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Jun 18, 2021
If it's written like a sports anime, has characters like a sports anime, and is paced like a sports anime, then it probably is a sports anime.
Shuumatsu no Walküre has a very straightforward premise - gods and humans fight in a tournament to decide the fate of humankind. Competition boils down to thirteen 1 on 1 matches and the side with seven victories wins. Since this is an adaptation of an ongoing series, only three matches (and a setup of the fourth one) are shown in the anime. These three matches follow a certain rhythm that makes for an entertaining watch with an ending that
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is not too abrupt and I'm sure will encourage a good portion of the audience to search out the manga volumes.
Production quality of Shuumatsu no Walküre is solid and within expectations for a sports anime. Yes, this series follows all the typical tropes and narrative techniques usual for stories about sport competitions. We have a series of matches/games in which two opposing teams clash, a selection of quirky and charismatic characters, there is a great emphasis on special attacks and abilites and how they work, most of the narration is provided by a commentator (and/or narrator) supplemented by insights of the audience and coeaches of the respective teams and absence of an overarching plot outside of the competition. As such, it is only fair to compare this series to the likes of Ashita no Joe or One Outs, rather than One-Punch Man or Demon Slayer. The animation and soundtrack are perfectly presentable, with a heavy use of still images (which laymen may confuse with "powerpoint slideshow") to emphasise the key moments of each match. Action itself takes second place to hyping up each competitor and their techniques, so characters actually exchanging blows make only a small portion of each fight, with most of the time spent on flashbacks, attacks being explained and reactions of the crowd. This type of narrative may not be equally enjoyable to everyone, but I think it works really well in Shuumatsu no Walküre. I particularly enjoyed the second bout, which basically is a microcosm of the genre, hitting all the best notes, with barely any mistakes.
Overall, I had a pretty good time watching this series, and all episodes being released at once definitely was a factor. My only complaints would be the short length, which I would assume stems from the progress of the source material, and animation that could have been done a little bit better in some places. Shuumatsu no Walküre is a decent series, perfect for binge watching (although it will get even better with more episodes released), albeit not without its, mostly genre-specific, flaws.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 22, 2020
Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes were a huge contribution to popular culture in many, many ways. It's no wonder that new versions and retellings of stories starring the brilliant detective keep being created with anime and manga having their own share of, more often than not, loose adaptations. "Yuukoku no Moriarty", as the title would suggest, takes the road less traveled by placing Sherlock's archnemesis as the protagonist, which is definitely an enticing twist, but it comes at a price (more on that later), and it ultimately fails to deliver anything particularly new or interesting.
Stories following anti-heroes are nothing new to fans of
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Japanese media, as titles like "Death Note" and "Code Geass", even years later, enjoy significant popularity all around the world and "Yuukoku no Moriarty", depicting criminal mastermind's pursuit of a better world/country, appears to be drawing a lot of inspiration from these two series. One of its most noticeable features will be character designs, typical for titles aimed at fujoshi and other fans of yaoi-adjacent genres. I usually do not mind that kind of aesthetic and have in the past enjoyed many great stories primarily targeted at women, but "Moriarty" is in this regard, as well as many other, but more on that later, rather heavy-handed. All the important characters can be identified by their "beautiful young man" looks, with Moriarty and Sherlock closely following the classic archetype, but such design choices had to affect the general art direction and as a result everything looks rather bland. One would expect a certain degree of ugliness from Victorian era England, especially from characters representing dregs of society, both noblemen and the destitute, but instead the audience is served a very safe and sterile look of 19th century London. The quality of animation is equally average, with nothing of note. Amusingly, the series features extremely generic (to an almost ironic degree) opening and ending sequences with imaginery that may rouse some excitement from young maidens seeking out vibes of the yaoi kind.
