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Jun 25, 2022
Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii? is a pretty fun read. Sure, it isn't anything groundbreaking but I still couldn't stop bingereading it. Basically, the main character, Zagan is former orphan that since then has become a powerful mage. In this world, magicians are considered evil, as they commit immoral things without second thoughts. Zagan wants to become a demon lord to increase his already huge power-level, but instead she meets Nephie, a beautiful orphan elf girl, who is being auctioned for anyone who is ready to pay a price. Zagan experiences love at first sight and
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orders her for one million gold coins, making him practically broke in progress. Then we are met with a wholesome love story where Nephie eventually falls in love with Zagan and they essentially become husband and wife while their family keeps expanding every now and then with more hilarious characters.
I think the major flaw of this series is that Zagan is practically a Gary Stu, who wins every encounter by default to the point that he isn't even devastated by any situation he and Nephie are in. But that's ok because the strongest part about this manga are the characters and interactions they have with each other. Plot itself isn't that remarkable, but it's more interesting to see how these characters react and act to any situation they are thrown into. And also Nephie's, Zagan's and later Fol's family dynamic is cute as hell.
I would recommend this if you need a manga that could put you in a good mood. Also bonus points for excellent art this manga provides.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 17, 2022
Science Fell in Love is one of those shows that had a crazy premise so I ended up watching the first season when it aired. I enjoyed it, but then forgot everything about it. First season was decent, but nothing to remarkable. So I was genuinely surprised to see that 2nd Season was coming so I added onto my list of weekly shows. And I gotta say, I was left disappointed. Was it bad? No, definitely not, but it fails to catch the charm that the first season had.
Basically, second season starts from where we were left off. Yukimura and Himuro had their first kiss,
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but they are still trying to figure out if they are in love or not. But surprisingly, they aren't even the main characters of this season as they are sidelined after Episode 6-7 (i think?). Season 2 tries to work on already established side-characters, while also bringing in some new characters. While I liked some of the new additions (like the tsundere couple and the high school girl), I felt like they were just last minute additions to fill in the episode time. For example, the high school girl is in two episodes out of 12 and while those two are great, I can't really see why showing her (or any other new side-character) was that important. Also I gotta say, I really dislike Chris and Suiu. They were clearly added as fan service, but other than that, they barely appear on this show, apart from 1 minute overly-sexual comedic gags. Not a fan.
Adding in all these new characters and their side-plots really sacrificed character development with Himuro and Yukimura I'm afraid. First Season established Yukimura and Himuro as overly-dramatic dumbasses that were essentially perfect for each other, but they still had personality that made them separate from each other. Here, once their experiment is finished, Himuro just becomes your average romcom character that likes Yukimura and her friends and that's about it. While Yukimura becomes just your average smart guy, who solves situations with dramatic powerpoint presentations. And this kinda sucks, as these two were the deciding factor of making this show distinct from other romcom shows. Yes, similar goofiness from Season 1 is still here, maybe ever better in some aspects, but as we no longer need to be convinced that these two love each other (or neither do they), any further experimenting or "haha funny powerpoint" is there to just serve humor, not the plot or character development.
I personally would had preffered to see more episodes of these two just interacting with each other, while maybe having a wholesome sideplot on the side. But that doesn't happen, as Kanade was promoted to a main character role.
I liked Kanade from Season 1. She essentially served as audience's self-insert that reacted to whatever ludicrous stuff Yukimura and Himuro would do. And she still does that here, but most of this season ravels on Kanade trying to be so-called "normal person", while according to her, she isn't one. Instead she is just throwing up a façade to appease to people. And this plot line wouldn't be that bad if Kanade would just accept to be herself. But this plot line goes on for ages and is only solved in the last episode. Meaning that most episodes that have Kanade as a central character, have her just wonder how she wants to be "normal" but just cannot. And it gets frustrating fairly quickly. It doesn't help that she is pretty stubborn and refuses to look outside her box so she just maintains her fake happy persona everywhere she goes, which leads to scenes of her acting frustrated or stressed out.
She also starts going out with somewhat friendly-looking guy Shikijou (who already made an appearance in Season 1) only because her parents were absolute assholes during her childhood and she loved a teacher of hers from high school so she wants to escape her past by ending up in a "normal relationship" that would somehow prove that she is a normal person? I do understand her struggles, as I had to go through similar problems when I was a teenager. But again, it makes her pretty unlikable, which is frustrating as she takes a lot of screentime away from our main couple.
