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Sword Art Online Is bad. Thank you, I’ll be taking my medal and leaving now.

Sword Art Online (SAO) has gotten the short end of the anime stick for the last decade now and for partially justified, partially unjustified reasons. It’s been collectively harped on by any sufficiently large creator in the anime scene and then beaten to death by the entire community. Despite what MAL hipsters might tell you, liking SAO places you in the minority. As far as many people are concerned, liking SAO gives you the dreaded “Normie" label. SAO is far from perfect, in fact by any metric the show ... is suffice to say, underwhelming. But thanks to being the anime community's punching bag, a lot of the actual merit behind Sword Art Online has been lost. I feel as though SAO has been unfairly treated; I want to take a deeper look at the success of SAO, Its immense popularity and impact and the subsequent critical reception it received before giving my own review of the series.

* This Section has nothing to do with the actual review and is more an overview of the “Rise” of Sword Art Online for some background, feel free to skip it *

Cast your mind back. It's 2012: Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 just dropped; Far Cry 3 is taking the gaming world by storm; and Journey is a sleeper hit; but more importantly (or sadly, depending how you see it) I was addicted to Valve's brand new Counter Strike Global Offensive. You see, competitive gaming had its own mini renaissance in the early 2010’s. Many games burst onto the competitive market with some of the hypest gaming events we had ever seen. Azubu frost v.s Taipei Assassins in the League of Legends S2 World Championship or DreamHack in the winter of 2012, competitive gaming saw its first real major boom. So I think many of you can see the appeal behind a Video Game based anime, especially in an MMO setting which appealed to a lot of people. Games Like World of Warcraft, Maple Story and the Tales series captured the imagination of adolescents like myself. So it was to no one's surprise that in 2012 Reki Kawahara’s Light Novel of SAO received an anime for the first two major story arcs of the series by A1 productions. To say this anime blew up would be an understatement. This anime to this day is ranked in the top 5 most popular anime of all time (according to MAL) and has been in the discussion of anime consistently for a decade now. It’s easy to see why such an anime would capture the audience's hearts. There is an intrinsic link between games and anime with an abundance of anime inspired video games and vice versa. However this could not be said back in 2012. There was certainly overlap with people who liked games and anime, but the anime community on a whole at the time was quite esoteric. Sword Art Online closed that bridge between games and anime giving us a definitive Game based anime. Whilst there were series before that used the video game anime idea (.Hack//Sign) you can clearly see how after this brief “SAO renaissance” that a sort of boom of game based anime ensued the release of SAO (Overlord, Log Horizon, MMO Junkie) I like a lot of these anime, and I think if we were to judge SAO’s merit simply on its impact to anime in general, It would be quite positive. However over the years the reception of SAO critically has drastically fallen. People don’t like this anime, and it’s fine not to, but it feels as though a lot worse shows have been ignored in favor of lambasting SAO. On every platform (Youtube, Twitch, MAL) you find people mocking this show to no end. It makes me kinda sad that an otherwise mediocre anime has received as much hate as it has. I want to just say that I realize the hate towards SAO is rather tame, and that most people don't mean ill will when they criticize SAO, this is no darling in the franx. But I find it disingenuous that these “anime connoisseurs” claim to hate it as much as they do. In fact I'm almost certain that most of the hate surrounding SAO is just a byproduct of elitist anime culture; but I want to make a clear distinction between this admittedly small, yet vocal crowd and people who simply dislike the show. I’m aware that most people just don't like SAO and for a very valid reason. The show isn’t good and I wanted to talk about why.

*Start of the review*

~PART 1 : Aincrad Arc~
Sword art online is set in the near future where technology has advanced to the point where we can make completely immersive virtual reality; this is sparked by the innovative release of “the NerveGear”. Sword Art Online is a game that is the gateway to a fully immersive fantasy MMO. However this gaming sensation quickly turns to despair as the players who bought the game find themselves trapped unable to leave. This is part of an unknown scheme where if you die in the game, you die in real life.

This anime has a great plot. But that's the most praise I can give to this show. This Show sets up a world, gets you invested and then kicks you in the balls. The first three episodes excellently build the world just for it to drop off with a plethora of sloppy writing and poor characters. I could be nit picky and talk about minor issues (like how when people's real faces are shown, all of them are the most stereotypically attractive people) but SAO has capital B Big problems fundamentally with its narrative. First of all this series has no stakes. It has the illusion of stakes in its story. Main characters never die, and if they do, they are always brought back to life. Side characters are only ever killed off for the convenience of the plot. It doesn’t have to go overboard with the deaths like Akame Ga Kill, but there needs to be actual tension in the story. Characters with real personalities that aren't just cardboard cutouts. This issue is best illuminated in the moonlit black cats, a guild which Kirito briefly joins. We spend one episode with all these characters, and it is so obviously annoying that they are plot devices to make Kirito a sad emo boy. I knew that these characters were going to all die in the same episode. Why? Because you know a bad show wants to kill off a character when they start giving them a synopsis of all their personal problems and backstory like some sort of Shakespearean Soliloquy. This is exactly what happens with Sachi. It’s infuriating that what could blossom into potentially interesting characters are thrown out in favor of Melodrama. Even with me ignoring Kirito’s silly reasons for not wanting to show his real rank. That somehow people wouldn’t want to guild with him since he’s “too high level”. Which is a poor excuse the writers came up with so that Kirito doesn't have to show his level. But I digress, this issue is seen throughout the whole series, there is never a time where I felt as though a character was at any risk. But, on its own this isn’t a “smoking gun” that this series is bad per say. What I find far more egregious about the story telling in SAO is that nothing ever feels like it happened, or in other words, it felt rushed. The story is moving forward at a bit of a bumpy pace, but nonetheless the characters are progressing through the story at a reasonable pace, and then it just ends. The ending to the first half of SAO was abrupt to say the least. It almost felt like Reki wanted to be done with Aincrad and move on. At the very least the series could have reached the 100th floor but they didn’t even do that. Kayaba was never built up as a villain in the story (which I will elaborate on later). There was never any preamble to the ending, just a fight and it ended. The series would have benefited from having the 24 episodes dedicated to just the Aincrad arc, because I and many others would agree it's the best part of the series. The series didn’t even need to try very hard to get audience engagement. Despite my criticisms, There's actually a lot to like about aspects of SAO’s story. I like that Asuna and Kirito get together easily. Even if their relationship is staler than out of date bread and less exciting than the story of Halo 5 I liked that Reki picked a girl and stuck with it. A lot of series do the “will they won’t they” and it's so obvious that they are gonna get together, which is why I respect that Asuna and Kirito get together early. Another thing I enjoyed was actually a very wide range of genres that the series had. Each episode was sort of its own mix of different genres. One episode it’s a side story romance and then it goes into a three episode long murder mystery. Personally I enjoy this type of episodic anime, especially when It can still relate to a main overarching narrative (i.e cowboy bebop) . I Like this idea, it’s been done infinitely better by other shows, but I like it. I think the execution of this sort of episodic structure is a good idea, but not a well thought out execution. This is in large part due to the story feeling Juvenile. There's nothing wrong with writing and catering to a younger audience, but a lot of the more “mature” themes rarely add any substance to the story; this is a much larger problem with the latter half of the anime with the honestly disgusting misuse of rape, but it is still an issue in the Aincrad arc. There's nothing wrong with Sexualization, or even over sexualization so long as it’s relevant and fits the characters personality. But sometimes the way SAO handles its female characters teters on the edge of Sexist. I don’t believe that to be Reki Kawahara’s intention but that's definitely how it looks sometimes. Which Is why I find randomly flashing Keiko’s panties very Juvenile. It’s the type of fan service that feels out of place. I realize that this issue is prevalent in a lot of anime, not just SAO, but it is an issue in SAO regardless.

