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Sep 24, 2023
What a terrible run, what was once an interesting anime in a sea of generic isekai has become yet another generic isekai.
This season is basically divided in two parts: the first one is mostly about Rudeus having a relationship with a side character that gives of that filler feeling to it since they won't have any active role or relevance to the main story; the second part is about Rudeus meeting Sylphie, but they just keep on stalling this meet, or rather having Sylphiette reveal who she really is.
This season is also the cringiest so far, edginess levels that are very embarrassing to watch, the
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first part is the worst.
And we spend 12 episodes with Rudeus trying to fix his impotence, I am baffled with how bad the story is written, at times we are supposed to believe he is a 15 years old, but he has impotence? Coincidentally an issue if you add his 34 years old from the previous life. Not only that, when he has sex with other teens "his age" are we supposed to forget he is actually a 49 years old having sex with a minor?
This anime is pathetic, at first the universe seems interesting, even if some aspects - specially the magic - aren't properly explained or have a sloppy explanation to it, but after the very first season you can notice a drop in quality, but this second season? I have never seen the quality of the material gets stale so quickly. Terrible story, if you aren't into edgy content, skip this fire dumpster.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 5, 2023
This is how Makoto Shinkai reaches his first major block, a great example that beauty without content is just shallowness.
The story is too packed however it never fully develops anything. Suzume remembers Souta despite seeing him when she was 4 and she cannot even see his face? It is implied that Suzume's mum died from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, but why does it have be so subliminal? Also, why does Makoto Shinkai have Suzume ask around about her mum as if she was doing it for several days (at least this was the impression I had instead of someone asking over and over)? What is
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the worm? Why does it want to destroy the region it is in? Why does Suzume "love" some dude she knows for 3 days tops?
If this is a film about grief, why is it so sidetracked? Even better, why does Makoto Shinkai uses Souta as an element to "help" Suzume overcome the lost of her mother? Specially with a romance that felt forced through the narrative? A story that could have been told having Suzume and Tamaki - the aunt - as the main characters since it would deal with two issues at once: a teenager that blocked - from her diary - the lost of her mother and a 40 years old woman that, despite loving her niece, feels conflicted about taking her in and "losing" her life.
Instead we get a generic romance, in a below average story, where the ideas that could have been the main focus are treated as minor elements, still it has the beautiful art and animation from Makoto Shinkai, so it is not "bad", but that does not make it good either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 19, 2023
This anime depicts what chuunibyou see when they are having their delusions of grandeur: main character is basically a god (he is literally all powerful, all knowing - at least for his followers - and all present), he has 500 elf waifus of all ethnic backgrounds and the whole late 2000's emo vibe to it thinking he is the last cookie of the package.
The show has this recurrent gag of having the main character in the main spot even though he says that he wants to be a background character. Sometimes it even feels like he is auto sabotaging, because how can he be so
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dumb?
In the end , this show is dumb fun, if you can look over this whole chuunibyou-esque behaviour, you might enjoy it, otherwise you can pass it, there is nothing new about this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 6, 2023
Stone Ocean could have been a great input in this terrible series, Jolyne is probably the most likeable JoJo, before the most popular Joseph and my person favourite Jonathan, but her character is terribly used as usual by the creator of the story, the same can be said about Weather Report. All the other character are either forgettable or feel forced into the story, like Ermes, Anastasia and Emporio.
The story itself is a clusterfuck you are left wondering what the villain actually wants to achieve, some elements of previous JoJo's are repeated in this season which shows a clear lack of originality, despite the author
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trying to give you the impression that is supposedly a homage to previous JoJo's, it isn't, he is just lazy.
To be honest, I can't even say "if you like the first 2 seasons, you will like this one", which would be a lie, the narrative in this season is really bad. Remember how in JoJo Part 3 there were a lot of pointless enemies, this season has some pointless enemies too, you could literally cut them from the story and it wouldn't make a difference. Still, don't think this season will be the same patter as the first two.
I dislike JoJo, Part 6 seemed like the author could redeem himself, but he ended up writing another dumpster fire, where Jojo fans praise as something wonderful when this is far from the truth.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Nov 16, 2022
Tokyo Revengers is one of those mangas that build up its story so high only to see itself crumble from the author's lack of verisimilitude.
Being a time leap story there are some fundamentals that every reader will be curious about: why is the main character time leaping? How is he doing it? When is he travelling to? Is the present affected by the changes in the past? Most of these questions are answered throughout the arcs and for most of the manga the time leaping is quite consistent and well explained on those fundamental questions. Except for the last arc, we do have learn new
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things about time leaping, but the the last arc goes against what was well established alongside those way over 200 chapters.
