘Perfect Vision’ or his fight style, he is portrayed as an underdog in a believable fashion. (His powers are cool but limited!) What makes him a unique character is the situation he is put in and especially how he faces it! He strives when the odds are stacked against him, he enjoys turning unfair circumstances to his advantages, he revels in such environment because he believes it makes him stronger and this is the reason why he grabs people’s attention so quickly. (Whether it’s in a good way or a bad way!) Stella is our tsundere princess with a fire wielding sword who doesn’t get a lot of screen time but manages to leave an impression by developing into a motivating character due to her romance angle. And while Shizuki is very badass with water manipulation powers, her self-devotion to Ikki and brotherly love was a total No No! She did start to change at the end by learning to act more like a sister than a lover with the help of her Not So Straight friend, Alice.

The art style is noticeable and colourful enough to give a clean look but the real stand out is the work done on the backgrounds. Different shading and colours were given to specific situations, further establishing the distinctive temperament of the show, whether it’s the warmth glow you get during flashes of Romance or the bleak monochromic setting with shades of red and blue to further symbolize the show’s dark and depressing moments, they perfectly nail the atmosphere of the story. The same kind of care is seen with its animation as well since you watch the fights in clear cut angles and smooth fluidlike motions, sporadically dabbing with cool slow-mo shots which are pleasantly detailed and gorgeous to watch! THE OP is very bad, not in terms of its music or even the video attached to it, rather it’s their choice of the singer who completely ruins it! However, the soundtrack plays as a great companion piece for the show since its pleasing to hear and helps elevate the scenes accordingly. The OST is a great harmonic mix of Jazz, Rock, Piano, etc. that can be listened to as a standalone piece due to its soothing, diverse and upbeat nature. (“Tension Feeling’’ happens to be my favourite one!) Regarding Voice Acting, the dubs were fine while the subs had more feel to it, but both are serviceable.

I’m glad to stick with this show since it does its job by impressing me even though it brought nothing new to the genre, still to my surprise it didn’t follow the projected route I was thinking it was going to take! Though attaching Ecchi to some serious scenes actually hurts the show as it cheapens whatever they were trying to accomplish, but I did enjoy the few cliché breakers here and there. However, in the end the anime manages to charm you with its firm handle on Action and Romance, thoroughly entertaining me with brilliant fights and making me care and root for the lovebirds! I would have liked to see Stella fight more and I wish the final arc had been stretched a bit more. In addition, this anime neither needs to be a Harem or an Ecchi so I hope to see less of it in the next season. It’s definitely worth a onetime watch at least.

STORY: 6/10
CHARACTER: 6/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 7/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 7/10

‘The King’s Avatar’ is a Chinese anime that manages to be a joyous ride, filled with many badass Action settings and well-placed Dramedy that will have you wishing for ‘GLORY’ to exist in real life! (GLORY is the MMO game played in this anime) The story focuses on a superb player who’s forced into early retirement, so he creates a new character instead and starts from scratch. Some of the game settings are beautiful to behold showcasing amazing landscapes but unfortunately the anime also takes liberty in explaining the game system to the audience. The downside to this is ... the negative effect on the story which feels incoherent in places, so some concept goes unexplained like how the MC can employ such vast damage to his opponents? Or why can’t experience and higher-level players outdo him in matches or record breaking? I know his experience helps him a lot but that can’t just be it right? (I have many other similar queries but no need to dive into them) Easy fix is to just go with the flow and enjoy what’s unfolding in front of you. You do figure out a few things along the way like ‘GLORY’ rewards players with high APM (Actions per minute), game skills or a team player mindset. And since half of the anime is set to an E-sports theme, the eventual goal for all the players is to be offered a lucrative contract and be part of a professional team with a separate location provided for practise matches. The other half happens inside the game where all the battles take place in an arena type context with PvP style aspect to it though it’s never fully explained. The MMO featurette presented here was entertaining and played well with your nostalgia (Only if you are a Gamer!) so little things like training weaker players, forming guilds and completing missions together just made me very happy.

