***Review Contains Light Spoilers*****
I give the first 4 seasons a 8/10. Please note I am going to do a more in-depth review of this later. But if you want my thoughts for right now… I thought that the first 125 episodes were extremely enjoyable. I loved the chemistry amongst our four main heroes. I loved Natsu and how much of a positive role model he was. I understand that may annoy plenty of viewers, but given how dark and pessimistic life can be I found the main character’s determination and passion for his friends to be quite endearing. Erza is probably my favorite character. She’s
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hilarious and so badass at the same time. Grey while definitely a cliché character, was executed quite well and his sarcastic personality had excellent synergy with the rest of the cast. And his romantic banter with Juvia was adorable and hilarious. Even Lucy was likable. I understand that she at her core a fan service character… But I like that she was actually funny and had a surprisingly fun backstory. I liked how the first season really was her trial by fire and she sort of learn to become a member of fairy tail. And by the end of season four, you really feel like that she’s a part of this family have a guild and it’s quite heartwarming.
As for the first for a couple of arcs, I thought they were used surprisingly well in the action scenes that accompanied them were really fun. My personal favorite storylines were “The Phantom” arc, “The Tower of Heaven” arc, “The Edolas” arc and the “S-Class Trial” arc. I like these arcs quite a bit because they did a fantastic job of developing the main cast while also feeling distinct from one another. It kept things fresh and dynamic. Now I will stress that none of these storylines are mind blowing in terms of “excellent writing”… But they were extremely fun to watch. It definitely is a nice distraction from how dark and pessimistic the real world can be. Again I stress I am not going to spoil anything so I’m not going to go into specifics regarding any of these arcs. So you will just have to take my word for it.
Other thing worth mentioning was the surprisingly strong voice acting within the first 125 episodes. They had a lot of charm and charisma to the characters. It made the jokes land even harder then they otherwise would have. To illustrate this point, I actually tried reading the manga version…. And I found it not even remotely as enjoyable if only because the voice acting wasn’t present. That’s how much the voice acting enhance the show. I think the voice acting for Natsu, Ezra, and Lucy, and Juvia in particular was very good and will probably stick with me for a very long time.
Unfortunately, the rest of the show is an absolute dumpster fire and it breaks my heart to say that. Season 5 felt like a horrible video game plot. To avoid spoilers, I’m just gonna say that the entire plot was just a hunt for McGuffins. It also introduced a character (Michelle) into Lucy’s backstory that had no previous existence, and the way that that was interwoven with the preestablished history with the character was very tacked on and poorly executed. It also brought back a whole bunch of villains from past seasons for absolutely zero reason and their redesigns were about as bland and forgettable as you can imagine. Seriously, the design for the main villain of that season literally look like a rejected concept design from “kingdom hearts”. On top of that, even some of the conversations between Lucy and Michelle felt like generic dialogue between NPCs from some of the earlier Final Fantasy games (e.g I and III) rather than anything that was supposed to spark an emotional response from people.
Season 6 redefines the phase “missed-potential” and so disappointing that I could not even get past the halfway point. I’m trying to avoid giving spoilers but it’s gonna be a bit tough to explain this. Essentially, they wasted a villain that they were building up in the first half of that season. And the way that they were defeated it was incredibly contrived and it definitely crippled my enjoyment of the story. And also a lot of the fights especially in that second half were incredibly lame. An example would be when Erza had to defeat 100 monsters. The reason that this was such a lame segment in the story was because it was a task that was well within her capabilities… So the tension was practically nonexistent. And once again, the choreography was absolutely bland and forgettable. Even really even see her defeat the enemies really… It just happens through a very mediocre montage that fails to generate any sort of excitement. The only part of that season that I enjoyed was the opening song at the start of the first half… Which hits different not gonna lie!
Why am I giving fairytale an eight out of 10 on this website? I say that because each season of the show stands on its own. It’s not like say “Game of Thrones” or “Dexter” where one’s enjoyment hinges on how much they liked the ending. The beautiful thing about this series is that you can stop watching it any time and still get enjoyment out of it despite not loving every season. And given that the first four seasons are enjoyable regardless of how bad the later seasons are… I can separate the parts I like from the parts I cannot with no effort.
If I were to summarize the show as a whole I think my best analogy would be this:
Imagine if someone were to get on a stage and tell a joke that was surprisingly funny and clever. It gets an a large chuckle from the audience and everyone’s having a good time. Now that same person (rather than doing the sensible thing and quitting while he’s ahead) decides to explain why the joke is funny and tries desperately to upstage himself. Of course, he fails and the entire performance is ruined and everyone just leaves in awkward silence.
With this in mind, I would give the show as a whole a four out of 10 if I were to include the seasons I did not like into this assessment. But since each season stands on its own, I will just simply pretend that seasons five through nine don’t exist and just have all of the fond memories of the first four seasons remain with me.
