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Sep 28, 2025
Cheat Slayer is the epitome of what not to do when attempting to parody and satirize. For that reason, I'd recommend this particular work. However, on the other hand, some feel that the cancellation was unjustified, arguing that NEETs deserve to be mocked as the degenerates they are.
And right there is part of the reason the series ended up canceled.
There was definitely an issue with the closeness of all the parodies, with the most egregious similarities belonging to Kiruto, simply because one could easily think I'm speaking not of the actual parody character, but of the character being parodied, given how similar their names happen
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to be. AKA Kiruto's name is definitely too similar to Kirito, the protagonist from Sword Art Online, and could potentially cause trouble later on, depending on the crimes he commits.
There is a definite feel to the chapter of someone mocking something and hating on something without actually knowing about what they were mocking; otherwise, how does one explain the inclusion of Flare, who is a parody of Aqua from KonoSuba? Because at the end of the day, anybody who knows KonoSuba will know that the series is itself a parody of the genre; parody at the end of the day often ends up failing as we're at the point of deconstructing a deconstruction, but this inclusion makes it feel like the writer simply picked the most popular Isekai at the time to openly mock without actually taking into consideration what they were mocking.
Not to mention the audience is told one thing by the witch who saves Lute, that every reincarnation is, in fact, bad, yet what we're shown actually contradicts this as we're actually only shown a single character who is in fact evil within the series and at the council meeting with the reincarnators we see objections to said behavior by some of the members and none agreeing with him.
That, in turn, raises the question of who the real target of the Manga was. The answer is NEET, with the Manga portraying NEETs in broad strokes as degenerate individuals, which is, in reality, a misconception. Still, I also have to wonder if the actual creator of this work didn't know the difference between a NEET and a hikikomori, which, while there is an overlap, there is a distinct difference between the two.
For those who don't know, it is possible to be a NEET without being a shut-in, and not all hikikomori are NEET, in that being a shut-in doesn't necessarily mean actually withdrawing from "education, employment, and training," with some being gainfully employed and working from home.
And in this, there is context that makes me question the use of the word 'NEET' to describe the character being called a NEET, in that the first chapter mentions this person as someone who followed orders. Whose orders, though? Not a family member or roommate, as they would not have followed orders to clean up their room of all the ramen cups and other trash? They're a shut-in, so they don't interact with anybody outside of the house, which means--
-- a.) they're working from home following the orders of their boss and thus NOT a NEET, or b.) they were bullied into offing themselves, which begs the question of how they went from being someone bullied into offing themselves to having the instant confidence to commit heinous crimes. Yet, there is also the question of how, if they were inclined to criminal behavior in the first place, why they weren't doing it in the world they reincarnated from.
Which means the whole goal of the first chapter was to dismiss and socially ostracize a specific group of people as being societal trash worthy of being trashed upon, but being called a NEET is enough to cower this person into submission, because the social stigma of being a NEET remains, to which it can be argued the bullying is justified because of the characters actions which at the end of the day actually don't make sense in the first place and just end up ringing shallow unless someone is actually of the belief that NEEt and/or hikamori are societal trash who should be done away with because their minds are rotten and that's why they're in the situations they're in.
Except that is at the end of the day, victim blaming. It also portrays a specific group in a highly problematic light, reinforcing existing misconceptions that are often perpetuated by the media rather than countered. Still, perhaps one of the reasons this series didn't go over well in the first place and ended up canceled had to do with the fact that Isekai, as a genre, is known for tackling this subject, of presenting these individuals in a more positive light. The latter doesn't have a character putting forth the claim that shut-ins should just die because they're trash, that they don't deserve to be reincarnated because they're trash.
This isn't, at the end of the day, a product of parody or satire, but crosses the line into something much darker, something that would have ultimately bled through the rest of the series. It's spiteful rather than something done in good humor, but lacks any real faith regarding what the creator is attempting to deconstruct. And the spite comes across in the main protagonists as well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 30, 2025
The story? The characters? I loved those quite a bit, yet I can't in good faith recommend this Anime on good faith, not without going into an important detail.
