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The way I look at things, getting children into music is never a bad thing, it gives them something to focus on, enhances the brain and can be a future for some, be it as a musician or any of the jobs with a musical need. Well at least thats before starting K-On, some ways should't be used to get kids into music, especially when it dumbs it down to the lowest level.

Story - 2/10

Even though the show sells itself as a music/band show, a majority of the time it's a slice of life/school show, with just a bit of musical talk in-between.

It's not a ... complicated story. Girls enter their freshman year of high school, start a music club and become a band, yeah kinda sums up the whole first season. The reason you can sum up the whole season in few words is the lack of detail or story put into it. In twelve episodes two full years pass, most series don't get a full year done in a full twenty four episode run. Because of this they never dwell on much besides the same repeated gags, heck they apparently had so little content they pretty much repeated two episodes and had a semi-recap episode at the end. The only time I felt they cared about the story was the winter break bonus episode.

More than anything the reason I just had to give the series such a low score is the unrealistic take they have on music. Within a few weeks of getting her guitar, Yui can't really play chords, but she can shred like the best metal musicians, not to mention she has no idea of the other basic components of playing or keeping a guitar. Well maybe there can be one genius who picks up the hardest art that quickly (outside the fact it takes time just to build dexterity to allow you to move so fast) but later in the series her sister Ui mention's holding Yui's guitar a couple times and that alone was enough for her to be a great guitarist. It sets a terrible standard for people who watch the show and want to pick up an instrument. If they feel it was supposed to be so easy, but now they can't play after months, they'll just give up, not realizing it can take years to just be decent. Instead of plowing through two years, shorten the time span but add Yui taking lessons, learning different things or at least just make a her an average player until later in the series.

Animation - 4/10

The pilot episode's animation was all over the place. There was a joke, and a liberal attitude towards, the animation in FLCL and I think these guys took it as a serious way of doing things. There's points when within a scene the animation style would change rapidly, not even waiting for a change or a transition of changing rooms. It could be attributed to using many different key animators in order to get the episode finished, but it was just very jarring and throws you off right at the start.

Things settled down in future episodes and everything started to flow much better, so there is a plus in them getting their act together. Throughout you can see an inspiration from shows like FLCL and Excel Saga, but it just didn't work here. The two shows mentioned are comedies, but they are created for a wide audience with elements of actions, drama and comedy. K-On is a comedy but it seems singularly focused on one demographic, particularly ten to fourteen year old females, so the already cutesy look doesn't need to be enhanced with the chibi looks and wacky faces, or at least not to the degree they did.

As a musician I was always going to nitpick the equipment used, but after that train wreck of a first episode I would have been happy with proper shapes for the instruments, boy was i wrong. When they walked in the music store I was shocked how they got so many instruments correct and to a high detail that was amazing. Between the guitars, amps and drum sets seen in the show, you can see they spent months researching and drawing these items alone.

Sound - 5/10

The music for the show is both decent and terrible at the same time. While the music itself isn't that bad, the lyrics to the opening and closing are horrible. They'd probably make anyone who listened to it a feminist, because the lyrics just make girls out to be morons who want to shop and chase boys. I can understand the lyrics to band's songs being this way, as they are suppose to be from the perspective of the young girls, but the opening and closing songs aren't, heck unlike the songs within the series these two songs even have terrible melodies. The songs the girls are suppose to write have a pretty good sound to them, but again terrible lyrics, but I can let that pass as it seems intentional. One shining star in their song catalog is Fuwa Fuwa Time (I believe that's the one i'm thinking of) which sounds like an Andrew W.K. song but with females singing it.

The voices aren't so bad either. They're cutesy, but they match the girls pretty well and never get to the point you want to shut the show off because of them. Out of all the girls I'd have to say the best voice was that of Tsumugi, they picked a voice that sounded very authentic for the character, but somewhat out of the norm for Anime shows, where every voice is so stylized. The actors did a really good job with the range of emotions they had to put in for each character, it would have just been cool to see if they could do the song lyrics in english too, as they did with the show Beck.

There are very few minor characters or even one off characters to rate, but the fact they were able to keep each girl distinctive might have been helped by that, limiting the doubling up on voice actors and leaving out many other characters in an all girls school that would have to sound somewhat similar.

Characters - 5/10

The characters are pretty run of the mill and due to the speed in which the series passes we don't learn much, but still there's room to grow and that counts for something.

For the whole series there are only eight characters and two or three minor characters. The band consists of Yui, the previously mentioned solo prodigy who can't play simple things on the guitar, who's also a bit of an imbecile. They try to cover her playing and out of the blue perfect test by saying "once she sets her mind to it she'll do anything" but it's a cop out. Ritsu plays drums and is also a bit of moron. Her (Ritsu's) friend from grammar school, Mio, plays bass and is afraid of basically everything. Tsumugi shares the spotlight as the pretty girl (along with Mio) who also comes from an enormously rich family, she's oblivious to the real world and a complete stereotype of dumb rich people. Later in the season underclassman Azusa joins the band as a second guitarist, she's pretty normal and just wants to play her best.

Rounding out the main characters are Nodoka, Yui's childhood friend and member of the student council, she's everything Yui isn't. Yui's sister Ui, who is basically the same character as Nodoka but bubbly, she acts like the mother at home and takes care of Yui. FInally theres Ms. Yamanaka, possibly the most fully developed character in the series, we actually learn about her past, her likes and other little things about her life.

Again I would have loved for them to just develop the characters over a year's time instead of two, but instead we just got many many copies of things we've seen before.

Overall - 5/10

I came in having high hopes for the series, I love being a musician and as I said I think shows geared towards kids that push music are great for growing the art form. But instead we got a fourth rate school show with a little bit of the life here and there. I wouldn't have been as disappointed if it was just marketed as a school show, but they pushed the music angle then ran from it. After each episode I did want to get on to the next, but part of me thinks it was in hopes it would be different.

It's a cute show, just not a rewatch type of show.

With a second season and movie still here for the viewing I hope the series gets back to it's intended path, the bonus episode was a good start, but this show easily strays.

