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Sep 29, 2017
If you like to gamble, I tell you I’m your man, you win some, lose some, it’s all the same to me.
Story:
First off, this anime is utterly ridiculous. A school where everything including your future is constantly gambled upon with no adult authority figures and a student council that is absolute in power? Gimme a break. For people to accept such an unrealistic setting, you will have to be entertaining and well-written, otherwise your house of cards will come crumbling down. Or you can, like, just play up the ecchi and hope nobody notices. The games used in this show are pretty creative to be
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honest, but I had a really hard time following the rules. If you come up with a completely new game and want your characters to exploit it to their benefit, you need to give your audience more time. If I barely understand what they are doing, how am I supposed to realize that they are doing something extraordinary? On the occasions I did indeed understand what was going on, the games were very entertaining and the thought process of the participants was well done. But then it was already over, puff. That was quite unsatisfying for me, I would have loved to see more of the matches I liked. Kakegurui also has a problem with its structure. You can’t have the final battle be not even half as long as most matches against her lackeys, no matter what kind of game you picked for that duel. The ending is anime exclusive from what I know, but they managed to leave it half-open, so that a return is possible should a second season be decided upon. I feel like a broken record, because I keep repeating this a lot recently, but this show could have been better with a better pacing.
6/10
Art:
Kakegurui is all about the faces, let’s be honest, that is what people will remember about this show. And they are fantastic indeed. The contrast between the actually pretty sexy and gorgeous ladies and the horror that is what I call “serious close-up” is hilarious and works wonders. I’m very sure that a remarkable number of viewers discovered a whole new kind of arousal. They were somewhat creative with the character design, as much as the limitation to the school uniform allows for this. Everybody had a memorable look, except maybe our male lead, but we get to that boy later. So yeah, in terms of animation and style, Kakegurui is quite impressive. There is one scene where we see two girls singing and dancing that was rotoscope if I’m not mistaken. That is something I do not enjoy, but I understand that it’s a matter of taste and not quality, so for the sake of this section, I will not take this into account.
9/10
Sound:
I love openings with a big band feeling, I loved it when Cowboy Bebop and Baccano did it and I enjoy Kakegurui’s opening as well. I also acknowledge the creativity put into the ending song, even though it’s not so much to my liking. In terms of anime openings and endings, I’m a huge advocate for trying different styles of music, it doesn’t always have to be J-Pop. So, as you can guess, the idol part in this show did nothing for me, that was easily my least favorite arc. The voice acting was superb, all the characters had…er, well, character. I have the impression, that female seiyuus really enjoy voicing loud, angry or deep-voiced characters, must be great to not do a squeaky high-pitch for once. Saori Hayami has made her way onto my watchlist, I still can’t believe that all the roles she’s been doing are the same person.
8/10
Characters:
The girls, Yumeko most of all, are very entertaining to watch in their silliness. They are either addictive gamblers or megalomaniacs or some variation between these. Yumeko reminded me a lot of the early chapters of Yu-Gi-Oh, when the pharaoh was still a murderous lunatic. But instead of killing her opponents, she just has multiple orgasms while gambling. I’m not complaining. Her predator-like sexual aggression while gambling is in stark contrast to how she behaves outside of these games, where she seems to be a nice, cheerful girl. Most of the others are not AS twisted as her, but they are definitely a couple of two-faced bitches. The only one who has lost even more marbles than Yumeko was Midari. I was shocked to find out that there is a real life fetish like hers, called autoassassinophilia. In total, these girls are fucked up, but they are hilarious and interesting and that is worth a lot.
Which brings me to…wait a sec, I have to look up the name…Ryouta, that’s what it was. The poster child for every forgettable, bland, beta cuck male main character you know. I have no idea what his point in this anime was, except maybe as sex slave for Yumeko after getting all hot and bothered by her latest gamble. At least that’s what I think happened when the camera was off. That guy is so meaningless that you cannot help but come up with an outrageous theory like thisyourself. He served absolutely no purpose. I think they tried to make him important in the final episode by giving in to the gamble fetish, but it did not work for me at all.
7/10
Enjoyment:
Kakegurui was certainly a fun watch, but I don’t think it has much of a rewatch factor. This is one of those anime that you can easily pick up if you don’t really know what you wanna see and just want something easily digestible and mildly entertaining. It was able to smooth over its weaker parts with its other qualities, so it never went into a territory that required me to shake my head. If you want to watch a gambling anime, I don’t think this is exactly what you are looking for. There are some mind games, yes, but they aren’t the focus and the matches are way too short anyway. I’d say Kakegurui didn’t really do anything wrong, but it didn’t provide much either.
6/10
Overall:
7.2/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 28, 2017
In the name of God, impure souls shall be…oops, wrong anime!
Story:
The premise of Vatican priests checking possible miracles on their authenticity is a very interesting one with tons of possible ways it could have played out. The most obvious choices would have been to either make it like a detective story or to go all out and into the supernatural. Vatican Miracle Examiner leans more towards the former, though the possibility of a supernatural (or in this case divine) explanation for the phenomena is always kept open for as long as possible. The religious belief of the main characters makes the whole thing a lot
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more tolerable than the usual way of putting normal people into extreme situations and them suddenly believing that things exist that no normal person would believe in that easily. However, there are two severe problems this show has story wise. The first is the pacing, which is way too fast. Within only 12 episodes we get three different cases and two standalone episodes with rather complex revelations and executions. This makes it hard to follow more often than healthy and it also causes the second problem. The solutions feel like complete ass pulls. If you have a hard enough time to understand what’s going on, it’s not possible to grasp a bizarre twist ending. All it does is making it seem like a really bad mystery show, which it technically is not. In fact, if they had taken their time to explain the details of the cases better, it would have been a great mystery crime-drama, but what came out is a messy, too ambitious for its own good anime about homoerotic priests and insane supervillains. It’s still fun, it just could have been much more than that.