A large part of what I find disappointing about SAO is how amazing some of its aspects genuinely are. The music is great. It really sells the MMO vibes of the world. The soundtrack obviously takes heavy inspiration from music of the middle ages that other MMOs were inspired from. The Western European influences are seen everywhere from imagery to the designs but most prevalent in the music where emphasis is placed on instruments such as the flute and other wood instruments. However SAO blends together aspects of Contemporary music quite well with electronic sort of breakcore elements. Curve this with a healthy mix of Classical, seasonal and new age and you have a great OST. One thing I love about this OST is the use of the more orchestral sounds, epic symphonies which heighten a lot of the scenes but also hide some of the more indiscriminate flaws within the series. The music made me reminisce a lot about the video game OST I loved in the past; the ones that came to mind were that of Lineage II and Morrowind (basically the whole Elder Scrolls series). Even more memorable about the music in SAO is the great opening themes. Lisa is a GOAT, I love her music and Crossing Field is just such a banger. It’s one of those songs that gets stuck in your head for days with one of the catchiest choruses I’ve heard. The ED Yume Sekai by Haruka Tomatsu is straight fire, a really relaxing song to chill too. The visuals actually give me Durarara vibes which I thought was cool. On the topic of sound, SFX. WOW, this anime has good SFX. Just like map design in video games SFX in anime largely goes unnoticed. That's because it's not meant to be noticed, and you only notice it when it's bad. However the SFX in SAO are genuinely great, they perfectly fit the MMO vibe. The way objects glitch and how button presses sound fit the setting to a tee. The voice acting is nothing to write home about, but none of the performances were bad. In fact the vast majority of the vocal performances In SAO are pretty good. Yoshitsugu is inoffensive at worst and pretty good at best and Haruka Tomatsu is always good at playing female leads so I have no problems with any of the vocal performances from the cast here.

I hope that this point has been abundantly pointed out by now, but SAO was a series that in theory had a lot going for it. Stellar production, a fairly large budget, a good concept at the peak of its relevance and a flurry of talented staff members working on the clock to produce the best anime they can. So where the hell did it all go wrong? It’s my belief that at the crux of the issue - the foundation for all of the negative aspects in SAO; it's the characters.
SAO may have had a strong start story wise, but from the get go I knew that Kirito was going to be a boring character. Which at the start, was fine. A lot of good plots have tapered over poor characters, especially if that plot is interesting enough to keep me watching. But as it became abundantly clear that the story of SAO was not going to improve at all, it pushed the burden of the show mainly on the cast. SAO might possibly have the flattest most lifeless ensemble of characters I have ever seen. Starting off hot Kirito is a shit character, there really is no better adjective to explain how much I dislike Kirito. Kirito sort of perfectly fits that whiney “Everyman” archetype, the typical teenage boy. Kirito is 100% a self insert character who’s appeal comes from the fact that you could literally be him, which to be honest, is something I’m fine with. A lot of anime have weak Male leads which are usually carried by a great supporting cast (SAO is not one of those shows but I digress). Kirito also happens to be an overpowered “badass”, I say that in quotations because it is the weakest attempt at trying to make a character look cool at all. It's like Reki really wanted to make Kirito like Guts or Alucard without realizing the appeal of either character. Kirito doesn't have a quarter of the depth Guts has as a character and not even an inch of the badass nature of Alucard. Kirito is a childish attempt at creating a “cool” character whilst also attempting to have the same depth as characters like Guts or Spike Spiegel. I think the most egregious part for me about Kirito’s writing has to be the lack of inspiration, Kirito is not a character, rather a random string of character traits like his entire personality was taken from the spark notes of a middle schooler. The same goes for the supporting cast. Asuna is by far the best character in the entire series, that's not me saying she’s well written or even engaging but she is the best character. She has a strong personality, gets shit done, doesn't whine and by all means is the most practical character in the first half of the show (not in the second half but I’ll talk about that later). She’s as 2D dimensional as it gets and her introduction is some of the edgiest shit i’ve ever seen but genuinely she carried the first half of this series; and it shows, she’s definitely the most popular of the female leads, even if the MAL stats say Kirito is more popular I would wager that Asuna is the more popular character. The rest of the cast is just so asinine and unimportant it's hard to write anything of significance about any of them, I could write a whole essay on the cast of MMO Junkie or even Overlord. SAO is simply overshadowed in every way by its successors and it shows in the casts lack of anything. A supporting cast should help push the plot forward whilst also showing off aspects of the leads, that doesn't mean that they should be completely ignored. You need to give some, even equal parts attention to the stories of the supporting characters, not none at all.

I know it's gonna be weird hearing this from me after I just committed arson on top of the SAO grave but the first part of SAO isn’t just the best part of the whole series, but I actually enjoy watching it. To put it simply, it's pretty fun. What I mean by that is that it’s easy to watch. Sometimes, even with anime I really like, I find it hard to get past certain episodes, or I find the content too heavy to get through. I didn’t have any of those troubles whatsoever with SAO, that's because it's easy to consume. But credit where credit is due, it's hard to stop watching SAO once you start and that definitely gives the show some merit.

~PART 2 : Alfheim Arc~

Now, think about every positive thing I said about the characters and story in the Aincrad arc and throw it into a heaping dumpster fire. Alfheim, even by long time fans of the series, is regarded as the worst arc in the entire series, and for good reason. It's asinine, boring and probably one of the worst arcs in anime history. If the first part of SAO was a breeze to get through, Alfheim is like walking through a mile of thick sewerage in Shawshank prison.

