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Spoiler Warning

Here we are with the anticipated second season of Love Live Nijigasaki. The first season received mixed reviews from fans of the series, but I thought it was the best Love Live installment at the time. This second season, however, does not properly execute based on the foundation laid by its predecessor.

This season of Nijigasaki introduces three new characters, Lanzhu, Shioriko, and Mia, but the story is centralized around Lanzhu and her interactions with Shioriko, Mia, and the girls of the School Idol Club. Her philosophy is to captivate others and put on an amazing performance, with that being the extent of it. She ... also disagrees with the beliefs of the School Idol Club, she believes that people should pursue their dreams without needing the help of others. This creates conflict within the characters, where both sides believe in different things. Additionally, this creates an antagonist within the show, which is a first for Love Live, as well as one of the most interesting things that Love Live has done since its start in 2014.

Where I find this anime to struggle is keeping its attention on this theme. At the start, it focuses on this quite solidly, featuring several developments between Lanzhu and the girls to further the plot. One of the main things that occurred during this development was the creation of subunits. Initially, the first subunit was made to “challenge” Lanzhu’s ideology. I feel that this progressed the plot well, carrying the themes of dreams nicely in a short, few-episode mini-arc. After this, two more subunits were formed. Why? I have no clue. The creation of these subunits made absolutely no sense. One of the more important things during the previous season of Nijigasaki was that everyone was a solo idol. Why do they suddenly want to join up when they were against it before? It’s incomprehensible.

The pacing of this season was very inconsistent. Every arc in the show is dedicated to one or two episodes. Everything that was dedicated to a single episode was rushed, yet all assigned two episodes were properly developed. One exception to this rule was Mia, where I felt she got proper development due to how differently she was written from the rest of the cast. She got a single episode to share with Lanzhu, plus little bits of other episodes. Overall, this helped make her development feel more natural and did not require her to have an entire episode dedicated to herself. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Shioriko or Lanzhu. Shioriko followed the single episode rule, while Lanzhu only felt like she got the episode with Mia and bits of other episodes. While yes, Mia got the same treatment and it worked, why is Lanzhu different? Well, she is the main “antagonist,” while Mia was more of a side character. This inherently means there should be more put behind her than the other characters and this is where her character faltered.

Another problem I had with the characters was the relationship between Ayumu and Yu. It could have been handled much more strongly. There was a deficiency of interactions within this season and it makes me question why they decided to establish their relationship in the former season. It wasn’t completely terrible though, as the show dedicated episode 12 to the two of them, which was one of the better episodes within the show.

Despite everything I said so far, not everything about the characters and story is bad. The new characters bounce off the old ones when they interact and interactions between the cast as a whole are sharper than in the previous season. I had a solid amount of fun watching these events play out. The story is starting to reach its end as well. From where they are currently, they’ve started to worry about the graduation of the third-years. Although this could be seen as generic sports anime worries, or standard Love Live “we gotta win before the third-years graduate” kind of thing, I quite enjoy it. It is not an unreasonable thing to think about, while also providing a sense of time.

The animation for this season was varied in quality, but overall solid. My biggest issue is the background art. Sometimes it looked perfectly fine, nothing too amazing, but was solid; at other times it looked like garbage. The backdrops looked like blurry jpegs without even attempting to be hidden. Characters would also be poorly composited within the scene. Outside of these moments, the show looked fine. The character models looked consistent most of the time and the performances looked solid. The animated segments of the performance all looked great, on par with the images from the game they’re based on. The CGI parts were decent. They weren’t as groundbreaking as something like Houseki no Kuni, nor as well-hidden as those in Love Live Superstar, but they looked fine.

Speaking of performances, how did everything sound? It sounded really solid. The BGM was nice to listen to throughout the episodes, and the performances sounded pleasant. Granted, some performances were stronger than others, all were at least something that I would see myself listening to. The lyrics to these songs were all nice and occasionally meaningful, linking to their character arcs within the show, or, in the case of Lanzhu during the first episode, telling you about their character.

This season of Nijigasaki has some highs, as well as some lows. From a technical standpoint, this show is pretty solid, providing captivating performances, while from a writing standpoint, this show can be lacking at times. Overall, this season has been somewhat of a downgrade from its promising first season, which has been very unfortunate to witness.

Thank you for reading.

While reviewing this manga so early into its release may not feel right, this manga has gone extremely under the radar, especially for a Jump work. It is full of potential at the current moment and likely to keep up in quality.

