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“Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.”

BNA: Brand New Animal is ambitious. It attempts to craft a fully-realized setting to explore nuanced political themes such as racism, fascism, eugenics, and activism. Simultaneously, it tells the story of estranged friends, super-powered crime fighters, a government conspiracy, and cults. In twelve episodes.

Needless to say, Trigger bit off more they could chew.

BNA begins with a hooded girl in tattered clothing running through the subway. She passes by a sign reading, “Let’s Hold Hands. Animal Rights,” above the text is a human hand holding an animal paw. This immediately establishes a theme: Humans and anthropomorphized animals live together, but not in harmony. A group of shady men walk down the hallway—the girl hides in fear because she is part animal. The men spray paint “Beastmen should die,” now we know there’s discrimination. Immediately after, the girl runs past a TV, the news is on—a reporter announces a special zone for Beastmen has existed for ten years. Soon after, we find out the beastmen zone is an entire city, known as Animacity, exclusive to beastmen. It is an ethnostate funded by a private pharmaceutical corporation.

We have been given a lot of information very quickly. In this world, humans despise beastmen to the point they were forced to build an ethnostate. The widespread racism is an allusion to our world, albeit in a much shallower way. In the real world, racism leads to over-policing, biases in the court system, lower wages, and more. There’s so little indication about how racism affects beastmen, other than violence. So why do humans hate beastmen? Well, because they want to preserve Japanese values? Later on, a slew of information is poured onto us; Beastmen can transform into humans at will. The media does not indicate they pose any threat to humans. It seems like the only perceivable problem is their appearance, they look different from humans sometimes. Perhaps it will be explained later, let’s continue… While trying to reach the city, the girl is attacked by a group of racist fanatics who intend to kill her. The fanatics express their disgust for how the girl looks. Okay. Humans love animals and they’re fine with other humans, so why do they hate people who look like animals?

Confusion aside, the girl is conveniently saved by a wandering beastman, a mischievous Mink who calls herself Mari. The greedy Mink demands money for saving the girl’s life, we now know her name is Michiru. I need to get Mari out of the way right now. She is a recurring figure, I hesitate to call her a character because… she isn’t one. Mari shows up at random times when it is convenient for the plot. At first, I was willing to overlook the contrivances because I expected the show to develop her, but she remained one-note. If the pacing slows down, she causes conflict or gives the plot a device to get moving. This would be kind of ok if she was a good character, but she’s one-note. She is a crook who tricks people out of their money, and she always has to remind us she is a mink. “I’m a mink, not a weasel!” Yes, that is what you are. I wish you weren’t just a Mink, but a character too. The supporting cast is full of hollow cartoonish archetypes like Mari. In comparison, Michiru is a much better character.

Witnessing Animacity through Michiru’s eyes is what makes her immediately relatable. She was originally an average human with dreams and aspirations. Through mysterious circumstances, she has turned into a beastman. As an outsider, she knows nothing about beastmen culture. We learn about the world at the pace she does. Although she’s easily tricked and manipulated, her compassion for others makes her likable. Michiru is a mystery. How did she turn into a beastman? How does she have these powers? How does the government know of her? Do not worry, dear reader, all of these questions are answered. To avoid spoilers, I will say just this: you will be disappointed with how lazily written the answers are. Michiru’s motives are very simple; Why did she turn into a beastman and how will she go back to normal? Her struggle between hating the beastmen world and not being accepted in the human world is incredibly sympathetic. She was robbed of her human life, her hatred is justifiable. In the show’s subtly beautiful scene, Michiru hesitates to reach out to her human mother on her birthday. Yet she can’t do it until she’s human again. I’m sorry to say this is one of the many intriguing plot threads left unresolved. Michiru’s family and background are ignored for the rest of the show. This completely contradicts her entire motivation, to go back home. It felt like a slap in the face to see a character I liked so much be wasted on soulless writing.

Michiru is no ordinary beastman. In desperate situations, she can gain a superpower-like ability. Cheetah legs to run faster, Rabbit ears for listening, long arms to save herself, etcetera. During fight scenes, BNA shines. Michiru’s creative super-powers fluidly animated and the amazing synth soundtrack underscores every action sequence. Everything that’s animated has an impactful sound. High production values aren’t enough to overlook the odd inconsistencies with Michiru’s powers; In one situation, Michiru falls from a 100-meter building, but she is unable to grow wings to fly. Later on, in a similar situation, she can fly. In the first situation, she can’t fly because the writers need an excuse for her to be saved by someone. In the second, the writers decide there are bird beastmen too, so now she has wings. When a story has internal logic as inconsistent as this it’s obvious the episodes were likely written one at a time without forethought. All of Michiru’s problems stem from her inability to swap into her human form, unlike normal beastmen. There’s one instance in an early episode in which she becomes a human out of nowhere. This asspull is never explained, it happens solely as an excuse for a side-plot. It’d be fair to say her powers don’t have any logical consistency.

The deuteragonist, Shirou, is a beastman with a deep hatred for humans. He’s a superhero who needs no praise, only justice. Like Michiru, he has special powers. Along with strength and speed, his scent is so good it can be used as evidence by law.
When he closes his eyes, the art style changes to silhouettes, discordant music plays, and he solves a mystery. I have no clue how the police can trust someone enough to not lie about something as arbitrary as scent. There is no way to corroborate Shirou’s claims without a criminal confession from whoever he accuses. Shirou’s work as a part-time detective often overlaps with Michiru’s adventure to find answers. Their friendship isn’t a friendship. They coincidentally run into each other, then they start living together in a co-op home. They work together to fight crime, occasionally, but they have no chemistry. Shirou is such a dry character. When he’s not talking about his incredibly deep morals or info-dumping, he provides some great humor like this:

“You have a cute assistant.” -Guy referring to Michiru, who is cute.
“She’s not cute.” -Shirou

Oh, ok buddy, sorry I said anything. Shirou’s so damn serious he deadens the laughter of any scene he’s in. In the eyes of the writers, this is not a problem. There’s nothing wrong with him, therefore he has no room to grow. He’s the perfect superhero, except his motivations make no sense. Imagine terrorists plant a bomb in an unknown location and you can locate it, what would you do?

A. Tell the police where the bomb is.
B. Try to defuse the bomb.
C. Evacuate the area.
D. Let the bomb explode.

If you guessed D, check your refrigerator temperature, it is higher than your IQ. Don’t worry, you’re not alone, Shirou is as dumb as you. He plans to “Catch the criminals in the act,” as if finding a live bomb isn’t evidence enough. Another time, Michiru is trapped in a cage by criminals, while Shirou watches nearby. Rather than using his powers to help, he stands by and waits for the police, only to step in at the end to act like he saved the day. He constantly contradicts himself, then hides behind his unambiguous mantra, “Human bad, beastmen good.” When Michiru defies his orders, his default response is humans are evil and you're a human so you wouldn't understand.

BNA had the potential to be good in the first six episodes. The pacing is fast, but it suited the show at first. Michiru’s adventure just flows in unexpected directions, it was exciting. The first five episodes tell individual stories, then the sixth introduces the actual story. At the start of the episode, there are always a few plot contrivances to get things going. This is a likely side effect of trying to write creative self-contained stories in a short time-frame. In the end, the first five episodes ended up feeling like filler. A variety of intriguing characters were introduced; Michiru made friends, learned life lessons, and expanded her worldview. Then it’d end, and we would never see newly introduced characters ever again. It’s a shame because I think these episodes touch on intriguing themes such as censorship, virtue-signaling, and class inequality.

