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I’m just going to say that this is just BL trash, straight and to the point. The art is fine, music is nothing special, and the story is basically nonsense. So why would I consider it fine? Well because for 9 minutes you get ridiculous dialogue and outlandish forbidden techniques to add a little salt to an already weird show. The voice acting also adds some nice spice to the overall BL caricature that is this show. Hate it if you want to, but for me it was a pretty fun watch for the time spent.

This review needs more information! So Ill put ... in more stuff:
-Is the story unique? Probably not
-did you enjoy it anyways? Yes
-do you think the art style is fitting for the story? the art style was fine for what the creators were going for

Ok that should be enough additional info

Bocchi the Rock is pretty good. It has a nice mix of humor from time to time, and Bocchi often does more to push herself forward when it matters. The humor is pretty good. The art direction is enjoyable, and the quality put into the show is clear with every episode.

But that's not what makes me rate the show what I did.

With NANA, Sakamichi no Apollon, and Given, music means much more than it did in Bocchi the Rock. In SnA and Given, characters conversed to each other with music, and that is what often gave the two shows larger staying power for ... me. Music as not some way to express a moment of youth and aspiration, but to actually open up to someone or to others by speaking to them with timings, jams, and "locking-in" to the general groove and direction everyone playing is feeling. Bocchi the Rock doesn't carry that same feeling. Bocchi doesn't have a musical conversation with anyone she's playing with. She's just playing with them and hoping to play her role in the group and hope they all can make some meaningful memories. Yes, she does muster up courage and takes charge, but it's mostly when she feels the need to carry the band through their inadequacies rather than make a musical break and organically jam with them. And that's fine and all, but with someone as introverted as her, it feels like wasted potential to not have her experience musical conversations similar to SnA and Given and lock-in with the people she plays with. Instead, she's an introverted girl in an anime landscape of introverted girls where "they dreamed they could so they did" but cuts herself short of becoming something greater, and really something more meaningful.

All of that being said, it's a show I would recommend since a LOT of people really like everything going for it, and with the popularity it has now, when another season pops up, hopefully Bocchi can actually "talk" to someone.

The idea of one part of society forced to fight while the other basks in the peace is one I didn't latch onto. Milize is too much of an idealist, and that strong sense of justice for the soldiers in the 86th division is warranted but delivered in a way I didn't like throughout this part.

And that's really all I can think of when it comes to what I didn't like.

Because everything else, I think, is objectively really good.

The interactions between Milize and the 86 squad is the strongest carry of this part. To watch Milize's initial beliefs of and ideas for ... the 86 squadron crumble as the moments of the show unfold, as well as her general growth to understanding what she could do within the world she lives in, was enjoyable to watch. Then, of course, is the 86th squadron itself. In spite of the situation everyone there is in, everyone in the squad adheres that one bible verse that says "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomarrow we die". And in the space between where Milize fits in to that dynamic, the show really takes things to the level I think everyone seems to love it for.

It's at this point where I get off the train.

Because as highly as I rate the show, it was difficult for me to finish it. I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed the character interactions, and the art of the show is stellar...but I want you the reader to indulge this reviewer who is thankful for you taking the time to read his spur of the moment review away from the highly rated reviews above. I would say...mmmm... about 10 years ago if I had experienced this show, it would have been in my masterpiece collection or at least would have been considered great. I watched this show, and it checked every box of things I would have loved to have seen then. But I'm not there anymore. I can't look at a show like this and hate it, but at the same time...I can't love it like I should. Don't get things twisted. This doesn't fall into the requires-Evanescence-Bring-Me-to-Life-to-properly-enjoy genre of anime (make of that what you will). But there is certainly a kind of pain I felt that permeated throughout the show that I don't want to feel anymore.

Overall, 86 is definitely a very good show that I think you will enjoy, but not one I'll likely jump back into...

So, here we have a movie preaching about the malignant tumor that is humanity and how it will ultimately face the same fate as the prehistoric in the movie...if they don't empathize with each other

Well...alright I guess I'll go into more details, and sound less cynical

Here's a 1970s anime movie about some kids transported into the past to observe how the creatures that once roamed the planet lived their brutal, primitive, daily lives

The music is pretty nice, and I would say it kinda has that evangelion feeling where soft sad music plays while the brutal stuff goes on in the background. The kids are ... alright as characters, but they don't really add anything really (Chobi's that pretty annoying bratty character all those older shows always seem to have). The pet dinosaur mascot's...uh well alright if you like that kind of thing.