The story is simple, following our two main characters, Alice and Harumi. In their childhood, they both left the small town they both used to live in for the big city of Tokyo, but 10 years later Alice returned. Harumi comes back to meet her and help unpack, with this manga following their everyday interactions from this point. These interactions all feel extremely warm ... and real, with their simple interactions showcasing how deep-rooted and nostalgic their relationship is. Other characters also come and go in this manga, though they aren’t too important to the plot. Despite this, they still help serve the warm, homey, and nostalgic feel. This vibe is accentuated by the slow, iyashikei, tempo of the manga, which also helps you sink into the mood of this manga.

Another thing that adds to this atmosphere is the location. Like I said earlier, this manga takes place in a small village, where the home Alice is moving back into is that of her late grandmother. It’s a traditional-style home with things in it that give it an older feel, for example, a hearth. The hearth is introduced in the first chapter and it helps set the mood of this manga. It is a symbol of warmth and characters often lounge around near it, helping to set the scene of the old, nostalgic house, and warm, homey tone.

Additionally, the art style helps apply this theme. The background work is gorgeous, using many lighter shades of grey and the colour white frequently. This helps lighten the mood and further allows someone to immerse themself in this work. It’s also extremely detailed, where the artist, Bunta Kinami, would often draw every single marking on a piece of wood or every shingle on a roof. I only have two qualms about the art. The first is that I think more things should be shaded, as it can look awkward with stuff like the leaves of a tree being white. The second is that the facial expressions can occasionally look a little off and inconsistent. While these are problems I have, it generally does not take away from the stunning art.

The art proves to serve yet another part of this manga, being the gourmet aspect. Alice and Harumi would often cook and indulge in food. This food would always look gorgeous, as expected from the praiseworthy art. They explain things about the food and how it is made, but they never go into so much detail for it to become the main focus of the manga. This is only an aspect that helps serve the cozy vibe of the manga.

Overall, this is an extremely cozy manga. It has gentle character interactions that feel very nostalgic, alongside many elements that help serve its warmth. The art is beautiful and I highly recommend this work to anyone that likes reading warm, iyashikei like this.

Thank you for reading.

Saikin Yatotta Maid ga Ayashii is yet another boring work from Wakame Konbu. It follows the main characters Yuuri and Lilith getting themselves into a near-copy of the same situation every chapter, creating a very boring experience. What’s this situation? Well:
1. Yuuri accuses Lilith of attempting to kill him
2. Lilith either teases him or plays along
3. Yuuri calls Lilith cute when trying to explain why she may be evil
4. She blushes.
It’s a pretty rigid formula, as each chapter is about four pages, the same number of steps listed above. While this formula may sound cute, it unfortunately, doesn’t change at all.

Something different about how this ... manga handles this formula is the reader being able to see the two grow closer slightly every chapter. I say slightly because it’s hardly noticeable unless you’re constantly comparing the most recent chapter to the one that was at least 15 chapters before. While yes, this subtleness in writing can be considered good writing and helps separate it from the other manga of the same archetype, it still doesn’t change how this is written. Outside of the words changing a small bit, I say this once again, the interactions don’t.

The manga also features some decent art. Everything about it is very simple and minimalistic, frequently using solid colours and focusing more on monochromaticity rather than shading. The characters are easy to tell apart from the background (sometimes lack thereof) and the use of purple on Lilith’s eyes is nice.

So overall, it’s not worth a read. It can get immensely boring through its repetitiveness, even if it sounds cute. If you are extremely into fluffy kinds of work, you may actually like this manga, but otherwise, I don’t think you would.

Thank you for reading.

“Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie” is a popular rom-com manga soon to receive its awaited anime adaptation in the following season, spring 2022. So how is this manga? To put it simply, it’s sweet and fun.

The story of this manga follows Izumi and his girlfriend, Shikimori, in their day-to-day high school life. And yes, you read that right, they’re already going out. The main characters already dating separates this manga from most of the other romances where the main characters play this everlasting game where neither confesses for hundreds of chapters. This permits the manga to expand upon the relationship between Shikimori and Izumi differently ... than other romance manga, as their love strengthens rather than builds.

Going to the title of this manga, “Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie,” what does this say about the manga itself? Well, each chapter would showcase Shikimori’s cutesy personality, but then something happens and she acts extremely cool, causing Izumi to swoon a bit. Something like this tends to swiftly become boring from repetitiveness, but Shikimori handles this blockade excellently. After less than 40 chapters (keep in mind these chapters are around 5-8 pages) it starts expanding. By this point, you have a grasp on the concept, so the manga can introduce and develop characters while showing more of Shikimori than her just being cute and cool. “Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie” doesn’t imply she is only a bit more than being a cute girl, but rather she’s significantly more than just cute. She’s intelligent, diligent, hardworking, but most importantly, human.