However, what kind of ruined this season for me was the last episode. I don't want to go onto spoilers, but you know exactly what I'm talking about once you see the ending of Ep 11. Basically the show goes from goofy but wholesome romcom to very dire tone out of nowhere. And while this happens, Yukimura comes in and ends up serving as a comedic relief (I do admit, I did laugh at his scene, but knowing the seriousness of the situation, it was badly executed). Also, last scene also suggested that the show would turn into a harem if it were to get another season, which is an instant no-no for me personally. Harem CAN BE good if executed well, but it very rarely is well-executed and it just doesn't fit this show in my opinion. Yukimura and Himuro are basically a perfect couple so breaking that dynamic feels completely wrong and forced for the sake of more wackiness.
However, I did really like the episodes with Ibarada and Kosuke. Their relationship was hinted at during the Season 1, but during Season 2 it was explored very well. I think what they did here was excellent, while still maintaining their status as supporting characters. In fact, their scenes were usually the best ones from this entire Season. Unfortunately, they still have less screentime compared to Season 1 just like Professor Ikeda and Yamamoto, two that barely even show up in Season 2.
Music and voice acting is consistently good in this show and while art of this show is definitely a hit or miss, it isn't bad in any way. Just a preference.
Science Fell in love Season 2 isn't bad, it is best enjoyed as that show you watch when you have nothing else to do. But I still felt disappointed with how some plot-related things were handled. I did read some other reviews on this show and I gotta agree with one point another reviewer did. Somehow, every week, this show was always last in my viewing order and watching a new episode always felt like a chore, even if my initial reaction after seeing each episode was something like: "yeah, it was a fun episode". Judge that how you'll. But probably the biggest mistake this show made had nothing to do with plot or characters, but the fact that it aired at the same time as the king of romcom shows, Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 29, 2022
Some spoilers for earlier seasons and this one. (READ TILL THE END TO FIND MY THOUGHTS ON FINAL 4 EPISODES)
I think this is the first time I review a show before I finish watching it (at the time I'm posting this review, I have seen 8 episodes), but I cannot deal with this anymore.
Date a Live IV is yet another downgrade from earlier seasons. Personally, despite this show's absolutely ridiculous premise, Season 1 was pretty decent (and funny) and presented a lot of interesting characters and plot points. Season 2 was a slight downgrade in my opinion, but was still totally passable. Then Season 3
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dropped and it was fairly noticeable that it was badly paced and heavily rushed, compared to other seasons. This was very clear from last episode of S3 alone, which was apparently its own arc in the original material, stuffed into one episode. And sadly, this continues to plague this show here as well.
First new spirit, Nia, is shown in first episode, but then she is rescued by the episode 3-4 mark, in spite of it being nearly "impossible" for Shido to seal her. Then we get Mukuro, who is shown to also be near impossible to seal, but my boy Shido still manages to seal her in 3-4 episodes with almost no issues. These arcs could had very easily been the whole season, like take S2 for example, it only had two arcs, yet felt pretty well paced. But because this show needed Kurumi for OP/poster clickbait, they had to rush in (presumably) her arc for last few episodes (i'm anime only so this is just an assumption).
Why is this a problem? Well, this show has a very obvious issue and that is that once x spirit is sealed, they just become a background character that just stands there. Like serious, how many times this season has already had all of the girls just standing behind Shido and rushing into any situation to "help" him and not doing anything else. Apart from Kotori I suppose. Just take Nia as an example. Once she is sealed, she becomes a background character at instant and just does exactly what Shido and Kotori tells her to do. It is really hard for me to get invested with different characters when they barely get any useful screen time and their arcs get rushed to oblivion.
Another problem that this season has is that our heroes get out of any situation way too easily. This is evidently caused by rushed presentation where actual solutions to any problem are solved within few minutes. For example when Shido and co. get trapped into a story world, they get out of there without a single issue. This part didn't have to last for multiple episodes, but why even show us this scene if it literally just a waste of time. Then when another spirit threat spawns onto space, Kotori gets them to space in a snap of fingers almost as if Ratatoskr had infinite funds for everything. It's almost like they are able to do everything because the plot requires it. And this wouldn't be an issue. Date a Live is taking a place in future and we have had plenty of absolutely ridiculous moments, but it starts to get unbearable when there are absolutely zero stakes involved. On this latest episode Shido's arm gets chopped off, yet next scene he is absolutely fine as if nothing happened. We know Shido is inhumanly powerful, but at least show us him regenerating the arm. It just all seems too convenient.
