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If there is one thing in fiction I've grown to despise as I got older, it's the school setting. I can go on and on about all the pitfalls that school setting works fall into the vast majority of the time. Bullies that virtually never get what they deserve, draconian faculty and staff, and the main character just can't catch a break with humiliation. Every time I see these things, I just want to flip all the tables in my house. Not only are these portrayals of school life being so unbelievably unrealistic, it's also disappointing that I had some classmates back in middle school ... and high school who took these things for granted.

Assassination Classroom does everything in its power to annihilate all these agonizing tropes of the school setting, and that is why I love it so much. It's the perfect anime to get into if you're like me and you normally can't stand other shows that utilize taking place at school.

The premise of Assassination Classroom is there was an explosion on the moon causing it to be permanently a crescent shape as it has lost almost three quarters of itself. The following day at Kunugigaoka Junior High, a strange creature with tentacles resembling an octopus appears before himself in front of Class 3-E claiming to be the one responsible for attacking the moon. He plans to do the same to the Earth in one year and until then, he challenges the students to kill him while being their teacher at the same time. The Ministry of Defense has agreed to let this be and promised the students that they will be rewarded with ten billion yen should they succeed in assassinating this creature. One of its agents Tadaomi Karasuma applies to be one of Class 3-E's teachers as well to make sure the creature keeps his promise to never harm the students as well as help train the students to accomplish the mission.

This mission is not easy. The creature's speed goes up to Mach 20. Sneak attacks don't work, and he can dodge all the students if they all gang up on him at once. As the students try to figure out the optimal method to assassinate their supernatural teacher, they also got to deal with their studies. Kunugigaoka Junior High is a school where inequality is at its finest. The higher a student's grade is, the more privileged they are. Should a student completely fumble in a semester, they will get knocked down to the E Class. The E stands for End, because it literally is the end for them. Nobody who has fallen into the E Class ever makes a comeback. Remember that the students are in Class 3-E? Yep, that's right! These students are in the E Class, and their classroom takes place in a separate remote wooden building that's far away from the main school building. They're not allowed to go to the main building except during events, assemblies, and major exams. These rules are established by the school's headmaster Gakuho Asano, and he does everything in his power to make the E Class know their place.

That's not all. There are other adversaries in the world, some friendly and some hostile, who seek to kill the creature. As you can guess, the friendly ones are willing to assist the students while the hostile ones do not care about the students' well-being, even going as far as threatening their lives just to get the creature to surrender. Assassination Classroom is one heck of a story about these students simultaneously trying to assassinate their abnormal teacher, improving their grades, and clashing with outside parties.

It's time I should talk about the characters. Assassination Classroom has two leading protagonists. The first one is the creature himself, who has been given the name Koro-Sensei by one of the students. "Koro-Sensei" translates to "Unkillable Teacher," so it is the one and only suitable name for him. As an assassination target, he is not easy to kill. As stated earlier, Koro-Sensei moves at the speed of Mach 20. On top of that, each time someone comes up with a brilliant idea, upon executing it, Koro-Sensei has a trick up his sleeve to counter it. As a teacher, he is considered irreplaceable. He helps all the students improve on subjects and topics they previously had trouble in and does a good job at encouraging them to pursue their dreams. Koro-Sensei is so lovable that the students can never ask for a better teacher. It should be noted that he cannot be killed with regular bullets and knives. His body can only be damaged by a specific material, and weapons made out of this material are provided to and used by the students. The material is very rubber-like, so it's actually harmless to humans.

The second protagonist is Nagisa Shiota, a student in Class 3-E. While having some feminine traits in appearance, Nagisa is a boy. He is also the narrator of the story. Throughout the anime, Nagisa lists down all the weaknesses Koro-Sensei accidentally reveals believing it will get him and his classmates closer to a successful assassination. Despite his physical strength being so low, Nagisa comes off as one of the most talented assassins among Class 3-E. When things are normal, he comes off as a mature and polite person. Upon encountering somebody who is hostile, Nagisa gets serious especially in dangerous situations. He is someone you do not want to mess with.

One of the other main characters is Kaede Kayano, a girl who is close to Nagisa as they are seen together a lot. She is actually the one who came up with Koro-Sensei's name. While Kaede comes off as upbeat and cheerful, she does have an inferiority complex when she finds girls and women who have a bigger bust size than her. She especially shows this off towards Class 3-E's foreign language teacher in the fourth episode.

Another main character is Karma Akabane, one of Nagisa's closest friends. Karma is a student with excellent grades. He is probably one of the top students of Kunugigaoka Junior High, so why is he in the E Class? It's because he's also one of the most violent characters. Poor grades are not the only way for students to be sent to the E Class. In fact, a teacher used to have his back due to his good grades until he attacked an A Class student to save an E Class student. Feeling betrayed, Karma grew to despise teachers until he met Koro-Sensei and accept him as a teacher. Yes, you read this correctly. His name is Karma.

Next, we have the supporting cast. Tadaomi Karasuma, an agent of the Ministry of Defense, assigns Class 3-E the mission to kill Koro-Sensei within one year before the creature destroys the Earth. To keep them all in check, he applied to be the class's physical education teacher. As the P.E. teacher, he trains the students to help them with the assassination. Tadaomi is also there to keep the students safe whenever they encounter somebody hostile who seeks to kill Koro-Sensei for the ten-billion-yen reward or for personal reasons.

Another teacher of Class 3-E is Irina Jelavic, who is the foreign language teacher. She is a professional assassination from Serbia who specializes in seducing her targets. At first, she felt that teaching a bunch of junior high school students was a waste of her time until she is shown that Koro-Sensei is dedicated in educating them. A running joke throughout the story is that the students nickname her Professor Bitch because they pronounce the last syllable in her name as "Bitch." The English dub takes this joke one step further, having her full last name be rhymed with "Hellabitch." Irina really hated this nickname in her introductory episode, but she eventually tolerates it. I normally use censorship whenever there is cussing in my writing, but for the sake of the joke, I'll make this an exception.

I'm not going to go over all the other students of Class 3-E in-depth because well, I'm not insane! There are twenty-eight of them, including Nagisa, Kaede, and Karma. All you need to know is that all of them do experience character development over time. They each get a moment to shine, learn what their best technique is, and become more confident moving forward with their lives.

Similar to there being multiple main protagonists, Assassination Classroom has multiple antagonists, two of which are more prominent in this first season. The first antagonist is the headmaster of Kunugigaoka Junior High Gakuho Asano. He is the one who established the education system of the school. Those who are doing poorly or disobeying rules get sent to the E Class. When I say that Gakuho makes the E Class know their place, I really meant it. Let's say that midterm exams are coming, and it's important that every student in the academy must study for it. Despite Koro-Sensei's best efforts in preparing the E Class for them, Gakuho will literally rig the exams, so that the E Class gets super expert questions that are probably meant for college graduate students, so it will be basically impossible for them to pass the exams. In order for the E Class to stand up to his system, Koro-Sensei and the students of Class 3-E will need to come up with special tactics to prove that they can keep up with the rest of the school.

It's not just the headmaster trying to keep the E Class in their place. The other classes also participate is disparaging them as well, especially the A Class, which is led by Gakuho's son, Gakushu Asano. In fact, after an assembly meeting during the fifth episode, Nagisa is approached by two of his former friends, who turned their back on him on the account he ended up in the E Class. Gakuho noticed Nagisa standing up to them, and that is why he rigged the midterm exams. Gakuho doesn't want any E Class students to be in the top fifty because of Koro-Sensei. By the way, Gakuho does know about Koro-Sensei and the assassination mission. Normally, knowledge of these is kept a secret from the rest of the world. Not even other students or faculty members in the main school building knows about it. Gakuho allowed Koro-Sensei to apply to be Class 3-E's teacher and agreed with the Ministry of Defense that the E Class will take the job in assassination Koro-Sensei.