3S review no. 16 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy)

Let’s make one thing clear, once you start watching this show you simply can’t stop. You just have to find out how much more worse it can get. You just have to find out how bad can it be, and still get aired, let alone have this much success. It is truly a masterpiece, the best of the best at touching your feelings. While watching it I was constantly either laughing out loud, or being totally angry. Not for the reasons that the show intended to provoke my feelings, but, the result is what matters right?

Story is… typical ... isekai garbage with some extra trashy twists. Four heroes are summoned in another world to fight the waves of monsters. So it’s like a tower defense, wherever they are in the world, doing training or whatever, suddenly when the wave comes they get teleported there and fight. Fascinating. So, each hero has a special weapon, spear, sword, bow and shield. For whatever reason no one likes the shield hero, no one cares about him, they clearly believed they were better off without summoning him, yet the summoned him anyway, because… well no reason really. The shield hero is always someone who has no knowledge about the world he is summoned, yet the other three heroes have always played a game that works exactly the same as the world the got summoned (even if it has a different name because they all come from different worlds? Dimensions? Whatever), and all that happens for… no reason actually other than to push the underdog status on the shield hero even further, like the fact that he is the only one that can’t use an offensive weapon, and no one cares about him isn’t enough. That being said he is clearly overpowered and his shield is totally busted. So, he didn’t already have it bad enough, the kings first daughter, pretends to join his party, just to frame him and accuse him that he tried to rape her. He loses all his starting money and items and what a surprise turns into a (supposedly) badass edgy character to fight fr himself even though everyone hates him. Now, the king’s daughter did all of that for… no reason really, just to force even more adversity towards the MC. All of the adversity is completely fake and forced and makes the viewer (me at least) aggravated and infuriated by its cheapness and stupidity. The show’s writing is terrible, sloppy, boring, and insulting cause it’s cocky and pretentious. Every simple aspect of it, world building, plot, characters. Everything is awful. Example for the world build, towards the end of the season, there is an event that is happening on an island that is perfect for training. IT’S A DOUBLE EXP EVENT! And I am not even joking, it is not a video game though, they are not trapped in a video game, it is a real world, people die, yet it’ so sloppily constructed, so much little thought has been put into it, so you get this dirty, vague world, where nothing makes sense, yet everything makes sense for convenience purposes. Amazing plot example, episode 21, is the end of a major event, the hero party is at the castle, there is a ceremony and some really sad goodbyes and tears of sadness and joy. That’s how the episode ends. And in episode 22, right at the start, they get summoned at the castle and go right back there. And I am not even joking! Zero thought of effort goes behind anything in this show, they just threw in there whatever they thought would make it more sellable and intriguing for the audience.

Now, for the characters, there is one, only one good thing I can think of, so let’s get this out of the way. The fox-girl, the second leading character I guess, has the hots for the MC, for what it’s worth, this is justified, she developed her feelings during the show, it’s plausible and completely normal. And that’s about it. Every character in this show is either completely braindead, a total cunt, or in most cases both. Everyone, all of them. I don’t know how can one create such characters even if he tries. Characters example, episode 19, finally the heroes get together at last, the events that led up to that, cleared the constant misunderstandings up to that point and now everything should be crystal clear. AND STILL, MC just goes on a lecturing rampage explaining everything cause all of those clinically dead characters still hadn’t gotten it!!! Even the queen that is supposedly the smart one (have I mentioned that in this world there is matriarchy! So the queen is above the king. And the reason is… well no reason really, but you know, some people would find that interesting no?) is completely dumb. Like she decides to punish the traitors and sentence them to death. On the day of their execution (the execution she decided btw) she was expecting the Shield hero to step up and save them, which he did at the very last moment, otherwise she would have committed sudoku and plead to the hero to spare their lives offering hers in exchange. That makes a lot of sense right? Right… oh, btw, wanna know what was their punishment instead of death? They OFFICIALLY changed their names to Bitch, and Trash(or scum or shit, I can’t remember for sure) and everyone now calls them by that. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING. This shit happens, and you have to accept it with a straight face. And don’t get me started about the rest. Like the spear hero, I’m even amazed that he has survived thus far, and I don’t meant in the world of the show, I mean in the world he was summoned from, it has to be a very lenient world towards the completely braindead. At some point in the show, the hero gets a pet, a chocobo wannabe, a chicken, but ofc it can’t just stay a chicken, even the god damn fat chicken has to transform into a cute little angel girl, there wasn’t enough fan service already apparently. Enough already, cause I’m remembering all this shit and my blood starts boiling.

Animation is ok, average. Art style and character design is generic and uninspired.

Sound is ok as well, above average. Voice acting is mediocre, nothing stands out.

So, is it worth a watch? NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Stay away at all costs. It is infuriatingly bad. At the end of the season, MC states that now is the true beginning and where it all starts. At least you got that right bud, that’s where it all starts because what came before this had absolutely 0 reason of existing and we may as well all pretend it never happened. I would not recommend this show even to my worst enemy, if you really do want just to watch a terrible isekai, you are better off watching Artifureta, at least that’s somehwat entertaining in its horribleness.

Whenever a certain product becomes popular among the masses, it is guaranteed to have imitators trying to off its success. So when Attack on Titan became mainstream, imitators started popping up. One of these shows is Owari no Seraph or Seraph of the End in English.

Right off the bat, the world makes zero sense. In the first episode, a virus kills basically everyone except people 13 years of age. And why everyone 13 and under survives this super virus that wiped out most of the human in like a day? Here’s the biggest problem with Seraph when it comes to its narrative, it never answers ... why things happen. When it comes to any story, there are five important questions to ask: What happened? Who was there? Why did it happen? When did it happens? Where did it happen? Now if you were to why stuff happen to Seraph, you will soon realize how many things happen just because. Why is people thirteen year and younger unaffected by the virus? Why were the vampires in hiding all this time? Where are there demons? Why some of the adults survive the super virus that killed nearly everyone in an hour? None of these questions are answered and the only reasoning behind these events are to move the plot in the direction the writer wants it to go.