The characters of Shikimori are flawed. No one’s perfect and this manga understands that. There are things people can’t do, but that’s why there’s a whole cast of them. They help each other and, as corny as this may sound, they teach each other lessons and encourage one another to achieve their goals. For example, one of the characters can’t cook, but they receive aid from some of the other characters and eventually learn. This doesn’t turn them into an expert overnight, but rather just a better chef. Still, this doesn’t ignore that the person learning has to put the effort in. Friendship doesn’t solve everything, but it helps.

Another thing I like about Shikimori is its pacing. The characters in this manga age. They aren’t in their first year for an eternity like other series, but rather age and try to figure out what they want to do in the future, and strive to achieve what they want to do in life. This aging pace also comes alongside seasons. Seasonal events, clothing, and weather in the manga help aid the reader understand when the current events are taking place and help make the manga feel natural.

This naturalism extends to the characters as well. Though they may seem a little too cheery for high schoolers, they tend to be realistic enough to be believable. The characters don’t rely on tropes or odd quirks very much to attempt to feel unique. While it does use some tropes (for example, the main character has extremely poor luck), these quirks and tropes are not slapped onto every single character in the manga. It’s just normal high school life, with a normal relationship.

Okay so while I may be describing this as the deepest look into high school life possible, it is not. It’s a more simple manga where you follow the main couple and their friends throughout their high school lives. So it is not always going to be deep, but it does touch upon some topics high schoolers deal with and still sticks to the show’s themes. It does not go extremely deep, like following something like the extreme mental pressure of finals. The manga prefers to keep the realistic parts it touches upon to be more light-hearted and digestible for maximum fun.

So what do we have? An enjoyable manga where characters naturally progress through their high school life with some nice character development and a still cute, yet “more than just cute” main girl. I highly recommend this manga to those that like slice of life manga, and or romances.

Thank you for reading!

Ah yes, tights. Who does not like them? The way they help accentuate the legs and conceal the toes is such a delightful thing! Luckily for us, there is a whole manga about them. From the author of Arigatights! comes Tights de Iyashite Kureru Yome, or as its title in English, “My Wife’s Tights Soothe My Soul,” is a cute manga about, well, a man whose wife’s tights soothe his soul.

This manga does not have a story. Rather than a story, it takes an episodic approach. Each chapter is a different scenario where the wife is wearing tights and turns on the main character. While ... this may seem like something that would get bland quickly, the author tackles this issue rather effectively using a combination of three-ish parts.

The first method used is making each chapter feature a new situation that the main characters find themselves in, which helps keep things fresh.

Secondly, each chapter is only two pages. By keeping the size of each chapter to such a small number of pages, the manga can keep you invested by getting to the action right away, instead of beating around the bush. While effective, shorting chapter length comes with a cost; There is no character development. For a manga of its style, that does not matter as that is not the point of this manga or why you are even reading it in the first place. Now that you know each chapter is two pages, you may think: “then would it not be rushed?” or “then is it just empty fanservice?” And while those are reasonable assumptions, they are incorrect. Because this manga is episodic and the simplicity of its idea, while being in the ecchi genre creates an atmosphere where all you want is the action. The faster you get to the action, the better it is. Furthermore, it effectively uses those two pages to help set the scene. The first page is a panel that prepares the scene; Anywhere from two to four panels that boost the effectiveness of the second page, which is the ecchi work that shows off the hot anime waifu in tights. The setup works well because it, going back to the objective of this argument, keeps things simple and gets to the point without being baseless fanservice.

Finally, this manga avoids an issue that a solid amount of works run into, trying to be more than what it is. Whenever any work of any medium does this, it tends to become garbage. This manga avoids that. While it does create a lot of different scenarios leading to some risky experimentation, each one lands consistently. It does not try to develop a complex relationship with the husband and the wife, or have an affair, or have anything like that. It is pure, simple, fun.

Tights de Iyashite Kureru Yome is probably one of the few manga I have read that pulls off not having a story by using this very effective method. And what about the characters you may ask? Well, they are okay.

