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Apr 23, 2025
Like a good raccoon, I am drawn to the trash heap.
I don't know why this is both popular and disliked. Isekai are a dime a dozen, and this is undoubtedly one of the isekai anime to exist. So far the list of tropes are being checked off slowly and surely: MC got into another world, he got peculiar powers, generic evil bandits did generic evil bandit things, and generic non-human characters did generic non-human things. Story-wise, it's not unique at all. But for the trash-rummagers like me, it's another piece of trash to rummage through.
The sole unique aspect of this tale seems to be the
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character of the MC, him not being from the "real world" and rather some sort of blended sci-fi and fantasy world where he was also a king. His particular arc that's been set up involving learning about empathy is interesting, but it's not something worthwhile enough for me to say this anime stands out in the trash heap (yet).
The animation is pretty bad, but that's not particular to this anime as there are many others with a similar if not worse animation quality. The music is also whatever.
So far, this is a show I wouldn't say is good but can be mildly entertaining to have playing while doing something else more interesting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 3, 2024
After a mid first season that at the very least established an interesting premise, setting, and motive for its main character, I thought the second season would provide the meaty goodness of what the first set up. I was wrong.
The rules are inconsistent and stupid. Characters change personalities, emotions, and motives on a dime. The plot is bad. What's frustrating is it has all the ingredients to make a solid show, and leaves it all uncooked.
I had low expectations for the rules given the premise of a hyper-popular game that also serves as a form of income doesn't just favor richer players, it makes players
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broken. Still, there had to be some balance of power, mediating factors, or internal consistency that could ground all the player abilities, rewards in the game, and goals of the game... right? No. Suigin, the main character, has a special scarf that coincidentally BS's him out of any situation. Not only that, he randomly has other convenient abilities like creating an illusion of himself, teleporting, and, I kid you not, summoning a giant wall whose power is determined by his money. He actually uses this money wall power to protect himself from a car whose power is also determined by another player's money but because Suigin had more money his wall successfully blocked the car from running him over. Brilliant. The rules are pretty much Hunter x Hunter's Nen if it were developed by a toddler.
As for the characters... they're stupid. The main character is the main culprit of stupidity. He goes from carefree to serious, confident to insecure, calm to worried, etc. etc. It's not bad that he has human emotions, it's bad because they're so inconsistent with his own personality and the surrounding circumstances, as well as being volatile. What's more is that he is super unlikeable. He gets everything handed to him--literally over a billion dollars in money--a "Guardian" title, and his broken Raven Scarf item. He works for none of it. Is he grateful? Does he do his best to "earn this" à la Saving Private Ryan? No. Things happen to and around him, and he's aggravatingly inactive until he has to react to something. It's a massive pet peeve of mine when a character can do something to solve a problem or move the plot forward *and the character doesn't do anything*. The show also repeatedly commits the cardinal sin of going against a simple rule: there's a time and place for everything. Examples: it's not appropriate for the MC to turn his back on someone else pointing a gun at him; it's not appropriate for the MC to run straight up to a malicious-looking mirror that was conjured by another character that just kneed him in the face; and it's not appropriate for characters to be standing and talking while they're under attack. The supporting characters have similar capricious tendencies that seem determined by the tone and plot rather than what the character was established to be and behave like. Examples: the MC's shapeshifting partner (another BS pseudo-power he has) ricochets between being a ditz and a floozy; a game instructor goes from being a knowledgeable and capable player to an impotent sidekick; and a blood boss thing goes from being an intimidating and aggressive... boss thing, to being a polite and demure exposition-giver. The other player characters and their motives don't make much sense either.