The Alfheim arc picks up right where the Aincrad arc left us (around 2 months later). It mainly explores Kirito’s struggles readjusting to life back in the real world and explores how his relationship with Asuna is progressing. And by progressing I mean that Asuna is now stuck in a Coma and being kept alive in another VR game where she needs to be rescued; there's this creepy Jared Leto looking fuck face licking her and shit (and thats the least creepy thing he does) saying hes going to marry Asuna and its all one big mess. To be honest, I don't mind this setup. It’s a fairly logical progression of the plot, it sets up some decent stakes, gives us a time limit and a potentially interesting new area to explore. However Things pretty much instantly derail from the second episode onwards. Alfheim suffers from one of the biggest issues in the media. It happens in a lot of games, movies and books. Alfheim suffers from the age old question of “Why” or more commonly “What the fuck is the point of any of this”. So much of what happens in the Alfheim arc doesn’t contribute in any way to the ultimate goal of the series. At some point you start to wonder if Kirito even gives a shit about his Wife since he spends half of his time dicking around with the most pointless things. Everything to do with salamanders and the clan leaders is completely inane. The plot spends far too much time on drivel that doesn't amount to anything when It could be spending that time forwarding the main story, or even exploring some of the more important sub stories; Such as the incest one. Yeah I’m not joking. Apart from the fact that it's only there to fulfill a very strange Brother Sister fantasy thing (you know the whole step bro meme that goes around) it's just not very well written and really creepy. The worst part is that given a more competent writer the incest sub plot could have actually been interesting. But when it's put in perspective of the entire series and the context of the creation of SAO, it feels as though it's there to appeal to a very creepy fantasy. One thing that I touched on in the first part is Reki’s tendency to cover more taboo themes. If you thought it was bad in the first arc, then you haven't seen how bad it gets in the second one. The use of rape in the Alfheim arc doesn't teter on sexist, it straight up is. I find it genuinely revolting seeing Asuna get straight up sexually assualted in some of the most ridiculous ways just to add insult to injury. The Tentacle rape scene is almost comical, if it wasen’t for the fact that she’s getting raped; at best this scene is Softcore porn at its worst its straight up hentai. Which would be fine if it was a Hentai, or even an ecchi. What I find so infuriating about all of this is that Reki Kawahara so desperately wants to make it look shocking and mature but it ends up looking juvenile and disappointing. Rape is a very touchy subject and for it to be used to carelessly is really disappointing. But it gets worse. The scene where Sugo tears Asuna’s clothes off and nearly rapes her is far too excessive. I’m all for adult and shocking content so long as it has merit but the Rape scenes here are just so unnecessary. I don’t want my critiques of these scenes to be the only reason I dislike the Alfheim arc as I think even with these scenes removed it's a massive disappointment. But It’s so hard to get over the egregious over sexualization in this Arc. If you think I’m disappointed by this story, I am far more disappointed by the use of Sexual assualt in these scenes.

Nothing much of the characters has changed apart from some new forgettable faces and the total destruction of any positive character traits these people had. Kirito went from an Overpowered edgy teenager to an even more edgy and overpowered teenager. I’m all for cool guys who kick ass and never lose but Kirito has to be the most annoying one. God can only know how he can be so gifted at everything he does, that he can play a game for literally a weak and be better than literally everyone. If I thought he was annoying in Aincrad then Alfheim only made it worse. Asuna got the short end of the stick too. She went from the best character in the series to a typical damsel in distress (sort of like a Kabenari situation with Mumei). They decided to bring back Yui, for god knows what reason. And they introduced it to a bunch of people who don’t matter. I couldn’t tell you a single interesting thing apart from their good or their bad. Sugo is a shitty villain from a writing standpoint and also from a moral standpoint. He's probably the most cartoonish villain in the entire series sporting the most maniacal evil lip licking in any anime ever. Suguha has a strange incentuous relationship with her older brother and I hate everything about these characters.

~Conclusion~

It Could be better. But It could also be a whole lot worse. A lot of people really don't like this anime, and it's fair enough not to, I don’t care for it much myself. But to the people that blindly hate everything about this series and write it off as pointless drivel, I implore you to give it a rewatch, you might find some actual merit. I know it may seem like I just spent 4000 words completely shitting on this anime but I do genuinely feel like it has been thrown to the wayside for the wrong reasons.

Thank you for reading.

TL;DR : a unique cute shounen, romance comedy with a fun story and likable characters. Really good series.

Spy x Family has garnered widespread popularity largely garnered by the overwhelming success thus far of studio wits anime of the series. I found the anime pleasantly fun, sufficiently inoffensive and overall would say I had a positive experience with the show. Certainly not the first-class masterpiece that some people were lauding it as, but certainly a worthwhile experience. However the lack of content in the anime left me wanting a little bit more spy x family; so I decided to read the manga.

I can say that ... I did not expect it to be as good as it was.

The Level of finesse put into this story was unexpected to say the least… Tatsuya Endou is clearly a very talented draftsmen with a knack for visually striking character design, although quite standard in comparison to other battle shounens the 50’s cold war aesthetic is dope. I'm a sucker for art design centered around the 30's - 60’s and the cartoony sort of bubbly style is really great.

I adore the characters. The quirky will they, won’t they that Loid and Yor have is actually really fun. I'm not usually a fan of will they, won't they relationships, especially in manga. But I think the way that Loid and Yor bounce off each other is really fun, it's actually what gave me the most enjoyment. Anya is the star of the show, and being essentially a sudo protagonist carries a lot of the comedic elements of the series. Her interactions with Loid in particular are very fun and cute. Although I prefer her interactions with Yor more since they give me Mayumi and Shiro vibes from Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou. It has a nice ensemble of supporting characters which I also liked. Yuri, Franky and Fiona being my favorites. I found Yuri’s sister complex and his cute demeanor a fun contrast. Fiona also fits into the “gap moe” aesthetic that most of the characters fit into in the series. I think that she had the funniest moments for me personally. Franky was just a pleasant supporting comedic relief that added a lot to the more comedic chapters.

The story is often overshadowed by the great characterisation, but the world building and narrative of Spy x Family are superb. The story is quite obviously allegorical of the Cold War, paralleling the Russophobia of the early 50’s to late 60’s. Other aspects such as the secret police being a clear direct parallel to the KGB. This allegorical look at the cold war gives it a unique perspective, one that's rarely seen In anime and manga. The unique time frame Is actually in my opinion one of the driving factors for my enjoyment. With chapters 60 - 63 taking a look at some of the more emotional and serious elements of the series. This serious undertone is the perfect juxtaposition to the comedic nature of the show. I find comedies with strange dichotomies really fun, and the eccentricity of the characters perfectly fit into this seriously dark world at times. The jokes in this actually got me laughing, even if they tended to go overtop. The whole “they can’t know my real identity” thing is a bit overdone but I will say it adds a lot to the comedy. If there's one thing I genuinely dislike about the series it's all the stuff surrounding Eden Academy. I don't care for any of the children characters, those parts are practically carried by Anya.

Spy x Family is some of the most fun I've had in recent memory. If you’re looking for a quirky, off-rails shounen rom com, I definitely recommend Spy x family.

Many of the long running shonen battle series from the late 80's all the way through to essentially now have been characterised as "Titular" and "Formulaic", the same cannot be said for Hunter x Hunter. Over the past decade Hunter x Hunter has earned its recognition as one of the best battle Shounen of its time, this success is in large part due to the immense popularity and success of Madhouse Studios 2011 adaptation of the original Manga. However many longtime fans of the series such as myself remember the series more fondly for its predecessor. Hunter x Hunter was produced by Nippon animation
in ... 1999 and whilst its quality often overshadows many of the other shonen series of its time, it has struggled to keep the same legacy as series such as Naruto or One Piece. Both of which were made around the same time as Hunter x Hunter 1999 but ended up having longer serialisations and have thus become staples in the modern anime sphere. The legacy of Hunter x Hunter however has been carried instead by Madhouses 2011 production of the series. While I'm glad that Hunter x Hunter finally got the praise and recognition it deserves, the 1999 version has been largely forgotten despite the series being my favourite rendition of Hunter x Hunter. The 2011 anime may have modernised the series and introduced it to a modern fanbase, but I personally believe that the 1999 adaptation took a much more interesting approach to the series and I really loved that about it.

(For the remainder of the Review I will refer to the series as "HXH" (Abbreviation of Hunter x Hunter) for the sake of brevity and any comparisons made to the 2011 series I will simply refer to it as the "2011 anime/series" and the other has "1999 anime/series")

HXH follows Gon Freecss, a simple minded, well meaning and hard working 12 year old boy who dreams of becoming a "Hunter". Hunters in this world are a group of elite individuals who dedicate themselves to their own trades, whether that be hunting treasure or seeking the wonders of the world, hunters must commit themselves to a "hunt" ; what that hunt entails relies on the hunter themselves. Gon is one such dedicated individual and seeks to become a hunter himself. In doing so he meets a large ensemble of supporting characters who also seek to become hunters thus taking us to the 287th Hunter exam.