The main character, Taito Sumeragi, is built to be a self-insert: black hair, averagely built, and he has a tights fetish. He works at a black company and is constantly overworked. His sanctuary in life is what every guy dreams of: a hot anime waifu who has a tights fetish. Even though he is a self-insert character, he is not the blandest character I have seen. His openness with his wife and earnestness as a character is a feature that helps define his personality and also helps his ability to become a self-insert. Alongside the only love interest in this story is his wife, Sumeragi becomes a nice character that is enjoyable to watch.

The wife, Hakua Mayazumi, is also quite an endearing character. Of course, she is designed to be cute and has thick thighs for the plot of this manga, but it is fun to watch her instead of just being a moe fanservice character. Her interactions with her husband are always fun to watch and feel genuine. You can tell how much they love each other and tights.

These are generally the only two characters in the story, but there is one more: Mayazumi’s sister. I guess she is there? As of right now, she is only in two chapters and honestly, while it is nice to know that she exists, she does not need to. She feels like an extra character that is sometimes in Sumeragi and Mayazumi’s life.

The art of this manga helps reinforce the mood and overall joy of reading this manga. Albeit a bit standard, it is still pleasing to view. The outlines are thin, mainly helping to emphasize the thighs. The colours are pretty and bright, carrying the lighthearted and wholesome mood of the manga.

I think that most people that have a fetish for tights (Who does not honestly?) would appreciate this manga for what it is. It is drawn well and Grande’s best work to date. It is fun to watch this young couple interact and enjoy each other's company. Overall, I would recommend you to give this manga a read just because of how much fun it was to read.

Superstar is the 4th installment of the beloved and long-running Love Live series. It is easy to follow and does not reference previous parts, allowing both old and new fans to enjoy it.

This installment goes back to its roots, arguably simpler than the base of its roots were. Kanon gets picked up by Keke to start a school idol club, but complications arise when the student council president tries to stop them; the standard Love Live stuff.

The special part about it this time is how Kanon acts in opposition to the other main characters of previous installments of Love Live. Kanon has stage fright. This ... stage fright helps drive her character throughout the story as an obstacle for her to get over. It is a good character element that can add some growth and depth to her character, but I felt it was rushed. There were not many episodes where it was the main focus and even when it was, I felt it was not explored enough.

This pacing issue crosses through Sumire as well. Ever since she was a kid, Sumire has always wanted to be in the spotlight but had never been there. This would also provide for an interesting plot, but once again, underdeveloped.

As rushed as I may be describing the pacing, this was only felt during the last third of the show, which is when a lot of the important parts of the characters' arcs happened.

Contrary to this was Chisato’s character arc. Chisato was introduced in episode one and slowly developed throughout the show. This is due to her arc directly tying into her relationship with Kanon, and how they affect each other. It climaxed beautifully and became my favourite part of Superstar.

And once again, in opposition to Chisato’s arc is Ren’s arc. Ren’s character arc did not make too much sense and was not developed a lot, kind of just happened.

Finally, Keke. So far, Keke’s arc has only been hinted at and not a lot has been revealed about her, even if she was the first member to join the group. Frankly, this is not a bad thing, as a later season is likely to go further into her character.

So far, I have only spoken about their development, but how are they individually? Honestly, I think I only like Chisato and Kanon individually.

Even if I only like two of them individually, the writing is something of note. The characters play off of each other very well. Every character has a different way of speaking to each other, whether friendly (Kanon and Chisato) or a more aggressive tone (Sumire and Keke), creating a very immersive environment and overall makes character interactions an enjoyable experience.

The writing also excels at telling jokes. The jokes are very fast-paced and usually succeed to at least put a smile on my face. It combines both visual humour and wordplay, effectively churning out jokes quickly. It is more visual than wordplay but is still a great combination of both.

Now onto the more technical aspects, the visuals of each new season of Love Live are always astronomically better; this applies to this season. Hair bounces with each step and the animated dance choreography always looks clean. Full of bright colours blending well together to create appealing visuals that are hard to get bored of.

As it usually is with Love Live, the performances where they sing and dance are mostly CGI. Love Live has quite the mixed history with CGI, as sometimes it looks very off, and other times it looks pretty decent. In this case, the CGI looks good. Used solely for the dance segments, studio Sunrise can create higher production choreography and CGI. It does a smooth job transitioning between the CG and the animated parts during the dance segments to help emphasize movement.

These stage performances also sound great. Love Live is often associated with cute girls and high-pitched voices, but it is cute girls and “normal” pitch voices this time. This change can make the anime enjoyed by many more people, as many people were turned away by Love Live due to their high pitch.

