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"The Sequel No One Asked For But Still Got"

It took me 40 episodes to realize that whatever the first Naruto had, Boruto lacks completely. This show is as much of a disappointment as a sequel to the original, as it is as a stand alone show.

PLOT - Dreadfully slow. The plot has had no real development since the first episode, nothing really happens. It's just this slice of life bullshit that doesn't build character at all, just random missions. The fact that the Genin-level main cast can deal with Chuunin-Jounin level shinobi on a frequent basis is just awful writing.

ART - If there was saving ... grace for this show, it's the art. The animation is good, colorful and vivid, worthy for a Shonen anime.

SOUND - Nothing to write home about. The music is just there to complement the animation but none of the soundtracks remain in the memory after the episode ends.

CHARACTERS - Atrocious copies of the former cast. Boruto is a poor excuse for a main character. An entitled, whiny brat that hates his father. That's the whole shtick Boruto has got going on for himself. The same goes for the other kids with the only exception being Mitsuki who is kinda interesting.

VERDICT - Save yourself the time and skip this poor excuse of a sequel

I've been hearing good things about this anime and since it was super high on the Popularity list, I decided to give this a shot. The result was...very poor to say the least. This anime suffers from so many thing while getting some things right. Let's do a quick rundown:

Story: 4/10
One of the two great flaws this show suffers from. I thought that this anime would touch subjects like human survival, treason, alliances, human emotions in the face of impossible odds.
I WAS GRAVELY MISTAKEN.
The first two episodes start out great and I was thrilled to see more of this virtual world where anyone could ... die for real. Then we get episode upon episode of filler stuff not even relevant to the plot. Not to mention several time skips over the course of the anime, destroying what little story was left.
Instead of people trying to survive this virtual deathtrap, we get people that have given up on trying to clear the game 3-4 episodes into the anime. What the actual fuck? The anime rapidly degenerated into a slice of life romance anime with the ever so slightly occasional MMO element.


Art: 8/10
The strong point of this anime. The animations are great and the occasional action scenes are fluid. The character design is pretty good, with interesting choices. Apart from some not that good CGI usage for some action scenes, the art is great and on point.


Sound: 8/10
I decided to give a good rating on the sound because the soundtrack is pretty great. Although Yuki Kajiura's work in this anime is similar to her other works in animes like Fate/Zero or Kara no Kyokai, I like this kind of music so that's not a problem for me. The only issue for me is that the music is trying to sell a crappy anime and hearing some epic music with a mediocre character fighting is not that awesome, but we'll get to the characters in a moment.
The openings and endings are awesome and do a great job of hyping you for the episode, again getting destroyed by the anime itself.


Characters: 3/10
Easily the worst thing about this show. The characters are bland, one-dimensional and do not go through any character development whatsoever during the whole anime.
The main character, Kirito, is the poster boy for the guy who can do absolutely anything. He's unbeatable, he's popular with the ladies (and I mean all the ladies), he's smarter than everyone else and even when he tries out new things, he's miles better than everyone else. He's a literal God in this anime and I'm not even kidding. To top if all off he has absolutely no interesting personality trait. The epitome of a bad main character.
The second "main" character is Asuna. During her first introduction, she seemed great. She was strong and seemed to hold her own in this world. That quickly disappeared and she became the token "waifu" for the MC. The creators of this show, even went so far as to make the couple adopt a virtual child and treat her as their own child and start calling themselves "Papa" and "Mama". Again...what the actual fuck?
The rest of the cast is mainly the rest of MC's harem that are ready to do anything to get MC to lower their panties.
The anime tries desperately to include a little shock value by adding MC's first cousin into the mix. She has incestuous feelings towards MC and we are supposed to pass this off as the anime trying to touch mature subjects. No, just...no.


Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall, if it wasn't for the MMO thing and the great animation and soundtracks of this anime, I would have dropped it a long time ago. It managed to get me somewhat entertained at times and absolutely bored to death and cringy as hell other times.
If you're looking into an anime with an MMO subject, I suggest you stay away from this, unless you enjoy mindless harem stuff and ignoring the main plot during the most part of the anime.

I wanted to avoid this for some time since this anime is/was very popular and there are many different opinions about it, but....here goes.

Story: 7/10
When I first saw Bleach, I thought the story was very interesting, with the Shinigamis and Hollows and all that. It promised to be a nice story. However, the story started slow (really slow). It went something along the lines of "Hey you are a Soul Reaper, here's a Hollow, go and reap it" until episode 20 or so. Then it started to become more interesting with the Soul Society Arc. After that, boy oh boy. The story takes a nose ... dive.
It becomes a mindless shounen with the premise that the main character is the only one who can save the Soul Society blah blah blah (where have I heard this before.) Not to mention this anime has fillers galore.


Art: 7/10
Nothing special. The animations are good at best and the bland backgrounds don't help either.

Sound: 8/10
Nothing extraordinary, but nothing bad either. The soundtracks fit the fight well and add to it in it's own sense. Some of the OST, especially in the beginning, are bad, but after that they get pretty good. Also never understood the composer's fixation with spanish-inspired music


Character: 5/10
Easily the worst flaw in Bleach. Starting from the main character, his personality is next to nonexistent. Just random "I will save everyone" speeches and going to save people that are in danger solely for him to go save them. Ichigo doesn't develop as a character during 350+ episodes and remains the same "energetic guy" who wants to save his friends even though, throughout the series he barely even talks with them.
The supporting cast is severely lacking in character development also. Be it Ishida, Chad, Rukia or Orihime (oh god, not her), no one develops as a character and remains the same one since when they were first introduced.
Character design is lacking in imagination. All Shinigami have the black robe (Captains have a white vest over it), which makes it feel like the author isn't even trying to make interesting and unique character designs.
Also the bad guys (Espadas) are all white.