Also, in my opinion the animation quality has degraded by a mile from previous seasons. I'm not blaming the artstyle change, I actually kinda like it. But we have barely seen any fight scenes. And if there is any fighting, it doesn't last for long. Also often they are doing something off screen and we are just supposed to believe they were important? Again, you have a group of diverse and cool spirits that are capable of fighting. If you actually have to pack them together for every other scene, at least show them battling enemies. If you don't believe me, rewatch S1 and S2 again (heck even the movie), then come back and compare it to this season. Animation when it comes to fighting was so much better and characters were also more expressive than now. And when it comes to other animation related problems, like I stated earlier, most of these characters (apart from Shido) just stand in the background doing nothing, feeling completely lifeless. Episode 7 was actually breath of fresh air, because for a brief moment we saw other characters doing something else than standing.
A plot? Well, like earlier seasons it's completely nonsense. Maybe if it wasn't insanely rushed, it could be somewhat interesting. Shido saves spirits again for the fourth season and that's about it. Westcott is back. I don't want to really describe what he is doing because it would dive into heavy spoilers, but he is only there for few episodes till he gets mysteriously "defeated" by a new character and this event wasn't even shown to us (presumably to preserve later plot threads, but still frustrating).
If I have to say something positive, voice acting is still topnotch as usual and music bangs too. But then again, we have an awesome opening (as expected from Date a Live) that showcases our characters in fighting situations, yet when actually watching the show, they barely fight...
Date a Live is one of those shows that is absolutely carried by its reputation. It has a great concept and bunch of great characters. I just wish they would do something with them. This season has loads of flaws so I'm absolutely astonished that this show still has such high rating and extremely positive reception after every new episode. I just hope that remaining episodes are fun to watch so maybe I could raise my rating a bit. Because I really want to like this show, trust me, I really do. Only reason I'm even watching it at this point is because I want to see if it is even possible for this show to get great again, like S1 was.
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UPDATE: Now I have finished watching this season so I can give my final/proper verdict on this
show. For anyone who hasn't finished this season yet, there will again be some spoilers. You've been warned.
Last 4 episodes that released after I wrote my original review have now released and they focus on long awaited Kurumi arc. Did they manage to improve on first 8 first episodes? Well, yes, they indeed did. However, the issues I was talking about earlier are still present. As expected, once Mukuru is sealed, she makes way for the next girl, that being Kurumi, and becomes yet another background character like Nia did previously. However, Tohka, Origami and Yamai sisters get slightly more screentime, which is nice I suppose.
Also when it comes to Kurumi, she is still as likable as before and is probably one of the very saving graces of this season. Still, during Kurumi's and Shido's date episode, I feel like she says her classic "ara ara" like 10 times in span of 5 minutes, which to me got pretty annoying.
That being said, before 12th episode, I still feel like the story was very heavily rushed, as you would expect because 3 different arcs were stuffed into one twelve episode season. But 12th episode was pretty well done and almost made me increase the rating, until I remembered that earlier 11 episodes were rushed in order to fit this masterpiece of an episode into one season. (also I'm anime-only so I've no idea how much 12th episode actually skipped from original material, keep this in mind)
Last few episodes also presented "new" antagonist to the series, who has been teased during previous and this season. If anyone has played through Date a Live's VN game (available on Steam), you'd know exactly who I am talking about. So I'm pretty sure next season that has already been confirmed, is about to be more interesting than 4th Season. Such a shame though that it took this long for the show to become interesting again.
So would I recommend Date a Live IV after seeing the whole season? Well, not really. Apart from Kurumi Arc, or to be more precise, last 3 episodes, 4th season is filled with loads of filler and only reason for you to see earlier episodes is if you absolutely adore this show or if you want context to Westcott's new source of power. But if you are a casual fan, just watch from episode 8 onwards.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 8, 2022
Senryuu Shoujo has a simple premise. Meet the main heroine of this manga, Yukishiro Nanako. She doesn't communicate through spoken words, but with 5-7-5 styled senryuu written on tanzaku. Sounds like a ridiculous gimmick, but it really isn't. Senryuu Shoujo is your average sweet slice of life romcom, with almost zero drama. And it somehow works without being too generic.