Another main antagonist is Akira Takaoka, a colleague of Tadaomi Karasuma. In the middle of the first season, Akira arrives to take over as the P.E. teacher for Class 3-E. However, this was short lived as Akira is ruthless and sadistic. He attempted to force extremely tight schedules on the students, and even punches one of the girls who tried to politely reason with him. Akira challenges Tadaomi to pick one of the students to try to beat him in a match. Nagisa was chosen and he was able to overpower Akira easily. When Akira refuses to admit defeat and tries to get back at Nagisa, Nagisa gets backed up by Tadaomi and even Gakuho, who even disapproves of Akira's brutality towards the E Class. Gakuho fires Akira and Akira swears to have his revenge... and he really means it.

As far as I can recall, I've never seen any other anime worked on by Studio Lerche. I will say, Studio Lerche did an amazing job with Assassination Classroom. Not a single piece of the animation was rushed. Plus, the art of the anime as well as the character designs are really good. There may be so many names since there are so many students in Class 3-E, but each and every one of them have distinct designs from each other that it's hard to mix two up together. Even the notable A Class students have distinct appearances that go along with their personalities. Assassination Classroom is an anime that's engaging and colorful... except some of the end pictures after the credits in each episode. A lot of these images are Koro-Sensei dressing up as one of the other characters, and some of them are kind of cursed to look at.

If there is one thing that's holding this anime back from achieving a perfect 10, it's the soundtrack. Unfortunately, I personally did not like Assassination Classroom's opening themes as well as its ending theme. I gave each opening song a shot, but in the end, I have no regrets skipping them when I watched this for the first time. Plus, what on earth is this choreography the students are doing in the opening having one arm raised while bouncing to the music? Whatever it is, it's just there and I am not impressed with it.

I'm sorry to those who love the ending song, but I really tried to see if I can like it. The peaceful tone of the song as well as the closing animation are cute. However, no matter how many times I tried, I felt nothing out of it. No muscle in my body moved to the beat at all. Just like the openings, I did skip the ending just to get to the preview of the next episode and the end picture in each episode.

Assassination Classroom takes everything I dislike about the school setting, and have its main characters fight them. It's an amazing anime and definitely worth watching. It excelled at its plot, characters, and animation. When it comes to the soundtrack, it's just my opinion: I didn't like it. If you like the music, more power to you. For me, the first season of Assassination Classroom is great, and it gets a 9/10 from me.

Happy Mario Day! Is anybody really surprised that the person who themed their MAL profile after a Mario character is reviewing the 1986 anime Mario movie on March 10th, 2024? Being a huge fan of the Mario franchise, of course I took the time to check out this movie when I first learned about it. Also, apparently the title actually translates to "Super Mario Bros.: Princess Peach Rescue Operation!" It's not "The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!"

Take what you prefer, this is an adaptation of the 1985 video game Super Mario Bros. Unlike Illumination's animated movie, which came out in 2023, the first Super ... Mario Bros. and its Japanese-exclusive sequel were the only two Super Mario titles at the time of this movie. That means that there isn't a lot of source material for the animators to work with here. That being said, I'd say they did their best with what they can. It's not a perfect creation, but it's a fun experience. Before I get started on describing the plot, I have to let you all know that I am going to write this review while being faithful to the names the characters are known as in Japan, so I will be addressing Bowser as Koopa.

The movie starts with Mario up late at night playing a video game. All of a sudden, the television screen changes to a cutscene where a beautiful princess is running about from monsters that are chasing her. Eventually, she magically comes out of the screen and meets Mario. She is Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the evil King Koopa is after her. Not only did he curse her kingdom, but he also wants to marry her. It wasn't too long until Koopa himself emerges from the television, pummels Mario, and kidnaps Peach. When Mario tells his brother Luigi what he just witnessed, Luigi passed it off as a dream. When Mario begins to doubt himself, he notices a pendant on the floor. It was the pendant Peach was wearing when they met! The encounter with Peach and Koopa was real!

The next day, Mario and Luigi encountered a dog at work and the dog takes the pendant and brings the Mario Bros. to the Mushroom Kingdom. They meet the Mushroom Hermit, who informs the Bros. that Koopa plans to marry Peach on Friday the Thirteenth. The only way to defeat Koopa is to collect the three legendary power-ups: a mushroom, a flower, and a star. Only then will Mario have a chance against the evil King. On their quest, they will encounter Koopa's forces trying to stop them.

So far, it's a pretty cool adaptation of Super Mario Bros. Since it is the 1980s, the art and animation are pretty simplistic. Although, I have no idea why Luigi is wearing yellow, and his hat is blue like his overalls. Who was in charge of Luigi's design? I hope Nintendo kicked your @ss for this. Either way, this movie really likes to overemphasize comedy. Luigi is super-duper interested in collecting as many gold coins as he can on the journey, only to lose them all somehow. There is a funny part where Mario hits a block and gets ramen noodles out of it. Even encounters with Koopa's minions get sprinkled with comedy. Plus, Mario and Luigi's walk cycles are funny to look at. I sure hope that's not how they walk when they go to work in the mornings back at home.

When it comes to the sound, they heavily utilize music and sound effects from the video game, and they do it so well. The insert song that plays after Mario obtains a mushroom as well as a flower is pretty catchy as well. I do have to point out that in the segment after he gets the flower, he uses its power to shoot fire to defeat buzzy beetles, which is total bullsh!t because buzzy beetles are immune to fire. Even though the voice acting is far different from what we're used to with Mario characters nowadays, I think the cast of this movie did a pretty decent job. The song that plays during the end credits was enjoyable and I love that the post-credits scene ends with the Game Over music.

I do like the fact that even though the manual of Super Mario Bros. states that Koopa used black magic to transform the people of the Mushroom Kingdom into objects, we never actually see it in the game, but this movie was able to show it off. Through Mario's efforts, he was able to rescue plenty of Mushroom citizens. They give their everlasting gratitude to him and even find the Mario Bros. to be cute. Yeah, compared to the video game, the people are actually very expressive instead of being known for the infamous line: "Our Princess is in another castle!" Plus, Mario receives kisses from female Mushroom citizens he rescues, something I'm sure never occurred in any Mario game.

I do want to say that the movie ends with a d!ck move. After Koopa's defeat, the dog that brought the Mario Bros. to the Mushroom Kingdom as well as traveled with them is revealed to be Prince Haru of the Flower Nation. He is Princess Peach's fiancé, and his canine form was due to Koopa's curse. Mario's motivation throughout this whole movie is that he developed a crush on Peach, and now he finds this crazy surprise at the end. Well, Mario gets over it quickly and promises Peach that if bad guys ever come after her again, he'll come to save her again. Of course, we all know this dedication holds true for all the Mario games that came out over the years. Plus, the movie is in a completely separate continuity, so this d!ck move isn't even a big deal to begin with. Oh yes, Mario does return Peach's pendant after saving her. At least, he was able to do something nice for her.

My final thoughts on this movie? It's fun but outdated. It's not the most exciting movie in the world to watch, but hey, if you want to enjoy some mid-1980s anime goodness, Super Mario Bros.: Princess Peach Rescue Operation! is a good choice to experience it. I give this movie a 6/10. I enjoyed this movie, but now we got a much better animated movie from Illumination in this day and age. I will say, this anime movie is definitely miles better than the live action movie from 1993, that's for sure. What were those filmmakers thinking?!

I don't have it in me to write three different sections on the Alicization arc, so this review is going to cover the whole thing from start to finish.

The Sword Art Online series has been a mixed bag for me, and that trend continues with the Alicization arc. Ordinal Scale was a decent build up to it, but did Alicization really live up to the hype the movie brought up? Let's DIVE right into it!

The story of Sword Art Online: Alicization is by far the most complex of them all. For each main arc, there are a few general requirements they all must have.

1. A ... new virtual reality world.
2. A new deuteragonist.
3. A new antagonist.

What's interesting about Alicization is that it fulfills the second and third requirements twice. Compared to previous arcs, Alicization is long with a grand total of forty-seven episodes! It's even organized into two different halves, with the second half being subtitled War of Underworld.

