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Feb 3, 2023
Chivalry of a Failed Light Novel Adaptation.
I really want to like The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World. At heart it is of course, a juvenile, chuunibyou, male power fantasy anime adaptation of a *sigh* light novel, but unlike it’s contemporaries airing this winter (excluding Eminence of Shadow) it is somewhat charming.
I really like Ray White as a protagonist. Not only is he shredded as hell he is also unabashedly kind to everyone he meets no matter their social status or if they’re being a complete asshole to his face. Obviously this is a juvenile chuunibyou, male power fantasy light novel anime so
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he will eventually be surrounded by a harem of women, devoid of any real personality expect for the characteristics their form of “dere” falls under, but Ray is charming, kind and likeable enough for us to understand why the girls would be attracted to him, both emotionally and physically… Because like I said, he’s fucking shredded.
Speaking of shredded, I also like his friend and roommate Evi Armstrong who has arms and is also strong. He’s funny, charismatic, and I felt like he actually held a strong position as part of the cast unlike most of the “best male friend” type characters in harem anime.
So why am I giving this anime such a mediocre score? Well I don’t know if you’ve actually laid your eyeballs on episode one, but if you have you’ll note that the art and animation is fucking garbage. This was very clearly a rush job on the part of studio Cloud Hearts and it shows in the way characters stay off model more than they stay on, how combat scenes have no impact to them and will sometimes just focus straight up in characters faces in order to avoid actually animating sword fights, and the CGI animation for magic spells looks so bad I’m almost tempted to compare it with Ex-Arm.
I also think the world building and magic system are pretty light novel basic. Nothing here really shakes up the formula or is all that worth seeing. That goes for the clownishly evil villains too.
Like I said at the beginning, I really want to like this anime. All of it’s good points reminds me of one of my favourite 6-almost 7/10 trashy guilty pleasures I will sometimes rewatch, Chivalry of a Failed Knight. It’s not quite up there with it in terms of story and characters development as of episode 5, but if the art and animation was watchable I think this could’ve been an easy 6/10. But it’s not. It’s atrocious. 5 is the best I can do.
5/10 Mediocre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 28, 2023
Becoming Mediocre In My 30’s.
Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army is just another mediocre light novel anime adaption. That’s it.
From the Beast Tamer-like start of having our Mediocre Protagonist fired from his job that he’s good at in the mediocre Demon Kings army by a bunch of mediocre higher ups who will come to regret it later, to every other fantasy/isekai light novel anime you could think of having a love interest sporting plunging cleavage barely held in by tissue paper clothing, who immediately want’s to jump of the protagonists rod as soon as he said anything, there
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is literally nothing in this anime you haven’t seen in similar shows of it’s type.
Even with how thoroughly pedestrian it is on the whole, I will admit there are some things I like about it. I like that the demons are basically just humanoids who can use magic, making them a bit more relatable that your usual demon king army, and I like that the protagonist takes a pacifist approach to resolving conflict. It would be really easy for main protag-kun Dariel to just wipe all his enemies off the map because, y’know, it’s a male power fantasy light novel anime. Of course he’s secretly overpowered in some convoluted way thanks to the human side of the power system. However, he does his best to resolve conflicts through talks and reasoning, bringing both the demon and human sides together to mutually benefit from each other without the need for bloodshed. It’s a nice message.
Unfortunately, whilst Dariel is good at solving problems, he's dense as fuck and it’s get annoying quickly. You’d think being constantly grabbed and openly flirted at by the giant pair of breasts called Marika would tip him off to the feelings she has for him for some undisclosed reason. But nope, not Dariel. He is a member of the 24/7, 28-31/12, 12/1 no-nut-november club, and no mommy milkers are getting his way, no matter how plunging the cleavage is when you push those melons together (as of episode 4). He’s also just not very interesting as a character to follow either. Another protagonist with barely any personality so the viewer can live vicariously through him. That can be said of all the other faces in this show. There is nothing here you haven’t seen before.
What really seals the mediocre deal on this show for me is it’s below average art and animation. The art looks like a quick rush job, it’s barely animated and when it is it looks cheap. I’ve seen a few pages of the manga because I like to read a long to new shows when they’re airing, and it’s artist style has way more personality and character than this cheap looking imitation of something like Sword Art Online.
