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Fuwatto Madoka, another of the multiple 4koma spin-offs of madoka magica. The premise of this one is pretty simple, Homura is transported to yet another timeline and in this one, every character is acting a bit childish/stupid. It is of course another comedic centered spin-off but I personally found it to be a bit less interesting than the other ones I've read. The entire manga relies on that concept of the quintet acting a bit cute and stupid in a gag comedy format. It is funny but with nothing really interesting in it. Outside of a few gags, it doesn't really use the universe and ... concept of Madoka Magica, the different situations feels like the kind of stuff you could find in any other 4koma/gag manga, I feel like the manga could have been a nice parody but it doesn't really lean into that type of comedy as much as it could. The drawing is okay, the chara-design fits the cute aesthetic of the manga and even if the manga feels kinda empty when it comes to the drawing, it's decent enough for a 4koma that doesn't take itself too seriously.
When it comes to those types of Pmmm spin-offs, Fuwatto is definitely not the most interesting one, it doesn't do anything bad or anything good, it manages to be entertaining but is also kinda boring with nothing unique happening in it.

Sutema! is part of the miriade of manga spin-offs of PMMM. It is a 4koma that mostly focuses on comedy and SoL stuff and tells the story of Homura Akemi who, after another failure, arrives in a new timeline which is pretty different from the previous ones. In this universe, Magical Girls are treated similarly to some kinds of animals/pets but it's also pretty different. It's hard to describe it clearly, but for example, Magical girls can't directly communicate with humans, they are also shorter and live longer than them, they are also feared because they can turn into witches which is also why they ... need to see a special doctor ( which is Kyuubey ).
In this universe, Homura is "adopted" by Madoka and is pretending to be a cat because Madoka's mother does not want to have a Magical Girl at home. We also have Sakura which is pretending to be a dog and lives with Sayaka and Mami, who is living on her own as a magical girl.
Despite the weird premise, the manga is actually kinda nice. It does not try to be serious and is mostly centered around comedy. It is not the funniest thing, but it's nice and entertaining. I like how the manga manage to adapt the universe of Pmmm and create something different with it to fit with a comedy, and the manga also manage to use Nagisa and Hitomi, which are two characters we don't see much in other spin-off (and even in the original series and movies ), pretty well. It also surprisingly manages to set itself coherently in the canon of Rebellion. The art is decent enough for a 4koma with not too much to say about it. And the conclusion of the manga is actually pretty nice with the last few chapters managing to be touching.
It's overall a nice spin-off, not the best, even within the comedy-focused ones, but definitely not the most unpleasant to read.
It's accessibility makes it hard to recommend but if you are familiar with the franchise, like the more comedy-focused stuff and really want to read those types of spin-offs, you won't have a bad time with this one.

Like a lot of people, the Pokemon anime was part of my childhood. But personally, I stopped watching it years ago probably around the middle of X&Y. 

This is not going to be some slandering of the older anime. All I have to say about it is that because of it being a long running franchise and having to somewhat follow what the games are doing and having to face changes in the production team each season, the anime has gone multiple times through some soft reboots or moments where the evolution of the characters has been reset. This has led the Pokemon anime to sometimes ... be pretty good and sometimes pretty bad, and it felt like some changes were needed.

I personally was very curious to see what a new gen Pokemon anime with new main characters would be, and 10 episodes in, I am so far very satisfied. I will not pretend it is a very well written or outstanding anime, it's still Pokemon and it's still targeted towards a younger audience. But having a light-earthed adventure that takes its time to settle its themes, characters, and objectives because it knows it will probably have 50+ episodes to do what it wants feels like a breath of fresh air in the current anime environment. Personally, it felt like the real adventure had only started last episode, and I like that.

To dive a bit deeper into the anime, I will first talk about its visuals. It's probably the weakest part of the anime so far. It's not bad, but inconsistent. The first few episodes were pretty good, and episode 10 was great, especially its battle, but the rest felt pretty messy in terms of animation and composition. 

