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“It’s good, to have a tomorrow.”

Man that line is raw as hell.

This movie is very simple. There’s not all that much beyond its message, and the message is a simple one. Life is worth living. Don’t give up. The movie conveys this message really well, and it packs a pretty good emotional punch. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s a solid watch. I liked it.

The animation is simple to accommodate this, but simple does not mean bad. It conveys the emotions of the characters to perfect effect, and honestly manages to look really beautiful in some moments. The entire movie manage to bring so ... much emotion to the table with what seems like very little to work with. While the majority of the runtime is spent on simple daily life things and character drama, by the end it slowly dawns on you that you've become invested in this boy, his life, and the outcome of his trial. I cried more hearing the line "I want to go to school with my friend" than I have for the deaths of many well-developed anime characters.

This movie absolutely isn't for everyone. It's slow and painful at times. It's a bit of a commitment to watch. However, it is worth a try, if only for the message. It's good to have a tomorrow. Life is worth living.

"You've died once, Kobayashi Makoto. Don't do it again, okay?"

This anime is the best example I've seen of the 'so bad it's good' concept in anime. Nearly everything about the show is a total trainwreck from the writing to the art to the sound (except the voice acting) to the animation is godawful and feels like it was made by a group of people who have exactly zero idea what they're doing. (Except for the first episode. The first episode is definitely the most solid episode of the whole show.) But, despite this, the show just somehow manages to click and be a fun thrill ride of a dumb edgy action show with one ... or two really memorable characters and one hell of a ridiculous plot.

Story: 4
The story makes like literally zero sense when you think about it. Like within the narrative it makes sense but it's also just like really really dumb. It's a cool concept and an interesting idea to get two characters with such ridiculously contrasting personalities into a situation like this, but in the end it ends up raising a lot of questions. Like how has no one ever found this building? How did the police get there? How did Gray know this would happen? How did they know about Ray? How do they pick sacrifices? It's really never clarified. It's enough to keep the show running, but certainly not what makes it so fun to watch.

Art: 3
After some pretty impressive animation cuts (mostly Zack being Zack) in the first episode, I was shocked to find that almost the entire rest of the show flows like a cheaply produced A-1 Pictures show. The CG effects are atrocious and the shot composition verges on painful. This certainly provided a lot of laughs as I was watching the show, but this, again, is not what makes the show fun.

Sound: 5
The voice actors are (for the most part) clearly having an absolute blast as they scream and spout absolutely ridiculous edgy dialogue. I'd say Gray has the weakest performance, but Danny, Zack, and Cathy more than make up for any weaknesses in the other performances with their bombastic over-acting and hilarious dialogue.
The actual sound design of the show is, like the animation, utterly atrocious and the music choices can often feel entirely mishandled. But this is more a source of unintentional hilarity than anything else. And the OP is freaking amazing. JIN FTW!!!

Character: 8
This is basically all because of Zack. Zack is the emotional center of the entire show. When he takes a few episodes off to spend dying in a hallway, the show isn't fun to watch anymore. His easy-going banter and fun chemistry with Ray is like half the reason any of the show works at all. The other half is Zack just being a bouncy, fun, lovable character to spend time with. And honestly, he provides any depth or heart the show has at all. I could probably write a full analysis about how Zack's characterization contrasts with that of Ray and how he's portrayed as a more genuine and kind person than her despite him being a serial killer and her just being a little girl. And how much they grow to care about each other over the course of the show is the real emotional core of the series.

Overall: 6
From an objective standpoint, Angels of Death is pretty terrible. But, from a purely subjective standpoint it's an absolutely hilarious romp full of heart and a really entertaining bandaged psycho that you should definetly watch with friends if you plan to watch it.

So, the thing about this anime is that the best way to enjoy it is to either not play the game at all or go into it after playing the game and looking at the '13 episode' length and take it that it's gonna be pretty rushed. Which it is.

Sound (7): OMG THE DUB IS ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS, this is one thing the anime has over the game. While in the game the only parts that are completely dubbed over are the trial sequences, the anime has all these amazing little bits of hilarious dialogue that honestly had me laughing out loud and yet never ... felt unnatural for the characters I knew from the game to be saying. Like one scene where Taka comes out of the sauna after his transformation and just screams out 'THIS SAUNA IS AMAZEBALLS!!' and the line itself is absolutely hysterical, as is its delivery, but it totally doesn't feel unnatural for Taka to say this. The actual soundtrack is also pretty great as most of it is just music taken right from the game and used in the same kinds of scenes. The opening is fun and the ending is pretty good foreshadowing if I do say so myself.