AI was involved in this, and not in a good way. It's not just a matter of the clipping issues and places where the AI fails to do what it is supposed to do. This isn't a project that is setting out to make AI a tool for animators to help speed up the process; instead, it is a tool for replacing animators because the company sees their artistic value in question. The only thing that matters,
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after all, is the higher positions of director, script writer, and producer, right? There is no artistic integrity to being an animator, right?
At the end of the day, the story? The characters? They were interesting, cute, but then you start thinking about how paired back they had even to make the story be to make it work. There are only two character models, and the story is concluded in this short because it's all about making the process as cheap as possible. Had they added more characters and a more complex story line, they would have needed more time and money with just the limited staff they had, which would also defeat the process, yet that same staff member didn't catch all of what they needed to. Was that intentional, to show what the AI was capable of doing? Probably not, given that they consider the animator to be a throwaway part of the art, that they're not integral even for cleaning up what the AI makes.
I mean, had it been, they'd have released two versions, one where the AI does it's thing, and another where the animator was allowed to go in and clean things up, thus showcasing the current capabilities while showing how an animator was still needed.
Because honestly, I do get giving Animators tools to speed up the process and make it so they're not working less, but AI by itself for any media is soulless. There are certain things that the human eye can read that the AI struggles with, that it may never overcome because reading things like line and shape as a human does is - even the best coding out there is unlikely to solve this problem, the only solution being true AI. And if one knows about AI theory here, one knows what I'm talking about, how true AI is at this point is highly unlikely and entirely in the realm of sci-fi at this point, or at the very least a long way off.
Note - To clarify, the episode director and animation producer has openly said that animators can now leave the animation process to the AI and thus open themselves to directing positions, but this is someone who has no other credits including no animation credits such as key animator to their name.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 24, 2025
What purpose is there in becoming a witch if one doesn't use one's powers to help others? At the end of the day, this is no different than a doctor who never uses their medical knowledge and talent to help others. I'm not saying there can't be an alternative motive, such as gaining money and fame, or that there won't be times that one will admit that something is outside of one's skill level. Still, in this particular case, Elaina is someone who goes through the series refusing to lift a finger to help, unless, of course, not helping would in some way negatively impact
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her, or not helping would negatively impact her ego.
For a character so into the legendary adventures of a certain witch, she doesn't actually try to have any legendary adventures of her own. One might argue her goal is to travel and see as many places as possible, yet even then, one would say a true traveler would, if it were in their ability, to leave the places they travel to as close to the way they found them, yet she does nothing to ever help.
Is it simply a matter of her being confident? Well, she certainly is optimistic about her abilities and how talented she is. Still, at the end of the day, she's above all of that, of ever helping, breaking one of the rules her mother put forth, to never think of herself as above others. Yet, one can see hints of this, such as when she arrives in the city of mages, her hope and goal being to be praised because she is one of the lucky few to rise to the rank of being a witch, to the point she thinks she might get a free stay at a hotel somewhere, and at the end does because things work out her way.
There are other issues, such as the use of specific subject matter for shock value or trivializing real-world events such as the Berlin Wall with a story line about a city that similarly divided itself just because one side was unrealistically competitive with the other side, or a village that was two villages across the street from each other because the town (what it really is in the first place) had two vineyards. The creator tries to present Elaina as a protagonist who understands that being kind to someone may instead be the most hurtful thing one can do only to paint all acts of kindness in such broad strokes, by pretending that an ill wife whose husband brought her home views of places she couldn't see would only become more depressed because she couldn't herself visit them and thus commit suicide.
Which--
To say that the show trivializes subjects such as suicide and abuse would be an understatement, as there is an all to clear message that those who are abused become psychopaths without understanding that one doesn't have to be abused to become a psychopath, let alone that a child psychopath isn't someone one should trust the word of, that the so-called abuse they suffered may simply be a fabrication, to Elaina siding with the idea that psychopath who is destined to become a serial killer (the narrative makes that quite clear) should be spared from death, and that the person who took her out is in effect, just another murderer, both when said person executed the chilld at an older age after she'd killed at least three people, maybe more, just as same person is a murder for killing the same child before she got the chance of becoming a serial killter.