One of these ‘filler’ episodes focuses on an amateur baseball team in the slums of Animacity. Michiru joins the team due to a series of coincidences, per BNA standard, and uses her powers to win games. The kids are an adorable band of misfits bears. They were born poor and they’ll die poor, or so they say. And that’s the cycle of poverty, isn’t it? Their coach is an alcoholic driven to crime because poverty has broken his spirit. He lost what made him love baseball, driven money rather than pride. This episode is cute and all, but something didn’t sit right with me. I expected the series to address the huge divide between the upper class and the lowest in Animacity. In reality, over 20 million people in Japan are impoverished, so tell us why. Make us sympathize with these people because BNA’s audience sure as hell isn’t homeless. For all the time this show spends talking politics, the slums aren’t addressed as a serious issue. In BNA the lower class is caricatured as a bunch of dumb and greedy crooks, not as real people. People often end up in poverty if they struggle with mental illness, addiction, a lack of affordable housing. The poor characters are unintelligent—that’s the entire joke. It’s the anime equivalent of laughing at a homeless person. In every developed country on Earth, poor people lack access to public services, like schools. If they have nothing to drink except filthy water, like the bear kids have to, this will also contribute to their lower IQ. BNA’s interpretation of poverty is just a classist mocking of poor people.

Trigger has addressed similar political topics in Kill la Kill, which was also set in a fascist state. But Kill la Kill was about revolting against the system, not accepting it. BNA is about embracing the system. Michiru becomes friends with the friendly dictator. This is a little strange because the dictator isn’t a good person. Animacity is an authoritarian ethnostate. Information from the outside world is censored like it is in North Korea; Note, the dictator is exempt from this rule. Normal beastmen are forbidden from learning about human society via the internet, restricted by law. Beastmen are made to believe humans are genetically inferior to them; Unifying people with us vs them rhetoric keeps them in line. The city is not run by democracy. People are subservient to a ubiquitous figurehead manufactured by the state. Festivals are run by the government to celebrate Animacity’s liberation from humans. All of this reflects an integral part of fascism, the aestheticization of politics—embedding politics into the minds of the population. Whether the writers intended it to appear this way or not, this is the most interesting aspect of BNA.

In reality, Japan is practically an ethnostate. The people are 97% Japanese, and the population is rapidly shrinking. The economy is in the shitter because of it. Japan could solve its money problems if they let more immigrants into the country. I had hoped BNA would make a political statement on how being an ethnostate isn’t economically viable, but instead, it just supported ethnostate. We’ve been here before, Trigger. You have to realize your country is fucked sooner or later. If you’re going to write a political story, is this the message you want to send? Immigration almost always has a net positive effect on federal, state, and local budgets. All available evidence implies immigration leads to a better-educated workforce, more innovation, greater occupational specialization, and higher economic productivity.

Despite BNA’s shallow themes, I love the minor details in Animacity. Like restaurant signs with slightly different names from real life (Dog-way, lol!). Aside from the thinnest layer of world-building, there’s not a whole lot of visible differences between the human world and the beastman world. This leads me to wonder, why? Why beastmen? Why animals? There’s no social hierarchy of species, no conflict between carnivores and omnivores, and no world-build to flesh out the distinct differences between beastmen and humans aside from appearance. Beastmen are interchangeable with anything inhuman, demons, vampires, fish people, dwarves. This is, however, not about the rise of the dwarven ethnostate, it is about animals because this is a furry anime. The use of anthropomorphized animals in BNA is completely arbitrary. If you want a good show that explores the implications of a society run by animals, watch Beastars, not this cheap bait. Furries might love this anime, this is their anime, more power to them.

I’m incredibly disappointed at how phoned in BNA is. Trigger is capable of so much more than this. Instead of crafting an ambitious original anime, they played it safe and made a cash grab. There are few anime with so much budget and talent that waste it all on lazy writing. By the end, it crashes and burns in a clusterfuck of disorganized ideas and unintelligible motives so awful it will leave people howling with frustration for how good Brand New Animal could have been.

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Arte is a wonderful story about a woman aspiring to become an artist in Renaissance-era Italy. As a noblewoman, she has two choices: Get married and give up art or run away to follow her dream.

Once she runs away from her manor, she begins the life of a commoner. 16th century Europe does not take female artisans seriously. At first, she struggled to find an apprenticeship, until she met Leo—a stoic man weathered by years of hard work. Arte's story begins with learning how to become an artist, well aware of the climb ahead of her. From what I've seen, she will face prejudices in society and learn many life lessons from the working-class people of the era. Through hard work, she comes to respect the people she meets and shed her naivete built-up by years of passive opulence. Arte faces an uphill battle of overcoming taboos ingrained into the culture.

There has been some controversy over the "Historical" tag, which I couldn't care less about. I am not a historian. I care about the content of the show, not how it is labeled by the audience. As far as I'm concerned, this is historical fiction. Renaissance-era Italy makes for a beautiful backdrop. While the art is nothing special, the setting allows the writers to explore prejudices that still exist today, albeit in a more exaggerated way due to the time period.

Arte is tackling a lot of mature themes in a realistic way that I wouldn't expect from anime. There is a blossoming love slowly burning between Arte and Leo. Her personality has developed more believably than most I've seen in prior romances. Finally an anime about adults that treats the audience as intelligently as the characters. At its core, this is a simple very story, but its execution is exceptional.

I recommend you give this anime a shot. I don't usually write preliminary reviews, but I was surprised by how low the rating was. I will repost a revised review upon the conclusion seeing as this doesn't get postponed by the COVID-19 state of emergency. I hope this mini-review was helpful.

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If big titties and uncensored nipples are going to offend you, go find another anime that will Meet Your Standards. And if any children are reading this, GET OUT!

In this review, I will be analyzing one of the most visceral depictions of lust, desire, and sexuality ever produced. A tragically misunderstood series in twelve volumes that asks controversial questions no other media would dare to ask. Which monster girl is the best fuck?

I am, of course, talking about Interspecies Reviewers. A story about three legendary men who journey across a fantasy realm on a quest to find the best brothels to enjoy the supple women on offer, then review them. It is a lot of sex. Elves, fairies, cowgirls, catgirls, demons, and much more. There are succubus girls fulfilling a broad range of fetishes. It needs to be remarked, the bewitching bodies of the girls are drawn to appeal to those of a certain ‘thicc’ disposition. Breasts so big it defies reality, thighs thicker than a queen-sized bed, and fat bootylicious butts. If you want small tits (or none at all) you won’t find what you’re looking for here. For the meat lovers, Interspecies has you covered.

To the untrained eye, Interspecies Reviewers may appear like degenerate pseudo-hentai clickbait fodder. But we, the men and lesbicious women of culture know better. Stunk, Zel, and Crim are not merely sex-crazed pussy slayers. They’re pioneers! Trailblazers paving the path for the fetishistic sexual awakenings of the audience. It really rattles my elitism when people say this isn’t a good anime. It’s too lewd, the girls look too unrealistic, and there’s no substance. To that I say, how dare you for accusing it of entirely true things. What did you expect? It makes its intentions very clear in the first episode. Saying “It’s not anime enough to be a good anime, but not hentai enough to be a good hentai,” is not valid criticism. The meat of this anime is the sex scenes. Going around having sex all the time is pretty much the dream for men with too much testosterone, a dream shared by these three men (+1 guest reviewer). The crew visits a brothel, sometimes multiple brothels, every episode, gets it on, then writes a review. All of them bring different opinions to the table; They describe the girls, the sex, pros and cons of their species. The sex scenes are drawn with excellent detail and animated incredibly well, and they don’t leave out a single detail.

These naysayers who publicly denounce Interspecies Reviewers, while probably beating off to other fetishistic hentai, are lost souls. Of course, they wouldn't appreciate the bouncing uncensored breasts and the bodacious booties of these fine feminine specimens. I'm laughing just imagining those Funimation simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Passione’s animators ejaculate on their cum covered monitors. I pity the fools who are too blind to see the orgasmic artwork. If any of you fake anime fans are reading this—you can go shove your Evangelion up your ass! Go ahead and click that unhelpful button, oh wait, you can’t! Over here in the real world, there are sex workers. Whether you’re a woman, man, catgirl, or succubi, there’s no shame in it. It’s a very real, but heavily stigmatized, industry. Believe it or not, Interspecies Reviewers is a sex-positive ecchi anime. If you think prostitution and sex work should be illegal, I disagree.