HXH has a deceptively simple story, one that would not separate it from many of its contemporaries. Gon is nothing more than your titular shonen protagonist, and the Hunter association like Shinobi's or Pirates is a narrative tool for world building. However it's in this simple narrative structure that HXH is able to deconstruct its genre and produce a mature story on a wide range of themes. Due to the nature of this being a review and not an analysis, I can't elaborate on the nature of the themes or what they entail, as they will spoil the experience and story for many people. With that being said, I can without a doubt say that this is the most mature shonen series I have ever watched, the themes on display and the meaning behind each arc is one of the most brilliantly executed deconstructions of a genre that I have ever seen.

The world building in HXH however is what truly makes it a spectacular series. Each location is vibrant, life-like and full of personality, this is in large part thanks to the brilliance of series author Yoshihiro Togashi but is brought together beautifully by the surprisingly dark tone that the series has. It's this dark edge that I think the 1999 series has over 2011. 1999 was never afraid to throw its punches with its visual presentation of the world. Not that the 2011 anime was bad, in fact the 2011 anime looked very slick and I liked that, but it's 1999's gritty colour palette (This will be further elaborated on in the ART section) that was able to fully capture the finer details of the world in my opinion. This is best accentuated in the YorkNew City arc where HXH is at one of its darkest points narratively. I loved how HXH was able to create such an amazingly real feeling world, the dark edge that 1999 has given is a much more gritty tone which worked for York New. I also really enjoyed many of the other places in the story. Heavens arena is a short arc and while it doesn't have the same grandiose scale as say YorkNew the Chimera Ants and Greed island (Btw these two arcs are not in the original 1999) it is important as it introduces the staple power system in HXH, Nen. The Hunter exam is also a really good introductory arc to the world of HXH. One thing I liked about 1999 especially was actually how much some of the filler episodes were added; especially in the hunter exam. Filler episodes, especially in Shonen series, are seen as blemishes on a series. This is because filler episodes take away from the main story with often bland and uninspired "Joke" arcs which are usually skipped. However since HXH 1999 was my introduction to the series, I watched these filler episodes without any real care. One thing that actually shocked me was that I ended up genuinely enjoying the filler episodes. I wont say exactly what happens in these filler episodes, but I think for the most part they extend the story and even add to the dark tone of 1999.

[I'm gonna put a spoiler warning at this point just in case people don't want any knowledge going into the series about the power system as it is introduced later into the series than most shonens, If you do want to read my review about the Nen system, please do, Its not detrimental to the experience]

Any good shonen series has a power system. Nen, on the outside, looks like your standard power system, but like many things in HXH it's one of the most unique rule sets I've seen, maybe in all of Media. It is a technique that allows a living being to use and manipulate their own life energy, which is also referred to as Aura. Nen can be opened in two ways, slow and gradual meditation, or unlocking through Aura Nodes. This is how Gon and Killua are able to unlock there Nen in the heavens arena. Nens rules are vague enough that they are able to be manipulated in unique ways, one's nen abilities are entirely unique to themselves and Togashi is able to write interesting abilities for each character. I think the best thing that the series does is how each ability parrots its user. Gon, an Enhancer user has an ability that shows his simple minded nature, Gon's JaJaken or 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' is literally a play on Scissors, paper rock showing off his simple mindedness each ability displaying a basic defensive or offensive technique. This same idea is shown with every character. I'm not exactly the most well versed in Nen theory, I'm still yet to get my PHD in Nen, but it is a really interesting aspect to the series and I recommend that if you enjoy the series and more importantly the battle aspect of the series that you may want to read up on the finer details.

[End of Spoilers]

As I've already mentioned, HXH as a series can get really dark at times narratively speaking. 1999 capitalised on the darker aspects of the series through great use of colour. After watching both of the anime adaptations, I can firmly say that I much prefer the tone of 1999. 2011 while slick, I just dont think is quite as memorable as the almost disturbingly dark colours of 1999. I'm also quite biassed towards older animation styles, that kind of old shitty looking art style is actually my favourite type of art style. It's something that I mainly realised when I first watched the EVA rebuild movies that I just adore that very 90's look. That being said the animation quality certainly isn't good, the look by today's standards is totally dated and the quality has peaks and troughs; unlike the 2011 anime which is consistently slick and polished. 1999 had its moment of sakuga but I would say overall it's mostly on par with its contemporaries if not then maybe just slightly better. The actual character designs as well are oddly strange to me and actually for some odd reason they reminded me a lot of the Rave master characters. Something about the look of Gon and Killua looking back at it after seeing 2011 really just throws me off. Especially Killuas design, I don't find any of the character designs reprehensible or bad to look at, but the design for Killua at least to me seems far too adult-like, almost as if he's more so a 17 year old boy than a 12 year old. The only character design I would say that I actually prefer is Kurapikas, but I think that's just more because he's a dark character and he fits the darker tone.

HXH 1999 has really, really bad audio quality. When I watched this series again in bits and pieces for this review I pirated it, and I'm not sure if it's because of the website I used or because the Audio is just that way but it was really poor quality. I'm willing to be lenient on the series for this but the Audio quality was really poor. SFX are actually really important to the audio enjoyment of a series and HXH is ok. The SFX are cute, they are very reminiscent of the 90's and I still have that Nostalgia bug but it doesnt change the fact that the actual quality of the SFX is really bad; not quite Hell's Kitchen level bad, but the SFX are just really goofy.

The opening songs "Ohayou '' by Keno (Side note; Keno is genuinely one of my favourite 90's Jpop bands) and "Taiyou wa Yoru mo Kagayaku '' by Wino. Ohayou is just a fun catchy up beat pop tune that really sets the mood for the first part of HXH, It has cute visuals and a fun backtrack. Juxtaposed that to the second opening Taiyou wa Yoru mo Kagayaku, Its got this sort of Haru Nemuri esc screamed lyrics to this super cheesy instrumental that just reminds me of the Berserk opening. The opening is total cheese but I absolutely adore it, the funny part about the song is that it sort of almost perfectly fits that super edgy dark tone of the YorkNew city arc. As for the ending songs, "Kaze no Uta '' is an unironically beautifully sung song with these incredible eastern inspired instrumentals that calm the soul. The second ending song "Do you feel Like I feel" is the complete opposite with the radio friendly pop tunes that I could play all day long. It gives me a vibe that's a mixture of something like Snowkell and Weezer. As for the third ending song "Hotaru '' It's easily the most forgettable but still kind of a banger song. It gives off this major Pillows/Judy and Mary/Sentimental Bus. A lot of these openings and endings are all very similar to their contemporaries, and even though I liked most of them for what they were, they are nothing special. The OST on the other hand I genuinely Love. Some of the tracks on the HXH 1999 OST are just pure nostalgia to me, my personal favourite is 100% the harmonica version of Ohayou which just screams that sort of childhood nostalgia Shonen is so great at capturing. Konapaku no elegy is by far the most iconic thing to come out of the 1999 anime, it's this beautiful melodious cross of Western/Eastern music that perfectly portrays Kurapikas sorrow. The Hunters theme that plays continues the Eastern inspired dream like music with a Flute that makes me feel like I'm back on my Nintendo playing Ocarina of Time for the first time again. Some of the more understated tracks like Ame Agari just calm me down in a way that not many other anime OST's have. The OST can also get pretty poppy and 90's with songs like daichi no kodou which is a modern synth sort of version of the main theme. Overall I would say that the music is one of my favourite aspects of the HXH 1999 experience.