The story itself is fair, Takemichi goes through some trials in order to overcome his coward nature just to save those he love, and sometimes he goes way over any normal person would, his victories sometimes might feel undeserved, but he will bust his ass trying to get it, so at least it is not delivered in a silver platter to him. His character grows on you and many others in the story too - side characters and antagonists alike -, character development is well distributed amongst side characters and, up to a point, it is quite easy to remember all of them, in later arcs the amount of new characters introduced is too much - considering you are also keeping track of the "old" side characters - and they only appear in a few chapters.
The art style is a bit rough, but each male character has its own characteristics - female characters aren't that common in this manga, so it is fair to explicit what I mean - that will hardly make you confused on who's who, not only that they give off the "delinquent" image that bike gangs have in Japan. The action illustrated on the fights is nice, even though some fights end up being more fiction than reality, still they are well drawn. The scenarios on the other hand are not the centre of attention, I might be misremembering, but I don't recall nothing that stuck with me, other than scenarios that you would see in every slice of life.
In the end, the experience reading Tokyo Revengers is good for the first 200-ish chapters, the final saga with the Three Deities Arc and Kanto Manji Arc doesn't match the quality it has early on, whether by time leap events, new side characters and antagonists or the story itself. Those last two arcs have 71 chapters, I wished the third arc from the last had a better "ending" feel to it - so recommending people to stop there would make more sense and a feeling of closure -, but it has direct connections with the last two arcs, so dropping the manga without reading those arcs will feel like something is missing, still worth a read, even though the out come isn't in pair with the quality of early arcs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 29, 2022
In a 20-episodes season, I wasn't expecting 6 filler episodes, especially episode 9. All of the filler episodes can be skipped (7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 17) and you won't miss anything, even because some of them don't make sense like how two antagonists interact on episode 9 and on episode 10 they seem to be interacting for the first with each other.
This series is also a bit weird because it feels too short by the amount of upgrades the Magic Knights get, but since most antagonists are boring and the fights are shallow if the show was longer it would have been a drag.
Funny
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thing is that I watched a couple of episodes in the 90's (I have a vivid memory of that waterfall Zagato's minions hide), but I was never interested in this show, even now as I was watching it, I took a long time to watch only 20 episodes of this show. It feels a bit a drag, all characters besides the protagonist trio are forgettable, Presea is good too, but being a side character she doesn't show up much.
Something worth praising is the opening, it has beautiful animation, the singing and the lyrics are great, probably one of the best I ever heard.
Honestly, I'm not writing this review about the whole show per se, but for people to skip the whole filler episodes, they are not worth your time, and don't have anything good to add, unless you are REALLY enjoying the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 4, 2022
Kakegurui Twin is a canon prequel for Kakegurui that happen right after Mary Saotome joins as a 1st year student in the school most fans don't even bother remembering its name because being a school is irrelevant.
The first thing you will notice is Saotome's personality retcon, watch the first episode of Kakegurui and the first episode of Twin, they aren't the same character, so this is a huge issue for the character because we are not talking about a spin-off, or an alternative setting, this is a canon prequel and we are supposed to accept that Saotome went through a "reset". Then we get Hanatemari,
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isn't it weird how a character so connected to Saotome was never mentioned in Kakegurui before Twin? Not only that, it feels like we are being somewhat mocked by the writer of the manga, because one of the most criticised characters in Kakegurui is Suzui and I bet the writer, as an evil genius, thought "I bet you all won't be complaining if 'Suzui' is a cute girl", damn and he got us, Hanatemari is cute waifu material and she also has the Yuri bait for those that like that. Hook, line, and sinker. Saotome also has a second friend, Yukimi, from the literacy club and she is probably one of the blandest characters in Kakegurui. As for the main antagonist, she is settled early on as Juraku Sachiko, she is a Kirari Momobami rip-off and her pet, Sado Mikura (btw talking about her, why does she, as a mitten, act so rude towards Saotome? Kakegurui lore established that already or is it another retcon?), is a rip-off of Igarashi Sayaka, the bad side of her at least. To put it simply, it feels like Kakegurui Twin is retelling the events of Kakegurui if Saotome was the protagonist instead, sure she isn't gambling against the same characters Yumeko did, but I'm talking about the essence here. Do you want another example? Kakegurui Twin has a pink hair girl called Kurume Kurumi, Kakegurui has a pink hair girl called Yumemite Yumemi (they were probably avoiding a copyright from themselves). Another character that becomes the antagonist is Mibuomi Aoi, his motives aren't clear yet and his "organisation" Full-Bloom seems suspicious these 6 episodes weren't enough to scratch the surface, there is also his fiancée, Miharutaki Sakura, which is also a rip-off of Igarashi, but the good side of her, the one that is concerned about fairness and justice.