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Mar 30, 2022
Fairy Tail
(Anime)
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(125/175 eps)
***Review Contains Light Spoilers*****
I give the first 4 seasons a 8/10. Please note I am going to do a more in-depth review of this later. But if you want my thoughts for right now… I thought that the first 125 episodes were extremely enjoyable. I loved the chemistry amongst our four main heroes. I loved Natsu and how much of a positive role model he was. I understand that may annoy plenty of viewers, but given how dark and pessimistic life can be I found the main character’s determination and passion for his friends to be quite endearing. Erza is probably my favorite character. She’s ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 17, 2022
Tokyo Ghoul
(Manga)
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Mixed Feelings
****Warning there are Mild Spoilers******
Well that was something I guess….. Make no mistake, I did enjoy reading it (11 out the 14 volumes to be exact. But that ending (and the final battle in general) though made no sense whatsoever. It’s not like I didn’t like it, but it was definitely not satisfying and it didn’t really give me closure. So let’s get into the stuff I did like: Ken Kaneki’s character arc was nothing short of incredible. If I was grading this thing based strictly on his end of things, I give the manga 9 out of 10. I love how it goes from this reclusive ... weakling of a bookworm into someone that wants to get stronger. And I love how it explores his psyche throughout the course of the series. It gave a lot of nuance to his need to protecting other people. It came less out of something altruistic and we’re having unselfish need to not be alone. And the way that this was interwoven with his trauma of his somewhat neglected upbringing was truly tragic to watch and have me invested all the way to the end. And his death scene was a perfect cap off to this character arc, as he realizes he own hypocrisy in his chase for ultimate power and that he ultimately regrets the person he’s become. I also thought that the art was really good. I think it gave a lot of emotional punch to almost every single scene. It’s nice to look at, it’s used effectively, and it matches the tone of the story being told. I also liked the world building quite a bit. I loved how there was an entire stigma towards being a ghoul and that there was a specialized police force, called “Doves”, designed to hunt down such creatures. I love how not all doves were entirely good and that the ghouls were not entirely evil. It was a nice subversion because normally the ghouls would be considered the villains. And the fact that it showed a much more nuanced version of this dichotomy was both welcome and insanely enjoyable to watch. For example, not all ghouls are the same. Some are extremely peaceful and look for non-murderous sources for their sustenance. Others function more as rogue sillier killers. However there’s a separate organization, Aogiri, that actively trying to wage a war with the Doves with brutal tactics (thus functions as a tertiary antagonist). I also thought it was cool how even humans and ghouls could have intimate relationships. And that there was a lot of complications that would have said was an obstacle for such a dynamic. And I think the way that the manga explores was great. Unfortunately that’s where the positives largely end. The biggest reason why I can’t say that this manga is the best thing ever made is because there is way too many characters. This is particularly noticeable with the “Doves” portion of the story. If I had a nickel every time they introduced a “special investigator”, I’d be a billionaire. Seriously, there’s like 1 million of these guys and I didn’t care for most of them. Yes, I thought Amon, Mado and his daughter, and Juzu were fine… But the rest are just bland and forgettable. I can’t even remember most of their names or even what their back stories were. It really cuts the story thin because a lot of these guys die during the last three volumes and I felt nothing for them. I understand that they were trying to give the feeling that the “Doves” was this really large organization that had many different members, sections, and subsections… But they failed to do so in a way that didn’t just feel incredibly dragged out yet simultaneously being so uninformative. And this is where I think the six part saga Star Wars by George Lucas did much better. With the Jedi order, the writers chose wisely to focus on only one or two Jedi at any given time so that we could grow more attached to them. And even when new Jedi are featured in the story, they would be only explored and analyzed through the eyes of the main character at that point in the narrative. This is helpful because we have a frame of reference to compare the supporting cast too. However, Tokyo Ghoul fails to do this. Rather than having one private investigator be the focus of that part of the story, the narrative tries and fails to focus on all of them. This causes Amon (a character that I really enjoyed by the way) to get lost in his own subplot. This issue ricochets into a bunch of other smaller problems over the course of the series because it makes the larger story a little bit hard to keep track of. For example there is this ghoul called “The Owl” that the “Doves” were looking for. This is introduced via throwaway lines from the “special investigators” during the Aogiri arc. However, this was a poor way to introduce what would become a vital plot point because I already had a very difficult time keeping track of all the other “Doves”. Thus, a significant revelation gets lost within a haystack of other meaningless junk. I also didn’t like that a lot of Ken’s friends were pointless. Touka was a massive example of this. Yes, she did teach him how to fight during I believe the first four or five volumes of the story. But after that, she does nothing of importance the story. In fact, both of these characters only meet once before the final battle and that’s it. The story could’ve killed her off prior to the final battle, and nothing would change. Yes, that would be one less character that Ken would have in his friend group…but any one of those friends could have filled the role that Touka does after the Aogiri arc. You could also apply this to The Gourmet as well since he is just a glorified cheerleader for Ken after being defeated by him. My other issue is with the old guy that runs the cafe designed to shelter ghouls. It is a plot twist that apparently he was the father of “The Owl”, that he founded the Aogiri originally, and that he worked for this “secret organization” that ends up killing his human wife. To put it bluntly, absolutely none of this was fleshed out in anyway that I found plausible and the overall execution felt contrived as hell. I honestly think that there was no reason to connect this character is such a ridiculous backstory. Couldn’t the old guy just be an ordinary ghoul that helps Ken grow as a character instead of a stupid mystery box?! Another massive gripe I have is that there’s way too many factions in this story but almost none of them matter during the stories climax. You have the “Doves”, the Aogiri, Dr.Kane and his artificial ghoul twins, and the people running the cafe. Only the first and last entries on that list actually matter. The other two just sort of just vanish. I know the doctor and at least one of the twins survived, and I know most of the Aogiri leadership survived their story arc… So why the hell were they not in the story’s climax?! It doesn’t even bother to explain it in a way that makes sense. Now, some people are going to defend this creative decision by explaining that this series has a sequel -Tokyo Ghoul: RE – that would potentially answer some of these questions. And I think that’s a dumb argument because I shouldn’t need to consult any outside material to make sense of the current story. For example, “The Empire