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Jun 30, 2025
Clearly made by OG Gundam fans, made for OG Gundam fans. GQuuuuuux gets a little greedy, setting a secondary goal of attracting younger generation audience. Having the trendiest pop singers in their OP, ED and OST. Sharing the character designs from latest Pokemon generation. Starting the story with a simple and engaging sports-like premise that is Clan Battle. Lastly, Machu, the main character, is written to be more relatable to the modern younger generation, with her anti-conforming attitude towards the school system, and her puppy love towards Shuji.
Unfortunately, despite setting out to entertain both old and new viewers, GQuuuuuux is limited with the
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12 episode format. Initially, the colony Clan Battle arc was pretty decent, introducing us Machu, Nyaan and Shuji. But as time goes on, more and more of Zeon's military side is shown, zooming out to the bigger picture of the story. Perhaps due to time restraint, our main characters' roles are diminished in the later episodes to make way for the OG characters. So when we reach the finale, the story suddenly remembers it has to shift its focus back to the main characters, only for the underdeveloped characters to form an unconvincing resolve and unfounded emotional growth. While Machu's heroic sequences and talk no jutsu were cool, her immediate maturity comes off as superficial. The fumbled main characters aren't the only issue in the super rushed finale, of course. With little to no setup beforehand, bunch of Newtype magic nonsense started happening, and I could barely buy the horrible amount of infodumping behind them.
Still, I did enjoy watching GQuuuuuux. In the first 11 episodes, although some skipped details due to the accelerating pacing, it is still simple to follow. Even without prior knowledge of the OG Gundam anime, there is only a few OG characters who play key roles in the main story, and they each have enough screentime to flesh out their motives. In its short run time, the series is packed with many well-choreographed action scenes, with unique mech designs and movement. Even in dialogue sequences, the lighting and shadowing on the characters always have a cinematic feel to it. A lot of narrative flaws in GQuuuuuux can be easily compensated by its sheer quality animation, much like and more so than its recent predecessors.
I'm glad the fans in the anime production get to celebrate their favorite original, and I'm glad for the OG fans getting such luxurious fanservice. However, this anime ultimately felt like a parade that is welcoming at first, attempting to entertain newcomers, but gradually get a little too self-indulgent and do their own thing. I've watched IBO, 00, Hathway, SEED, Wing and WfM. While GQuuuuuux is the least disappointing series, thanks to its short episode count, I think I would rather watch a series that doesn't set out to humor a specific audience that isn't me.
That said though, GQuuuuuux is a big Gundam series with the shortest episode count, so newcomer looking for a low commitment introductory to the franchise can easily start with this one. But if I were to spark one's interest in the OG UC timeline with a modern Gundam anime, I believe the Hathaway movie is a far better recommendation. Not that I ever started watching a 45 year old anime afterwards though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 7, 2025
The biggest surprise anime of the season. I'm shocked by its sheer amount quality and originality. The animation and art are clean and colourful. The 3D animation used in the short magic sequences is wonderfully choreographed and the models are 2D-fied with perfect outlining magic. The premise is the first of its kind yet fits into the magical girl genre perfectly. The pacing is fast yet doesn't miss a beat. Everything and everything is done with such precision, I could immediately tell this anime is made with an ambitious vision.
Despite the cartoonishly noisy main girls, the anime pursues a high degree of realism for
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its subject, tackling topics that are very relevant to the youth and female audience. The drama is spiced up with good amount of unlikable characters, but held back a little right on the wholesome borderline. I believe the anime can be enjoyed by a wide range of audiences. Unfortunately, most of them will turn away at the constantly annoying characters, extremely fast-paced introductory episode and vague, seemingly shallow conclusions.
Among the original anime that came out this season, I would easily put Maebashi Witches at the top. It's relatively spicy for a magical girl/idol/band show, but the high quality production makes it worth watching. Banger OP. Solid original song in episode 5. I dare say this is the anime of the year so far. Highly recommended for drama fans.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 26, 2025
I think the last notable anime with sci-fi, post-apocalypse and slice-of-life genre combined was Girls' Last Tour? It's been 7 years since. If you're a fan of these genres, I highly recommend you jump right into watching the first few episodes before being semi-spoiled by this review. It's not particularly revolutionary or unique, but it is a rare mix that appears once in a blue moon, and you may find it refreshing.
Despite the title of Apocalypse Hotel, the hotel that the story takes place, is actually named Galaxy Tower Hotel, situated in a city ruins very like the one from Nier: Automata. Damn, it's
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been 7 years with no sequel since Nier: Automata too. In the first episode, after explaining how the apocalypse came to, the anime impresses you with the soothing greenery of its setting, at the same time denoting that nature has taken over the remnants of human civilization. Then it walks back to the hotel, showing the mundane and repetitive routine that has maintained the building despite the apocalypse. Not only this achieves the dull relaxing vibe that is a staple in post-apocalypse stories, the lack of regard to the apocalypse in the hotel's unending operation created a vague sense of disconnection. Then a twist happened, switching the tone and pacing to a more upbeat one.