At the end of the day, it's not as if the audience is asking much of Elaina either. For example, the simplest of tasks, the one involving the slave girl, didn't mean she had to go and insist the slave girl be freed, or push modern moralities on her, but she certainly could set the village head's son straight, perhaps even set him on the path of changing things for the better once he became village head, to which I also have to ask - is the Slave girl really unhappy about seeing others happiness, or is she crying in joy from someone taking the time to do that for her? I know that the narrative wants us to believe it's the latter, because - gasp - modern moralities say slavery is bad, but if this is true, it makes Elaina's not stepping in even worse. If it's not based on modern understanding of slavery, then the slave shouldn't be having that reaction, instead looking for any hope they could snatch up.
But then, at the end of the day, the series tries to be way too pessimistic about everything. If Elaina's not helping, she's causing trouble for others or she's being someone who's lost her temper and over exaggerating the crime, such as with the Ripper who went around cutting woman's hair which is played off as being as awful as Jack the Ripper, let alone played off as being as bad as actual sexual assault. And maybe the writer wanted to try and say something about those subjects while keeping it PC, but in doing so they just ended up mangling the whole thing with a protagonist who either does nothing or blows things way out of proportion or only does something because not doing so is as I said more of hassle to her than not helping.
Even the ending is part of her full-blow narcissism at play, and ends up being rather cringe at the end of things.
I get the charm of wanting a protagonist with a personality that isn't likable on the surface like your typical protagonist, but there's honestly a right way to approach such a character and a wrong way—Elaina is the wrong way to go about it. As she's of such a personality, there are no hidden depths to fall into. She is a narcissist who thinks first of herself and calls someone who executed a serial killer not once, but twice, a twice-over murderer, because who cares about who else that girl goes on to kill, because we're supposed to be like, "well, her abusers deserved it." Not everyone abused her, but I'd argue that one has even to question whether or not she was abused, simply because we're told this is true without being shown to be true. Aka, it's heresy from the serial killer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 23, 2025
I loved the brothers, and I loved the family dynamic between the brothers.
Well, that is--
That is, until we get to the main character, who is an absolute dud personality-wise and has romance issues. And as much as I love the guys, we're also talking about a super-cringe Otome, but to explain why this series is so super-cringe--
I read and write fanfic, and one type of fanfic is the reader-insert. The idea behind the genre is simply that the reader inserts themselves as the main protagonist, but the vast majority involve the main character being romantically involved with one or more characters. So, in effect, it's
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the Otome genre, but with the love interests being characters already established within a given narrative. These works back in the day were written in the second-person narrative, but then specific individuals started complaining because they thought something along the lines of, "Well, it's called a reader insert, so that means I, the reader, am inserting into the story, but that's NOT my name, NOT my hair color," etc. and etc. leading to the advent of the (y/n) instead of second person narrative.
But WHAT does this have to do with "Brothers Conflict"?
Well, the idea behind (y/n), aka, making the main protagonist a blank slate that anybody could insert as, more personable because the main protagonist could be anybody, right? And in the case of "Brothers Conflict", we've a blank slate protagonist in an attempt to make the narrative more personable to the person inserting themselves.
Except, this fundamentally fails. It's completely impossible, for one thing, to create a truly blank-slate character. For example, practically nobody has a squirrel companion like Ema does, but she's also a submissive pushover, unable to set proper boundaries with her step-siblings. But here we have the first mistake, that the writer assumes that everybody is one way, yet when paired with the fact this character i female, it assumes all females are submissive pushovers who would put up with some of the stuff that goes on, yet this is a stark contradiction to the mother of the brothers who is far from a pushover and also dominate in personality.
Yet, if this were truly a blank slate character that anybody could self-insert in, even a male should be able to self-insert.
However, the second problem?
One of the major mistakes noted with reader-insert fanfic is that the wish fulfillment elements at the end of the day is that of the original creator and revolving the wish fulfillment elements around what the writer wants ends up being far from personable, it becomes impersonal with the fact often the person who is supposed to self-insert often can't as they don't share the same wish fulfillment desires as the original creator. Those who can? It's certainly not a problem, but at the end of the day, it majorly limits the audience.