Even if you were to over the very flimsy plotting, there isn’t much to the show. The plot is a hogpog mess of ideas. There’s high schools, teenagers with giant weapons, a prophesy, vampires taking over the world, etcetera. Being unoriginal isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the show doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the ideas they had. Because of this, the show fails to have its own identity.

As for the characters, they are by far the worst part of this show. They all reek of “shonen” and are completely void of development. The main lead ( Yuuichirou Hyakuya ) is an obnoxious, hot headed git. All he ever talks about is how he wants to kill all them vampires or how he doesn’t need any friends. It is impossible to get behind him since he doesn’t have any relatable aspects except raw anger.

As for the other characters, they are pretty forgettable. Most of them consists of overused archetypes. To give an example, the MC team consists of a blond, twintails tsundere, a wimp, a male rival, and Mary Sue. The only character I liked was Shinoa. Even though she is a Mary Sue, her sarcastic attitude make her more bearable, especially in comparison to Eren Jager 2.0.

In the animation department, the show fails to impress. The character designs are quite generic and it doesn’t help that the 2D character designs poorly blend in with the water colored backgrounds. Also, the military uniforms that everyone wears look stupid. The uniforms for the Japanese Imperial Demon Army are black and lined with neon green as if they was Tron and the vampires wear black and white 18th century military uniforms. As for the action, it is quite underwhelming. All the action in this season consists of only small skirmishes that don’t have the impact or choreography to make them memorable.

Despite being composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, someone who has a rather good track, the soundtrack for Seraph is rather lacking. Most of the anime consists of silence. And when I listened to the soundtrack separately, I was all like “ where the hell all this music went to?” It is basically the opposite problem that Aldnoah Zero. In Aldnoah, the soundtrack was overused so that it became repetitive and to take away from any impact the series might of had. In Seraph’s case, the music was used too sparingly that it makes the show feel empty.

I can’t really recommend Seraph even as a stupid time waster. I won’t fulfill anyone in terms of writing or aesthetics. I would say give this show a pass since it’s not worth your time.

As for alternative shows, try out Attack on Titan or Blue Gender. Even though both shows eventually become train wrecks, they do the “ humanity is on the brink of extinction” far better that Seraph. If you want to see some cool vampire action, try out Hellsing (preferably Ultimate) or Blood the Last Vampire since they have better action and writing.

Re: Zero was aways a bad Isekai and that's a fact.

The second season continues to remind us why despite the claims of it being a deconstruction of isekai, it’s still a power fantasy. Subaru is constantly hailed as a normal person thrown in an isekai, yet he is a NEET and a dork that the moment he realizes he is in a different world he doesn’t look for a way home and instead runs after waifus. And most of the girls are all over him; even the extremely young ones. Is that what a normal person is like in the minds of delusional otakus?

And don’t ... get me started on the double standards of the return by death bullshit. Subaru is hailed as a protagonist who differs from other isekai protagonists by not being overpowered, and yet he has an OP power that nobody can counter. And if pain is a lot worse than death, which is why (supposed) he is not using it actively for resetting the plot every time he messes up, then why is he willingly ending himself? The big fuss everybody was yapping about during the first season was how painful it is every time he dies and therefore he does his best not to die. And here he is abusing that power by ending himself so he will not have to suffer through the negative consequences. It’s the definition of a copout.

And even then, why is he not ending himself every time he messes up? Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. It’s almost as if he never learns and has no specific mindset so that the author can use him however he likes instead of how he should be acting. Or, in a more sinister way, Subaru forgets to off himself so a lot of gratuitous and otherwise needless goreporn can fill half the episodes. There is a hilarious scene he gets eaten alive by bunnies. I repeat, bunnies! L O L, where did that come from? Oh well, it’s something new and completely changes the plot because time resets when Subaru dies. Something he couldn’t do himself by just killing himself. You didn’t see that coming. By the way, those cannibalistic bunnies are really evil, ain’t they? Because of their evil act Subaru is now punished by going back in time when he is fully healed, his friends are alive, and the world hasn’t frozen to death. Man, such evil bunnies, did you see the harm they caused?

And then it’s all that bullshit about his power not being a panacea to every problem because he cannot control the save point. He cannot reset everything that went wrong, such as being an asshole to Emilia or preventing Rem from getting magically forgotten. If that is true, then why has Emilia already forgiven him by abusing the very ability that is not supposed to be a copout? He defeated that whale monster by resetting his progress until he did it right and impressed her. So much for not being able to rely on that, and having to face the consequences of his actions. You can bet your sweet ass the same thing will happen with Rem. He will just keep failing until he has a perfect playthrough on how to wake her up and return everyone’s memories of her. There is no tension. Nothing is at stake. There is no time pressure.

And holy smokes, what happened to plot progression? The entire season is a nonstop back and forth without even a resolution at the end. The story hasn’t budged an inch forward since all Subaru does is dying and going back to the exact same save point. I know a lot of casuals are going to say it moved a lot forward by constantly feeding you with new information and more revelations, even if the actual plot is not going anywhere. It’s building up the setting! It’s unraveling the mystery! It’s digging into the mindset of its characters! Yeah, all those are done through talking. The dialogues are ridiculously long and tedious, and worse of it all is that they get erased every time Subaru resets time. If talking is all there is to the mystery and the characters, then the show sucks.

By the way, it’s insane how this lack of content makes many pretentious overthinkers to write essays that are longer than the show itself. I found 45 minute long videos about episodes where the only thing that happens is waifus infodumping boring shit. The absence of plot lets the pretentious overthinkers to talk about whatever bullshit comes to mind. Because as Peter Griffith has taught us “A boat is a boat, but a mystery box can be anything”. Lesson of the day. The less plot your show has, the more people will talk about it in order to add the plot that should have been there from the start.