I said the plot is bad, and it is bad. A significant plot detail from the first season involving a rare flower from a game that shut down is forgotten about and I guess served no real plot purpose. This new game that's integral to the MC finding and rescuing his "princess" just throws him into a stage where he is given his "Guardian" stuff for no reason other than the plot demanding he have the title, and this is somehow before he has a chance to learn anything about the game or get through the "beginner" stage which is never explained. Conflict repeatedly arises when characters underestimate the MC in some manner of, "Oho, I have x amount of money, you couldn't possibly defeat me!" and conflict repeatedly resolves in some manner of, "No way! He has more money than I do!? Nooooooo!" Doing it once would be fine, but even then it's unsatisfying for the conflict to resolve by no means of the main character. He just flaunts his money and wins, or has his shapeshifting partner do things for him, or gets some literal plot armor that can tank a ridiculous attack. Speaking of that latter thing, after he gets the armor he has the chance to go rescue the kidnapped "princess" character (due to another character randomly changing motives and deciding to help out) and instead runs off to fight another character who is intent on attacking other players. I guess this was to show the MC is altruistic to a fault, but it makes no sense. They're all players *in a game*. If a player decides to attack others in the game, who the hell cares? His "princess" was *literally* kidnapped, presumably by people who *literally* murdered his grandfather. What makes it more stupid is that the climactic fight between the MC and this lunatic player is deferred because the lunatic suddenly decides he doesn't want to kill the MC and instead fight another player because reasons.
The plot has tons more I could criticize. I didn't even get to the part where the show completely jumped the shark and introduced some nonsensical supernatural element that blurred the virtual world and real world. It was sort of foreshadowed, but it made no sense. Anyway, the animation itself was decent and the soundtrack was whatever. Altogether, it was a frustrating waste of time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 26, 2024
I had the impression this would be a unique story in the way of setting up and fleshing out a cast of characters as the main focus with the apparent MC augmenting each of them rather than the usual routine of the MC taking the primary focus to be developed while being supported by the cast, but it doesn't really do that. In fact, it doesn't really do anything. The MC has no apparent personality and his one defining trait is being selectively mute while the rest of the characters are typical caricatures. The promises set up in the opening episode get lost in disjointed
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plot threads that randomly take the wheel and what's left is a disjointed, meandering mess with an odd slice-of-life feel that doesn't really work in a fantasy setting. I wouldn't say it's bad, but the story and characters are a significant letdown and the plot just loses its focus. The animation is pretty good, at least.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 16, 2024
A unique show with a promising premise that loses itself to incoherence.
What's interesting is that while what is going on makes next to no sense it remains engaging. It's like I don't know what I'm watching but I'm somehow still entertained. It's strange. I'm not sure if the final episodes will pull all the pieces together, but I worry that if they do it'll cause the story to look like a patchwork mess.
So, while the story and worldbuilding rival the delirium of The Boy and the Heron, the characters are somewhat more coherent. At least, I understand that the MC wants to find a place
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where she belongs and others have varying levels of investment and stakes with her primary plot.
The music and animation are pretty good. Maybe they both provide the dynamics that cause the show to remain engaging while I wonder what's happening. As for pacing, I guess it's bad because if the story spent the time to explain most of the things happening I'd know better about what's happening; but it's also good because there's action?
I don't know, this show is just weird.
Edit: Finished it, and it didn't make sense all the way up to the end. There's a lot of impressive-sounding dialogue, but in the end it amounts to the kind of pseudo-philosophical ramblings of someone like Russell Brand. I don't know why this of all things is getting a second season, but I guess there are worse shows out there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 17, 2024
The premise given by the title seems unique--a human not only working alongside demons but commanding their respect--but it nosedives straight into a subpar generic plot.
It's impressive that the anime with the most unique title/premise turned out to be the most generic out of a lineup of fantasy and isekai anime with far more generic titles. Granted, I'm only 4 episodes in, but a lot of the promises that were set up in this anime's story have been broken. Of those promises: the MC who is the human in the demon lord army and who is designated the "strongest" is not shown to be the
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strongest (or smartest or otherwise having any sort of interesting quality) in any of his actions; and (not really a spoiler but if anyone truly cares this is a very minor SPOILER) his race being human being a secret to the other demons is not actually a secret and it doesn't even matter.
The problem with an uninteresting character goes beyond the MC. It's not entirely due to the characters themselves, as the plot and pacing tends to breeze by events and moments that could instill character development. And stakes. Golly gee, the characters treat the stakes with minimal care, which subsequently just leave the conflict feeling so benign and unengaging. An example: the MC was given a test on behalf of another character he cared about that put her life on the line. None of the characters treated it as important including the character whose life was at stake, and the MC anticlimactically completed the test in a totally unimpressive way that defeated the purpose of the test.
