SPOILER-FREE
**Story:** 10/10 - great, non-linear path of healing and forgiveness plotline
**Art:** 10/10 - art is fun and simple
**Sound:** 10/10 - very good, a few fixes to subtitles sometimes needed
**Characters:** 10/10 - great characters, realistic flaws, lots of emotional value
...
**Enjoyment:** 10/10 - I cried a lot
SPOILERS
**Overall (10/10)**
Overall, a great emotional movie. Lots of serious messages portrayed in an enjoyable way though some themes are a lot more subtle than others.
**Story (10/10)**
The story, in short, is phenomenal. Life is going great for grade school Ishida Shoya until a new girl enters his school. Her name is Nishimiya Shoko and she is deaf. Being an ignorant child, Ishida and his friends bully Nishimiya, breaking and stealing 8 of her highly expensive hearing aids before Nishimiya goes to her mother and the school to complain. His friends and teacher push the entire blame onto Ishida, leading Nishimiya and Ishida to get into a physical altercation and eventually Nishimiya transfers to another school. These incidents lead Ishida to having a reputation as a bully, causing him to become an outcast and fall into depression. At one point, he even contemplates suicide, but a meeting with Nishimiya makes him reconsider. The rest of the story is Ishida attempting to make amends with old and new friends as well as make Nishimiya, who had also fallen into a depression as a result of being bullied for her hearing impairment, learn to love herself and make sure that they could all be together and get along.
The best thing about this story is that the path to healing and forgiveness isn't linear. We start at a low point (Ishida almost attempting suicide) and then proceed up a steady, slow incline to regaining Nishimiya's trust and friendship. The path continues up with gaining new friends and reconciling with old ones before we hit a new low when Ueno shows up. There were tiny low points before, mostly Ishida doubting himself and whether or not he is worthy of forgiveness, but now we are getting bigger low points that really drive a wedge between our characters. The lowest point would be when even his new friends are driven away based on the events of the past. Nothing is completely linear - we backtrack on progress multiple times, which is realistic and helps with maintaining the drama of the show.
**Art (10/10)**
The art is fun and simple. It's realistic in its design of most characters - as in, we don't get random characters with purple hair and the like. We get realistic, naturally occurring colors (except for Nagatsuka, his hair is dark green). The animation is nice. I think the X's over people's faces was a cool way of looking inside Ishida's head and translating his anxiety over looking at people's faces into something tangible.
**Sound (10/10)**
Sound is great. The song in the beginning was really good. Sound effects are appropriate. The voice acting was great (watching in subbed). I think the way they voiced Nishimiya was accurate. I have family members that are deaf and the pronunciations were similar even in a different language. Its obviously very difficult to learn to speak when you can't hear that well and learning pronunciations by mouth movement alone is very difficult as well, so slurring and other mispronunciations are common. This isn't so much about the sound as the subtitles that accompanied them. Whenever Nishimiya spoke, the subtitles were translated literally (like when she says "sorry" the subtitles write it as "sowwy") which may be closer to how she speaks it, but occasionally is difficult to read. I wish they had included a "translation" so it'd be easier to understand. Additionally, there aren't always subtitles when she uses sign language, and, even though Ishida usually repeats what she signed verbally, sometimes when he doesn't you have to inference what she said based on his response which is also sometimes confusing. So just something to keep in mind when reading subtitles - there may be some inferencing involved!
**Characters (10/10)**
As a slower, drama-based show rather than an action-based show, characters are the main point. All of our characters have flaws and all of them react differently to their own flaws. Some of them acknowledge their flaws, others will completely ignore them. Let's start with when they were children.
Our main group of children were Ishida, Ueno, Sahara, Kawai, Shimada and Hirose. Besides Sahara, they're all ignorant children who chose to bully Nishimiya because of her hearing impairment. They all bullied her to varying degrees, with Ishida being the ring leader. As far as I know, Kawai was the only one who never physically bullied her, but is not completely innocent, as she did hurl some verbal abuse at her. Sahara, on the other hand, attempted to befriend Nishimiya and learn sign language in order to communicate with her. However, the other children bullied her into transferring schools. When administration gets wind of the bulling, the whole class (all of them were part of the bullying, though not to as strong of a degree as the mentioned kids) throws Ishida under the bus. The teacher is probably the scummiest character of all of them. He begins the rally to throw Ishida under the bus. The kids' behavior can be somewhat excused as they are children and don't 100% understand how their actions affect people. Obviously, none of them were educated on bullying, as their teacher allowed the bullying to take place without reprimanding the bullies (he even tells Ishida not to cause a disturbance during class, but his phrasing suggests that his actions would be acceptable outside of class). The rest of the kids follow the teacher's lead and feign innocence, leaving Ishida to take the fall.
