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Updated version of my previous top review:

SnK season 2 has been a rough ride. As a fan of season 1, I really wanted this season to be good. On one hand, the latter half of the season was action packed and full of great development - just what I wanted. On the other, the first half of the season was extremely poorly written.

So I'll separate this review into two halves.

1st half (ep 1-6)

First of all, don't expect the world to be well built or realistic. After all, there are absolutely no men guarding the wall, as the entire ordeal within the first few episodes ... revolves around them trying to find a hole in the wall, even though there should be men constantly guarding the wall in case of a surprise titan invasion. If there weren't men guarding the wall, then that would mean that they thought it was impossible for the titans to break through the wall - which would mean their first thoughts shouldn't have been that the titans just broke straight through the wall with a huge hole. In fact, the only men you really get to see this season are those from the recon corps. I, personally, like to believe that everyone else has been wiped out by some sort of plague or meteor shower. The plot progresses so messily this season that it's certainly possible; but I'll cover that later.

For the first time we also get to explore the land outside of the enclosed town districts, and it isn't really what you'd expect. Do you remember that food shortage from season 1? Well, rest assured, it makes perfect sense - considering there is absolutely NO farmland present at all; so of course they wouldn't be able to get food. You'd imagine that inside the walls, with such limited space that the humans have, there would be loads of farms and towns - but you're wrong. There are no towns, or cities, and the only places we do see are remote villages for some reason. In addition, the only time farmland is actually addressed is when Sasha's village forest is going to be destroyed and replaced with farmland, because apparently no one can use the wide open fields with absolutely NOTHING on them.

Speaking of Sasha, prepare for a bunch of random background character backstories to be thrown in for no reason. I watched the entire second season and I still don't know what the purpose of Sasha's backstory was, and I don't know what an entire episode was dedicated just to focus on her. Actually, to be honest, I don't even know why Sasha exists as a character. The constantly-eating gimmick isn't even funny.

I've heard a lot of people talk about how they enjoyed the fact that more of the background characters were focused on this season - mostly because they hate Eren as a protagonist. First of all, to those types, I recommend you abandon the show all together because Eren will never develop as a protagonist. The entire season 2 went by and Eren received no character development as far as I could tell. He's still the same "kill all titans!" kinda guy he was last season.

The side characters aren't any better though. If you expect proper character development, suspense, and gradually building up towards climactic scenes full of emotion, then throw your dreams out the window. Character development is done almost exclusively through flashbacks, and those flashbacks happen right during the most important reveals and climactic scenes they could manage. There are quite a few times where entire scenes will be ruined by an disruptive flashback or "12 hours ago" message because the writers seemingly FORGOT to develop the characters or information leading up to the scenes. Reveals lack any subtlety or suspense in this show. They throw information at you in an extremely rushed and disorderly fashion. Also, you end up feeling nothing towards the side characters because the only time they're developed is through very unoriginal events like a FLASHBACK TO TRAINING CAMP WHERE TWO GIRLS GOT LOST IN A BLIZZARD. You DEFINITELY haven't heard of something like that before.

Oh, by the way, for all of you who took an interest in Annie - forget about her. They do nothing with her the entire season and just forget about her.

So, yeah, for the first six episodes the story is a complete mess.
There's a concerning absence of people in the universe and the flow of the story has killed all momentum. Don't expect any of the good aspects of season 1 to be present.


Now, as for the rest of the season? Well, it gets a lot better. Suddenly the authors remember how to do unobtrusive flashbacks and character development. The characters are cool and a lot of the nice aspects from season one are able to be seen, along with a new mix of more fleshed out side characters.

Plus, the art is WAY upgraded. There has been some great scenes in this show.

As for the sound? The opening isn't actually good, though you get used to it after a while. The ED, which I accidentally ended up listening to when I forgot to click onto the next episode, was terrible. The regular OST is cool as usual.

So, yeah, season 2 had a really disappointing first half and a decent second half. Nonetheless, the unforgivable start makes me have to leave this on a 6/10.

Anyway! First review for this Manga in 2017.
Imagine a really cool premise, but an author that allows the protagonist to become ridiculously overpowered for no real reason. Imagine a manga without any threats or suspense. Imagine a manga where there was decent character buildup in the beginning, but during the later chapters it just turned into ramblings about "training" and completely one-sided battles.


*minor spoiler*
Oh, there's also a harem. Did I mention the harem of girls who love the protagonist only because he's the leader? Did I mention the elven sex slaves who join the ranks and forgo their grudges because of "training"?
*Spoiler over*


This ... is a manga with an interesting premise, but a lackluster story developed by the author.
There is no character development.
There is no suspense or chance for enemies to even challenge the protag.
There is no surprises, twists, or great plot points.
It's just a mediocre story about a guy who kills stuff and gets women.

With hyped up shows like Re:Zero, two types of people tend to write reviews for the anime:
Those who loved it so much they can't acknowledge its flaws, and those who disliked it and want to rant on and on to go against the hype, even if that means they end up ranting about the most trivial things and then use that as an excuse to give the show a 3.