What makes this more fun is the journey we take with our MC, who’s practically a master of this game. With 10 years’ worth of experience, Xiu Ye knows everything about it, from its mechanics to the materials needed for crafting special weapons and the knowhow to beat different bosses! This certainly makes him an OP character but its believable to an extent, so I won’t fret too much. Although the constant praise he is showered with by everyone is too much, it’s understandable when new or mediocre players are in awe with him but when experienced players started doing the same, I had to roll my eyes! (I also understand he lost his position because of losing interest in the game due to the shift in focus from the agency. It wasn’t about games anymore, it became more about exposure and sponsorships but still I would have preferred some challenges for him in the game since he started playing with a new character) His weapon is very unique, changing forms from a spear to a sword or a gun which was very cool and the back-and-forth with between Xiu Ye and Rou Tang was nice. The pacing of the subs was an issue people had problem with. (Chinese dub doesn’t count as one! :P) But you get used to it by reading faster, still the names were a little difficult to remember which in turn hurts the side characters as they were hastily presented without giving them much screen time. In addition, some characters looked alike which is why most of them fail to leave an impression! Although the people Xiu Ye teamed up with were fun to have, especially that one person who talks too much! (from episode 11)

The artwork and animation here is a stand out, dazzling viewers with stylized fights that always manages to entertain, and the playfulness light comedy attached to it was appreciated. It’s not perfect though as Chinese anime is known to feature a lot of 3D, and while most of it looks good, some of it is either unnecessary or sloppily done. (The Internet café parts) The Voice Acting and OP/ED translated well but nothing stood out for me. I did enjoy the sound effects added whenever we were inside the game, especially during the battles. The animation during fights were very pleasing due to the details with which they were choreographed and outlined.

The light novel or manga this is derived from is pretty long and comes in depth with details of how the game works. (Class and level system, weapon crafting, etc.) So, I figure most of the loopholes from this show can easily be clarified there. Still that’s not fair to the ones who just like to watch so they better fix this problem for their next season as its very clear many details and plotlines were skipped. They need to pace themselves by slowing down a bit and explaining things along the way. Maybe have more than 12 episodes for the next season. And the side characters need more limelight, so we can care about them too. (Don’t just focus on OPing your MC!) I must commend the anime for not catering to most of anime watchers so no form of fanservice or clichéd game genre tropes shall be found here. The story feels more grownup with mature characters and real-world problems which is a breath of fresh air. Which is why Xiu Ye development as a person was done differently here, subtler and realistically put. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the animation and the action, so I am excited for another round, but they better fix their blunders or next season won’t be a hit!

STORY: 8/10
CHARACTER: 9/10
ART: 7/10
SOUND: 8/10
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
OVERALL: 8/10

Funny enough ‘Gamers’ is NOT an anime about Games, rather it’s an anime about the people who play Games! The show is more a Slice of life Romcom about teenagers where the story just focuses on their lives at High school and their interactions with one other which may disappoint some viewers due to its Soap Opera-ish vibe. (If you are looking for something similar but with more gaming involved, check out ‘Netoge No Yome Wa Onnanoko Ja Nai To Omotta?’) I too was upset upon learning this, but the anime brilliantly defends itself by delivering spontaneously strong, albeit ... sometimes cliched Comedy! By not resorting to a Harem anime like everybody else, it’s a breath of fresh air to have 2 main guys rather than 1 and all girls. The 1st episode itself foreshadows uniqueness as the show deliberately sets up a Generic Romcom setting where the MC is invited to a Gaming club by a beautiful girl and the other characters presented clearly looked like the shows main cast. Only to swerve all of us towards the end by having the MC be like ‘Nah, this isn’t for me’! Realizing the show had the balls to create a ‘fake cast’ of characters just for 1 Joke meant I was in store for something Awesome! And I wasn’t disappointed! Another thing I liked was the shows effort of making fun of the Harem genre itself. We actually have a character who calls upon this in one episode! The same character even plots to force a Harem on one of the MC’s which ended up rebounding horribly! ‘Gamers’ uses an old exaggeration of an over the top love triangles which gets everyone confused and misinformed, thus resulting into utter chaos! (The show bravely points it out to us from time to time) You have things like characters hearing only the worst parts of a conversations to someone suppressing important info just to protect another character’s public image which may look frustrating, but it was fantastically executed!