Part One

Alicization takes place in a virtual reality called Underworld. What's different about Underworld compared to previous virtual worlds is that it is NOT a video game! Underworld is created as part of the Project Alicization that's being worked on by the company Rath. The purpose of the project is to create a perfect artificial intelligence that can use unmanned weapons to defend Japan. One of the employees, Seijiro Kikuoka has enlisted Kirito to assist in the project as a tester by diving into Underworld through a Soul Translator. There is a catch: Kirito's memories of the real world do not carry over to the Underworld and vice versa. Well... that is the case initially.

However, things take a turn for the worst when the last remaining member of the Death Gun plot, Johnny Black attacks Kirito by injecting a lethal drug into him. The drug has damaged Kirito's brain and the only way to heal it is through the Soul Translator. That means Kirito is going to be staying in Underworld for quite a while. This time, he does retain his memories of the real world. Soon, he meets Eugeo, who is tasked to chop down the Demon Tree. Kirito helps Eugeo out and in just a few episodes, the Demon Tree goes down. The village celebrates and offers the two a choice on what they want to do next. They decided to become swordsmen and the two attend an academy to train. There is one goal in their mind: To rescue Eugeo's childhood friend Alice, who was arrested by Integrity Knights for accidentally walking into the Dark Territory. However, the Administrator Quinella isn't going to let the boys take Alice back so easily. Plus, there are rules to be followed in Underworld and the moment somebody violates even one of them, their fate is sealed.

Part Two: War of Underworld

After intense boss battles against several Integrity Knights, Kirito was able to convince Alice, who has become an Integrity Knight herself, to join his campaign to end Quinella's totalitarian reign. He has successfully defeated Quinella, but Eugeo did not survive the fight. Unfortunately, another problem comes up immediately. Rath is under attack by the Glowgen Defense Systems wanting to steal Alice. They cause a power surge that completely decimates Kirito, and now he's completely in a state of catatonia for the majority of the second half of the arc. Alice has no choice, but to take care of him as well as prepare for the upcoming war with the Dark Territory as the gate that divides the two halves of Underworld is weakening. As soon as the gate goes down, the creatures of the Dark Territory will invade the Human Empire.

The two leading men of the invaders, Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer and Vassago Casals / Prince of Hell enter Underworld using two accounts that let them take on the identities of the Dark Emperor Vecta and a Dark Knight respectively. Subtilizer encourages the creatures of the Dark Territory to slaughter mankind. Meanwhile, the Integrity Knights are nervous while preparing for the upcoming war due to their recent loss of Quinella. Will the Human Empire be able to prevail?

Part Three: War of Underworld Second Season

While the Human Empire seems to be managing just fine with help from Asuna, who has entered Underworld, a member of the Glowgen Defense Systems grants access to Underworld to gamers in other parts of the world advertising the virtual reality as a demo. The foreign gamers entered Underworld and without a care in the world, begin to slaughter inhabitants of the Human Empire and the Dark Territory. When things start to look hopeless, all of Kirito and Asuna's friends arrive along with several players from Alfheim Online through account converting in order to save the inhabitants of Underworld. This is the closest Kirito's friends have ever gotten to do something big in the whole series. It wasn't easy for them to recruit all those players to join them because of the risks they're going to have to take. They're going to have to hold out as much as they can until the members of Rath manage to restore Kirito back to his old self.

If you ask me which of these three parts I liked the most, I'd say the first part was the most engaging. This might be a hot take, but I really wish this arc was just the first part because War of Underworld was honestly frustrating to watch. Let me get into the characters to show you what I mean.

The Human Empire of Underworld functions under a corrupt government established by Quinella. Some people who are taken as prisoners for breaking the law are chosen to become Integrity Knights at the cost of their memories. What's pretty messed up is that the rules are completely arbitrary. Warning! I'm about to say something really unpleasant about Underworld. For whatever reason, murder is a criminal offense... but sexual assault isn't. Kirito and Eugeo actually got arrested for murdering a guy to save their underclasswomen from you-know-what! I take back what I said last paragraph. The entire Alicization arc is utterly ridiculous! It's so stupid. The legal system is so rigged. Oh well, at least Quinella was an interesting villain since she's the first and only female antagonist in all of Sword Art Online. How she came to be the ruler of the humans is very interesting.

The reason why I really am annoyed by the War of Underworld half of the arc is because of the antagonists Subtilizer and the Prince of Hell. I'll start with the latter. The Prince of Hell was the leader of the murderer guild Laughing Coffin all the way back in the first arc of the series. I don't like this. We already had a former Laughing Coffin member antagonist back in the Phantom Bullet arc. I never even liked the guild since the beginning. Death Gun was a well written antagonist with the concept of creating an illusion that an avatar in a gun MMO has the power to actually kill players in real life by shooting them in game. I don't know what the writer was thinking with the Prince of Hell. All of a sudden, he can magically brainwash the gamers invading Underworld to obey his command. Like, where did he even get that ability. No such skill even existed within his Sword Art Online avatar back in Aincrad. There is literally no explanation as to why he has the power to brainwash people in a virtual reality that's not even meant to be a game. At this point, the writer is just making him a big bad just because he can.

Subtilizer is nowhere near any better. He's some expert Gun Gale Online player who managed to win a tournament unarmed. He's also a creep, explicitly saying he wants to devour other people's souls and that's what he intends to do to everybody in Underworld. Just like the Prince of Hell, he somehow can transform himself into a hideous monstrosity with no form of explanation of how or where or when he got this ability. They're unlikable compared to past male villains. Akihiko just wanted to see his dream world come to life and have others to join him in it. Sugo may have been a psycho for Asuna, but at least he had a motive to be the successor of her family's company. The Death Gun plot was made as a revenge scheme against a top player who fed poor advice. Subtilizer only became obsessed with souls after murdering a friend during his childhood and the Prince of Hell just hates Japanese people over the lack of attention he gets from his Japanese father. These two are total scum and they drag the whole arc down completely for me.

Now that I let me anger out on some bad antagonists, I guess I can talk about the characters of Underworld. There are a lot of inhabitants in this virtual reality. If it's one favor the gaming invaders did for this world, it's that their invasion forced the Human Empire and the Dark Territory to actually join forces. It's impressive that all it takes is a common enemy for the two peoples to become allies with each other.

My favorite character interaction has to be between Suguha / Leafa and the orc Lilpilin. Upon entering Underworld, Leafa acts friendly towards Lilpilin, even saying that since he is talking to her, that makes him "human." When a dark mage attacks them, they worked together to defeat her.

Now it's time to talk about the deuteragonists. It's truly astonishing that we finally got a male secondary lead character... and they decided to kill him off. Eugeo was a great partner and friend to Kirito during their journey to save Alice from Quinella. Speaking of which, it's not Sword Art Online without having a female lead character. Alice takes charge in leading the human army in War of Underworld while Kirito was in his catatonic state. As an Integrity Knight, she takes her job very seriously, even going as far as to save her home village when it was under attack by goblins regardless of still being branded a criminal among the villagers. She is also the main center of attention in the battle between Rath and the Glowgen Defense Systems. Both organizations seek to bring her out of Underworld. Obviously, the latter company wishes to use her for evil.

I've been mixed with the story and characters so far. If there are any major positives, they would have to be the animation and the music. A-1 Pictures really knocked it out of the park with the animation compared to past arcs and short stories of the Sword Art Online series. Every major fight scene was a sight to behold, and the opening and ending sequences were very fluid. Previous seasons have kept things simple. It's not that they're bad. The studio really put a lot of extra effort into the Alicization arc. As for the music, all eight songs used throughout the whole arc are very good. Even on days when I got time to binge some episodes, I never skip them. You know an anime's soundtrack does not fail if I'm not skipping them.

Since Ordinal Scale was created before the anime adaptation of Alicization, they decided to put some references to the movie in it. There is a scene where Kirito's friends use the Augma and one where Eiji and Yuna appear. Those aren't in the original light novel since the novels were published before Ordinal Scale was made. I don't read the light novels, so I really like it when I do research and learn about little things like this.