In addition to looking and sounding good, they also flow well. Every time song is broken into, it feels like you know exactly when it is going to happen and instead of being boringly predictable, it is satisfying to see.

Alongside the dazzling stage performances, the background music is also good. Nice and relaxing most of the time, but it can also get you a little hype for the more dramatic moments.

Despite its characterization and pacing flaws, Love Live Superstar provides a fun time for both new and old fans of the series. It has arguably the best looking and sounding in the series and is overall a worthwhile experience. I will be looking forward to more of it!

Final note, I’d like to thank @hnf9982 and @lonelyhearts0 for reading over and helping me edit this review.

[MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi is a short, ongoing, gag, romance manga with a small, cult following. It’s easy to see why people like it. It’s short, has some comedy sprinkled in, and it’s a romance. After reading it, I’ve realized that it isn’t anything amazing.

The story follows Igarashi in an office environment working with her colleague, Takeda. It follows the romance between the two of them, as they get into often cliché scenarios Yes, cliché. Most of the situations these characters find themselves in are often generic, stereotypical situations you’d find in any other romance manga. The clichés often don’t have ... spins put on them either, so it’s just kind of plain and boring.

The pacing is one of the largest issues with this manga. Nothing has happened throughout 154 chapters of the manga’s runtime. They just established “x likes y” and that’s it. Even though the chapters are four pages long, each one covers a separate scenario allowing for something to happen development-wise with the relationships, but they don’t. This large amount of chapters also covered two full years of their romance, seeing as Christmas has passed twice. It’s just stationary with this large amount of time and chapters passing without anything changing.

The characters in this manga aren’t anything special. There are six important characters and all of them are extremely forgettable. I even had to look up some of their names in the middle of writing this.

First, you have the main "couple," Igarashi and Takeda. Igarashi is short and doesn’t want to be treated as a kid because of that. She often contradicts her character archetype by liking cute things and toys, but I do appreciate it as it adds a bit of originality to the character. Takeda is Igarashi’s colleague who acts as her main love interest. He’s loud and large, built to contrast with Igarashi. He often teases her about how tiny she is, but he doesn’t let other people tease her.

The second "couple" is Sakurai and Kazama. This relationship is extremely infuriating. Both like each other to an extremely obvious degree and the scenarios they get into are closer to the level of what you’d expect people that are dating to do, but their development is also non-existent creating this sense of infuriation.

The last "couple" is Natsumi and Yuuto. This is the most questionable one in the manga. Yuuto is either a middle school or high school student who is into Natsumi, an adult in their 20s. This relationship is supposed to be cute, as the reader sees Yuuto try and seduce her and fail, but it comes off as creepy seeing as Natsumi is affectionate for Yuuto, an underage boy.

The art is the best part of the manga. The art is simplistic which fits perfectly with a manga of this style. In addition, after the first few chapters, a lot of it is coloured. The colours are used effectively and allow for the characters to stand out from the background.

Overall, this manga is just another romance manga. It fails to develop any of the relationships while being very cliché. You’ll probably enjoy it if you’re extremely into short and cute romcoms, but otherwise, it’s not worth the read.

Ane Naru Mono is held in quite high regard, to the point of it being the highest rated doujin on MAL, but is it that amazing? The answer is yes, it’s really good, great even.

The story of Ane Naru Mono is both dark and wholesome. Yuu is a young boy and his parents were both killed in an accident. From then on he’s been moving between relatives' homes and eventually, a demon, Chiyo, comes to help him. She acts as his ideal older sister. Because Yuu has a crush on her, Chiyo is required to get Yuu’s semen. This acts as a way for her ... to become stronger and stay as a demon, but also partly because this is what Yuu wants. This was a genius way of tying these two aspects of the doujin together.

The main character of Ane Naru Mono is okay. She’s a stereotypical shota for the most part. His past makes him a broken person on the inside, though this often isn’t referenced too often. He’s a bit of a pushover, as most shotas are, but he cums significantly more than the average shota.

Chiyo is a top-tier older sister. She was made to be the perfect older sister according to Yuu’s taste. She takes perfect care of Yuu, cleaning the house, doing the cooking, everything. In addition to that, she’s hot as hell. In the manga, she acts in two different ways. One of them is the possessive, overly-caring older sister archetype and the other is the gentle, loving older sister archetype. Chiyo can fit both roles perfectly. This is a further demonstration in a segment where Chiyo ends up having both forms split, which causes Yuu to be unknowing every day with which Chiyo he’ll interact with.