All the characters are genuinely interesting by managing to stand out via their personalities. We have our simple looking Amano, who’s very bad when it comes to judgements due to his uncertainties. Nevertheless, he’s a good MC since he’s peculiarly zealous about certain type of games and will fight ‘’verbally’’ tooth and nails to defend his point despite sucking at playing games! He manages to come across very kind to others and it’s his infectious passion for games that resulted into Tendou falling head over heels for him! Tendou herself is a big gaming fan (in secret) so others simply can’t understand her infatuation for Amano which results into Tendou losing her ‘Highschool Dream Girl’ image. (Being REJECTED by a Nobody really hurt her image at school!) Even though she doesn’t do much later, her depiction of a major crush was humourlessly presented to us which never got tiring. After all this is how a person with a real crush acts! The person goes through unstable amount of emotions without ever expressing it out loud. Uehara is another character who comes off looking cool but isn’t as smart as he thinks! Often a prey to his own schemes due to bad decisions, results in being the root for the whole group problems! Aguri bonds nicely with Amano and she’s all cute and innocent while Chiaki turns out to be even a bigger Gaming nerd than the MC himself! I liked how her story went along with the main arc and whenever she said ‘Desu Desu’. These 5 characters provide us with the bulk of relatable Comedy in a hilarious and ridiculous manner that will have you LOLing pretty hard!

Animation is pretty basic, though colourful and the character designs are by the numbers. Both the OP and ED were a stand out with very catchy music and bright visuals which is appreciated with great Voice Acting from the cast for both Subs and Dubs. The opening video boasts wonderful ingenuity by showcasing countless parodies of video games like Mario and Street Fighter and the work done on facial expressions were superb!

Despite its flaws, I found the anime funny and entertaining. Episode 5, now remembered as ‘The Mother of All Misunderstandings!’ was hands down the best episode the anime has to offer as it managed to deliver a perfect storm of emotions ranging from Jealousy, Love, Envy, Confusion, Shock, etc in a Comedic fashion! (I loved how the MC was totally oblivious to all it!) This reminds me of a movie called ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ which pulled of a similar scene of misinterpretations by Comedic means. But exactly like the movie, this brilliant plot unravelled too quickly as the anime failed to entertain us on this level again! The anime tries to repeat itself with the follow up of a Board game, but it just didn’t have the same kick to it! And add in the pretty Meh ending, hurts your final thoughts about the show. Still the characters had their own side plots which were nicely demonstrated though the interactions between them remained the highlight of this anime. Certainly, recommend it to everyone as it’s one of the good anime of this year!

STORY: 3/10
CHARACTER: 4/10
ART: 4/10
SOUND: 7/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 6/10

The concept of turning delinquent’s boys into girls in order to be accepted in this school isn’t easy to swallow and it’s unclear how this alarming act of extreme violence is acknowledged by everyone under the name of ‘Peace’. The world building is retarded and extreme to the point where the school finds everything sexually wrong! To think this kind of mentality is drilled into all the students is scary, for who knows what the hell would happen once they spread out in society! The MC gets tortured just because he was in a picture with another naked girl?? ... Where did the girl’s punishment go?? Just cause she’s from the 5 Swords group, she is to be forgiven?? The fact that teenagers are carrying weapons (the 5 main girls are acquitted with real swords!) to physically beat men is not an acceptable premise nor the fact that those 5 main girls are dosed off on hormones and resort to actually killing each other for very stupid reasons! Do remember this show has no Comedy tag so I took it seriously and I didn’t enjoy a lot because the show couldn’t defend these ridiculous claims! So, I just switched off my brain and started watching this anime simply as a ‘Popcorn Flick’ and you know what? I started to have fun, was laughing at the well-timed jokes and all the craziness along with it! I realized you must accept this weird idea to enjoy the anime which worked like a charm! Despite the show’s promise at the beginning, it can’t seem to capitalize on it due to the lack in depth with its story and characters. And the Harem is simply shoved down our throats as every girl falls for the MC, I bought the first girl and was kinda okay with the second one, but the rest were just shoehorned! And they fall for him after he beats them in combat which is also achieved in a corny manner! So where does this anime work then? The answer is Comedy and I’m very surprised as to why this anime has no ‘Comedy’ tag. The jokes and their setups were bold in its execution, a little creative, a tad bit repetitive but they were timely performed. Sadly, the final arc was lazily told, choppy edited and stupidly rushed which leaves a bad taste in your mouth when all is said and done!