All of this obviously affects Ishida very negatively. He definitely deserved to be punished for bullying Nishimiya, especially over something she can't control, however, the punishment was extremely severe. Essentially, he loses everything over something that wasn't even 100% his fault. The other kids, the teachers' who didn't teach him otherwise, even his mother who apparently didn't teach him that bullying was wrong, hold a significant amount of blame as well and every single one of them got off Scott-free. Ishida falls into depression and almost commits suicide, before he pulls himself out of it and starts on a path for forgiveness and redemption. He comes out the other side a better person, even defending Nishimiya from Ueno when she first shows up.
Most of the children get development later in high school after reuniting with Ishida and Nishimiya. Shimida and Hirose only appear last minute to save Ishida from certain death, which doesn't redeem them, but at least let's us know that they don't entirely hate Ishida. Ueno is probably the most infuriating character. She's obsessed with Ishida, even though she turned her back on him in grade school. She hates Nishimiya for literally no reason, and blames her for everything that happened to her, her friends, and especially Ishida, even though a large part of the blame is on herself. She never apologizes to anyone about anything, and eventually just tries to brush off the whole situation. I hate her. A lot. Sahara acknowledges her fault of cowardice and wants to change, which is good. Kawai excerbates a lot of the problems caused by Ueno by attempting to cling to innocence, even though she also was part of the original problem. She's a great emotional manipulator. All she had to do was shed a few tears and Ishida's fate was sealed. She was also the main cause of a bunch of Ishida's relapses. She eventually apologizes to Nishimiya and Ishida after he almost died.
Nishimiya's family and Ishida's family are interesting. We never actually get to see Ishida's older sister. We get a little bit of her young daughter, Maria, and her husband, Pedro, but not much of importance. I generally feel bad for Ishida's mom, especially after she attempted to apologize to Nishimiya's mom. Ishida doesn't exactly tell his mom about a lot of what is happening to him, so I'm sure it was a shock to her to find out that he had bullied another student and then later that he was contemplating suicide. I am not fond of Nishimiya's mom. Her first instinct seems to be violence and she can't seem to let go of something that happened when Nishimiya was a child, convinced that Ishida hasn't changed over the years. She slapped Ishida after he brought Yuzuru home safe, years after the bullying incident. When Ueno was assaulting Nishimiya at the hospital, Ms. Nishimiya's first instinct was to just beat the shit out of her, which is an incredibly inappropriate way to deal with a high school girl (though I will admit, that first slap was super satisfying). She also doesn't care that her youngest daughter had run away nor that she never attends school, which overall just seems like bad parenting (she even drags Yuzuru into the house by the arm after Ishida brings her back, ignoring her when she says that the mom is hurting her). She does apologize to Ms. Ishida, but only after Ishida almost dies. Poor Yuzuru is just trying to deal with everything and make sure her sister is okay as well as deal with the loss of her grandmother. I think she actually sees Ms. Ishida as a stronger mother figure than her own mother, as Ms. Nishimiya doesn't seem to be there for either of her children.
The only character that we don't learn much of their personality is Nishimiya, surprisingly. She's very reserved. Part of that might be her insecurity about being deaf. She blames a lot of what happened on herself, which is so unfortunate because she's really one of the few characters who is 100% blameless (the others being minor characters like Maria and Pedro, the new friends like Nagatsuka and Mashiba, and Yuzuru). All we really know about her is that she likes to feed the fish on Tuesdays and she's in love with Ishida. She keeps a lot of her feelings to herself. She is often a witness to the falling-outs of Ishida and his friends, both new and old, and from what she gathers from those fights, she knows that most of the issues stems from what happened in elementary school, and therefore thinks she's at fault. She also spirals deeper into her depression because of Ueno and the Ferris Wheel incident. However, she makes amends with her friends and Ishida when he gets out of the hospital.
**Enjoyment (10/10)**
I'm normally not the type to enjoy a lot of drama, romance, or slice-of-life. However, this one really hits you right in the feels and gets you invested in the healing process of Ishida, Nishimiya and the other characters. When I tell you I cried for half the movie - I cried for half the movie. The only thing I wish happened was that someone (other than Ms. Nishimiya) had punched Ueno in the face.