In conclusion… I get kinda see way people would like this show. Despite it’s glaring flaws and rip-offs of other fantasy light novel concepts, it is nicely paced and I like the over-arching theme of the story. I probably would’ve kept watching it if I had the time, but I don’t and I’m not wasting it on another cheap, mediocre light novel adaption of a mediocre story I’ve seen multiple times before, contenting somehow less interesting characters. Your *sigh* light novel fantasy needs to do more than just having a clingy waifu with plunging cleavage always on display to keep my interest.
4/10 Disappointment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 27, 2023
Trials of Cold Patience - Northern Bore.
I was actually kinda looking forward to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War. I had heard good things about the game and hearing that the story would apparently be an original story taking place in it’s world got me excited. Unfortunately, if we’ve learn’t anything from Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, if the animation is absolutely atrocious, it doesn’t matter how good your story is.
Okay, that’s not really a far comparison. Unlike Biscuit Hammer, Northern War’s animation wasn’t so bad that it made me ill just by looking at it. However it is
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still pretty awful. Terrible CGI monsters that feel out of place in the worlds setting, poorly animated action and combat scenes which lack any weight or impact, and the mouths… whats wrong with everyones mouths in this show? Some of them look like doodles on a two year olds drawing of their parents, and the ones who do have properly drawn on mouths sometimes just don’t flap when they’re supposed to be talking. And boy, is there a lot of talking in the first four episodes. It’s very awkward.
The other unfair comparison to (manga) Biscuit Hammer is that the script is actually pretty bad. Theres barely any development between any of the characters, the pacing is awful and events in the narrative just seemingly happen at random. You only have to watch episode 3 and use the slightest bit of critical thinking in order to ask yourself “How did this story get green lit? Who is writing this?”. If you came into this anime expecting a gritty war story, then tough shit I’m afraid. You’re getting large info dumps, sometimes of information already said in a former episode or even a former scene just to make sure the anime is padded out enough to hit that 20 minute run time, and sometimes you might be blessed with a mediocre battle scene.
At first I thought I liked the main character Lavian. She’s the idealised, but relatively quiet and reserved solider who can kick ass and can sometimes be funny about it, but when I stopped and thought about, by episode four I knew nothing about her. She doesn’t have any goals or dreams and there’s nothing particularly relatable about her. Her character would probably work in an actual gritty war story, but this is not a gritty war story. It’s a slice-of-life drama… thing. This goes for the rest of the characters too. Some of them are loud, obnoxious, or have purple bits in their hair, but we don’t learn anything about them as people, so I don’t care about them.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War could’ve been something passable. I could’ve dealt with the bad script and the weird evil clown if the animation was watchable. But it's not, and because it’s not the rest of the shows floors are laid bear for all to see.
3/10 Wasted Potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 26, 2023
Dog Shit.
If you’ve ever needed a reason to argue why there needs to be a big, red “wipe out the human race of the face of this earth” reset button then My Life as Inukai-san's Dog serves as an excellent example as to why we need that button, and why we must push it immediately.
I don’t think you need me to explain to you why an anime about a harem protagonist transforming into a dog and sometimes performing soft-core acts of beastiality with his kidnapper who happens to be his crush, and sometimes the victims she invites over is fucking creepy.
With art
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and animation so crudely drawn you’d think animation team was comprised of chimps, watching this anime feels like walking up to a police station and signing yourself onto a sex offenders list.
It is unbearable to listen to said harem pro-dog-onist constantly whimpering about seeing his crush naked in the same, wimpy, bearly functioning pubescent teen boy voice that you hear in most terrible ecchi harem anime (and probably hentai), but they had the audacity to name him “Pochita”. And after we’ve just had the first season of Chainsaw Man starring the best, chainsaw wielding doggo-boy and the only Pochita I’ll ever acknowledge, what this anime has done should be, and probably is a crime, nay, a war crime (and yes, I know Pocitha is a common name for dogs in Japan so shut up this is my review.)
Speaking of crimes, if you’ve ever dreamt of becoming a dog and having you snout nommed on, or shoving your snout into a girls gash, and thought you can live those morally questionable fantasies through this… “anime”, then all I can say to you is please, get help. Your parents are worried about you.
Some of my favourite guilty pleasures are trashy, ecchi, hell even just plain bad anime, so I really don’t like to be the guy who points and tells you not to watch complete garbage, but if you’re one of those people who watches this seriously or even claim to watch it “ironically” for the lols, then I feel sorry for you.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but My Life as Inukai-san's Dog might actually, somehow be worse than the anime adaptation, and one of the worst anime of 2022, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and that anime hurt me psychically, as in it psychically made me ill watching it.