Most sex workers are pushed toward the profession because they’re unable to pay their rent, pay for their kid’s daycare, or buy food. You make a decent amount of money doing it, way more than you would be working at Walmart. But because prostitution is illegal in most countries (legal in one state in the USA), sex workers are unable to legally hire bodyguards or work from home safely. This means if you are caught protecting a sex worker, you are an accomplice to a crime. If you pay for it, you are a criminal. If you rent out an apartment to a sex worker, you are harboring a criminal. You don’t often hear about cases in which sex workers are murdered due to unsafe conditions (which could easily have been prevented), and suicide due to such a heavy stigma towards them. Imagine living a life so stigmatized that people who jack off to you in private refuse to give you rights, let alone basic human decency, in public. Even though the focus of Interspecies is the three heroes, there are after-credits scenes that feature the girls discussing their sexual endeavors. It’s much-appreciated humanization for them, reminding us sex workers are people with lives outside of their pornographic presence.

I wholeheartedly disagree with Funimation, Amazon, and many other channels who decided to cancel Interspecies Reviewers. Considering there’s so much more filth on TV these days, like Eromanga-sensei and Shimoneta, it’s complete hypocrisy that this one got so much hate. The animation is consistently good, the voice acting is great, the dirty jokes are hilarious, and both opening and ending credits are contenders for the best of the year. When the director goes on twitter and says “I’m going to push the limits of how sexual this can get on television,” I’m not overly surprised that TV stations avoided it like the plague. At the end of the day, this is just a good hentai-lite made with a LOT of love, some may say too much. Interspecies Reviewers may turn many people off due to its themes, but to everyone who just wants a damn good time...

LET'S GO TO PARADISE!

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Words, words, words. What the hell do they even mean? Well, I don’t know! But someone has to figure out what the hell this show is about and whether or not it’s good. Lucky for you, I happen to be extremely qualified in deciphering bullshit, and In/Spectre certainly is grade-A bullshit.

Where do I even begin untangling this web of nonsense? First of all, there’s so much goddamn talking. If you want to see some good animation, find a different anime! But is the dialogue good or bad? Let’s establish a criterion. Dialogue-heavy anime can work well if the writing is witty, informative, believable, and INTERESTING! We’ve seen this done right in Monogatari, Tatami Galaxy, and Oregairu. In/Spectre is comparatively very lacking. Simply put, this is like a battle shounen, very drawn out fights, but replace fights with people talking in one place. Exciting, right? Now imagine five episodes of people talking in a car about ghosts, meanwhile, there’s a never-ending fight happening between two people who cannot die. Have I sold you yet?

The script is drier than a desert, but occasionally there’s some wit. The main character, Big Brain Goddess Kotoko, seems very self-aware that she’s an annoying little gremlin. Her design is cool, stylish, composed, and she’s missing an eye and a leg. Comparatively, her boyfriend, Kuro, is pretty bland—both his looks and personality. He’s only interesting because he can heal instantly and his blood poisons spirits (this is barely used). Together, their banter is witty when they’re not droning on about things that have nothing to do with them, or things that have no bearing on the plot. Unfortunately, this is like 90% of their dialogue. I can’t even tell you why they’re dating. Kotoko meets him at a hospital, falls in love because he reminds her of a goat (this is seriously what happens), then the nurses tell her his life story. I have no clue why this quiet, reserved guy told all of his business to a bunch of random nurses, but we’re supposed to believe he did. This is how we get any information, people dump exposition onto us.

Look, Mr. Author, I know writing is hard. But you should consider actually integrating information organically into your story, not dumping it out of your ass onto the audience. Actually, I have a bone to pick with you, Mr. Author. Your story treats the audience like idiots—constantly telling us things we can figure out on our own. We’re not babies! Yet the writing is full of nonsense and artificial plotting. It’s as if you thought we were too stupid to notice the flaws, so you brazenly covered them up with pretentious platitudes! Banter aside, I don’t hate this anime. There are a few good things about it. There’s a funny scene when Kotoko randomly meets Kuro’s ex, Saki. She falls on Saki, then when asked if she’s ok, Kotoko says “Yes, this is nothing compared to being deflowered,” in a completely serious voice. What she’s saying is totally uncalled for, and Saki was just as shocked as I was. This kind of juxtaposition between presentation and dialogue makes for the best humor in the show. It’s just like the sassy giant serpent spirit in the second episode. When it embraces its goofiness, it’s fun enough to forgive how contrived it is. During the more serious second half, it feels very forced when they try adding humor. This is the bad kind of juxtaposition. When two tones are constantly conflicting, neither work.

My next gripe I have with you, Mr. Author, is the internal logic. I’m willing to indulge you by suspending my disbelief, but you broke it just like you broke my hopes this anime would be good. In one scene, Kotoko rides a ten-story tall skeleton like the badass bitch she is, and she can also physically interact with ghosts. Normal people cannot see spirits, as shown in prior scenes, so she would just be flying in their eyes. Let’s say spirits gravitate towards her and she can see them because she’s a priestess. However, Saki is also able to see ghosts, so what’s happening here? How is everyone else unable to see spirits? How are people able to see Steel Lady Nanase? What is the distinction? How am I supposed to suspend my disbelief if you haven’t shown me the rules of your world? If I missed crucial details, I will be happily proven wrong.

Early on, I didn’t mind the dialogue-heavy script. In the second episode, Kotoko is enlisted to solve a murder mystery. It has the tropes of a CSI TV show, with the addition of a cheeky serpent spirit who Kotoko questions. She speculates possible motives based on facts of the crime available to her, running through different scenarios with the addition of a spirit’s witness testimony. She’s an inspector of ghosts and spectres. Perhaps you could call her an… In/Spectre! This one self-contained story ended with a satisfying conclusion. It thrilled me for what the rest of the anime would be. For episodes 4-12, the main plotline is about solving the mystery of Steel Lady Nanase. It was disappointing that they scrapped the mystery-of-the-week structure for one long story, but I held out hope it’d be good. Initially, I didn’t hate Nanase. After eight episodes going in circles talking about her, with clues being very slowly revealed, I did hate her. She’s dead, we have no attachment to her, why should I care about this mystery? I liked the first story because it was fast-paced and entertaining, it didn’t overstay its welcome. But Nanase did. Rather than learning new intruiging things about her, all we got were people discussing the same questions. Is she real? Is she a ghost? Is she a manifestation of mass hysteria? Are her huge boobs fake? The answer is... Who the fuck cares you nerd, stop playing 3D chess against your own brain and get a real hobby.

In/Spectre flies off the rails around the eighth episode. There’s a new concept at play—some people have the ability to basically open their third eye and choose their fate. It’s visualized as branching paths, which looks cool, but it makes no goddamn sense. If you can pick your fate, then you’ve already won, there’s no competition. But! If there are two people who can pick their fates, it would be a stalemate. The author seems to this would be exciting, once again, he was wrong. The stalemate becomes an excuse to draw out the final episodes to the point that you could just skip four of them and lose nothing. The story transitions from a mystery based on facts and clues to a pointless debate that boils down to sophistry to fill up screentime. In/Spectre’s author gets tangled up in his own web of bullshit so badly, I couldn’t care less about the result, I just wanted it to end. Please for the love of God do not make a sequel.

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I love anime. You love anime. We all love anime.

Eizouken: Hands off the Motion Pictures Club is about people who love anime. They love it so much. They spend the entire show making anime, talking about anime, and thinking about anime. The intricacies of storyboarding, animation, sound design, voice acting, and management are illustrated in detail. I learned a great deal about anime production by watching this.

Eizouken wanted to capture the magic of creativity and the amazing minds of artists, and maybe it did for a few moments. The rest is an unfulfilled promise that left me feeling robbed.

Initially, it introduces three likable comrades who are passionate about anime; Midori and Mizusaki are the two artists, and Kanamori, their business-focused manager. They have good chemistry with each other; The space-cadet artist, a teenage star and now an animator, and the strict—but kindhearted—money-hungry manager who can whip them into shape. Each of them has a distinctive character design which reflects their personality, with expressive voice acting, and an endless supply of funny faces.