Art (7): Studio Lerche clearly had a lot of respect for the game they were adapting. Even if the anime was too short to adapt the game perfectly, it was obvious they weren't phoning it in either. They pretty much recreated everyone's base expressions from the game perfectly as well as giving them each character designs that perfectly express their personalities and are also lifted straight from the game. They even took the promo art images from the game and used them in the opening to introduce the characters. They also used the different artstyle the game uses for the execution scenes. The execution scenes are the best animated scenes in the show and just overflow with personality (as each execution is unique and distinct and based on the character being executed's personality) especially the last one.

Story/Characters (6): The game had a really interesting concept and executed it pretty much as well as they could have. Since the plot twist that comes in Chapter 6 of the game is pretty hard to buy into if you're a scientifically/logically minded person (like me), but it still managed to make me feel some level of loss along with the characters. The anime... doesn't have enough time. It doesn't really have enough time to get me invested in the characters again at all. The best example of this is Sayaka. Okay, so, in the game, you get the entire first chapter to get to know Sayaka and grow to like Sayaka. And it's made pretty clear that your character (Makoto Naegi) does have some level of a crush on her, and then (spoiler alert) she dies at the end of the 'daily life' segment of the chapter. After having had at least four in-game days for her to develop her emotions and so her resolve to escape seems perfectly legit. She almost has her own character arc in this chapter, but the anime kills her off in episode 2, pretty much skipping all of her emotional development and seeming like she just went crazy out of nowhere. Then pulling the 'she wanted to save Naegi' thing out of NOWHERE to make us feel bad since we only really saw a little bit of interaction between Sayaka and Makoto at all. And every death in the anime is like this.

Overall (6): This anime is really fun and really enjoyable, but if you've played the game you need to go in with slightly lowered expectations. It's not as good as the game, but that's to be expected. If I had been adapting it, I would've given the show 25 episodes. One episode for the prologue, then four for each chapter in which the characters, investigations, and trials would all have their necessary lengths to communicate the point. The epilogue is not long enough to require its own episode, so that would just be added to the end of the last episode.

So, if you like the game, this is a fun time and you will probably enjoy it, even if you'll know it doesn't measure up. If you haven't played the game, go play the game.

Livingstone is a very interesting manga. Its premise is one you could easily imagine being interesting and engaging and it makes you wonder what kind of characters live in this and of world and what their lives are like. Good for Livingstone, it had the brilliant artist of Deadman Wonderland there to sell most of its world through tone and expressive artwork. Especially since a lot of the execution and non-main characters is pretty average.

Alright then, let's start then, shall we?

Livingstone follows Sakurai and Amano, two soul-collectors who go about either cleaning up destroyed souls or convincing people to agree to let the duo ... kill them to save their souls after the soul has veered from its pre-destined course in that body.

Art (8):
The art is pretty freaking awesome. It's the same style as Deadman Wonderland, of course the art is freaking awesome. While Deadman Wonderland had flaws of its own, the art was always top-notch, and this manga is no different. The art is expressive and interesting and easily communicates whatever tone the manga is going for in that moment. The character's personalities and emotions are always on full display (for Sakurai and Amano at least).

Story (6): The premise itself is incredibly interesting (as mentioned above, so I'm not going more into it here), the main problem with the story is the pacing and the beginning vs the end (some minor spoilers maybe, probably not though). So, at the beginning, it seems like it's a purely episodic series with each chapter or two being about Amano and Sakurai dealing with a new soul that's weird off track or someone who's trying to kill themselves. This part of the story gets incredibly repetitive with lines of dialogue being pretty much repeated (Sakurai says 'the soul has strayed from its plan' SO MANY TIMES THOUGH) and sometimes the individual stories are pretty ridiculous (there's literally a story about a crow's soul) but the stories are usually entertaining. The problem with the ending of the story is that the manga takes the last chapter of volume three and the entirety of volume four and makes them entirely into a backstory/character study of Amano. Honestly, this is what Livingstone should have been all along. Not just with Amano, but with every character. This manga should have been maybe 7 or 8 volumes long and each volume would be a character study of someone who Amano and Sakurai are trying to help and the influence that Amano and Sakurai have on their lives (there's only one story that delivers on this at all) and only once or twice do Amano and Sakurai have to resort to actually killing someone they're helping. Then, at the end, they should have focused on Amano and SAKURAI'S influence on Amano and the bond they've formed and how Amano's decision near the end affected Sakurai emotionally. Okay, this section is too long, moving on.