Senryuu Shoujo's story isn't really that in-depth. Nanako likes her classmate Busujima Eiji, who is a misunderstood former delinquent. Nanako and Eiji are members of the Literature Club that is hosted by high school novelist Katagiri Amane (also known as Prez). Most of these chapters focus
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on these three interacting with each other, to the point that Literature Club becomes more like a hang out place than a club about literature. In fact, Amane, tries her hardest to get Nanako and Eiji together, as they can't stop being cute together. Eiji also develops feelings towards Nanako later on (even if it is suggested that Eiji has had feelings since they met).
Manga's chapters run in 4-koma style that are used to deliver jokes almost everytime. Senryuu Shoujo's humor is pretty decent though so I actually didn't mind reused comedy as much as I would had on other manga/anime. However, after 130 chapters, it is pretty clear that this manga lasted for too long. Later chapters focus more on other characters, as Nanako's and Eiji's relationship stays as status quo for the longest time, and while that isn't a bad thing, I felt like I was just reading filler, wholesome filler at that, but still filler.
When it comes to other characters than our main three, we have:
- Kino, member of the art club, who also doesn't speak, but instead communicates through her drawings.
- Tao, fortune teller who always gets her predictions correct. She is close friend's with Kino.
- Koto, Eiji's third-year sister-figure. She likes to tease people around her, but 'as expected of sister-figure characters', she has feelings towards Eiji.
Then there are Komachi and Iori that are introduced as love rivals to Nanako. But thankfully like I said, there is no drama over love in this manga, outside of maybe 1-2 chapters. And obviously, who could forget always clumsy Kura-sensei.
Overall decent side characters. They all stick around till the end and almost all of them have closing arcs so the story rounds up pretty nicely at the end.
Senryuu Shoujo's art is also really good and consistent in quality from start to finish. The artist is really talented at drawing cutesy characters. Every chapter also has an opening page detailed illustration (usually features Nanako). I personally wasn't a fan of huge smiling mouths, but obviously that is just a preference.
Overall, Senryuu Shoujo is a good-looking and heart-warming manga that is worth a shot. It isn't anything ground-breaking so you aren't missing out on anything if you decide to skip this one. But if you want to have something simple to read every night, I can recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 8, 2021
It feels weird to give Nisekoi such a low rating. Because I actually enjoyed it from start-to-finish and didn't feel bored at any point. However, while I can like something, I can still recognize that what I'm watching/reading isn't that special. My actual rating for Nisekoi is merciless 6, however as this is the first manga I've ever finished, I'll raise its ranking by one. Just keep this in mind while reading my review.
I came to read Nisekoi after bingewatching both seasons of Nisekoi's anime adaptation, feeling empty from lack of continuation. So I have only read this manga from Chapter 107 forward, however after
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finishing the entirety of it, I can confidently rate it.
Nisekoi's story isn't very good. It starts off strong by introducing cliche, yet hilarious fake relationship between main characters Raku and Chitoge. However once the story moves on, the author decided to add more and more girls into Raku's harem, even if it is blatantly clear that Raku isn't interested on them. Yet, despite this, key to Raku's heart is completely up for grabs unti last 50 chapters, which makes both watching and reading Nisekoi a lot of fun. (unfortunately for me it wasn't a case, as I was aware of the "winner" way before I even watched the anime)
From now on, I'll contain some MINOR SPOILERS (yes, even if you have seen both seasons of Nisekoi's anime adaptation)
The story is Nisekoi's weak point. Raku made a promise to a girl when he was 5 years old and has kept that promise in his mind ever since. Despite this, he seems to have suffered from amnesia so he has no idea who that girl was. The promise he and the girl made, lies within a pendant he received and it can be opened with a specific key. Problem is that at any point, Raku doesn't simply think of opening the pendant, which keeps feeding to the love triangle. Better yet once he figures out that multiple girls that he hangs out regularly in school have different kind of keys, he still doesn't want to open it. This plot-device keeps the plot moving as if Raku had opened the pendant earlier, he most likely would had felt obligation to be with "the promise girl", just because he had made a promise.