The music is a pretty good point. I personally think that one thing that hasn't lost its quality in the Pokemon games is the music. And I was pleased to hear that the anime uses multiple motifs or reinterpretations of music from Scarlet and Violet. The opening is also very nice and suits Liko perfectly. And the ending is also very funny, but I hope it will change with the progression of the anime (other characters singing than the main cast, other Pokemon used during the Pokerap ).

The new characters are great and lovable. Liko is a very nice protagonist, it's pleasant to watch her grow, and having often access to her thoughts helps to understand her, make her more endearing and relatable in some aspects. Roy is also likable, he's very endearing, and his more active personality makes him a good counterpart to Liko. And the rest of the main cast is also very good, we haven't seen too much of them outside of Fried, but they are all likable so far, and I like the idea of having an adult cast around our two protagonists. With episode 10, we also saw our first characters from the game in the anime, and I am very satisfied with how the anime managed to adapt those characters, and I hope it will continue that way because Scarlet and Violet have a very nice cast. 

As I said previously, it feels like we have just left the introduction of the story, and I like that the anime took its time to settle everything. So far, we have a lot of interesting plot lines and goals, Liko wanting to grow through her adventure, Liko's pendant, Roy wanting to meet legendary Pokemon, the mysterious PokeBall, the black Rayquaza, how Dot will grow, why Fried didn't like being considered a Pokemon professor in a previous episode, the goals of the Explorers. There are a lot of questions, mysteries, and interesting development points, and it got me really invested in the story. It also helps that those goals manage to be different enough from the older seasons ( example, no goals of getting all the badges so far ) so it does not feels like the exact same thing with different characters. Going back to the Explorers, having a more serious antagonist team is definitely a big change from the more comedic Team Rocket. We definitely lost and gained something through that change. But the Explorers also have their fair share of comedic moments and I'm curious to see how they will impact the story. To stay on the comedy side, I found the anime pretty funny when it tried to be. The jokes are simple but funny and they fit the lighthearted atmosphere. 

So in conclusion, I really like Pokemon Horizons so far. It's not the greatest anime but it's more than what I hoped it would be, it's fun, entertaining and engaging with a lovable cast. I really like that the anime seems more story oriented so far and I'm curious to see how everything will turn out.

Kainis no kin no tori is set in England during the 19th century and tells the story of Léa Wedgewood, a young lady with the dream of becoming an author but have faced multiple time during her childhood the reality of the world of literature being dominated by masculinity and with the idea that women are not capable of writing or understanding a complex book. The story quickly starts with her deciding to publish her book under a pen name, and when she is asked to meet her publisher in London, she decides to dress up as a man and go alone to the capital. ...

The two main themes of the manga are how authors works and mostly, the place of the women in society. Both themes are presented in a simplistic manner, the manga does not go into some deeper aspect of Feminism by example, but it does execute those themes pretty well and manage to be relevant even with its historical setting. During the story, we will encounter multiple characters that are authors and that will all show something different when approaching the way they work or will have different points of view about some aspect of literature like the realism of a story with none of them being presented as wrong. The theme of sexism and feminism is at the center of the story with the story of the main character and her goal. There is also the character of Jared Snow which brings a lot of interesting discussion about those subjects when she appears in the story. Both of those themes are very well executed and manage to make the story very interesting.

It is all supported by a pretty good cast of characters. The main duo, Léa and Myles, are some pretty good main characters. They both have an interesting development and receive a good evolution. My only problem with them is how their relationship evolved during volume 3 and 4 which is not bad but I just didn’t manage to get into it. The rest of the cast is also pretty competent. Most characters receive a bit of development that manage to make them interesting and they all have something to bring on the table about the themes of the manga. My problem with them comes with my main problem with this manga, its final volume and its ending.
The last volume is not bad but it concentrates itself on the point I found to be the least interesting about the manga and the ending felt very unsatisfying. Some points felt very unfinished like the story with Myles and his brother and the overall story felt too much open ended. The last volume didn’t bring me the same interest I had in the other 3 volumes of the manga.

For the visual aspect of the manga. It’s pretty decent. Nothing spectacular but nothing bad. The drawing is simple with not a lot of details but it’s pretty and the design of the characters are nice but some characters do sometimes look too much alike. But overall it’s pleasant to look at it.