7/10
Art:
This anime looks pretty good. The characters have a realistic look to them, though they have been prettified a lot, most likely to get the shounen ai crowd to check this one out. But it’s not like it’s pure Fujobait or anything, it’s still far away from stuff like Nanbaka. The colorization looks great, many of the backgrounds have a photorealistic feel to them. There seems to be some work done in researching locations, because at least the German village from the final episode looks way more real than usual. The animation is simplistic, but there isn’t much action to animate to begin with, so it doesn’t stand out. What really irritated me however were the camera angles and cuts. The camera seems to keep moving nonstop and rarely is a scene more than two seconds long before a cut is made. On top of that, many, many, MANY Dutch angles are used. That combination makes for a rather nauseous viewing experience and heavily disturbs the flow of the anime by distracting from its contents. Sadly, this outweighs most of the good things they did stylistically by a quite an amount.
4/10
Sound:
The opening song is pretty cool, it has somewhat of a Gregorian feel to it, but it’s not really a choral song or filled with organs or anything else you might link to Christian religious music. It’s also quite intense and hectic, which fits the fast-paced cutting of both the opening and the show itself. The ending song is a nice, calm one, that is fittingly accompanied by imagery of what I assume is Rome. Very relaxing and smooth, I like it. It has a less poppy sound than many other anime endings, which is always welcomed by me. All the voice acting was solid and fitting, they even managed to nearly properly pronounce German, Italian and Hispanic names, which I’ve heard a lot worse in other anime. Soundtrack and sound effects were acceptable, though a little cheesy at times. That’s not really much of a problem though, since the show does not seem to take itself too seriously either quite often (at least that’s what I hope).
8/10
Characters:
The two main characters were surprisingly likeable. I expected a pair of homoerotic zealots, but they were pretty down-to-earth and logically thinking. Roberto is a widely read intellectual who has the historic and mythological knowledge to lead the examiners on the right path to the solution, but he is not a cold-hearted thinker. I mean, he is a god-fearing priest after all. Despite his thirst to learn more and more, he is not easily tempted by worldly things. Joseph on the other hand is the more emotional of the two, but also the more sociable, so when it comes to getting information from people directly, he is the man. They make a great investigational duo and help this anime not to fall off the edge so quickly when the story aspects fail to keep your attention. There are very few other recurring characters, but the focus is mostly on Roberto and Joseph so they don’t get much of a characterization. The same goes for the story specific characters, again resulting from the outrageous pacing this show has. Julia (who is a guy, who the hell was in charge of naming?) is an interesting and mysterious person, who I’d have preferred to be explored in more detail, but again, we only get a glimpse of who exactly he is. At least in his case, this adds to the mystery, still I think he could have used a bit more screen time or being discussed about.
7/10
Enjoyment:
The early stages of the individual storylines were pretty exciting, I like myself a well-structured crime story, but as I said, the further they went into it, the more confusing and inane it became. It was still enjoyable for its partially ludicrous reveals, but that’s not what I think it should have been. I am okay with the backgrounds behind the stories, but please, slow it down and follow a line of logic on your way to solve the case. There was a lot of potential wasted trying to accommodate all this into a one-cour series, it would have been better to either tell less stories or have a longer runtime (with the first solution being the more probable in terms of execution). As it is, Vatican Miracle Examiner is an okay anime with serious problems, yet still kinda enjoyable in its uniqueness.
5/10
Overall:
6.2/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 10, 2017
So this is what the hippies meant with „trees are our friends”.
Story:
I don’t really know where to begin. Kannagi is a very weirdly written show, it jumps from one genre to the next, but I fail to see the reason why. It’s almost as if the author didn’t know what she wanted herself either. It starts out with a supernatural meeting, but soon it goes into a fish out of water-comedy territory, which is fine so far. Then we see a slight drift into harem comedy, which is not what I was hoping for, but still somewhat justifiable. And suddenly, near the end of its
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run, we are in the middle of an existentialistic drama. Wow, how did that happen? I understand what they were trying to do here (at least I think I do), but the transitions are so frequent and sudden, that it’s hard for me to grab hold of the story. Why couldn’t it be just one of these things? Or at least, make the switches a little smoother. To me, this anime seems way too ambitious for its own good. Good old “less is more” would have done wonders for Kannagi, I’m sure. The story itself is not a bad one and I had a couple of good laughs, but I wish it would have been more consistent.
6/10
Art:
Thanks to the character design, I was absolutely sure this was a KyoAni show, but to my surprise, it isn’t. The characters look pretty normal in terms of outrageous hair or hair color or physique, with a few exceptions. Unusual for a comedy, but it’s not like it’s a must or anything, I just thought I should mention that. The animation was incredibly fluent, sometimes even too much so. You know, when something artificial looks or behaves human-like, it stops being amazing and gets creepy. Ah yes, uncanny valley, that’s what you call that, thanks Google. It’s not that bad, it’s still within the realm of really good animation, especially for its time. The backgrounds looks pretty good too, there was quite some attention put into detail there.