Regarding the suffering, dear lord, it’s tortureporn of the highest caliber. It has lolis begging to be brutally murdered by a neet otaku. It has more lolis who control monsters that butcher to death hundreds of innocent people. It has even more lolis, being gutted alive and their insides splattering all over the place. It has people turning to glass and then mercilessly smashed to pieces. It has people being sadistically stabbed in the eye and allowed to live so they can die by the hemorrhage and pain. It has people getting skewered through with hands when they least expect it by those they trust. It has people with their heads getting smashed to pieces when they are defenseless while trying to help someone else. It has people getting chopped to little pieces by killer bunnies. It has waifus turning to psychopaths who let Subaru sleep on their lap as they laugh hysterically and he is dying after his body got shred to pieces.

Of course all that don’t matter since there are no consequences. No matter how many times someone gets brutally murdered, he will be fine when time resets. There is no perma death and anyone who says there is, is a complete retard. Not to mention how half the times he is not even freaking out every time he goes back in time. After a million times of doing it he doesn’t feel a thing anymore. Anyways, if you want to see torture, suffering and brutal killings, you will get them in spades. Extra spice for all the parts where Subaru doesn’t die immediately, because he gets saved by his friends who don’t know of his power, only to suffer and get brutally murdered anyways half an episode later. They try to make it seem like ‘oh shit, he didn’t die right away, which means the save point will change and everybody will remain dead’. Yeah, it’s trying to fool you into thinking his power is not fixing every problem, which is obviously a lie because time resets as normal and everyone is alive and well. Also can we at least admit we don’t care about any of the characters who constantly die and return to life a few seconds later? People end up remembering only the gruesome ways they die instead of their complex personalities and really meaningful actions, that are not undone in every episode. Such as all the good Subaru’s friends do when they save him. Really helpful and didn’t magically erase from the plot. Let’s face it, most watch Rezero for the suffering porn and the waifus.

Speaking of waifus, we have many additions to Subaru’s harem. More maids for serving the supposed ‘normal MC’ and more witches that infodump at the same time they seduce the supposed ‘normal MC’. By the way, some of them are underage, because Japan. Did I mention the female ghosts? Subaru is so normal even ghosts want to have sex with him. And holy crap does the author treat women as objects or what? Every time he doesn’t know what do with a waifu, he knocks her unconscious so Subaru has to protect them. Because that’s the closest thing he has to an objective. Protecting sleeping beauties that, just like in the fairy tale, they will instantly be all over him the moment they wake up. Which is exactly what happened with the half elf waifu. First thing she does when she wakes up is yelling “Subaru is mine, get away from my master”. Remember when she hated him for treating her like shit? Where did that negative repercussion which can’t be fixed by his otherwise not broken power go to? You can already tell what Rem is going to do as soon as she wakes up. Remember when she butchered him to death in an earlier playthough? Thank goodness his otherwise not broken power didn’t negate that so he could make her fall in love with him when just a few minutes ago she chopped him to little pieces.

By the way, I laugh over many tards of the show who are constantly getting worked up over all the progress Subaru loses every time he dies, as if something goes to waste. Why doesn’t anyone complain about all the edgy shit he’s undoing every time he dies? Like that serial box tiger. He saves Subaru’s life in one episode, while in the previous episode he wanted to kill everyone. Why are they not complaining about that getting lost, hm?

And I’ll be damned, what happened to normal traveling? Subaru is now teleporting out of nowhere in weird places. It’s like the author doesn’t know how to make him go there normally and has to use cheap magic so whatever shit he has in mind can happen in any way he likes. Thank goodness these powers are not broken because they would make the MC not to come off as a normal person.

There is a part where Subaru is in a fictional version of his real life back home and we are supposed to think he, supposed, realizes he is not special and, supposed, becomes a better person. Which is obviously a lie, since this is far from the first time Subaru realizes he is not special. It happens every few episodes, when things don’t go his way and he ends up crying on the lap of a waifu. Saying he just realized it now is a lie, because he constantly does before forgetting it and going back to thinking he is special for another three episodes. Rinse and repeat. Also, the scenes with his parents had no build up. This is the first time we see them and therefore there is little gravity behind what is going on. If they were introduced in the beginning of the story and half of what is going on now was established back then or during a few flashbacks, then there would be an actual reason to care about them and their relation with Subaru. Instead of that, we had dozens of episodes of a protagonist who doesn’t have a backdrop or established motivations that don’t go beyond chasing after waifus. Also, his parents are not real. He didn’t actually return to his world and he isn’t actually interacting with them. It’s all an illusion made by a witch. It’s fake, hot air, doesn’t matter. We are literally watching a show where the power fantasy is real and the real world is fake. That’s messed up.

Also, what the fudge do you think is going to happen next? You honestly think Subaru is going to return to the real world and make friends? No, he hates reality and will do his best to run back to a magical fantasy land that has videogame save slots, and where sleeping beauties and maids and ghost witches love him for being normal and with not with broken powers at all. He will go back to chasing after waifus in this fictional power fantasy for ronery otakus. Which was the case since the very beginning. What value is there in his realization if nothing is going to change? That’s the hypocrisy of Rezero that so many are defending. It’s escapism fantasy that pretends to be a subversion when down to it it’s only fooling around with a done to death premise without actually changing anything. It’s the tenth time Subaru realizes he is not special, his supposed development came out of nowhere through characters that were just established, through magic that works however it suits the plot, and through illusions instead of real life.

Tokyo Ghoul is one of the titles who gained more popularity through the last year. Made by the hit-factory Studio Pierrot, the ones who bring us Fushigi Yuugi, Naruto and Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul didn't take too much time to became as popular as the others. The problem is, while Studio Pierrot always made popular shows, people complain about the quality. Is Tokyo Ghoul a exception, or one more?

The synopsis promises us an intense psychological thriller in a dark urban fantasy world. Kaneki survived the attack of a ghoul, name given to the human eater creatures of this series, despite the few similarities with the folclore ... creatures of the same name. I didn't mind the accuracy, an aspect is looks like no one cared. The main episodes really made us feel the fear of the main character wheen he discovered his trasformation. The dark atmosphere really helps.

