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This is a review for Season 1 only.

I guess your enjoy for this anime is going to dependent of which medium/media you watched first. If you've finished the VN, you're going to be nitpicky about how the story will unfold in an anime adaptation. If you've watched Fate/Zero first, I heard there's going to be some issue with the plot continuity.

The problem is that this is an adaptation of a specific route in the Visual Novel. It's going to be a hit or miss, nonetheless.

I haven't seen Fate/Zero and I haven't finished the Visual Novel. So I have nothing to compare it to besides other ... anime or other piece of entertainment.

Did I had fun watching this? Yes. I did. It's basically battle royale with magic.


Story: 7 (Good)
It's good, but not that good. I wasn't really invested with the story yet since there's a lot of things that doesn't make sense (this is season 1 after all). The lore is somewhat interesting. What is this holy grail thingy? What's its purpose? Why does it want a battle royale among mages? I don't know. Maybe season 2 has answers.

Or maybe this mumbo jumbo is just a weak-ass excuse to pit people against each other into an unnecessary death match because we love them gladiator fights, right? Oh god (Ishtar), this Holy Grail War nonsense should be explained well in Season 2, otherwise, it would really feel like a forced battle royale just for the LOLs of whatever god created this (it's probably the author and TYPE-MOON).

And no, I'm not gonna watch Fate/Stay made by Deen studio. I'd rather read the VN.

Well, it's best not to think about the story too much at this point.


ART: 9 (Great).
What can I say? It's Ufotable. Of course the art and animation is awesome. It's the main reason I've watched this in the first place. Because of goddamn Ufotable. They're probably one of the few anime studio that can blend 2D and 3D well together and they've continued to progress in their techniques (go see Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer).

There's only one scene I find that the CG looked terrible. Not much of a spoiler, but it involves water. Lots of water. You'll know when you get there. It's hard to miss once you've seen it.

As for art style, character designs follow the original designs made by TYPE-Moon (developers of the VN) which is fine. Not really into TYPE-MOON's anime style, but Ufotable manages to make it work for me. Rin is cute. Saber is cute. All good. Sakura is best waifu (fight me, and yes I'm aware of Heaven's Feel and that she has the more darker route).


Sound: 7 (Good)
Not really good at assessing sound design. But I didn't notice anything out of place, nor I found anything remarkable in terms of sound design or OST. So far, I like the opening OST, not much on the ending OST.

As for character VA, most of the characters matches their personality, at least for my taste. Shirou though, when he's serious, he has this cool badass voice, but when he's talking normal, I'm not really sure. I'm not really feeling it. Or it's probably just me since I don't like Shirou that much (see character section below).


Character: 7 (Good)
Warning: Some minor spoilers ahead.

RIN - I love Rin. I don't really know why. It's probably because her ideals are not as fucked up as Shirou. She can stand on her own, and she has the potential to be a badass though technically, she'll end up being a "glass cannon" if she happens to grow more powerful (like most mages are) or maybe I'm wrong and she'll end up as the damsel in distress of this anime (nothing wrong with that bwt). I don't know. Let me finish Season 2 first.

Plus, she's cute especially once she flustered over Shirou out of nowhere words of endearment (sometime he said these words in straight face is kinda funny). I'm not really into tsunderes but I'm getting a hang of it now. They're really fun to tease.

Shirou - *sigh* I'm bias here, OK? It's my own bias working against me. I know the guy has PTSD, and it's wrong to pick on him because of how weak of a protagonist he is, mentally and physically (at least for now, we all know he's gonna get a power up - it's inevitable). His sense of justice is over the top that it makes me cringe at times.

I don't know. Something about Shirou gets on my nerves and I can't exactly pinpoint what it is at the moment. I remember reading the VN and I couldn't remember if he's this annoying or not. But at least he's not boring, that's for sure. There are far weaker, and more annoying protagonist out there than this fucker.

I do hope he's less annoying in Season 2.