Throughout the series, the club struggles to earn enough funds to buy equipment and maintain their clubhouse. To alleviate this problem, they endeavor to make the best anime they can to prove they’re worth a bigger budget. The end goal is to make more anime, better anime, and prove to everyone they are worth watching. It would seem we have come full circle. Eventually, this became the rhythm of the show; The three friends worry about some drama that always appears as quickly as it disappears, their obstacles are resolved much easier than showing builds them up to seem. First, they need to make a club, then find an advisor, then find a budget, it’s the same formula every few episodes and it’s never exciting. The bigger conflicts culminate in a complete animated short made by the team, drawn with the best art in the series. There’s never really an arc for the club, the quality of their work gets noticeably better, but their popularity is always reliant on Mizusaki’s fame as a model.

The pacing plateaued after the third episode. It was no longer the adventurous and awe-inspiring anime I fell in love with. As the episodes passed by, I realized I was just watching it to see the awesome opening, Easy Breezy. After getting spammed with memes of the opening, it lost it’s magic too. I realized everyone was talking about the opening and no one was talking about the show. Over time Eizouken transitioned into a boring tutorial on how to make a good anime, without being a model example itself. There was great background music, about three outstanding songs. But they were repeated ad nauseam every episode, promptly losing their magic.

About a third of this anime takes place in the artistic imagination of each character, the other half is spent in the real world discussing the club’s project and maintaining their budget. The imagination sequences are drawn amateurishly with every sound effect voiced by the characters, it’s so charming. The charm starts to wear off when the third fantasy in an episode begins and you have to witness the plain white background with chicken scratch art. There’s also the prevalent question of how the three club comrades are dreaming the same dream simultaneously. It’s intruiging how Yuasa plays with diegesis here: Which is the perceivable visuals/audio by the characters or what is only perceivable to the audience (such as non-diegetic background music).

When Mizusaki or Midori present their drawings to Kanamori, it’s clear they’re all imagining what’s being depicted in the storyboard, so the jump cut to hand-drawn art makes sense. These sequences are awesome, it truly feels like they’re three friends adventuring into the most creative corners of their minds. This is an amazing use of diegesis to develop the cast while thrilling the audience without needing to bend their suspension of disbelief. During the first few episodes, these sequences are used often to great effect. Unfortunately, Yuasa seems to forget the rules of diegesis and he makes many of the fantasy sequences a confusing blend of diegetic and nondiegetic elements with no basis in reality. For example, Midori often gets lost in thought while walking down the streets with her friends, imagining the world is an exciting anime. We’ve all done it before as kids, it’s pointless to the show but entertaining nonetheless. She’ll visualize street lamps as rockets or picture a giant monster looming in the horizon, then suddenly her friends are part of it. It’s not clear whether it’s all in her head or if she is talking about it so that they dream with her. These scenes lost my attention. There is just no substance to them.

It’s a shame they wasted so many great components, Eizouken had the workings of a masterpiece. The real-world setting has a great aesthetic. Everything about the architecture is confusing but strangely beautiful. Buildings are a jumble of concrete in different shapes on a hill to make all of them visible. Rivers are all over the lowest level, inspiring Midori to dream of traveling the city on a boat. Every frame is colored with a washed-out palette, making every frame relaxing. If only this beautiful world was populated with something, anything. Mystery, lore, anything worth exploring for. As far as we see, there’s nothing cool about it other than how it looks. There were minor references to capitalism, socialism, and environmental degradation, but they were surface level, never explored in depth. I appreciated the references to Hayao Miyazaki, in that respect, I would call it a love letter, even though it adds nothing to the show's actual quality. In the end, Eizouken’s emotional finale rung hollow, leaving the story incomplete. It’s likely this will receive a sequel, and if it does I’ll be back with hopes it will utilize it’s characters and setting far more.

If you love anime you should watch Eizouken. That’s not to say you will love Eizouken, but it is an essential watch for anime fans interested in the production of the medium we love. It drew me in with its child-like happiness of aspiring to achieve your dreams, capitalizing on my nostalgia, then it let my fondest memories fade away as it lost track of what made it special. Alright, that’s enough disappointment. I have said my piece. Now, Masaki Yuasa fans, I accept my fate. No, I will not resist. Take me to the guillotine.

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Logic, reason, reality… these are things I simply do not care about. But because of an anime called Darwin’s Game, we need to talk about it. And by we, I do mean me, so take a seat and let me tell you why this anime is crap.

Darwin’s Game tries to pass itself off as a battle royale, one of my favorite sub-genres, but it really isn’t. I expected it to be dumb, shlocky, and nonsensical, which has never stopped me from enjoying an anime before. So I prepared to suspend my disbelief, but nothing could prepare me for what I have witnessed.

The titular death game everyone plays, shortened to D-Game, is a fight to the death downloadable right on your phone. Players enlist to earn cash money and to get away with murder. It’s also a dueling arena, a power struggle between clans, a citywide scavenger hunt, and it grants every player a random superpower known as a Sigil. There’s a lot going on in this show, it’s chaotic, which is good because chaos is my middle name. The problem is, they never stop adding new concepts, even until the final episode. There’s no shortage of lore and mystery to untangle here, but it’s so confusing and underwritten that I don’t think even the writer understands it all.

No one knows how an entire city is emptied for the game. No one knows how the game works. There here are new rules constantly being added. Skyscrapers are destroyed, people are slaughtered in the streets, entire city blocks are reduced to rubble. And all of society was taking a nap. Every now and then, the entire population wakes up and realizes all this shit happened, and they say “Hey guys what happened to our city? How did everyone sleep through it?” That’s a question that the author doesn’t seem to have a grasp on. Apparently, the game blocks your phone signal, but it still takes place in the real world. In the first episode, someone tries shooting the protagonist multiple times and no one calls the cops. Later on, civilians run over a player, an invisible man, dent their bumper, then drive off without a care in the world. They look around and see the terrified protagonist, but they don’t ask him if he’s ok or if he knows what they hit. They just leave. This is so detached from reality. Although the guy who was trying to kill him was a Panda, so I do like that.

I can’t stress this enough, but I do not care about what is logically possible in reality. Make it stupid, make it ridiculous. I will enjoy it. Punch a guy’s head off, topple a building, make a crazy yandere fall in love with the bland protagonist. Where I draw the line between dumb fun and inane writing is internal logic, which Darwin’s Game has none. For starters, the superpowers are not consistent at all. The main protagonist, Kaname, has the ability to create anything he can think of, any weapon imaginable. It’s awesome. Contrast this with a dude who can detect when people are lying. Not awesome. These powers are incomparable. Another main character is essentially a super-computer who can freeze time, she’s absurdly overpowered.

The logic is skewed to give the main characters as much power as possible, which is admittedly sometimes really fun to watch play out. I loved seeing Kaname pull a machine gun out of his ass to scare bad guys; Or a thirteen-year-old professional sniper evade a dozen burly bad guys and dodge a moving train within seconds. It’s kind of amazing how dumb this show is. But from the start, it’s clear who is expendable and who will never die. Their abilities make them practically invincible unless the author contrives some way for them to get hurt. Keep in mind, there are dozens of random fighters in either clan who have different abilities. There’s no telling how powerful they are or what their power even is. This means anyone can gain a new ability at any time. Unpredictability can be exciting, but it’s hard to enjoy a clusterfuck when you have no idea what’s happening.

Add this to the ugly animation and generic background music, and you’ve got a recipe for boredom. The action is supposed to be the appeal of the show, the rest of it is just the characters trying to figure out how the hell game functions. To this day, no one knows! Even after watching the whole show, I have no idea what Kaname was supposed to look like. His face changes every other shot like he’s made of melting clay. The artists prioritized animation over consistent character designs, probably because the story wouldn’t work without action. Other than a few special occasions, the animation looks pretty awful too. If you pause at any point while people are moving, you’ll notice the perspective is off, limbs look too big or too small.