9/10
Sound:
I have to admit, the opening song is pretty catchy, even though I do not like these nonsensical J-Pop songs at all. But I’m not a fundamentalist when it comes down to my personal preferences, I’m willing to look past that. After all, I’m just one viewer out of…thousands? Millions? I don’t know. What I really enjoyed however was the ending theme. Its calm and oriental sound was a perfect fit for the show, especially considering the latter parts that got a little more serious. The voice acting was solid throughout. Haruka Tomatsu did a fine switch between silly freeloader and divine being, good job there. None of the rest really stuck out, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the voices fit their characters well enough, that’s fine with me. The karaoke episode was fun to watch and I have to say, Hiro Shimono did surprisingly well doing a mediocre singing voice. I think that’s even harder to pull off than a purposely bad performance.
8/10
Characters:
Nagi suffered a bit from the irregularity of the story, but she was a well-written enough character to survive this. At first she seemed to be a very arrogant person, which didn’t make me emphasize with her much. But as the anime slowly turned towards its more serious side, we saw much more shades to her and an explanation for her behavior (more or less). But the selling point for me was the actual remorse she had, something bitchy anime girls almost never seem to possess. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I liked her, but you get the idea. Jin on the other hand was sadly a very good example what people constantly bitch about, a useless male lead. Even though technically the story revolves around him most of the time, he didn’t move it forward in any meaningful way. There were some hope spots, when he called Nagi out for her actions or remarks, but that never lasted very long and we were soon back to the status quo. He didn’t even help out in the finale by himself, he had to be instructed to do so. On top of that, he was way too easily embarrassed, as if he was the worst harem protagonist ever.
The rest of the cast unfortunately was not very memorable. Childhood friend Tsugumi was featured a lot, yet she did not help advance the plot, with the exception of the end, where she was the one to tell Jin what to do. The same goes for Zange, but even more so. When the drama kicked in, Zange pretty much vanished from the show. She did not matter in the end, nor did she help out solving anything. Her character became a personified open end, in retrospective making her entire existence in the anime kind of meaningless. The rest of the circle was unimportant in the end as well, though I can swallow that a lot easier, as they were side characters from the very start anyway. But Tsugumi and Zange? They should have mattered more.
5/10
Enjoyment:
Kannagi was not a bad anime, but it failed to leave a lasting impression on me. The writing being all over the place and many of the characters being quite unimportant gave me a hard time getting invested in this show. This is definitely not an anime to binge, there are too many inconsistencies to do that, but if you take it slowly, watching one episode at a time, you might end up liking it much more than I did. I’m amazed how much of a cult following Kannagi has (or had), but I’m not surprised that it didn’t click with mainstream audiences. I don’t know how much may have been lost from adapting the manga, but the anime itself is almost a mess. A somewhat enjoyable one, but still a mess.
6/10
Overall:
6.8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 1, 2017
For 50 bucks I make up a badly researched theory about how Assassination Classroom is a prequel to GTO. Payment in advance, no refunds.
Story:
Remember when you were in school? Maybe you still are, but whether or not you’re already out, you certainly remember your teachers, don’t you? Wouldn’t you have wished for a cool motherfucker like Onizuka to teach you the really important stuff instead of Mister Snorebag teaching you geometry or the difference between Past Perfect and Present Perfect? Sorry, I’m having a mild case of PTSD here. Anyway, no matter how great it would be for the student body, it would cause major
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headaches to the school administration. And this is where we step in, as Onizuka constantly has to fight to keep his job after the most recent ruckus he caused. That’s an interesting story to tell, no doubt, but it gets sort of repetitive. I mean, how many times can the authorities excuse him for his behavior without getting fed up with it? I’d rather have seen more of his classes, which we sadly see very little of. Most of the problems he has with the students take place after school, during breaks or at night, so we never really witness how good a teacher he actually is. It takes a while before this pattern is softened up a little and around the middle of its run time, GTO loses much of its flavor thanks to this. The final episodes though are a lot of fun and the ending isn’t bad either. In total, GTO is fun at the start, gets a little boring after a while, but gets back up again as it’s nearing its closure.
7/10
Art:
For its time, GTO doesn’t look bad. The animation quality is acceptable most of the time, but there are a couple of (probably) budget induced less good ones here and there. As long as an anime knows when to do which, I can live with it and Onizuka does it in the right spots mostly, so there’s no real problem. The character design tries to show us more realistic looking people, which gives the show a more realistic touch (obviously). I don’t know if that was necessary, as GTO does like to take a step back from reality for comedic purposes every now and then, but the majority of it doesn’t, so I guess in the end, it was a good choice. Kanzaki is somewhat of an exception to this rule, with her (non-colored?) blonde hair and heterochromia. But she’s special anyway. Also, it looks cool.
8/10
Sound:
The first opening is considered an all-time classic and I see no reason why it shouldn't. The song is good, the riff is awesome, it fits the show, the animation to it is great, what’s not to love? The second isn’t as iconic, but it’s a pretty solid one too. Both ending songs work as well. The rest of the soundtrack didn’t feel that special to me, but as you know, that’s hardly a disaster. I enjoyed the over the top voice acting of the cast, made them sound just the right amount of ridiculous and not too corny. However, compared to the delivery of other anime, GTO falls a little flat in this regard, mostly due to the “just okay” work done on the side characters. The sound effects were well done, like Onizuka’s bike for example, something I often miss to mention but wanted to this time, because I really liked how natural they sounded.