Even though the premise of the story may seem initially interesting, the plot itself is just too unfocused and not very exciting. Based on the first episode one could expect a crime solving series with a twist of Moriarty dispensing his own brand of justice to various high born criminals, but that idea is discarded rather quickly and instead it's just a series of cases where our protagonist targets a nobleman and punishes him for the crimes he has commited against the lower class people. At this point I should mention that this is indeed our protagonist's motivation - bringing down the priviledged class and creating a just society, with the end justifying the means. This goal is presented to us in the form of a two episode back story which is both much more convoluted than it needs to be (for the sake of placing Moriarty as a character in a very specific position) and terribly simplistic (any ambiguity be damned). Lack of moral ambiguity set by these episodes and continued throughout the rest of the story is definitely one of the greatest flaws of "Yuukoku no Moriarty". All the cases we are shown follow a very simple black and white pattern with no room for doubt that there's an evil person who has to be punished at all cost. This lack of subtlety isn't alleviated even once Holmes is introduced into the story, although one could say that an attempt was made to rustle audience's moral compasses, but the whole scenario and its context are so blunt and artificial that it ends up being borderline absurd. Holmes in theory should bring some degree of excitement to the story, serving as Moriarty's rival, but he is so terribly outclassed by his nemesis in virtually all aspects that his role is limited to one of a tool to emphasise Moriarty's greatness. With questionable pacing in the first half of the show (no doubt the reason why so many reviewers decided not to watch any further) and no tension or thrill in the second half, due to protagonist's absolute superiority, "Yuukoku no Moriarty" does not have much to offer beyond its initial premise.
Coming back to the issue I mentioned at the very beginning - in order to make the villanous Moriarty a worthy protagonist, the author had to craft the story in a certain way, create scenarios which would favour immoral world view and keep the opposition as small and insignificant as possible. Despite all that, episodes featuring or even focusing on Sherlock were pretty entertaining and he's certainly a character that lents itself much better to the process of "bishonenification" than Moriarty. Perhaps the second season will be a better experience if the power balance is tipped more in favour of the detective from Baker Street and some wrinkles start to show up on Moriarty's world view, but as a stand-alone series I can recommend "Yuukoku no Moriarty" only to those who are more interested in its characters' appearances and their projected personalities and relationships, rather than in actual plot and substance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 23, 2019
Against my better judgement, after the underwhelming and annoying first series, I decided to give the second season of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san a chance, due to assumption that the plot would progress at least a little bit and spice would be added to the comedy routines.
Long story short: it's just more of the same.
The biggest difference is Takagi's more direct approach in communicating her feelings to Nishikata, which this time around is actually even more frustrating, because the boy appears to suffer from a particularly extreme case of obliviousness (paired with inability to make a connection between events if they do not happen at
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the same day), and Takagi just cannot stop herself from taking advantage of that. In this regard, the relationship is just as irksome to watch as always.
To be fair, Takagi's displays of affection are more adorable than ever before, but at the same time I found Nishikata to be going overboard with his antagonisation of Takagi. Any sympathy I might have had for his character is gone.
Somewhere in the middle of the season we are given a glimpse into the future, which I found to be a nice touch, but unfortunately, it was ultimately squandered, with no follow-up, even though it would have fit perfectly in the finale.
With no changes to the formula, second season of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is definitely a must-watch for those who enjoyed the first one, but a very hard recommendation for everyone else. I do have to admit that, thanks to all the repetition and cuteness, it's a very easy to digest series. Hollow and even manipulative at times, but enjoyable with a proper mindset.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 22, 2019
I'm very particular when it comes to romance in fiction. Most people will probably consider my approach bizarre, but I cannot help but to prioritize characters' emotions being believable. This does not mean that I demand settings and characters themselves to be ordinary and/or completely realistic, but just like I expect a certain degree of internal logic from worlds serving as backgrounds for grand adventures, I prefer protagonists of stories driven by romance to exhibit human characteristics and emotions.
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo definitely manages to portray its characters as close to actual humans, with their motivations and thought-processes feeling very natural and, unlike
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some other romances, at no point our heroines begin to act out of character for the sake of pushing the plot forward.
While the premise of girls' literature club being thrown onto the bumpy road to adulthood because one of the member's increased interest in sex may seem raunchy at a first glance, the subject of turbulent adolescence is actually handled in quite a graceful manner. Of course, along the way our protagonists commit a long series of blunders and have a hard time freeing themselves from filthy thoughts stirred up by their friend's bold statement, but despite somewhat heavy-handed imagery at the very beginning, the humour throughout the whole series is well balanced and even wholesome at times. I'm glad to note that the comedy is not mean-spirited and all the characters are generally treated as equals.
Stories of all the girls are handled very well. Each of them has different circumstances, with some standing out more due to being particularly unusual, but the author manages to strike a balance between off the rails scenarios and generic cardboard cutouts. They all progress at slightly different paces, with all culminating more or less at the same time, although not all of them are developed equally. This would be one of my few gripes with Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo: some resolutions feel a bit forced and the finale is left open-ended, with nothing really set in stone. On one hand, this seems to be a trademark of Mari Okada, the story's writer, who struggles to neatly tie all loose ends when the time comes to finish the story. On the other hand, I didn't find it particularly jarring, perhaps because it would be really naive to write solid "and they lived happily ever after" ending for characters merely making their first steps into adulthood.