Saber - We love Saber. Who's not gonna love Saber? Even if this is not her route and she's a supporting character here for the most part, she's still freakin adorable especially during that (spoiler) date scene with Rin and Shirou.

Archer - Weirdly enough, I can connect with Archer more than I could with Shirou. Don't look at me like that. I've already been spoiled of what Archer's true identity is, okay. Stop grinning and let me finish. His ideals is somewhat opposite of Shirou. While most of them are a bit extreme at times, I think some of them are a bit realistic when you think about it, despite the fact that these ideals are dangerous and probably as messed up as Shirou's world view. It's like they're two sides of the same coin (wink wink).

But overall, Archer is cool. I like anti-hero characters. They're interesting.

Sakura - I wish there was more Sakura scenes but this isn't her route. And as far as I know, her route is the darkest among the three. But I'll watch Heaven's Feel anyway and right now, I'm not sure if I'm turning into a masochist for even saying that. Sakura is best waifu and that Shinji should burn in every circle of hell trapped in an infinite loop.

Shinji - This guy is a piece of shit. That's it. Fuck you Shinji.

Overall, no significant character progression in Season 1. Most characters end up being the same as when they first started by the time the season ended. Rin is still Rin. Archer is still Archer. Saber is, well, is still doing Saber things. Shirou is still a dumbass and probably lost the ability to comprehend the situation he's in.


Enjoyment: 8 (Very Good).
OK, after ranting about our the hero of this story, getting it outta my chest is kinda good. Fuck you Shinji Ikari. Opps. Wrong anime.

Yes I did enjoy season 1. And I hope I enjoy season 2. I just have to keep my expectations in check.


Overall: 8 (Very Good).
I like UBW Season 1 for what it is and for what it's not (like having a better protagonist). As always, Ufotable's animation and direction is what drives this anime.

You want a sequal to Fate/Zero, then this isn't it. I don't know, OK? I'll watch it after I finish UBW and see why people are so upset about this being "a bad sequel".

You want the definitive story experience of Unlimited Blade Works, go read the visual novel. You want to see the cool fight scenes and awesome spectacles you won't see in the VN, well then, this anime is for you.

This is probably the best anime of all time. I don't even know where to begin or why I said those words.

First of all, I did like Fairy Tail during it's first set of arcs. I watch this way back in High School (I think, can't remember anymore) and it was an OK show. Until I started to get bored and back then, I wasn't sure why. And probably because I started noticing things. Please see the guide below on why Fairy Tail is the best animu ever!


Fairy Tail's Guide for a successful anime:

[1] (un)Original Cast of Characters
Every shonen battle anime needs an MC who ... can shout and act like a total retard who probably just escaped a metal institution because that what makes them interesting. right? Brains? Pfft! Who needs that? We all know real men are barbarians, right? Real men think with their fist! And they need to be raised by dragons. That's the most manliest thing ever!

Pleasing characteristics and unique traits, who needs that when you have a character that needs to strip every once in while because *cough* comedy, ladies and gentlemen. Don't you have any sense of humor?

We also need a pair of walking boobs. Wait, make that two. Make the second one clad in armor because, why not? We need to make the second one to be useful. What about the first one? No need. She has a better role to serve that will *cough* "resonate" with the fans.

A battle shonen won't be complete without a mascot. Something that everybody around the world would love. We also need to make it funny since its sole purpose is comic relief. Oh yeah... A flying blue cat!

Perfección!


[2] Power of Friendship
Only real heroes would know how to summon the power of friendship (nakama) by using ancient chant in the form of a motivational speech. The Fairy Tail guild is notorious for using motivational speeches powerful enough that it would put politicians around the world to shame. Naruto and Luffy needs to learn from our boy Natsu if they want to be world leaders of their respective world.

You don't need demon fox powers or devil fruit powers to overcome your enemies. What you need is a speech that talks about how much you love your friends and describe how much you and your crew love each other so damn much (no homo) to the point that the cringe level will reach maximum capacity, overloading your enemy's brain cells.