Enjoyment: 8/10
Despite it's major flaws, Bleach managed to entertain me for quite a while. Maybe because I have a soft spot for sword fighting in general. The series also had some humorous parts during the first seasons, which I liked, but then, as the series progressed, it became more and more difficult for me to like it because of the above-mentioned flaws.

To summarize:
(+) Interesting story
(+) Cool fights
(-) Mediocre character development
(-) "I must save every one" cliche
(-) Bad pacing of story and fights.
(-) Fillers galore. You actually need a list to know what to watch and what to skip.

The undefeated king sings aloud the name of the miracle she holds in her hand. Its name is... FATE/ZERO

Before reading this review, note that this is a review for both seasons of Fate/Zero and may contain spoilers.

Story: 9/10
The story is very captivating and the Fate universe is detailed quite well in the anime. The double episode special right at the beginning takes care of this. The Holy Grail War, a bloody battle between 7 Mages and their 7 Servants for the ultimate prize. The Holy Grail, the ultimate device said to grant the wish of the person it deems worthy.
The story is paced quite ... well 99% of the time except some parts where, I think there's a little to much dialogue.

Art: 10/10
There's not much I can say about the art and the quality animation here. It's just awesome. Truly a sight to behold. The fights are choreographed very well and the animation overall is very good.

Sound: 9/10
The soundtracks are written by Yuki Kajiura, same composer from Kara no Kyokai movies. The soundtracks are very inspired and fit the anime very well. Especially "You Are My King" for Rider. That thing is pure gold.
The first Opening and Ending, while good, do not really stand out, except for the animation. The second Opening and Ending on the other hand, are so very good.

Characters: 10/10
Leave it to Gen Urobuchi to flesh out these kind of chharacters. This is probably the best thing about this anime. The characters are so well written that I can't really pick a favorite one. On the other hand, there really isn't one. This is a 7 people bloody Battle Royale, and each of them has a Servant. Each of these characters compliments each other, either by having similar emotions or by being the opposite.
The clashing ideas and philosophies are really interesting because they bring out the flaws in each character's personality.

Enjoyment:10/10
This anime kept me to the edge of my seat and always wanting more. From the fantastic character development and dialogue, to the godly animations during an action scene.

Overall: 10/10
One of the best animes I've seen recently and I don't see it changing anytime soon. If anyone has not seen it yet, I totally recommend you watch it, you will not be disappointed. The experience is even better if you are familiar with the Fate universe either by reading the Visual Novel Fate/Stay Night, by watching the 2006 anime adaption (not very good) or by watching the UBW 2014 anime.

***Spoiler Free Review***
I've been wanting to review Death Note for a while now, since it's a personal favorite of mine, so let's get to it.

Death Note follows the story of Light Yagami, a high school student who's bored of his everyday life. A fateful day he discovers by mistake a magical notebook with the power to kill humans just by writing the individual's name on the notebook and picturing his face in your mind. This is where it all starts.

The anime shows Light as a person tired of this world's scum individuals and wanting to get rid of them, but has no means to do ... so. The notebook was a godsend for him. He tasks himself to rid the world of criminals and evil people, and become it's new ruler (or God) to guide it.
His archenemy is L, an the world's greatest detective (sorry Batman). He prefers to keep his identity concealed for his own safety and has never failed to crack a case.
L's struggle to stop Light is spectacular. Two geniuses battling it out with their minds. Plan after plan, each one of them seeks to destroy the other, the battle of good versus evil.
The reason I enjoyed this anime is because it makes you choose sides. Each side is presented with a strong reason for acting they way they act.

Story: 8.5/10
The story is very interesting as a premise. It is well written (at least during the first part) and well paced. It keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what crazy plan Light or L will come up with next. This lasts up to a certain part of the story (not gonna say which one, because of major spoilers). After this part the story kinda slacks off, get a different pacing and feels a little rushed.

Art: 7/10
The art is good, nothing too special, the animations are okay. The reason I'm deducting points here is because it did not impress me visually and also because the anime has no HD version of it, only 480p and below. So if you want to watch this anime, and you usually watch animes in HD like me, sorry, you are out of luck.

Sound: 9.5/10
The sound is great. The first opening is pretty cool, but the second not so much. The soundtrack used in the anime captures the spirit of the show perfectly, ranging from suspenseful music, to dramatic and epic. Light's and L's main theme are my favorite soundtracks.

Characters: 8/10
Light and L are fleshed out properly as characters. The Shinigami Ryuk, who follows Light around, is also a very interesting character that along with Amane Misa and Touta Matsuda provide a comic side for the anime which I really enjoyed. The other supporting characters do a pretty good job and are interesting.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Even though this anime has flaws, some would argue that they are big ones, I really enjoyed it. It kept me interested and invested in it.

To sum up:
(+) Interesting characters
(+) The notebook itself is a very interesting concept.
(+) The battle of minds and intellects will keep you interested until the end.

(-) The story kinds falls off after a certain event in the anime
(-) The art is nothing impressive and there is no HD version of the anime, only upscaled 480p.
(-) The characters introduced after the aforementioned event in the anime are a little bit lacking and feel a little out of place.

Overall: ~9/10
I totally recommend this anime for anyone who enjoys a battle of minds and ideals.