Characters (6):
The two main characters are the only really interesting ones. Sakurai is a polite, reserved, focused, emotional man who has way too much sympathy for someone in his profession of reading the memories of dead people who have veered off course. Amano is a spunky, disobedient, almost deadpan dead teenager who has a replacement soul to keep him alive so he can help Sakurai find the souls that have veered off course. These two have very good chemistry and a well-developed relationship. Often, the only reason a story has any emotional impact is because one of our two main characters has some connection to the theme or even the exact circumstance and their emotions regarding the scenario are enough to induce emotions in the reader.

Overall (6): While I have definitely been criticizing this manga a lot, I actually really enjoyed it. It was an interesting and entertaining read and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed manga like Deadman Wonderland or enjoys dark episodic stories. I'd say check it out if you think you'd like it! The final volume is probably worth reading all of it, even if you don't like the first three (which I did, obviously). But the first three volumes are kind of needed to get the full impact of the final one, so.. check it out!

Art (9): The art is a very 90's style (because it came out in 1989), and it is often used to great affect. The art is wonderful at communicating the tone of a particular scene. For example, just the difference in how Shinichi is drawn to stand can change how the entire scene feels. One scene he feels a lot more lose (like when he's hanging out with Murano), but then, a few scenes later, he's gone completely rigid as he grabs a knife to confront the intruder in his home. The gore and violence is also incredibly well drawn and legitimately disturbing at times ... (which is a good thing)! Sometimes the facial expressions can come off as a little stiff (like when Shinichi is trying to look contemplative, he sometimes just looks really sad) but overall it's brilliant to look at.

Story (9): The only reason I give this category a 9 as opposed to a 10 is because of the lack of explanation. We never learn where the parasytes come from. Just that they're here, they eat humans, and they want to 'help the earth' because 'humans are poisoning it.' Other than this the story is chilling (as it should be for a horror manga!), suspenseful, surprising, tragic, and just brilliantly told. I would definitely have liked some explanation on how the parasytes function and where they came from, but other than that the story has little to no flaws.

Characters (10): Shinichi is easily one of my favorite manga/anime protagonists. His character arc is brilliantly executed, and all the subtle differences in his facial expressions and body language that are shown through the artwork show his changes fantastically. Migi is also a brilliant character who also has a fully developed character arc. I can't think of a character who wasn't likable when they needed to be or unlikable when we were supposed to hate them. Even if the villains are hatable, sometimes you still empathize with them, which I consider to be quite a feat (check out Hunter x Hunter (2011) for more likable villains).

Enjoyment/Overall (10): Parasyte is a brilliant manga and a complete classic with brilliant story and characters, wonderful art, and just amazing everything else. There's no way I did it justice in my short review, so please go read it!

Art (7): This is the only truly good thing about this show. The animation is gorgeous. I've always love Kyoto Animation's aesthetic and they way they animate faces and emotions and the subtleties in the character's expressions. But, I have to say that the characters aren't even really deep enough to animate truly subtle emotions on their faces, one of the things that makes the Haruhi Suzumiya character animations amazing as well as the Lucky Star animation, or what I've watched of the Nichijou adaptation. Granted all the characters in those stories are far more interesting and compelling just as people who have lives outside ... of what the central theme of the show is, but now I'm off point. My point is that the animation is amazing. The show is very pretty. And that's its biggest plus.

Sound (3): The only music I remember even remotely liking is the ending theme. Which wasn't as good as the first season's ending theme. The OP was as annoying as the first season's and just as unfitting. And I don't remember any other music at all. The dub is okay. I still think that J Michael Tatum was miscast as Rei, though he can be good at times. And Nagisa's voice got annoying after a while of hearing him WHINE AND WHINE AND WHINE!