Apr 13, 2021
Koe no Katachi
(Anime)
add
Recommended
SPOILER-FREE
**Story:** 10/10 - great, non-linear path of healing and forgiveness plotline **Art:** 10/10 - art is fun and simple **Sound:** 10/10 - very good, a few fixes to subtitles sometimes needed **Characters:** 10/10 - great characters, realistic flaws, lots of emotional value ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Informative
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all 
Feb 9, 2021 Not Recommended Preliminary
(82/167 eps)
[BASIC SPOILER FREE REVIEW]
Story: 3/10 Art: 5/10 Sound: 3/10 Characters: 3/10 Enjoyment: 3/10 Overall: 3.4/10 [IN-DEPTH REVIEW WITH SPOILERS] ... I'm going to start out this review by being brutally honest about one thing - I was forced to watch this show. Long story short is I regrettably made an arrangement with someone I know to watch anime every week where we'd alternate seasons of shows we recommend. This particular acquaintance chose this show for us to watch even though I had told them I wasn't particularly a fan (I had seen a few episodes prior and it didn't take with me), but they insisted on watching it. I'm a pushover and decided what the heck, it can't be THAT bad. And at first it wasn't. I semi-enjoyed the first season. And then seasons 2 and 3 happened and sucked every little ounce of enjoyment I had out of the show. And at 7 seasons total, this show is entirely too long winded for me (and that's saying something since I watched and enjoyed all 9 seasons of Fairy Tail). This is the type of show for people who don't mind extremely long, dragged out plots, cookie-cutter fight scenes, and just dragged out everything. **Story (3/10)** There's gotta be something wrong when you see a show like this and the whole point is to find all the jewel shards and it takes them seven whole seasons to do it. It makes sense that this task would take a long time (finding a million tiny jewel shards scattered across Japan being chased by demons isn't an easy task) but its not so much the fact that it takes so long. Its the pacing and structure of the show that make it feel unnecessarily long. Inuyasha is structured very oddly compared to other long running shows. I think its biggest fault is the fact that there aren't really "arcs". The overarching story is finding the jewel shards and every "arc" is only one or two episodes long. Each arc is a singular demon fight. And almost every fight is copy paste. The gang catches wind of a demon with a shard, they get attacked by said demon, and then there's really only 2 outcomes from there. The demon is really fucking weak and Inuyasha destroys them by constantly yelling "IRON REAPER SOUL STEALER" six times in a row or one giant yet equally annoying "WINDSCAR" (honestly the yelling the name of your attack before attacking thing is the worst, and I know one of my favorite shows Fairy Tail is guilty of using this trope heavily in the early seasons but at least they had the common sense to not put it after every attack after about 2 seasons). The other outcome is Inuyasha gets too cocky and struggles against a powerful enemy, Miroku and Sango are somehow unable to fight (or just inactive because the writers decided to leave the whole fight to Inuyasha even though he has two perfectly capable comrades ready and willing to help), and Kagome is useless as per usual until she pulls some strength out of her ass (sometimes) or Inuyasha pulls his head out of his ass and actually rubs his two braincells together to find a solution. That strange copy-paste micro-arc structure is what throws me off the most and also probably what makes a 7 season show feel more like 14 seasons. "BUT NOX. YOU WATCH FAIRY TAIL WHICH IS ALMOST TWICE AS LONG AS INUYASHA". Here's the thing about Fairy Tail. Its all about the structure. We get arcs that are an average of 20 episodes long per (though some are smaller, some are larger, depending on their importance and intricacy). Each arc has its own main villain that Fairy Tail must defeat. And not every fight is the same. Its not the same set up every time. Of course the outcome is the same. Of course Natsu wins, he's the main character. If you really think the author is gonna make the main character lose the do or die final battle, you're an absolute idiot. And, at first glance, these arcs have very little connection to one another (until the end when you start to get that minorly mind-blowing "oh all that stuff lead up to this" moment). That variation in enemies and in fights is what drives the show. You don't get bored because you don't always know what will happen next. Unlike this show, where Inuyasha literally only has 2 moves to use and just yells the names over and over until he eventually wins. Snooze fest. NEXT! The romance is cheap and full of unnecessary jealousy and silent pining (someone please just end Kikyo, she's causing way too many problems and this show would probably be more bearable if she didn't come back. Even my friend who will defend this show until the end of time hates Kikyo and her meddling ass). The comedy is a little too forced and slap-stick-y for my taste though the "sit boy" gag will always make me laugh. I will forever enjoy watching Inuyasha eat dirt. Also why the fuck don't these feudal era people think that Kagome is like a witch or something and burn her at the stake? I don't know about you, but if I lived in