That's why Natsu wins every fight. Even if his enemies are way too powerful they're no match for Natsu's divine words of nakama. Combine this with some serious beating to the face, it's enough to warm the hearts of even the most evil of villains that they have to join Natsu's holy crusade or they'll lose their shit. Of course, since they're former villains, they have to beg Natsu's approval in the most tsudere of ways. And then, maybe just maybe, they'll get a chance to taste Natsu's.... home cooked meat balls.

Natsu is a natural born leader. Maybe the dragon that trained him firebending had also past down the holy "words of power". Maybe in the future, Natsu can finally do a "FUS-RO-DAH" enough to blew Lucy's clothes away.


[3] Unlimited Boobs Work
I take back what I said. Natsu doesn't need to learn dragon shouts to make Lucy go naked. Actually, he doesn't have to bother inserting force or thought into it since almost every episode, she'll ended near naked, or full naked for whatever reason. It's not just Lucy, even the other girls, or even the guys. Nobody in Fairy Tail land is safe from this natural occurring phenomenon that strips everybody from their clothes. Might as well not wear any for fuck's sake. I'm surprise that this anime doesn't go full hentai yet.

Even the fights are are not safe from this bizarre oddity that plagues this anime. Every once in while, a random fanservice will be inserted into the fight and you're left to wonder if you should be horny or not since the fight just went back to being serious, and your hand is already at your dick... or pussy (you do you fam, you do you).

Then Natsu started his Nakama chat power up and now your dick/pussy is more confused than ever. Don't fret. Maybe that'll help you reach Nirvana, so just go with it.

MAG-NI-FI-CO!

[3] Rinse and Repeat
Why would you need a new story for your new arc? You don't need any of that garbage. What you need is more characters to introduce. The more the merrier, right? Also, more characters means more fanservice, because we're horny pieces of shit and author-san knows this full well. He's way ahead of the game. Our author is on his way to ecchi perfection, especially now that he had released Fairy Tail 2.0 ----- IN SPACE!

Excelente!

Oh yeah, right - story. Uhm... Just repeat existing tropes used in the last arc. Probably jumbled them a bit. Who cares? It's not like anybody will notice. You know what they say, "If it ain't broke, it's definitely not Fairy Tail".

To be honest, I don't even know or remember why I watched this. Is this a good watch or is this a good wank? I don't know anymore. The lines have been blurred deep under Lucy's and Ezra's tits and probably hiding somewhere in Gray's Ice Popsicle or Natsu's dragon ball.

My 3rd Review on this site.


Story: 6
This is so far the weakest part of Kyoukai no Kanata. The whole premise starts off with me having this thinking that this is a love story of some sort but my god, I was only half-right. It's a supernatural anime with characters having spiritual powers hunting supernatural beings with a romance subplot (or maybe the supernatural element is the subplot and the romance is the main plot - I don't know anymore).

It's like bleach except they're not shinigamis (death god), instead, they're called Spirit Hunters/Warriors who hunt down "Dreamshades" instead of hallows. It more like a monster ... hunter type of job to earn cash depending on the level of the "Dreamshade".

I don't find this quite interesting, but it's serviceable. And that's just me. Some people might like this concept, some might not.

The real problem of this anime starts when it's about to reach the ending when the plot went down on weird spiral and most of the concept just went pass my head and I have no idea what the hell is going on. Even the ending doesn't make any sense to me and it makes wonder if I'm dumb or not (SPOILER: it's still sweet though, I do like it, it just that the way it was handle makes it feel like a deux ex machina).

I get the idea (sort of). I like the first half better and how everything ties in together the motivation of the main heroine that led up to the main event. When the climax did hit, that's where everything starts to get messy and felt rushed, plot wise.

It's probably because the anime was only planned for a 12 episode run and had to crunch and squeeze in the plot from a three volume light novel. There's not enough screen time to make a more cohesive narrative.