In conclusion, I found this manga to be pretty good. The last volume did feel like a let down and it is quite the problem considering that it’s only 4 volume length. But the overall story and its characters are still pretty good and enjoyable and the themes of this manga are well executed and very interesting. I don’t think this is the type of manga I could recommend to anyone, but if you fell interested about what it talks about, I would recommend it.

This manga is an adaptation of a short story from The wind has risen ( a collection of short stories ) by Hori Tatsuo published in 1938, therefore, it has a very peculiar style in it’s story, the pacing is quite fast, it doesn’t take too much time to explain thing, events just happens, the style is very metaphorical, poetic. The result is a harsh and beautiful story that I enjoyed a lot.

The art is very well done, it’s in my opinion the best point of the manga. There's really good work with the background and the character design especially for their outfit which ... try to correspond to the period the story takes place in and it’s a very nice touch because alongside a lot of other details, it creates a great aesthetic for the manga’s visuals. I also really like the way some pages are composed, the structure. It really had something in terms of storytelling and atmosphere. There are, for example, some pages where the character is lost when dreaming and that art does a very good job at losing the reader too.

The ending is quite well done, it keeps this harsh and poetic style in its resolution and I was very satisfied with it. I also find it interesting and pretty good that the author of the manga decided to have some new elements of their interpretation to this ending.

For short, I found this manga to be a very good experience, it was short and because of its origin, it’s also not a style of writing I’m used to reading in manga and I really liked it. Some points of the story did feel kinda weird with no real explanation but it was still very enjoyable and the drawing was for me what really made that manga for me. I don't think it's a style for everyone but personally, I really liked it.

TL;DR : good manga about military aviation and fighting giant monsters in the sky with a nice cast of characters. Not perfect but I really enjoy it a lot.

Well, it seems I’m part of the 49 people on MAL that are reading this manga and probably the first writing a review for it.

So far, I am at volume 5 ( or 47 chapters ) in the story and I must say that it’s a very good ride.

Because there is no synopsis written on MAL yet, I will try to give a brief summary of the story.

Our story starts with Shinobu, a girl that ... always felt like she was invisible to the eyes of others. It’s only when she gets recovered by the IOSS, an organization fighting secretly against some gigantic monsters in the sky, that she gets to discover that she is actually capable of turning invisible to the eyes of others but also to the monsters. She will also meet the first person capable of seeing her when invisible, Danke, he's specialized in piloting jets and despite being human, looking more like one of the monsters they are fighting against. Alongside other characters with strange capacities, they will protect humanity against those monsters with their powers and fighting jet.

The first few chapters are quite fast in terms of pacing but it is not really a problem in my opinion because it is the same for Shinobu. Everything is thrown at her face and she’s obligated to participate in a conflict she never knew about, and when it’s all over, nobody really takes time to explain everything to her, and so, in a logical way, her only answer is to run away. She then realizes that she may have finally found a place where she can belong and exist.
The first chapter managed quite well to make the main character interesting and attachable for me and same thing for the story by only revealing a little about what is actually happening. It’s not perfect, some dialogues can feel a bit unnatural and it stays during the continuation of the manga especially when characters are doing exposition. But it’s still a very strong start.
We then follow Shinobu and Danke teaming up to fight against the sky monsters and also meeting the other children working for the IOSS scattered all around the world which lead the character to travel a lot. A minor flaw I have with the story is that it’s not very original for the countries the other children are originated from. It’s your usual western European countries plus the US, China and Russia.
The story often follows a similar structure, the main duo meet a new character, there’s some tension, a new type of monster appears, they have to come together to beat it. It may seem a bit repetitive but each situation manages to bring something else to the table to make it interesting enough. Plus, there is another situation around volume 3 where all the characters we met so far come back to fight a stronger menace. The story then takes a new dimension that makes it even more interesting even if there is some element here and there I wasn’t a fan of, and so far, in volume 5, the story took a lot of great turns that will make the following even more interesting. The story can sometimes be hard to follow because the pacing between two chapters might be quite fast and also because there are some few incoherences like with the first introduction of the character named “Mum” but I do not know if I must put it on the original story or the translation I’m reading.