One thing very weird about Alicization is that its second half is also split into two. The War of Underworld half is an instance of a twenty-three-episode anime being split where there is a long wait between the twelfth and thirteen episodes. I generally don't like it when a split like this happens because usually the split occurs on a cliffhanger. At least each half of War of Underworld comes with a courtesy of providing seasonal viewers a recap episode one week beforehand. Oh, I just remembered one more crazy thing about the first half. For some reason, they decide to make a recap episode in between episodes eighteen and nineteen. It's so unnecessary and wastes the audience's time. I know it's supposed to be Kirito explaining things to Alice, but it shouldn't even be a recap episode in the first place. Of course, now that it's been out for over five years, those of you who have yet to watch this arc can just skip the recaps.

Was Alicization worth the excitement? Well... I did say that it is a mixed bag to me all the way in the beginning of the review, so in a way, it sort of is. I'd give the whole arc a 6/10. Love the animation quality, the soundtrack, and the references to Ordinal Scale. However, I'm not a fan of the two antagonists of the second half. They really make me sometimes wish the arc was just the first half, but then again, the Human Empire's rules were so arbitrary that I find the first half to be hardly any better than the second. This is not worth typing three different sections for.

Unlike Sword Art Online: Extra Edition which was made mostly just to do a recap of Season 1 before Season 2 was released, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale has a full fledged story that brings the concept of the Augma to the Sword Art Online universe. What's also interesting is that Ordinal Scale is an original anime interquel taking place in between Mother's Rosario and Alicization. The manga adaptation of it came later.

The Augma is a special device that projects a game layer in the user's area of vision while still being in reality. In other words, it's a middle ground between the ... real world and the virtual reality. It became popular very quickly. The most popular game the Augma came with is called Ordinal Scale, a combat based game where events are held in public spaces where players gather together to fight bosses. As a matter of fact, bosses from the Aincrad Arc have been announced to appear, which really excites everyone. Though Kirito was one of the best players of Sword Art Online, he struggles to keep up with Ordinal Scale since his physical strength in the real world is puny.

In the event a boss from Sword Art Online appears, a virtual idol named Yuna also appears and sings a song during the boss fight. The players are also given aid by a guy named Eiji. At first, everybody is enjoying these boss fights. Later in the movie however, Eiji seems to be sabotaging some of the survivors of Sword Art Online causing them to lose the game. To make matters worse, it seems that those who were defeated by the bosses are suffering memory loss. On top of all of that, Asuna unfortunately ended up as one of these victims. She can't even remember the first time she met Kirito. Looks like it's up to Kirito to figure out what's going on and to restore everybody's memories.

Ordinal Scale is the first instance where the artstyle of the series has changed. This new artstyle is still the current style as it's used in the Alicization arc as well as the Progressive movies. I really don't have a preference over which one I like better. Either one's fine by me. The animation of the augmented reality was really good. It's as if Virtual Reality really has become real. Does that make any sense? Probably not. Plus, I'm not one to talk about Virtual Reality since I never used any products myself and I don't plan on trying any.

The characters of Sword Art Online still remain the characters fans of the series know and love since the beginning. Kirito and Asuna's romance is still cute. Klein is still a fun guy as ever. Leafa and Sinon are there to help Kirito in investigating the memory loss issue. They're all hardly different from how they were in the main seasons. The new characters introduced in Ordinal Scale were interesting. Early on, Eiji gave a hint that he himself is one of the people who were in Sword Art Online. There is a secret behind the virtual idol Yuna that I will not spoil for those who haven't watched this movie and are interested. Finally, there is Professor Tetsuhiro Shigemura, the man who created the Augma. If there is anybody who knows why Sword Art Online survivors are suffering memory loss, only he would know.

Admittingly, I'm not really digging Ordinal Scale's soundtrack. When it comes to Sword Art Online music, I'd say the music from the first two seasons are absolute bangers. Yuna is a good singer, but to me, she's got nothing compared to the O.G.'s.

Another thing I want to address is the part where Kirito tried to inform people on social media about Asuna and Klein losing their memories. Look, I get that anybody who wasn't trapped in Sword Art Online would not suffer this fate when they lose in Ordinal Scale, but there are six thousand survivors. There are bound to be others out there experiencing it. There really is no reason for all the rude responses Kirito received. If you really wanted to show that the people do not believe Kirito, you could've have them commented in a more civilized manner. Instead of cr@p like "LIES!" and "Loser trying to hog all the points to himself," have respectable comments such as "My friends and I haven't experience such a thing," or "Maybe your friends used the Augma a little too much. They should take a load off."

Despite not being a fan of some of its elements, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale is a solid movie in my opinion. It is definitely better than Extra Edition. The only thing in common these two movies have with each other is to prepare viewers for the next season. Just like how Extra Edition was made in preparation for Season 2, The Ordinal Scale was made to get viewers to be hyped for the anime adaptation of the Alicization Arc, which is the fourth main arc of the series. With that said, I'll be giving Ordinal Scale 8/10. It has a very good concept and it did a decent job showing it off.

If there is any anime that perfectly captures what it's like to be backstabbed, it would be The Rising of the Shield Hero. This anime in the Other World genre tells the story of how the main character is constantly being looked down by a world he was summoned to and all he can do is whatever it takes for him to fulfill his job as a hero, so that he can return home and just forget about it. I can easily relate to that, and it is why The Rising of the Shield Hero ended up becoming worthy of being listed as one of ... my personal favorite anime.

One day, the main character Naofumi Iwatani finds and reads a book about four heroes. One of these heroes appears to only wield a shield. That hero does have his own section in the book, but it's blank. From there, Naofumi gets teleported to another world and the next thing he knows, he is standing beside three other boys and they are all being addressed as heroes. It seems that they all have been pulled into the world of the book and Naofumi just so happens to end up as the Shield Hero. The other heroes are Motoyasu Kitamura the Spear Hero, Ren Amaki the Sword Hero, and Itsuki Kawasumi the Bow Hero.

In the world the heroes have been summoned to, there are catastrophes called waves. In the event a wave occurs, the skies turn bloody red and several horrifying monsters invade the land. The Kingdom of Melromarc managed to subdue the first wave with its own army, but subsequent waves will require aid from the four heroes. In order for the four heroes to prepare, they all need to train separately. That's right. They can't form a party together because cooperation hinders the development of their weapons. Therefore, they each need to gather their own teammates to work with. Of course being the Shield Hero, nobody wants to join Naofumi... except one girl who goes by the name Myne. Naofumi was optimistic after their first day together went well, but that was short lived. The following morning, Naofumi finds his belongings gone and before he can search for the thief, he gets captured by knights and brought back to the castle. There he is accused of assaulting Myne and with "evidence," he is found guilty. This leads to everyone in Melromarc, including the other three heroes to hate Naofumi.

After losing everything, Naofumi is all on his own. Not only is he found guilty for something he didn't do, he also faces wrongful judgment on the account he's the Shield Hero. On top of all that, heroes aren't allowed to pick up weapons that don't match the type they're assigned to. That means Naofumi is unable to carry anything else besides shields, so all he can do for now is defense, and because defense is all he's good for, he can barely hurt monsters at all by himself. The weakest creature in this world are Balloons, and it takes several punches for Naofumi to kill a single one of them. One night, he encounters a merchant who offers him a slave. A slave is bounded by a cursed crest that hurts them should they try to disobey their master. That means that they can't backstab Naofumi like Myne did. Naofumi finds and chooses a diseased half raccoon girl named Raphtalia. Despite taking her in as his slave, Naofumi does the complete opposite of what you would expect of a typical slave owner. He gives her food when she's hungry, he buys a toy ball for her after seeing her watch some kids with one, and makes medicine to cure her sickness. All of these make Raphtalia devote herself to Naofumi.

The studio Kinema Citrus did an excellent job with the animation. From wholesome moments between Naofumi and his allies to the scenes where they are battling enemies, everything's just perfect. Even the opening animations are a sight to behold. I've watched The Rising of the Shield Hero multiple times and I have not seen any errors or mistakes. It's that good.

The Rising of the Shield Hero has a fantastic cast of characters. Well, I'll admit that Myne definitely deserves to be hated since she's being a pest who tries to hinder Naofumi's progress. The same can be said for all the other d!ckish people who discriminate Naofumi. They are all bigger threats than the waves. That being said, Naofumi and his allies are the stars of the show. I really love the chemistry between them as well as how they are hardworking and doing the right thing to help the people of Melromarc.