The overall presentation is on point. Story's self-awareness allowed the animation studio to add their own quirks here and there that nicely accentuate key events (one of my favourite moments was accompanied by a song about trains, fitting perfectly the absurdity of the situation). The visuals don't quite manage to replicate the manga's warm art style, but are crisp enough to give the anime adaptation its own identity.
I'm very pleased with what Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo turned out to be. Initially, I expected some cheap laughs with a slight peek into sexually suppressed Japanese society, but what I got was cheerful, but appropriately serious when needed, story about coming to terms with one's sexuality at a time when we are the most emotionally vulnerable. It was great to follow these sympathetic, a bit quirky, but at the end of the day human characters on their journey into the unknown.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 6, 2019
Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is an anime equivalent of Tom & Jerry. Just without the slapstick humour and even a glimpse of hope for Tom to not only ever emerge victorious, but even get the upper hand for a brief moment. This is a very "hardcore" slice-of-life series, with no plot and no real conflict, since any possibility of friction is denied by a single, indisputable rule: Takagi-san always wins.
The plot is as simple, as they come. A boy named Nishikata constantly ends as the victim of his female classmate's, eponymous Takagi's, "teasing". Bulk of the runtime is dedicated to Nishikata trying to one-up his
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opponent by carefully analyzing all his options and eventual outcomes, and without fail, always making the worst possible decision, thus ending as butt of Takagi's jokes. There are no exceptions, no ties, no lucky victories, no wins granted out of pity and no consolation prizes - unless one would consider Takagi actually being in love with Nishikata, which he is obviously being oblivious about, as such.
This relationship was not enjoyable for me to watch. It's far too one-sided and with Nishikata never getting a break or a breather, it's simply frustrating. Under the guise of all the teasing there's apparently strong affection, but I can only wonder how twisted and sadistic one's personality has to be to enjoy seeing their loved one in a state of perpetual distress. Any decent person would hold back seeing how often the teasing ends up with Nishikata getting in trouble with teachers, not to mention the negative impact on his academic performance.
I've been told that it would have been an innocent flirt, if only Nishikata wasn't so dense, which I would agree with, if the whole relationship wasn't defined by this power struggle where one of the sides is assigned a role of the loser for life.
While Nishikata does seem somewhat convincing as a middle schooler, the same cannot be said about Takagi. To begin with, her demeanor and wittiness make her appear at least five years older than her peers. She's completely flawless, makes no mistakes, always wins her gambles, can easily read everyone's minds and never gets flustered (at least not in front of others). Takagi is basically a goddess, with everything going her way and the story itself being dedicated to her, without ever delving into her thoughts - an entity possibly meant to exact vengeance on behalf of all girls ever teased by boys. Do I even have to say that a series revolving around an infallible Mary Sue is not very entertaining?
It seems that there was an attempt made to break the monotony of constantly watching Nishikata getting the short end of the stick by bringing a small cast of side characters with their own comedy routines, but they too grow old really fast while further emphasizing repetitive nature of the whole show.
In terms of animation and sound design there is not much say. It's a solid craftsmanship, but the audio-visual techniques accentuating jokes are used rather sparsely. The opening sequence is saccharine and feels very by the numbers. Fortunately, every two episodes end with a cover of a different pop song, performed by Takagi's voice actor, which is a nice touch. As a side note, Yuki Kaji's screaming and high pitched tone quickly become grating.
Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san in the span of 12 episodes keeps recycling the same jokes, usually in the form of Nishikata's exaggerated reactions (which also serve as fuel for Takagi, so she can keep tormenting him without ever growing bored) and inability to get a clue, mixed with moments which were probably meant to be heartwarming, but come off as forced, because seeing the same song and dance of a girl dropping hints the boy she likes just cannot pick up to save his life, due to the blindfold the author forced on him, is just not very convincing. I'm certain the series would benefit immensely from Nishikata growing over time more resistant to teasing, forcing Takagi to put more effort in devising her schemes, which could also serve as stimulation and maybe even make her fall in love with him a little bit more thanks to increasing challenge. With illusion of progress at best, "status quo" brought up in the second episode really sums up the series' nature nicely. I don't expect anything to change in the second season, so I won't be picking it up.