In the wonderful OP, spotlight shines on the star of the show, Yachiyo. Yachiyo has a strict attitude on work which is fitting for a robot manager, but very often she is shown to be a wildly emotional person enhanced with her explosive expressions and funny features. Fortunately, Yachiyo won't be alone to play the comedic skits. More new characters are introduced right from the get go, each with their unique personalities and backgrounds, making the hotel livelier.
Watching Apocalypse Hotel made me feel somewhat nostalgic. The characters are so tropey and simple, loud and funny, there is an innocence in it, like a children show, but sprinkled a few dark scenes in between to make it feel grounded. There are a lot of great anime this season, so the competition is fierce. Still, I hope Apocalypse Hotel continues to flourish.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 21, 2025
If you liked Season 1 or watched thing whole thing by impulse, Season 2 will work slightly better for you. If not, Season 2 does not justify taking up your time any further.
Season 2 is very much like Season 1, a lot more new heroes introduced, telling each hero's backstory with the episodic format. Still got that brutal ugly gore, flowing fight scenes, charismatic business talk. Still got one pretty girl among the heroes just to keep me simping. (Please don't kill her again) Same old same old. Fortunately, this time, they finally get into the story of "The True Demon King", BUT only
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in a certain few episodes, with barely enough revelation to the whole mystery.
Season 3 will most likely be the tournament arc that it has been setting up forever. And guess what... There are some known characters with their backstory untold. So chances are... they will run the same character backstory routine again. And I will still watch it. Despite the lack of main plot progression, I have never found Ishura boring. I'm a sucker for episodic anime, but that isn't all there is to Ishura. It's got great flow. Solid dialogue writing. Moderate use of shock value. Just high quality animation overall.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 20, 2024
A refreshing take on the magical girl genre, while also fantastically wholesome.
The big bad first. During my viewing of this anime, I'm always aware of its quality of drawings. This season is full of anime of the action category with solid art quality, Magilumiere unfortunately, does not have that luxury. Its weakness becomes especially apparent during action sequences. The most important action, the magic attacks, are really just the girls staying almost motionless with their wands out and let the passable special effects take over the screen. The antagonist in this story are mostly monsters called Kaii, which mostly have very limited movement and
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almost zero expression. Magilumiere also has this interesting take on how magical girls work, starting their action sequence with this long prelude that is akin to a pest control, which diminishes the sense of threat from the monsters they're facing. To lower the stakes further, the magical girls are never severely injured throughout the anime despite the constant verbal warning that it is a life-threatening job. Maybe it's just the beginning, so the monsters aren't that dangerous yet. Or maybe, this is the viewer-friendly tone the anime is trying to maintain. Regardless, the anime has much room to improve on its action sequences.
Now to get to the good part, I think Magilumiere is clever on utilizing its sci-fi and corporate themes. Usually, magical girl anime only have a few chosen heroines who can transform into magical girls. But in Magilumiere, pretty much any girl can pick up the tools and start working as one. So instead of getting stuck in the old loop of "monster of the week", Magilumiere adds another "magical girl of the week" to the mix. They also expanded the idea of magical girls by adding more roles to the business, with coordinators, engineers, manufacturer and all that. Rather than just monsters, you get more characters into the story, bringing out more personalities.
The best part of Magilumiere imo is the fantasy. Ahhhhh, the fantasy of having a friendly, supportive, respectful work environment. The anime is most enjoyable when the MC, Kana, interacts with her coworkers. You know when the boss says to you "We are all family here"? In real life, that's a huge red flag that could be translated to "Family members should tolerate my exploitative behaviour". But in this anime, the boss, President Shigemoto, says it like he's Vin Diesel. He treats Kana, a total rookie, as a coworker, rather than a subordinate. His orders aren't commands from a superior, but guidance from a leader. He showers Kana with ridiculous amount of praises, and probably only spoke sternly once to her while maintaining courtesy. As if that isn't dreamy enough, he drops the hardest lines in action. Alongside Prez, Kana is also mentored by a senior magical girl called Ms. Koshigaya, who is a super friendly tomboy. Ms. Koshigaya is quite a straightforward character and talks funny, she is the life of the party in the company. Kana also meets more magical girls on her job, who are just as friendly and supportive. I work in a mildly dog-eat-dog industry, morality and courtesy kind of comes in second to profit here, so it's a soothing experience to see the world of Magilumiere where their magical girl profession is treated with so much respect.