Not a particular fascinating movie, but if you happen to have about an hour to kill and haven't really seen anything related to dinosaurs in anime in a long time or feel like watching a 70s anime, this movie can be an entertaining watch or something to play in the background

The movie starts and seems interesting at first with the initial worldbuilding. Fast forward to Shion in the classroom, and the moment she starts singing, and says "...are you happy yet?"...I let out a deep groan...I thought to myself, "(sigh)...well since I'm here, I'll just finish this thing and clean this out of my system later..."

And as the movie progressed.... My expectations were flipped, and I ended up incredibly satisfied.

The singing and the music score really does make Ai no Utagoe wo Kikasete feel like a Disney movie, and I'm not a Disney movie fan whatsoever. In fact I basically despise Disney movies and ... singing in movies in general. But the progression and the ever tightening story with Shion basically changing the characters as the movie progressed made me start to enjoy the movie a lot, to the point where the singing and music score augmented the feeling of the movie! Impossible!! But I enjoyed it once I started to see where everything was going.

And the climax...that's what basically brought everything together and made this an incredible movie. Towards the end, it felt like those sad Thai commercials on YouTube I used to intentionally make myself cry with back in the day, but more wholesome though, lol...

Really though, if the musical feel and the music score feels like something you'll probably hate and regret spending time on, I highly suggest you keep going with this movie. It will genuinely surprise you.

8/10

Ahhhh, what a mess.

Apart trying to be preachy with its contrived messages, it's pretty clear that this show was more of an afterthought compared to the other two shows that aired from Cloverworks in the Winter 2022 season. Not even the talented, well-known seiyuus in the cast could save how bland the show became.

I can imagine a conversation in the office like this: you have one week to give me a decent show we can air just because. And someone just happen to have a book for every character you would need for the current social landscape. And there you go (I really don't ... have much more to say...I'm just trying to fill up space to post the review...)

This show is the worst show of the Winter 2022 season. Or among the worst.

I loved the art direction and the music at times. Everything looked and sounded nice.

But really, if you seen enough anime, you could probably tell that it must have been amateur hour for character writing, because the characters are BLAND. The delivery of what they were saying wasn't the problem (most of the time), I liked the natural neutral delivery (most of the time). It was the dialogue pace. When you would expect a dramatic/introspective pause, the characters would keep talking and what they would say was supposed to make you feel something. This disconnected me from feeling what the characters were feeling, and it ... was the main thing that basically ruined the film for me. Also because of the dialogue pace, the rather deadpan neutral vocal delivery that I previously mentioned I like would then make the characters bland overall once you notice it and continue to make me not care much for the film. It was also jarring for me because Shimazaki Nobunaga was there and I expected him to add the Shimazaki Nobunaga flare I remember from Fruits Basket....but if you didn't look at the cast you wouldn't have known he was there.

The art direction, music at times is what kept this movie from being genuinely bad. But really, this movie will help you know what poor character dialogue pace is like

Hey you! Want to take a walk on the wild side? Well this show is wild...in some aspects. At least that was what the initial draw for it was. But really, apart from sealife springing forth from the desert and traditional sexual inuendo timpani sounds following the emergent blooming of mushrooms...the show is as average as it gets...and it gets worse the further you move along especially towards the end.

it wasn't all average and it did have some out-there ideas. But you have your token bad guy, token good guy, token waifu badass, token crusty teacher, token loud partner, token ambiguous support character...you could ... trade in the amount of tokens in the show for a large stuffed bear.

Overall, pick up the art book if one exists and that might be more exciting.

This show has been hyped up due to one character: Marin Kitagawa. She basically carried the show with her behavior and attitude, while Gojo just floundered around trying to figure out what to do with her as well as give her all the cosplay help she needed. I did not think the show really had much of a character dynamic and eventually Marin's positive contributions she had early on started to slow down as well once she started seeing Gojo differently. Its unfortunate that she basically brought it all together in the last episode. If she had that last episode energy throughout the whole show, ... I think this would have been much better overall.

But instead, we had a doll maker, working outside his wheelhouse and doing the whole introverted, I'm with a pretty girl, I want to help her, but she kinda teases me (but not teasing him enough) sort of thing.

The ecchi in the show was quite enjoyable though

This is the first BL show I've ever seen and it definitely left an impression. What started as something of an experiment to sort of expand my horizons offered quite a bit more than what I expected. I won't say that it was life changing, but when the two leads kept questioning whether they liked each other and that DAMN PIANO plays...the show hit harder than anything else in the winter 2022 season had to offer in its tenderness. Its just that everything in between dragged the show on, but not too terribly.

If you are patient, and are looking for a first BL show ... or maybe something to expand your horizons of anime viewing pleasure, Sasaki to Miyano can offer you something quite different

and at times, something quite tender