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Nov 1, 2021
Cyan, a shy guitarist whose dream is to join a band, gets transported into Sound World, specifically Midi City, a place where everything revolves around music.
She bumps into an amateur band down on its luck called Plasmagica, joins them and their journey begins.
It's a story that's been done numerous times (minus the weirdly complicated isekai setting), but does this story stand out among the others?
Production-wise and entertainment-wise, yes, but on most other levels, maybe not.
There are two main plot lines.
One of them concerns the bands of Midi City, mainly Plasmagica.
We follow them getting to know each other, practicing, improving and finally performing and
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competing with other bands.
Plasmagica's members are all different and the development of their relationships are fun, emotional and rewarding to follow. They're not incredibly complex, but they all get their small character arcs throughout the season and they're definitely interesting and loveable enough to carry the series and for me to care about them.
From time to time SHINGANCRIMSONZ, another band in the same agency as Plasmagica, gets the spotlight, and they're extremely fun to watch. Their intensity and immaturity serve as a great foil to Plasmagica's friendly, cutesy demeanour and they're the source of most of the humour in the season.
I'd say their scenes are just as enjoyable as Plasmagica's and I hope they appear a lot more in the following seasons.
Several other bands also appear, but, even though most of them seem and look interesting, those characters don't get much screentime or development, at least not in this season. One of them, a band called Criticrista, has a bit of a bigger role, but they're unfortunately among the less interesting ones. Tsurezure Naru Ayatsuri Mugenan is the most interesting among those secondary bands, having a distinct japanese aesthetic and greater presence than most others.
The second plot line revolves around a shadowy figure called Dagger, who wants to rule Midi City by recruiting and manipulating the best musicians while also occasionally corrupting them and turning them into monsters.
While Dagger is a surprisingly cool and threatening villain, that whole part of the plot could have been left out altogether and not much would be lost.
The fights are visually spectacular and very well animated, but they're not really why I started watching the show and just leave me a bit confused as to why they're even featured. What's more, there aren't even that many fights: out of the 12 episodes, only 4 feature fighting, which makes it even stranger.
Animation and art-wise Show By Rock looks consistently gorgeous with no noticeable mistakes. There's no drop in quality at all and every episode looks great. All the characters and locations look colourful, vibrant and alive.
During concert sequences and fight scenes the characters are depicted as really cute and well-designed CGI chibi animals, which works really well as a way to handle those complex, more demanding scenes.
It definitely helps that the CGI looks truly great, almost like something you'd see in a movie production.
Aside from the opening and ending songs, which are pretty catchy, none of the other songs really stuck with me, which isn't a small flaw, since this is a music anime. The songs aren't bad, but they're mostly forgettable and similar to songs found in other music anime.
Even though Show By Rock isn't the most groundbreaking show, even among music anime, it's a fun, feel-good anime I'd recommend to anyone who's looking for something cute and entertaining to watch.
Its likeable characters, positivity, earnestness and very high quality production captured my heart and I'm definitely going to check out season 2 in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 7, 2021
I'm reviewing this from the standpoint of someone who's been a huge fan of the BanG Dream mobile rhytm game for some time before I decided to start watching the anime.
I'll do my best not to be biased, but I think BanG Dream is an amazing, expansive media franchise, combining good music with great characters and every part of it has been more or less enjoyable for me. At the moment there are 7 bands and the first season of the anime focuses on the main band of the series, Poppin'Party.
The anime does a great job adapting Band Story 0 from the game, which is
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about how Poppin'Party got together in the first place.
Without giving away too much, the story is about Toyama Kasumi, a girl who discovers her love for music and seeks to form a band. Together with her newfound friends and bandmates, she has lots of fun, but also goes through lots of hardships in order to fulfill her dreams.
Both the comedic and dramatic moments were adapted perfectly and they might be even more impactful than how they were in the game. Nothing was left out from the original story, so new BanG Dream fans can easily jump in, while existing fans got new scenes and more fleshed out minor characters. For example, aside from Rimi's sister, Yuri, none of the Glitter Green members appear in the game that much, but they're more prominent in the anime and we get to know them a lot better there.
There are even some cameo appearances from the other bands which don't have a part in the story of the first season.
I already know and love the characters from the game, but they're just as enjoyable and lovable in the anime. Since this first season focuses on the band Poppin'Party, all the members get a lot of screentime, their own arcs and development.
Saaya's arc was my favourite one among them and its finale was my favourite moment of the season.
As for my favourite character, I don't think I have one. The whole main cast was equally great.
Another thing I like about BanG Dream is how it balances slice of life, drama and music. An equal amount of time is spent on lighthearted moments and humour, character drama, character development and showing the band practicing, preparing and playing music.