Strikes Back” still makes sense narratively speaking even if “Return of the Jedi” didn’t exist. Yes, there were loose ends in that movie that are addressed in the sequel, but that’s entirely different from making sense of plot points that didn’t make sense previously. In other words, I shouldn’t have to watch Tokyo Ghoul: RE to understand Tokyo Ghoul. And even then, this is still a moot point because Ken dies in Tokyo Ghoul in such a way where the story really does feel over. My point is that Tokyo Ghoul: Re would obviously feel like a pointless sequel rather than an authentic extension of its predecessor. And if it was supposed to be one big story, why not just have Tokyo Ghoul: RE be in the same series as Tokyo Ghoul?! And this leads into probably why I end up not enjoying this series nearly as much as I could have… The final battle was overdone. There were way too many characters to keep track of and I honestly didn’t care about most of them. Seriously there was these two ghouls known as the Monkey and [Holy crap I forgot the name of the other one] that were defending the café from the “Doves”. And the story acts like it’s this big tragic thing. But I was bored because I had no sense of who these characters were, what their stake was in this conflict, and why they were even there. It would’ve been nice if they actually had any real importance to the story leading up to this conflict, but they don’t. They barely have any screen time at any point prior to this, and their deaths are as hollow as humanly possible. And even the “Doves” have this issue too. A lot of them are just faceless/forgettable characters that barely got any development. So the entire conflict most of the time felt like two armies of characters I didn’t care about. And given that this was supposed to be the climax of the story, that’s not a good sign. And even with that aside, I thought the battle itself was so over the top and edgy but I actually thought it was kind of funny. If you thought people in Star Wars lost their limbs too often, just wait until you see this. People are actively getting their hands, legs, and heads chopped off constantly in this final battle. The reason that it’s particularly jarring is because there wasn’t this much dismemberment during any of the other battles/fights throughout the course of this series. So this fight feels disproportionately and feels totally inconsistent with the rest of the series. I get that it’s the climax, but it feels like the writer just wanted to make everything extra bloody to give the illusion of any of this was impactful. It very much rhymes with the whole “bigger is better approach”. In other words, I could totally see the writer thinking to himself “if I put a lot of blood and dismemberment into this part of the story, then it will automatically be well written!” It doesn’t work like that. You have to have characters you can connect to… Which this battle doesn’t have most of the time. Yeah I could go on all day but why the final battle was absolutely nonsensical… But I think I’ll just stop here. Overall the manga was fine. It had a really strong start and a pretty solid middle part, but it took a huge nose dive towards the end to the point where I can’t even take it seriously. If I had to guess why so many people love this manga series… I would guess it was due to Ken’s amazing character arc, the strong arc style, and the great action scenes. I mean I guess if you turn your brain off and you don’t think too much about it, it is really good. But if you actually dig into the writing of this thing… You’re gonna be in for a rude awakening. As for my own personal verdict, I thought it was OK. It’s 3.43/5.00 stars for me. If you want more reviews like this, please click here: https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 4, 2022
Steins;Gate
(Anime)
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***Warning Spoilers!!!******
I’m not gonna lie, this show was bloody fantastic. I mean I thought the show was going to be so overrated when I first watched it which is why I held off from it for so long. But after seeing it, I was able to safely put down my doubts as the show is every bit as deserving of its critical acclaim status that it has now. I think the best thing about the show is the characters and how they were utilized. Okabe’s character arc was beautifully crafted I was hooked from start to finish. I really liked his transformation from this childish mad ... scientist into this mature adult that has been seasoned by many of the atrocities that he has suffered throughout the show. I just found him to be incredibly likable as well. He pretends that he’s in this fantasy world for most of the first chunk of the series in an attempt to make his life seem more exciting. Specifically, he pretends that there is this organization trying to undermine his efforts as he pretends to bring the world to its knees. I found this endearing as many of us pretend to role-play fictional characters that we see in fiction and attempt to make our own lives seem less Mandane. Mayuri’s constant tragedy was quite heartbreaking because seeing our main character constantly trying to save her and constantly failing really added to the overall agency of the story. I also really loved how the main character had so much chemistry with Christina and how they went from these sorts of reluctant friends to deep lovers was beautifully handled. They had a lot of chemistry and their back-and-forth was really enjoyable for me. I think my favorite moments with these characters were when Okabe kept calling Christina “the zombie” and “the assistant” because the way that she keeps getting frustrated was cute. Though I would say even more than that, I like how Okabe and Daru straight called her a tsundere. It was just really funny because it highlighted the show does not take itself too seriously but still manages to get you deeply invested into its emotional drama. I also like Daru as the comic relief character, I know his jokes regularly pretty dumb but they were just well-executed. I liked his sexual innuendos. I love the part where he kept giving Okabe deeply misguided advice on dating based on his own dating experience in hentai flavored dating games. I also loved Amane’s arc in this. I know her arc on paper it’s kind of cliché since she is essentially the quintessential time travel character but I really liked the way how she was executed. I like the plot twist that she was the daughter of Daru, and how she had all this bonding time with the rest of the lab team. And watching her goal really hit me emotionally. Additionally, I just like the story. I know I’m being kind of vague but the show is so good that there’s really not much to say. The show has this way of balancing tones. The show can make you burst out laughing sometimes, yet it can also be deathly serious and really pull you by the heartstrings without coming off as inconsistent or tone-deaf. The show does a great job of hyping up its mysteries while providing answers to them. The biggest problem with the whole mystery box approach is that disregards any sort of planning and that usually the actual answers to story building questions a very underwhelming way. Thankfully this is not the case as by the end of it everything mostly makes sense and only makes later episodes even better instead of redundant or even unnecessary. My only real question is how do the Rounders fit in all of this. I have a feeling that they work for STERN but I don’t think the show really clarifies that. But like I said since I was enjoying the story overall and how each of these characters interacts with each other, I don’t really mind if somethings were not as well explained if the overall story still makes sense. I also found the death of Moeka at the hands of FB incredibly sad since all she wanted to and accomplish was impress the only person that took her in. And even the opening was good. Outside of Parasyte and Death Note, this is probably the only anime opening that