I called Eiken pure degeneracy, but after watching this I now know what pure degeneracy is. The only mercy this show has that I can think of is that it’s episodes are only 12 minutes long.
1/10 The Worst.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jan 26, 2023
I Spy With My Little Eye Something Beginning With, *sigh* Light Novel.
Coming off the back of 2022 where Spy x Family took the anime world and even the normal world by storm with it’s family comedy A plot underlined by a tense B plot about a secret cold war being played out by government spies so to avoid triggering another, actual war between two nations, Spy Classroom feels mediocre in comparison.
Pushing the cold war fought by spies aspect as the A plot, Spy Classroom is about a group of seven misfit, moé blob spies who were kicked out of their academies for presumingly being
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bad at spy stuff. They’re sent to a secret location to study under the (self-proclaimed) worlds greatest spy in order to complete an impossible mission. Unfortunately, their tutor maybe the worlds greatest spy, but he sucks at teaching, and they only have a month to prepare themselves for the mission that will very likely get them killed, so they're in trouble.
I actually really liked the first episode. A spy who's good at everything yet cannot explain how he’s so good makes for a funny teacher, and I found his deadpan conversations with his students charming. The other character I really liked was Lily. She’s bubbly and a bit dizzy on the surface, but underneath she's very resource and cunning. The show fully cements how potentially threatening she is. It’s a very good episode with a good conclusion and I really enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, she's the only one out of the seven moé spies who gets any sort of character development. The other six might as well be shadow clones because I couldn’t tell you a thing about them apart from maybe their appearances. It doesn’t help that the next three episodes are all over the place structurally. There’s a lot of time hopping between the girls training at the mansion and them in action on the impossible mission, and it sometimes gets really confusing. In fact, the impossible mission is over by episode three. The show just rushes through it like it doesn’t even matter. I thought this was going to be a season long endeavour? But it’s not, and by the end it didn’t feel like a very important mission at all. Now there’s nine episodes left… and the fourth is a flashback to them training for the mission we’ve already seen them complete…
This anime also has the same problem with other mystery/spy/detective light novel anime adaptations where the solution to problems are usually ass-pulled at the last minute in a “I knew you’d do that” moment that the show did not set up or establish beforehand for the audience to cotton on too. Though admittedly it’s not as egregious as The Detective is Already Dead, or Classroom of the Elite. I have heard that this not a problem with the actual light novel, but just being honest, I’m never going to read them. I don’t read books for nerds. I watch anime.
If you want to see a good example of what I’m talking about, Bungou Stray Dogs is airing right now and that mixes supernatural powers into its detective/mystery formula which makes it even more impressive when it comes to how they present their scenarios to the audience.
Actually, if there is one thing I can say in Spy Classrooms favour, it’s restraint on not adding supernatural elementals into it’s narrative makes the ass-pulls a bit easier to swallow. The only one who breaks this rule is a spy girl who literally has the power of… being unlucky, which basically means she can do whatever the plot needs of her, which is a shame.
The animation is nothing special. It looks like a light novel adaptation, and it is a light novel adaptation. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. Honestly that’s just how I feel about Spy Classroom. None of the girls are particular interesting and the show is carried by Klaus and Lily. The art is so-so, and the story is typically bound to the light novel story arc structure which means bits of context from the book are probably cut for episode length purposes.
If this season wasn’t so packed with good shows I’d probably would’ve kept going for a couple more episodes. I don’t think it’s too bad. If you’re interested or already watching it, go for it. Enjoy it. I can see the appeal, but it’s just not interesting or well executed enough for me.
5/10 Mediocre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 25, 2023
Detroit: Become Idols.
Technoroid: Overmind is err… not good to say the least. A story about a four android roommates trying to become idols so they can pay the rent and the electricity bills could make for a fun comedy, but with it’s lacklustre animation and generically annoying characters, I found sitting through the first four episodes very difficult.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t watch the first episode, in fact you should. The 180 it does at the end might be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. I’m not going to spoil that particular moment, but I does set
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up the B plot of anti-robot discrimination, and you’d only need to have played or watched a play-through of David Cages Detroit: Become Human to know why discrimination against robots just does not work as a stand in for real discrimination.
It also doesn’t help that the four androids in question aren’t particularly likeable. Kei, Neon and Chrom all speak in the same monotone way making it difficult to actually separate the three from each other as characters because their other traits aren’t particularly forefront. The only one who has any personality is Cobalt, but honestly I wish he didn’t because he is very obnoxious.