a time where people were as superstitious as they were and a random girl showed up looking like some lady we absolutely knew was dead and was wearing some bizarre outfit, I'd claim she was a demon or a witch. Or a crazy person. Either way, she'd have to go. No way these people just look at her in her fucking green miniskirt (which is certainly not appropriate attire for women in that time period, I'm surprised she didn't get scolded for showing that much skin) and go "yep, a total normal day in feudal Japan". Also who the fuck goes "hey, I'm gonna run around feudal Japan with a dog boy after some jewel I broke and get chased by demons that want to kill me and still wear the dumb miniskirt". Kagome apparently, but we never said the girl was very bright. **Art (5/10)** Alright, this is definitely personal preference but I totally prefer newer animation. Obviously newer shows have better animation and drawing because of better technology, so I can't really fault Inuyasha for being an older show and not having those resources at the time of its creation. But all things considered, the art isn't spectacular. There aren't really any super great special effects for the time it was made. Its an overall average looking show. Not bad, but not great either. **Sound (3/10)** The openings and endings are okay. I highly dislike the fact that the opening and ending songs don't match up by season? For example, the second opening song is "I Am" by hitomi. They start using it half way through season 2 and stop using it halfway through season 3. The first opening song "Change the World" for some reason plays for more than a singular season, which is probably the main reason why this weird opening setup exists. The main reason I gave a low sound rating though is because of the voice acting. AGAIN I AM SPEAKING ABOUT THE DUBBED VOICE ACTING. In short, it sucks major ass. They always sound like they're reading directly from the script. And this isn't so much the voice acting/sound that causes this but why is the dialogue written like fucking Dora the Explorer? Combined with the "reading from the script" inflections, it sounds like the Dora writers wrote the dialogue for this show. "Look a jewel shard" or "He/she/they have a jewel shard" are probably the most common phrases in the entire show other than Inuyasha's name. And it makes me want to scoop my own brains out with a spoon. **Characters (3/10)** I have one word: flat. Kagome has little to no personality other than she's Kikyo's reincarnation, she's got the dumbest schoolgirl crush ("love") on Inuyasha, she's bad at geometry, and she overreacts to everything Inuyasha does. Inuyasha is a prick about 80% of the time. He's your stereotypical overconfident male protagonist who thinks he's hot shit but is quickly realizing that he is not in fact hot shit. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the caring trait to balance out that asshole-ish overconfidence that is also present in other male shonen protagonists. Example again Natsu from Fairy Tail. Natsu definitely thinks he's hot shit, as the amount of times he's challenged Erza or Laxus and lost could probably tell you. However, he has a deep-seated love for his friends and family and just an overall kind personality that kind of makes his overconfidence endearing. For more tsundere characters like Inuyasha, it just makes them look like a narcissistic asshole. Miroku is a good character, tho still his only personality traits are that he sometimes has good advice and is always a lecher. Sango is one of the better characters. A good strong female character who can take care of herself. She's serious and has a good moral code. But still really fucking annoying when it comes to her brother (goddammit, just kill the kid and put him out of his misery already). Shippo is probably the most enjoyable character of our main cast and he never does much because he's very weak in comparison to everyone else. He's like their adopted son/little brother. Shippo has the humor, the childlike attitude which is appropriate but still definitely has more braincells and common sense than Inuyasha. Overall, our two main characters are poorly written and flat, no dimension. Just a couple of general traits stuffed into a body and given a role. **Enjoyment (3/10)** Y'know. This score would have been up around a 6 if I had stopped after season 1. But watching the same copy-paste scenarios and flat characters for over 80 episodes really just kills that sense of enjoyment. **TOTAL (3.2/10)** I wish I hadn't asked to do this anime watching arrangement. I wouldn't have had to suffer through this show. At this point, I'm no longer sucking it up for this person and am dropping the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Jul 15, 2020
Killing Stalking
(Manga)
add
Mixed Feelings Spoiler
Story: 10/10