To talk about the character, there’s of course our main duo, Shinobu and Danke. They both have compelling stories and manage to be interesting and strong characters in their own way, but they also both are adorable and lovable characters. The other characters we met along the way are also all interesting. They each come with their own story that are more or less developed but are enough to give them the depth they need.

The characters and the different settings allow the story to go through different themes and talk about multiple subjects like racism, geopolitical conflict, handicap, ghost children in China... Also, because I’m french, I found it very interesting that for once when the story was happening in France, characters weren't confronted with patisseries and baguette but with the problems brought by immigration and the far alt-wright discriminatory movement against it. The story does not go too deep into those elements, and it can be for the better because it is sometimes a bit clumsy with it, but it’s nice to have them here because it gives more depth to the characters and to the world by showing its imperfection. And it seems to be an important part of the overall story, to come to the acceptance of the other. My biggest problem with it is that the Japanese are kinda always presented as the very open good guys when most of the representatives of other countries are presented as assholes at first. The story presents problems about the society of other countries but never about Japanese society.

For the art, I think the manga manages to look pretty good. There’s a good mix between a more stylized style for the character and a more realistic and detailed style for the monsters and the military devices like the jets. It allows good looking action sequences but also fun looking faces during more comedic or everyday life moments. And there’s also a lot of great looking panels especially when characters are in the sky and are looking at the surrounding environment. And I also would like to note that the design of the monsters are truly magnificent.
It’s also not perfect, there’s a few inconsistencies and weird proportions here and there. Sometimes it is used for comical effect but there’s also some moments where it just looks weird. There’s also some moments when the more stylized style of the character next to something more realistic can feel kinda off but it’s pretty rare and only happened twice personally.

Another thing that I think is really worth noting about the manga is the author's notes and bonuses. Sarissa does not have one or two fun 4-koma with a nice concept art and a little word from the author at the end of each volumes, It has between 10 and 20 pages in every volumes full of concept art and explanation of the mangaka about the machine shown in the manga and their real counterpart, about the lore of the story. It clearly shows that a lot of attention was put into representing our current military aviator technologies and I’m sure that someone interested in the subject will have a nice time with all that information. And I’m not kidding about their length, reading those 10 to 20 pages usually takes me a bit less time than reading the story part of the volume. There’s also the notes of the scenarist that also takes quite some space but they also give a ton of information about aeronautics, military equipment, detail about the story, fun facts or even anecdotes about the scenarist and the mangaka visiting the places they took inspiration from. The only problem I have with those notes is that it can be obnoxious to go back and forth between the story and the scenarist notes while reading. But like the ridiculously long bonuses, it shows how much thought and research was put into the story.

In the end, or at least, so far, Sarissa of Noctilucent Cloud is a very good manga. It’s not the best, it has some big and smaller flaws that are easily noticeable, but it also does a lot of great things that makes me appreciate it a lot. I don't know If it is translated in English but if it touch some subject you are interested in, I would recommend it.

Mahou shoujo site is a poorly done adaptation which lead the anime to be full of plot hole and incoherence and it also tries to munch to be dark which leads it to be ridiculous more than anything. But in a certain way, that’s also what made it enjoyable for me.

The overall animation and visual of the anime are good. Nothing stunning but nothing bad. I really liked how the anime manage to be colorful and still maintain an overall dark atmosphere, I really liked the using of light, shadow and colors during the whole anime and the chara-designe of the site-admin are also very ... creative and interesting. I would just say that in therms of staging and imagery, the anime is kinda poor.

The sounds in the anime are also good, there’s nothing to say about it. But the musics are kinda bland. There’s nothing very original and there’s no particular theme that manage to stand out. The only theme that manage to stand out for me, and not in a good way, was “Innocent Murderous Intent”. The song is basically your very cliché horror song with kids singing and it makes every scene it’s used in more kitsch either than making them more scary or disturbing.

The opening is very good. I think that it really manage to retransmit well the dark atmosphere the anime is trying to create. The ending on the other hand… I can really take seriously actress in school girl uniforms dancing on the top of a building with giant 3D sperm flying around them. And as far as I’m aware there’s no particular symbol or something like that that justifies it.