Story (4): Admittedly, the pacing is better than the first season. Probably because this one has a lot less to establish before just jumping in. The last season had to establish everyone's relationships with each other, then the swim club, then the whole thing with Rin, then get Rei into the club, then have Mako's fear of the ocean (which wasn't necessary, just random fluff), before the regionals. This one just has to establish Sousuke and Momo. Momo is fine. I don't really have any problems with Momo. He was a fine addition and he had good chemistry with the other Samazuka swimmers. We'll get to my problem with Sousuke. Anyway, yeah. The pacing and story was better than the last season (which isn't saying too much, the story was the weakest part of season 1)

Characters (2): A lot of people love these characters. And I don't give this category such a low score because I hate them. I don't hate all of them. I liked Haru in the first season. I liked Rei in the first season. He was a legitimately entertaining character in the first season, and he still is in this one. I rank this category so low because of a few things.

First: I assume that Rin, Mako, Haru, and Nagisa all met when they joined their kid swim league (if not, they knew each other even longer), which means they've all known each other for at least like... 10 years? 12? And SOMEHOW when Mako tells Haru he's already decided his future and Haru gets pissed that's somehow their FIRST FIGHT EVER? ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS? Alright, why this is ridiculous, okay. So, I have this friend who I've known for literally the same amount of time. 12 years. We've been best friends for 12 years. And we fight ALL THE TIME! I consider this person my honorary sibling, and we have pretty much all the same interests and incredibly similar opinions on a lot of these things and WE FIGHT ALL THE TIME! It's ridiculous. If it was Nagisa and Rei's first fight, that would make sense. They haven't known each other that long. Only like a year or two. But knowing someone for like 12 years to the point where you see them everyday and have NEVER had a fight is completely ridiculous.

Second: Everyone assumes that Rei is gonna quit the swim club JUST because his former coach offers him a place on the track team and he's busy after school. Which is dumb. If he came up to them and said that he was gonna quit THEN you can freak out. Don't jump to conclusions.

Third: Nagisa runs away from home just because his parents want him to quit the swim club because he's getting terrible grades. Any reasonable parent would do this. I WOULD DO THIS if my kids were getting bad grades. It doesn't mean "WE DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE FUN!" It means "Hey, you need to get your grades up, and if you do you can go back to your club." It's the one part of the E Class system from Assassination Classroom that makes sense. Kids who don't do well shouldn't have the ability to participate in sports or clubs. That's also how schools work. At my school, if you got bad enough grades they wouldn't LET you join a sports team. This is how motivation works. It's not bad parenting. And all the teachers and club members treat it like it's ABUSIVE! If that's abusive, then almost every American high school is an abusive institution, as are many parents who are loving and caring and just want their kids to do well in school. My point is that this is ridiculous.

Fourth: Since Rin, Mako, and Haru are about to graduate they choose to have these super 'emotional' and 'dramatic' conversations about future and dreams and being scouted literally every five minutes and it get so boring and cringey. At least the cringe in the first season wasn't this freaking constant. WE GET IT THEY'RE GRADUATING! I DON'T EVEN FREAKING CARE ANYMORE! GOD! SHUT UP! PLEASE!

Fifth: And this is the worst one. Sousuke. Sousuke starts off likable and a reasonable character with realistic goal. Then, the main plot point surrounding him is that his shoulder is seriously injured because he neglected to take care of it when training. THIS IS FREAKING RIDICULOUS AND ILLOGICAL! ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU REALLY WANT ME TO BUY THIS? Okay, maybe this is harder for me to swallow because I used to be a swimmer myself and I didn't take it anywhere near half as seriously as Sousuke takes it. Any time I had any pain, even minor, I would immediately report it to my coach. Even if I wasn't sure it was swimming related. ANY SENSIBLE HUMAN BEING WOULD IMMEDIATELY TELL THEIR COACH AS SOON AS THEIR SHOULDER STARTED BOTHERING THEM! And then GET A DOCTOR! No one as strongly into being a professional swimmer as Sousuke would allow an injury to get to the point that it hinders him FROM SWIMMING! Seriously. I once sprained my wrist outside of swimming, and while it didn't prevent me from swimming, my coach literally PULLED ME OUT OF THE POOL AND WRAPPED IT FOR ME when I told her about it. This is the responsible thing to do. Sousuke is an idiot.

Overall (3): Watch any other better Kyoto Animation Show or sports anime rather than this series. Please.