The only normal character in the cast is the soft boy Esora, an engineering prodigy who starts to take care of four bucket of bolts when they find him dying from sunstroke. He’s fine.
Actually, I do like the world building. The city is mostly underwater presumingly because of global warming, so people have to get around by boats, yet it still has the feel of a dystopian, sci-fi future metropolis. The way Esora performs maintenance on the androids via a musical keyboard instead of a computer one is pretty creative too.
There’s a mystery around the four of them as to why they were created and why they’re unregistered machines, but if you’ve seen literally ANY sci-fi anime about androids learning human emotions you can probably piece together the story yourself.
In fact, I’m going to make a prediction and say that the reason the four of them were built was so they can experience human emotions and learn from them, so that a new line of androids can be built from the data they’ve collected… or something. Then theres going to be a robot uprising that can only be stopped through the power of singing and dancing…
If you want to watch a much, much, MUCH better anime about androids, music, dystopian futures and a robot uprising, then may I recommend one of best anime of 2021, Vivy: Fluorite Eyes Song. Not only does if have a much better plot and characters, but all the songs amazing (I still listen to them from time to time) and the music numbers are fully 2D animated with 3D tracking so it looks gorgeous, unlike this show which makes me feel like I’m watching a Just Dance play-through whenever they sing a musical number.
In conclusion, watch Vivy, don’t watch Technoroid: Overmind… unless you have some alcohol and friends to laugh at the first episode with. I do recommend that.
2/10 Bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jan 25, 2023
The Rising of the Guy Who Was Kicked Out From His Party and Fantasy Light Novel Things Happen, Who Cares?
Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World is a concoction of tropes and scenarios from all the mediocre *sigh* Light Novel isekai/ fantasy anime you could think of and have probably seen before.
You’ve got the Beast Tamer-like main guy who was kicked out of his party yet, and I’m going to take an educated guess here, they’ll probably regret doing so because it turns out he’s good at his job. You’ve got the Arifureta subplot played out by a dragon
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girl who gets betrayed by the hero’s party and left to died in a generic dungeon which she then has to crawl back from on her own, and you’ve got the cheapest, eye-rollingly incel part of the first episode of Shield Hero, but this time its a priest being framed for rape by a little girl. Except Shield Hero’s tasteless plot twist works because princess Malty has the political capital and status to make the people believe her. The little peasant girl reasoning for accusing someone of one of the worst things you can do to a person is that the Priest didn’t return her feelings of love, so she goes to the guards, tells them he rape her and they just believe her. I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but somehow Shield Hero did accusations of sexual assault better.
The only barely original otome game villainess-like circumstance is the mages. A noble girl who’s gifted in the art of magic, but her life gets turned upside-down when her betrothed sends her off so he can get with another women.
And after all of their barely expanded upon, completely shallow and generically trashy light novel introductions, they just so happen to sit around a bar table together and shout a very generic phrase about betrayal or something at the same time, leading them to realise that they're all in the same fantasy light novel boat.
If there is something I do like about these walking pieces of fantasy cardboard it’s their hobbies. They form an adventuring party mainly to survive, but mainly to get spending money for their hobbies which range from spending time in strip clubs, betting on horses, eating fine food, and being an idol otaku. Their agreement to not comment or get involved in each others hobbies is kind of cute too. I liked it.
What isn’t cute is their rule of not trust each other at all times, but also having each others backs which… doesn’t really work in practice. They just sort of end up trusting each other anyway, and any tension that comes from them not trusting each other is either very forced or barely matters. In fact they later find a sword who's full power can only be unleashed via the literal power of friendship…
The animation is incredibly basic and it’s been declining with each episode. Sometimes the action has weight and impact, sometimes it’s 10 second still imagines of action poses while slashing noises happen, and sometimes it’s looks like something I’d animated when I was in school doodling of a pile of post-it sticky notes.
I feel like I’d have way more interest in this show if it wasn’t set in a generically boring RPG fantasy world. I’d totally watch an anime about a bunch of betrayed misfits who barely trust each other, working together to fund their hobbies in a modern day office comedy, or a high school comedy scenario for example. Take out all of the light novel fantasy adventuring bullshit we’ve seen literally thousands of times before and focus in on the characters. I think that would be pretty fun.