Naofumi the Shield Hero is someone I can relate to. After being betrayed by Myne, he became rather cynical and distrustful around nearly everyone in Melromarc. When given a task to do, Naofumi makes sure he will get a reward and will not allow himself to be cheated. It does get under some people's skin, and he does not care. In the end of the day, he does appear to have some satisfaction in helping others as he is slowly but surely getting back to his old self. For instance, in his first experience in fighting a wave, instead of joining the other heroes to locate and defeat a boss monster, he goes to a town to save its people. For his efforts, some relatives of those people want to return the favor to him. There is a moment where Naofumi says "Thank you" to someone, which he quickly realizes that it's something he thought he'd never say again. Regardless, he's always on the lookout for any red flags to make sure he doesn't get set up again. Initially, blocking attacks with his shield was all he was good for. As he trains and grows stronger, he gains various abilities such as Air Strike Shield where he can make a shield appear from a short distance and Shield Prison which creates a round cage of shields that can either be used to protect himself or trap enemies inside.

Raphtalia is an example of how to make a good female lead character. Just like how Naofumi was judged for being the Shield Hero, Raphtalia has faced discrimination on the account of being a demi-human, beings who are half human, half animal. Naofumi originally bought her to be the one to attack monsters for him. All the things he do for her are to make sure she is able to fight. He was only thinking for himself and only believed the slave crest was making her obedient. That is until Myne sets him up and tries to separate them by setting up a 1v1 Duel between him and Motoyasu, and should Naofumi lose, he has to give up Raphtalia. Obviously, the duel was rigged to make him lose, and the Raphtalia's slave crest was removed. While Naofumi thought it's the end for him, Raphtalia refuses to leave his side and even lets him sleep on her lap for the rest of the night. This proves to Naofumi that he can trust Raphtalia and he found it surprising to see her go out of her way to visit the slave merchant and get back her slave crest. Raphtalia says this many times: She is Naofumi's sword. Wherever he goes, she will follow. Other than her strong devotion to Naofumi, Raphtalia's other selling point as the main female lead is her backstory and one episode is centered around it.

While Raphtalia believes in Naofumi and developes feelings for him, she is not the only ally he recruited. When getting a new slave crest, Naofumi notices a bunch of eggs, which happen to be a little lottery game. You will most likely have a filolial, giant birds native to Melromarc that love to pull carriages, or a dragon which is said to be the jackpot and worth lots of money. In the interest of having another comrade, Naofumi buys an egg which later hatches into a filolial. He names it Filo. If this review was in video form, there would definitely be a "Badum Tish!" drum sound right now. Besides the uncreative name, Filo is very attached to Naofumi since the moment she was born. With one of Naofumi's skills as the Shield Hero, Filo was able to grow within the span of two days. Eventually, it's revealed that Filo is a Filolial Queen. One her abilities is that she is able to have a human form, and that form is a cute little girl with wings on her back. In that form, Filo literally acts like one and it's entertaining to watch. She is able to switch between her two forms and is able to speak in either one as well as engage in combat.

Now the last character technically isn't in Naofumi's party, but I like to think she is. As a matter of fact, she thinks so too! She is Melty Q. Melromarc. Notice her last name? Yep, that's right. She is the Second Princess of Melromarc, and she is Myne's younger sister. I guess I should mention this now. Myne's real name is Malty S. Melromarc. Yes, yes, I know. One uncreative name after another. First, a filolial named Filo and now, two princesses with similar names with only one letter being different. Don't worry. There is no Milty, Molty, or Multy. Gosh, could you imagine if the light novel author actually did that? Moving right along, the fact that Malty is one of the princesses of the kingdom means that she is able to manipulate others into turning against Naofumi. Well, Melty is the complete opposite of her older sister. She does what's good for the people of Melromarc and does not discriminate anybody at all. In fact, being the more well behaved of the two princesses, Melty is chosen to be the next in line for the throne. Despite this, Naofumi refuses to trust anybody in the royal family based on his negative experiences with the king and Malty. He does eventually accept her after protecting her from Malty's attempts at assassinating her. After foiling the assassination, Melty does stay in the castle for her royal duties, but she is willing to join Naofumi in fighting the next wave. You know what... this is the kind of princess I like to see. Melty is very kind to others and is capable of fighting. Plus, when she was introduced, she quickly became friends with Filo and played with her all day. She's my favorite character in this anime and I am adding her to my favorite characters list.

When it comes to the voice acting, I think everybody did an amazing job with their roles. As for the soundtrack, the opening songs totally fit this anime. I really don't have a preference over which of the two I like more. They're both sung by the same group, Madkid, and they both get you hyped for the next episode you're about to watch. The ending songs are also perfect. While they're not rocking n' rolling like the openings, their calm tones are great to send off the ending of each episode. They're also accompanied by animation sequences showing off Naofumi and Raphtalia's relationship. Even though Raphtalia's love for Naofumi is rather one-sided, Naofumi still appreciates her company. They may never be officially a couple, but they do trust each other very much. There is one more ending song sang by Raphtalia's voice actress Asami Seto, and it's used exclusively on the fourth episode, the one where the king and Malty tried to separate them, but Raphtalia chose to stay with Naofumi. It's actually more of an insert song since the episode doesn't end with an ending animation. Even though it's used once, it's memorable since it plays while Raphtalia is reassuring Naofumi after the rigged duel.

With all these positives, I absolutely enjoyed watching The Rising of the Shield Hero. I love the story, the animation, the characters, and the soundtrack. I am going to give this anime a perfect 10. It's an excellent work in the Other World genre and I will always have a blast rewatching it... well, the first season. Oh man... the second season is kind of a downgrade. You'll just have to wait to see what I have to say about it in the future.

Even though I'm into female protagonists, The World Is Still Beautiful feels like a mixed bag in my opinion. It has its moments of giving me a good impression, but it also has parts that could've been better or things that could've been in it.

The story is very interesting. It is centered on two countries in a fantasy world: The Sun Kingdom and the Rain Dukedom. Hey, admit it. You actually thought the latter nation was going to be called the Moon Kingdom the second you first read "Sun Kingdom." The Sun Kingdom is ruled by King Livius Orvinus Ifrikia and under his reign, he ... has conquered almost the entire world. The king will only allow the Rain Dukedom to retain its autonomy on the condition that he gets to marry one of the Dukedom's princesses. Princess Nike Lemercier ended up being chosen to be sent after a humiliating loss in roshambo with her older sisters. No joke, really. The princesses actually settled on who will go to the Sun Kingdom with Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Upon meeting Livius, Nike was shocked to see that the king is twelve years old. At first, Livius demands the princess to show him her power to summon the rain, making it seem like it's the main reason he wanted to marry her. However, as the story progresses, Nike and Livius developed romantic feelings for each other to the point where being separated for too long due to royal duties can be painful. Despite their relationship becoming geniune, there are multiple antagonists who don't approve of them being together and serve as a threat to them. Each antagonist has a different reason for wanting to prevent Nike and Livius's marriage making each of them feel like a fresh new obstacle.

The first episode made me really like Princess Nike and I wanted to put her in my list of favorite characters. Unfortunately, I feel like her best shining moment happened to be in the first episode. There are a few times in later episodes where she could've been in a much bigger spotlight only for it to just feel like a missed opportunity. One of these instances is during the Rite of Illumination, where Nike must navigate through a labyrinth to find a ring to prove her right to marry Livius. It turns out to be a sham, and that the Ministry of Priesthood only made it up as a means to assassinate princesses. Rather than being an awesome battle, the event ended up with Nike meeting up with Livius, who snuck in through a secret passage, and escaping with him and they later expose the Priesthood for their crimes. I expected to see Nike fight the assassins because she's been shown to be able to defend herself at the beginning of the anime, so I was pretty upset to not get what I wanted. Besides these moments, Nike is a good female protagonist in terms of her abilities and her personality. By the way, I just want ask: Why does Nike keep her earrings on in bed? I know it's just fiction, but that seriously cannot be comfortable.

