Back to SSXXIII's Profile SSXXIII's Profile

SAO has always been a very hit and miss franchise. For every cool fight scene and interesting concept, you have a flat character and ridiculous plot point. Ever since alfheim the show has been on an unfortunate downward spiral. But alicization seemed to be a step in the right direction. It isolated Kirito from his friends, (and harem thankfully). Introduced characters like Egueo and Alice, two of the best the franchise has created. And bought it back to SAO’s roots with Kirito stuck in video game where he will die if he is killed. (Thanks Emiya). It wasn’t perfect by any means but it at ... least was a step in the right direction. And while the first half of ‘war of the underworld’ was another step back, it at least focused entirely on the side characters. Giving them some much needed character development.

Part 2 of War Of The Underworld’ unfortunately takes a huge step backwards and might even rival Alfheim as the worst arc.

Up to this point Alice has been a fierce warrior, she could go toe to toe with anyone. And yet all that is thrown aside so they can once again have a girl Kirito saves so Reki Karahawa can have another girl in Kirito’s harem.

The villain is probably the worst in Sao. Kayaba was fun, Suguo you loved to hate and at least Death Gun and Quiniela had an interesting premise. Miller has almost no redeeming qualities as a villain. Hell why did they even need him. Vessago was the more interesting of the two and he actually had a connection to the heroes.

Then there’s the inconsistencies and plot holes in the writing. I won’t go through them all but the worst reminds me of the GIGGUK meme.

Pfft I dunno

Seems legit

Oh and STOP TRYING TO HUMANISE KAYABA!!!!! Guy trapped 10000 people in a death game for no reason.

The whole Alicization arc reminds me of a JJ Abrams film. Great start but can’t stick a landing.

Let’s be real; High School DxD is complete trash. I’ve been told it’s meant to be a parody of Shōnen manga and anime. Yet it doesn’t seem to poke fun at any tropes; in fact, it seems to celebrate them. Yet there’s something about DxD that puts it above all the other trashy anime.

So let’s get started by addressing the elephant in the room. There is a lot of fan service in this show, and it’s by far the worst part of this anime. Fan service only works for comedic purposes or to denounce it. But it shouldn’t be celebrated, yet DxD continuously proposes ... that the main character should be an absolute perv. (Fun fact, the original English VA for the main character Issei, Scott Freeman. Got jailed for child pornography. Which is the most ironic thing ever.)

However, the rest of the characters are a lot of fun. Rias and Asia being my personal favourites. I also love that not all the girls are in love with Issei. While he wishes for a harem, he only has two girls who like him. (I pray they keep it like this for the rest of the show). And while Issei mostly boils down to the perv characteristics and nothing else. He does have genuinely heartfelt moments. The characters are by far the best part of this show.

The plot is okay, the rating game was by far the best two episodes. Still, I wish it had been longer. The animation, Art design and voice acting are all passable. Though nothing outstanding.

Overall High School DxD is trash, but it’s characters have enough charm to keep it above the rest.

Everything that I love about Code Geass season 1 and 2 can be summed up in the ’We Are Zero’ scene. Great characters, witty dialogue and over the top plans that are both clever and dumb.

The story follows Lelouch Vi Brittania. A royal prince of the Brittanian empire, who was exiled to Japan (now area 11), with his little sister. Lelouch’s life is once again turned upside down when he meets a green-haired woman named CC (C2 in English), who gives him the power of ’Geass’. An ability that lets him control the actions of anyone he wishes with eye contact. Lelouch takes on ... the moniker of Zero, a vigilante fighting for freedom against the Brittanian empire.

Every character Is three dimensional. Every character is fun. Every character is likeable in their own way. Even the played for comic relief character Jeramiah gets time to shine.

This anime gets compared to Death Note quite a lot. However, they are two separate entities. Death Note has Light attempt to become a god. To use a supernatural power in hopes of killing criminals for his warped sense of justice. Code Geass, meanwhile, has Lelouch prove that there is no God. To use his supernatural ability to free the people from oppression. Both ultimately seek peace but for two very different reasons.

The designs from Clamp are exquisite. Usually, characters will be given primarily different colours to help distinguish them. Which only ends up with them looking ridiculous. Clamp, however, manages to make every aspect stand out, without having to resort to that too often. And while everyone seems slightly anorexic, I think everybody looks fantastic.

