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This show is a character-driven slice of life comedy, so in lieu of a plot synopsis, it's better to explain it by describing the three main characters.

First, you have Seri, the protagonist. He's a bit immature, but a pretty normal schoolboy. There's nothing really to say about him on his own.

Then you have Kabuto, the chuuni. Besides being completely isolated from reality, his defining characteristic is being unimaginably stupid, both academically, practically, and socially. The most unrealistic part of this show is that he's survived to this age without dying from starvation/thirst because he forgot how to swallow, or being run over by a truck ... because he wanted to fight it with magic.

Finally, what really makes this show special is Utsugi. Most character-driven comedies like this have a normal protagonist, a chuuni, and some combination of tsundere, dandere, masochist, or some other dere trope. However, this show has an omnipotent sadist instead. He does everything he can to make Seri's life miserable, and since he's apparently a god, there's absolutely nothing our protagonist can do about it. Utsugi can apparently read minds, see the future, straight up brainwash people, and perform inhuman feats of strength and speed.

The comedy of this show is derived from Seri being humiliated, tortured, and mentally broken by Utsugi, mostly by manipulating Kabuto as a tool to cause as much emotional pain as possible. That's pretty much it. Every time anything remotely positive happens to Seri, Utsugi lets it play out just long enough to get his hopes up and then crushes it in the most humiliating way possible. That's it. That's all there is to this show.

If you have even the tiniest shred of empathy for the main character, this show is pure emotional torture. I've watched hundreds of series without ever dropping a single one, and this is the closest I've ever been to breaking that commitment. Even leaving it to play on my laptop while I go and do something else in my room is too painful to bear. I only wish that I could give a negative score here.

As far as isekai light novels go, "Abilaverage" (the author's abbreviated title) has more unique traits than most. The main character is a girl, ...well, one is more than none, right?

I'm kidding. A lot of people seem to bash the isekai genre for its paucity of originality, but I don't really care about that; all that matters is that it's entertaining. Besides the all-girl main cast, though, there are a few characteristics I noticed in this one that make it a bit different from others. For one, the only thing driving the plot is the girl's desire to be average. There's no demon lord ... or enemy forces to defeat, no half-elf to crown queen, no nation to rule, and she doesn't have any desire to return to earth. Some people might think that you can't have a plot without a goal, but let's be real here. How many of the events in re:zero have anything to do with the royal selection? Are the cast of konosuba even trying to defeat the demon lord? In Abilaverage, FUNA wrote a fun and entertaining story without needing to use any kind of end-game pretext to justify its existence. In my opinion, that's kinda impressive, actually.

Another quirky detail in this one is that it's technically more science-fiction than fantasy. The magic in this world has a pseudoscience explanation that actually has some pretty significant consequences. Adele/Mile doesn't just have some crazy high "affinity" for magic. I mean, her ability alone is definitely pretty strong, but her incredible power comes mostly from exclusive knowledge of the real reason why things work, while everyone else in the world is operating based on false assumptions. This means that the most important thing elevating her above everyone else is just her ability to keep a secret; if her knowledge gets out, everyone else would suddenly become pretty OP too. It really does make things more interesting.

While the story has some good things going for it, the greatest weaknesses I found were in the writing. The pacing is even worse than Shield Hero, and although I can't explain exactly why, the language just seems a bit amateurish. What really stood out was the dialogue. If you were to take r/thatHappened and condense it into a character, you'd get Adele/Mile. Some of the events, which actually include everyone standing up and clapping, are just so ludicrously contrived that the only proper response to reading them is an incredulous guffaw. I mean, it is a work of fiction, and the whole thing is unavoidably unrealistic by definition, but come on.

All in all, though, it's a very fun and lighthearted read, and if you're an isekai junkie like me then you definitely should give it a try. Mile/Adele really is a pretty entertaining main character. Just be ready for what happens whenever a guy says something she doesn't like.

Gridman was one of several anime this season that blew my expectations to smithereens. I'm not a huge mecha fan, so I was very skeptical at first, and didn't bother starting until halfway through the season. But damn was I impressed. It started out strong, and every episode kept getting better and better, up until the grand finale - one of the best final episodes I can remember. Here's some of the key points.

Plot - How many plot twists can an anime have without losing its impact? You could tell that the writers were having a blast working on this, as the entire storyline felt ... loose and free; nothing was forced, everything came naturally, and minor plot holes were shrugged off only to be patched by the next reveal. Every time a major plot twist happened it felt like it for sure would be the last, so every new event always came as a surprise.

Art - The style was pretty normal, with just a miniscule hint of shaft-y accents, and CGI for the kaiju that wasn't terrible and was appropriate for the circumstance. There was nothing to complain about, and I did like the subtle accentuation.