King Livius has a very intriguing background. Apparently, the previous king married a commoner, a woman named Sheila. For that alone, nobody accepted her and Livius and as a result, Livius spent his early years just being by his mother's side isolated. At some point, Sheila died and when Livius became the next king, he mercilessly took over the world to distract himself from the pain of losing her. As you can guess from this, Sheila was actually assassinated and it took a mental toll on Livius. Here's the thing. It's only said that Sheila was killed. There is no flashback showing this exact event. Since we do not get to see it, it kind of makes it debatable on whether or not Livius's cruel side is justified. Plus, Livius's temper is rather inconsistent. When his uncle Bard tried to seduce Nike, he had him locked in prison. Nike asked him to calm down and he literally responded with threatening to burn down the Rain Dukedom. Shortly after, Nike breaks Bard out wanting him and Livius to reconcile and the following morning, Livius literally remains calm even though he knows Nike freed Bard. I will give props to Livius for the high levels of intellect he possesses. He is able to tell when Nike is hiding something by seeing her rain being different from its usual after she received a letter that her grandmother has collapsed.

Now for the music. I really enjoy the opening theme Beautiful World. The opening sequence is very interesting as it actually updates almost every episode. On the first episode, Nike is practically alone the whole time and on the second episode, Livius is added to the opening, and as more characters are introduced, they will be added to it as well. This is a detail I really like to see, and it helps me enjoy the song more and more each time. The ending song Promise is also beautiful... no pun intended. I just hope nobody minds the fact that the ending sequence ends showing that the sleeping Livius is actually nak... hold up, saying this might actually be not safe for work. Sorry!

One of my personal favorite insert songs ever is Beautiful Rain, which is the song Nike sings in order to summon the rain. I replayed it so many times on the first time she sang it. It was that addictive to listen to. Contrary to that, I sort of wish there was more varietty in rain summoning music because Beautiful Rain is literally the only song Nike uses throughout the whole anime. I love the song, but it can get tiring after hearing it for over half of all the episodes.

The World Is Still Beautiful was a beautiful anime, but it has some missed opportunities along with a lack of varietty in insert songs. If anything, I wish this anime was more than twelve episodes, so it could've had more time to improve on some areas. With some extra episodes to work with, we could've had Nike fight against the assassins alone for a while before reuniting with Livius as well as giving Livius an adequate amount of time to calm down after he gets furious at his uncle for carrying Nike to her room. We could've also had a clear flashback to see how was Sheila killed and how it motivated Livius's bad side. If this ever gets a second season, I really hope it can fix my personal issues with this singular season.

This is not the first slice of life I watched. Place to Place may have been nice to watch casually back when it was new in 2012. However, it's 2024 and several better options to pick for the genre have been made over the years. Plus, other slice of life anime have SOMETHING to make them stand out. Here are a couple of examples. Is the Order a Rabbit? has its characters working part-time in cafes. The Demon Girl Next Door has the powers of light and darkness co-existing with each other. What does Place to Place have? A romantic comedy where the main female ... lead character has superhuman strength and the main male lead character is so charming, girls get nosebleeds around him. That's it, and I refuse to believe those things carry Place to Place.

As I said, Place to Place is a romantic comedy that follows the lives of Tsumiki Miniwa and Io Otonashi. Despite the startling difference in height between them, they are the same age and thus, they are in the same grade in school. Tsumiki obviously has a huge crush on Io, but she cannot bring herself to tell him directly. Since this is a slice of life anime, the entire show is centered on the two participating in all sorts of activities together along with their fellow classmates and friends. There are no antagonists to serve as a threat to the main characters. It's all about Tsumiki and Io making progress in their relationship.

I will say the art seems to be good for what it is. The main cast looks good, the settings look good, all the people-
OH MY GOSH!!!

WHO DID THIS?! Who thought it was okay to gray out and white polka-dot all the surrounding people in this?! Every other anime has everybody look like normal people. If this is what the illustrator of the manga did, then screw them. Unless you're doing an anime adaptation of To the Moon, there is no reason to do this sort of thing.

Tsumiki is really strong for a character who is really short, though it's probably just a thing the writer put in for comedic purposes. There are several moments where the anime shows Tsumiki's superhuman strength such as being able to pick up and throw giant snowballs or cracking eggs with just a mere tap of a finger. However, this strength never comes to be something important to keep in mind. If anything, sometimes I wish Tsumiki is a protagonist of an action adventure anime because watching a little girl Bruce Lee her way through her enemies would be funny.

Io might be the only character who stands out to me. Since he is Tsumiki's crush, any time he gives the girl a pat on the head, cat ears pop out. No, Tsumiki doesn't have any cat DNA in her. It's just a comedic visual. To add on to that visual, cats are easily attracted to Io. Io is shown to be able to spin a pen really fast, which comes off as impressive to other characters. The one thing I can easily relate with Io is his hatred for mosquitoes. I mean, I'm sure we all have experienced some bad summer nights because when it's time for bed and you're trying to get some sleep, those little pests just love to buzz right next to your ears. It made me happy to see Io snipe every mosquito that showed up. Other than that, he's just there to give Tsumiki his support whenever he can.

One of Tsumiki and Io's friends is Hime Haruno. I'll be blunt. "Hime" is definitely an unfitting name for her. Remember that I mentioned girls getting nosebleeds earlier in this review? Yeah, Hime gets them extremely frequently each and every time she witnesses a cute and/or romantic moment between the main duo. They even show it in the opening sequence. It's not just her. There are times where Tsumiki experiences a nosebleed as well. There is even one moment where Io made every girl in school get nosebleeds, and at that point, I got really sick of that gag.

The next character is Mayoi Katase and she's a very mischievious girl. She likes to play pranks on her friends such as giving them chocolate with frog legs inside on Valentine's Day... YUCK! It was so traumatizing that the characters remembered it the next time they gave each other chocolate. You know, if there's one thing a slice of life anime shouldn't do, it's to forget events from earlier episodes. The chocolate shenanigans is one of the very few things the characters remember. Most of the time, after an event or activity, it never gets referenced ever again as if it never happened. I think that's a major negative I have with Place to Place. Though in Mayoi's case, the anime does show to reference events from an earlier episode in a later one. For instance, Mayoi likes to tease Tsumiki over her crush on Io, sometimes to the point it gets on Tsumiki's last nerve. This leads to Tsumiki using her immense strength to beat up Mayoi. In the very first episode, Mayoi made Tsumiki mad and the latter sent the former right into a wall. In a later episode, Mayoi makes Tsumiki mad again in the same area and is thrown into the wall again. It's shown that the hole from the first time is still there. I feel so sorry for the owner.

The last character is Sakaki Inui, the only other male character in this friendship circle. Sakaki is Io's best friend as the two of them are seen working part-time together in a cake shop and they like to go to the arcade to play games. Sakaki is also Mayoi's partner in pranking the other characters. Like Mayoi, Sakaki frequently is a victim to getting smacked, although it happens accidentally. Remember the giant snowballs back on my paragraph about Tsumiki? Well, Tsumiki tried to get her snowman's head on top of its body, but ended up dropping it right on Sakaki.

Now, this anime's music... I don't like the songs. The beginning of the opening song is totally annoying. The ending part of it is fine, but gosh, trying to listen to it from start to finish was not a fun experience. The only thing going for it is that the voice actors of the five main characters sing it. The ending song is only sung by Tsumiki's voice actress. Don't get me wrong, I think Rumi Okubo did a great job, but the song itself isn't catchy at all to me. Also, the ending sequence is literally an advertisement for figures of the characters. It literally shows off all of them while they're rotating.

Place to Place may be a cute little slice of life anime, but it definitely has not aged the best. The grayed out and white polka-dotted citizens and students look completely ugly. The music wasn't my cup of tea and the voice acting wasn't anything special. The characters themselves are fun in their own ways, but most of the things they do together don't stand out and as a result, I'm just left unimpressed by the end of the anime.

If you enjoyed Place to Place, I wish I could too. I feel like as a slice of life anime, it's been completely outclassed by some series that came after it. The things that the other slice of life shows have actively come into play making them much more better options than this. Place to Place would not be a good introduction to the genre, and I'm glad I didn't pick this as my first slice of life anime. I just want to get this one out of the way before I bring myself to talk about the slice of life shows that I do like.