Art: 10/10 Characters: 10/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Overall: 9/10 [MEGA SPOILERS] I'm going to start this off by stating some warning about this manhwa. THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE STORY. THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR THOSE WHO ARE "FAINT OF HEART" OR EASILY DISTURBED. ... THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WHO ARE HIGHLY EMPATHETIC. This is the kind of story that would destroy your soul if you let it. It does not have a happy ending. There is nothing lighthearted about this story. This is a story of trauma, manipulation, and murder. If I had walked into this thinking it was a cute, maybe a little gory yaoi, I'd have given it a 1. But this is not a yaoi, nor is it cute. This is a psychological thriller, one that focuses on the gory and frightening aspects of abuse, mental illness, and death. And it does what it is meant to exceptionally well. The ONLY reason I did not give it a 10 is because of the limited audience. I know people who have read either the entire story or part of it and left completely broken. I had a friend have a panic attack reading this manhwa. I've warned certain friends to never ever read this story because of what I fear will happen to them if they attempted to read it. My "enjoyment" rating is low because of how soul-shattering this manhwa is. That doesn't mean it's a bad story. It's wonderfully crafted. It just makes you feel terrible after reading it. I started reading this story when I was a sophomore in high school (I was 16 at the time). A friend of mine (who was 15 at the time) told me they were reading it. I read maybe 5 chapters of it, was mildly disturbed, and left it alone. I am 19 years old writing this review. Just finished my first year of college. I happened to see some references to Sangwoo and Bum on some weeb TikTok compilations on YouTube. I'm very disturbed to think that people actually think this is a romance story, that they ship Bum and Sangwoo. That they LIKE Sangwoo. That wasn't the point of the story and, if anything, those people need serious mental help. Either way, I was intrigued by this story that I vaguely remembered reading a bit of early in high school nearly 4 years ago. I wondered if my friend ever finished it, or if it hurt her too much to finish and she abandoned it. Either way, I tracked it down and read it. The whole thing. In one night. I remember when I finished I immediately texted my best friend, asking if she had read it. She is a year older than me, but suffers from depression and anxiety and is EXTREMELY empathetic and emotional about everything. She said she hadn't (thank god) and I strongly advised against it. I described the overall plot, spoiled a bunch of information about the storyline and explained why I did not want her to read it. She said she wouldn't, as she was deeply disturbed by my synopsis of it and immediately recognized it would hurt her mental health significantly. The only reason I can read it now (and possibly go back to read it again in a couple of years) is because I am emotionally devoid. I am emotionally underdeveloped and have the ability to detach myself emotionally from most situations (not healthy, I know, but helpful in this situation). From there, I can objectively consume almost any media and evaluate it. And that's where my review of Killing Stalking comes in. We start out with Yoon Bum. Poor, poor Bum. I can honestly say that his character upset me the most. I hurt for him, because he deserved so much better, but his life was absolutely fucked from the beginning. He has been abused by almost everyone he met (except Officer Seungbae). His parents are dead, his uncle raped him, he was bullied in school, his grandmother was constantly guilt-tripping him, and now Sangwoo? Talk about getting dealt a bad hand. As a result, he's developed multiple mental illnesses including Borderline Personality Disorder. I do not know much about any of the mental illnesses represented in this manhwa, so I cannot comment on how they are portrayed, but I've seen many who do have these illnesses, or those who are educated about them claim that the author wrote them beautifully. Anyway, back to Bum. Bum's BPD causes him to get attached to anyone to shows him affection. He is in no way a bad person. All he wants to do is be loved. Sangwoo saved him from a rape attempt during his time in the military. So, naturally, Bum latched on to him and began stalking him. Unfortunately, that stalking leads to him finding out that Sangwoo is a serial killer and hence being kidnapped. Bum is caught up in so much shit after that. He is no longer innocent. He is manipulated and threatened into believing he is in love with Sangwoo. I think the worst part is he never heals from it. He doesn't get the happy ending he deserved. He doesn't get therapy and learn to live his life without Sangwoo. The ending is obscure, but I think the general consensus is he either completely loses his mind or he gets hit by a car/bus and dies. Onto Sangwoo. Oh Sangwoo. He's a real piece of shit. But, he's a fantastic character. He also does not come from a good childhood. Of course, that doesn't justify is actions, but it does give some sort of insight as to how he ended up this way. His father was abusive. His mother lost her mind at some point and murdered his father (or was it Sangwoo that did that? Some of the flashbacks to Sangwoo's childhood confused me). He helped her hide the body. Somehow, she starts projecting her desires for her husband onto Sangwoo (because he looks like his dad). It's implied that she raped him and then forced him to kill her. He hides her dead ass body and continues to murder pretty girls whom he has sex with. He tortures them, smashes their legs, plays "games" with them and then kills them, dumping their bodies in the mountains. We start out the story thinking Sangwoo is