HXH is in large part carried by the brilliance of the cast. The Main ensemble consists of some of the best, most well written characters I have seen in anime to date. The Main 4 of Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio are probably the most fun quartet of characters I've seen. Each character has their own role in the group and they all have their own dynamics, the best outlined dynamics however is the obvious friendship between Gon and Killua and the friendship between Kurapika and Leoreo. Gon's childishness and carefree nature bounces off Killuas colder and even more mature tone, but it's through this childishness that Gon has that we see Kurapika's own childishness. Actually a lot of the time throughout the story Killua even acts more mature than Leorio. But it's that juxtaposition between Gon and Killua that make their friendship so intriguing. Killua on his own basically steals the show in terms of character growth, maturity and even likeability, he's just one of the most well written characters in the series and even at times does a better job at being the protagonist than Gon. Gon while not my favourite character is definitely not bad, he's definitely the weakest link for me in the trio, but he's definitely a good protagonist, my favourite part about Gon's characterisation is how childlike he's written; a lot of anime especially shonen anime tend to write there characters as far more mature than they should be (Naruto, Tokyo Revengers, even in Togashi's previous work YuYu Hakusho) but Gon is just a kid, and that works. His childish perspective gives the world of HXH the wonder and pizzaz. Kurapika is one of the most fleshed out characters in the entire series, that being said due to HXH 1999's relatively short run time he doesnt get the proper time to develop as a really great character like he does in the Manga and even in 2011, that being said we see a lot of Kurapika's development especially in YorkNew. Kurapika seems nothing too different from other characters, think of him like a mix of Sasuke/Sanji and Kakyoin, he's smart and has a very typical revenge story. What separates him from these characters however is how he never really "turns to the dark side" like Sasuke did but more so had a Patrick Bateman mental breakdown, his story is very closely related to some of the main villains of YorkNew "Phantom Troupe" which I will touch on later. Leorio is the final piece of the ensemble and is generally left to the wayside in discussions about HXH's characters. I personally loved Leorio. He's obviously the comic relief of the group and comes off as the least intelligent of the bunch. But out of all the characters Leorio manages to be the sympathetic glue that holds the entire group together. He cares for his friends like nothing else and I absolutely love him, he's not hell bent on revenge or hung up on familial issues (as interesting as they are) Leorio works in the best interest of those who are around him and he is definitely one of the best characters in the series. In the most emotionally poignant way I can put it, Leorio is the Kurosawa of HXH.

HXH however has more than just a strong central cast of characters; it has one of the strongest supporting ensembles I have ever seen. The pizazz and energy of the Characters is one that can only match the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Baccano!. It's a mystery to me as to how Togashi was able to craft such a wonderfully realised group of characters that are astoundingly emotionally resonant, fun and evil. The shifting nature of this ensemble also gives a fresh tone for each arc, some of these characters come in and out of arcs, some minor characters become pivotal later on, its this shifting and weaving that the characters do that makes it such a fun supporting cast; and something that only a story as grandiose as HXH could do. Being such a large ensemble I can’t touch on the brilliance of all the side characters; however I will touch on a key few. Hisokah is one of the best recurring antagonists throughout the story, his complex twisted unhinged elements perfectly contrast together the goofy moments of absurd sexual tension and comedic relief. This makes him not only a terrifying antagonistic force, but he adds a lot to the more absurd aspects of HXH’s story. His continued presence throughout the series extends further than just the YorkNew City arc especially in the Manga. Chairman Netero was one of the more memorable characters in the story, due to the unfortunate much shorter length of the 1999 anime we don't get to see the full character arc. However Netero’s carefree and almost childlike playfulness earns himself a spot as one of my favourite characters in the series.

While I love the main cast and the exciting supporting group, probably the most important part of the characterisation in HXH, the villains. For the sake of brevity and the fact that this review is already too damn long, I decided that I would focus on the most vocal villain group. The Phantom Troupe or the spiders are some of the funniest, most badass, tragic and evil groups of villains I have ever seen written. Without going into too much detail about the troupe, they are essentially like a family. In fact they remind me a lot of the type of Mantra that Hollywood portrays Mafia as, “What happens in the family stays in the family” a lot of themes of loyalty are seen in the phantom troupe. The aspect of the troupe that really makes them special is how they are portrayed by Togashi. These aren't classic one dimensional bad guys. They are multi-layered and sympathetic almost anti-heroes, almost like Al Capone or how the people once viewed someone like Pablo Escobar. They are evil and they definitely kill people but they have found a crowd of sympathetic supporters who relate to the struggles of not having a family. This grey morality is what makes the phantom troupe so good and it's impressive that Togashi was able to write such a diverse group. The hardest characters to write are complex and grey characters like the phantom troupe, the same effect could have been done by just making them a one dimensional group of thugs, but that grey morality humanises these inhuman bastards and I love that. This also ties nicely back into the core themes in HXH and especially that of YorkNew city.

Overall, HXH is one of the best shonen on the market right now. From the wonderfully conceptualised world, to the bombastic ensemble of fun and interesting characters, to the nostalgic sound and dark toning of the series. HXH continues to be a personal favourite of mine. If you have seen the 2011 or are looking to get into HXH, I highly recommend this version of the anime because I can assure you that it is a worthwhile experience to both new fans and old fans alike.

I’ve been following Sensei wa Koi wo Oshierarenai for over the past 2 years and despite the infrequent updates each new chapter keeps me excited for the next. And now with 45 chapters read under my belt I felt that I should make a review.

Sensei wa Koi wo Oshierarenai is another super sweet romance comedy slice of life, and if you like that formula, you’re probably gonna love this manga. The series doesn't get too caught up on complex love triangles and unnecessary drama; the story tends to keep itself pretty lowkey. It’s not ambitious in its presentation but It really doesn’t need to ... be. I find that the best romance series are the ones that keep it the most simple; that's why I like Sensei wa Koi wo Oshierarenai. From the get go you know who the main couple is and it focuses on the cutesy rom-com shenanigans that usually occur. Too many authors try to make their audience pick a favorite girl or boy and then just leave you disappointed when they aren't chosen. So if you, like me and many others, are conflict averse, then this is the manga for you.

The characters for the most part are pretty fun. Rinko is a classic straight laced teacher with a heart of butter, she’s fun and she keeps the romance cute. Arase is a total bro. I use that word because he’s the type of chill goober that you would want to be friends with. He's a bit lazy but he’s chill and cares about his friends and RInko. I like the dynamic they have of a straight-laced teacher and a non-caring student. It's fun. The supporting cast is ok I guess, they aren’t really the main focus but they aren’t bad.

TL;DR Sensei wa Koi wo Oshierarenai is a sugar sweet romcom with a hyper focus on just this silly little romance between a lazy student and a stern teacher, it’s cute and doesn't dwell on any super complex topics. It's worth a read if you aren’t looking for anything too ground breaking.