While I'm no stranger to comedy series relying on Schadenfreude to bring smile on the audience's faces, I didn't have much fun watching Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san. With so much repetition and humour simply lacking any spice, I cannot recommend this series as anything more than a side distraction to be watched with one's brain turned off, but even then there's probably a number of anime better serving that purpose.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 26, 2019
This has to be my first experience actually bothering with a story featuring such an extreme case of Mary Sue protagonist (although, I'm aware it's kind of a golden standard for modern isekai stories) and I cannot say that it was a pleasant experience.
The concept alone is solid: a not-particularly-successful guy (i.e. a virgin loser) dies and gets reincarnated as a slime (a mass of gelatinous fluid) in a medieval-like fantasy world. There's certainly a number of ways to handle such a story to a satisfying degree, but unfortunately, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken takes the path of something that reminds me of a
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really poorly thought out RPG session. For anyone expecting to see our protagonist to struggle in his new body and work hard to overcome its limitations or maybe even question what it means to be human, I do not have good news. Rimuru, as our protagonist is eventually named, wakes up as a slime with a set of skills, supposedly stemming from his dying thoughts, that not only make him a really powerful slime, but even a contender for the title of the apex predator in the fantasy world that he gets transported to. As if things couldn't get any worse, Rimuru gets stronger with each defeated foe, thanks to a very convenient ability to "consume" things and add their properties to his repertoire. Needless to say, matches of strength in Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken are about as exciting as watching paint dry, as Rimuru easily overpowers all of his enemies and quickly befriends most of them (needless to say, strategizing is not required when might makes right and stronger opponents can be bribed with friendship). This is probably my biggest source of grief with this series. While some stories feature incredibly powerful protagonists who fight (both literally and figuratively) to find their own place in the society (a pretty common theme of supplementing external conflicts with internal ones), Rimuru does not fall into this trope, instead being presented as an extremely likeable individual, despite not actually showing much of a charm at any occasion - in a typical LN fashion, we have to take the author's word for it. Any sentient being he meets immediately falls head over heels for him. This gets so ridiculous, that even the few characters who are at first antagonistic towards him, despite not being shown as cut from a pure evil cloth (giving the audience hope for at least a hint of moral ambiguity), eventually succumb to his "charisma" and join his merry gang of monsters and humans seemingly driven by their unconditional love for Rimuru (this is the defining personality trait for the majority of the cast).
The series dangles another bait in front of the audience by presenting an idea of building a society of monsters led by Rimuru himself. This could potentially counterbalance the awful way characters are handled, by having the development of that society at the center of the story. However, yet again, the potential is completely squandered, as all the hurdles of building a functional community are either glossed over or entirely disregarded. At some point it really seems like the author wanted to delve a little deeper into the mechanics behind building a town or supporting a growing society, but for whatever reason, what we end up getting is so childish that even stories aimed at young kids seem to have more complexity. The city, future capital of Rimuru's nation, just grows without ever addressing the issue of resources needed for that to happen and the townsfolk (whose numbers quickly grow to tens of thousands) appear to feed exclusively on savage beasts hunted in the forest, never taking into consideration an abstract concept of agriculture. A significant jump from literal mud huts to brick-built houses, paved roads and exquisitely decorated interiors is justified by having a few craftsmen around. There's suspending one's disbelief and there's weaving a story in a way that even small children would find ridiculous. The last arc and "bonus" episodes make me wonder if the series was just poorly planned or was it a matter of production hiccups, but it's oddly fitting that a weak series was ended (at least in the first season) in such a lame fashion.
With lackluster, to say the least, characters and story, all hope to save Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken from being a complete waste of time lies in audiovisual qualities. Unfortunately, this is not a project of passion and technical aspects of the show fit the quality of content they have to present. Simply put, the animation is average. We get some really short and rare bursts of animation that could be considered artistic, but it's more exception to the rule. Sound is completely average as well, maybe even worse than that, with rather bland opening songs and some peculiar theme choices in key moments of the story (lighthearted tracks in seemingly serious scenes and vice versa).
All in all, my review paints a very bleak image of the series, but I really tried hard to not be too harsh (believe it or not), because at the end of the day, with all the laziness and stupidity Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken showered me with every week, I feel that the end result is more than the sum of its parts. At times it was mentally grueling, trying to wrap my head around the concept of someone creating a story with such a disregard for world building and character development, but ultimately, I were entertained enough to continue watching. It wasn't exactly a guilty pleasure, more of a morbid curiosity to see how bad it's going to get. I guess mediocre series like that are needed to appreciate the true gems more.