Outside of plot and characters, the animation and music aren't things I'm going to complain about but they aren't great either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 10, 2024
Pretty entertaining throughout, and then ends with what is one of the best single episodes of animation I've ever seen.
Story-wise, it's pretty simple--and naturally so, as if the plot constantly had characters on the verge of death without room to breathe (pun intended) it'd be a pretty unbalanced series. Speaking of puns about breathing, this season was a breath of fresh air after seeing Jujutsu Kaisen S2; I was worried modern anime had dipped in the quality of its storytelling and had placed all its focus on how it looked visually, but this pairs decent storytelling with fantastic animation. Granted, some of the training does
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feel disjointed at times and missing some of the gratification of a sense of progress that can be gotten from your typical shounen training arc, but there are indeed emotional payoffs.
Pacing and tone-wise, the first episode gives a really enticing hook with a sense of foreboding and mystery due to the seeming disappearance of demons. The middle episodes prior to the final one may've worked even better if they'd cut some of the "comedic" bits (e.g., Zenitsu's character in general) since I've never found them particularly worthwhile or funny. Otherwise, I think the parts that deviate from the seriousness, foreboding, and mystery of training and anticipation for finding and fighting demons are solid, particularly thanks to Tanjiro. The moments he brings to humanizing some of the other characters are nice. And, again, the final episode is pretty much perfection in my eyes.
I've had long-lasting complaints about some of the characters in this show, the hashira being among them. Their introduction in season 1 gave the impression they were stock characters (e.g., the constantly chipper insect breather, the constantly crying stone breather, the constantly angry wind breather, the constantly lustful/sexual love breather, etc.) and I was put off by them being lazily written. This season did well in rounding more of them out (except for the angry wind breather) and I was overall pleased with them being less archetypal.
This was a good season. Yay.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 28, 2024
Season 1 is among my favorites of all anime and season 2 remained strong in terms of my enjoyment. This season felt a bit off while still being overall enjoyable.
In terms of world-building and the magic system, this series is among the best. There's complexity to the story that makes it refreshing despite it involving high schoolers. What initially made this show compelling was the premise of an unrecognized OP character who didn't value recognition which made his motives interesting and every event that involved him revealing more of his abilities entertaining. By season 2 there was still more to reveal about him alongside a
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compelling rival and foreign affairs plot. This season didn't exactly have the same compelling plot since the MC is already established and as a result the formerly entertaining events of people underestimating him aren't as entertaining.
Without the same driving force, I was hoping for some of the supporting characters to shine a bit more. Some did and provided a few standout moments that made me interested to see more of their characters (e.g., Kokonoe Yakumo and Kudou Minoru). Outside of that, characters pretty much were serviceable and went through the motions. I think the culprit that was detrimental to this season was the pacing, as I can't really fault either the plot or characters. Things were happening and they were interesting, but I can't say things were given the necessary time to build upon or bring about significantly emotional moments. The antagonist of the season had quite an interesting skillset, though his climactic moment was short and... well, anticlimactic. I expected more of a battle of wits given the MC is not going to lose a contest of power, but it was pretty straightforward and unsurprising. The antagonist didn't really get development to come off as threatening or otherwise interesting, which also didn't help it be as engaging.
So, I guess by "off" I'd say this season felt disjointed and undercooked due to its pacing. Though it's still doing enough to be solidly good in my book.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 23, 2024
This show is unfortunately pretty similar to Demon Slayer in terms of its good points and bad points. What I mean by that is that its animation quality is pretty darn amazing, while its story and pacing are pretty lackluster.
The magic system and fights going on seem thought out and pretty inventive. A decent bit of it went over my head, but I was nonetheless satisfied with the visuals going on to not really question it much. From the start the stakes are high and engaging, though they devolved drastically once the infamous Shibuya Incident was underway. The gratuitous destruction and death quickly evaporated whatever
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stakes there were, along with most of the engagement and interest I had with the characters. I found myself repeatedly questioning what was keeping me watching, and the answers weren't entirely satisfying: "It looks cool, at least;" "A lot of people really like this show;" "I sort of want to know who will die next." It was kind of that marginal interest like watching a horror movie simply for its expected gratuitousness. Interesting, but leaving a sense of disappointment for the amount of potential fun to be had.