8/10
Characters:
The world of GTO seems to be filled with horrible people and utterly stupid idiots. Many of the folks who want Onizuka gone are just really mean and awful persons, who either do it for their own benefit or they aim for disproportionate retribution. I get it, Eikichi is the good guy (somewhat), but man, if you let so many dogs loose you should have more variety in your villains. Most of them are still entertaining, especially the vice principal, who I felt a bit sorry for in the end. The best opponent he had was without a doubt Kanzaki. That girl was a lot of fun, outsmarting Onizuka all the time and just very, very mean-spirited (and enjoying it nonetheless). Things became much more enjoyable after her introduction, especially since Onizuka’s supporters finally had a voice of reason. That is something that bugged me slightly, the sheer stupidity of the characters. I understand that Onizuka is a complete idiot, after all, that’s the base of the comedy, but most other people seemed to be too. Most of the villain’s motives were very shallow and not infrequently totally uncalled for. This is something that goes hand in hand with the repetitiveness of the story earlier on. In general, I feel that a better cast would have made this show a tad more enjoyable.
5/10
Enjoyment:
Great Teacher Onizuka was quite enjoyable, but it had its flaws. At a length of 43 episodes, it’s only natural for them to be a bigger thorn in one’s eye than it would be the case in a 12-episode anime. I still think it was worth the watch, because when GTO was good, it was pretty good. Some arcs, like the Okinawa trip, were top-notch entertainment and kept me coming back and endure the weaker stories. Some of the morals and messages were a little odd to me, but by now I learned how the Japanese society thinks about certain life aspects, especially back in the 90s, so I can more or less ignore these. GTO certainly is a product of its time, but it’s also no doubt one of the better.
7/10
Overall:
7.0/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 23, 2017
Audrey Hepburn would turn around in her grave if she knew what work her name was attached to.
Story:
On the surface, Rec leads us to believe that we bear witness to the blooming of a young love and a boy and a girl overcoming the many obstacles in their way to be together. In reality, what we get to see is the formation of an abusive relationship that is presented as the ideal romance. I’m at loss for words how disgusting this is. Apparently, the author is either an utterly broken victim of this in real life, or (more likely) a terrible human being that you
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should stay as far away from as possible. In their sick, twisted mind, it is heartwarming to guilt-trip somebody into a relationship and take advantage of a helpless individual. This is wrong on so many levels, that I would like to erase it from my memory, or better yet, from existence. Do you think I’m joking? Take a closer look, it’s not hard to see. Aka has no reason to like Matsumaru, but she feels indebted to him, that’s why she swallows all the abuse. That’s a topic for the character sector, all I can say about the story is, there is no romance, just one guy wanting pussy and a girl in dire straits. The fact that Rec pretends to be a romance is ludicrous.
1/10
Art:
This anime looks okay, but there is absolutely nothing special about it. Character design is okay, backgrounds are okay, animation is okay, it’s just a huge pile of okay. That’s acceptable for a "romantic comedy", which is supposed to score with other qualities. Yeah, that’s not much of a statement, but there really aren’t any strong or weak points to go into deeper detail about.
6/10
Sound:
The music (including opening and ending song) are okay. Yeah, I know, but they just don’t give me anything to work with. The voice acting is a bit disappointing. I don’t doubt that Kanako Sakai is capable of a good performance, but if you voice a voice actress, aren’t you supposed to show off your abilities? Judging from her very small number of roles listed on MAL, I may not be the only one who thinks she’s rather meh in an ocean of great. The rest of the bunch does a decent job, but they don’t have any big challenges to master.
5/10
Characters:
There is not a single likeable person in this cast. Matsumaru, the male lead is a despicable piece of shit, who keeps trying to take advantage of Aka all the time. Even worse, he somehow manages to twist the truth around to make her feel guilty about something that HE did. First he date-rapes her (I admit, this is debatable, but looking at how these two behave later on, I’d say the evidence is obvious), then he repeatedly tries to guilt her into sex by giving her shelter after her house burned down. When that fails, he terrorizes her with their work project, making her afraid of somebody finding out and being labeled as nepotist whore. After still not getting more pussy, he makes her feel responsible for his own failures at work and when he has her down to the point where she even apologizes for it, he literally tells her to fuck off. And to top it all off, after he managed to completely break her, he doesn’t ask her to be his girlfriend, no, he DEMANDS her to be his girlfriend. And don’t even get me started on when he tried to get himself another chick, that was a completely different kind of low that I don’t even want to speak about.
So, does nobody help this poor girl out? How about her agent? Nope, her manager tells her to dub porn or her career is over. None of the side characters is of any help in any way, nor do they add much to the show as a whole.
1/10
Enjoyment:
I hate this anime, it makes me sick just thinking about it. Everybody involved with this should feel ashamed. If they were trying to tell a different story, it could’ve maybe worked, but they want to sell me Rec as a romantic comedy, which it just isn’t. I’d rather accept Schindler’s List as one than this crap. Twilight is a better love story than this. But what shocks me the most is how many people apparently fell for it. My brain can’t comprehend the thinking process that goes into accepting these blatant lies. This isn't a personal attack if you happen to like this show, I just don't understand how or why. Anyway, any more words would be a waste of time, all you need to know is: Don’t watch it!
1/10
Overall:
2.8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 10, 2017
No unfunny punchline this time, this anime deserves better.