Which is a real shame for Brothers Conflict as the original creator honestly did come up with a fascinating cast of brothers. And I do get that there is meant to be conflict among the brothers as they compete for Ema's affections, but that conflict shouldn't extend to how they treat her as a person with som enterring territory that is best left not discussed. Not to mention, there is a definite question of why any of the brothers like her at the end of the day, beyond her looks, given how wishy-washy she is.
And we're also left with a series that would be better off without the romance, where instead of the brothers competing for the affection of their soon-to-be step-sister they instead compete to see who gets to be the best brother to her as the one thing the brother's don't have is a little sister, with maybe some romantic awkwardness with the high school aged brothers, particularity the one who started out being her classmate before they were even soon-to-be siblings having romantic feelings which is what I think drew people in back in the day, the fact it seemed to be that type of story at the get-go only to fall off the rails in later episodes.
-- to which I also have to say, the whole conflict between the brothers over a girl who is meant to be their step-sister, honestly, doesn't paint the brothers in a positive light which is where the real cringe comes from, rather than the whole falling for ones step-sibling, particularly if one fell for the step-sibling prior to their parents marrying.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 6, 2025
This Iseki is a comedy, not a parody. Don't go into this series thinking that it is meant to mock either the Sentai or Isekai genre. I say this because I feel a few have picked up this series thinking that it does just that, and in their minds, the series thus fails. However, the point of the series is quite different and lies with how the two genres are incompatible with each other, specifically, the hero powers of the two genres. It's about the comedy that results from a hero from the Sentai genre being brought into an Isekai world while keeping his highly
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incompatible powers in that world. It's about the WTF moments caused by his interaction with the world, how he is a baffling element to a world that isn't genre-savvy to the Sentai genre like we are while the Sentai hero remains oblivious to how incompatible his powers are to the world, to how he stands out like a sore thumb.
In this, the Anime does what it sets out to do.
To that--
This is certainly not going to be an Anime for everyone. For example, those who highly dislike overpowered characters will want to give this series a pass as it's yet another one of those type of Isekai. Those who also dislike fanservice even in the slightest will also want to take a pass. That said, regarding fanservice, it's mild and nothing to worry about.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 6, 2025
POTENTIAL SEIZURE WARNING!
Effectively, this short music video was meant to be a debut work for the given artist, but if this is anything to go by--
The idea for the abstract is interesting, with cells artificially rendered. However, for all the beauty, there's no getting around the fact that there was far more focus on the art of the animation piece than on what the piece would do to the viewer upon seeing and hearing the piece. The music is jarring techno, and the art, while beautiful, moves at such a rapid pace that it's hard to keep up with what is going on.
That might be
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the Avant Garde point because the artist did this to mimic the human cells in the body. However, there are actual reasons why certain things are considered conventional in Animation and why certain rules of the trade shouldn't be broken. In this case, tricks of the trade that are meant to prevent your audience from become ill because of the visuals are there for a reason.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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May 2, 2025
Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie is like Yume-iro Pâtissière got together Starry☆Sky in an attempt to produce a beautiful child, only to produce an ugly stepchild instead.
Effectively, someone noticed how well the former charmed the target audience with cute, adorable characters that the target audience well in love with while also noticing how well the latter resulted in the target audience drooling over the bishonen options in the reverse harem comprised of short episodes and decided they wanted to mash them together in an attempt to produce something even more successful. To do this, they took the basic plot and character of the former, stripped it of the
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fairies and any of the depth that series went into regarding making pâtissière while substituting the charming little faeries with a strange marshmallow creature that eventually becomes more of these strange marshmallow creatures.
They then tried to imitate the art style of the latter series only to pale in comparison, while bringing in some of the visual effects that the latter is known for only to never develop the characters the way the former did, with the former being a series that sold more for the eyecandy than character development, but making matters worse, a children's series -- the former series -- managed to do a reverse harem far better than the mash up of the two while the mash up also tried being as adult as the latter series while keeping some of the more childish elements of the former without understanding what did and didn't work.
For example, at one point the mash up tries to get the viewer to believe that the childish behavior of the romance options is cute, only for the childish behavior make the viewer wonder why the lead protagonist is interested in any of the romance options let alone why three of them are actually teachers at the school.