It's kind of weird saying the story felt lacking since many plot-changing events happened. To start with the more apparent flaws, I can't count how many times a deus ex machina was used (for both protagonists and antagonists). It was momentarily hype when the first couple happened, then it kind of became ridiculous and frustrating. Every fight bled into another, leading to no fights really feeling resolved. That lack of resolution was felt by the end of the season, and where the season ended left me even more confused. All the deaths that were racked up along the way from insignificant fodder to main characters felt more or less the same, with the passing thought, "Oh, I guess they're dead." It's pretty disappointing MCs went out that way with all the time previously given to them. I think there were attempts to have some deaths give a pang, but they generally didn't land and they felt very unearned. The repeated interruptions of the ongoing plot with flashbacks were at first awkward, then became uninteresting filler in which I pulled out my phone to busy myself with something interesting while checking back to see if the primary plot had resumed. I'm acquainted with the use of flashbacks in anime and there are quite a few I recognize as utilizing them to great effect (Haikyuu for example), however here they were more distracting and like non-sequiturs. All in all, the combination of unceasing fights and disruptive flashbacks made for an unsatisfying experience when it comes to the story and pacing--kind of like being fed breadcrumbs at varying intervals and never a full, satisfying bite.
There were a few other things that bothered me that go into spoiler territory that I'll vaguely say involved characters having the chance to do something that would obviously solve something and the characters, for whatever reason, did not do it. Anyway, it's not all bad as there's the bones of an engaging plot here. If it was elevated to the level of the visuals, it could've been something like what the majority of people seem to already think about this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 1, 2024
It's a thoroughly satisfying under-2-hour movie that is equal parts intense and wholesome. (I wish more movies these days were under 2 hours.)
It's actually rather impressive that it manages to keep the tension up in such a straightforward way. The show itself has at times used unsportsmanlike plot elements like a player cheating or audience distraction stuff, and has also presented antagonistic characters in relatively dislikable ways, but this conflict is just simply... straightforward. There are no dislikable characters, it's just got sheer good-natured competitive fun permeating everywhere. It's fun.
Tone aside, the plot is pretty straightforward. Naturally. It's a movie about a singular volleyball game.
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Of course, straightforward isn't bad. I loved it. Like the show, as usual, the use of flashbacks is woven into the ongoing events and provides character background and depth at effective times. In terms of thrilling emotional impacts, the kind like when Tsukishima blocked Ushijima, this movie certainly has them (though, not quite at that level of thrill). I can't exactly put into words what a certain first-person point of view sequence near the end had me feeling, but if I had to try, I'd say it felt nice.
I think the one thing I was left wanting from this movie was more detail in the animation. It's not at all bad, though the quality and dynamism is something I would've loved to see utilized particularly to enhance certain moments.
And that's about it. It's a very fun movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 15, 2024
This is a show whose story and characters are not very good. It does have an intriguing enough premise to potentially warrant pushing through, though for me I could only bear it up to episode 10 before I realized the show had jumped the shark a few too many times for my liking.
Each character is a cardboard character. The MC is the misunderstood good guy; the female lead is the unconditionally good-hearted and naive baka; the other female lead is an alternative version of the unconditionally good-hearted and naive baka; the guy named Jail is basically Javert but with typical mannerisms of anime characters who
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wear glasses; and the other characters are basically just marginally more shallow than the main ones. They all generally behave in a manner that is 99% convenient for the plot.
Speaking of the plot, there are plenty of times some sort of conflict could be fairly obviously resolved but it isn't because it's inconvenient for conflict to be resolved since that would mean the episode and/or story would be over. I can't count the amount of times the plot used the trope of the MC seeming to be beaten only to obviously subvert it. The point in the plot I made it to actually had a pretty interesting twist with something unique coming out of a portal, but then the unique element inexplicably disappeared and the plot returned to the contrived and uninteresting fights with power scaling that changed according to what the plot demanded at any given moment.
Other than that, the animation was average, and the soundtrack was whatever.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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