Kaname, aside from being the personification of mashed potatoes, isn’t that bad of a character. Yeah, he’s an edgelord, but who isn’t these days? My problem with him is that he gained his overpowered sigil out of pure coincidence, and it allows him to succeed in the game. He does not develop until late in the series. Lucky circumstances cause him to succeed, dumb decisions cause him to temporarily fail. He meets powerful and agreeable players, who he dick whips ruthlessly until they join him. Ladies throw themselves at him, worshiping his sigil, to the point of insanity. Dear God, impregnate me Kaname-sama! There were one or two scenes when he was relatable, but that was all.

As for the other characters, we have Yuno Gasai with twin tails, a crazy child who is convinced she has the ghost of her twin in her body. She just whines for most of the show and does nothing. Might as well show her half-naked for the plot! The 13-year-old supercomputer sniper girl, she’s pretty cool. The human lie detector, this game is balanced. The Florist, a man trying to earn money to save his daughter, valid reason. Then he develops a hero complex for reasons. He has a heartfelt dialogue with the sniper girl, but afterward, he regurgitates his same pointless desire to live and die a hero undigested. HE learns nothing from one of the best scenes in the show. The main villain, big Wang himself, is another psychopathic edgelord who fits his role as the leader of the Bad Clan. There’s nothing to him, still, I have to give props to his voice actor for his great performance.

Ever since watching the classic Japanese film Battle Royale (that the Hunger Games shamelessly copied), I’ve loved death games. I think I have made a good argument for why Darwin’s Game is a very shitty anime, and I could end the review here. But I need to make it clear why this is also a shitty death game anime as well. I’ve enjoyed bad death game anime in the past, I love the catastrophe that is Mirai Nikki. I expected Darwin’s Game to be a fix for my shlocky battle royale addiction, but I was baited. Kaname basically uses his power and *sexy* personality to sway his enemies he encounters into joining his team. This is where Darwin’s Game ceases being a battle royale and becomes a battle between clans. I didn’t sign up for this! Worst of all, a lot of the violence is censored. There was a badass scene when a dude punches off a guy’s head. Well, it would have been badass if they hadn’t censored the shit out of it! Fuck censorship! Some guy’s arm got chopped off and it’s shown as a silhouette because they didn't want to offend the children. Kill your shitty child for all I care! I want to see blood, guts, filth!

I feel like I’m committing some kind of crime by reviewing this garbage. It’s not worth the effort I put into writing this review. It shouldn’t be as popular as it is; People are going to see this and think this is what anime is like. They’re going to think we’re all babbling angsty babies who believe this trash is high art. It’s obscene that I feel the need to announce I know this anime is bad when it’s clear from just the first few minutes how shitty it is. I’m tapping out here, I’ve lost enough brain cells trying to unironically dissect this fecesfest. For those who want to hurt more, no shade if you’re into that sort of thing, this anime doesn’t have an ending so expect another season. If you like shlock in the same vein as Btoom!, Mirai Nikki, and Ousama’s Game, this might be worth a shot.

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Throughout my high school years, I struggled with an illness in my mind I couldn't put into words. The way I thought of it was a roller coaster that I could never get off. My whole life has been a series of peaks and valleys.

For weeks, the roller coaster would be at a peak. I would have an endless supply of energy. I was able to make friends and enjoy every day to the fullest. Then everything would crash down and suddenly the roller coaster was stuck in a valley. For weeks, I would be exhausted and depressed. Making friends was the easy part, but keeping them was hard. During a valley, trying to talk to anyone was as painful as getting a tooth ripped out of your mouth. I had to avoid my friends altogether so I wouldn’t have an angry outburst and ruin our friendship. Growing up, I didn’t have many people in my life because I learned all of this the hard way. Even my family tried subtly avoiding me because they were afraid of sudden mood swings. There were times when the roller coaster was so low I couldn't tell if it'd ever go back up.

Babylon is like that roller coaster. It entices you with an interesting premise, it begins at the bottom of the coaster, and gradually rises. It has bursts of greatness, then it suddenly shoots downwards leaving you frustrated and trapped in the headspace of the demonic antagonist. She beckons everyone in the series, including you, to consider suicide as the answer to life-long suffering. Along the way, it touches upon—or rather, beats with a baseball bat—themes of suicide, depression, and morality. It puts a unique spin on the conventional cat & mouse murder mystery, while also tackling politics and the central theme of whether or not suicide should be legalized. Much of the screen time is dedicated to intellectual politicians debating the show’s themes. To the untrained eye, these arguments may seem intelligent, enlightening, and enthralling. Anyone who has ever taken an intro-level philosophy course can tell this entire show is pseudo-philosophical bullshit laden with logical fallacies.

It asks questions such as: Is suicide wrong? Should suicide be legal? What if someone could coerce you into killing yourself within seconds? What is it she can say to change your mind? And if you figure it out would you be convinced to join her victims? It begs you to understand these questions. If you don’t get IT, you’re the minority, if you don’t get IT you are not intelligent enough. Politicians, citizens of Japan, and entire countries vote to support the suicide law. But you simply don’t understand why because you are a normal human being. You know what's right from wrong, and you can tell that everything that occurs within the world of Babylon is illogical. Rather than asking questions rooted in modern-day society (such as the legality of euthanasia), the writer discusses the suicide law, an argument no one in the real world would benefit from pondering. No one acts like a real human being in this show. They are all cardboard cutouts existing to preach philosophy from the insidious mind of an uninformed writer.

There is no reality in which suicide will be legalized as a law. If someone is determined to take their own life, they will not stop to consider what the government has to say about it. People still have morals and know right from wrong, no decent human being would stand aside and watch a person commit suicide when they have the power to save their life. Meanwhile in the ass-backward world of Babylon... Hundreds of people commit mass suicide and the police do not investigate anything because they “want to avoid a scandal.” What the fuck. This is Japan not fucking North Korea. I find it impossible to believe the police wouldn’t care about a string of violent deaths at the same time in the same place. Babylon imagines a nightmarish perversion of reality where suicide is morally acceptable, encouraged, and the solution to depression. The sun emits a hellish hue of orange, water is colored blood-red, and the many deaths are shown in gruesome detail for shallow shock factor. The deaths also exist to get under your skin, desensitizing you to suicide in record-breaking speed. If I had to I live in a world where suicide is legal, enforced, and considered unimportant to the justice system, I wouldn’t want to live in it either.

Suicide is glorified in a way that only someone who has felt suicidal can contextualize. Like an angel of death, the Whore of Babylon whispers sweet nothings into someone’s ear and they commit suicide. Victims become crazed, there’s nothing that can stop them from the uncontrollable urge to die. This is what it is like to struggle against the overwhelming need to release yourself from the pain of life. One victim compares suicide to sex, and the end of his life is the orgasm. At the end of his monologue, he puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger, blood squirting, but for a brief moment, it appears completely white to finish the sex metaphor. This sort of disgusting self-masturbatory directing is used throughout the show. I cannot fathom how people find this kind of unsubtle imagery remotely good. Babylon targets a large subset of the anime community who seek out mature seinen and psychological-thrillers, I consider myself part of this audience. If an anime has dark themes, dramatic music, and adult characters speaking very seriously, this subset of the community will flock to the anime. Babylon has it all, everything except the execution. I have no ill will towards anyone who likes this anime, after all, it coerces you into believing you are watching a revolutionary work of art. For me, this is one of, if not the worst, anime I have ever watched. None of the philosophical anime I have seen come close to being as pretentious as this one.

This show may have redeeming qualities: the music adds suspense, the animation is mostly acceptable, and it has an intriguing premise, but every positive aspect is doused in an impenetrable layer of poison. Babylon is an abyss with nothing at the bottom but despair and hopelessness. It gaslit me into believing its ponderings on suicide were of substance and worth reading into. Perhaps it is because I am in a valley as I write this, but analyzing Babylon made me contemplate suicide as a valid cure to a life of struggling against that roller coaster. I’m sorry this is not like my other reviews, but someone needed to warn people about this vile sack of shit. It’s about time I put this out of my mind for good. I think I’ll go outside today and enjoy the wonderful and beautiful things the world has to offer. Maybe later I will watch a comedy or a relaxing slice-of-life.