And if things couldn't get worse?
The ending.
The ending tries to bring the show back to the fantastical roots of the former by having a very confusing final battle that makes absolutely no sense unless that fantastical element was there all along rather than simple visual effects to help sell the guys as with the latter series. Yet, watching the finale made me wonder what other series the series ripped off as nothing at the end felt familiar.
Ditsy heroine with ditsy friend? Check. Trio comprised of a choclate maker, someone specializing in Western sweets and Eastern sweets? Check. Need another guy? Toss in a non-specialist into the mix as a fellow student, because there needed to be more than three charcters in the harem. Rival that is so rich that she is horribly oblivious to how off putting she is? Check. ll of these pailing in comparison. Check. Add in the one rule of teachers and students not dating and the scandelous mistaken romances, it's a bunch of cringe.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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May 2, 2025
This is a promo one-shot for the Anime. As a promo one-shot, it fails in promoting the Anime in a way that encourages those reading the one-shot to pick up said Anime and, in fact, may discourage. My very first impression upon seeing the character intros was to instantly think of another series, Yume-iro Pâtissière, to which the first thought popping in my head was, "Please don't let this be a ripoff."
Which, at the end of the day, that's exactly what it ended up being, except minus much of the fantastical elements. It felt too much like there was an attempt to hit certain characterization
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and narrative points from the Yume-iro Pâtissière series. It didn't do anything new, and sent off a bunch of red flags in my head regarding what the Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie would be like, that if I were a casual viewer I wouldn't want to even pick up the series with how much of a ripoff this series feels like without having the faires.
And then I watched the series and--
The one-shot covers the better parts of the Anime series' first two episodes, making a bit of narrative change for drama purposes while managing to cut out some of the more cringe content, yet in doing this the one-shot ended up doing much of nothing. It played it safe, but then given the Anime--
It reads too much like a one-shot by a newbie Mangaka who is overly focused on incorporating all the tropes without thinking about how to combine them or make them original. As such, I can't recommend either the one-shot or the Anime to the casual Anime fan.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Sep 28, 2024
A spoiled Cinderella is as entertaining as a female character whose fatal flaw of clumsiness only appears when convenient for the plot.
The first chapter introduces us to this spoiled Cinderella character, whose work ethic is majorly questionable with the other servants wherever she goes questioning said work ethic. She is, after all, untrained when she arrives at the royal palace, which in turn is a major source of irritation for the other maids, as is her flaky attitude towards working, instead preferring to make attempts at swooning a prince so she might find out about her past as a former noble. And like her clumsiness,
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which conveniently shows in time for one of the princes to sweep in, her ethnic work only appears when convenient for the plot, such as when she supposedly does double work once her friend at the palace is serving under another, an important guest, or when the plot brings up her DIY habit of making clothes from curtains.
DIY is a modern concept, or I should say it's a contemporary term for an old idea, with the actual term coming into use after mass production came into being, with the mass production of things such as clothes making someone capable of DIYing their clothes a unique individual during modern times, which the creator of this Manwha thinking this, in turn, makes their character unique, only it doesn't, not in time when everyone, including nobles are doing it themselves. The narrative appears unaware that even women in the noble class participated in handicrafts that any female noble is incapable of sewing.
The female noble in question is Sei-Ann's rival, a tomboy royal in a non-modern setting, because in this narrative all the royals are spoiled to the point of seeming never to have to wear clothes more than once, or at least when these clothes needed mending, they were easily tossed aside. Even in a memory, Sei-Ann is seen learning to use a sword prior to losing her memories, even if this is briefly. She's not ever seen to use them anywhere else in the narrative. Still, there's no getting around how the nobles/royalty don't act like nobles/royalty, such as Sei-Ann, who is supposed to be a servant actually getting away with physically hitting the royal princes which in turn only adds to the reasons why the maids don't like her, at least until she is a noble and that's their pay check.