With every passing season of Anime, the threshold of what is impressive is raised ever so slightly; Production in anime has gotten more ostentatious over the years which has yielded great results for helping make anime more wide reaching. Which is why to no ones surprise a plethora of awaited adaptations and sequels came out for this Fall season. One such anime was Senpai ga Urusai Kouhai no Hanashi a cute albeit not entirely original Office romance, Think the likes of Ore Monogatari!! Blended together with Wotakoi; surprisingly up until the a few weeks ago I had never heard of the series and going in ... I was expecting a slightly above average run of the mill office romance with a slightly eccentric cast of characters, and I got what I expected.

The story follows a short office woman named Igarashi Futaba – she’s commonly made fun of due to her comically childish appearance juxtapose this to her large, burly, bear-like senpai, Takeda Harumi. Majority of the story seems to just be a series of loosely connected events that push the romance further, the story is presented basically like it’s a gag manga. With and episodic format like that it’s always going to be hit or miss with the stories contained in the episodes – with arc based stories momentum from previous episodes can keep you engaged but with episodic stories you generally need a consistent stream of good episodes – so far the episodes are mediocre at worst, decent at best. I understand that the Gag format is a stylistic writing choice on the part of the creator, but I think that for stories like this that a continuous story based format can work better. Not to say that everything is bad here, there are a lot of very cute moments, say for example when Futaba gets drunk, but for the most part the stories lack substance or aren’t the most interesting to watch.

But most of that can be forgiven given the episodic format does not yield to the most compelling stories, the characters are usually the driving force behind the personality and the image of the show, this is no different in Senpai ga Urusai Kouhai no Hanashi. The characters are very hit or miss, I don’t particularly dislike any characters but some characters just aren’t the most interesting. Igarashi Futaba is your Titular tsundere loli – She’s cute but terribly stereotypical which does detract from my enjoyment. She’s just not very unique, nothing about her separates her from the other characters of her architype, during the 4 episodes I watched It was this nagging thing in my head “Another tsundere who complains about having a flat chest and being short” it’s almost like a check list at this point. Takeda is the male lead of the story, a strong, stoic definition of Masculinity he is safe to say, refreshing. You don’t see many overly masculine males playing the leading male role in a cutesy romance anime and Takeda is one of my favourites; he’s Wholesome, he’s funny, he’s very likeable. For a the Male lead, he’s solid – if there was any issue I had with him, he’s dense – comically so. Whenever authors write a dense characters it’s almost always to draw out the romance for as long as possible which is just painful to sit through. However the Chemistry between Futaba and Takeda makes for a fun and wholesome relationship. As for the supporting cast; they’re decent Sakurai and Kazama have this cute back and forth and it’s obvious that they both like each other and it makes for a cute side story to any given episode. Natsumi didn’t strike me as a very interesting character, she serves her purpose as the titular friend/wingman character – this is probably the character I would like to see develop the most over the story. Minor supporting characters like Futaba’s grandfather and Tsukishiro are decent comedic relief and I quite enjoyed what little time they had on-screen.

As far as Art goes, nothing mind blowing but the animation is definitely slightly above the curve for normal anime. Notably the opening for the anime has some pretty stellar animation – it was oddly reminiscent of the Komi-San opening from this season, but only because of the similar production value and release date. All in all I think the art and animation is fine, some of the characters are certainly easy on the eyes and for the most part – I liked the art style.

I think the opening for this anime, is really goddamn cute – starting with the song “Annoying! San San Week!” done by all the VA’s for the show, It’s a lowkey bop, it’s fun, uplifting and it perfectly fits the show, I absolutely adore this song. Some standout moments for me was the cute little interaction between Kazama and Sakurai, I also liked how the whole opening is like a Company video edited by Futaba it’s just a cute world building touch because sometimes you forgot, this is an office romance. The opening is a really catchy song with some nice amusing visuals. The ED "Niji ga Kakaru Made no Hanashi” by Yui Horie is just another really cute song. It’s shot in this painting frame esc floating panels way and it makes for a nice and simplistic ending – has some nice moments with the ending especially in the final scene of the ED where it’s just two drinks one for Futaba and one for Takeda. As far as the general OST of the Anime, it really wasn’t anything all that impressive, at least none of the tracks I heard. The Voice acting was also fine, they fit the characters well, Igarashi is cute, Takeda is masculine etc. I don’t remember any really stellar performances but what was their I enjoyed.

This show is nothing special, It’s cute has decent production and a decent cast fun characters that you can get behind. I don’t see this blowing anyone’s mind with some amazing plot or characters development but for fans of Romance I think it’s worth watching especially if you enjoy that type of Vanilla romance anime. So in conclusion, have fun with this one, but don’t expect anything amazing.

Sachi-iro no One Room is not a romance series, please don't come into this manga seeking that experience. Sachi-iro no One Room is a Psychological Drama seinen that explores Clinical Depression, Abuse and Sexual harrasment and assualt. You may have read the description, you might have also realised that I didn't mention Stockholm Syndrome. Thats because this story doesn't tackle that subect and I will talk about that as well.

Sachi-iro no One Room caught my attention a week ago and I have read all chapters as of now up to the latest chapter 52 in the course of about a week. TL;DR Sachi-iro no ... One Room is a good psychological thriller about a kidnapper and his victim which seeks to tackle dark themes through a mature lense and an engaging story - it seemlessy transitions from a dark slice of life kidnapper victim relationship with a healthy blend of psychological drama - into a Death note style cat and mouse game between a detective and a criminal, before turning into a what seems like a sort of coming of age, off the books detective story with a quirky buddy cop dynamic. To say reading the description that I at the latter half of that couldn't be any further from the truth.

Before heading into the review I mentioned that I would like to talk about stockholm syndrome within the story; or more so the lack of it. Many people may be turned of by the description of the series write it off as a Killing Stalking clone. There is no romance in Sachi-iro no One Room, the relationship is entirely platonic; the relationship between "Oniisan" and "Sachi" is closer to that of a father and daughter or brother and sister. Now you may have also read the first chapter were these two characters promise to marry eachother. This happens but it relates back to Sachi's abusive life and the promise has ulterior motives behind it - It does not mean that these characters will enter a sexual relationship. It's been 52 chapters and there has been no signs of a sexual relationship. However, what you will find inside the relationship between "Oniisan" and "Sachi" is a surprisingly poignant tale of two broken people trying to cope and better themselves. This alone is worth reading the series for.

Sachi-iro no One Room has a good albeit it has a sort of identity struggle in it's genres; whilst the themes are consistent throughout the story - the story is not at all consistent, and this is not a critique, stories need new developments to stay interesting, one way to make a story more interesting is by playing with it's genre, some of the best stories use unconventianal story telling and change their genres (Cowboy Bebop, Baccano! where the two best examples I could think of). Let's not forgot that the story is still developing, and this review is based off only what i assume is a chunk of the full story, their is always the chance that the story could take a nose dive or it could be the next big masterpiece of our generation; however what I know is that the story is a dark (sometime fun) and engaging Psychological Drama with an intense Cat and Mouse kind of buddy cop undertone. At points the story can get very intense and reel you in, even when it seems like the story is slowing down, you're pulled back into the rabbit whole with a series of new revelations and conflicts to keep the story engaging.