But things get wrong too fast. The show tries really hard to tell a story about the conflict between humans and creatures that need to eat them to survive, but fails. Yeah, it could be more appealingto teenage viewers that shows like Shiki, more slow paced, but with superior writting. It always call my attention the fact mostly the series with more characters get the most of the fans. Maybe because there's more characters a viewer can relate, i suppose. I couldn't relate to any character in tokyo ghoul: Kaneki has Shinji Ikari complex(i love Evangelion, but i hate when they try to make the main male like Shinji without a good reason), i found Touka rude and obnoxious, and his brother more, a great deal if you think he only appears a few minutes on screen in the last episodes, and the rest of the cast who are ghouls are divided between the ones i like but died or doesn't have enough screen time, and the ones i hate because they are pathetic and dislikeable saddists without any charm or appeal. I love saddist villains, but there they are only disgusting or ridiculous.

The humans are not better: the only ones relevant in all the story are Hide, a character whose only use is to be the Kaneki's human friend, and the menbers of a Goverment's organizations who haunts ghouls. Damn, i fucking hate those guys. While in Shiki i ended up hating the remaining humans on the village, i coul understand their motivation and their actions. The motivation of those guys? I don't know, they're just assholes who killed innocent ghouls who didn't killed humans to feed. And they complain when they get killed. I hate them.

The story is poorly executed. A lot of elements who remain irrelevant through the series are presented, specially the flash-backs. I don't care when they told you the backstory of a character to make you sympathise with him or her.But that flash-back should be relevant for the plot. Elfen Lied has two flash-backs to help us to understand the whole story better. Tokyo Ghoul show us a lot of flash-backs in most of epiodes that are relevant only in this episode, if it was. Also, the story has a lot of plot holes, like if ghouls are indestructible, why they act so helpless in front of humans? They are not monsters, simply cause they don't play good that role.

The censorships is one of the biggest flaws of the show. It's really easy to understand. If you don't want gore in your series, don't make gore scenes. It's better than make gore scenes, censor it and ruin whole sequences. I ust admit the censorship was a point to help to raise the popularity: if the show were so explicit as it should be, many of the people who call themselves now fans would call the series garbage. A lot of anime fans can't stans gore right now.

My recomendation? Watch Parasyte. Watch Shiki. Watch Elfen Lied. All those show are similar, came out before, in the Parasyte's case, the manga is based, and are far better. Don't waste your time with this.

PROPER MINDSET
Ah, gotta love the masses and their love for mediocrity. Fairy Tail (FT) is from the pilot chapter/episode an average shonen series and yet it is loved by many for being just that. I guess rehashing notions from Naruto or One Piece can make a success out of anything. Because just like those shonens, FT has superpowers, adventure and a big cast of colourful and eccentric characters that occasionally get focused upon and fleshed out. Nothing we haven’t seen before but, hey, if it worked before why wouldn’t it work again?

Because it’s WORSE!

It is hard to talk about anything in this show without feeling ... like I am just stating the obvious or just describing a different shonen. For to be honest, there is approximately zero innovation in this work and it just walks upon the path others paved before it. It can work alright but it will never stand out on its own; it will forever be just a rehash of already established formulas that have been attributed to others at least a decade earlier. Not only that, but the show rehashes them in a watered down way to the point it becomes a Saturday morning cartoon.

THE STAFF
- Animated by a collaboration of studios A-1 Pictures and Satelight. The first usually have very good production values and the later have low. What they have in common is how most of what they have made over the years is mediocre and forgettable.
- Directed by some nobody who never made something significant in his whole career.
- Based on the manga by Mashima Hiro, whose only previous major work was Rave Master. In case you didn’t watch that show, I advise you not to do so; for it’s a completely generic, aimless, boring, and incomplete series. Plus you can easily see that Fairy Tail is basically its improved remake, reusing the same character archetypes and feeling. In all, the mangaka is not much of talent for anything past creating mediocrities.

PRODUCTION VALUES
- Art and animation are rather crude for the time the show was made. The most obvious fault is how they use repeated footage during summons and attacks, an element that is in fact absent from fighting shonen and better affiliated with mahou shojo or mecha. It is a very striking weakness that alone makes it seem lazy compared to others shonens.
- The initial episodes had really jerky motions and many complained how the characters didn’t look or behave at all like in the manga. For an adaptation that is NOT trying to be a spin off but a direct adaptation, the first impressions they offered was the middle finger. They improved it later on a bit but the damage was already done.
- The setting lacks characterization. It doesn’t seem to stand out from the lot like others do, which again makes it hard to be remembered in the long run. Unlike other famous shonens like Naruto or One Piece, there is no theme in the FT world and it passes by as a generic fantasy realm.
- The character figures are again nothing memorable; most are basically counterparts of people from other shonens, so again it has a problem being remembered for anything. As for the more eccentric-looking ones, they are somewhat original for their looks but they are all minor characters that are defined by a quirk and are defeated and removed from the show in just a few episodes. And of course we have most of the girls running around half naked and acting like they are in permanent heat. So this is a cast you will be staring at for the bizarre or sexy way they look and not because they have any special charisma in their personality.
- A minor thing that irritated me a lot. They placed Plue as cameo, a creature from Rave Master. Now what did that manage to accomplish other than annoying the average fan? Is that their way of telling us even clearer that they are rehashing other works INCLUDING their own? That is really tasteless. I hear he was placed there to please the fans of Rave Master but I don’t believe that. Who still likes that boredrome?
- The music part leaves me with very little to write about. The OST is fitting for such a series but I don’t find any memorable songs in it. Voice acting is ok too with what is going on in the story. No amazing performance though.

SCRIPT

The story is completely generic stuff and easily the weakest part of the show. It plays out like some MMO game, where you join a guild and take seemingly irrelevant to one another missions, while at the same time leaving a few openings for character colorization and world-building. It all plays out quite childishly and there isn’t even an objective for anyone in this show; they just take missions and hope to find something that interests them in the process. For example, we know Natsu is looking for a dragon but did he actually look for him? No, he is just fooling around in his guild and takes part in whatever mission comes along.