Nomura (MC) comes off both cool and badass but he’s bland with very senseless and questionable motives that sometimes make him unlikable, no a better word is unrelatable. The work done on his facial expressions were lousy which didn’t help his case either but he’s not your generic clueless MC. Nomura is a hot-headed guy who just wants some peace and will do anything to get his freedom! Aside from him, all the characters are One-Note who have only 1 object on their minds! All the girls start as strong Feminist, but the main female characters slowly change after spending time with the MC. I am not gonna go into details because we have many girls here, but they all generally have some bad trait to them as well as a unique sword fighting style. They are cute sure, but they are also very stupid which makes them annoying, especially Satori and that French (or Spanish) wannabe girl with the wig and that maddening LAUGH!!! Empress is the only character that exhibits potential, but they even spoil her in the end by giving her no depth at all.

The art is pretty much your average Harem anime style with choppy editing and I had a big problem with the character designs. The girls were well-defined, both in their looks, expressions and attires while Nomura had mediocre overall work done on him! Also, the Voice Actor for Nomura had an annoying voice to him which was a poor choice since the girls came off better in this department as well. The fight styles are a 50-50 to me! On one hand, they were more credible in the sense of being accomplished with pace and rhythm. No one was shouting their Special moves or style out loud, but they rather appeared as text at the bottom. But then the sword play displayed didn’t always look unique, sometimes it felt like they were just swinging around! The OP is nice, and while the soundtrack is nothing beguiling, I totally dig the ED due to its catchy tune.

Yet despite all the fighting styles of the girls, Nomura beat them all with either his Special move or come up with some convenient technique which made the show predictable and boring. You would think the rest of the girls could have come up with some way to avoid his Special move but nothing of that sort is even mentioned! And the armour plot here is ludicrous to the point where a character would be get all slashed up and lose lots of blood but the very next day they are completely fine! The one arc which showed capacity was the past of the MC so they saved that till the end to create a finale for the show which sucked because they turned this into a bullshit cliched arc that was rushed and totally ruined the character, Empress for me! The final fight was decent, but the big payoff didn’t work because you aren’t invested in the feelings of the characters nor the story for it to work! How can you when you are given half episode of flashbacks as storytelling! The Comedy seriously saves this anime from a disaster as it kept you entertained for the whole 12 episodes. I am only giving this anime a high rating just cause the Comedy caught me off-guard because the rest is just meh.

STORY: 9/10
CHARACTER: 8/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
OVERALL: 9/10

‘Erased’ happened to be one of the most awaited anime in recent memory and rightfully so for it bewitches the audience with its 1st episode, sucking you in for a rollercoaster ride of enthralling emotions! It takes a while to realize how strongly invested you are with the story, for the set-up is excitedly engaging, leaving you happy and confused at the same time. Even though the anime presents itself as a Mystery genre with a gripping murder plot that’s supported by Supernatural theme with a Time Travel twist added to it! I beg to differ for I see ... ‘Erased’ as a Psychological Thriller with Mystery elements sprinkled within a Time Travel story! This explains why the story never focuses on leaving clues for the audience to predict the killer, leaving little to no impression on its Mystery aspects and rather engrossing us with an intense and suspenseful plot. The MC, Satoru, happens to have the power of Time travel but they occur randomly as he has no control over it. Since these flashes only occur when something bad is about to happen, it’s his job to find out where a potential disaster is incoming so that he can revert it from ever happening! Through a series of events something very bad happens to him which activates his powers to go back in time. Unfortunately, he isn’t sent back a few minutes or an hour or a day or a week, in fact he gets sent back 18 years in the past indicating this is where the problem all began! This is a dark show about a serial killer who kidnaps young girls but its rounded up with a sense of hope in the form of a young boy who can stop this. Plus, they manage to keep a light tone as well by adding in a coming of age story which it technically is as Satoru now happens to be an adult inside a child’s body! And this is where the anime varies itself by introducing a unique plot of an investigation that’s conducted by a child with the brain of an adult thus presenting us to a whole new level of drama! This anime earned my respect because it could handle its dark themes without every making it creepy while also smoothly upheld its sense of humour which is impressive. So, I wasn’t bothered when Satoru bonded with the young girl or the alarming subplot of abuse because they were prudently addressed with respect for both the audience and the characters. The one problem of the show came with the identity of the killer which was easily decipherable due to the few number of suspects to begin with, but this didn’t bother me much unlike others for I was repetitively captivated by the mature characters and its comprehensive storytelling!
Early on Satoru realizes that his case relates to a string of kidnappings which took place 18 years ago, and it started with one of his classmates, a young girl named Hinazuki who was murdered when he was just a kid! So now he must befriend this secretive girl who chooses a private and unsociable lifestyle unlike her classmates while also exerting his cover by attending his classes and friends. And going on this journey, where he strives to attach himself and connect with the reclusive Hinazuki just so that he can give her a future was tremendously moving! Satoru’s undying determination and kindness really helps define him as the story makes a hero out of him despite his generic look while Hinazuki only comes off as emotionless and reserved at first, you later discover the depth of isolation within her. They perfectly seized a certain allure to her, making her come off sympathetic, as if she’s just waiting for someone to save her from this bleakness, someone she can confess to, someone she can befriend. The mystery elements are introduced in the shape of Satoru trying to piece everything together. I would have started with his mom but surprisingly he didn’t question her. Shame because I liked her, I found her funny and caring at the same time. As for his friends, they didn’t get a lot of screen time, but it was enough for my taste.