I actively enjoy it just as much as the show itself. In fact, I actually don’t skip the intro sometimes just because of how great the opening theme is. Another thing worth noting was that it was able to make the transition from video game to the small screen of television rather seamlessly. For those of you who don’t know, this show was actually based on a video game (specifically a visual novel) of the same name. But yet the show was able to adapt the events of the game without actually feeling like a video game when you watch it. This was a big problem with a show like Clannad which felt like a bunch of different routes from its visual novel counterpart smashed together without quite the elegance necessary to make it seem as cohesive as it could’ve been (especially towards the end). Thankfully this is not the case with Steins Gate, as it was executed so well that it does not feel like it was adapted from something else. I also really like the aesthetic that the show has; it kind of reminds me of a lot of the shows that used to pop up on Cartoon Network at night during the early 2000s. And I consider that a very good thing because a lot of my favorite shows such as The Clone Wars (2003) and Teen Titans were active during those time frames. Because they kind of gave off that quirky yet profound sense of art direction that I just can’t quite explain. It just gives me a very classic high-quality Cartoon Network vibe that I can’t help but smile at. I wouldn’t be the surprise of the show did feature on Cartoon Network at some point in its life cycle. Though I could be wrong about that....but still I feel like the show is right at home with them. Now one thing I should mention before ending this review is that there is actually a sequel show to the show called "Steins Gate; Zero". I am too scared to watch that show because I have seen far too many shows that have a great first season and then just completely go down the gutter in the second season. Take "Love and Other Delusions" for example. With that show, it had a very complete first season that told a very heartbreaking story about embracing your own inner nerd while still being considered cool. Yet the second season largely was unnecessary and just completely undermines everything that was established in the first. And I have a scary feeling that "Steins Gate; Zero" might potentially do something similar. I say that because this show had a very definitive ending. It had a clear start and finish that was beautifully crafted and doesn’t leave much room for potential sequels. So I guess I’m trying to say that the only flaw I have with the show is that I am scared that the sequel show might not live up to how awesome this particular show is. Final Verdict Overall I love this anime so damn much. I love the art direction since it felt very nostalgic to me. I love the opening since it was so good that I would listen to it over and over again. I love the characters and Okabe’s transformation from childish mad scientist to seasoned adult was quite believable and heartbreaking. I also liked the fact that a lot of the mysteries that the show set up actually had satisfying answers instead of just being overhyped and mysteries that either went nowhere or just felt cheap or contrived. In conclusion. I give the show 4.85/5.00 stars - A fantastic anime that easily ranks among some of the best I’ve ever seen of the genre. The show is right up there as one of my favorite animes ever. I will usually put the show (mentally) on the same shelf as Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Parasyte, Promised Neverland, Kill La Kill, and the rest of the anime that I hold in high regard. If you want more reviews from me, please click here: https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 4, 2022
Kyokou Suiri
(Anime)
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Recommended
Honestly the show wasn’t even that bad. I actually liked the mystery and overall story quite nicely and it’s definitely one of the best things about it. The art style was competent I thought that the opening theme song for each episode was pretty enjoyable. However I thought the characters were extremely flat since they had very little personality and the English voice acting was laughably bad. I give the show 3.65/5.00 stars and referred to it as a decidedly OK show that is pulled down from being considered something truly great. But it’s all right for what’s trying to do and I’m glad I
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finished it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 2, 2022
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
(Anime)
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Recommended Spoiler
***Warning there are Major Spoilers"*****
The first thing I loved about the story was how the main character was developed. I loved her transformation from this detached and disenfranchised individual into someone that deeply cared for those around her. The way that that she grows more attached to her younger brother throughout the course of the narrative was beautifully executed in achieving this effect. What helps particularly is the strong chemistry between them. They managed to make the younger brother from someone that could’ve easily been an annoying/forgettable character into someone that I deeply cared for. And when it turns out that he actually passed away, ... it hit me like a thunderbolt. And the pain that the protagonist feels and how she learns to move past it was quite beautiful to say the least. And I loved how the story found ways to teach the protagonist the merits of having a positive attitude, thus forcing her to develop as she slowly discards her pessimistic worldview. She sees that despite how bad things get during this crisis, there are many people still striving to do good for those around them despite how much they’ve suffered. I think the two grieving grandparent characters taking in refugees at the midpoint in the series really illustrated this idea quite well. I also thought Hina’s commitment to protecting our two main characters was also really helpful in this regard since she served as a strong role model for them to mold themselves after. Now many people might be quick to point out that the main character is insufferable due to how negative she is at the start of the series. Personally, I think that this is actually a good thing since it gives her an excellent starting point for her development. And given that her initial frustration at her relatively boring existence is something that we can all relate to at some point or another, makes her development even more powerful since her becoming more endearing is now part of her character arc. The second thing I really enjoyed about the show was the chemistry between Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the show did an excellent job of endearing me to these three characters. I think that the humorous banter between them was extremely enjoyable, and the more serious dramatic moments fed into these enough that they actually felt substantive in nature. You can really get the sense that despite their horrendous situation, they do form a sort of tight-knit family by the end of it. I think what really solidified the sentiment was the scene where our two main heroes try to get a bike for Mari so she could rescue her own family despite the risks involved. I also liked the scene earlier on in the series where Mari gives away her own daughter’s birthday cake to our protagonist so she can ensure they don’t go hungry under the bridge. It scenes like this that convinced me that these three were friends and that the journey that they were going on would feel real. The other thing I really enjoyed what is the show’s art direction. In fact, as shallow as it is for me to say, I think what drew me to watching the TV show in the first place was how good it looked. When I saw the cover for the show, I was amazed as it almost looks like a high budget anime movie made a few years