The scenario ends up driving the characters and not the other way around; and even that happens in a bad way since the heroes are not actively doing anything. They just fool around until a villain or a mission appear out of nowhere (no foreshadowing at all) and just decide to take part in the whole thing for money or to save some girl. That makes the protagonist and his gang completely boring since they have no goals in life to go for without some world threat standing in the way. Heck, they would probably be sleeping all day long if they had no obstacles.

Now it is true that many events lead to character immersion and reveal more aspects of the world, but all that don’t add anything significant to the show. It’s like drawing more hearts around a short love letter; the contenct is the same but just looks cuter. The plot is always predictable, since it repeats in the exact same way all the time with no interesting plot twists or memorable events. Some character’s past is revealed, some old enemies of him appear, some sinister plan of mass destruction takes place, and then the heroes storm in and win with the power of friendship. Thank you very much; I have seen it all before and in a more mature form. They also add nothing to the show besides more cardboard characters with no significance or moe sancy areas you will never see again.

As if that wasn’t enough, just like with all perpetual on-going shonen the anime reached the manga at som point and the creators had to turn to slower pacing, fillers, and eventually to cancel the show prematurely in the middle of an arc. Not that it would be any different if they did what the Big Three do to bust our balls with 10 fillers followed by 2 canon episodes of snail fast plot but the show is left incomplete. Not that there was much of a plot to care for...

If there is something good to say here is how all the arcs are relatively short and with a fast pace to the most part. Unlike most shonen, FT does not try to stretch each arc too much. Of course technically most battles are dead time, since they offer nothing to the plot, plus are predictable and repetitive. So to the most part you are still watching a show which repeats itself faster than the average of its kind and is mostly canon filler.

CAST
The cast is eventually the meat of the show, since the plot is mostly about somebody’s past creating problems in the present. This way you feel like everything is revolving around them and that they are not irrelevant to the main problem of each arc. Some of them count as cool and fleshed out to bother paying attention to but don’t try to find unoriginal characters because you will be disappointed. They are all following a rather typical demeanour but at least they do it right to the most part. There is variety in personalities and powers and most have a rather basic but sufficient backdrop to work with.

Of course they are still shallow as heck; their personality can fit in two lines including their signature move. So the mangaka had to resolve to keeping all the girls half-naked and in constant heat in order to keep the viewers/readers from realizing that. For a show that aims at children, I must say there is too much fan service in it that is there specifically to distract you from thinking how stupid it is.

Needless to say, don’t expect any drastic character development to take place since most of whatever the characters learn in one arc, is immediately forgotten in the next. They keep trying to make you believe they are gradually getting stronger but you can never see that on-screen. In fact you never have a clear picture of who is stronger and by how much, much less where he excels enough to be able to defeat opponents who are in overall more experienced. So how do all the battles resolve if there is no balance then? Oh come on; you can probably figure it out immediately; it always comes down to the power of friendship. To hell with strategy, planning ahead, learning from your past mistakes, or even paying attention to your injuries. Just storm in and win against all odds with the almighty POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! I MUST PROTECT MY FRIENDS! FRIENDSHIP MAGICALLY HEALS MY GRAVE WOUNDS! FRIENDSHIP BRINGS EVEN THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE! Yes, get ready to eat up a lot of this baby food, for the whole plot runs purely on this sort of fuel. Needless to say, it is stupid, overdone, and eventually tasteless.

LEGACY
The series is aimed at younger teens; even younger than the target audience for Naruto or Bleach. There is a lot of silliness (more than the usual) and violence is really basic and mostly bloodless. And of course nobody ever gets killed, or in the rare case he does, he doesn’t stay dead for long. It is by no means a serious show and nothing in it feels important after awhile. Just to give you an example, it has a mascot in the form of a cheery blue flying cat named… Happy. Imagine a scene where some demon prepares to blow up a village full of people and the camera suddenly zooms to Happy’s permanently happy face. Yeah, the excitement vaporates right there. It is very hard to be interested in whatever the heck is going on when everything looks so easy going and silly. In fact the boldest thing in this show ends up being the fan service around the girls and even that is completely basic compared to your average modern ecchi comedy.

So is it a good show? No, but it’s a good time killer if your expectations are low and you are not older than 15 with prior experience to other famous shonen. I doubt it will leave any mark in anime history or be remembered as anything more than a rehash of other works. It does it right but at the same time it lacks the unique feeling every show that aims to be loved needs. It is indeed nothing but a fairy tale; shallow and for little kids who still tolerate the power of friendship is the most awesome thing ever. But it can be enjoyable just for that.

Oh, and I might as well add how FT became one of the Big Three shonen, after the Bleach anime was discontinued. That may seem like it’s supposed to be awesome enough to deserve such an honor but in reality it is only because modern shonen are crap. It gets some value for that but it’s otherwise only the best looking trash of the garbage bin. And the funniest part? Now that it is discontinued as well, there is nothing to replace it. Yeah, hard times...

And now for some excused scorings:

ART SECTION: 5/10
General Artwork 1/2 (generic)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 1/2 (typical fantasy world)
Animation 1/2 (average)
Visual Effects 1/2 (typical)

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (good albeit too melo at points without excusing it nicely)
Music Themes 2/4 (average)
Sound Effects 2/3 (um, good I guess)

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Premise 1/2 (as typical as it gets)
Pacing 1/2 (fast but repetitive)
Complexity 1/2 (nothing besides lots of two line characters)
Plausibility 0/2 (THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP is not plausible)
Conclusion 0/2 (left incomplete)

CHARACTER SECTION: 4/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 2/2 (generic but well defined)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic but it’s there)
Development 0/2 (none)
Catharsis 0/2 (none; the show is left incomplete)

VALUE SECTION: 2/10
Historical Value 2/3 (part of the Big Three for awhile; yay!)
Rewatchability 0/3 (none; too childish to deserve any)
Memorability 0/4 (meh, it is just a watered down rehash of other shonen)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Art 0/1 (looks generic)
Sound 0/2 (sounds meh)
Story 0/3 (feels generic as hell)
Characters 1/4 (they are also generic as hell)

VERDICT: 3.5/10
Could they make it any worse?

