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When I watch an SAO series, I usually try not to expect much from it. When you have SAO, I usually just watch it for the world-building and the interesting concepts. Things like characters or story, I try to pass on some of the less glaring confusing plotholes.

For the good things about the show. I find it very interesting the concepts with the fluctlight and the VR dive technology. I think most of us wouldn't mind a summer vacation there, minus all the anime dangers. Alice is also a more decent character, with her origin and care for Kirito, you have to appreciate her.

However, ... I can't say much more good about it; Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld is just a mess. To begin with, the viewer is confused about what in the world is happening in the outside world. The pacing is a little awkward, while most of the time we are shown the VR world, they show is rushed detail the conflict going on at the base with the VR tech is at. Which I have to add, usually most people don't care about the outside world if you have a focus story-wise on the VR one. Assassins Creed tried it, and look at how everyone reacted with Desmond. Anyway, we know there is an attack on the base by some bad guys, and we are confused about who they are affiliated with, which brings me to the next point.

One of the reasons why some thought to come back to watch the SAO series with Alicization is that those common things associated with SAO were different. Kirito is not exactly overpowered, especially currently, but that we know will change. Also, there is a philosophical debate about the AI people being actual humans or not.

Sadly it seems to again be falling into the standard "SAO tropes." SAO has always had a problem with villains, and the one introduced this season is just as creepy and has he exact face as all the other past minor or major villains of SAO. And I guess nowadays, having a basic boring villain would be actually refreshing? Well, it normally would be okay, except SAO has a tendency to well... make the villains very disturbing and show some really unnecessary graphic scenes in order to tell you the villain is "bad". It is a turn off to a lot of people, and really confusing with the more light-hearted tone of the story.

I will probably finish watching this because I hate to leave a series I've so heavily invested into unfinished. But I think after this last episode I need a short break from it this next week.

Think of the most stereotypical isekai harem anime ever and with nothing at all creative, then add in some bad writing, and you get this show. I'm going to try my best to summarize this because this show honestly isn't worth the time.

In the beginning, the show starts off with a very basic plot with a lot of tropes. It is not the greatest, however, with the ongoing isekai trend, people thought, "well it has potential," and maybe it could just be a "decent" show to pass the time. Nope, do not waste your time, on paper, it may seem nice, except they botch everything ... up as much as possible with lazy and bad writing. The main character is simply a perfect nice guy, who acts exactly like the perfect hero. The female characters whenever they gets in his proximately need to be saved, and everybody loves him. The fight scenes make no logical sense, and there is no strategy. There is little world building with confusing motives from the villains, and the magic system is really just built to make the main character seem stronger. That is it, there is really not much to this show.

Boruto is one of those series where you know what to expect, but you also to wish it was Naruto. Boruto being after the events of Naruto, understands that most of its fans are still there watching it because of Naruto. Most of the characters in the story are basically carbon copies of the old Naruto, with it cast after the fan favorite ships decided to get together. Also, old villains are now friends.

The show does have some of its moments with rare times that at least the main cast has some moments. Characters like Mitsuki and Sarada are very unique, and due to their ... more unorthodox parenting, they seem to be the exception to being the clone of their parents.

Unfortunately, normally writing goes back to copying the same scenarios of Naruto. Lazy writing and betting on the nostalgia of Naruto is a constant theme of the anime, with entire arcs and long-filler mirroring or referencing their predecessor, usually removed of suspense too with it taking place during an era of peace.

Truthfully, this is to be expected, as writing the story this way makes it an easy cash grab. Hopefully, the characters will develop new identities from their parents and new things can happen soon.

Shield Hero was one of the only animes that I've finished the WN and Manga, so I was originally ecstatic to learn about its adaption, hearing about all the promotions, and push for it to be watched. Knowing the source material, I knew it had "potential" in my opinion for it to become the best Isekai yet. It had wonderful characters and cute character interactions, that could make many tear up. Unfortunately, with its later rushed story, director's lack of understanding of the story, and lack of character development, part of it came out flat.

The anime started out well with a nice one hour episode, ... explaining fairly well the situation in the story. It does a good job demonstrating the controversy the main character, Naofumi gets involved in, which is especially relevant in our modern era of political correctness.