your stereotypical charismatic murderer. He came off a little Ted Bundy-like to me. Seducing women and then killing them, y'know. However, he does at some point start to build a "relationship" with Bum. Bum is the first man Sangwoo has ever been with, though he did entertain one man not long after kidnapping Bum, though nothing sexual really came out of it. Its confusing to begin with. Why is Sangwoo with Bum if he is openly homophobic? This contradiction is cleared up in a highly disturbing way - Bum reminds him of his mother. Before this, they were in an almost normal relationship. They went on dates, they cooked dinner together, they had consensual sex. It was so normal at one point that I almost wanted them to heal together and be together. Until Sangwoo started losing it and mentioning the people he murdered, reminding Bum that "he killed someone" (he didn't, he was forced to and Sangwoo was manipulating and gaslighting him over it). It really went over the edge when Sangwoo called Bum "mom" during a sexually intimate moment. I nearly threw up reading that line. Nearly. Naturally, he goes bat shit and attempts to murder Bum, but thankfully our lord and savior Seungbae saves the day. Sangwoo is not a character we are meant to like. We are meant to hate him. I believed he got what was coming to him. However, the presentation of his passing was lackluster. This may sound terrible, but we didn't get to see him suffer. There's one image of him getting dragged off to the hospital, skin peeling, jaw protruding, burnt beyond recognition. He gets life in prison, but never serves it. The most heartbreaking part about Sangwoo's death, however, is Bum doesn't get closure. Of course the tipping point was Bum sneaking around trying to get a ring for Sangwoo, because he truly loved him (due to gaslighting and their brief, highly domestic, no-murder stint made him believe Sangwoo had changed). Sangwoo thought Bum was trying to poison him (just like his mother poisoned his father, hoho the past repeats itself). So, Bum thinks he's gonna visit Sangwoo in the hospital one last time while he can, give him the ring, and move on with his life. Of course, all he gets is an urn full of Sangwoo's ashes instead of one crispy boi and his resolution and henceforth his entire world just crumbles. His last bit of sanity left died with Sangwoo. He never finds his redemption, he never finds salvation, he never finds closure, he never heals. And that is truly the most horrifying part. The victim doesn't win. We want him to win. We root for him, for his happiness, but life is cruel and tears that hope from us as it tears his future away from him. I left this manhwa awestruck and empty inside. I had to watch several hours worth of happy, adorable pet videos just to feel human again. This story is RIFE with controversial content. Rape. Murder. Homophobia. Manipulation. Corruption (that little sneak peak into Seungbae's life as a police officer). Oh boy. But is it put together in the most disturbingly masterful piece that tears at your heartstrings, punches you in the gut, and rips your soul to pieces? Hell yeah it does.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Apr 22, 2020
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
add
Recommended
P.S. I'm not very good at reviews, nor am I very technical when I am reviewing. This is based entirely on my own personal opinion.
[BASIC SPOILER FREE REVIEW] Story: 5/10 Art: 10/10 Sound: 9/10 Characters: 6/10 Enjoyment: 8/10 Overall: 7.8/10 ... [IN-DEPTH REVIEW WITH SPOILERS] Story: 6/10 Our story here is divided into two main arcs. The first is the Aincrad arc where Kirito and many others are trapped in the VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online. The premise is interesting. Getting stuck in a video game where there are no restarts? You die in game, you die in real life? Sounds cool. And it is cool. However, the execution is where it gets tricky. Even though Kirito supposedly fights on the front lines most of the time, the majority of the show all we get is him running into minor side characters and completing small quests with them. I understand him needing to build up a friend base, as Kirito is notoriously a loner, but all he really gets is an unwanted harem. Most of these small, filler-esque quests don't have any major impact on the larger quest - escaping the god damn game. We don't get to see a lot of Kirito and Asuna's level clearing and boss fights until about floor 74. The ending of this arc is a little anticlimactic as well, as the final fight was handled way too quickly for my taste. If we ignore those things, however, the fights we do get are very entertaining. The overall motive of our villain is lost, too, which is disappointing. I really wanted to know why Kayaba trapped everyone. The second half of the show is the Fairy Dance arc, which takes place after Kirito defeats. Asuna hasn't woken up, and it is discovered that several SAO "survivors" are being trapped in another game called Alfheim Online (ALO). Kirito jumps into that game to save Asuna. I know lots of people think this arc is bullshit and that its unnecessary, but if that's how the writer planned it, I don't see what's wrong with it. We get to see the aftershocks of SAO, and how such a large, horrific event affected society. We get more adventuring with Kirito and his new friend Leafa, as