Probably some spoilers, sorry:

Art (9)/Sound (8): I really don't get it when people say the animation of this show isn't good. Most of the time, the art style looks awesome and is incredibly appealing. And when the animation needs to be awesome, it is. Koro-sensei's tentacles look awesome when they need to, and the stylized character designs lend themselves to a wide variety of expressions and emotions for the characters to display. The sound is pretty good. Both EDs are kinda sad and slow (not very fitting for the tone of most of the show) but are a great foreshadowing for the later parts ... of the show. Both OPs are pretty good, though I way prefer the second to the first. The ENG dub isn't very good. Most of the characters feel miscast (except Koro-sensei, who is hilariously played by the same guy who played Hughes in FMA). But the JP dub is pretty awesome. The voice actors do a good job of getting the character's emotions and personalities across. Karma's voice is the best in my opinion. Though, I'm probably biased because I love Karma.

Story (9): I have to say, that the story definitely gets better as the season goes. It starts pretty much exactly where the last one left off, then jumps back into it's episodic format after the whole Itona conflict. I'd say the story gets awesome again at about episode 14. Not that it's bad before that. The structure of the show usually lends itself to occasional serious and intense stories interjected with light and fun episodic stories. None of these episodic stories are necessarily bad, it's just the parts where the story is really allowed to shine are the best. And that is episode 14.
After this episode, the story is pretty awesome for the rest of the show.

Characters (10): The characters have pretty much always been my favorite part of Assassination Classroom. Karma reigning as the king. I LOVE KARMA. Which is probably one of the reasons I like this season more than the last one. Karma is given a lot more screen time, and an entire mini-arc is dedicated to his relationship with Nagisa. Probably my favorite three episodes the ENTIRE SERIES. OMG! These episodes are amazing. It shows just how well they know each other. That hesitation that Nagisa shows at the end of their fight, because he knows how tricky Karma is, how Karma doesn't take his opportunity to beat Nagisa because he knows he wouldn't listen if he beat him that way. It adds new layers to their relationship and shows how close they really were before they drifted apart. OMG! I love this mini-arc! But Karma and Nagisa aren't the only good characters. Koro-sensei is as awesome as always. Kaede gets her own little mini-arc. And I still love Sugino. Though not all the characters are created equal. Not many of them get major focus, which is sad, but the ones who do are amazing.

Baccano! fans, this show is for you!

Trigun fans, you'll probably greatly enjoy this show, but it's not the same, so don't go in expecting a protagonist who's Vash's spiritual successor (same mangaka).

Art: The animation by studio Bones is wonderful. Bones is one of those studios where, no matter how long their shows are, you can always expect a certain level of quality in their work. Sakgua is not a rarity. Though my favorite part of the art and animation would be the way Leo's eyes look. Mostly because the blue-glow and mechanized look are pretty much perfectly combined and the colors all contrast perfectly ... to make the eyes pop and draw attention (a perfect explanation as to why Leo where's goggles).

Sound: The music is definitely brilliant. One of my favorite OSTs ever. The jazzy music for the more fun scenes and some more emotional pieces. It does a good job of filling the silence. The OP is amazing, as is the ED. Both dubs are really good and most every character is perfectly cast. Leo's English voice actor has a slightly shaky start (Aron Dismuke: Alphonse Elric (Original FMA), Lucifer/Urushihara (The Devil is a Part-Timer)) but after an episode or two he really gets the hang of his role. Zapp's ENG voice is HILARIOUS and J Michael Tatum does a great job as Stephen. Plus, we have Micah Solusod (Yukine (Noragami), Soul (Soul Eater), Gakushu Asano (Assassination Classroom)) playing the main villain.

Story: The story can be confusing at times. And sometimes it's just like... what? Though, when it's allowed to shine, it can be incredibly interesting. The story is fun when its not confusing. And the whole concept itself is interesting. And I'm kinda a sucker for stories that take place in NYC.

Characters: The characters are pretty great. Leo reigns as king. And they all have pretty great chemistry together. They play off each other well and their interactions all seem natural and like this is all a completely normal occurrence. I give this category an 8 as opposed to a nine mostly because Gilbert (who has a moderate sized role in the manga) has almost zero screen time as well as Zed, who isn't unlikable, he just wasn't really in the show for long enough for me to really get attached to him. Also, Brody and Hummer is an extremely compelling character(s) and he/they doesn't really get much focus.