There is only one thing I would say is a flaw. The show can be very tonally inconsistent. Most of the time, it tries to be this grand story with magic, rebellion and death. Other times it works to be a high school drama with relationships and slice of life moments. These moments aren't bad, but they don't for into the overall story in a meaningful way.

Code Geass was an original anime. Not based on any manga or light novel. And it will go down as one of the mediums very best.

Japan Sinks is the anime equivalent of a 90s Hollywood disaster movie. Its art is unique. Just like the CGI that made those disaster movies work. However, once you look past the art style, there just isn't enough substance.

The characters are mostly paper-thin cutouts. Who makes dumb decisions throughout the anime. Like why did Ayumu not get that cut treated even though she started working at a hospital? Why did Daniel not leave with the others? Why did the group choose an injured man to make the dangerous run and not the track team star?

The Anime also tends to skip over crucial moments. ... Without spoiling anything, one of the main cast dies quite early on, which the protagonist blames herself for. This could have been an extremely pivotal moment for her. But it's brushed over so quickly. And isn't bought up again.

Yet the main problem with the anime is the tone. One minute you'll be grieving and the next the characters are smiling and having a laugh. Traumatic moments are brushed to the sidelines.

Overall, Japan Sinks 2020 fails to float.

It’s no surprise Cowboy Bebop is so popular in the west. It’s clearly heavily influenced by westerns and sci fi. From Blade runner to the good the bad and the ugly. At its best Cowboy Bebop is a fantastic show with fun characters and a gripping story. However there were too many instances when I thought to myself ‘why’?

Let’s start with the story, it’s wonderful. The show centres around Spike Spiegel, a former gang member turned bounty hunter. Who teams up with Jet, a former cop, Faye, a debt ridden gambler with amnesia and Ed a little girl with incredible hacking skills. While the story ... does have a overarching plot it’s only prevalent in a few episodes. The rest are self contained story’s that make our characters grow. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for the most part it actually works. I say the most part because there are a few episodes which seem to exist to pad out the episode count. Which is baffling, (but I’ll get onto that later).

The characters are all really likeable. Spike is fun, loving and has a tragic past. Jet is honest, has a heart of gold but can also make mistakes. At first I hated Faye due to her addiction with not just gambling, but cheating too. However once I found out why she does this, it changed my perspective completely. However once aspect that didn’t change was Ed. Seriously Ed is by far the worst character on this show. She adds absolutely nothing to the main plot. And that would have been fine if she developed, but she doesn’t. And what makes it frustrating is that they had the perfect opportunity. In episode 24 Ed meets her father who abandoned her at a young age. The two seem to bond for a bit and he even offers to take her along. Though he leaves before she has a chance. Ed then leaves the crew, implying she’s going out to find him. And she’s written out of the show! No end of an arc you yourself started! And with that whole killer leftovers and hallucinogenic mushrooms episodes could you not have time to finish Ed’s arc?

Then we have the ending. Everyone says it’s a masterpiece, and I just don’t see it. The main problem is that the ending conflicts with the main theme of the show. It’s about facing and moving on from your past. Except when Spike does eventually move on, he’s retroactively punished for it. I don’t understand what happened, Faye’s arc was done so well, so why wasn’t spikes.

Overall Cowboy Bebop was a fun ride that unfortunately fell at the last few hurdles.

On the surface Steins Gate seems like it lacks any originality. It borrows heavily from western media such as back to the future and Groundhog Day. However that only scratches the surface of what this anime has to offer.

The story follows Rintarou Okabe, a Self proclaimed ‘mad scientist’, as he discovers the secrets to send messages back to the past. Rintarou is a fantastic protagonist, he’s jolly, eccentric and cares deeply for his friends. But often struggles to communicate and can come of as stubborn. The rest of the cast are perfect too. Kurisu is the intellectual rival who seeks relationships with others. Mayuri ... is a sweet girl who you want to protect at all costs. Itaru is the hacker best friend who has a heart of gold, and too many pervy thoughts. And many more. No character is wasted or underused.

It’s hard to speak about this show without spoilers, but I shall do my best. The show is split into two half’s. The first is the introduction part. We follow the characters as the build this machine and grant wishes to all their friends for better or worse. A truly genius move as it gives us time to get to know these people. And why they choose to change aspects of their life. Halfway through the season however the anime throws a massive curveball. Everything gets changed and suddenly the whole premise is switched on its head. As Okabe desperately tries to save the past, present and future, he soon comes to realise that when you mess with time, not everyone wins.