I watched this anime up through episode 8 before finally realizing I was starting to stop paying attention to the show and look at my phone when it came up on my playlist to watch. Let's go over these aspects of the show one by one.

I want to preface my review by saying I do recommend this anime to those who are new to anime, and I cover the "why" more later.

Story: The story is a bit original. A bit. But many aspects of it, such as "underdog MC who is useless and powerless gets a special power" is an overused trope. And a cheap ... one, at that. The story itself is fairly predictable, to the point where I was thinking "I should be making bets on what happens next, I'd make a killing." The exception was the drawn out flashback episode... well, the fact that I wasn't expecting a flashback episode, anyway. Everything in the episode was predictable. The way I figure, when I can tell exactly what's going to happen almost 100% of the time based on overused Shounen tropes, and there's nothing to really spice things up or make the predictability endearing, the story is garbage.

Animation: Probably the only thing that kept me coming back despite the MANY flaws of this anime. Beautifully styled and well animated scenes make you want to watch more... until you see another standard, overused trope or hear that voice actor screech his lines... but that's not part of this category. As animation goes, I can't find any real fault with it, and generously give it a perfect score in this category... it needs one somewhere, because the other categories aren't getting close.

Sound: Oh boy. The sound itself isn't bad, it's just one particular sound that's really horrible. UNFORTUNATELY, that sound is every sound that comes from the MC's mouth, thus making it one of the most common sounds in the show. Everything else is fairly standard, and the quality is of modern make, so that MC and his VA are the main issue here. Can someone tell that VA to stop screaming his damn lines, please? I hate to cut a score severely just because of that, but as the MC's VA's voice is basically the most common sound heard in the show, and will always be there, I have to take that into consideration. Still, I'm being a little generous, since that's the only issue.

Characters: Remember what I said about overused tropes in the story? Well, that wasn't the only place. I don't want to spend all day here identifying character tropes, but I tell you what, it's easy to play the "find the trope" game in this anime. Don't make it into a drinking game, though, you'll die. Let's identify a few:

Overactive, loud, obnoxious underdog main shounen character

Overpowered shouen character rival (bonus for being childhood friends)

Side characters with little to no definition

Intimidating boss character who scares people but is endearing anyway somehow

Delinquent character

Food eating character

Silent character

Snobby royalty/nobility with "hidden problems"

The list goes on, but there we go. Every character is either so minor you forget them or is a trope.

Overall: Averaging these numbers up, you get a 5/10 (20/4= 5). It fits... alright; I think story and characters should be weighted more heavily, but I have no algorithm to do so. I'm inclined to personally say 4/10, hence my actual overall - an overall based in instinct that takes the mathematical overall into account, but has no algorithm.

The sound would be better were it not for the MC, and the animation is great. The story is predictable to the point of boredom, though, and the characters are all predictable tropes with predictable responses. In other words, watch the anime on mute and without subs and you won't know how boring or predictable things are. That's the only way I can recommend this anime. Likewise, if you're new to anime and don't mind going deaf from the screeching VA, this one's for you, as the overused tropes aren't so overused to you yet.

One Word. Terrible.

Premise: This show isn’t actually summarized easily, so here are some elements in the show: robots, guitars, a psychotic pink haired girl, a boy whose head makes monsters, a yellow Vespa, awkwardness, and absurdity. Like, anime back then was even less bad, but this was like a bad anime that doesn't need any respect because it's garbage from king garbage of the garbage dynasty.

Genre: This anime is designed to mess with you, not by creating assumptions about who people are and then shattering them, but by simply discarding all semblances of normality. Just go with it. Like they did this better in Gundam. ...

Characters: There is something distinctly memorable about each of the main characters, but not in the simple “Haruko is a pink-haired girl who moves into Naota’s room” way. If you watch FLCL, you will remember the people, but probably not for the same reasons I do. I hate Haruka so much because he or she is a self-insert anime character of the week.

Title: What is Fooly Cooly? Watch the show and you still might not know. It appears to be a sexual act, but it’s never explicitly stated.

Story: There is one, because you must start at episode 1 for anything to make sense. I have been told that watching FLCL multiple times helps and that there are religious and ethical symbols.

Overall: Watch episode 1 and you’ll know if you want to continue. I can’t describe all that is Fooly Cooly for you. It's so bad that it was revivid years later and still sucks.

As someone who has not previously watched anything related to the Fate franchise, I went into Fate/Zero with no expectations. I knew of the popularity and praise for Fate/Zero on its own, however it never caught my attention and never became something I wanted to prioritize; for whatever reason, it didn't give me a good vibe. Now, having completed the first season, I can safely say that my vibe was correct in steering me away.


Fate/Zero has a lot to offer. A war for a mystic object, the Holy Grail, is happening, and magic-wielding contestants are given the ability to summon legendary heroes to do their ... bidding and fight for the sacred prize that will give the victor extraordinary power. It might not be the most original premise, but there's an interesting twist Fate/Zero throws into the mix; the legendary heroes are based off of real-world historical figures - King Arthur, Alexander the Great, Gilgamesh, and so on. As a fan of history and mythology, this is what piqued my curiosity. I didn't know this before I started the series, but once I watched the first few episodes, I thought maybe I was wrong to avoid the series as I did. However, as I watched more, I realized that I had jumped the gun.


With the premise being a war, one over such a powerful relic, you'd think there would be a lot of fighting. But the major downside here is that there's not, it's all talk. A hell of a lot of talk. I've watched a lot of shounen series, they're some of my favorites, however the amount of talking in Fate/Zero is groan worthy. The first episode, which is almost fifty minutes long, is nothing but exposition thrown into your face, stuff you'll easily forget by the time you start the next episode. It was enough to make me want to fall asleep. And unfortunately, the same can be said for about 80% of the remaining twelve episodes. The saddest part is that most of the talking was unnecessary and didn't help explain much in the series. There's still a great deal missing and a lot I don't understand about the war or how everything is supposed to work. Perhaps more is explained in the following season, but the lack of happenings in this season has put me off it. Every once in a while I'd even forget who is who, as there is little time spent on learning about certain important characters and more time spent on talking about nonsense.