The animation has a simplistic yet proficient dash to it which perfectly fitted with the anime’s tone by clouding us in an orphic and creepy vibe! Some parts like the snow scenes were wonderfully realized, often times tricking you into believing you are watching a high budget Anime Movie! In addition, the OST is a standout which knocks you off your shoes with an amazing OP that’s hard to skip at the start of each episode! The show makes a point of stressing on their soundtrack, especially during those dark transitions which totally grounds the plot and setting to a graver authenticity. The voice acting was nicely done with the MC being the standout.

Time travel stories aren’t easy to predict, the same can be said about a good Mystery as well and since Mystery isn’t the main aim for ‘Erased’, it’s kinda predictable so you may solve the case quickly but it’s the journey that counts! Plus, even the MC doesn’t crack the actual mystery! He just saves the next victim by changing the timeline which might seem disheartening for Mystery fanatics, but you can rejoice with the knowledge that anything can happen since the chronology has been altered! Despite the show’s effort to surprise you, the twists can be seen a mile away due to the small number of options presented to us! If you have seen or read enough mysteries, then you can sense the formulas being used. But if you aren’t familiar with the genre, then the reveals are honestly startling! I for one found the unveiling of the murderer very intense and scary just because the predictably of it was peculiarly refreshing! And even if the Mystery falls flat, the suspense is delivered excellently by always imposing this sense looming danger which is why this show draws audience. My reply to the show’s weak mystery is this: I feel like the point of the show was to see how different Satoru’s life has become, it’s like he got a Second chance with life! He was a loner before, a hero but a loner. This time around he has friends who actually care about him, he saved lives of so many children back then. That’s why the meeting in the hospital between Satoru and Hinazuki is so emotional! A few blatant mistakes could have been easily corrected to make the show even better like more screen time for the other characters or the Time travel origin is never given nor explained why only the MC has this power. I also wish we had multiple culprits because that would have made the mystery element interesting and the final reveal that much shocking! The right kind of ending to any visual form of entertainment is paramount which is why the finale divides the fans, it’s often the third act which either makes or breaks a show. The ending here was bittersweet, and it stretched the show’s realism to a fiction regardless of the amazing work done earlier to ground the story as much as possible! Some didn’t agree with the direction some characters ended up, but I found it to be completely satisfying and logical, so I wasn’t bothered by it. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this show as it grips you in suspense early on and never lets you go and the story and characters were well realized with care. So, this Gem of an anime shouldn’t be left on your ‘Watch List’, instead you should watch it immediately!

(!!ENDING SPOILERS!!)

The reason given by the villain wasn’t well thought of, but I bought it because it was acceptable enough to believe this psychopath’s obsession with Satoru. After all he did predict his moves so wanting to keep him alive is rational enough! The whole Coma angle hurts the entire momentum of the show because we skip 15 years ahead! They could have dedicated 1 episode to show us in a ‘Fast Forward’ fashion what happened in that period. Now regarding the Romance part, I get when fans were upset with how MC’s ended up, but I had no problem with it because it made sense! First of all, this wasn’t a Romance which is why the show focuses on Satoru’s determination to save everyone! For fans to ask of Hinazuki to simply wait for Satoru to wake up is very unfair! I also wanted to ship them together but logic triumphs reason! Even the doctors didn’t know when Satoru was going to wake up, so I was happy Hinazuki had moved on, but she never forgot who saved her, who brought her out of the shell, so I was happy the way things ended.