well as some interaction with the mechanics of this new game. My biggest gripe with the second arc is the incestuous feelings Kirito's "sister" Suguha has towards him. The show tries to downplay it by giving the "he's actually adopted so they are actually cousins, not siblings" which doesn't make it much better. It's still incest but just marginally less icky than if they were actually siblings. Note marginally. It's still pretty gross. Additionally, instead of forgetful villain, we get rapey-rape villain. Personally, I think he's a better villain than Kayaba, because we have a reason to hate him. He's creepy and a rapist. Kayaba just was very detached as a villain and yea, we can hate him because his actions killed thousands of people, but he never directly acted to kill those people. He didn't raise his sword to them. He was mostly absent, and even then he fought with them to escape for so long, it's hard to completely despise him. Sugo, on the other hand, harms people consciously and revels in doing so. He got everything he deserved though, so the ending of this arc was much more satisfying than the last. Art: 10/10 I will NEVER shut up about how good the art is in this show. The art style of SAO is a style I tend to look for in many shows that I like. It's very appealing to me, personally. Its aesthetically pleasing. There aren't many major flaws in the art and animation, though you will get some entertaining faces if you pause at the wrong time. 10/10 for me. Sound: 9/10 Crossing Field by LiSA FUCKING SLAPS. The opening and ending songs for both arcs were highly enjoyable. The general soundtrack was also enjoyable. General sound effects were appropriate for a show that takes place inside of a video game, however, that weird noise that happens when you look through a characters eyes at what their seeing (as if you were playing the game) is highly annoying. I can't even describe the sound, it's just annoying. Voice acting is great (I watched the dubbed), but I wouldn't expect any less of an Aniplex dub featuring big names like Cherami Leigh and Bryce Papenbrook (yes, you heard me right. I actually enjoyed Bryce Papenbrook's voice acting in this show. Probably because Kirito isn't nearly as edgy as the likes of Eren Jaeger of Attack on Titan or Inosuke of Demon Slayer). Characters: 6/10 The characters in SAO are fairly fleshed out and each has their own role. Many side characters don't get much development, but then again, how could they with what little screentime they have. Silica is your typical little sister type. She doesn't have much personality other than the fact that she's cute and has a pet dragon. Which she even admits herself. Lisbeth is snarky and has a little more personality than Silica, but not much. Aegil is your typical good bro. Klein is another good bro, but a little crazier. Has a thing for chicks, but zero flirting skills. Recon is annoying at best. Any other characters we meet don't stick around long enough to be significant. Our main characters and villains are really the only ones with some kind of development or personality. Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito) - He's your typical Gary Stu. He's good at a lot of things, though there is an attempt at explaining why he's so good. He's good with computer's because he alienated himself from his family after figuring out he's adopted and learned about computers instead. He's good at video games as a result of that too, also because he was a beta-tester (although, that still doesn't explain how some things he does defy the system entirely). He has little to no personality other than he's good at shit, but does have a strong moral code. Asuna Yuki (Asuna) - She was highly likable in the beginning - a strong warrior, capable of doing things on her own. However, after about a quarter of the way through the show, she loses all that sense of strength and resigns herself to being protected by Kirito at all times. She can't deal with Kuradeel herself, even though she could beat his ass in 10 seconds flat. She does regain that strength slightly at the end of the first arc, where she sacrifices herself for Kirito, but that could just be explained as the "power of love". Enjoyment: 8/10 Honestly, I think people think too critically about shows. As long as the plot mostly makes sense, the characters aren't totally awful, and the animation isn't critically flawed, I will most likely enjoy it. That's the case here. I can ignore the numerous little flaws in SAO. They don't bother me. I enjoy the show for what it is. I don't care to look for any deeper meaning, at least not actively. I may have pointed out many flaws above, but that was only because I was trying to review it critically. None of those things (except for maybe the incest, cause that was just…ew) subtracted from the overall enjoyability of the show. Overall: 7.8/10 SAO is a really good show. The characters (except the villains obviously) are very likeable, the plot is intriguing, and the art and sound is pleasing. There are many flaws in the show (as all shows do), but none of them should bother people if they don't watch it like they're a movie critic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Apr 22, 2020 Mixed Feelings
P.S. I'm not very good at reviews, nor am I very technical when I am reviewing. This is based entirely on my own personal opinion.