Though, I give this category an eight as opposed to a lower score is because of the way Libra functions after Leo joins. One of my favorite dynamics in the series is that between him and the rest of his teammates/friends. This is mainly because Leo is a wimp. He's physically weak, he's small, he's shrimpy, and he looks like a little kid (being told that he looks to young to be hanging out in an underground fighting ring). Because of this, he is unable to really defend himself or get in fights. Because of this he has to rely on his teammates to protect him and save him when he gets himself kidnapped (like, four times in 12 episodes, seriously). Despite this, his teammates also rely on him to find vampires and their names for them so they even stand a chance of defeating them because of his magic eyes. This mutual dependency is what makes Leo's presence in Libra both explained and hilarious when he get caught in insane fights between his teammates and other monsters.

Final: This show is SO MUCH FUN. And I definitely recommend checking it out. You'll probably have fun!

The main problem I have with this show isn't that it's a slice of life Yuri show. In fact, if that's what it was I probably wouldn't even be bothering to write this review. It wouldn't be worth it.
What makes me angry about this show is that it's a spin-off of one of my favorite shows of all time, and it manages to COLOSSALLY SCREW EVERYTHING UP!

Story/Character: The story is meh. It gets okay near the end once the actually pretty cool and menacing villain shows up. And at least some things got decent explanation. My main problem with the characters though is ... that they are not the main characters from the original show. The protagonist is basically a Maka fangirl, blushing and stuttering whenever she's around (the original cast does show up, but only every now and then and only in cameos, except the Thomson sisters, who are BARISTAS AT A CAFE). Meme is basically just an idiot with short-term memory loss. And even characters from the original show are not as interesting or compelling as they used to be. And many events that are obviously supposed to have some kind of emotional impact have none because the original show exists. The only half-decent new characters are, in my opinion, the villain and Anya. At least Anya is semi-consistent and actually seems to have reasons for her actions. And the villain is a total discount Medusa, but Medusa was an AWESOME villain, so... if it ain't broke, don't fix it?

Art/Sound: The op is catchy. The rest of it is entirely forgettable. The art is probably the best part of the show. It's definitely cute and appealing and actually conforms more to how the characters look in the manga than the original show. This makes me hate how the original cast looks. I love the art of the original show. And it bugged me. Though the new characters are cute. And for a show like this, having cute characters is a must. Therefore I can say that the show delivers there.

This show sucks. It has no real target audience. And it sucks. If you're a fan of the original, give it a shot, but you'll probably hate it. If you didn't like the original, don't bother.

Well, so far I can just say that this series is WAY better than what I've watched of the SAO series and if they ever made an anime out of it, I would totally watch it.

Art: The drawings are BEAUTIFUL, I only wish there were more so I could enjoy them on a more constant basis. The writing quality is... well... it's not the best. There are a number of typos (though that may just be the English publishers). But at least it's not unreadable.

Story: The story is fairy average. Some otaku gets dragged into another world, and he's kinda upset about it. Though ... this has an added twist. This otaku (the incredibly lovable and relatable Naofumi Iwatani), instead of being worshipped for his prowess in battle, he gets the worst of the four weapons (the shield), and then gets framed for a crime and turned into an outcast and is basically regarded as a criminal by everyone except his slave, Raphtalia. Though the story is also pretty obviously giving itself the opportunity to go on as long as it wants. With the whole 'we don't know how long these attacks will go on for' thing.

Character: Naofumi is an incredibly relatable and likable protagonist. He's innocent of what he's accused of, but no one will listen to him. His often declarations of hatred of the people who framed him are incredibly realistic and I know that I often think exactly the same way when thinking about people I hate. I also give them mean and offensive nicknames. Raphtalia is an incredibly important character. She's the one who gives Naofumi a reason to keep going and keep trying to protect this world where everyone hates him and thinks he's a criminal, though she starts out as his slave.

Why this is better than SAO: It's NOT A HAREM SERIES!!! Even though we have two main females and one main male and both of these females are 'subservient' to the protagonist, there is no romantic elements so far at all (keep in mind I've only read 43 chapters at the time of this writing). Naofumi repeatedly states that he is attempting to be a parental figure to both Raphtalia and Filo. And also the characters are interesting and not 1 dimensional (I do not judge those who like SAO, this is just my opinion).

I definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes Light Novels or video-game like fantasy series (so, if you like Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? you'll probably like this).