The art is fine, its not that great, doesn't mean its bad. Sachi is stereotypically cute in her appearance, Oniisan and the cast are just about par for the course in any Manga. The quality of the art is fine, very consistent. All in all fair art - decent character designs, solid backgrounds.

[Disclaimer - past this point there's going to be spoilers; read my TL;DR if you don't want spoilers because talking about my thoughts past this point might dip a bit into spoiler territory - but i think that it's important to mention for the sake of the review]

This series has fantastic characterisation, characters are engaging. They are not black and white characters; Despite what you may think Sachi is not purely innocent - this helps humanise her a lot, she suffered a lot and she was a victim, but she also tries to manipulate people, even attempted murder at some points. All of this fits in with her charcater motives and her backstory. Oniisan is a broken soul, in my opinion he suffer, or at least did suffer from Clinical depression, he's neither sachi's saviour or her kidnapper, He's a broken soul trying to fill the wholes in his heart - He's like a father who lives vicariousely through his children. All of this aligns with his backstory and chacrter motives. As aformentioned it creates a very unique bond between the two leads of the story, esentially they're both manipulating eachother and this has climaxed in the last few chapters into a really good story and a satisying arc in the story. Minor characters such as Matsubase and Yashiro serve as good foils to the charcters, especially Yashiro to Sachi. Matsubase and Yashiro are unique in their own right as characters who serve as both supporting and antogonists - their also very likeable easy to root for.

While I think that the story has great cast of interesting characters, the same cannot be said for the Villians - in this case Sachi's mother (her abusive parent), Matsubase's mother (Another abusive parent), Sachi's teaecher (Sexual Assualt and rape) and Oniisans Grandfather (Rape) - I didn't mention Matsubase or Yashiro, because I don't think their villians, their not really evil, however these charcters are. Oniisans Grandfather is bland - the rape serves as a plot device for some of his world views and it's fine, he's a nminor villian so i can let it slip. Sachi's teacher was a very big let down, for such an important villian in the early few chapters of the series, his characterisation is just super bland - For such an important character he's basically given zero motive for anything he does, more so why he decided to pretend to be the kidnapper of sachi. I think Sachi's mother and Matsubase's mother are fine, their characterisation is not black and white; but the story also isn't sympathetic to them, it's implied that sach's grandmother might have been abusive to Sachi's mother and her husband is also cheating on her and It's said that Matsubase's mother suffers from a Mental illness. In the case of Sachi's mother im expecting more from her later on in the story, but she's being built up to become a good villian.

Sachi-iro no One Room was enjoyable; At everypoint of the story so far its kept me engaged in the story and the characters, with an interesting psychological drama. This story is worth reading now and I get the feeling that the story will get better.

It would be an understatement to say that trying to articulate my feelings on the Baccano series has been challenging; the series has garnered a large fan base of die hard fans over the course of a decade (and a bit), most notably in the western anime sphere. Many people hold this series with high esteem for challenging preconceived notions of story telling, sporting a large cast of fun and likeable protagonists. And the series certainly lives up to its high praise.

[Story]
The story of Baccano follows three events happening simultaneously occurring in seperate dates and times; the different key dates of the series are ... supposed to string together a larger narrative that culminates into the final picture by the end of the story putting a nice bowtie on the end of the series. This narrative structure nicely supplements Baccano's larger than life story. Many have noted that Baccano's story gives off a western vibe akin to the likes of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp fiction, the 90's cult classic the usual suspects and other Gangster period pieces such as the Godfather, Goodfellas and Miller's crossing, and less well known the story structure being directly influenced by the 1916 silent film named intolerance. The story itself is very interesting; set in 1920/30's prohibition USA the stories presented in Baccano show three different events, The flying pussyfoot a train holding three seperate factions of people fighting for control aboard the train. Eve Genoard and her search for her brother Dallas Genoard and lastly the Martillo and Gandor families encounter with immortality and the mysterious figure Szilard. The story oozes off a sense of coolness and larger than life personalty which heightens the experience to an epic degree.

[Art]
Studio Brain Base does a great job in presenting a period authentic design to the anime, you can tell that the team working on the series put a lot of effort into making the series an accurate illustration of clothing in the late and early 1920/30's. The actual character designs themselves don't strike me as anything too special but the series doesn't fall into the trap of "Same Face Syndrome" like many of its contemporaries in the early too late 2000's. Where this anime really shines is in the intense and well drawn action sequences the action flows seamlessly and the camera work is fluid and dynamic. It creates some great high moments that elevate an already fantastic series.

[Sound]
Baccano is one of the most exciting, intense and grandiose stories told. And fittingly it has one of the best Anime soundtracks out there. The OST is Jazzy, explosive and full of life which represents the larger than life cast of characters to a tee. The aptly titled OST Spiral Melodies has some of the best tracks in the anime industry to date. Specifically the Fun and exuberant Main theme, the calm and peaceful melodies of "In the speak easy" and the mysterious vibes from track 06 "Kioku no Tegami". The opening theme song Gun's n Roses is a fun upbeat jazz song cut to Snatch esque visuals. The series iconic soundtrack and opening nicely compliments the style and characters of the story.

[Character]
The characters of Baccano have already been well documented as larger than life, fun characters. The characters in the story are the life blood that fuels the narrative. The cast of Baccano has some of the most energy since the likes of One piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Hunter x. Hunter. The series sports a large main cast of 18 protagonists each filling an essential slot in there own narrative; however it struck me that these characters are not particularly deep nor are they very well developed over the course of the anime, in many cases this may be to the detriment of the series, however the reason we all love the cast of Baccano is because of the larger than life energy and pizzazz of the cast. The characters are insane yes, stereotypical yes, but they are most definitely fun as fuck to watch, there is not a single character I dislike, characters you may not like to begin with you will learn to love by the end for sure, characters like Firo Prochainezo and Isaac and Miria don't receive much if any character development yet remain fun and likeable characters despite this. Baccano! taught me that in Storytelling you don't need deep characters to have a good time. That's why I believe that the cast is great, while some dislike the lack of development and deep character arcs I embrace it. In a world so obsessed with having characters be deep and relatable; Baccano shows us that you really don't need that to have a kick ass time.

[Enjoyment and Overall]
This series is Amazing, its been hard to put my feelings for this series into words, I love everything about this anime, to the aesthetics to the characters and the soundtrack, I love every single bit about it, Baccano is not a perfect series but what matters is that it's perfect to me and I love it with every single bone in my body.

I love Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho. Growing up surrounded by Shonen anime akin to the likes of One piece and Hunter x Hunter 1999, Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho alongside these famous series became a fan favourite amongst my friend group and family. I like to think that I don't review anime with rose tinted glasses of nostalgia, but with Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho I find it hard to critically review the Manga as its become such a cult classic/childhood classic to me. Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Is the predecessor to Yoshihiro Togashi's other notable shonen Manga of the decade being Hunter x Hunter. The Manga was serialised in Shonen Jump from December of 1990 to July of ... 1994.

~Story~
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho follows a very simple and basic shonen formula. It followed a trend very similar to its contemporaries starting off as your classic monster of the week story before progressing into an Arc based story narrative with and over arching narrative to back it up. Its obvoius that many of its successors take heavy inspiration from its story formula and arch structure including Hunter x Hunter. The story is not the most interesting part nor the worst aspect of the series. Like many shonen series the story is a tool for the characters to grow and develop in the story. Sufficeth to say the story is serviceable but is mainly as a lens to look at the characters with.