NOTE: If you have Depression, Bipolar Disorder, experienced suicidal thoughts, or a history of self-harm, please do not watch Babylon. If you are currently feeling suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255.

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Alicization: War of the Underworld is exactly what people mean when they say “Look pretty and do as little as possible.”

There is sakuga in every episode, the artwork is vibrant, and the fight choreography is better than ever. As for the writing, it is hasn’t improved much over SAO’s previous seasons. Where the narrative shines is its premise: The Underworld is a hellish land cloaked in a warm aura radiating from the blood-red sky. Flatter than an ocean, it is a wasteland populated with no vegetation as far as the eye can see. Divided by a valley of stone are humans on one side and monsters in the Dark Territory on the other.

In real life where the A.L.I.C.E. simulation is operated, a group of terrorists invade the game; they overthrow an empire of monsters then march them into a war to kill the good guys and Kirito—who is in a vegetative state for the duration of this season. The terrorists enter the game as generals of the monster army, it all plays out like a shlocky imitation of Matrix 3. Once again, the script is overwritten as hell. There are so many buzzwords and names that you’ll need flashcards to keep track of them. Before the titular War begins, every single character who isn’t a CGI soldier gets a close-up with a name tag. About twenty of them were introduced before anyone drew a sword. We only needed the name tags because the setting is so underwritten. With the bare minimum world-building, there is suddenly an all-out war and we’re expected to follow along. There are only two people on either side you have a reason to care about. Alice and a wheel-chair bound potato, and the two bad guys they’re fighting against.

Any moments of self-sacrifice or emotional death ring hollow. Every tearjerker moment felt 100% like emotional manipulation, but I can’t say they made me feel nothing. When the music cuts out, the scene fades to washed-out colors, and all that’s left is a close-up of someone with tears streaming down their faces, it is almost moving. Almost. A cowardly knight got a sad flashback that explained his personality, it should have been sad, but he was so irrelevant that it evoked no emotion. The moment at least made him less one dimensional. However, it’s immediately undercut because he suddenly becomes a fearless badass. And that’s the best character development we’ve got. A few of the knights got half-episodes like that guy; I’ll admit, these moments of introspection paired with an electric guitar riff and breathtaking sakuga were awesome.

A majority of the screen time is dedicated to battles, strategizing on either side, and knights valiantly fighting alone. The best animation comes out during the solo knight battles. The animation is nearly movie quality during these moments. There’s a fair share of CGI during footsoldier combat for filler between the impressive fights. There is at least one spectacular display of sakuga every episode, which is unheard of in a TV anime. This commitment to a visual spectator is what made A-1 Pictures split this season into two cours, a wise decision on their part. It's not every day I find myself praising this problematic studio; with the recent release of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, now this, it’s safe to say they’re on a roll. The directing and writing of this series, unfortunately, falls far below Kaguya-sama. Logic defying fighting, plot holes, mediocre editing, the roller coaster pacing, and an overreliance on name tags. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen this many tags on characters, locations, factions, and times.

One guy throws a punch, another catches it before he hits him—two seconds pass then we get close-ups of their shocked expressions. This probably seems like I’m nitpicking, but when everything in the show is off by a second or two, it makes the action feel slow and disconnected. Both OP/ED in the prior Alicization themes were much better than these ones. The songs are average, both visually and audibly. Lisa and Eir Aoi did much better work on the last season. I’ll also say, the voice acting was great amidst all of the action. The Engrish interspersed in the real-world characters’ dialogue was hilarious.

A vegetative Kirito is hilariously wheeled into the battle in his wheelchair. Right from the first episode, it’s hinted he will wake up when the time is right. Essentially he is a plot device waiting for when Alice is in a pinch. He hangs behind the army, with a constant creepy smirk on his face, while Alice awkwardly hovers above on her dragon as if it’s a damn helicopter. That dragon can kill a horde of monsters like it’s nothing. She is just as overpowered as Kirito. Alice could have been a good character, unfortunately, she is just as flawless as Asuna. Neither of them develops over the course of the season. And being TOO nice isn’t a flaw!! Rather than the main character, she is an extension of Kirito. Just like every other 14-year-old looking girl in this show, she is in love with Kirito. She is motivated by her desire to protect him first, everyone else comes second. While Alice has her own reason having no personality, it doesn't make for a good protagonist. At one point, another knight showed up, a female knight mind you, who wanted to see Kirito so she could “try some things to wake him up” *wink wink nudge nudge. If Alice hadn’t stopped the bitch, she would have given him a good old handy while he was too mentally incapacitated to consent. Alice wouldn’t want another woman putting the moves on her man, obviously. The whole confrontation is disgusting on multiple levels, but it just goes to show Alice’s main purpose in the show is to look pretty and protect her future husband (little does she know he’s engaged).

After not too long, Alice is swept under the rug in favor of a few knights and generals. The rest of her appearances are brief and surface level. In one of her moments alone with the audience, she monologues about the unfairness of the war. Monsters and men have the same souls, and they should not be fighting, so she says; meanwhile, CGI goblins lethargically wave their swords two at even uglier CGI humans in the background. Their swords don’t even come within 4 feet of hitting each other. The “modeled in ten minutes with Blender” aesthetic really adds depth to Alice’s philosophies. To compensate for Alice’s personality (or lack-there-of) more ladies find their way to Kirito as if he’s a magnet. The thing is, Kirito didn’t need to be such a waste of air in this season. He is a prisoner of his own mind, this was a great chance to give us insight into his thoughts. Unfortunately, this was another case of wasted potential by this adaptation.

During the first half of the show, there is a bit too much time spent in the real world (similar to the most frustrating parts of Assassin’s Creed). Everyone in the real world is there to info dump the plot of this season, no characterization at all. I didn’t know one of these guy’s names aside from Asuna. Oh yeah, she is still hovering around Kirito like a fly on shit, telling us how she “won't forgive you!” if anything bad happens to her boyfriend. God, what does a man gotta do to get a female equivalent of a fruit fly bodyguard? Kirito’s rejected women's club also shows up a few times in person to remind us they are still in love. Even the little winged rat Kirito calls his daughter shows up. The two girls who were nearly molested by the villainous guys from last season made an appearance too. Not for any special reason, just to remind us they still existed and they’re still in love. Being trapped in a new game, Kirito’s harem couldn’t come. Even as a potato, our main god himself still gets all the ladies. If this is your thing, no shade, just take this paragraph with a grain of salt. One last thing to add; when every female character (who knows the protagonist firsthand) only talks about their love of a potato, aside from surface-level observations and info-dumping, I consider them poorly written characters.

As for the villains of this season, there are slim pickings. The first bad guy is a comically evil fat dude who calls Alice a witch for trying to evacuate her family’s village. He wants everyone to stay and defend the village because that’s where all his money is. He even says “but I can’t lose my money-I mean I don’t want the village to be destroyed!” The whole altercation is laughably stupid. Of course, Alice gets them to leave, cue the monster stampede. After that episode, we never hear from him again. Then the true antagonist makes his appearance. The blonde-haired terrorist bastard. This guy is so bad I wished for the first one to come back. The leader of the terrorists is a psychopath who has been killing people since he was a child. The murders of an adorable little girl a beautiful woman in lingerie are shown with creepy detail. In a show about kids fighting off anthropomorphic animals and goblins, gross exploitation for shock factor feels so out of place. You could argue this is ‘character development’ because we need to know the bad guy is Very Evil, even though he’s barely in the show. I’d say his personality was conveyed sufficiently by displaying a woman’s severed head the foot of his throne. Not to mention, the main ‘antagonist’ is barely in the show. Another evil general I want to mention is a woman wearing only ribbons and a cape like a dominatrix. She is Very Evil too. When she kills people she gropes herself and moans. Very depraved. Very necessary character development.