The interactions between Yuu and Chiyo are often very sweet. It’s nice to see the two of them grow closer together through the span of the doujin.

The art in Ane Naru Mono is magnificent. There’s so much detail drawn into each panel. Every single line is wonderful, as if they were drawn with much thought put into it. The lines used are very soft and the variation in thickness of the lines is well thought out. The use of colour and shading is also really good. It helps make all the scenes where it’s supposed to be gentle, feel gentle and the more impactful moments stand out. The lighting is also really good at setting the tone and emphasizing what’s going on.

Overall this is really well-made and deserves all the recognition that it has received. It is also worth checking out the ecchi version of this work.

Ane Naru Mono is quite a famous ecchi manga. It’s a manga series that’s been adapted from a doujin of the same name.

Ane Naru Mono follows Yuu and Chiyo, as Chiyo figures out how being human works. It consists of their wholesome bonding as siblings and a few ecchi moments due to Chiyo not understanding how people work. This makes up a lot of the story, but there are a few serious moments in the story. The backstory of Chiyo is dark and mysterious. It’s not touched upon too much. There’s also another character with a very serious background, but I won’t go into it ... due to it being spoilers. There are a few plot points and dark moments that feel forgotten about though, which is unfortunate since they seem interesting. Hopefully, they do go into them later in the manga.

The manga is paced well. It’s episodic and the story normally does not carry over between chapters. It’s able to space out the comedic, ecchi, and dark moments all well. The very few small arcs that matter to the plot are also well spaced out. They don’t happen too rapidly and they aren’t just missing from the plot half of the time.

The characters in Ane Naru Mono are fun. Chiyo is a demon who’s been summoned by Yuu to be his older sister. She’s trying her best to be an older sister. You see her fail some common, normal things and get upset about it. It’s really fun and cute to see her try to be the best older sister she can.

On the other hand, the main character, Yuu, is just a main character. His character is how you’d think a stereotypical shota would work. He’s kind, innocent, cute, and that’s it. He does get the extra factor of being ignored and other things like that in school due to being able to speak to ghosts, but it’s not shown in his character too often.

Interactions between Yuu and Chiyo are always great and fun to see unfold. It’s often very wholesome to see them interact.

The art in Ane Naru Mono was great. It was used effectively for every situation. In the wholesome moments, the art uses soft and thin lines. The lighting during these moments is very bright and not much is shaded in. During the ecchi moments, the lines become thicker and the shading becomes darker. It’s like a light grey as opposed to dark shading. And finally, during the serious moments, you move to a very dark grey, sometimes even black. The lines become bold and sometimes even roughly drawn depending on how serious it is.

Overall this is a fun, SoL manga with great art that gets serious when it needs to. The main downfall of it is that the protagonist is nothing special and the story sometimes forgets some of its plot points.

Gotcha. The best thing to come out of Pokemon in years. It was like a love letter to Pokemon fans, telling them that they still care about the franchise, even if their most recent games weren’t the most well-received.

There wasn’t a story in this short music video. It mainly referenced the games, going into many details, big or small, from older games. Many of these references are rather forgettable for most people but can bring a feeling of nostalgia and help you remember things. For example, during the opening moments of the video, four boys are walking on a railroad track, a reference to the ... TV in Pokemon Red and Blue.

A lot of characters were shown in this music video. I think every single major protagonist, rival, professor, champion, antagonist, gym leader, and elite four members were in it. For the few seconds each character was on screen, their personalities were captured perfectly.

The video also introduced two new characters. These characters are shown as children and slowly grow and continue on their journey, with all the legendaries, gym leaders, and previous generations in their path. I believe these two trainers represent the viewers and Pokemon fans, growing older as they play through each generation, continuing their Pokemon journey.

The animation of Gotcha was really good. It used many vibrant colours and had an amazing use of lighting. The animation was also just super clean. There wasn’t a single moment where the animation was off with its technicalities. The music also synced up with the animation most of the time, but there were very few moments where it wasn’t synced.

The song for Gotcha sounded pretty good. This was probably one of Bump of Chicken’s best works. There isn’t much to say here other than that.

Overall, this music video was a love letter to Pokemon fans, telling them that they still care for the franchise. It was packed with references, clean animation, a good soundtrack, and a lot of nostalgia.

Extra message:
This music video must've taken a lot of work and the Pokemon games in general also must’ve taken a lot of work. After carrying me through so many years of my life, and being the largest part of my childhood, I just want to say, “Thank you Pokemon.”