As for the story, it seems that at first Saotome wants to make friends and she quickly achieves that, so not that long afterwards she gets tangled with Mibuomi and she is introduced to Full-Bloom and his plan to take down the Council President. Miharutaki gets jealous because Mibuomi is so focused on Saotome and decides to gamble with her with a help from Sado because Juraku has also her eyes on Saotome making the mitten jealous as well. Saotome ends up winning the bet and Miharutaki is discarded like trash and you can't help but feel sorry for her - even though she acted cocky in the previous gamble and she had bet herself her own post if she lost.
I was a bit sadden that the opening was only instrumental, when it started I felt like we would get a banger like Deal with the Devil, it is a good opening, but the lack of lyrics was disappointing. The ending was cute and alright, I think the animation will be more memorable than the song itself.
The art is alright, if there is something that the manga is praised is the beautiful art it has, this anime didn't capture its beauty, even the "ugly" faces Mary sometimes do when she wants to mock others are kinda lame here, some other times it feels like character are stuck in time, which brings me to the animation being subpar also the way their mouths are as articulate as sock puppets you won't be able to stop noticing that. BTW what's up with the green-ish tone we have in some scenes?
Overall, it's alright, I like Kakegurui even though Mary isn't my favourite, but I enjoy watching/reading stuff related to it, it is fun, but I can see this as not being something becoming that popular.
Also, if you can look over Mary's retcon it will probably be more enjoyable, I couldn't so it wasn't as good for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 3, 2022
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is an unimpressive creation that if you give much thought about it you will start to annoy yourself. First things first, you don't have to watch the whole Dragon Ball series to understand this, the narrator does a good enough job explaining what needs to be explained, so if you are going on a blank slate you will be able to understand if you pay attention to what is said and the flashback shown, so anyone can watch this and understand the message that it is trying to pass.
From the start, the Red Ribbon Army presence in the film is
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more about creating a connection with Androids through Dr Gero, so knowing the Androids Arc (Androids + Cell) is way more important than knowing what happened with the Red Ribbon Army back in the 1980's Dragon Ball. Another connection is the antagonist of this film, Dr Hedo, being the grandson of Dr Gero a self-entitled "super genius" that also creates androids like his grandfather.
This film is deeply flawed, from the get go, Piccolo is attacked by one of the new antagonists, Gamma #2, an android that is able to match up with Piccolo's skills, how exactly? It isn't really explained. There is also these annoying onomatopoeia going every time Gamma #2 attacks Piccolo, a bit later on it is implied those are holograms, and they are never used again in the film, so what's the point? Piccolo sneakingly follows Gamma #2 back to the Red Ribbon Army's secret base and disguised as a RRA grunt volunteers to kidnap Gohan's daughter, Pan, - which, despite being a 3 years old, seems way more intelligent than an average 3 years old, putting it in perspective, Kuririn and 18's daughter, Marron, was 3 years old in the Buu saga and was nowhere near Pan's speech level -, why would he do that? Because he wanted Gohan to release his full potential again. In the mean time, Piccolo contacts Bulma to get in touch with Goku and Vegeta so they can go back to Earth and save the day, Piccolo wants two characters with god-like power to deal with a human's company that might have strong enemies, seems overkill. However, Bulma can't get in touch with them because Beerus throw an ice-cream bucket on Whis' staff and Whis can't hear the call to their staff - to be fair, if fans weren't rabid, I'm sure they would have use Piccolo as the one to say "we don't need to call Goku and Vegeta to solve that, let us solve this issue ourselves", because some people might not know or forgot, but Piccolo is a leader as well and he wouldn't call Goku and Vegeta on a suspicion that there might be a problem, so not having the main duo back on Earth due to a "missed call" some people won't be able to blame that easily a character. After that we get, a meeting between Piccolo and Dende where Piccolo gets the idea to unlock his potential, which he does with Shenlong as one of three wishes, the other two? Bulma wishes for a tight butt and to get rid of chicken feet on her face, and those kind of aesthetical wishes are something that are done by Bulma often, this is probably one of the lowest points in Dragon Ball Super and the bar is quite low already. Then we get to a part of the film that we are basically watching a bad rip-off of the Imperfect Cell Saga, it is so bad they even copy Cell's self destruction, but somehow this new Cell explosion isn't enough to destroy Earth?