However, as it stands everything that Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World does has been ripped off of better/worst isekai/fantasy light novel anime and the result is just another barely held together with tape, fantasy light novel show about nothing of interest. Even the character designs feel like cheap rip-offs. Nick might as well be Naofumi and Tiana feels like someone straight out of Goblin Slayer. Once you start seeing it you can’t not see it.
Honestly, there are so many good, original fantasy shows airing this season, some of them are even light novel isekai, that I see no reason to watch this. Hell, even the trash anime are more interesting. Three of which are gender-bender anime and two of them are actually pretty good!!
The only feeling you’ll get from watching this is the feeling of déjà vu.
3/10 Wasted Potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 17, 2023
Doki Doki Harem Club.
So… I’ve been trying to think for a long time how to go about reviewing Love Flops. There is so much I want to say about it. SO.MUCH. At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair for me to spoil an anime that you should absolutely go into blind. So instead of the usual style I write reviews, I’m going to go straight to my conclusion.
Love Flops is a really hard sell. I actually almost dropped it after it’s incredibly boring first three episodes, but the fourth had enough crude yet, good humour for me to keep going, and once
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each episode started getting weirder and weirder, I was pretty much hooked.
It takes a huge risk asking the audience to sit through six episodes of quite frankly mediocre yet, insane harem shenanigans with surprisingly tame and conservative ecchi scenes for a studio Passione production and incredibly hit or miss humour, in order to arrive at the pay off which I personally, am not sure it was worth it.
I think the mystery angle and the ending ruins its very strong commentary about sad, lonely, loser nerds relying on waifu’s for escapism instead of trying to overcome their issues and make real relationships with real people to fill the void. In the hands of a better writer with a stronger vision for the narrative, the twist would’ve been way more impactful and effective.
That being said, I did enjoy most of my time with it. It is certainly a show that will catch you off guard with some of the outlandish situations it presents, and the world building is pretty interesting.
I can’t say I recommend Love Flops, but if you want to give it a try then y’know… do it.
5/10 Mediocre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 2, 2023
Return of the King.
Holy crap does it feel amazing to be a Bleach fan in 2022(3). After all of the slander and character assassinate made over the years by Youtubers who don’t understand the difference between a passive and active protagonist, and an anime community more than willing to swallow and parrot the lies and rhetoric against the series like a tori politician, not only has Bleach made the greatest anime comeback probably in the history of anime, but it is literally (as of time of writing) ranked number 1 on MAL. Watching the amount of copium huffed by Bleach deniers in order to deal
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with how wrong all their bad takes have been over the years has been -for me personally- exquisite.
As soon as the new remix of number 1 started popping off in the first episode and we’re reintroduced to Ichigo, Chad, Orihime and Uryuu fighting hollows in a gloriously new, movie quality animation style, I genuinely became emotional. Like old friends you haven’t seen in 10 years returning home for the first time (except they’re not real and I watch anime because I don’t have any real friends so I’m guessing that’s what it feels like).
The Thousand Year Blood War is the final arc of the series (until Kubo starts working on that Hell arc) where all of the insanely well thought out foreshadowing starts to come together and questions about Ichigo’s power, his family and everything rain included finally start being answered. Not only that, but Kubo -who worked on the anime with the team at Pierrot directly- not only had final say on everything that was cut and changed, but add additional story scenes where he couldn’t in the manga (because he ran out of time), meaning there’s no filler and everything that happens in TYBW anime is cannon.
Also, I have to hand it to studio Pierrot. They do get shat on a lot for some of the anime they put out and for good reason (I like Black Clover, but god does the anime look like shit.), but in the hands of Taguchi, director of Akudama Drive, they can make anime gold when they really want too. The tone depicted through colour, the lighting, the animation coupled with Bleach composer Sagisu new remixed OST that lead to some of the most amazing fights and scenes in the entire series, it’s just perfect! It was amazing to see everyone who watched TYBW weekly going through the same “holy fucking shit” moment online when they’d just finished an episode. This is what 10 years of preplanning looks like.
Now, as much as I want to be a Bleach fan boy, whack on a 10/10 and call it a day, I can’t because I do have some criticism for the first coeur especially as someone who has read the manga hundreds of times. It’s great that Kubo gave Taguchi permission to “aggressively cut” many of the jokes and lines/scenes that he deemed were irrelevant or repeated so as to not ruin the pacing. I was also one of those fans who was upset to see some of the humour cut, but around episode 8 I realised that to keep with the tone and the pacing it was the right call, because it would’ve felt really weird for the characters to go back to being goofy-fun-times after what was essentially a massacre.