ago. When I realize that it was actually a TV show that was made all the way back in 2009, that only peaked my curiosity even further. And I will say that the animation is for the most part pretty good. I think the shot that I point to was when Mirai hugs Mari during her moment of grief. The lighting was done rather well given how old the show is, and the animation in general did a great job of expressing the emotional shock that that scene would entail. And this is generally true across the entire series. However I will say that it does have its flaws visually. I think that some of the CGI used in this program was glaringly obvious… but even then most of it was done decently enough that it didn’t actively ruin the experience. If it wasn’t for that though, it say that the show is almost perfect visually. I also praise the tonal maturity of this series. They could’ve easily had this program be an incredibly edgy hentai fest that lacked any sort of subtle as action scenes are water-boarded into our eyes. Instead, “Tokyo Magnitude 8.0,” chose instead to have a much more grounded experience. Given the times that we live in, I’m actually happy that the show chose instead to give us a more optimistic view of what would happen during such a tragedy. The setting of the series didn’t just devolve into an apocalypse where people get molested and murdered on a whim. And that would make sense… Since I imagine Tokyo gets earthquakes quite often so it would make sense that it would have the infrastructure to withstand something like this. Yeah it would still suck for them to have an earthquake, but the country of Japan wouldn’t just devolve into “The Walking Dead” levels of chaos. And seeing how the show chose to skip past the whole “the real enemy is us“ cliche put a huge smile on my face since this idea has been drastically overdone. In general, I would like to think that most people are holistically good and that it’s only a very small portion of people that go around wanting society to burn. That doesn’t mean absolutely “everybody” is a good person, but I refuse to believe that most people would become homicidal maniacs in the midst of a crisis big or small. Sure in such a situation, some people might become more hostile -as we see even early on in the series- but they wouldn’t suddenly turn to cannibalism or anything. Another aspect of this show that I love is how short it is. I think the biggest problem with a lot of anime is that they extend the runtime for far too long. Being concise is really important. Obviously I’m not proposing that every anime be a measly five minutes long… But I think that there should be a focus on having the story be as long or as short as it needs to be in order for it to be effective. This was a big problem with “Monster”, which admittedly had only about two hours of actual plot despite being a whopping 74 episodes! Meaning that the story basically experienced no development for agonizing periods of time. My point is that “Tokyo magnitude 8.0“ could’ve done something similar. Specifically, the show could’ve introduced a morally depraved villain at the end of season one, and then spend all of that hypothetical season to defeating that villain… only for the writers to introduce another super evil bad guy at the end. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, the show doesn’t do that. It has a strong character arc for its main cast, let’s it reaches inevitable conclusion without any sort of ridiculous plot contrivance, and then lets the show end on a high note. And I applaud to show for its brevity! And now I wanna get to probably the biggest reason why I love the show: the execution of Yuuki-Kun. To put it bluntly, I was emotionally destroyed by that scene. And I think that the biggest reason why was because the show did an excellent job of making me care for the little guy. And he only wanted to make his family happy. He was sort of the beacon of hope for the rest of the team so seeing him get denied of the rest of his life was devastating. What makes it even more painful is that Yuuki still tries to give his big sister the moral support to keep going rather than despairing his own disposition. And to be honest, I honestly didn’t see it coming. There is a cliché with a lot of these disaster movie type stories is that almost everybody that matters lives. For example, none of the core family members in “2012” or “Day After Tomorrow” perish. Yet in the show, they actually had the guts to pull the trigger without coming off as shallow or insincere. It did the smart thing of getting us to care about the characters and then rip the mat under us in the most profound way in a way that actually makes sense. And the fact that Mirai was in denial about all of this made things even more heartbreaking. What makes it even more beautiful is that the show doesn’t try to bring Yuuki back to life like “Pokémon Adventures: Ruby and Sapphire” and “Clannad” did with their characters. And on that front, I am proud of the show! Negatives: Not much to say on this front. The only thing I could say they didn’t like about the show was that some of the CGI did stand out. It wasn’t a big issue, but it did somewhat ruin the otherwise excellent visuals. Final Verdict: Overall, I absolutely love the show. For one thing it has excellent character development. For another, it has very strong chemistry amongst its cast. Furthermore, it has strong visuals and a surprising level of maturity in its execution of its narrative. Some out of place and dated CGI aside, this show was a must watch. I give it 4.56/5.00 – a triumph. If you want more reviews from me, please click here: https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 2, 2022
Shinseiki Evangelion
(Anime)
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***Warning there are Major Spoilers for both the Show and "The End of Evangelion".*****
The first thing I liked about the show was its aesthetic. To put it bluntly both the visual style of the film, and the show are incredible. It’s full of charm and it’s full of life. I especially like the art design for a Asuka, Misato, and Rei. They look aesthetically pleasing for sure. And the 90’s aesthetic definitely gives them a very Pokemon like feel that makes them certainly feel more alive and expressive than they would have been if the directors had used a more contemporary art style. The robots themselves ... look excellent and it definitely gives off a very classy anime vibe that honestly is quite a rarity nowadays. However, I think that the art is not perfect, mainly because the budget towards the second half of the series started to dwindle, and they started relying more on still frames rather than on truly animated set pieces. In other words, the second half of the series, especially towards the end, felt less like an anime and felt more like a slideshow with characters talking over the footage slash pictures. Thankfully, this wasn’t as big of a problem as the show was still able to make use of its limited budget to still tell a decent story, but it’s definitely noticeable enough that it does take a hit or two, but it doesn’t necessarily cripple the show for me. The movie meanwhile improves a lot of these things while retaining the original art style, the animations are fluid solid and the characters are aesthetically pleasing. The second thing I liked about the show was the voice acting. Again, there’s not a whole lot to report on this part but I think every one of the actors did a great job of what they were given. I think the voice acting for Akira and Misato was honestly quite wonderful and combined with the way that they’re drawn. In fact, the entire cast in general did a great job of conveying the emotional resonance that’s needed for each individual scene. And everyone sounds exactly the way they should be sound unique and visually, and pleasing to the ear. And then we get to the story, which for this part we are gonna review the story in three sections: the beginning, middle and end. The