What I did not like was how the character introductions were handled for the two most important supporting cast. These episodes were highly important to the WN or Manga, were focused on Naofumi and his relationships to his new companions. Due to Naofumi's hardships, he had problems trusting people and had no one to rely on, as almost everyone was against him. With his Shield being his only weapon, and having an attack of only "one," he ironically needed to depend on people and worked hard to use any advantage he had to make himself stronger.

This goes to another very important note that I did not mention really before, it is that in this fantasy world, it has an interface system, and you could do many things that were similar to virtual worlds in video games. Although extremely important in the source material, as Naofumi would study up on and use to his advantage in battle or even in general day to day life, this was barely touched upon. The director himself admitted he doesn't understand video games, and left all of that pretty much all to the art designers to add in interfaces. What that also means is that any sort of game mechanic for the world was rarely shown. Naofumi is a strategist who led people, and this took a lot away from both his character and the world building.

Instead of that, the director said he wanted to focus pretty much solely on the drama and character relations. I wish I could say it completely accomplished that. Except, such powerful and important arcs on the two main supporting characters, to make up for lack of episodes, much of their adventured instead was rushed into simple flashes and compilations. It showed the highlights of their relationships well, with my complaint really being that they could have followed through with it better, especially with more time. Now, considering that, it had some admittedly good episodes, with it beautifully drawing from Naofumi's struggles, and connecting it to his relationship between his two loyal companions.

It is from here that the shows start to decline because of its lack of attention to the details in worldbuilding and characters. The following first episodes were very good but without the background knowledge of the world, it does not connect you as well as it could to the characters. In an Isekai world, it is a whole new world with different cultures, especially with races like demi-humans. The show tries to remedy this by mentioning a few facts, but that does not compare to demonstrating a lot of these issues firsthand. Even some characters felt a little forced on the viewers to make them loved and seem extremely nice.

Finally what really holds Shield Hero back from standing out as a great Isekai is the last few arcs. With all my previous complaints from earlier episodes, which could have been partially overlooked, these episodes were multiplied by terrible pacing and confusing dialogue between characters. For some strange reason, some characters particularly were weirdly and uncharacteristically "much" nicer and more forgiving. The very last few episodes felt even more rushed and out of place, with I believe the intent to leave an opening for a new season. Which I am not exactly looking forward too, considering, much important content that was extremely relevant to the future plot of the source material was basically thrown out the window or poorly explained, so I have no idea how they will accomplish that.

Overall, the show is very good, and I would still say above average (7.5-8). Of course, I'm going to be one of those and recommend you read the Web Novel. But as for the anime itself, it started off strong, with a very unique take on the genre. This sadly slowly declines with following episodes due to its rushed story and lack of important world-building details; which although on the surface works nicely, it is questioned with some logic flaws and characterizations. With the show having some beautiful moments between some of the interactions of the main cast, it failed to have anything beyond the closeness of their relationship. Lastly, the ending episodes felt even more compact with a lot of earlier issues, except with worse pacing and confusing character actions, and failed to address a lot of key plot points for later in the series in a clear and concise manner. The show created some very lovable characters, and I wish we spent more time to get to know them better and their world better. Hopefully, if there is a continuation of this show, many of these flaws will be addressed and presented in a smoother manner.

Do not read this manga/novel unless you are towards the very end of the original Shield Hero web novel (manga is very far behind)! With that said, this follows the story of Motoyasu, and is completely different from the original Shield Hero web novel as it is much more comedic and lighthearted.

I considered it very enjoyable and read it after I finished the original manga. You can just laugh at the absurdity and stupidity of Motoyasu's actions. It especially amused me how others in the story reacted to Motoyasu. As for the story itself, it offers some interesting lore and information we otherwise did ... not get in the original, but it does not offer much as far as substance is concerned. We learn more about Motoyasu's state of mind after some of those events in Shield Hero and see how he handles things "differently," in order to fulfill his obsessions. It is a simple comedy spin-off.

Basically, read if you want more Shield Hero and you would be pleased with following a comedic adventure with Motoyasu doing dumb things.