I don't watch mystery themed works most of the time, but I was lured by the visuals and the synopsis while browsing through mystery anime one night. The Mystic Archives of Dantalian had a wonderful first episode, but the more progress I made, the less impressed I got, and the ending was just an epic fail. I really wanted to not put this anime in the red zone, but after attempting a second chance at it, it's clear to me that I truly dislike it.

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is a historical fiction anime that takes place in England after World War I. The main ... character Hugh (Huey) Anthony Disward received a letter informing him of his grandfather's death. According to his grandfather's will, Huey is entrusted to take care of his property, specifically his massive collection of books at his mansion. Upon arriving at the mansion, Huey finds a secret passage leading him to a room filled with books and a girl named Dalian. I got to call Huey out for being dumb in his first meeting with Dalian. The last line on his grandfather's will said to take care of Dalian. He read the sentence, he finds the first living person inside the place, and yet he still assumes his grandfather was referring to a pet. Dalian had every right to get mad at him in that moment.

Moving right along, it just so happens that Dalian isn't any regular girl. She is known as the Black Reading Princess and holds the entire archives of Dantalian inside her body and can only be accessed by the one who holds the key to opening the lock on her chest. Huey actually has the key, which he held on to since he got it from his childhood. When he was a kid, he somehow managed to get inside the archives and there he meets a girl who is in charge of taking care of the place. Huey promises her that he will one day find a way to free her from the archives and into the outside world. It's never explained how he ever got inside all those times as it's been shown that he would've needed the key to get in.

The purpose of the archives is to contain all the Phantom Books of the world. However, it appears that somehow some people have gotten their hands on some of these books and they ended up either abusing their powers or getting cursed by the mystic tomes. Throughout the anime, Huey and Dalian go around England to investigate any incidents they come across and they must fix the problems. In most cases, Huey will need to open up the archives within Dalian, which will give him the proper book to read in order to undo the spell caused by a Phantom Book. This sort of anime would be fine in the old school era where anime had around thirty to over fifty episodes. Let me put it to you this way: This is a 2011 anime, the year where shows started to have on average twelve episodes, that tried to do the filler style. Yes, THE filler style. You know, the very thing that shows like Sailor Moon utilized? The first light novel may have been published in 2008, but the anime came in too little, too late. Filler episodes simply cannot be tolerated in the modern day, and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian sadly fell into the pitfall.

Already we're off to a bad start, but it wouldn't be so bad if the characters were at least entertaining. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them weren't. The main duo Huey and Dalian aren't too shabby... when they are simply living their lives in the mansion and running errands. I really like Dalian's feisty personality. Whenever someone makes a mistake or embarrass themselves in front of her, she will literally disparage them especially if the person she trash talks to is Huey. I also like it when asked a Yes or No question, Dalian answers in English. Even though I like Dalian's personality and style of speech, she's completely all bark and no bite. What do I mean by this? See, whenever Huey ends up making Dalian REALLY angry, she would punch or kick him. That alone would make her look like a lovable character, but when there's an enemy on the screen, Dalian just does not know self-defense and literally cannot fight for her life. Every single time the duo encounters an enemy, Huey literally has to carry Dalian away from attacks that are directed towards her, and in the worst case where he looks away for even a split second, Dalian will get caught forcing Huey to forfeit and comply to the enemy's demands. Having to watch the female lead not fight at all was nothing but pure agony.

Huey's acquaintances aren't much better either. His childhood friend Camilla doesn't get to do much that contributes to the main conflict. Instead, her role most of the time is to butter Dalian up with all sorts of sweets and desserts. Also, Camilla really enjoys travelling and likes to wear all sorts of costumes in public. They're so silly that there is a scene at the end where she wanted to go out wearing one of them, but her servants try to advise her not to. Huey's other friend is Armand, who was also his comrade in the war. Armand is the very definition of a village idiot. He messed around with Phantom Books not once, but twice. The first time wasn't so bad. He, along with four other men, wanted to rescue a woman they all fell in love with. It's the second time he really should've known what he was signing up for. I'm not going to go in depth on what went down. All you need to know is that he used a book to find a woman to fall in love with, but even the slightest interaction with any other woman will get him in trouble.

The sixth episode strays away from Huey and Dalian and focused on another duo: Hal Kamhout, the Libricide Officer and Flamberge (Flam), the Silver Reading Princess who houses the Long Lost Library. Like the main duo, Hal and Flam are also investigating around England in search of areas affected by Phantom Books. Instead of reading books retrieved from Flam's body, Hal uses them as fuel for his magic staff to burn Phantom Books as well as wipe out the owner's memories of them. This, along with the relationship between the duo and their personalities, made me wish they were the main characters instead. Plus, even though Flam's limbs are restrained, she actually can attack enemies. See that, Dalian? You punch and kick Huey all the time. Shouldn't you be dealing blows to your ENEMIES?

Finally, we have the antagonist duo, some guy who is only referred to as the Professor and the Red Reading Princess Raziel. I really wish they gave the former an actual name. I'm not a fan of characters who are only addressed as their occupation. Anyways, these two are the ones responsible for all the incidents involving Phantom Books all around England. Huey and Dalian come into contact with them in the final episode and without spoiling the details of their meeting, I'm personally not satisfied with how the anime ended. This is the problem with trying to do the filler style in twelve episodes. The anime tries to cram in a lot of content from the source material so it can reach the encounter between the two duos, but at the cost of the potential of proper storytelling and character development as well as what could have been a much better final challenge for the main characters.

Those were my reasons I didn't enjoy The Mystic Archives of Dantalian. The anime does have some saving graces to keep it away from the dreadful rating of 1. First, the artstyle. It perfectly captures the atmosphere of England in the late 1910s and the animation is extremely well done. The voice acting was very good and the background music perfectly matches the setting. I am mixed on the song selection for the Opening and Ending. To Never Know Tomorrow sounds like it came straight out of England post World War I, and its leitmotif is what's used for background music most of the time. The Ending song Yes, Prisoner sounds way too creepy even though it sort of fits the theme of the anime. What hurts it even more is that they didn't make an animated sequence. They literally had actors dress up in creepy costumes and do a skit in a forest and have the whole footage be colorless. Maybe some will find that impressive that it's live action, but I honestly think it's out of place.

Even though I couldn't stand the story, characters, and the finale, there were some episodes I actually enjoyed watching. My top three episodes are episodes 11, 6, and 1. I'm not kidding. To me, this anime peaked at the very beginning and completely fell from grace right at the very end. The Mystic Archives of Dantalian will unfortunately be taking a 4/10 from me and adding it to its bookshelf.

Even though this movie wasn't terrible, I find it to be an unnecessary inclusion to the Sailor Moon franchise. Looking at the release date, it's almost as if the employees at Toei Animation were like: "Oh shoot! We almost forgot to make a movie for this season! Uh... let's make it dream themed just like the regular show! We got to get it done before Christmas Eve!"

Putting my wacky theory on the movie's making aside, I do have to first address the obvious issue. Sailor Moon: Dream Adventure and its movie clearly focused way too much on Chibiusa. I don't hate this character. She was ... introduced in the Black Moon Arc, so it made sense for her to get attention and her friendship with Hotaru during the Infinity Arc was so wholesome. Don't you think that's enough spotlight time for her? I get that Pegasus chose Chibiusa's dream mirror to hide in from the Dead Moon Circus, but they could've limited her time to just her relationship with him. Seriously, I got mad seeing her get between Usagi and Mamoru over and over during the course of the Dream Arc. It was okay in the Black Moon Arc because it was yet to be revealed that she's their daughter, so there's literally no excuse to repeat this style of filler ever. And yes, I still refuse to call the fourth season its official name.