beginning part of the story was really cool, in that it felt like your average action show with the added plot twist of focusing more on the mentality and inner workings of our characters. The story does a great job of capturing the inner conflict of Shinji and how he wants validation from Gendou as he goes about fighting various monsters, while simultaneously going out and bonding with both Akira and Rei. I just love the way the story was able to balance action with solid character development. It was incredibly satisfying watching as our young hero kind of rose through the ranks and went from being nobody to being cool. It definitely made me wonder just how this character was going to go. Was he going to give into his despair, or is he was he going to truly live up to the hype that he’s setting up for himself? And I liked how he wasn’t completely a Gary Stew? Sure some of his victories do seem a little contrived here and there, but the fact that he’s looking less for external validation and more for internal validation within himself makes it really interesting because it shows that although he can win against any monster potentially, he’ll never feel happy and thus his fight for self validation and his sense of self worth is constantly a losing battle for him. So like I really liked how they solved the potential issue of Shinji being a Gary Stew by having him be meek and pathetic. But they also did a great job of showing how a character like that could potentially evolve and change, and the beginning of that show did really well. I really like how Misato serves as a mentor for him, and just how she tried to push him in the right direction while also showing a lot of her own flaws as well. She also struggled with being neglected by her parents and is struggle with the survivor’s guilt of being saved by the father that she must definitively despised yet also wants to emulate. It’s set up the events that are to come quite nicely and it really gives the impression that things could end very poorly for the protagonist. This injects the show with a highly effective sense of tension and drama. Then the second half of the show happened and that’s where things both went up and down hill. In other words, this is where both the best and the worst aspect of the show really came into play. The second half in a lot of ways is better than the first because we kind of start to see that Shinji starts to feel pride in himself once again because he was finally able to beat all of these monsters. But then he pays the price of becoming too prideful. In other words, we see that as Shinji starts to climb through the ranks, we start to see that he starts become a little bit too overconfident. And then he gets defeated really badly by an Angel and gets transported into this world of nothing that immediately sends him down to this deeper sense of despair and self worthlessness. So as a contrast to the first half, the second half really focused even more his degrading mental state. It was really interesting to see how this character was gonna overcome it would he survive or would he just drown in himself. And I also liked how the show gave more character development for Asuka. The lead writers could have easily made her this generic cinderella type of character who just falls in love with Shinji, but they didn’t do that. Asuka felt like an actual character who only really wanted to be recognized and respected by those around her in a  substantive way. The show uses her residual grief and despair at her mother’s suicide to highlight just how messed up she was. She started off as this sort of cocky, tomboy but then traditions into this deeply damaged person that has a lot of stuff going on in her mind. As she tries to unsuccessfully balance these things she finds herself getting deeper into despair. I just love the way the show was able to document her character arc as it was both heartbreaking and captivating at the same time. Now when we get to the weaker aspect of this section of the story, and that being the world building. In other words, it is during the second half of the series is when the show actually tries to start going about answering the questions as to why the world is the way it is. And while it did sort of make sense…I also feel that in hindsight, it could have been explained in a much clearer way. And a lot of these conflicts just weren’t presented in an optimal way. For example, the formations of both Nerv and Seele was not explained well. Why did the professor character go along with Gendou to restart humanity? Why does Gendou want to reset the world? How did humanity cause The Second Impact? Where did Rei and her clones come from? Why was Rei cloned to begin with? The second half of the series didn’t really explain any of these questions well. I mean don’t get me wrong, I can still sort of understand the gist of what’s going on. Yet I feel like that the finer details could have been explained a lot better. Though I did enjoy seeing some of the backstory of some of the characters (Misato especially). And now we go over the third part of the story, that being the two endings. The original ending was – sadly – atrocious. It was borderline insulting actually. As I said in the in the summary, the original ending was just Shinji realizing that this situation was just a simulation to help him overcome his depression. But that in itself was not necessarily a bad thing as this ending could have been potentially very interesting and satisfying had been set up properly. I have more of a grip with how it was implemented. The biggest problem was that it basically involves all of the characters just blurting out their motivations and personalities directly to the audience rather than organically revealing that through dialogue and interactions with other characters. And that’s really bad because it destroys the immersive of the narrative. When you make a story, you shouldn’t have to make the characters spell out everything for the audience, because that’s not what real people do! In a well written story, the lead writers should be able to subtly imply what a character is thinking through their actions within the story. To do otherwise it’s just the definition of laziness. Additionally, there was a lot of loose ends from the middle part of the story that this ending did not address it all. Like, what was Nerv truly planning? What happened to Asuka when she descended into depression? None of those questions were answered at all and the ending thus just felt like a copout. I sense the reason they went with this ending originally was due almost exclusively to the fact that the budget was really low. In fact, I would say that the original ending was literally nothing more than a pretentious slideshow with characters talking over the images. It was horrible. I mean, this idea could have worked if the show actually was more subtle in implementing it. For example, they could’ve dropped hints this is where the story was going. or even better, they could’ve just had the whole story be contextualized as a simulation from the start and make that itself interesting. It just felt like they ran out of money halfway through and they chose the most basic and boring ending they could. Thankfully this ending was completely and totally retconned. With the introduction of the film called “The End of Evangelion”, which essentially serves to rewrite the last two episodes of the show, it gives us a much more fitting conclusion to the series. However, I think that this ending does have its own problems for sure. I think the nudity was excessive. It was tonally conflicting with its TV show counterpart since there was no nudity present before. And I also thought it was quite cringy at times. For example, there was no reason for Shinji to do THAT to Asuka at the start of the movie (it was tasteless and unnecessary from both a writing and character standpoint). The worst part is I could’ve cut that scene from the rest of the movie and nothing would change. That