All those aspects are executed with a lot of heart and soul, too. It's not just all about cute girls or fanservice; it's about the characters being friends, growing as people, giving their best and doing what they love.
Since this is a music anime, the music in it is obviously important and there's a lot of it.
Poppin'Party's songs aren't the most revolutionary music you'll ever hear, but I think they still stand out among music from other similar anime. Most of the songs fall into the J-Pop genre but there's a lot of variety and I personally love them. My favourite among the ones used in season one is Star Beat and it's probably one of my favourites from the whole franchise.
Another thing I love about the music is how the songs that appear in it sound raw and natural, fitting for an amateur band. Sound editing was used minimally so the music sounds just like how it would sound being played in the venues they are playing in (a basement, a school gym, an empty live house...).
Aside from the songs, the background music is also surprisingly memorable and adds a lot to the anime.
The art and animation are wonky sometimes, but it wasn't distracting to me. The animation being off-model at times maybe even makes the characters more expressive; especially Kasumi, who's hyperactive and lively almost all the time.
Something that did bother me is how, in a lot of the performance scenes in the first half of the season, the characters are playing music, but we don't see them actually playing their instruments at all. Instead we get a close up shot of them swaying and singing, while their hands are just kind of moving off-screen.
It's like they were trying to show them playing their instruments as little as possible, presumably because they didn't have the time or money to animate it properly. From episode 8 until the end (where most of the performances are), every performance is properly animated, though, so it's not too bad.
In those performance scenes the characters are animated with CG, which isn't perfect, but it's good enough not to take me out of the experience.
Considering it's just a bunch of still shots, the ending looks surprisingly awkward and it's impossible to ignore how strange and uncanny the characters look.
On the other hand, the opening is the complete opposite. It's very animated, natural and feels perfect for the series.
In conclusion, BanG Dream season 1 might not have the very best art or animation of 2017, but it's still an above-average music anime full of heart and soul. It's a feel good show full of great characters and music that's guaranteed not to leave you indifferent.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 20, 2021
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes is about the conflict of two opposing sides: detectives and phantom thieves. They are both bestowed with amazing powers called Toys and they fight beautifully in the dead of night.
That's what the intro wants you to believe, but that's not really the case. More than anything, it's about four useless idiot detectives tripping over each other.
I don't know why it's called Milky Holmes, either, but I'm guessing that's just something they thought sounded good in 2010.
The Milky Holmes are descendants of famous detectives and were themselves supposedly famous before the series started, but now they've lost their powers and became
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completely useless.
We don't really get to see them be good at anything and they don't seem to acually have the personalities or the intellectual abilities of their ancestors, so we never get the feel for them ever being impressive in any way.
They go to Holmes Detective Academy where they used to live in luxurious rooms until all that was taken away from them after they've lost their powers. Now they're reduced to living in a dirty, moldy attic and eating at the most neglected table in the caffeteria, where they can get a boiled potato each, at most.
A lot of the humor is derived from the girls being put in miserable situations like this, but they mostly remain positive (except maybe Cordelia) about it and they're idiots, anyway, so it never feels too malicious and remains funny.
There's no real story or change or character development throughout the whole season: it's all just ridiculous episodic plots that don't matter by the end of the episode and, even though it's about detectives, there isn't really much mystery solving, either.
Most episodes are about the Milky Holmes running into some kind of trouble or trying to find a way to get their powers back. I'm fine with that, because those episodic plots can be pretty funny and the main characters are good enough to carry the show, but it would definitely be a better series if something did change from time to time.
My favourite episodes are among the craziest ones: the one where they get lost in the forest and the one where Sherlock switches places with a princess who happens to looks exactly like her. Other than those, most episodes are fine, but there are a few straight up boring ones.
Most of the characters are likeable, even though a lot of them don't get anything to do and aren't extremely memorable. I do love the four main characters and really enjoy their dynamic, though. They're entertaining and you want to see them succeed, even though they very rarely achieve anything.
Sherlock is happy go lucky and possibly the dumbest one of the bunch, Nero is tomboyish, eats a lot and has a short fuse, Hercule is the least interesting character, since her only traits are being quiet and shy, while
Cordelia is probably the most interesting among them. She's used to a life of luxury and when she's forced to live in poverty, she can't handle it. As soon as something goes wrong, she starts disassociating and can turn into a maniac at the blink of an eye. Her outbursts made me both laugh and feel sorry for her at the same time. She's also obsessed with cleanliness and often fantasizes about the Holmes being the ideal team that always gets along, but that rarely happens in real life.
Other than them, there's Arsene, the phantom thief who gets the plot going by taking away the Milky Holmes' powers. She's just watching over the Milky Holmes most of the time and her motivations remain somewhat unclear to me.
