Ugh, here we go.
I haven’t written a review in ages and didn’t plan to… but I had to for this anime.
WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS NEAR THE END.
Even though I know this one’s an original, the reason I usually choose anime over manga is simple: the audiovisual experience. I mean, who doesn’t love a banger OP and flashy animation?
Thankfully, this show delivered on both fronts.
First off — the animation. For a show filled with monsters, I was relieved to see barely any ugly, immersion-breaking CGI. It’s one of those series where the visuals speak for themselves, and for some people, that alone made it worth watching. But
...
for me? It was way more than that. I’ll get into that soon.
The music was another big win. Yukari Hashimoto did a solid job on the 20-ish tracks she composed — and as a music nerd, I could definitely hear some Joe Hisaishi influence in her arrangements (for the unfamiliar: he’s the legend behind most Ghibli soundtracks). While it’s not quite on Hisaishi’s level, the music was moving, especially when paired with all the over-the-top dramatic scenes and flashy visuals. Oh, and the voice acting? No complaints there. Never once broke the immersion.
Now, here’s where opinions start to split — the story.
For some, it felt a bit all over the place, like watching a rushed movie adaptation of a thick novel. And yeah, I get that. But honestly, I think it all comes down to how you percieve it. If you see it as just another isekai with the twist that the MC can “re-write” (Zenshuu) parts of the world, then yeah, it might feel a little messy.
But if you look at the reincarnation aspect as a metaphor — a personal journey for the MC, someone who’s never known what “first love” really is and still has much to learn as a human being on multiple aspects — then the story hits so much harder.
⸻
(SPOILERS BELOW)
People complain about the events and the lack of seriousness because the MC is "OP", but ultimately, they don’t really matter.
That’s why they feel scattered — because the MC already knows what’s going to happen. The suspense from the invasions and big fights? Non-existent. But that’s the point. The flashy action scenes and epic fights? They’re there for the entertainment value of the MC overcoming her own problems.
Yes, if it wasn't obvious enough, the real story is about her.
Her learning what love is. Her growing as a person.
When you frame the whole series as a self-development arc — learning to love, to collaborate, to trust — the so-called plot holes fade into the background. They’re not the focus, and they never were. I mean, there’s even a whole half-episode of flashbacks showing how people around her had their first love for her. Was it relevant and important? Yes because it led into herself realising what a first love actually is.
And when she finally gets it, when she realizes who she loves herself: the hero of the movie (and maybe a metaphor for the movie itself) that literally was her backbone, her reference, the bible of her life and says it out loud to him — she wakes up and leaves that world behind. She goes back to reality. And finally, she can write her movie that was pressuring her so much as a better person and with a fresh perspective. Maybe the whole isekai thing was a fever dream for her while she was in food poisoning coma?
Anyways, that's what this whole anime was. Not about another “The Tale of Perishing” with an OP MC — but about a troubled genius rewriting her own life, through a story and characters she loves and knows by heart and in which she considered perfection, her bible.
I assume even the "evil" bird in the series was a reflection of her own self-judgment — telling her not to change a masterpiece or disrespect the work of an author she deeply admired. That's why it wasn't necessarily evil, it was her own guilt eating at her or at other characters and how they should be (the non muscly vs. muscly destiny); it was her own internal debate reflected as the dead author she respected... in the form of a bird.
Her magical talking paper holder? That was really just her own voice — pushing her to keep drawing. DRAW DRAW DRAW. We see it clearly by the end too, it was a younger version of herself. Drawing is how she’s always moved forward in life, how she’s learned and grown. So of course, the way for her to move forward again and take action… was to draw.
The isekai world was just the lens for her to face her fears IRL: learning about first love, trusting others and not taking everything upon oneself, the pressure of following up a masterpiece, the anxiety of being judged, of flopping her next work, of failing herself. All blocks that were in her current life and job at the moment. She needed to learn to overcome those one by one and when she did, came back to her real life as a changed and new person, and that's also why the story itself changed. The story was a prison for her unchanging self every change she did, it was for the better, for her but also for the world of "tales of perishing", which at this point is kind of a metaphoric internal reflection of herself.
My only complaint is that the ending was really fast and abrupt. The ending was epic, but like even a 2-minute epilogue pushing this theory I have and filling the smaller holes would have made the show even more top-notch.
⸻
I could ramble on forever, but I think most of you get the point. When you look at the story not as another isekai with cool powers, but as a personal battle against the version of herself that clung to perfection — a version that had to change for her to change — it makes it so much better and everything makes way more sense. It's basically a dramatized version of her internal self dealing with her own problems through her own favorite movie. The dramatic and heavy action scenes give impact to the changes the character goes through.
Anyway, thanks for reading all my yapping. This show might not be for everyone, but I hope this helps someone out there see it a little differently. And hey — I love a good power fantasy isekai as much as the next person. But this?
This was something else.
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Jun 5, 2025
Ugh, here we go.
I haven’t written a review in ages and didn’t plan to… but I had to for this anime. WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS NEAR THE END. Even though I know this one’s an original, the reason I usually choose anime over manga is simple: the audiovisual experience. I mean, who doesn’t love a banger OP and flashy animation? Thankfully, this show delivered on both fronts. First off — the animation. For a show filled with monsters, I was relieved to see barely any ugly, immersion-breaking CGI. It’s one of those series where the visuals speak for themselves, and for some people, that alone made it worth watching. But ... 
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Bleach fans REJOICE!
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(Anime)
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(Anime)
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Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
(Anime)
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So I'll make this a short review. As a review mentionned, this is not for everyone, if you like a detailed dialogue-heavy story (thought there is some action too) and op MC's then this show is for you.
Thought I recommend to be concentrated when you watch this show, because it may be confusing at times, I still have a lot of questions after finishing the show. I also felt a bit unsatisfied at the end, I still liked the setting of the show enough for me to watch it fully though. The Art was pretty good, the music was normal (first OP is ... |