scene was just deeply misguided fan service. In fact, I am so disgusted by that one scene that I am not going to specify what Shinji did to Asuka in that scene just to spare all of you of stomach induced revulsion (your welcome)! That aside though, this ending was certainly more in-line with what the series up to that point was trying to do. It did a a great job of clarifying the motivations of Nerv and Seele, Asuka was given a much better send off, and the battles were a lot more interesting this time around. All of these things addressed world building issues brought up earlier and even made me like the show even more. I feel like that this ending did a better much more satisfying conclusion mainly because a lot of the characters got solid closure. And I didn’t just feel something that the plot points in this film came out of nowhere. I liked how it kind of served as a dark ending for Shinji. He gives to his despair, which I thought was done really well. However I still think that the show is a little bit convoluted, as the motivations of both of the human organizations are still a little bit hard to understand. Why did they want to jumpstart humanity? Well I can sort of understand why, I just wish it was explored better. But all in all, it was a much better end of the show. Final Verdict: So what did I think of the show? Well, I liked it a lot. But I do think it’s kind of overrated. It started off strong but then it became way too convoluted as time went on, and the original ending was atrocious. If this show and the original ending were all that I had to go with, then I would have given the show 2.35/5.00 just called it an underwhelming show. However, if one goes with the revised ending, it recontextualizes everything because then all of the stuff from the second half of the show actually goes somewhere. This ending also highlights that the overall character arcs were done well. Even though the world-building and some of the finer details don’t quite line up, but remains thoroughly interesting from start to finish as both the character writing and the world building were captivating. Even though I can admit that there are some flaws, I give this show with the revised ending a score of 4.04/5.00 stars and call it a decidedly great show that has enough going for it due to its strong character writing an excellent take on film on philosophy and depression, but take points off due to its convoluted nature, and obnoxious sexual fan-service. So, with that being said, does the show live up as the masterpiece? Honestly, I don’t think it quite does. And I think that’s large because of the things that we mentioned earlier, I feel that the narrative is presented in such a convoluted way that it’s hard to enjoy it to the absolute nth degree that I think the story wants it to. However, I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever, or even that it’s even a bad show. Even though there are things in the show that do hold it back such as the excessive nudity, and the myriad of convoluted writing issues….this show is still great. I love how it dissects depression and anxiety, while also dealing with the growth of its characters while also giving us some well-executed action scenes. And the way that the story is told is still very interesting and the aesthetic and voice acting is pretty solid to boot. So like the show has a lot of things going for it and there are definitely more ups and downs, but to call it a masterpiece would be overselling it. In fact, I don’t think that the show quite matches the same level of excellence that Clannad or Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood would enjoy, because I feel like that those shows were just better. So yeah, like, I guess, once again, the show is good but not quite as good as what people say, but I do enjoy watching it. I’m gonna miss the show but I don’t feel like watching any of the spin-offs because I was so put off by the original ending that I lost faith in the franchise. And even though like the movie did fix a lot of the issues that I had with the original ending, I still feel like that my appetite for this show has been decreased. I don’t really feel like watching the millions of films and books and stuff to understand the universe further. Because, where do you even go from here after “The End of Evangelion”? There’s not much of a direction that you can go from here. I’m gonna call it quits here. So, yeah, that’s my experience with Evangelion. I thought it was actually pretty great. It’s kind of a b+ tier show where it’s great but not legendary. But it certainly has enough going for it that I recommend to SOME people. But I don’t necessarily see everyone liking it because the subject matter that it is tackling is very cerebral, and the execution of that might potentially come off as pretentious for some people. If you like philosophical writing that that brilliantly dissects depression and don’t mind the nudity, this show will give you a great time. But if you’re someone that only wants action or you want something that isn’t potentially creepy, then you probably should watch something else. If you want more reviews from me, please click here: https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 2, 2022 Not Recommended
***Warning There Are Spoilers***
You know what… I’m just going to say it… The show kind of sucks actually. And you know what is really stupid?! Almost everyone on MyAnimeList thinks that it’s the greatest thing since canned bread. But it isn’t. The biggest reason why it’s bad is because it gleefully abuses the mystery box approach. In other words, the show rather pointlessly withholds the villain’s backstory and motivation from the audience for as long as possible until the very end. This results in the audience having next to zero idea as to who the villain really is outside of his name. Furthermore, this causes his relationship ... to the other characters to be extremely underdeveloped. What’s particularly egregious is that the villain barely has any screen time whatsoever, electing to have his lackeys do his work for him. This would have been acceptable if we got any sort of development for him through these various henchmen… But that doesn’t happen. Even worse, the writers actually tried to redeem him towards the end of the story and my jaw dropped in disgust. This guy – to put it bluntly – does not deserve any sort of redemption. He is a sick sociopath that killed hundreds of people. He even killed his twin sister’s foster parents. And now the story wants to act like “he wasn’t so bad after all”?! What the actual [bleep]! Another reason why the show is horrible is because of how convenient the plot is. Almost all of the important players bump into each other exactly when they need to! This makes the world feel very small. This wouldn’t be so bad if this only happens a couple times, but that’s not the case. This is a pervasive issue that I keep rolling my eyes until I legit lost the ability to see. There’s no introspection, no discussion, everyone is exactly where they need to be. This is made even more egregious when you realize that there were several points where the main character could’ve killed the villain. But then he just doesn’t…even though the whole purpose of the show is for the hero to kill the villain. And there’s no really convincing rational as to why. It just feels like the story artificially keeping the villain alive to pad out the series. I also feel that the majority of the characters do not have a cohesive character arc. Almost everybody is exactly the same as they were at the start of the show. This is partially because the main character is a Gary Stu. Aside from saving the villain at the start of the story, he never does anything that would be considered a mistake that was a result of his actions. He is still as altruistic as he was at the start. He never makes a mistake which makes him experience sufficient introspection to come out as a fundamentally different character by the end. Another