Sound - UNION is the hypest OP I've heard since OPM. The hook is so good, and the lyrics fit both the melody and the anime. Actually one of the best openings I can think of in terms of lyrical relevance. Others have also praised the voice acting, which I didn't really notice much but I think that was the point. I don't remember anything special about the actual soundtrack though.

Character - Really meh in this department.... which was disappointing because the story was so great. On the other hand, the story explains why there's not a whole lot of character development, and including more background would go against the plot. Knowing the reason, however, doesn't change the fact that the characters are weak.

Enjoyment - This very quickly became one of my favorites this season, and one that I was eagerly waiting for each week. That puts it in 8/10 territory, for me.

I thought this anime was just a meme before I watched it for myself. As a fantasy junkie, an anime like this breaking into my top 10 is an impossible feat. Of course, Soma-kun could pull it off.

Story - forget about cooking, this story was more intense, dramatic, and gripping than almost any other I've seen. You really have to see it to understand how a show about cooking could be so enthralling.

Art - no CGI, many different styles thrown in for emphasizing different scenes and items, and outstanding execution of all of them. The exceptional animation is one of two reasons why a ... show about cooking was able to pull off the intensity that makes it so engaging. The artwork here is the image of perfection.

Sound - This is the other reason. Without the soundtrack, it would not have been able to pull off the drama and intensity that it did. In terms of fit and usage, the soundtrack gets perfect marks. However, I have no knock it down a whole three points because of how damn repetitive it is. There are three or four great tracks that fit the scenes perfectly, but they keep playing over and over for the whole series, and it gets annoying after a while.

Character - The animation was flawless, but the characters in this anime exceed perfection. If I could give a higher score than 10, I would. There are so many different characters with detailed backstories and distinctive personalities, and the anime somehow manages to involve every one of them without leaving a single one neglected. To me, having three or four main characters with detailed backstories and good balance is a perfect score. This anime manages to pull off six in one season alone, and that doesn't even include multiple characters of equal or greater importance whose backgrounds have yet to be revealed.

Enjoyment - The biggest complaint I have about the anime is the hypersexualized reactions. The first episode contains a literal hentai scene. It was extremely off-putting when I started, and I had to force myself to continue through four episodes, but once things started to pick up I forgot entirely about this reservation. By the end, I didn't even notice how questionable the worst scenes are, because I was so used to them at that point. The anime is so damn good that I forgot all about the incredibly NSFW scenes.

Overall - I'm rewatching this anime at least four times. The first was for entertainment. The second is to take notes, because after finishing this, I felt the need to spend more time in the kitchen myself. The third is to collect the surprisingly detailed recipes, and the fourth is to show it to others. On my own personal list, which is normalized around a mean of 5.5/10, I awarded it an 8... but there are only six entries I've rated higher. I might bump it up to a 9 in future revisions, as my sample size increases, as it's near borderline for me. Putting my normalized personalized ratings aside, on a more universal scale, this is closer to a 9.5.

What stood out to me in this anime, above all else, was the MC. Touya is probably the closest to Mr. Perfect I've encountered thus far. Aside from being oblivious to the romantic intentions of his companions, he's smart enough to find solutions to problems relatively painlessly. He's overpowered, but only uses as much as he needs to for any given situation and isn't overly flashy. He's humble, but not shy. He's very kind, but doesn't put himself down for the sake of others. The only thing I could dislike about him is that he's too perfect. Subaru is my favorite male MC for the ... same reasons he's so hated by most fans - he's heavily flawed. I can relate to him because of that. Touya is just so perfect that he never needs my sympathy and he never makes me reflect on myself.

As for the supporting characters, I wasn't enthralled by any of them, but I couldn't find anything wrong with them either. The only change I would make would be introducing Francesca much earlier on, because I think her personality is a foil to the others that adds a lot of depth.

The story was pretty average in general, but the pacing was good. There wasn't a gripping storyline that I wanted to see to the end; instead, there was a series of minor arcs that were all interesting enough to make me want to keep watching, without any stretches of boring nothing in between.

I don't have anything interesting to report for the art and sound. They're both pretty average. Taken together with everything else, this anime is a solid 7 for me. I guess for most people that's not very high, but I standardize my ratings so 7 is very good.

I'm a huge isekai fan, and I'm writing this review mostly to remind myself why I gave an isekai anime such a low rating. There was nothing particularly good about this anime, and a few points that were terrible.

First, this main character is among the most frustrating to watch I've encountered thus far. He's overpowered AF in this world, which is pretty common in isekai. He's modest and humble, which is also very common in this genre. However, there's a difference between not flaunting your abilities and refusing to use them to the point where you put other people in danger, just because you ... don't like attention. On top of that, despite treating slaves well, he doesn't do anything about granting them higher status.