However I do think Taguchi took the cutting a bit far to the point where some really important lines and context which are actually relevant to the story, and explaining certain events were cut. Some of these cuts where instead written in mid-episode cards to explain things like world building and character abilities. However, I can’t read Japanese, nor were they translated on Hulu (for me at least) and I haven’t watched the dub so I don’t know if they’re translated for that version which means that anime only viewers and those who can’t read Japanese are basically excluded. It also just feels really weird not have certain characters explain certain things like the rules of broken Bankai to someone like Ichigo because it assumes he knows that bit of important detail when he actually doesn’t.
Also, episode 10 is structured and edited really strangely and it’s the only episode I thought was off despite it’s content.
Bleach never died, but boy is it back. I’m so happy with TYBW that I genuinely want the whole of the Bleach anime remade with Taguchi at the helm. No Filler, all bread-girl. I know that is incredibly greedy and entitled for me to want, but Bleach was my gateway into anime. It was the first (proper) anime I’d ever watched as a teen and it completely changed my view on what cartoons could be at the time.
“What the fuck is an Ichigo?” I asked myself at 14. What the fuck indeed. And now here we are, 2022(3). The Bleach fans won in the end. We got what we deserved. A fucking incredible anime adaptation. I’m so happy for it’s success and I can’t wait for coeur 2 in July.
God of Thunder 3 - Praise Kubo.
9/10 Amazing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 31, 2022
A No Nut Marriage.
More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers is more than your average love triangle rom-com, but kinda fucked up when you start to think about.
The show is about an insecure, gamer nerd begrudgingly getting paired up with a busty, pink haired gyaru for their schools incredibly weird, invasive, creepy, dystopian, ethically questionable marriage training program where the selected couples are forced to live together in a small apartment, and seemly doesn’t take into account whether or not a student is gay or whether or not a student actually wants to ever get married, etc.
Of course nerd boy Jirou
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is crushing on his childhood friend Shiori and gyaru Akari is crushing on the most popular-est guy in school Tenjin who also happen to be paired up together to Jirou’s and Akari’s dismay. Thus they have to work together to get good at pretend marriage and earn a high marriage score(?) so they can win the privilege to swap partners of their choosing.
Now at first glance you might think “gosh, this is basically a worse version of Toradora”, but when you view the show from a psychological perspective rather than a rom-com, its premise becomes secretly genius(?).
As an introverted, gamer nerd with only one, sad friend who spends all of his money on gotta waifu’s and cracking bad jokes, Jirou is obviously not good at picking up social cues, especially from women, no matter how hard they shove their large breasts against his chest. Now in a normal harem rom-com where the nerd is having women thrusting themselves upon him at nearly every moment at nearly every angle, it gets incredibly frustrating to watch a dense the protagonist not taking very obvious hints and acting upon them in order to keep a status quo. However, in Jirou’s case he’s in a fake marriage program that presumably goes towards his academic score, in love with someone else and with someone he knows has a crush on another guy. When you think about how psychologically damaging this marriage program could potentially be (not to mention the legal hell the school would go through if something happened to the students because of it) his indecisiveness towards Akari’s and Shiori’s advances is genuinely understandable, especially when Akari teases him or adopts a loving waifu persona for the observation cameras(?) in their apartment. It’s obviously very obvious to the viewer that Akari starts to crush on Jirou after like, the first episode, but to him it’s probably a mind fuck.
This means that Jirou and Akari have to genuinely sit down and talk to/get to know each other properly. Misunderstandings are actually talked through and sorted out instead of being dragged on so it’s very understandable why the two of them would start catching feelings for the other. Despite how rom-com its story looks there’s a lot of forward momentum in it’s plot (and ‘plot’) between Akari, Jirou and Shiori and I came to really like them as characters. The side cast is rather meh though.
The art and animation is quite simple looking. I do like the garish colour pallet, but after a while you start to realise that the simple looking backgrounds are there to blend in the characters so you’re distracted from bare bones they're animated (unless anime titties are involved - obviously).
Overall, this show is one of my favourite states of being, incredibly horny. No one is a bigger winner at no-nut-November this year than Jirou who is a much, much stronger man than I when comes to the amount of Akari and to some extent Shiori he has to endure. If you like your horny, psychological, Big-Brother-esque social experiments disguised as a rom-com then you’ll probably enjoy this.
7/10 Good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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