Sei-Ann is simply that special, with an implication that she has more right to the throne than the three princes, but she even her sob story backstory is special, in that her mother was falsely accused of being a traitor to the crown. Why? Because the second queen, when she was a concubine, became jealous of the first queen because the first queen's son wouldn't be sent away -- according to rumors -- as well as the friendship that Sei-Ann's mother struck with the first queen, leaving the second queen distraught at having lost a friend, but it's impossible for Sei-Ann's mother to be a traitor because, a.) if her mother was a traitor, she would have been executed in front of the king and b.) there is a hidden contract where Sei-Ann's mother swears undying loyalty to the king, because -- it may tie to the fact Sei-Ann's mother has more right to the throne, though the reason given isn't.
It might tie back to the one female noble, her rival, being allowed to run around not acting like a lady when it suits her interests. This is also the character who is supposed to judge Sei-Ann's ability to act like a proper lady before she meets the king. This in turn goes back to putting modern concepts, such as DIY -- a term that, as I mentioned, came about because of mass production, in a non-modern setting without thinking of how these fit, all of which is to make Sei-Ann, by the end, the perfect princess (or I should say noble).
As for the princes, they don't develop beyond each of their set narrative purposes. The first is the crown prince who hid his identity because he wanted to run away only for this to be a non-issue later on, who hold a grudge against Sei-Ann's family because of what happened to his mother yet the series never addresses the fact holding a grudge against someone simply because of what their family did is wrong, although in this, nor does the canon establish that there is a multi-generation punishment in the society this takes place in. It's instead something unique to Sei-Ann's circumstances, and in the end everything goes in her favor, because she's in the end perfect and beyond reproach.
Yet narratively, she is still the girl at the beginning who refused to do a servant's work and thirsted after a prince to marry simply because she was told by the countess that she'd learn the truth to her past when she meets the prince, but she does little to endear herself outsiide of her friend group, which consists of the three princes, her maid friend and her rival for one of the prince's affection. In fact, she does things that should bring some form of punishment, perhaps not the punishment the teachers were to place on her, and yet she's spared from punishments frequently, unless of course she didn't do it and then conviently that plot device is there because it's being unjust to him.
Speaking of nobles getting away with things, it should be forewarned that the third prince isn't a love rival for Sei-Ann because a running gag is he doesn't have an interest in girls, his companions are two young boys
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 24, 2024
Note - I mark this as Not Recommended because I do actually believe "Most review readers will not like this", but the review is still aimed at drawing in those who might still like this particular Anime. There's also some mention of differences from Japan Sinks, the 1970s novel this Anime is adapted towards, but they're not spoilers for the work -- more of things I felt were important to know going into this.
I love B-level disaster movies/series like Japan Sinks 2020, yet I suspect this does not hold true for most individuals. In contrast, A-level disaster movies/series are far more likely to be well-received,
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though even then, there is a specific group for which this genre will never appeal; the disaster genre is, after all, a genre that falls into the category of horror for certain people.
However, why are B-level disaster movies like Japan Sinks not received as well as the A-level ones, when they both follow the same formula of having a ton of death in the end and the endings often leaning towards a particular direction? The answer lies not in how much death occurs but instead in how death is handled. But one of the exciting things regarding Japan Sinks 2020 is that while the series itself is B-level, it is that the source material, from my understanding, is actually A-level; no, I haven't read the original or any of the previous adaptions, but I have done some research.
Based on what I've learned of the original and the other adaptations, which are all set in the 1970s, I can't consider Japan Sinks 2020 a good adaptation of the source material. True, taking an older work and presenting it in a modern setting can be an exciting take on a classic work, but doing this doesn't make the modern adaptation better, and sometimes, doing just this without thinking things through can lead to narrative problems. In this particular case, Japan Sinks 2020 attempts to capture the nuance of the original Japan Sinks, but fails to understand some critical things about the original.
For example, in the first episode, there is a discussion of the work of Tadokoro and Onodera's research and how the theory of Japan sinking is, in effect, debunked, and that is why the theory is held in disdain, while in the original, the research done by the two was held in disdain because Japan at the time of writing Japan Sinks (the original) was behind the times when it came to science, namely plate tectonics wasn't accepted in Japan during the 1970s, with Japan instead accepting a debunked science regarding geology.