Second, the plot isn't. There is none. It's a series of random adventures with no clear overall goal in mind, with poor pacing and terrible content. Even the parts that should have been interesting weren't, because it looked forced in execution and the main character diligently removed any excitement that could have taken place.

Third, and this is minor compared to the story and character, the animation wasn't very good. Most of it was pretty normal looking, but there was more bad CG present than most animes. Just enough to knock it a point below average in this aspect.

As for sound and enjoyment - nothing stood out to me about the soundtrack, neither for better nor for worse, and despite being a terrible anime in my opinion I still was drawn to it somewhat because I'm an isekai junkie.

So there you have it, the recipe for an overall score of 3 in the genre I adore.

Usually, I'll watch an anime at least twice before writing a review, taking notes the second time on specific qualities (variations in the art, nuances in the dialogue, actually paying attention to the soundtrack etc). However, I really feel like I need to leave a positive review on this one after my first watch, because I think it's greatly underappreciated.

Very few animes introduce an entirely new concept as a focal plot point. The vast majority of stories are some combination of existing tropes, and even some animes that are considered revolutionary in some way are just two existing tropes put together in a new way. ... There's nothing in this anime that I've never seen before. Similar stories that come to mind are Toyko Ghoul, Ancient Magus' Bride, Claymore, and yes, Twilight. However, it's not the same as any of these, and is unique in the way that it pulls various aspects from each of those together. It also throws in a political element that I've seen before but can't recall where from.

There were a few things I thought were exceptional about this anime. Despite being a fantasy anime about vampires n stuff, the human elements were often incredibly realistic. In particular, Anzai's self hatred, his relationship with Tsukasa, and the public response were all exactly as I would expect real people would act in those circumstances. I also thought that the human-nonhuman issue was shown through a very balanced representation, including romantic, professional and friendly relations in mostly equal amounts. The subjective and variable triggering of demon transformations was also a subtly unique touch that added a lot to the story, characters and depth.

My biggest complaint was the pacing, especially the ending. Probably a top-10 worst ending in my book. I also would have liked to see more about Tsukasa's background, along with some of the supporting characters (Sawazaki and Juliana, in particular). I think this anime would have been a lot better given 24 episodes to explore those backgrounds a little more and allow for better separation into distinct story arcs.

If you leave your Twilight bashing and vampire romance preconceptions behind, I think you can really enjoy this anime. I don't think you could write a balanced, negative review about it without comparing it to certain stories of the past, which isn't the fault of the anime in any way. Forget about all that, and watch it for what it is.

Overall: 6
This anime falls solidly under the category of "good but not that good." Its best attribute was its conceptual basis: the battle between both AI and humans with different ideas for their future. However the execution was pretty lackluster, with terrible pacing at times and a number of scenes that just fell flat.

Story: 7
The concepts here aren't new or unique in any way; Chobits explored the issue of human-AI relationships over a decade and a half ago, and more recently a similar conflict was explored in Detroit: Become Human. However, Beatless combines this human-robot identity crisis with political and social issues to spin ... a much more complex and nuanced web of clashing ideals. Instead of the usual dichotomous pro- and anti-bot factions duking it out, we get seven different AI's and at least seven more human factions engaged in both direct and indirect conflict. And while I do have some complaints about the execution, Beatless did a pretty good job of not being too confusing. Also, Arato's philosophy was refreshingly straightforward and a bit different from anything else I've seen in fiction.
My biggest complaint about the pacing is probably with regards to the relationship between Lacia and Arato. At some points, especially near the beginning and the end, new developments came in rapid-fire, while at other times it felt like it was becoming stagnant. The pacing was also pretty bad in terms of the appearances of Arato's two best buds, to the point where I lost track of who was who because I honestly just forgot that one of them existed by the time he showed up again.

Art: 6
There wasn't much special about the animation. I gave it a point above average because it had less noticeably bad CGI than most, and the use of colors and physical traits to make the different AIs very distinct was pretty good.

Sound: 5
An average soundtrack to me is one where you don't really remember anything about it, except for just a small number of times where it sounded a bit off from what was going off.

Character: 7
In order to keep track of 14+ different humans and AI with different ideals, the characters must be fairly well done so it's easy to distinguish between them and keep track of who's who. Beatless did a pretty good job with this. I also particularly liked Arato's character because of his unique stance on hIE's, which I can totally get behind. However, some of the supporting cast seemed pretty meaningless and superficial, especially Arato's and Kengo's sisters.

Enjoyment: 6
I found the anime just good enough to want to keep watching, but I never really got hooked. The first two episodes almost did, but just knowing that I'd have to sit through another 16 episodes to get anywhere was pretty off-putting.