[BASIC SPOILER FREE REVIEW] Story: 6/10 Art: 6/10 Sound: 7/10 Characters: 7/10 Enjoyment: 7/10 Overall: 6.6/10 ... [IN-DEPTH REVIEW WITH SPOILERS] Story: 6/10 The story of this season takes a hit in its score in comparison to its first season. The general series of events is a little confusing, and the timeline jumps around quite a bit. The pacing is just as odd as the first season, but the complexity of this season's events makes comprehending the story in spite of its pacing issues more difficult. Additionally, the ending seemed a little rushed. Art: 6/10 The art is just as good as last season. The only reason I've docked a point from my review of the first season is that there is more action in this season, meaning more CGI. The CGI doesn't blend well in some places and for me personally, the movement of it is nauseating (so warning to those of us susceptible to motion sickness from video games and the like). Sound: 7/10 Sound is just as good as last season. Doesn't get the extra booster points the first season did because the opening isn't as good. Characters: 7/10 Characters continue their development into this season. Sorey has some development issues, as he doesn't really progress or regress. Other characters get good time slots to develop, including backstory explanations. Rose's character arc is the most interesting, as is her relationship with Dezel. Enjoyment: 7/10 Season 2 was just as enjoyable as season 1. Overall: 6.6/10 Tales of Zestiria the X Season 2 was a good way to continue where we left off in season 1. The ending was rushed, but its minor issues didn't impact its enjoyability too much.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Apr 22, 2020
Tales of Zestiria the Cross
(Anime)
add
Recommended
P.S. I'm not very good at reviews, nor am I very technical when I am reviewing. This is based entirely on my own personal opinion.
[BASIC SPOILER FREE REVIEW] Story: 7/10 Art: 7/10 Sound: 9/10 Characters: 7/10 Enjoyment: 7/10 Overall: 7/10 ... [IN-DEPTH REVIEW WITH SPOILERS] Story: 7/10 The story itself is interesting. The circumstances of the world being consumed by a darkness caused by the negative emotions of humanity isn't an original concept, but the execution of it is different and intriguing. The pacing of the story is odd, however, as many characters aren't given the time they need to develop, and events aren't explained in a proper timeline. Events seem to just happen without any justification as to why. Makes for a slightly confusing timeline. Additionally, the inclusion of the two episodes of the storyline of Tales of Berseria were unnecessary. Our main story obviously follows the Tales of Zestiria game (at least it's general storyline, I cannot attest to how copy-and-paste the storyline actually is, as I've never played the game). Even without having played either of the games, it's obvious that they take place in almost 2 separate worlds. The concept of "malevolence" seems to be their only similarity, and even then it's a stretch. Neither stories benefitted from being smooshed together, and Berseria's storyline was particularly snubbed by only being 2 episodes long. Leaves you wanting so much more. At least give Berseria it's own show. Art: 7/10 As many people have already said, ufotable does not disappoint with their visuals. The art for the majority of the series is lovely. However, I personally think that the large amount of CGI was off-putting. There were several scenes (especially the ones with the dragons) where it was painfully obvious that one part was CGI and the other was regular animation. The dragons in particular always seemed to look like were in the wrong anime. Some of the CGI in the action scenes also made it hard to get your bearings on what was happening. Though, that might just be me, as I was fighting off motion sickness whenever those scenes came on (to no fault of the creators, just my brain being stupid), so I guess I was a little distracted lol. Sound: 9/10 Okay, I've gotta say it. The opening. Freaking. SLAPS. I'm not one to really pay attention to the regular soundtrack in any show, unless it is really terrible or absolutely mind-blowing. Neither of those were the case, so the music gets an average score from me, boosted SIGNIFICANTLY by that absolute banger of an opening. The voice acting (I watched the dubbed) was also good. Only Edna's voice acting kind of threw me off, purely because she's so deadpan that it sounds like she's reading directly from the script. Characters: 7/10 The characters are likable, and each has their own distinct personality. Albeit, their personalities aren't super fleshed out and developed like most longer anime, but it's enough that we can understand what each of them is like. Every major character also has a well-explained backstory and reason for fighting. Some are left underdone in this season, but I assume those issues will be rectified once I watch season 2. Enjoyment: 7/10 The show keeps your attention. The little interlude with Velvet at the prison is a little annoying, as we never get more of her story after that. Sorey's story however has enough action to keep you hooked once it gets back into it. Overall: 7/10 Overall, Tales of Zestiria the X is a very good show. It's short, but the story keeps your attention until the end. Just wish that Berseria was done justice and given its own show instead of 2 pitiful little episodes. Personally, I want to know more about how Sorey is going to save the world, being a newbie Shepherd and all. Can't wait to watch season 2!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all |