STORY: 6/10
CHARACTER: 5/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 7/10

‘Gin no Guardian’ is an anime that resorts to ‘Not overexerting itself’, meaning they go ahead with everything they are comfortable with while leaving out the rest for later! The story is a little confusing in the beginning since the show makes a point of jumping around with their narrative. You start at a strange place with the MC, who’s in this ‘Cool and OP’ stage, as he’s wiping out enemies left and right after which the story jumps right back to its opening where the said MC is just another typical student! These ‘Jumps’ aren’t used a lot, ... but they are pretty jarring! The biggest complain everyone had is the freaking run time of the show, for they are about 13 minutes long including both the OP and ED! Yeah, I am not kidding! This leads to the anime trying to cramp so much due to its short run time, thus resulting to a very rushed and incomplete experience! By not taking time with their content or their characters, it’s hard to care or emotionally attach to something. Sadly, even the plot isn’t particularly unique, so it becomes that much difficult for the anime to make any kind of impact! You have your archetypal ‘Game’ genre situation where the MC is somehow stuck inside a game and must survive by playing as a guardian in order to save the world and the girl of his dreams.

Suigin (MC) is your plain looking, basic student who’s enrolled into an expensive school and makes ends meet by doing multiple jobs. Nothing about him really stands out whether it’s his expressions or his hairstyle, though his red scarf becomes very interesting once it’s seen in action despite the fact it is very distracting at first! The other main character, Rei, is even more generic and cliched than Suigin because she just happens to be side-lined to the one note role of Girlfriend 101! Literally nothing stood out about her! Her display of emotions, personality and expressions were all standard which is sad since she’s the other main romantic lead. I mean you are told great things about her, like how’s she so and so but we never actually see it to believe any of it! And how can you when they have less than 13 mins to demonstrate everything! And I guess the cat is cute so it has that thing going for it.

The art style is very bland and boring with nothing striking, whether it’s the background settings or the character designs. But the animation is a whole new story! I liked the depiction of his scarf even though it doesn’t suit with Suigin’s overall getup. But I liked how it changes colour based on Suigin’s emotions. And if this show succeeds anywhere, it’s the way the action scenes are illustrated! The latter part of those fights is pretty good but the opening battle with that army is simply Spectacular! Despite its use of 3D in the opening, I was blown away by it! You never got that lagging effect, rather the 2D was perfectly incorporated with the 3D which resulted into one smooth Badass fight as Suigin goes dashing into the Army of Skeleton! The OST is another achievement worth mentioning, especially the ED, which was simply Amazing! It’s not just another great music set piece, Nope! It also perfectly sings the overall main arc of the anime’s story! Yes, you heard it right because it harmonizes about the dream and struggle of romance for the characters of this show!

The short yet epic battle at the beginning get your hopes up into believing this will be an exciting anime, unfortunately it never manages to surprise you like that again! The common complain are the short length of episodes which really sucks but what I found frustrating was the direction of the story! It seems to move in one track at first but then suddenly changes course towards the end. Initially the story’s about Suigin and Rei finding each other in real life and a start for romance but then the last few episodes introduce a whole lot of new plotlines and characters which I found annoying. I understand they need to set up for the next season and further expand on the story but with such short episodes, I kinda wanted more closure. The other thing I would like to mention is the unfair kind of reaction this anime is receiving because it seems like people had insane expectations which the anime couldn’t deliver! Totally fair since the 1st episode almost blows you away with how good it is. But in my defence, it also becomes quickly apparent the rest of the anime won’t be following the same route, so people should really tone down your optimisms as well, after all the episodes are only 13 mins long! Since this is made by a Chinese company, I am willing to ignore its faults for now, but they better make big changes for the next season because now they have our feedback of what we liked and what we didn’t like! In the end, I liked the simplistic approach towards ‘Gin no Guardian’ and despite its flaws, I am willing to encourage others to give it a try!