Steins Gate is almost flawless in its execution. Whenever time travel is involved in media one of two things occur. Time travel is either can be used to fix a mistake, such as Avengers Endgame. Or is used to show the consequences of messing with fate, such as back to the future. Steins Gate is different however. Time Travel isn’t presented as inherently a good or evil thing. It’s simply a tool. At the end of the day it’s the person who travels through that is good or evil. It’s a refreshing look at a plot device that has gotten stale over the years.

Steins Gate is a fresh look at a genre that has become quite stale over the years. It does it’s job perfectly at will be remembered as a true great, whatever timeline we’re in.

One of my favourite One Piece quotes is where Spandam tells Luffy he can’t take on the entire world and win. Luffy responds by yelling “Oh yeah, bring it on!”. We desperately wish for Luffy to succeed. Yet we know he and the crew are up against considerable odds. So why am I bringing this up in a review of The Saga Of Evil Tanya’? Well because that’s exactly what they do here.

The Saga Of Evil Tanya is a mess. It’s an idea that could have worked on paper, but fails so spectacularly. The story follows a banker who is push into a moving ... train by a vengeful ex employee. However just before he dies god stops time via Za Warudo, and offers reincarnation. Though our protagonist rejects the idea of god. Causing him to be reincarnated into a universe similar to ours with kind of magic. And it’s like WW2 only each country is called something different, for some reason. And that’s the first problem, our protagonist is a Nazi. (Granted they don’t call them nazis but it’s obvious that’s what they were based on). If you go down the route of having our protagonist not be a good person, then you have to either.

A: Make the antagonist worse
Or
B: Make your protagonist sympathetic

This show does neither. Tanya doesn’t grow throughout the journey. She starts out unlikeable with zero redeeming qualities and remains that excepts she will save her soldiers instead of leaving them to die. This doesn’t work, but I’ll get to that later.

The rest of the cast... Actually I just realised I don’t remember anyone’s name. No seriously everyone else is either gets very little screen time, or is just there to sprout exposition.

The biggest problem with the show though is in its fights. I use fights very loosely because it’s just a one side annihilation. The empire has much superior tech that simply outclasses everything that the allies can throw at them. It’s only in episode 11 that they actually face someone challenging. And even then everyone survives, despite three taking point blank attacks. That’s why Tanya’s growth doesn’t work. She’s never in any true danger. Tanya is literally Superman in this universe.

I can’t even say that the animation was anything special. It was below average for me.

Saga Of Evil Tanya is a good idea that was executed poorly.

Fire Force is weird. It’s a show with a very interesting world, despite not being too different from our reality. It has a unique power system where there isn’t one set of people who are clearly better than the others. (Aka Saiyans). It’s written by Atsushi Õkubo, who wrote Soul Eater. And is being animated by David Productions, the guys who did Jojo’s. It has all the makings of a great anime. But it spectacularly stumbles at every turn.

Firstly all the characters are two dimensional. They take the Fairy Tail route of having each character have a unique quirk to them. However the show ... simply doesn’t have the nuance that made those characters great. The lieutenant wears silly hats. Maki can’t stand when people point out her physique. Arthur is an idiot who’s obsessed with chivalry. And Tamaki who I can only describe as having the power of fan service.

Character development? There’s either none or one’s that are so forced it’s unreal. Princess Hibana was a cliche villain but an interesting one too. She fights the main character, Sho for a bit. He uses the Talk No Jutsu for a bit, and she becomes obsessed with him.

Next is the fights and boy while they are beautifully animated. (I’ll talk about animation in a bit). They are very poorly written. Now I don’t mind if you have the odd fight end with the power of friendship. If a fight is 50/50 sometimes having the goal of protecting your loved ones can turn the tide. However the amount of times either that happens or something even more ludicrous is astounding. One fight that made me almost drop this show was between Arthur and an ’inferno’. The monster is beating Arthur badly. It’s completely one sided. And how does Arthur win? He remembers that he’s right handed and then proceeds to one shot the monster.

Animation is a very mixed bag. As I said before the fights are beautifully done. Plus I really like the art style. Despite not being the biggest fan of the star eyes. However surprisingly, when characters are just standing and talking is when the animation’s worst. Here’s a drinking game. Take a shot every time you spot a character without any facial features. I swear you’ll get drunk by episode 4.