I mentioned that there's not a lot of fighting, but what little there is was nicely done. The show definitely looks good and shines when it comes to the action. Battles are displayed gracefully and will hold your attention with an interesting mix of physical prowess and magical tricks. The characters themselves are a mixed bag. The heroes are a colorful group, each with a distinct personality that is thankfully not cookie-cutter. Saber, the lead character and the representation of King Arthur, is quite the standout. Genderswapping historical figures is a reoccuring theme in anime, however it's mostly used for fanservice. Not here. Saber is treated as a character with morals, purpose, and honor. Like the knight that she is. It was certainly refreshing to see. While we got a good look at most of the heroes, the show unfortunately lacked time on the masters of these fighters. Why they were fighting in this war, what they wanted out of it, and all other crucial information that would make you care about what was happening and who would come out the winner. There are bits and pieces tossed around, but most of it was lost in incessant prattling.


After much talk and little action, Fate/Zero ends with the promise of a new fight between heroes. Unfortunate, as it could have possibly been avoided had they decided not to include an episode dedicated to the daughter of one of the masters and her day out on the town. With such an epic sounding premise, Fate/Zero disappointed me with lots of nothing. Many questions still remain, and what I was given left me feeling hollow about the series. I'm not sure if I will continue onto the second season. Even if it gives me answers and actually moves itself along, I'm doubtful that I'd care at this point.

This is the worst anime I've ever seen. It's about people fighting against each other except when their spine gets broken into pieces, they not only survive, but start walking the next day like nothing happened. Also, they all refuse to kill each other, which backfires every single time and it just pisses you off as a viewer. Overall, it's not entertaining at all...Let's be honest, It's trash. Just because I say that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. It's trash but in a good way. If your looking for a action anime with good plot/story and animation, this is not it. Its worth watching because ... it funny and entertaining, not because it's good.

Baki is not good.

It starts out with five criminals escaping and coming after Baki, our main character. After most of a season, Baki hasn't fought anyone without being interrupted midway through. New characters are introduced all the time, so we spend entire episodes building them up. The 5 criminals start going after other people (why?), and there are all these fights between different people I don't care about.

Everyone that matters has super-human abilities that are entirely unexplained, so you have no reference point or expectation about how a fight will go. Think about how Dragonball Z has power levels and levels of Super Saiyan. Or in Yu Yu Hakusho, they have spirit energy and all kinds of different techniques, so there's a focus on disparities between combatants and how they'll win the fight. But in Baki, there's none of this. A naked guy takes 8 shotgun shells point blank, and is fine. Any damage done to an opponent doesn't matter. Cut off a hand? Shatter literally your entire ribcage? None of it matters. The people are fine afterwards, and the fights are super boring because of this.

Anyway, I dropped off before season two. There's zero story, boring fights, characters with little to no backstory. Maybe if I had seen/read other Baki series/manga it would make more sense, but this is a mess.


Baki - 2018


Anyone who knows Baki or has read the manga knows what they are getting into. The story of Baki is not about martial arts, rationality, logic, explanations, or good fights. It's all about the silliest and most bizarre scenario possible that you can write while making a fight. That's about how Baki can be put into words.
Is your face gone? Don't worry, band-aids will take care of it. Your hand is gone? Let's stitch it up! Did you lose 40 liters of blood? Don't worry, just a drop! Have you suffered a fatal injury or are you even dead? Your doctor is your friend and Son of God, he will help you. Combine that with relatively unambitious combat, slow pacing, and at the beginning horrible CGI (EP 5-12) and some of the dumbest dialogue around? Then you have BAKI.

If this still doesn't put anyone off, then you'll either learn to like the anime or you're a masochist and like naked men like I do.

[Story 2]

After winning the tournament from season 2 and defeating his brother in a duel, Baki was considered the strongest man/teenager in Japan. Through the fascinating effect of "synchronicity", 5 extremely dangerous criminals broke out worldwide to challenge Baki because they wanted to taste "defeat".
They came to Japan to show everyone their dirty little tricks (including Dorian's talented voice). Successive battles ensued between the best of the underground arena and the 5 challengers. This repeated over and over for 24 episodes until at some point all 5 had lost so many times that even their brains realized it. Apparently, they have a very different definition of "defeat" which is why it's hard to convince them to do it, otherwise, this season would only have 8 episodes.


If the fights had at least been well-animated there would have been more to enjoy. Unfortunately, several horrible CGI fights put even Beserk 2016 to shame. The pacing itself was also horribly slow, making it hard to enjoy these fights.

And if that's not the worst of it, the narrator also came in and started explaining every possible nonsense for 2 minutes. I thought soon he was going to explain how to breathe.


[Characters 3]

It's Baki, a series in which men fight because they can and befriend each other afterward, exchanging Whats App messages to break their jaws again.
Anyone who came here for character writing, good conversation, or relationships is pretty much in the wrong place. There's none of that here, it's all very half-hearted and, surprisingly, the characters are somehow connected all.

[Baki Logic 10]

Don't forget, humans have an infinite blood reserve, don't worry about something as irrelevant as strawberry juice, you can always top it up.
Sex makes you stronger, that's why there are chads and normal mortals. So never forget the "PeePee Training" as Yujiro put it. Did they have 32x of sex in one night? Counted that many tissues.
Doyle and Retsu have the best romance.

[Music 5 / Animation 4]

The opening and outro are average. The Osts on the other hand decent, unfortunately very rarely heard. Predominantly, only the same ost ever plays.

The animations vary from average to very bad. The backgrounds are at least good to look at and the lighting effects. From the second half of the season, the CGI has fortunately been removed.


[Conclusion 3]


This season had nothing worth mentioning. Just back-to-back fights between the inmates and the fighters. Some confrontations were okay, while others were very boring. With better pacing, and animations, and without the narrator, the whole thing could have been a bit better.

But Baki being Baki, there's nothing you can do about it.

[Enjoyment 4]