Story:
Bullying is a serious problem in schools and at work and should not be taken lightly. Still, it’s horrifyingly easy to find yourself on either side of the process, as I can personally confirm. Thankfully, I never encountered it to such a degree as it is depicted in this movie, since nobody seems to have stood up for Nishimiya here. Interestingly, we see the story from the viewpoint of one of the culprits and find out that once you realize your mistakes, it can affect you too, massively so. This can be especially problematic for Japanese, as
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they seem to have a “there are no psychological problems” and “suicide is a viable solution” mindset that is very alien to us. The keyword here is redemption and the question is where does redemption end and going on with your life begin. Koe no Katachi does a great job of using likely scenarios and believable reactions to tell its story. Many moments could have gone down an awkward route, but thankfully didn’t. It also never felt like the movie was too long, despite running for over two hours. From what I understand, a couple of things were left out from the manga, mainly a love triangle. Romance takes a backseat here and I think that this was a good decision. The story of a former bully trying to make up for the horrible things he did was way more interesting than “Girl loves Boy, but Boy loves other Girl”, which can be told anytime you want, you don’t need to use this backdrop for this. Koe no Katachi has constant progress, some setbacks, but it ultimately leads up to its ending, which is also slightly different from the manga. I thought the point where the movie cuts of was well chosen and left an end that didn’t feel unsatisfying at all.
10/10
Art:
Kyoto Animation has been criticized for its repetitive character design after the success of K-On, but it appears that they have toned it down a little recently. This isn’t a very happy story and therefore doesn’t need overly moefied girls. You can still see some of it, especially with Nishimiya (whose adorableness is on purpose to easily make the viewer feel sorry for her), but it is kept on an acceptably low level. The animation itself is very smooth, movements make sense and look believable. A prime example would be the fight Ishida and Nishimiya have early on while they’re still in grade school. They look just like two real kids having a quarrel. Much like other highly praised movies of the last couple of years, the backgrounds are mind-blowing. This attention to detail is what can make the difference in atmosphere that separates the good movies from fantastic ones.
10/10
Sound:
The score underlines the overall atmosphere of each scene brilliantly. An overall memorable soundtrack that never lets itself be a distraction from the proceedings, yet still powerful enough to stand on its own when listened to seperate from the movie. Just the way I like it. The only time I actively noticed it was during the ending scene. That was a very strong moment and the music completely sold it for me. I have to say though, when the movie started out with “My Generation” I was stunned. It’s quite rare to hear western compositions in an anime, let alone classic rock. A weird choice, but kinda cool, to be honest. The voice acting is good in general, but of course I have to mention Saori Hayami, who did a fantastic job sounding awkward as hell. I have heard deaf people talk in real life before, and yeah, they sound pretty much like that. If anything, she is still a little too understandable, but I can brush that aside as a side effect of her not being 100% deaf, so she would likely know how a human voice is supposed to sound like. And while I’m at it, props to ma gurl Aoi Yuuki, I would have never recognized her, that’s some impressive difference from what she usually sounds like.
10/10
Characters:
This is the one thing people who have read the manga have issues with and I can see where they’re coming from. The movie needed to cut content to have a reasonable length and most of what was cut was characterization. From what I’ve heard so far, the amount left out would have explained many of the character’s motives and backgrounds in a much deeper way than what we got. It also misses one of the most iconic manga scenes ever, the one with Nishimiya in bed twice, once as a happy child, once as a crying teenager. But here is the big BUT: A movie adaptation does not primarily have the job to be faithful, but to turn the story into a different medium and reach a different audience. You can even go so far as to completely change it to your liking and still create a masterpiece (case in point: The Shining). And as we review writers are kindly reminded in the MAL review guidelines, we are asked to judge based on the anime, not how well it is adapted (though it should be noted that sometimes that is indeed necessary).
With that aside, let’s look at the characters in this movie. Nishimiya, as I already mentioned, is an adorable child, friendly and open-hearted, no matter how much abuse she is exposed to. Her one fatal flaw is that she keeps blaming herself for everything that happens, even though we know that this is not the case. This may come across as weakness, and to a certain degree it is, but on the other hand, she is willing and able to forgive, which is a heavily underappreciated character trait that not many people have. However, this combination makes for an unhealthy mix and even though we as viewers would probably like to just give her a big hug, in real life things don’t work that way. On the other end of the spectrum we have Ishida, who is the complete opposite of her. He is an impulsive and abusive child, who later on is unable to forgive others but most of all himself. Koe no Katachi is the story of his redemption, not only towards Nishimiya, his mother and everybody else he has hurt, but especially towards himself. Because as more and more people start accepting him for who he really is, he still can’t accept himself. I found this to be a truly magnificent element, because it is a harsh truth of reality. Forgiving others is easy, forgiving yourself is hard. These two have one thing in common however, they try their best to do the right thing, but feel as if everything they do just makes things worse, giving both the feeling of worthlessness. In the end, what they need to understand is that they need to accept themselves and support each other.
The side characters have much of their spotlight scenes cut, but for most of them, it doesn’t really hurt. It however makes some of their motivations a little inscrutable. Ueno seems to be just a huge bitch, who serves as a foil to Ishida, as she doesn’t try or plan to redeem herself for what she has done. At least that’s what it looks like, though you can see that she actually DOES try if you look very closely. She just has a different target, namely Ishida, not Nishimiya. This is mostly due to the whole love triangle part getting cut, though I don’t know for sure how much better she fares in the manga. Nagatsuka is very important for Ishida to get back on track and his first step towards reaching out to others besides Nishimiya. He is an honestly great guy, the friend everybody should have and he also provides some much needed comic relief, not too goofy (like the gag scenes in Your Lie in April for example) but just the right amount to get a quick chuckle out of you. The two mothers are pretty different characters, but they suffer equally from their children’s problems. Ishida’s mom is more forgiving than Nishimya’s, but she also seems more helpless. They ended up being surprisingly interesting as they try their best to help their kids, even though it doesn’t always work out as they would’ve hoped for. Yuzuru is also a great addition to the cast (not only for questioning my sexuality upon being introduced as a boy). She helps us to see the long-term effects a troubled person like her sister can have on those closest to them. Once again, the manga touches this subject deeper, but this hasn’t anything to do with the movie. The rest sadly gets very little spotlight, although they seem to be interesting characters themselves (especially Kawai, who is in complete denial about her own impact on the bullying of Nishimiya). I understand that you can only do so much with a two hour movie, but I really wanted to know more about these people, their backgrounds and motivations.