I haven't read the LN, and I don't plan to since I'm not a light novel reader myself. So it's hard to tell if this was one of those instances that the adaption failed to capture the essence of the source material. Or that the novel itself is at fault for having a messy plot to begin with.

What I do love is the romance part of this anime. More on that in the character section of this review.


ART: 9
For something that lacks in the story department, this one pumped the gas on the animation department. It's the main reason why I've watched this anime in the first place.

Also. this is my first Kyoto Animation anime I've seen so far and I never knew they're capable of this given their line up of slice of life anime (which I'm not really into so I don't really know what they're capable of).

Speaking of Kyo-Ani, I hope they're doing OK.


Sound: 8
I love the OST for this anime especially "Daisy" by Stereo Dive Foundation (weird way to name your band btw). The sound design and sound effects are really good. No complains for the voice acting as well.


Character: 8
I do like the cast of Kyokai no Kanata. I also share the same love as Akihito when it comes to "meganekko" (glasses girl) and I could easily give this one a 10/10 if it's only for the fetish itself.

As I said before, I love the romance, but I have to admit it was lacking something. Yes, it's a straight forward vanilla romance with some cute moments but I wish there were more of those since I could only remember a few. Even the main couple in this anime have barely enough room to develop their feelings for one another except maybe when the world is about to end because why not? World is ending, so let's admit our feelings, right? If only this series was a bit longer (maybe 2-3 episodes more), then maybe the buildup for the romance would be a bit better.

Either way, those heartfelt moments still touched my "kokoro" and I could understand where the these two lovebirds are coming from.

I also like the other cast as well, primarily the two Nase siblings (despite the brother's uhm.. "sister complex"). There was one episode that felt like a slice of life vibe going for it and I love it for how adorable and cute they are in that particular episode. God, I wish there was more comedy slice of life episodes to flesh out the characters more. That would be awesome seeing the comical antics these characters would do on a daily basis to hunt down dreamshades that have weird biology and quirks. That would have been better than the actual underlying plot (described above).

But alas, this is a 12 episode anime and most characters are not fully fleshed out except maybe for the two main characters. Maybe a little bit with the Nase siblings but they're still a mystery to me, especially the eldest.

Even the villain and their motive is unclear and I've stopped caring on the last episode because of how cartoonishly evil the villain is, even more so than this anime's "macguffin" (spoiler and hint, the macguffin is in the title) which was supposed to be the main threat of the series.


Enjoyment: 7
Even if this was a 12 episode anime, I wasn't compelled or had the urge to watch it in one sitting or at the very least watch more than two episodes a day.

I usually watch anime two episodes during weekdays (during lunch breaks at work). If the anime's plot is intriguing enough, it can gave me an itch to watch more episodes than my daily quota even if I have to sacrifice the allotted time for playing my PS4 when I arrive at home after work. Kyoukai no Kanata didn't give me that itch.

It probably has to do with the plot. I love the characters and animation, but that's not enough to keep me going. It's like reading a book. If the plot is interesting, it's automatically a "page-turner". If not, you're going to have a hard time finishing the book. Kyoukai no Kanata is somewhere in between. One aspect of it makes it worthy of a "page-turner" but another makes it not.

But despite that, I did enjoy this anime and will watch the sequel movie just so I can have more meganekko and also, maybe, just maybe it'll give me a proper closure than this anime did.


Overall: 8
If you like eye-candy animation with some decent fanservice but suffers from poor plot execution and you have a fetish for meganekko (or other "questionable" fetishes involving an imouto), then this one is for you. Go watch it. It's just twelve episodes.

Watch 2-3 episodes and see if you'll like it. But don't expect too much from the plot. I gave up half-way through it and didn't border with concept anymore. You'll probably enjoy it more with that mindset.

PS: I'm still conflicted to give this a 7 or 8. I'll check again in a few days to see if I still feel the same way about the final score.

Well this is funny. My second review in MAL is a hentai. That's saying something. Oh well, here we go.