The characters are very bland. Most of them are bad person ( which doesn't mean they are badly written character ) and because of their way of thinking and acting they will confront the consequences of those, but they will never be questioned or learn something through those events which lead those character to never grow or change. The only development characters in this anime have is their background ( which is sometimes thrown just before the death of the character just to hope you will miraculously become attached to them ) which is basically always the same: “some bad shit happened to me ( bullying or murder ) so now I’m an asshole that do not hesitate to kill”. Some character could bring some interesting theme but they are never developed fully. It always just feels like those element are here for the anime to look more dark but after that nothing interesting is done with those elements with potential. There’s literally a character in the intrigue that stay in the background and seems to become more and more dangerous because of how unstable he become but then he just get killed by another antagonist before having any impact on the story. One thing I liked however was at the end of each episode where we view thing from the big brother perspective, I found those moment really funny and it also build the megalomania of the character.

The story is very interesting with some good plot point but it suffer from a terrible execution. Has I said, the story try to munch to be “dark” with it’s character, it’s just “let’s make them suffer but let’s not try to do anything or say anything through it”. But the story is also full of plot hole ( and I’m usually very forgetful about plot hole ) and by reading the manga I discoverer that most of the incoherence and plot hole are because of some explanation or scene that allow to understand what’s happening are missing in the anime adaptation. And I think that the story get even worse when it throw a beach episode out of nowhere. It’s not just that it almost served nothing for the plot, it’s also that, in my opinion the anime destroy it’s own credibility by making some weird fan service episode when it constantly tries to be dark. Overall, there's a ton of more or less smaller element that just make the story not work for me.

But overall, I did enjoy quite a bit this anime. In my opinion, it’s part of those bad fiction that are enjoyable because of bad they are. There were still some moment that where legitimately boring, but overall it was still fun to watch. But on a more serious note, it’s also very hard to not compare Mahou shoujo site to madoka magica. It’s not the same story and also not a copy of MSMM, but it does takes multiple plot element from it, and the thing that, in my opinion, makes them bad or not as good, is that Mahou shoujo site doesn’t try to give depth or meaning behind those elements and use them just because “it’s dark”, and by forcing it to munch, the “dark” element of the anime become more laughable than anything else. But it’s still an interesting watch that I would recommend if you think it’s your type of anime.

Your lie in April is pretty famous because of his “depressing” ending, and because of that I wanted to watch it.
Overall, the anime is good but during most of the first part of the anime, I was very bored and not very attached to the characters.

If I had to describe YLIA visual in one word It would be "colorful". It's a treat to the eyes. Colors are great and used in smart ways, animation is really good during the whole anime and some scene with CGI are breathtaking. But the CGI also bring my biggest problem with the animation. One element is constantly animated ... in CGI and it's the hands of the characters when they are playing piano. The problem does not come from the CGI itself but more about the fact that there's a close-up on an element animated in CGI and then, most of the time it's followed by another close-up on an element not animated in CGI and it disturb me every time it happens. And the problem is here, in an anime about playing piano, it happens a LOT. But despite this point, overall visuals are great.

And the opening is perfectly representative of it, it’s good looking, great colors, use cool symbolism…
And to start talking about the musics, they are pretty good and very enjoyable. I would say that I would want more original music instead of tons of rearrangement of already existing musics but it’s still good and the choosing of some of those musics is pretty pertinent. Kinda feel the anime missed an opportunity by not diving to munch into the world of music

The plot revolve mostly around the characters and their evolution, how they will overcome things that are happening to them. My problem is, during a big part of the anime, I wasn’t attached to the characters so I couldn’t feel empathy for them.
Kousei was my biggest problem, his concept was good, but the execution didn't manage to make me feel and understand him. I kinda want to compare him to other character that are constantly crying like Shinji (EVA) because for them the writing of the anime manage to make me understand their pain which the writing of YLIA didn’t manage to do for me. For Kousei it felt like a constant repeating of the same thing "my mother was abusive and she's dead", It remembered me a lot of the autobiographies "The child" from Jule Vallès, It's an autobiographies so it's a very different media but every chapter about his childhood is basicaly "hey I was beaten by my mother as a kid lol" and wrote in an uninteresting way (don't get me wrong, child abuse is a very important theme in fiction but like everything, it's good when it's well written). But for the second half of the anime, I started to understand him finally and to feel empathy. Plus the development he goes trough is munch more interesting.
Kaori is my favorite character. She has a lot of very good lines of dialog. There's good parallels between her and Kousei’s mother. She delivers some great morals. But the howl plot surrounding the character is very predicable, In a bad way, I felt less emotionally impacted by what is happening to her.
The other characters also goes through good development but only during the second part of the anime, for the first part they are just boring and kinda felt useless.