Would I recommend Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken to anyone? Absolutely not, unless they wanted to experience firsthand why isekai and light novel stories should be avoided. Is it the worst anime I've ever seen? Definitely not, but its awfulness compelled me to write this review, so there has to be something special about it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 23, 2019
Sakuranbo Syndrome certainly has an odd premise (not surprising, considering how it belongs to Cupid no Itazura series, in which each part is independent from each other, but all revolve around rather "naughty" concepts) that for many can be immediately off-putting. A 19 year old student named Amami Rena is hit with a rare and mysterious disease which causes her body to get physically younger over time and the only way to stop it is to take in equally rare suppressing enzymes. Much to her chagrin, after the affliction already regresses her body into adolescence, Rena learns that there is only one man whose body
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produces the required enzymes and the most effective means of administering the cure is through exchanging saliva. Rena miraculously manages to find her savior, 24 year old Munenori Agawa, who unfortunately for her, due to his stressful office work for a cosmetics company, has grown to hate women and is unkeen to believe tall tale of a teenager who suddenly appeared in front of him. Despite his initial reservations to bless the girl with a life saving kiss, he eventually gives in, but as logic of story telling dictates, this is not nearly enough to beat the disease. Things get further complicated once dynamic businesswoman, 26 year old Sayako Asou, Agawa's superior and love interest, enters the picture.
The story's set up is fantastical and gives impression of something made up for the sake of erotic fiction (well, this is a story about and for adults, so sex scenes are not exactly uncommon), which definitely is enough to make it stand out among other works in the genre, but it's the characters who are the true stars that make Sakuranbo Syndrome such an interesting (and free of frustration typical for love stories) read. First of all, they're reasonable - not just archetypes cruising from one misunderstanding to another in order to stretch out the story. While the story is no stranger to awkward situations, they're mostly resolved in a realistic manner, just like real people would handle them (most of the time, at least). The drama that does ensue results from natural human emotions like jealousy, naivete, desperation and grief - they're not overused and usually the first step towards resolving the issue at hand comes from a character understanding their own feelings. For a little while the author continues to set up classic misunderstanding scenarios (often used as cliff hangers), which then proceed to be maturely handled and moved on from within a page or two. Once the readers are used to them the story gets on the track of fleshing out the characters, which makes Sakuranbo Syndrome a slow burner: by the time we finally get to fully understand dramatis personae and their motivations, more than two thirds of almost one hundred chapters is already gone. It's really fascinating how a manga with such a ridiculous premise ends up having so complex and believable characters. Only Agawa's personality seems to be a bit underdeveloped, but I'm willing to accept that he was mostly molded by the events of the story, rather than his past experiences.
The art style is very expressive without being exaggerated and remains consistent throughout the manga's run. It fits the story told and manages to convey dynamism in scenes where different emotions and points of view clash with each other. Just as the plot touches upon the human tendency to have multiple facets, we get to see a wide array of expressions from our cast - it's not particularly spectacular, but works very well. If I had any complaint, it would be odd at times choice for cover illustrations. Due to the nature of the magazine in which the manga was published, a certain "quota" of smuttiness had to be filled, which would sometimes result in dissonance between very erotic first page and actually modest contents of the chapter. At some point we even get a series of "closer looks" at all the female characters with no other purpose than being fanservice. It's a minor nitpick, especially considering how the story does not shy away from portraying acts of physical love, but I suppose that some may feel annoyed with the inconsistent tone.
Sakuranbo Syndrome was already finished for ten years once I've found it and I'm pleased to say that the story still holds very well (it's not often that I complete an eleven volume series in less than a week) and it should be an interesting read for anyone looking for a unique love story. Once you get past the initial chapters, which are basically a prologue and may not make a good first impression, it's very easy to get hooked, even though the author doesn't employ any cheap tricks to keep the readers invested. The last arc seems a little bit rushed, but I think a few chapters more wouldn't change the story's conclusion and everything was neatly resolved, with no loose ends or unnecessary ambiguity. The final chapter took me a little bit by surprise, but the touching finale made me confident that there isn't much that could be improved in Sakuranbo Syndrome and I'm hoping to come across more unconventional love stories like this manga in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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