In tow, she has a misfit band of phantom thieves who follow her blindly, among which Twenty is the most entertaining.
He's a narcissistic pervert who loves himself way too much and has a running joke of taking his clothes off and exposing his grotesquely long nipples.
The other two aren't very interesting and they mostly just fawn over Arsene or serve as straight men to Twenty or the Milky Holmes.
The final group of characters are the Genius 4, who are a kind of police force for capturing phantom thieves. I don't really know what the difference between them and the detectives is and why they both exist, because that's never explained.
Among them, the most prominent character is their leader, Kokoro, a typical example of an angry, spiteful, but dumb and useless loli, who is still entertaining.
The other G4 characters seem interesting, but don't have much going on. You can make out what their personalities are supposed to be, but they don't do a whole lot.
The opening is great, featuring a really catchy song and fun visuals, while the ending is okay, mostly being still images of the characters in somewhat compromising positions. The ending song is pretty catchy, too, but I found myself skipping it more often than not.
Aside from three or four episodes, the animation isn't anything special and the art is good enough throughout the series, being appropriately cute or deranged, depending on what is needed at the moment.
The last episode of the season was extremely disappointing and had me questioning if the other seasons are just the same thing all over again.
The first season was entertaining, but I don't want to just watch the same thing again and that's the main reason why I'm not exactly rushing to continue watching the series.
This season was entertaining enough that I could see myself getting back into it in a few months' time, though, once I get a craving for braindead nonsense again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 10, 2021
I'd say the main quality of Magical Girl Site is its "edginess", but at this point, that word is thrown around so much it's better if I explain it a little more clearly.
So, to clarify, Magical Girl Site takes a concept as cutesy as magical girls and gives it a dark and violent twist. It relies a lot on shock value, features a lot of blood and death, its characters are excessively miserable and, to top it off, most of them are just middle school girls.
As in a lot of "edgy" anime, everything is exeggerated to the point of being silly, but in this one
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there's a kind of ironic quality to it, giving off a feeling that the author doesn't take it all completely seriously, either. There are genuine moments, for sure, but there's still the feeling that the author knows exactly what he's doing with some of the more extreme moments.
For example, one of the characters' sticks, which are basically tools that give them a power, is a pair of panties, and when they use it, it's implied that it makes them bleed out their ass. There's a lot of ridiculous stuff like that in this anime (and moreso in the manga) and that's one of the reasons it's so entertaining.
I can't completely explain why, but something about this series just draws me in. It's not extremely deep or profound, but I couldn't help getting intrigued and somehow caring for the characters. The Magical Girl Site itself makes for a pretty interesting mystery and all the unexpected reveals and plot twists are a lot of fun to watch. It's all pretty well-paced, too, and there's always something happening.
The characters are nothing new, but everyone is different and their interactions are fun. None of them, except the two main ones, get much character development, but that's not such a big deal in this case. The moments where those two interact are surprisingly heartwarming for a series like this and the moments when the main character, Aya, stands up for herself are very satisfying.
Visually, it's just adequate, but it matches the art of the manga very well.
Its only real negative is that they didn't do the villains' designs justice. In the manga, the site admins look incredibly creepy and uncanny (especially the most prominently appearing one, Nana), but in the anime they didn't quite match that.
The animation is fairly good, with some key moments being animated better than others.
The OP is surprisingly good, to the point that I never skipped it, while the ED is unique and even kind of experimental.
I'm watching this a while after reading the whole manga and it's a very good adaptation of the first 50-ish chapters. It did omit some parts and change the ending, but it's still mostly a faithful representation of the manga. Because they changed it, unfortunately they can't continue it anymore, but if they adapted the whole thing like this, I would definitely watch it.
All in all, if shock value, amusing characters and crazy twists are enough for you, you might enjoy Magical Girl Site. It's a show you just watch, don't take too seriously and have fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 30, 2021
What a weird special.
The first five minutes consist of the usual Higurashi club shenanigans and after that it's just 15 minutes of the gang standing around and talking about an urban legend in a location that was never mentioned and it never will be mentioned again in the series. The characters literally don't do anything, they just talk about the legend. The story isn't even particularly interesting and, while there are some implications that very loosely tie it to the plot of Higurashi, it doesn't fit in, anyway.
The art, sound and other technical aspects are all on the level of Higurashi Kai, which is fine.
I
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wouldn't really recommend this to anyone other than the most hardcore Higurashi fans who have watched literally everything else and want to see the characters again. I'm one of those hardcore fans and I did get some enjoyment from seeing the squad again, but I really can't find anything actually interesting about this special. It's pretty much pointless.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 27, 2020
Pastel Life is the first attempt at a comedic BanG Dream short series. It's a bit rough around the edges, but still enjoyable for BanG Dream fans. It's also easily accessible, since it's available on Youtube for free, complete with english subtitles.
