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We were very excited to watch this during Samhain/Halloween and trying to get through these episodes was rough, after episode 5 we were pushing through to see if it got better at all. They are not scary or creepy (to us, we watch a lot of horror!) We are big fans of Ito's manga, but I should have checked into who made this and their previous attempt at doing animation with Junji's work because if you check it may sway your opinion to give this a try too. You can search this info as well but let me sum it up for you for ease:
- ... This 'anime' only covers the first parts of the early manga arcs, they are unfished manga grabs
- Junji ito did not work on this or the previous animation they did. Just using his name
- The previous version made before was in 2018 and also had pretty negative reviews

Animation is rough, hastily done. As other reviewers are suggesting just go read Junji's manga!

To simply put, it's trauma with no therapist or help for a child who needs it. But it's lighthearted and has fun characters. Yes it's cute, the animation is okay (why is their hair so poofy and huge on their heads and faces?) but I wouldn't recommend this. It was recommended to me by a friend so we watched it.

If you don't read into the story and just want something on in the back, this might be an option for you. But here's the issues I have with it personally; spoilery not spoilers zone! First is Kotaro is so traumatized he's not getting a childhood ... and the show never addresses actually helping him - beside the new found family stepping in and being there. This leads into the gross overly wanting to touch 'yakuza' trope man who kept making weird comments towards Kotaro. It shouldn't be normalized and it's not okay, and yes he can have a kid and still be being creepy. I found it weird he ddin't act like that with his own son, and when later in the show his son does try to come around more he acts indifferent. This bothered me with the writing, it felt like some characters were just thrown in, nothing felt really well thought out? The ending episode has one of the adult's ex gf show up and immediately be problematic to Kotaro, even tho the last episode that character was worried and was very into someone using Kotaro and didn't want that to happen. (Writing is all over, nothing flows very well)

In the end it's instead reminding us the flaws with society and kids that go through this. I think it would've been a great anime to cover grief, and working through things with a child psych or therapist. The cute doesn't outweigh the writing, mostly 1 note characters (aside from the main adult), and re-using old anime tropes. It came out 2022 but feels like it was from 2008.

I am a fan of horror movies, ero-guro, weird and obscure genre's, and while this movie certainly hits the nail on the head.. it honestly feels like more of an outlet vent piece for Hamada. And I do relate. I do. His art is great, his passion, and he's worked even on Square Enix stuff. But this feels more of some outlet of trauma and for shock value, and I think it's personally overhyped for some great ero-guru "anime". It's not censored, and the detail in the animation is great work I won't deny that!
Re-watch value? Zero. I agree with the stance to ban it ... in Japan, it has no real story, and aside from placing traumatic events front and center there's no.. meat. No good core, unsure how to phrase what I'm trying to get across. One could say this is simply an animation of art for him, and that makes more sense. We don't need to showcase traumatic events front and center to know they happened, and it REALLY depends how you depict them. For an example, this film has no empathetic tones, and can lead someone to possibly think "Well maybe this is all not so bad" what is the target audience for this? Then it leads me back to my point of I think it was just a vent outlet for Hamada. I will not watch his other films based on this, because there is nothing of value (to me)

I don't recommend watching this, yes you, whose debating it; even if you love genre's like this. Unless you're wanting some self loathing or some content to relate to on some really apathetic level ? (It's 2023, go try some therapy out I promise it's really helpful. Work through your pain.)

What a slog this was to finish now that I did. It's a less good version of NGE and it could have been a shorter series with the same plot and overall arc's. After episode 18 I just started skipping through the episodes, a rinse and repeat every 3-4 Episodes. It did not age well.

Story is mediocre, extremely old tropes and laid out stereotypes/roles. Down to the female captain with the boy pilot and family issues, how can we have a worse protag than Shinji? I like the RahXephons design, I really enjoyed seeing POC/Black character portrayed well, the VA's are not bad.

My overall ... opinion is not recommended. I agree with the rest of these reviewers it's hard to first get into, but keep expectations low and it's easily watchable while gaming or doing crafts with wanting something up on the side fi you REALLY want to see this. At least there's nice scenes you can use for AMV's, which is how I found this and wanted to originally watch it.

A mediocre gunslinger anime we've all seen before, except this MC is rather annoying and has no character development. Featuring mostly POC! It's really nice to see, would love to see more of this through all animes. Watched on netflix between different shows and was enjoyed. Rest of reviews are spot on, but I wanted to support black creators and it wasn't bad enough for me to drop. Sam is my favourite. Action and CGI mix is well done, and OP//ED are great. Sadly for having a cool bull mech transformer car it sure doesn't do much the whole length of the anime though :(

Watching the trailer on netflix I thought it might be something neat to watch. The first episode gives a promising feeling it might not be too bad. Im not sure if the studio ran tight on money, or wanted to pull out of this halfway through producing. The animation quality drops as the episodes go on, flat colors, rough shapes. I haven't read the books this was based on either though.

There is so much 'shock' deaths. Not relevant to story or - really anything. Some are even sudden and graphic, and I'd for sure tell anyone planning to watch it of them. If you want ... something similar but done much better I would recommend Corner of the World. I prefer anime not leaning towards 'Game of Thrones' killing/deaths.

Things I did enjoy out of this:
-Different Ethnicity's and POC
-The plot of the story is interesting (and could have been done well)
-The usual 'cult' stereotype was pleasantly nice and not the usual trope.

I'd watch this only if you were really bored and needed something in the background or wanted to see what people are talking about. To seriously watch this? I don't think you'd want to. This is an easy one to skip! Don't feel too bad if you never get around to watching it.

Another 'okayish' disaster movie sadly.