~Art~
Togashi has always had some rough artwork... This isn't me trying to say that Togashi has bad Artwork per say but Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho certainly highlights Togashi's weak point as a Mangaka. Unlike both his contemporaries and successors Togashi's drawing skills simply lack what series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Fist of the North Star had with their iconic Art styles. Some panels make me cringe more than others but when Togashi wants to he can draw some real good stuff.

~Characters~
I have always been a huge fan of the way Togashi writes and develops characters through his stories and interactions. The main cast of characters remain fun in a classical shonen way, Hie, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara bounce off so well with each other you can really see the inspiration that came in with Leorio, Kurapika, Killua and Gon. Yusuke goes through what is probably the most solidly well written character arch's I've seen in shonen and hit me with incredibly emotionally poignant moments that really illustrate the strengths of Togashi as a Mangaka. Every emotional beat in Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho hits and when it hits it hits goddamn hard.

~Enjoyment and Overall Score~
I love Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho, without realising it Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho became sort of a familiar background noise in my daily life, it was something that me and my friends could talk about, something me and my family could reminisce about. Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho will forever be ingrained in my life as a favourite and classic.

Indulging in your own fantasies to escape from the world around you is something painfully relatable. When you realise that your fantasies where never real and that you needed to grow up it hits hard.Many use there imagination as a means of escapism. This is no different from the Cast of Kyoto Animations Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shita! often abbreviated to Chuunibyou.

Chuunibyou first aired on Japanese television on October 4 2012 to December 19th of the same year. Tatsuya Ishihara credited as the director of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Sound Euphonium and Clannad After Story directed Chuunibyou. When I heard Tatsuya Ishihara was going ... to direct this anime in 2012 I was hyped. Clannad and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya were some of my favourite series and at the time I was enjoying watching the first season of K-On! So hearing that he would be directing another slice of life romance anime got me excited. But when it came out I was disappointed. Suddenly after 8 years of watching and forgetting about Chuunibyou I stumbled upon it again while going through some nostalgic shows with old friends. Chuunibyou popped up in conversation and I had entirely forgotten about it. So, I decided to rewatch the entire series and see if my opinions had changed, and they certainly have.

[Story - 6/10]
Yuuta Togashi is a normal everyday Japanese student, a former Chuunibyou but nether less a normal student. It's his first day of school and swears that he will never go back to having Chuunibyou. Unfortunately for Yuuta he meets Rikka Takanashi, a full blown Chuunibyou who pulls him back into the fantasy world he condemns.

The story for the most part is decent, it serves more as a tool to grow the characters then as the main focus.

[Art - 9/10]
One thing that Kyoto Animations never fails to deliver at is having stunning animation and the team at Kyoto Animation once again pulls through with another stunningly animated anime. Some scenes look beautiful, mainly fight scenes but there are some still shots of absolute Sakuga.

[Sound - 9/10]
Another thing that Kyoto Animations excels at is having fantastic sound. The OST composed by Akito Matsuda also known as Nijine, if that name rings a bell it's probably because of his involvement in Hibike Euphonium! And yeah again he pulls through with a beautiful soundtrack. The Music in Chuunibyou elevates sometimes boring scenes into being interesting, the fight scenes become even better and the emotional beats hit just a bit harder. The opening "Sparkling Daydream" by ZAQ and the ED "INSIDE IDENTITY" by Black Raison d'être are both decent and have some nice motifs like the opening being shot in the perspective of Rikka's one eye. Theres some really great editing on display in the Opening like Rikka sitting on the bench is shot in a way where it looks like she's sitting on Yuuta's Bike. Moments like this make guys like me flip my shit because of how well edited they are.

[Characters - 7/10]
Things get blurry with characters some characters are really fun and great others are just filler. I'd like to start with what I disliked. Starting with Kumin, out of the main 4 girls Kumin is easily the weakest link. From what I gathered her being one year older then all the others hints to her being the mentor character but we never see her as one because that role is basically being filed in by Nibutani already. Kumin seems pointless compared to the other characters and I struggle to see her relevance to the plot besides Fan service and a certain unnecessary romance. The next character Is Isshiki and he also strikes me as being pointless. He just kind of exists, like Kumin, he's also supposed to be romantically interested in Kumin but this sub plot goes absolutely nowhere. He's your run of the mill Male friend character. Thats basically it for the negatives of the characters. Dekomori and Nibutani have a fun dynamic and are best when put together (Aka Chuunibyou take on me) Dekomori is also disillusioned from the world around her like Rikka and serves as a servant of Rikka. Nibutani serves a similar role but with Togashi as she too is trying to run away from her Chunibyo past and move on. For the most part I really enjoyed the Supporting cast, especially Tooka, Rikka's older sister and Kannagi the possibly lesbian classmate of Rikka and Togashi.

The main couple is probably the best part of the series. Yuuta and Rikka have a great dynamic and both have distinct personalities. They both grow substantially throughout the story and there relationship together covers a wide variety of emotions and events such as love, change, growing up and tackles some pretty serious shit like coping with the death of loved ones. The bond that they formed throughout the story was definitely the highlight of the series.

[Enjoyment - 9/10]
Chuunibyou was easily enjoyable. It was cute, it was fun, it was an all round enjoyable experience.

[Overall grade - 7/10]

Taiyou no Uta is ok. There are some 10/10 reviews floating around for this Manga and I don't think there justified. Taiyou no Uta is a classic sob story, something that you would see in a small column in the newspaper. Taiyou no Uta doesn't succeed in anything but also doesn't fail at anything it's sad but that's all it is sad. Stories that rely solely on being sad won't go too far and Taiyou no Uta fits perfectly under that.

The story follows a girl who suffers from a rare condition called Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP for short) a very real and horrible skin disorder. ... For the most part the story isn't insensitive about the disease but also is very safe in the execution of how the disease is portrayed. But continuing on with the synopsis, The young girl loves to sing and every night she goes out to perform with her guitar. She later falls in love with a surfer. Sound familiar? Probably while not exactly the same its akin to something like "The fault in our Stars" etc. The story is serviceable. There are no real stakes except for one moment when her alarm stops working for "Mysterious unknown reasons" and the sun is coming up. So she has to get home quick and she wants to stop singing yada yada. So now its main guys fault for this girl not telling him about a serious condition and unnecessary drama occurs. It's not offensive, it's not confrontational about anything, its just serviceable.

Art is your typical stock Shoujo art, you've seen it before nothing to write home about.

Characters can range from decent to forgettable, this may be due to the short span of the story but there have been plenty of short stories that have great fleshed out characters within a finite amount of time. The main girl is your generic "Im sick I'm gonna make the most of my time" Kinda character, which is fine, im sure thats how most patients look at there illnesses, i'm sure they don't want to be reminded that they have the illness and want to make the most of there time left spent well, but it's nothing we haven't seen. The main guy is a serviceable character he's nice he's a good looker and he's always happy. The other characters don't really matter because "Side characters bruh", main guy has 2 friends but other than like 2 throw away panels we dont really see them again. The main girls best friend is bland, definitely more fleshed out then main guys friends but still bland. She skips school thats basically her character, oh and she cares for her friend. Mother and Father are just there to exist. Father is definitely more prolific then mother but equally as forgettable.

All in all this manga was ok. Definitely not a 10/10 its a 5 at best and I don't think my opinions are changing any time soon.