Every episode is about something funny and/or weird that happens to the members of Pastel Palettes, one of the BanG Dream bands. Each episode is more or less focused on one of the members. I thought the plots were entertaining, but nothing too great or memorable.
The characters are all faithfully translated from the game to the anime and the humour is basically the same.
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The characters designs are exactly the same as the chibi versions of the characters from the mobile game and all the music is also from the game, so it feels very familiar if you've played it.
The animation is quite limited, but it serves its purpose well enough.
It's a cute little series I can't say anything bad about, even though it's nothing special either, but I'm sure BanG Dream fans will enjoy it, while everyone else can skip it. The future of BanG Dream shorts is bright, though, with BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico coming up.
But that's a story for a different review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 15, 2020
I love the main Kaguya-sama manga, so I had to check out the spin-offs, too, and Doujin-ban is definitely the better one of the two.
It presents itself as a slightly erotic doujin version of the main series, but it's not only that, really, there's a bunch of different stuff thrown in there. A lot of the chapters are short comedic standalone stories, but there are also some that are connected.
In the first half of the manga, most chapters focus on trying to be sexy, but they're really hit and miss. Among them, the best ones are those that focus on comedy instead of trying
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to be lewd and nothing else. The second half of the manga starts introducing some multi-chapter stories that are much better than the stories in the first half. That's also where the weird fairy tale retellings start, but more on that later.
The best and longest part of the manga is the story about Shirogane and Hayasaka working in a kindergarten and getting to know each other. It's a cute romantic comedy story and the characters are portrayed very faithfully to the original manga. Hayasaka was always one of my favourite characters of the main series, so I was glad to see her getting more screen time.
The worst chapters of all are the ones that retell famous fairy tales with characters from Kaguya-sama. Those are uninteresting, unfunny, pointless and there's way too many of them.
The art is fine, all in all. The characters look cute and have a bigger emphasis on their sex appeal than in the main series, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
All in all, this manga is a mixed bag of all kinds of stuff, but for a fan of Kaguya-sama it might be an enjoyable read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 2, 2020
Umareru Seibetsu wo Machigaeta! is a short autobiographical manga about the author's experiences with sex reassignment surgery.
The author goes to Thailand, has the surgery done and goes throught the recovery process. The whole plot is just that. It's not much of a story, but the important thing is how the author shows the complete picture of the whole process. She describes everything before, during and after the operation, a lot of which was interesting and I didn't know about. The author also doesn't sugarcoat anything. She describes some of the more disgusting and painful aspects of getting a sex reassignment surgery, which makes the story
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seem a lot more sincere and real.
There's lots of attempts at comedy and a few references to other manga, that were kind of amusing, but I didn't find anything actually funny. Most of that humour comes from the main character, who's loud and goofy to the point of being annoying most of the time. Also, other than her, there weren't really any other characters that mattered in any way.
The art is okay for the most part, but looks strange and awkward at points.
Finally, I'm not really the target demographic, but people who are going through the same things as the author might just love this manga because it really seems to go into the subject matter with a lot of care and detail. I thought the educational aspect was interesting, but the art, narrative and characters were lacking.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 22, 2019
Even though Mangaranai. is extremely generic and simple, it still managed to be entertaining enough for me not to be able to say it was bad. It's just average.
Mangaranai. follows a bunch of aspiring mangaka who live together in the same apartment complex and their daily lives: the lazy one, the normal one, the tsundere and the drunk/pervert. Later on they're joined by a few other characters, but you get the gist of it.
The art is cute, the humour is light and there are some pop culture references here and there, but that's about it. You might get a chuckle of two out of it,
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but there's nothing memorable and nothing really changes throughout the whole thing. The best thing I could say about it is that it gets somewhat cozy when you get used to it.
It's serviceable as a 4-koma manga and it did grow on me a little bit in the last 10 chapters, but I'm sure I won't remember anything about it a week from now.
You should read this only if you've completely run out of 4-koma manga to read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 7, 2018
Featuring the only good character in the series, this 1 minute short is better than anything else connected to Cowboy Bebop.
Unlike the TV series, it had me invested from beginning to end, never allowing me to divert my eyes for a single moment.
Every one of the 62 seconds comprising Ein's Summer Vacation is polished and streamlined, providing a flawless viewing experience, especially compared to its inferior predecessors from the same franchise.
I feel like I don't have to finish the main series now, because I've seen the best Bebop has to offer. This is also the reason I've thrown away my Cowboy Bebop Blu-ray boxset, save
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the extras disc, which houses the masterpiece known as Ein's Summer Vacation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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