Quinella—the antagonist of the previous season—appears as a ‘devil on your shoulder’ type of villain. In dreamlike flashbacks, she speaks to the knight’s inner insecurities and desires. Her voice is accompanied by an ominous flute as well as a piano, both playing a low methodical tune. Quinella's scenes are enrapturing. She drew the knights, and me, into her eerie world. These moments were some of the best in the show. Sakuga aside, there were a few other highlights in this season.

Sword Art Online has never looked better than War of the Underworld; the sakuga is amazing. As for the writing, it is still lackluster at best. A few slightly relevant knights got a modicum of character development. More time should have been spent developing, you know, Alice or Asuna. It’s worth noting that I’ve been told this adaptation butchered the pacing of the source material. If the premise/characters do interest you I would recommend seeking out the novel. A bevy of flaws aside, War of the Underworld surprised me.

Does it live up to the hype? No.
Is it the best season Sword Art Online? In my opinion, yes.

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Warrior’s pride, loss of innocence, betrayal, and the quest for the biggest bounty. This is what it means to be a Viking in Vinland Saga. All of these themes are presented in one solid package. What this series lacks in narrative depth, it makes up for with an authentic depiction of the eleventh-century European war.

This season is the prologue to the rest of the real saga. In the beginning, the hero of Vinland Saga, Thorfinn, slowly—and frustratingly—grows throughout the season. From the start, he was just a kid and his immaturity is prevalent throughout the series. His father, the great Viking general Thors, raised him to be a compassionate person, until his untimely death. Stay away from the path of a Viking, never kill, take care of your family. These were the values Thors taught him. When Thors was murdered right before Thorfinn’s innocent eyes, none of these values mattered. Instead of growing up, Thorfinn survived his childhood by learning to kill. Years passed and he became an angst-ridden killing machine. Enduring the bitter frost of northern Europe was the least of his problems; he needed to prove himself on the battlefield for a chance at revenge. The power that drives him is a hunger to seek revenge against the leader of the mercenaries, Askeladd. This is where Thorfinn shines. His perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds shows he has real motivation anyone can believe in. Thorfinn’s frustrating immaturity is intentional, but what kept me caring about his journey was his slow evolution. I told myself that even if he doesn’t grow up this season, it will come. His arc is a slow one, but I don’t doubt he will improve in later seasons. Thorfinn’s prevalent immaturity extends to his duels with Askeladd too. He makes the same mistakes over and over. He is desperate to win, yet his anger gets the best of him. Once Thorfinn loses his temper, he waves his sword like a maniac and gives up strategy. As Askeladd points out, he is predictable. Even so, the fights are still very entertaining. Askeladd critiques his fighting techniques and gives him a purpose in life. To grow and one day murder him.

Over time, Askeladd becomes the closest thing Thorfinn has to a father. Witnessing their complicated duality throughout the show is genuinely intriguing. I’ll admit it was quite frustrating to see Thorfinn try to kill Askeladd in duels, yet he was always eager to save his life during battles. It allowed for their relationship to be dragged on for as long as possible, hindering Thorfinn’s growth. Thankfully, Askeladd more of a protagonist of this season. He is the best character by far. He leads his army of mercenaries, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. He is the wild card of the cast. He has the deepest backstory; throughout the show, his motivations grow more complex as we learn about him. The strategies he concocts are amazing to watch play out, he’s without a doubt a villain, but a clever one. Like Askeladd, the entire cast is from different European countries. Despite this, all of the dialogue is voiced in Japanese. Normally I wouldn’t be bothered by this at all. It’s done in movies/TV all the time. You’re expected to suspend your disbelief. It would be unrealistic to expect a TV anime to use multiple languages, but it led to problems. Occasionally people need to translate different languages to form allegiances or communicate with enemies. But they’re all speaking Japanese. A language barrier is an integral part of war stories between different cultures. The lack of understanding for each other fuels prejudices, which sparks hatred between either side of the battlefield. Vinland Saga misses this entirely. I wish they would have hired some actors who spoke a little bit of the languages. Norsk, English, Danish, Icelandic, all absent. One of the main components of the series is inauthentic and jarring. The script addresses this somewhat by using different Japanese dialects and honorifics between social classes. A better fix would have been to fix mix in certain words or phrases from the actual languages.

There are times the violence gets so unrealistic you might mistake it as an ultraviolent schlockfest. It’s far more believable than WIT Studio’s other blood-soaked action anime like Attack on Titan, and less ridiculous than Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Dozens of people get chopped in half, decapitated, and dismembered throughout the show. Some of the gore bends the fabric of reality with how absurd it gets. You’re not meant to be that shocked by it. Rather you are placed in the bloodthirsty mindsets of the savage killers. Violence is commonplace to Vinland Saga. It’s just as thrilling for the Vikings as it is for the audience. When the giant warrior Thorkell the Tall decapitates five people AND takes down a ship mast with a throw of an ax, I laughed along with him. However, it is not all fun and games. Once you realize that action you’ve been enjoying was done by the hands of evil psychos—you start to question your morality too. In stark comparison to the entertaining battles is the real shock factor. Men, women, and children are murdered in droves. To show a loving family for five minutes only to kill them all right after is horrible, senseless, but yet it is part of the world. At first, it seemed like cheap shock factor, then I realized it is true to the historical setting. The mass murders were part of history and the characters, Vinland never shies from the truth. There is one instance where a sole survivor of a murdered family is left behind to hear the sounds of their kin being slaughtered. The camera hovers around the sole survivor until their final moments full of despair. You will remember the real lives the Vikings brutally stole. It’s horrible being on the side of villains like these, yet brilliant.

Most of the screen time in Vinland Saga is either fights, arguments, or dialogue. Politics of power struggles, contemplating morality in war, and conjuring clever strategies. When the script integrates true background information into the story, it shines. In one scene Askeladd tortures a man while arguing that both sides of the war are savages by detailing the history of their land. To prevent the plot from seeming predictable they use plenty of paranoia-inducing foreshadowing. The script suffers from a common anime adaptation issue where characters over-explain what we can see for ourselves. A manga compensates for a lack of animation by describes the movement; these lines were left in the adaptation. There were many times when fights would be interrupted by cross-cutting to people talking, halting the pace.

Rather than always focusing on the main characters, the script often follows various mercenaries; they discuss their past and future battles and share their opinions on other people. The slow pacing made room for a well-written script, but also for it to meander. Men would banter about heaps of money and women being the meaning of their lives. While a drunken priest would mumble about ale being his only God now. It fit the show so well; none of them had meaning in their lives other than drinking, killing, fucking, then dying a warrior’s death. Then Canute entered the show. He is the timid prince, so timid that I wasn’t sure if he was a woman or not. Rejected by his father, the king, he is sent to war to grow into a man or die trying. His arc writes itself, yet he’s one of the most compelling characters. His firm Christian values are mocked by the Vikings. With an earnest dream of creating world peace—spurred by his religion—I found myself rooting for him. The themes are pro-religion; the devils are the Vikings because they’ve forsaken God, and every Christain is innocent. Compared to the devils, the Christians are led like lambs to a slaughter. We see the story from the devils’ perspective; they reject God’s path and forsake him for letting horrors happen. Instead, they choose to pave their path in blood. Over time the themes are discussed by characters like Canute and the priest, but despite their relevance to the plot, they are not well developed. The themes and discussions of morality in Vinland might come off as pretentious and convoluted to some viewers. The art carries much of the weight in making these ankle-deep philosophies feel profound.