Speaking of Raku, he is annoyingly dense. Usually I don't care if male protagonist acts dense in anime/manga, as you could rule it off as awkward high schooler being awkward. However any of these girls (except Marika) could tell him that they loved him and Raku would still think they are not being genuine. Like seriously, he has known Onodera since middle school, yet doesn't realize that she likes him. The biggest offense is that when Raku actually doesn't act dense for once, some ridiculously unrealistic coincidence happens so a confession or any progression on the love triangle ends up going nowhere. And to be honest, this isn't even that bad, as those moments usually are the highlights of the series. Nisekoi is pretty successful at being a romcom, as long as you turn your brain off and don't think of the story too much. I don't hate Raku however. He isn't perfect, but anyone could still why he is so beloved. In fact if he wasn't dense, this series would had ended after just few chapters.
However, majority of this series is just filler. You could blame the author for bad writing, but most likely they were forced to extend this series for as long as possible. I could notice a pattern forming while watching second season of the anime, but it got worse when I started reading. It was never boring and some of those "slice of life" filler chapters were really good, especially ones involving Tsugumi. When Nisekoi is entertaining, it is really good. But when it is bad, it just drags on for too long.
Gotta talk about characters for bit.
- Chitoge: Anyone with a good taste for women (or romantic partners to begin with) could see Chitoge as unacceptable, abusive and violent woman. However as Nisekoi is pretty goofy and doesn't take itself so seriously, it works for Chitoge's favor. Throughout the series, she becomes the most developed and likable character of the bunch. The strongest character out of main heroines. Once she develops feelings for Raku, she becomes caring and fun person to be around, which is why it is easy to cheer her on throughout the series.
- Kosaki: She is a shy cutesy girl who has had a crush on Raku since middle school. She is completely unable to confess though and is as dense as Raku. Also she stops receiving character development at around Chapter 190 and just remains as a plot device for Raku's romance shenanigans.
- Marika: she is surprisingly popular on the fanbase, but I cannot like her. She is extremely selfish and obsessed with Raku, to the point of it being straight up creepy (or criminal). I do think she had a proper redemption arc however. And she is the main cause for bunch of absurdly comedic moments.
- Tsugumi: imo the best character in the series. Every scene with her having more than just a cameo was such a blast. But realistically she lacks a lot of character development compared to other girls.
- Ruri: would be the best female character if she didn't become as violent as Chitoge at later parts of the manga. She heavily needed more appearances as her whole character is just basically being Kosaki's sidekick. Also her "romance" was shown in 3,5 chapters (yes I counted) and while it was well written, in hindsight it felt forced.
- Yui: her character felt more like an afterthought. She is basically miss perfect in (almost) every way, only problem is that she isn't involved in the story as much for anyone to care enough about her.
- Shuu: the best male character in the show. Well, there isn't much competition really. Shuu, while being a pervert, is the smartest person on this series and sees through everyone's bs perfectly. In fact, without him, this plot wouldn't really even exist.
- Haru: Kosaki's little sister who first hates Raku, but then learns to like him. But she doesn't accept this, as she knows that her sister likes him. That's pretty much her entire character. I do think she had a good arc, but other than that, not that good of a character.
Even if Nisekoi is a romcom and funny one at that, it is at its best when characters interact with each other. When Chitoge and Raku go onto "fake dates" it is always entertaining seeing those two talk to each other. Similarly when Kosaki and Raku interact, it doesn't matter how awkward it is, it is entertaining to read. Also it is great to listen to what each character is thinking inside their heads. Nisekoi would be way worse if Raku was the only protagonist.
What else is there to it, oh yes, the artstyle was great. Both manga and anime look really good, even today, which is great.
Overall, I enjoyed every minute of Nisekoi. It was generic and cliched, yet fun take on harem romcom formula and honestly, I would recommend reading it. But even then, I can see that it isn't that good and has more filler than actual story. The end of Nisekoi was really good and heartwarming, even if the last 20 chapters were rather bittersweet. It did leave somewhat sour taste to my mouth though, as when finished, I had to ask, "was that it"?
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 28, 2021
All jokes aside, as Love is War fan, I'm not fan of this OVA. Volume 3 (Rice bit) was hilarious and found myself laughing (like I did with S1 and S2), but volumes 1-2 are just blatant fan service. Yes, they are making fun of animes/mangas with ecchi/softcore hentai fan service, but I just couldn't find it entertaining, because I was watching this hoping for comedy. Especially when knowing ages of these characters.
Voice acting was topnotch as usual though and I liked short Hayasaka cameo we had. Also was great to hear DADDY! DADDY! DO! again. But yeah, that's about it.
EDIT: If you are
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binging this series, just avoid this OVA completely. It doesn't add anything onto the overall series and you won't miss anything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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