Plot wise, not much of the main plot has been revealed yet. The monsters do get stronger and more dangerous as Kana's journey continues, but very little worldbuilding info and history about monsters and magic are given at this point. The backstory of the Magilumiere company too are only surface level. There is definitely progress on both Kana and her company's growth but plot wise, not much is going on due to the semi episodic formula. And that's an okay approach for a first season, to introduce and develop the characters first. It is implied that things will get more serious in season 2, and while I'm pessimistic that the action animation will scale up to that seriousness, I will definitely keep watching Magilumiere for the healthy vibes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 2, 2024
First off, 5/10 but still recommended read. Because it's short, and you don't really have to memorize too much plot points. I think it has something unique to offer, just didn't quite go through the way I like.
I think this manga had a superb start. It's unique, it's offensive, it's morally challenging. It plays what I call the "You wish things are under control, but shit just gets worse real quick, and you cannot go back" story. And like most popular seinen mangas, it gets psychological.
The alien girl is psycho and dumbass at the same time, yet can show human emotions and patience when
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it is convenient. Is this mixed personality contradictory and unbelievable? Very much challenging to deny. But then this manga made it kind of clear it wasn't trying to stick too close to logic, so you just gotta follow the flow.
But there is a point where things get too chaotic, all of the relevant characters turned out mentally unstable. While I get this is the tone the manga is trying to go for, it's just not my liking. Because when all hell let loose, I as a reader kind of just let loose of my expectations too, stop trying to make sense or treat this manga seriously, worse, I lost interest. I believe for chaos to be enticing, it has to be within the balance of order.
The psycho characters end their stories near the end though, then the main plot of the alien girl is resumed. She brings up this theory of common enemy and firmly believes it is the answer to her plot. Of course, I could shit on the major flaws and oversights on this answer or theory, but you know, this manga is a little stupid to begin with, keep reading, man. And it had a decent ending, it illustrates the future of the alien girl's answer.
Is it weird to lose interest because a story starts getting too freaky? I'm a vanilla person after all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 23, 2024
Recently we've had a lot "gyaru"-ish heroine serving as the manic pixie dream girl to save our pathetic MC. I was fully expecting NegaPosi Angler (what a bold name) to play the same trope but somehow... the main girl isn't all that prominent in the first 3 episodes. Instead, we get a "gyaruo"-ish dude to save our male MC, so I guess that's a nice change of pace.
Our main MC plays the not-so-popular trope that is the Suicidal Doomer MC. You see these kinds of MC a lot more in seinen mangas because Japanese men just relate so hard to suicidal MCs. I think they
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introduced this MC fairly well. He fucked up his life pretty hard, lost a lot of money in legal gambling(Ah, average Japanese experience). Many upstanding viewers may not enjoy watching him, but I do, I fucked up my life too, but fortunately my father had the money to help me, I'm something of a loser myself. It's nice to see someone akin to myself, getting help from a hot dude. Granted, this is just fantasy. I've never received help from an angelic stranger so NegaPosi Angler won't really strike as realistic or believable. By the way, I'm not into dudes.
The music is quite funny. Like the hobby of fishing itself, the music reeks of middle age man. It's mainly guitar, quiet, slow and has keyboard sound of the old street performer who only plays Elvis Presley and shit. There are certain scenes with improvised tunes too. Relaxing vibes, flows well with the anime's tone.
I'm sure NegaPosi Angler won't get a second season. There's only so few characters they would focus on. Once the 3 main characters' tragic backstories are told, it will run out of material. Fishing is a boring hobby, you can't possibly make anything much out of it. But it's just enough to intrigue me for one season at least.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 12, 2024
I could not like this anime at the first 4 episodes. The number one reason being, the way our main characters talk, is very unrealistic for two person who just met each other, especially for two 17 year-olds. They completely discard the fear of misunderstanding or shame, lay their entire feelings out on the table and analyze them together like some kind of robots studying human emotions. This cursed style of dialogue only happens between our main characters and certain side characters throughout the anime. And it's not like this anime doesn't know how to write conventional emotional dialogues like Makeine. They literally have a
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senpai character(whatever her name is) who talks in a jesting manner very much like characters from Makeine or whatever traditional romcom anime you've watched. Funny thing is, this anime has huge amount of monologues, pretty well written ones too, which makes me wonder if the writer carried that style to its dialogue, because honestly, it does feel like the writer talking to himself with two self-inserted characters sometimes. However, as I finish the series, I believe that this cursed dialogue is beneficial for the story to progress in pace within 12 episodes. It also brings out more of the character's emotions as much as I hate getting used to it.
Second reason why I disliked the anime in the beginning is because of the confused tone between the story and the presentation. This anime plays around the lighting very consciously. But for whatever reason the first four episode looks excessively dark. Morning light could come out of the apartment's window from the right and dies out before it even reaches half the screen. The character sprites are always shaded a little dark even when they are inside a well lit room. To make things gloomier, the entire anime uses this melodramatic ambient music with really slow and heavy piano tunes. Combine this with the cold speaking tone of the main characters and the abundance of silence during their lines, this show gives out a depressing vibe, which doesn't make sense for the story progression in the beginning, considering our main characters barely said anything negative. This depressing tone, however, would work better in the later stages of the anime as our main character develops their inner conflict.