Of course, from what I've researched regarding the original, another significant change is the lack of preparedness in the 2020 version, where as in the original, they were given 10 months to evacuate Japan. Of course, if Japan did have ten months to evacuate in 2020 as per the 1970s original, there wouldn't be a disaster movie at all, given how technology has improved since the 70s, yet to achieve this, the scientists are denounced for different reasons, because their work's been debunked, rather than the staunch rejection of their work debunking what was currently accepted as true -- and there is a difference.
Speaking of which, another thing the 2020 adaption does is decide to focus on brand new characters, sidelining the two scientists. This seems to be a trend, one I'm not fond of personally, though I do have to admit that the 2020 adaption does it better than some of the others I've seen, as while they take a background role, they are still important to the overall narrative. And the show did manage to keep some of the original themes through the mixed heritage of the children, and yet while the 2020 version does this well, things should have been kept there; instead, the show goes and stretches the theme out, making it thin, but the reasons for doing so is likely for diversity checkboxes.
Which, diversity isn't a bad thing - it can be good for the plot, which as I said, the children being of mixed ethnicity is actually integral to the plot and does keep one of the original themes intact, but on the other hand diversity shouldn't be put a done as simply a performative act as doing this actually devalues the representation, but I'm actually saying this as someone who isn't white, who is POC over here in the US.
One could argue this time stamps the work. Which, yes, the original is also time-stamped, yet regarding the original, the lack of acceptance of plate technology is actually integral to the plot, whereas the ways this work is time-stamped is less so, unless one considers that Japan Sinks 2020 is actually a direct response to the Fukushima earthquake of 2016, playing with the idea that the 2020 Olympics would bring a level of restored moral to the country, but this is also in vein with a few other works released after 2016 that attempted to boost morals of the general public, and yet...
Isn't it then a failure on the shows part to try and appeal to a global audience outside of Japan for the 2020 version?
Some of the blame I think should be placed on strict guidelines likely placed on the 2020 version of anything streamed on the streaming service "must have this in it", and yet this is I think proof of why these check-boxes are actually detrimental, that this particular piece shouldn't have been made for an American audience when it should have focused on being aimed at the Japanese audience thus being authentic to not only itself, but the original source material, but one of the draws towards Anime of the late is the focus on story over diversity check boxes, favoring diveristy that happens organically, which as I said, the show did well with the mixed-heritage children while missing majorly by overdoing it.
Noted here that this isn't an indictment of what is currently coming out of the steaming service, yet it is still a bit of a mess, but more of a reflection on how things were around 2020, what a lot of American entertainment pushed for without realizing what they doing, yet also pushing these standards I think unfairly on series made outside of America.
Then there is the issue of the deaths, how they seem more for shock value, but the fact the family keeps taking pictures as if they're on vacation with very little to no purpose behind this action -- there is one point where I did find it held merit, but "spoilers" there, the deaths were often not well thought out, played on the stupidity of the characters, although here I do admit it is possible to find a three-foot Japanese yam three-feet underground, which anyone who decides to watch this will understand when they get to that point in the second episode and not think something as crazy as some going in not knowing that think it is, it's--
Well, narratively speaking, too many deaths are deaths that could have been avoided if not for the characters doing stupid things. This is a major thing that sets the B-level apart from the A-level disaster series/movies. It's not to say that A-level doesn't have characters who die from stupid reasons, but these characters aren't the main cast of characters, are side characters who the series presents going in as not being all there, and sometimes this causes the deaths of others as well, which because it was a death caused by someone outside of the group, caries far more weight than had it been caused by the person in the group who died.
In the end, as I said - the not recommended isn't because I don't think this series isn't worth it, but that going into this one should manage one expectations, have an understanding of what they're getting into.
Oh! Speaking of, I also wish to warn that the series utilizes rape for drama purposes. This is meant as a trigger warning and I'll leave it at that to prevent spoilers, but hopefully this will help others determine whether this series is for them or not, whether it is worth their time to pick up, because I think anybody looking for an A-level disaster series/movie that takes itself seriously will be disapointed, but anybody looking to laugh will be fine -- expect for maybe the rape for drama part, which I see being a turn off for many.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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