There are moments the art looks manga quality. To emphasize the importance, certain close-ups are drawn with incredible detail. Deep shadows beneath wrinkles and strained muscles, showing the weathered souls of the characters. Those are the faces you will remember them by. There are several clever storyboards used to convey the conflicting motives between characters. Boundaries separate them, trees divide them in the frame to symbolize their unspoken hatred. The radiant light of hope shines emanating from behind the compassionate people shines down on the tormented savages below; on the nose perhaps, but powerful nonetheless. Backgrounds are drawn beautifully much of the time. The lighting is cool because the sky is always shrouded with clouds. Warm red sunsets radiant beautifully just beyond the horizon through white skies, contrasted against the horrible blood splattered across the snow-covered forests redder than ripe tomatoes. Harsh snowstorms whip across the screen; gorgeous, but sometimes distracting because the CGI weather is disconnected from the picture. Speaking of which, the egregious use of CGI is jarring. Cannon fodder soldiers and ships are rendered at a low framerate. It is reminiscent of the ugly schlockfest Inuyashiki, the director’s previous adaptation. The use of CGI is not in vain, it allowed for 3D dynamic camera movements during fight scenes. However, the camera lingers too close to the eyes-searing animation, and for way too long. If you take away the CGI, add more interesting storyboards, and maintain the strong background art, the visuals would be great. As for the music, it’s fine. Nothing I would seek out on my own, even though it fits the show well. The opening songs are both light metal, closer to metalcore, and they are OK. For an anime opening, they are great. I love it when anime try something different with their theme songs. As metal songs, they are fine. For WIT Studio’s standards, this anime isn’t quite on the level of Attack on Titan or Kabaneri of the Iron fortress. Thankfully, it has a stronger narrative than both.

After a full season, Vinland Saga has only just started. If this is representative of what’s to come, I’m thrilled to see where this story goes from here. Perhaps it moved too slowly for a lengthy prologue; nevertheless, it was engaging. With beautifully drawn artwork, a well-realized setting, and clever writing, this adaptation impresses in many respects. With this simply being a prologue, a sequel will be promising if it mends the flaws of this season. Hammy action sequences, an annoying main character, cliched plotting, and redundant themes weight it down. Although it struggles along the way, it sticks the landing with a fantastic finale.

There is a profound feeling to this story. Whether or not the events depicted are entirely accurate, it feels as if you are watching monumental history unfold. It is frustrating at times, but it is gripping in the end. Vinland Saga rises above its flaws to become an authentic piece of historical fiction.

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*Spoilers in a marked section.*

All it takes is one glance at Cautious Hero’s title to know everything you need to know about it. It summarizes the story, the main character’s personality, and the one prominent joke of the entire show. If you are expecting anything different from the typical isekai, read the title. If the gimmick interests you then this might be worth watching. To everyone else, there’s nothing to see here. Just another generic isekai gag comedy.

First and foremost, the titular cautious hero is the worst part of the show. Seiya is the hero, but he has no personality. He's your typical generic isekai protagonist—overpowered, kind of an asshole, and boring. He’s the straight man in all the gags, so his only expression is serious. Compared to the clownish goddess who accompanies him, Ristarte, he is a wet blanket. I don’t know what I expected, Seiya’s eternal poker face is intentional. But he sucks as a protagonist because you can never tell what he’s thinking unless he says it aloud. The few times he does say something, it’s some bitchy comments about Rista being a dumbass. He could be replaced with an angry plank of wood and there’d be no difference. His motivation is to protect himself first, then save the world. Needless to say, he’s not much of a hero, which is the point. The thing is, he almost qualifies as a villain because of how he chooses to use his overpowered stats.

There was a fight early on where Seiya burnt down an entire village of innocent people. What was his reason? Caution. It was never mentioned later on. After that incident, any chance of he would become a ‘good guy’ was off the table. No nuance, no clever writing, he is just a humorless asshole. The jokes never evolve because Seiya never changes. This wouldn’t be a big problem if the story progressed. So does it? Well, kind of... Like most isekai fantasies, the goal is for the hero to save the world from a demonic threat. Seiya levels up so fast that no enemy could stand in his way. Forget power scaling, they only use MMO terms for the target audience. For humor's sake, this is fine. For the story, it is detrimental. A threadbare story is expected from a gag comedy. However, there’s nothing to the show other than the stale jokes, it gets tedious to watch very fast

(Minor Spoilers)
I enjoyed the first episode, but after that, I realized there would be nothing to it but that one joke—and it didn’t take long for me to get sick of it. I started to wonder why. Why is this guy so cautious? Why was he the one summoned? Why does he have the personality of a potato? I waited for an explanation, I waited for character development. It did not come until the final episodes. There’s a twist that reveals Seiya wasn't always a shitty person. He was summoned to fight in the same world once before, but he and his party were killed. We are told this is the reason why he is so cautious in his latest reincarnation. However, he lost all of his memories, so the saying his death changed him is contradictory. The twist adds nothing to him. He’s still a cowardly asshole. The one person who remembered was Ristarte, who was his lover in the first incarnation and she also was killed. Rista was pregnant in the first timeline as if this weren't emotionally manipulative enough.

In my opinion, all good twists should be surprising, but upon reflection, you should see where it was hinted. Cautious Hero misses this. The twist comes out of buttfucking nowhere and it adds nothing but transparent emotional manipulation. This anime breaks the basic rule of film, Chekov’s Gun. In other words, set up and pay off. This rule gives a story exceptional rewatch value. In Cautious Hero’s case, I found the majority of the show repetitive and underwhelming. Even after the twist, I felt like I wasted my time. All pay off, no setup. Although I wouldn’t call the twist satisfying in any respect, it at least led to a heartfelt ending. Or maybe not quite. Without the build-up, the tear-jerker ending rang hollow. Ending aside, there are still many more problems with this show that I need to address—and the commendable ways it stands out from other isekai.
(Spoilers Complete)

The jokes are derived from Rista’s reactions to Seiya being a jackass. He annoys her with his cowardliness. What riles her up the most is his lack of care for anyone. She’s so relatable because of how frustrated she gets. Who wouldn’t be annoyed by this guy? Also, it was pretty funny how horny she was for him. Even with all the stupid stuff she does, she still tries to maintain her nobility as a Goddess. Rista is a clone of Aqua from Konosuba with slight differences. Her over-the-top personality is the highpoint of Cautious Hero. She made it worth watching the boring parts. We see the narrative from her first-person point of view, almost like she is the protagonist. Completing Rista and Seiya’s party is Mash and Elulu, two kids tagging along out of respect for Seiya. I don’t have much to say about them. One is a girl who was there to be cute. The boy acts like a standard shounen character, he is determined to Do His Best. Seiya is so overpowered that he doesn’t need a party. The other members are useless compared to him.

As for the animation, Cautious Hero adopts the loose animation style of Konosuba. With this art style, the animators can get away with making the designs can look a little off-model for the sake of humor. They draw faces to look stupid a lot. When the art looks a little unintentionally bad, it’s still goofy because it rarely takes itself seriously. This style doesn’t extend to the background art or storyboards, which are both mediocre. I loved how colorful this show tried to be, but there were times colors clashed hideously. Thankfully the character designs are pretty good.

Ristarte and her fellow Goddesses wear beautifully decadent outfits. Per isekai standard, they have pieces of cloth instead of bras. I liked that Seiya made fun of how impractical Rista’s outfit was rather than just letting it fly (hey DanMachi). The one design that stood out to me the most was the Goddess of war and her bikini made of chains; it suits her hostile demeanor so well. Conversely, Seiya’s character design is quite generic—it adds nothing to his personality. Where the humor shines is Ristarte’s many ridiculous faces. She is a folder of reaction gifs in the form of a character. The music is fine; I think the OP is one of Myth & Roid’s weakest songs, above Isekai Shit Magician, of course. The ED is alright if you shield your eyes from the uncanny as hell CGI dance.

Cautious Hero would have been another Konosuba clone, but the ending proved it’s slightly more than a cheap imitator. If only this show wasn’t shackled to a terrible main character, it could have been much more enjoyable. Like most light novel adaptations, there's a chance this will get another season; if it does, my one hope is that they develop Seiya and give Rista more purpose in the plot. If you want another watchable isekai gag comedy, this will do. If you want a good substitute for Konosuba, keep looking.

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