I would like to praise Piccolo's new transformation which puts him back in the ranks, Piccolo is one of the most amazing characters in Dragon Ball, his new transformation is well deserved, he was always shown training really hard and he is deserving of this new status. Gohan, though, feels unfair, for some reason he was set aside, and I don't know, bigger fans might know why, but I don't, and in Dragon Ball Super, Gohan is probably the one with the most wasted potential, for instance he had this new Potential Unleashed transformation that would make him as powerful as a Super Saiyan, but wouldn't spend as much power as if in that transformation, on Super he turn Super Saiyan, why? And now, this "Beast" transformation, as it is canonically called, feels undeserving because we never seen him training, even though the film tries to circumvent that by having Gohan say he was "training secretly".
This film feels like either a filler, or one of those side films that aren't considered canon, but it is just bad and unfulfilling, the only good thing we can take out of this is Piccolo's new transformation, maybe even Gohan's, to put two of the main character back in the game.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 30, 2022
Review considering Part 1 of the manga (Chapters 1 - 97)
Plot:
Chainsawman is a manga about Denji, a 16 years old that never went to school and inherited his dead father's debts from the Yakuza, at that moment he meets his partner, Pochita, a devil mix of a dog and a chainsaw and to pay off "his" debts to the Yakuza (and other debts he had himself) he agrees to be a Devil Hunter with his friend Pochita for the Yakuza. From chapter 1, it is established that Denji is treated and live as a subhuman, he barely eats food, he lives in a shack with
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no heating, most of the money he makes from hunting devils goes to the Yakuza and he barely survives with the rest. Denji is then betrayed and killed by the Yakuza (just because?) and tells Pochita that he would have done things differently if he could and here is where the story begins with Chainsawman being born, a devil human hybrid. He meets Makima from the Public Safety Bureau and she gives him a choice: to be a Devil Hunter for the government or to be killed for the devil he is.
Comments on the story:
It seems like this is a "don't get attached" kind of story, terrible things happen to the characters and it seems it is the only interest of the author to keep Denji as the protagonist. Which can be good if structure properly.
Issues:
As I was reading I was reminded of an article I read that during the Pandemic mostly Zoomers were watching their online classes on x2 speed. That's the main issue with this series, we don't get a breather, it is action after action, we don't have a build-up for what is about to happen, we don't have a rest after a major event happens. A counterpoint to that could be that the author is trying to make us, the readers, feel like Denji, a dog that is supposed to obey what is told of him; it is high risk, high return approach, we will get to see in Part 2 - if the pacing changes - if that was the author's intention.
The artstyle is crude and quite simple, except for those double pages where the author goes all-out, on the aspect it reminded me a bit of the style used in Jujutsu Kaisen, I am not a big fan either.
Combat is bad, battles seem to be too focused on the final move where usually leads up to a double page nice art, but other than that they are quite boring actually.
Plot holes and loose ends:
I don't remember nor did I wrote down what could be a probably plot hole/loose end from the author, but here are some: besides the Yakuza, Denji had other debts, what happened with those debts? Kobeni has a secret devil, what is it and why wasn't it used yet? How do Devil Contracts work? The Prime Minister JP made a contract with a Devil giving away Japanese citizens, the President of the US did the same thing with US citizens, Santa Klaus did it with 3 children he adopted, but how exactly those count? Someone is making a contract offering other people as bargain? It is missing the object of the contracts, like how Makima used those convicteds in the Shinto temple to kill people by having those say the grunts' names.
Conclusion:
Considering all that, I don't think the series is that good, did I enjoy reading it? Yes, but I want something more, I really liked Makima and Reze, but they are no more (remember how Makima mentioned that Reze is something without a name now? We don't know if she still the same "person"), Denji is MOSTLY flat, I want more than just a gore story and I think Chainsawman has this potential, but part 1 was bad. Hopefully it will improve on part 2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 24, 2022
The first 6 episodes of the show are spent on, mostly, Rimuru's side preparing for the Demon Lords' meeting and the war against Demon Lord Clayman and by prepare it means 6 long episodes of talks that could have been done in three episodes considering how much information is repeated and useless talk is done.
The next 6 have more action on them, alongside some talking as well, following a more adventure like story, but those early 6 episodes that were spent talking too much would have made a difference here, 3 more episodes spent on the war, after getting some hype over Clayman's best men
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would have made a difference. The Demon Lords' meeting was alright, not really sure if I'm down with the choices done by Milim, which is once again the same problem we had on the first course, we are lead to believe something impactful is happening, but the outcome is uneventful again.
I mean, Rimuru doesn't have to ask a villain "tell me that", he can simply absorb them and their memories, it is as easy as that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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