Then there’s the fan service. And it’s just so bad here. Don’t get me wrong fan service is fun when done right. No Game No Life has a ton, but In most cases, it’s done to mock us for liking it. Fire Force uses fan service for poor comedy. I mentioned Tamaki earlier because her character faces it the worst. She often ends up in precarious positions, sometimes defying the laws of physics to do so. Then there’s the times like when someone shapeshifts into her. Then another character Iris has to figure out which is which. The fake is quite clear because Tamaki is a young women while the voice is of a middle aged man. But somehow Iris can’t figure it out until Tamaki accidentally falls over and strips. However the worst case is when she finally gets character development. She’s up against an assassin, attempting to prove she can fight on her own. And how does she win? She catches him off guard with fan service! And she doesn’t even win on her own anyway!

Finally there’s the power system. Earlier I praised it for not giving certain people an advantage, which is true. However all that good will is ruined when powers get made up on the spot. Everyone is supposed to be able to manipulate fire. However the show then makes some people be able to teleport, shape-shift, create clones of themselves and I kid you not, stop time! And the anime has the balls to try and justify this! If I didn’t have one episode left I probably would have dropped the show.

Overall while it does have some redeeming qualities. Fire Force fails to burn bright.

Akira is one of the most influential anime’s of all time. Inspiring not just eastern media like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell. But also Western media. Rian Johnson’s Looper was heavily inspired by the story for Akira. As was as shows like Stranger Things. So I my expectations were high going into this film. Akira isn’t a bad film, It has a lot of redeeming qualities. Especially the end sequence which is a harrowing experience to watch. However I don’t believe it’s great either.

Right off the bat, none of the characters are likeable. Everyone acts spoilt and selfish. Our protagonist Kaneda, ... and antagonist Tetsuo are both just insufferable. For the latter, the film makes it clear we are meant to sympathise with him. At how power can easily corrupt the mind. Except right of the bat we see Tetsuo is just as power hungry as he is at the end. It’s not a development in character. Kaneda is the leader of the bike gang. And the only redeeming quality about him is that he is loyal to his friends. Everything else, the selfish, sexist, stubborn part of him is unbearable. Probably the only characters I liked were the colonel and the telekinetic children. Although for the latter they aren’t really explained.

And that’s a running theme throughout the film. Why did that one child try to escape at the beginning? How did Tetsuo get these powers? What is the purpose of the rebellion? I get it, the film wants to play it vague. However I have a rule when it comes to storytelling. If a mystery directly affects the characters or audience it must be explained. For an example take the original Star Wars films. We don’t need Palpatine’s backstory because it does nothing for the characters or us. We get Palpatine is a power hungry man, and an explanation wouldn’t change how the characters view him either. Vader on the other hand did need an explanation. Because his reveal changes the way not only we view Vader, but how Luke views him too. That’s why these things need to be explained. Each one affects the plot and characters.

The only reason I gave Akira a 6 was because the animation and sound design are simply incredible, even to this day. Supposedly at the time it had the biggest budget to an anime film in history. And it truly shows. Overall Akira isn’t bad, but it’s disappointing.

Persona 5 is probably my favourite game of all time. Over 100 hours it tells a story about rebellion, corruption, suicide and a talking cat magically turning into a bus. It truly is a one of a kind experience. And that’s the entire problem with this anime. It truly has no purpose for existence. Besides people who are too lazy to spend 100 hours on a game.

The story follows main character Ren Amamiya, a teenager forced to move to Tokyo after he was wrongfully convicted of assault. Who discovers the cognitive world, where distorted desires materialise. And must team up with fellow outcasts to ... become the Phantom Thieves. A group dedicated to stealing those desires, causing a change of heart in even the most callous of criminals.

The original managed to steal my heart within the first few hours, before we even started with the first palace. After the first three hours of this anime, we were already past the second palace. And that is the main problem here. The game took its time with the story. Taking the time to properly explore who these people are. The anime though has a lighting fast pace to it. Often skipping past entire palaces to get to the boss fight. Causing each palace to feel small compared to their in game counterpart.

Characters pale compared to the game’s version. Great characters like Takemi, Kawakami and Chiya have their roles greatly reduced. All with the exception of Goro Akechi who is surprisingly, actually portrayed better here than in the game.

The animation is terrible. When people prefer the cutscenes from a game that was released on the ps3. You know you have a problem.

Overall Persona 5 The Animation is not only bad. It is shows that even the best stories can be told poorly.