Really, Re:Zero isn't about the anime itself, it tells a bigger story beyond what you watch on the screen.
Re:Zero is about ourselves. We need to look deeper into ourselves to truly understand this anime.

You ... see, this anime gives us a protagonist who ends up acting cool in the beginning, and attempts to save the day.

Spoiler: His big secret is that he returns to life, you'll find that out a few episodes in.

Slowly as the series goes on, Subaru, the protagonist, has his mind gradually broken due to the intense trauma he undergoes. Don't bother asking people on MAL to try and empathize and understand the stress he's going through, they'll just dismiss it as being "edgy" and consider Subaru to be one of the worst protagonists of all time. It's hopeless to ask someone to consider another person's viewpoint. People would rather judge Subaru from a comfortable, safe position, imposing completely unrealistic standards on him for a teenager going through a complete reality change and levels of physical, mental, and emotional stress beyond anything anyone can imagine.

I still recall the time Subaru had his one selfish moment, after saving everyone multiple times throughout the story and getting treated like dirt, where 90% of the MAL community betrayed him. I wonder how many people went from liking him, to disliking him, and then probably ended up liking him at the end of the series? It's almost as if one moment of weakness doesn't make a person, or in this case a character, complete trash.

With that, we've exposed our own inability to be tolerant of other people's mistakes.
What other deep meaning shall we find within this series?

Our tendency to go along with lackluster results. Look at all these people giving this series a 10:
Does anyone really think this series deserves a 10?
Now, I understand we all have our personal preferences, but are we really going to remain satisfied with Emilia as a character?

For those of you who haven't watched the series, Emilia is the main love interest and she is extremely bland and disappears after the beginning parts of the series until the very end. During all of Subaru's character building she is basically no where to be found, and is largely useless for the majority of the series. It wouldn't be so bad, except she is constantly seen as Subaru's "superior", though it's largely Subaru's fault. I would be much more open to the idea if she wasn't such a bland, undeveloped, cliche and irritating character.

Can anyone really justify Emilia? Can anyone present a valid case as to how she isn't a sub-par character? What makes her special?

Well, for those of you reading this review, you'll get to judge for yourselves after watching!

With that, my mostly review/rant is over. I really just wanted to yell at MAL for being either completely intolerant, or way too forgiving. I believe a balance is important in life.

As for the rest of the review:

The story (9) was really good, in my opinion. It's something different and it's told in a well-written manner, with good pacing that keeps everything interesting.

The art (8) was decent, as it is with most anime nowadays. Some of the character designs are pretty cute too. Lolis included.

Sound (8) is nice and fits the series well. I especially enjoyed theater D by Myth & Roid being added in.

The character... I rated a 6 because of Emilia and her role in the story. Hopefully she develops during a season 2, though after that ending... It's probably too late.

Enjoyment I rated a 9, because even though the ending left me a little dissatisfied, I won't deny that I was really excited each week to see every new episode, and I had a blast following it.

Overall I rated this series an 8 because I enjoyed it a lot, though I acknowledge it's far from perfect. I hope you all enjoyed this review.

Okay, so by now you've probably heard all the beautiful praise about this movie and how stunning it is, so I'm not gonna bother with all those details. I'm going to be the one guy who doesn't worship this movie, so be prepared. By now you've probably been told what the movie is about. Kyon, the main character gets stuck in a different world than the original and he has to go through a huge process to get back to his old one.

I'm pretty sure you've heard all the good things about it. The art is really good, and I can't label anything in this ... movie as "bad" since it's all pretty decent. But that's all it is for me; decent.

The story is okay. That's all. Whatever "plot twists" that may have happened could be seen a mile away if you used your head a little bit, combining the knowledge of the two seasons (which you have to watch before you see this movie) and the story isn't anything special.

(MINI TINY SPOILER)
Kyon just ends up traveling back in time, and does his stuff. YET AGAIN
(SPOILER OVER)

Whatever possible "emotions" I was supposed to feel aren't felt, since all I see is Kyon being forced into some terrible heap of trouble again, like the entire series has done. I just don't even understand what emotions I'm supposed to be feeling. I know this isn't a good review, but I can't write anything in depth since there is nothing I remember that's worth noting.

The only reason I wrote a review is to say that this:
"Fans and haters alike will not be able to deny that this movie is amazing and will love every moment of it."
Isn't true. It isn't amazing, but I'm not going to go as far as to say it's bad. I didn't love every moment but it didn't bore my to death at least.

Maybe this movie isn't my thing?

Maybe it was just over-hyped?

Or maybe the story just isn't so well done that it blows me away?

Anyway, I just wanted to inform the public that despite its fame and rank, this movie is not for everyone. Sometimes a movie is fine for what it is, but it just isn't your type of movie. That's the case for me.

So even though my enjoyment was "fair" I think this movie did do a good job for what it was supposed to. There's no specific thing I thought was bad, it just wasn't my type of movie I guess; which is why in the end I rated it a 7/10.