Synopsis: 2/10
Gantz is terrible. The edgelord of animes, it flaunts suicide and rape along with copious amounts of gore for no reason other than meaningless shock value. It is pure torture to watch, as every sentence spoken by every character fills the viewer with unpleasant feelings that cannot be described in words, like a slap to the face of humanity. The only positive thing about this anime is the intro song, Super Shooter, which is actually straight fire, and the sole reason I gave this anime one point above rock bottom.

Story: 1/10
Titles like Elfen Lied, Mahoutsukai no Yome, and many others use edge effectively to ... deepen attachment to characters and give meaning to a story. Gantz uses edge to be edgy. There's absolutely no point to any of the suicide or rape scenes, and they more or less get forgotten immediately after they happen. There's no real plot, either; nothing ever happens that's important relative to anything else that has happened or will happen. For an anime with no plot and disgraceful edge, no more than 1 point is merited.

Art: 3/10
The art is about as low-quality as you'd expect from something made in the early 2000's, but that might be a blessing in disguise as it blurs the CGI cuts to look less conspicuous.

Sound: 7/10
Like I said, the opening is a banger. It's so good, actually, that even if the rest of the soundtrack was composed by a toddler banging around the kitchen cabinet, I'd still have to give the sound a passing score.

Character: 1/10
Somehow, this aspect is even worse than the story. Every character in this anime is either mind-blowingly stupid, aneurysm-inducingly douchey, or both. Actually, there are only two characters who aren't both, but even as just one or the other they're still absolutely insufferable. Think of the most intolerable asshole of a character you've ever seen in anime, knock his IQ down about 50 points, and you've got the protagonist of Gantz. There are only two characters that are less of an asshole than him; one is the token female whose sole purpose of existence is to provide suicide and rape scenes, and the other is his best bud who's pure at heart but so stupid he wouldn't be able to solve a 1x1 Rubik's cube.

Enjoyment: 1/10
As I said in the synopsis, watching this anime was pure psychological torture. That's all there is to say here.

Overall: 4/10
Nanbaka had vast potential as a pure comedy anime. The animation and characters were stellar, and all the anime needed to do in order for this to be a hilarious and entertaining watch was to follow the everyday life of these guys and observe how they interact with each other. But whoever is responsible for writing this managed to screw that up. By the end of the season, I felt as disappointed as I've ever been by an anime, which says something considering I've seen Gantz.

Story: 1/10
Watching this anime, I got the feeling that whoever wrote the material thought it was critically necessary to ... add some degree of a serious plot in order to make a good anime. The plot shows up about halfway through the season, and shatters everything that was good about the anime up until that point. The first six episodes were funny, lighthearted, and pure. There wasn't any plot to speak of, just a series of minor arcs unrelated to any kind of bigger picture, and that was just what this anime needed. Then, all of a sudden, the most forced plot I've ever seen came up out of nowhere and dragged the mood, experience, and humor down to rock bottom. It ran completely against everything that had made this anime great, stomped it out and took it over. Even putting that aside, it was just a terrible plot. It didn't make any sense, and just felt fake and forced, as if it was only there to fulfill some sort of requirement.

Art: 8/10
The art style of this anime was unique, vibrant and quirky, matching the characters and setting perfectly. Everything was crazy brightly colored, the characters were all given flamboyant styles to match their personalities, and every line drawn was crisp and sharp. The characteristic style of this anime, in which the foreground objects (characters and the bare minimum of props) were isolated from the rest of the setting and drawn against a conspicuously colorful patterned backdrop, was used to great effect in most scenes where two characters were interacting with each other, highlighting the action and accentuating the comedy. Normally, this would merit a 9/10 score from me, but the art stopped matching the mood when the plot kicked in.

Sound: 5/10
The soundtrack in general was pretty average. I took off one point because there was at least one scene where the music did clash with the atmosphere and detract from the experience. However, I really liked the outro, which is worth about half a point to me, and I partially counted the announcer-guy as a component of the soundtrack, who added another half point to bring the score back to average.

Character: 7/10
Aside from Jyugo and the other characters related to the "plot", every character in this anime is amazing. They all have very distinct, very flamboyant personalities, that show so prominently that none of them really needed any backstory or specially dedicated screentime in order for the viewer to understand them thoroughly. They complement each other perfectly, and the natural interactions between these eccentric people would have been more than enough to make for a thoroughly entertaining watch without any semblance of a story whatsoever. Like with the art, this would normally elicit a 9/10 from me, but I have to take one point off for Jyugo's forced backstory and another point off for the rushed introductions of the other prisoners in the first couple episodes.

Enjoyment: 2/10
By the second episode, I was cautiously optimistic for this anime. By the fifth episode, I was having a blast watching this. But once episode 7 rolled around, it dove downhill fast. I think I've already addressed why in the overall and story sections. The feeling of utter disappointment by the end almost completely drowns out any enjoyment I had earlier on, but I will give it one point above rock bottom.