Story: 6 (Fair)
Pretty decent. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's hentai after all. We didn't come here to be emerge in a good story. The story of Tropical Kiss is straight forward. It's not bad, but not very good either. It's serviceable for the actual "plot".


ART: 8 (Very Good)
It's one of those hentaies that has a good animation when delivering the "plot". It's not the generic loop animation that most hentaies would do to save up time or effort which makes them boring. This one ... though, the "plot" is interesting and money shots are well executed.

The only complain that I have is the amount of plot present (especially in episode 3 having just 1 segment or 2 if you count the epilogue) or some scenes are way to fast for you to fully see the "plot" happening (episode 1 "plot montage"). Yeah, we want more of that well animated "plot", please.


Sound: 7 (Good)
Good. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The music is fine. Sound effects are OK as well. I couldn't remember anything that would put you off regarding the sound design (unless you don't like the voice actress, but I doubt that).


Character: 8 (Very Good)
Each episode is self-contained and portrays a specific route based on the visual novel. Meaning each episode will lean towards a specific girl to progress the "plot".

The girls here falls on anime stereotypes. If you don't like the stereotypes, you're not gonna like this one. And each girl's design matches their stereotypes (of course, why wouldn't they).

The minor complain that I have is two girls having similar "vibrant" hair color that got me confused a bit. The only thing to distinguish them is by hair style, mannerism and of course voice acting. Again, a minor complain. I like both of them.


Enjoyment: 8 (Very Good)
Yes, I did enjoy Tropical Kiss for what it is. I just wish there were more episodes or a bit more plot.


If you like a decently animated hentai then go watch this one.

This is my first MAL review.

Story: 5 (average)
Nothing I've ever seen before. It probably the weakest part of the anime, in my opinion. It's isekai but this time with a shield and a "raid-type" scenario for a cataclysm. It's serviceable.

And no, I didn't give this a low score based on the themes presented during the first arc. I'm fine with that and it didn't bother me too much. In fact, what bothers me is the lack of interesting themes. Not much can be found in this anime.

You can just relax and try not to think too much because there's nothing much to think about.

Art: ... 6 (Fine)
Overall look is within the basic standards of these modern day isekai. There's nothing particularly special in terms of animation and art style. It's not particularly bad either. It's just basic.

Even the battle sequence are uninteresting and I didn't remember much of it except the outcomes. As much as I hate to admit it, SAO at the very least had better animation sequences (though I personally like Shield Hero more than SAO).

Sound: 6 (Fine)
Nothing memorable in terms of sound design or even music. The only thing that I do like about the music is the opening theme for both arcs performed by MADKID whom I thought were a rock band, but they're actually a J-POP boyband and looked as though they're inspired by K-POP (and there's nothing wrong with that).

Characters: 7 (Good)
This is the part that I could give the anime a leverage. I do like the main cast which is Naofumi's party. They're the core that makes this anime work despite the generic plot and bland world building. If you happen to not like any of these characters, I doubt you'll continue to stick with this anime like I did.

Enjoyment: 7 (Good)
Despite its generic story structure and bland world building, I did enjoy Tate no Yuusha. I don't know why. It's hard to pinpoint what made me like it despite all its flaws. Is it because people in this isekai are filled with assholes that makes Naofumi's life miserable? Or is it because of Raphtalia and her pouty face moments? Definitely because of Raphtalia. Don't look at me like that. She's - ehem! She's seventeen, okay?!

(FBI, Sir, I can explain. Look at her. Does she look like ten to you?)

Score: 6.2

Verdict:
At the end of the day, we all know this is trash. But what can we say? Most of the time, we eat good and healthy meals. These are the good anime with decent plot and animation. But sometimes, we want to eat junkfood. Tate no Yuusha is one of those junkfoods I'd like to eat it every once in a while.

PS. Eating junkfoods everyday is bad for your health (and your sanity).


Bonus: +1
Because I at least felt something towards some of the characters of this anime, I'll give it a plus one.

Overall Score: 7.2 (Good)