9/10
Enjoyment:
That movie touched me so much, I can’t get married anymore. Jokes aside, I have rarely seen such an anime, in fact, such a movie as Koe no Katachi. It has been several days by now since I saw it, but it is still on my mind, all the time. In terms of movies, I have a hard time thinking about another film that moved me like this one. Given some time, I may start considering Koe no Katachi my favourite movie of all time. Especially the ending completely got me, I have rewatched that scene multiple times now and I still tear up. To even get me to do so once takes a lot. I’m not a tough guy, I just don’t get emotionally invested that easily. But this anime took my feelings and put them in a rollercoaster ride that I did not expect. It’s a bit sad how it is constantly compared to Your Name, as both movies are critically acclaimed and were released around the same time. I don’t care which is the better movie, I just care about what they individually give me and in this case, I have been given so much, it almost makes me feel guilty. If I ever were to go full Dave Meltzer on my ratings and go beyond the scale, Koe no Katachi would be the one anime I reviewed yet to make me do so.
But what does this mean for you? Will you be just as amazed by Koe no Katachi as I was? Maybe, maybe not. But please, give this movie a chance, it deserves to be seen. If you yourself have been subjected to bullying, this might hit you hard, as this movie does not back down from showing how awful and destructive it can be. It also shows the main characters in deeply depressed and self-loathing states. This is a heavy anime. But overall, the message is clear: You are who you are and that’s okay. If you are a horrible person, you can change. If you screw up, you can make up for it. You are not worthless and you deserve to be loved. Reach out to others and allow others to reach out to you. Yes, you are your mistakes, but you are so much more than just that.
And most importantly: You are not alone!
10/10
Overall:
9.8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 24, 2017
Doesn’t everybody know this problem? You’re just trying to save the town, but somehow you’re constantly forced to fuck. Life is unfair.
Excuse for Porn (Story):
The once blooming city of Little Monica is under control of the evil Kajo, who banned music and randomly strips girls. But who cares about that, what about the fucking? Within the hour of the two episodes we get 5½ sex scenes, which is an okay average. I personally prefer some story with my porn, because, as a wise man once said “when I care more about the characters, I care more about the fuckin”. Episode one does this a little
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better in my opinion, as the second one takes quite a while till we get to the action. The reason why every girl wants to hump the protagonist is…erm…well, they just want to fuck him. That’s a little weak, but it’s lampshaded, so it’s not that bad.
5/10
Can I fap to this? (Art):
The variety is lacking sadly, as all the girls that get screwed basically have the same body. They are more or less lolis with tits, which is kinda cool, but gets old really fast. Really the only thing that differs is their tan, which is not enough to make me want to see multiple girls naked. I also hated the nausea-inducing cuts and camera work in the second episode, that was completely unnecessary. One big plus of Little Monica is that it’s uncensored, though the genitals aren’t that breathtaking to look at.
4/10
Oh god, where are my headphones? (Sound):
There is absolutely nothing of notice here. The girls are high-pitched as always so your parents and neighbours will think you watch child porn. The music is rather mediocre and the ending song…well, the less said about it, the better.
2/10
Victims of the D (Characters):
It would be fair to say that the characters are extremely shallow. Celia is probably supposed to be a tsundere, though I’m not sure. Mei and Tina have the exact same character, they are the clueless children who are for unknown reasons interested in sex (like most token lolis in hentai). Meow is just there to get fucked and our protagonist Will does not have much of a motive either. There is literally nobody interesting in this show.
1/10
Taking Responsibility (Enjoyment):
There is no reason to watch this hentai in total, it provides nothing that you can’t get anywhere else. Watch the sex scenes with Meow if you want (cause she is pretty hot) and skip all the rest. Neither the plot nor the porn will really hook you. And you just want to rub your salami anyway. It is not a total disaster, but certainly a waste of time.
4/10
Overall:
3.2/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 14, 2017
I thought you weren’t supposed to divide by zero.
Story:
If you think about it, the story is rather ludicrous. I mean, seven mages summon mythical heroes to fight for the Holy Grail? If that were the synopsis for a brand new show, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t consider watching it. On the other hand, experience taught me that it isn’t so much about the subject of an anime but about how it utilizes it. And boy, does Fate tell a thrilling story. As this was the first of two associated seasons (something I personally despise), there isn’t much action yet, but the few fight scenes
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we get to see are pretty cool. But the better parts are the dialogues between all kinds of different personalities. The clash of very different, very interesting philosophies is quite something and none of them is portrayed as superior (even though Rider “won” the argument with Saber, that was more because of his rhetoric than him being right). Alignments are fluid for most of the cast, giving the whole thing an extra layer of suspense. Urobuchi once again proves to be a formidable writer.
9/10
Art:
Fate/Zero has been said to have insane amounts of budget compared to other works and that is hardly debatable. It is fascinating to see what an anime can look like if money is apparently no issue. The animation is incredibly fluid, even movements that aren’t technically necessary get animated, like the larynx moving when somebody drinks. The details are what make this stand out enormously. They even managed to add some GOOD CGI, something I thought I’d never see in an anime. The human character design is kept more realistic (with the exception of the Einzbern girls) while the servants are all very unique-looking and man, some are extremely handsome, damn. Suit Saber is my new fetish.