An other thing about the writing I absolutely hated was the rhythm. The anime is repetitive as hell, and flashback felt very forced into the story just to try to ad some depth by doing echos between past and present event except because it all happened in the same episode ( the element that will be “echoed” and the echo in the present) I felt no impact for them and they just felt bland.
The ending is great, not a tearjerker because of how predictable it is but it deliver some simple yet very good morals and messages in a very good way.

In conclusion, it’s an okay anime, a lot of flaws especially in the writing but a lot of quality to compensate those. But personally I was bored during a big part of the anime so I can’t say that the anime is very goo, for me it’s more an okay anime. It’s totally understandable to love it but I think some anime are doing the same but in far more better ways.

Girl last tour is one of my personal favorite show but it's clearly not an anime everyone can enjoy. If you are not into slice of life about « cute girl doing cute thing » and where there’s no real scenario and things are moving slowly because it’s more about contemplation and the dialogues, there's a lot of chances you’ll find it boring. But I'm personally into this, so what did I thought about it.

Has I said, there's no real story in the anime, each episode are divide into sections and they can all be roughly resumed "the two main character found something, they talk about it, ... they move on". They have a goal, but the goal itself is just a pretext for them to move on (which is a good thing considering the different messages of the anime). Even the world itself at first doesn't seems to have a story, but actually, through different element in the background, flashback, little thing said by some characters, you can still build a story of how the world ended up like this. And this is something I really liked, telling a story though detail and letting your spectator interpreting it the way he wants.

The visuals are great. In therms of animation there are some great scene but most of the time it's just good but there's also some times when GCI is used that feel kinda hod (not always, sometimes it even looks great). The light is very pretty and I like how it is used during the anime. But the backgrounds and decors are really something else, it's not only great, it serve multiple purpose, has I said it can give you details on the world and it's nature but it also emphasize the fact that the two mane character doesn't know anything about this world because of how weird and alien the city, the building, places like graveyard and everything else looks compared to our world, so even us, spectator, are lost and don't know anything about the world at first ( like the two girl we are following).

The sound design is great and only the first 2 minutes of the first episode is enough to understand it. But the music is something I personally liked even more, the world is usually silent but when the anime gives you some music they are really good. But it’s even better when the anime is using music to say something, I’m particularly thinking about “the sound of rain” section in episode 5.

The characters are very simple in their design and personality. Its your cute moe art style and there is the "smart" one and the "dumb" one. But in reality they are a little bit more complex, both are ignorant and smart on they own way, both value things differently and different ways of apprehend things that are happening to them. In a certain ways they are opposed to each other but they also influence each other. They are different enough to give interesting point of view and they influence each other so they can come to so agreement at the end of their discussion.
Because yes, a big part of the anime is about the dialogue. In a world where they know nothing about they will ask themselves about what is god and why people believe in it? What is the point of living? What is a house ( which tells a lot about the characters)? What is culture? And so many more question that often end with some kind of answer but it’s never fully answered (which is personally my favorite way of handling those types of theme in fiction because it leave you with your own interpretation and knowledge to continue the debate). On of the main theme that persiste during the whole anime is the theme of war which is, I think, very well handeled.
But there are also section where characters are not having those more “deep” discussion. Some section are more close to what you could consider “slice of life”. Some may find those section not very interesting compared to those where the characters are discussing more important theme, but personally, I really liked those, they are very comfy and also shows own they are surviving in this world.

Overall, I enjoyed this anime a lot. The different theme the anime go through are very interesting, some could be more developed, the art is great and I had a really good and comfy time watching it. Again, not everyone will like it and it’s totally normal, but personally it’s totally my type of anime.