point of annoyance is the twin sister character. She freaks out at everything constantly. Especially towards the midpoint of the series, there isn’t a single moment where her eyes are twitching constantly and she is not panicking. I almost wanted to go onto the TV and slap her so she would shut up. I don’t even think she does anything of importance aside from just giving the audience more useless exposition. I know that she was supposed to be the victim here… But the writers overplayed her trauma so much that I was laughing my ass off at several points. And don’t get me started on the main character's wife (or ex-wife depending on what point of the story you’re at). I understand that she was supposed to be unlikable. That part I’m fine with. But her redemption arc was absolute bullshit. Her her sudden and inexplicable emergence of compassion came out of nowhere and was completely unearned. It was almost funny when she started crying because it felt so random to me. She was the picture perfect cold stone [bleep] for most of the story only for her to suddenly become it’s somewhat caring character. And there was no attempt to bridge this transition whatsoever. So yeah the show is garbage. It’s literally just a bloated and pretentious mystery box with characters made of cardboard. I don’t know which is worse: the fact that I just wasted my time, or the fact that it took me this long to realize that it sucked. If you want more reviews from me please click here: https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 2, 2022 Recommended
***Warning There Are Some Spoilers*****
Originally I gave it a six out of 10, but as I sat down with it I’m thinking of giving it a higher score instead. Though it must be said that it is a badly written show unfortunately. The individual mysteries were resolved too quickly and that’s all of the mysteries – expect for the first, penultimate, and final story arcs, were colluded anticlimactically. It also doesn’t help that the main villain’s big overarching plan didn’t make any sense and that died before doing anything worth mentioning. Though in hindsight, the fight between him and Victoria’s mother was actually pretty cool. I ... also thought some of the dialogue was pretty laughable, as shown with Victoria whenever she starts whining about her circumstances during the latter part of the series. It just comes off as a high school girl complaining about her love life on Facebook. It just made me start laughing instead of being invested. I understand that they wanted to go for a soap opera type approach for the script, but I think they took it a little bit too far. I think I face palmed a little bit too often for me to overlook this issue. It also doesn’t help that the show was incredibly inaccurate when it came to historical events. The show takes place roughly after the events of World War I, and references it very frequently. But then the show presents World War II as if it immediately takes place after World War I as opposed to taking place 30 years after as it does in real life. This was incredibly annoying and lazy because they were doing a decent job of being historically accurate, even showing live action pictures from WWI. So when the lead writers suddenly just completely throw historical continuity out the window, I found that extremely disappointing and it pulled me out from the story even more than all the flaws that I just mentioned already did. Despite all of these issues, I still liked the show. First of all the opening theme song of the show is extremely good. This is because it’s extremely upbeat, exciting, and very memorable which is something I can rarely say for A lot of other anime openings. It’s not as good as the opening of Parasyte but it’s pretty damn close. I also thought that the chemistry between Victoria and Khujo was extremely well written and emotionally satisfying. Their banter was cute, creative, and it definitely carried the series for me. And honestly there need to care for each other was honestly really heartwarming. I think my favorite moment of the show focuses more on them trying to make each other happy and just dealing with problems that the show throws at them as opposed to the actual mysteries themselves. Thankfully this is what saved the show the most as it is the romance between the two characters that serves as the core of what the show really is. So you could totally enjoy the romance side of the shell while simultaneously completely ignoring the mystery side of everything and still feel like you had a solidly satisfying time with the show as a whole. The artwork was also pretty good, the characters look memorable and are pleasant to look at. I also thought the backstory for some of the characters was pretty interesting, I wish that we got to see more insight For Victoria’s mother. She was an honestly pretty cool character and I think that she was one of the few supporting characters that was used very well. That’s not to say the supporting cast was a complete waste. I think the teacher character was admittedly pretty funny and I enjoyed a lot of her antics. I also enjoyed the alchemist character a lot. He adds a lot of really interesting world building that definitely elevates the show more than it would’ve otherwise. I also enjoyed the more important story arcs that develop Victoria’s backstory and the world building as a whole. The parts of the store we learn more about Victoria’s mother and the Alchemist were extremely entertaining. It does a great job of introducing tragedy, mystery, and revenge into the storyline which helps spice up the overall narrative structure. This got me captivated into the show more and more. Add this with the surprisingly competent love story, I found myself engaged the entire time. I also thought the English voice acting was surprisingly good. Granted it’s not absolutely amazing, but it was good enough that it endeared me to the characters more than I care to admit. In particular, the people playing the two main leads really did a good job. The scary thing was that the way that Victoria was written, she could’ve easily come off as an unlikable whiny brat. But the voice actress playing her did a great job of getting the audience to get invested in her by highlighting the character’s quirky, cute, and extremely sassy traits without her coming off as being insufferable. I feel that whoever played this character, insured that Victoria was not just some lifeless doll but rather had goals and dreams of her own and actually had a personality. And being able to pull that off must’ve been extremely difficult. I know this is a very niche thing to point out, but it’s really in a testament to just how good of a job she did. Whoever played Victoria’s older brother did a good job as well. He was able to balance the goofy nature of the character alongside the more serious side of him quite well. In other words, he was able to present these two seemingly opposing aspects of his character in a way that felt believable. The voice acting for Khujo was also quite nice. Sure it was on the more generic side, but the voice actor did a good job of highlighting the good-natured will of the character also make him a bit more comedic yet loyal at the same time. At first I was a little bit put off by his voice, but over time it really endeared himself on me. So overall I actually had a good time with this show. The dynamic between the two main leads was great, the animation was competent, and the important story arcs were dramatic and interesting enough for me you enjoy what was going on despite the fact that it wasn’t well written. I will give the show a 3.75/5.00 stars – an anime that is admittedly pretty good but it ultimately held back from achieving true greatness due to lack luster writing and a blatant historical inaccuracies. If you want more reviews from me: please click here! https://animehuntermage.wordpress.com
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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