10/10
Sound:
Yuki Kajiura is a goddess of soundtrack composing. This, as well as the Madoka one, are the only two anime soundtracks that do the formula that was perfected by Back to the Future: Fittingly accompanying the scenes on screen without distracting the least bit, yet being full of awesome tracks that you can easily blast through your earphones on their own. I also positively noticed the sound effects. Much like the animation, sounds are used where they technically don’t NEED to be, but having them there enhances the experience, like Gilgamesh’s armor clinking whenever he moves in it. The voices were all well done and befitting the characters without exceptions and opening and ending were solid choices with recognition value. I’m “afraid” I can’t find a single flaw in the sound department.
10/10
Characters:
Much of the good things I had to say about the story can easily be applied to the characters of Fate/Zero, like the philosophical dialogues. The cast is incredibly colorful and memorable, very few can be put down as side characters. The dynamics between masters and servants is just as big in variety and goes from best pals (Ryuunosuke & Caster), odd couple (Rider & Waver), reluctant obedience (Saber & Kiritsugu) all the way to renunciation (Gilgamesh & Tokiomi). Most of the masters are (naturally) hostile towards one another while multiple servants have quite some respect for each other. Saber and Lancer can even be argued to have built a friendship. Despite Saber being the main protagonist of the show, it is very easy to root for your own favourite instead if they are more to your liking. Speaking of Saber, it’s a shame she isn’t portrayed more badass (which she supposedly was in Fate Stay/Night from what I have heard), but I am optimistic that this will change in the second season. The few that are clearly villains (which is basically just Caster and his master) are just as easy to hate as they commit some of the most horrible and disgusting acts that a villain can do. Despite the rather gloom initial position of this anime, there are some surprisingly fuzzy relationships, like Saber & Irisviel or Rider & Waver (who also double as fantastic comic relief) to ease your mind in between all the fierceness of the situation…though knowing Urobuchi, they will probably not meet a happy ending. The biggest strength is the ambiguity of most characters, making them neither heroes nor villains and wether they are good or bad guys depends on where the viewer draws the line on what is justifiable and what is not. A slight criticism I have is the Rin episode. She is unimportant (so far, maybe the second season will prove me wrong here) for the plot of Zero and the fact that she got a whole episode for herself feels like pandering to her (allowedly big) fan base she got from other installments of the franchise.
9/10
Enjoyment:
Fate/Zero is one of the few anime I plowed through this quickly, which is a sign of quality for me. While slice of life or comedy shows are very easy to binge, a drama or action flick needs to captivate me to keep me glued to the screen and that is exactly what this show did. I was unsure whether this was the right point to start the franchise, as there seems to be no one right answer to that, but looking back at it now, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was for me, who knew next to nothing about Fate, to follow the anime without having to look up lore or character backgrounds. What tarnishes my enjoyment slightly is the absence of a conclusion, but that one is easily available by watching season two. I would like the second part to amp up the action a little, which I have little doubt it will do. If the general quality can be held up to the very end, Fate/Zero as a whole will surely get the full points here.
9/10
Overall:
9.4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 12, 2017
Wrestling and anime have a lot in common. They are both hobbies looked down upon by society as a large and have most of their fanbase communicate online. They are also full of idiots and elitists hating on “normies” and “casuals”.
Story:
As far as I could find out, this anime is a sequel to the original Tiger Mask, but ignores other sequels to it. Since the original is solely available in Japanese, I have no idea how this one correlates with it, so let’s just judge it as a show on its own. A young guy named Naoto picks up the moniker of Tiger Mask to
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make it big in the wrestling business and find the man responsible for crippling his mentor and make him pay. At the same time, his former training partner Takuma has the same intentions, but joins the evil organization to destroy them from within. The whole plot isn’t much to write home about, but a simple story well executed can still be a good one. Tiger Mask is pretty straight forward, which is definitely for the better, as the writing doesn’t feel like it could handle big twists or a deeper storytelling. Almost everything that happens is easily predictable, but the show never tries to pretend that it’s going to surprise you. A very nice addition to the cast are the stars of real life promotion New Japan. They give the whole story a more realistic feeling, showing us that this isn’t a fantasy world with made-up guys doing impossible moves, but a show about somebody wrestling. Of course the Tigers still have impossible finishers, but you get the idea.
7/10
Art:
Tiger Mask looks very reminiscent of old 80s sports shounen and doesn’t really try to be more eye-pleasing than absolutely necessary. The animation is kept very simple, which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but here it comes across as rather lazy. Like “the kids won’t notice” kinda lazy. It’s certainly not a budget issue, as the last three episodes DID look spectacular and it makes it all the more jarring to know what maybe could have been.
5/10
Sound:
The opening song is a newer version of the classic Tiger Mask theme, which, even though it’s pretty cheesy as you would expect from a 60s cartoon, still works fine today. I don’t know if the ending theme is a rehash too, but I thought it was pretty cool. The rest of the soundtrack is basically just some stock music. I somewhat missed entrance themes, but that’s just me being a wrestling nerd. In terms of voice acting I didn’t notice anything remarkably good or bad, it was a solid performance. Just a shame that the New Japan guys weren’t voiced by themselves (except for the final episode cameo).