This movie's plot does something different with the dream theme. The evil Queen Badiane plans to create a Black Dream Hole that will swallow the Earth and trap everybody inside Dream Coffins where they will all sleep for eternity. First, she will need to gather "sugar energy" from human children to power up the Black Dream Hole, so she sends her fairy minions Poupelin, Banane, and Orangeat to lure children with a melody and trap them inside Dream Coffins. Meanwhile, Usagi and her friends are baking cookies where Usagi makes cookies that look perfect, but taste terrible while Chibiusa's cookies are the complete opposite. The latter decides to give her cookies to Mamoru (Of course!), but she meets and befriends a boy named Perle and ends up giving her cookies to him.

At night, Badiane's minions arrive to lure more children. This time, Chibiusa also falls for the melody's magic. Usagi and her friends noticed and Usagi was able to get Chibiusa back to her senses by span- oh wait a minute... people from Europe might be reading this, so I shouldn't use that word. Usagi was able to get Chibiusa back to her senses by slapping her rear end. Everybody transforms and they try to fight Poupelin. In the confusion, Perle appears begging his brother Poupelin to not go along with Badiane's plans. Having enjoyed his experiences on Earth and his friendship with Chibiusa, Perle has decided to betray Badiane. This causes Badiane to be interested in Chibiusa and orders Poupelin to seize her. From here, the Sailor Soldiers have to go rescue Chibiusa... AGAIN.

This is clearly a case of lack of originality. For starters, the main antagonist is an evil queen, as if the series didn't have enough of those. I already ranted about the spotlight being given to Chibiusa, but there is more about her I need to point out. In the main season, she interacted with Helios a lot to the point he became her first real crush. Here in the movie, she also falls in love with a male character who is also up against the villain. Do you see the problem with the Sailor Moon: Dream Adventure - The Movie yet? Sure, the villains here are not affiliated with the Dead Moon Circus, but Toei Animation made them way too similar. On top of that, the fairies use airships to travel between Badiane's base and the Earth which is how the Dead Moon Circus arrive in Japan in the Sailor Moon manga.

Now, I can forgive the Sailor Moon R movie for somewhat clashing with Usagi and Mamoru's childhood, but this movie pulls a move that basically proves that this movie is absolutely non-canon. Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, AND Sailor Pluto also join the battle. See how I put "and" in all capital letters? That's because near the end of Sailor Moon S, Sailor Pluto used Time Stop to save Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune from a helicopter explosion. When the spell ran out, she disappeared in the explosion and does not appear again until the final season where she retrieves the Baby Hotaru to help the Sailor Soldiers fight against the returning Queen Nehelenia. This movie clashes with this fact and because of it, we cannot pinpoint where it can possibly take place in. We can for the previous two movies: Sailor Moon R's movie happens after Usagi and Mamoru got back together and Sailor Moon S's movie happens right before Hotaru is revealed to be Sailor Saturn.

One last gripe I have is how Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon defeat Queen Badiane. Sailor Chibi Moon gets her own Moon Kaleido Scope, which wasn't the case in the main season. Yes, she did get her own in the manga, but we're talking about the 1990s anime adaptation here. This clashes with how they fight Lemures. Sailor Chibi Moon would use the Crystal Carillon to summon Pegasus, who will use the Golden Crystal to power up Sailor Moon's Moon Kaleido Scope, so she can finish off the enemy. In fact, the issue I have with the Dream Arc is that this was required as the ONLY way to kill a Lemures. The Stars Arc has it too where only Sailor Moon's attack was the only method to defeat a Phage. I know she's usually the one to finish off an enemy, but in previous arcs there were rare instances that someone else other than Sailor Moon deals the finishing blow. Sailor Mars burned a Youma to a crisp in her introductory episode, the Inner Sailor Soldiers finished off some Cardians in early episodes of the Hell Tree Arc, Sailor Planet Attack was used on the final Droid, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were the ones to kill the first Daimon, and Sailor Jupiter overpowers a Daimon later on in the Infinity Arc.

So far, I've been negative towards this movie. I must really hate it, do I? Well, I do have things I like about this movie. I really like the opening sequence where they show off the Inner Sailor Soldiers when they were younger. They're all cute scenes and I love Minako's the best where she pretends to be in a Wild West gun fight and lost. The cookie baking scene was fitting and resembles all the filler the anime is known for. I love the fact that Sailor Moon uses Moon Tiara Action showing that even when her powers are upgraded every season, she still does have access to older moves. The villains' names are all French words. Badiane is French for Star Anise, Poupelin is a name of a pastry, and Banane and Orangeat are obviously based on fruits. Perle's name is also a French word, and it means Pearl. Finally, the ending song is good. I mean, all three movies have good ending songs. There's not much to say for openings as you can all guess, they all use Moonlight Legend. Voice acting for the main characters are the same as usual.

This movie does have its own charm, but it does suffer from lack of originality and clashing with established facts from the regular seasons. Overall, it's a mixed bag just like its parent season. I'd say 6/10 is the most fitting score for it. Seriously... how did we get this instead of an adaptation of Casablanca Memory? Oh well, if the Sailor Moon Crystal anime is going to do it, it will definitely be faithful to the manga version since it does take place somewhere in the middle of the Dark Kingdom arc as Dark Kingdom members appear in it.

Also, apparently this movie was released with a short film called Ami's First Love that plays right before it. I've seen it and I think it's just okay. I'll give it a 6 as well just because its contents are hardly relevant to the whole series.

Out of the three movies in the first anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon S: The Movie is the only one that is based on a side story from the Sailor Moon manga known as The Lover of Princess Kaguya. That alone isn't the reason I like this movie the most. I find this side story to be very engaging and I daresay it gives the biggest spotlight for Luna, bigger than any filler episode in the main seasons.

Taking place somewhere in the middle of the Infinity arc, an ice creature seeks to turn the Earth into a frozen paradise. It is shown early ... on that she intended to do this a long time ago, but a mysterious silver light from the moon prevented her from doing so. Since that silver light is nowhere to be seen, she now has a chance to take over the Earth. She travels to the planet via a comet that's said to be a part of her. On her way, a piece of the comet fell off and dropped onto the Earth's surface and she is unable to proceed with her plans until she recovers it. The comet piece is picked up by an astronomer named Kakeru who has an overactive imagination that there's a princess living on the moon. He isn't wrong if he was born in a much earlier time if you know what I mean.

Next, we get to see what the main characters are up to. Usagi and her friends are doing some shopping. It's not too long until it's shown that Luna isn't feeling well, and she decides to go home alone, even though everyone suggested that Artemis should tag along with her so she can get there safely since her sickness has her barely able to stand up. She should've heeded their warning since she couldn't cross a street in time and collapsed on the middle of the road by the time the traffic light switches. Fortunately, Luna is saved by Kakeru and she is taken under his care until she recovers from her illness. During her stay at Kakeru's place, Luna developes romantic feelings for Kakeru. She wants to help him in return as little did they know, the comet piece he picked up is draining his energy. However, there is so much a cat can do for a human. Plus, Kakeru already has a love interest named Himeko, though their relationship is sort of awkward since Himeko hardly takes Kakeru's theories seriously. Meanwhile, the ice creature creates minions called Snow Dancers to attack people and search for the missing comet piece.

You might've noticed I haven't said the antagonist's name this whole time. That's because Princess Snow Kaguya isn't her real name. It's the name Kakeru called her comet when he discovered it. When she heard him say it, she happily accepted the name. Either way, it's up to the Sailor Soldiers to save the Earth from Princess Snow Kaguya's invasion while Luna wishes to have a human form, so she can help Kakeru. Not only would she help him recover, she would also fulfill his dream of meeting a princess from the moon.

I will say that this is by far the best movie of the entire Sailor Moon franchise. Yes, I think it's even better than the second anime adaptation of the Dream and Stars arcs. What's even more interesting is that there are two other side stories from the manga that haven't been given an anime adaptation. Well, it makes sense for the one called Parallel Sailor Moon, which is a non-canon alternate universe where Usagi and Mamoru don't become monarchs and establish Crystal Tokyo. However, I do hope that Toei Animation will one day make an adaptation for Casablanca Memory. They really did an excellent job adapting The Lover of Princess Kaguya into a 1990s anime movie, even with differences made from its manga counterpart. Since I don't see any negatives, I believe it deserves a perfect 10/10.