One of the biggest selling point of this anime, is how it tackles the sibling romance theme. For me, this is my first anime that treats this sort of forbidden love or taboo with a solemn manner, so I applaud the originality. Yuuta and Saki are somehow reasonable and matured teenagers, so they have a lot of monologues revising the development in their relationship and emotions. They even go through denial stages, highlighting their inner conflict on the issue. Their progress on this topic is still in its early stage, so how well this topic is handle remains to be seen, in an uncertain season 2.
In summary, Gimai Seikatsu is an impressively unusual anime that approaches a controversial topic without treating it lightly. It has astounding focus on the main characters' development and emotions, using heavy amount of monologues. Saki is hot af and I literally watch this show for her. *vine boom* Unfortunately, the anime comes with jarring tones in its dialogues and atmosphere which lowers my enjoyment as much as they play into their own strength. If you can get past the weird tones, you might appreciate the distinctively solemn approach on sibling love this anime goes for.
Gotta say, it would be spicier if Yuuta and Saki weren't step siblings. Because you know, it's only good when they're blood-related.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 24, 2024
Narenare takes the structure of idol or music band anime, replace the theme with cheerleading, and does one different thing: the girl group formed with no grand goal in mind, they just wanna cheer. This key difference may make the anime feel all over the place as it lacks a general direction. The group leader, Anna, would casually say things like getting rich or famous, but she never cared about those stuffs. The lack of promise, the lack of a clear destination, would frustrate the viewers, but it also makes their progress unpredictable and open to wider options. Most importantly, this approach is in line
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with the characters' motivation and personalities. Rather than the competitive, do-or-die, sports-like mindset, the girls in this anime are just happy-go-lucky teenage girls who decided to cheer outside school just because. So whether you would like this anime or not could depend on if you can tolerate the mindless youth vibe these cute girls are going for.
Do mind that, this anime is a teenage drama first, whatever second. These girls may not wanna be top idol or perform live on Budoukan, but they still mean business, they often get into intense dialogues and sometimes get a little bitchy. Well, there are only like 3 girls being bitchy, Anna being the boss bitch most of the time. So, thanks, Anna, for spicing up the drama. The most impressive qualities of Narenare is that its drama rarely feels forced or cringey. The characters' struggle are always laid with reasonable setup, their emotions have a steady buildup, and their responding solution is going back to their theme, cheerleading. Ahh, the classic. The dialogue or scriptwriting has a masterful flow too. In a few instances, there are conversations about cheerleading that smoothly transition to characters expressing their emotions, vice versa. The emotional moments also never overstays its welcome, its duration always matches the weight of the buildup. I usually dislike teenage dramas for how excessively sobby they get, however, Narenare consistently hits the right balance for me.
Spoiler alert, I guess. Unfortunately, the anime concluded with little to no potential of season 2. I am still shocked. I thought the pacing flowed perfectly, and they would run another season to further develop the girls' chemistry. But story ended abruptly with a reason set up since the first episode. In hindsight, it does feel like a Ending B prepared in case the anime doesn't get the green light for Season 2. It's a nice Ending B, but I am devastated. I love the outlandish and hilarious voice acting of Anna, Kanata and Lala. I love the artstyle choice of using coloured outlines. I love the contrast of sadness and happiness this anime shifts around. There are so many good things going for Narenare, it hurts a little to see their journey end so soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 1, 2024
Half about a photographer's Japanese trauma, half about racing. Overtake! is pretty solid overall. There are some stretched interactions. Like why is the photographer uncle so obsessed with the racing boy? Kinda sus, no? Well, not every action is reasonable. So we will let the uncle pass this far.
While the anime does talk a lot of technical stuffs about racing, like tires, parts and money, it does lack the heat in music and action. It's one of those anime that sets its theme on something popular like music band and sports, but ultimately spends most of its time developing characters. One anime that I
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begrudge doing this is Beck. There's more talking than music. Like... you gotta have at least 15% of the run time with stuff you advertised, you know? I wanna hear the sounds of engine rumbling constantly every episode. Funny enough, as I am writing this, there is a seasonal anime named High Speed Etoile, that does exactly this.
I guess racing is a boring sports. More boring that football, I dare say. You really need more anime gimmicks to spice it up. Like Meteor Jam! Emperor Time! Kansai Drifto! Revol Bursto! But Overtake! has an try-to-be-real and mature approach, so those cannot fly.
Try to be real, but not real enough. Try to be fun, but limited by real. Overtake! could not overtake itself. It never went full throttle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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