7/10
Characters:
Naoto is a good main character, he’s serious when fighting, he can be a bit goofy when outside the ring and he has some flaws that almost prevent him from reaching his goal. Takuma is a good anti-hero, with noble motives but behaving like a bad guy. However, I found the villains to be weak. Even The Third didn’t have much more going on than just being that one incredibly strong guy who likes to injure people. The side characters were a lot of fun though. Furukawa Mask was hilarious, Haruna and Wakamatsu were fun too. I especially enjoyed the many cameos by New Japan heels, like Naito or Kenny Omega. In total, the cast was fine by me.
7/10
Enjoyment:
Tiger Mask had a few lengths when it looked like this is going nowhere or might even end up becoming a long-runner. Thankfully, the stronger parts made up for it and ended up making it a quite entertaining show. However, as with probably most other sports shows, if you are not interested in the subject of wrestling, there will be little for you to enjoy about this anime. It isn’t really able to stand on its own as a compelling story and could easily bore you to death. IF you enjoy wrestling however (especially Japanese), I’d say it’s at least worth giving a shot. A solid sports anime, nothing more, nothing less.
6/10
Overall:
6.4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 7, 2017
Can somebody who hasn’t seen the OVAs formulate a valuable review about Little Witch Academia? Well, I’ll take it one step further, I haven’t even seen Harry Potter! Ha!
Story:
We follow the (mis)adventures of a hyperactive girl named Akko as she tries to become a formidable witch like her big idol Shiny Chariot. That’s easier said than done, as Akko is really bad at magic, and I mean BAD. The general buildup of the 25 episodes is not that different from what Kill La Kill did. At first, we get a lot of mundane, slice of lifey episodes and the plot merely being mentioned, but not
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focused on. Around halfway through it starts taking over and the lightheartedness gets less (though it never completely vanishes). I like this kind of slow increase of seriousness, because I like to enjoy both, the relaxed and the tense sides of the work’s world. For some, this change may not be what they wish for, I however enjoyed it. The story itself is not too extraordinary, it’s the classic quest to achieve a goal, not unlike what many shounen series look like. I can’t say that this anime is void of plot holes, but due to other outstanding factors, it never feels important whether everything is perfectly coherent or not, something Trigger seems to have mastered. Long story short, the plot is nothing special, but executed well.
7/10
Art:
If you know the Trigger style, you know exactly what to expect. Though I have to say, while their other shows were using many over-realistic or hard-edged shots when going into the extreme, Little Witch Academia remains relatively calm and smooth in general. The producers said they wanted to make a family-friendly show and this also shows in the artwork. Of course this also means tons of bright colors, to a point where the anime gets a bit of a cartoony feel. The Western influence is highly visible in Little Witch Academia. As with KonoSuba, I dig this hybrid style and for a show like this, it feels very right. The special effects are spread throughout the series in moderation, but nonetheless look very beautiful. Prime examples are episodes 6 and the final one. Bonus points for the Merrie Melodies/Silly Symphonies/Fleischer style clips from episode 8.
10/10
Sound:
Megumi Han does a fantastic job as Akko. Her voice emits all the fun the character is made of, but she also works in more serious moments. All other main characters have fitting voices for their personalities, especially Sucy, who sounds like a wicked witch out of a kid’s nightmare (isn’t that a perfect description for her?). On a personal note, I always chuckle a little when I hear “Naruto” in a serious role. The opening and ending songs were all solid, the second opening is quite catchy and slowly starting to grow on me. This show also uses background music very efficiently. I mentioned before, that I get the feeling that orchestral soundtracks are used more often in recent anime and I think that is a wonderful development. Provided of course that this statement is true and not my weird subjective impression due to the anime I choose to watch. The Little Witch Academia soundtrack is similar to what you may hear in a movie, which may or may not be another nod to the West. Anyway, I think it fits very well and gives emotional scenes more impact.
9/10
Characters:
This is one of the strongest parts of Little Witch Academia. There are so many fun characters for everybody’s liking that I fail to see how anybody could not at least find one suiting their tastes. Akko is very similar to a shounen protagonist in many ways, but she is such an upbeat, positive girl, that I can’t bring myself to dislike her, even though I’m not a fan of those archetypes. If you don’t like Akko, then how about Diana? At first it seems she is going to be the bitch rival, but she happens to be a very honest and humble person, who just happens to take things more seriously than Akko. We also have lots of fun side characters, like the complete maniac Sucy, the adorable sweetheart Lotte, the tomboyish Amanda, the grumpy genius Constanze and many more. Even characters like Hanna and Barbara, who are complete jerks, are likeable by being just too goofy to take seriously. In total, all characters were either well written or fun side characters. If I have to criticize something, it’s the fact that Andrew had little involvement in the overall plot. I just wish he would have done something important along the way. As it is, his scenes are really pointless, as he is also too serious to be fun on his own. Just give him an unrequited crush on somebody or whatever. Another, though very minor, problem of such a colorful cast is that you can hardly flesh them out much. As I said, they are fun, but I want to know more about them too.
9/10
Enjoyment:
I have drawn some parallels to Kill La Kill and that for a simple reason. Not (only) because they are both Trigger shows, but because they work in the same manner. They are what I think I called “brainless fun” in my KLK review, but that isn’t a very endearing term. What I mean by that is that anime don’t need to be deep or have constant gags to be entertaining, it also works to have a coherent story to tell and do so in a way that just screams “fun”. I repeat that word over and over, but that’s because that is the one big message I get from Little Witch Academia. I am positive that most of you will have a good time watching this show, I sure as hell did.
10/10
Overall:
9.0/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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