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Funny, witty, clever, beautiful, meaningful, original - I will not be shy on praises about the title that kept me laughing from the very first minutes up until the very end of the season. I do not know how to advertise comedy rather than saying that it is so so funny. The show itself is a collection of vignettes, called “matches”, where Kagya or President attempt to make the other one to confess. The way they are trying to do this, the methods they use, supporting third person narration, other character involvement, art direction - everything about love matches is awesome. It may be ludicrous ... at times but never dull or stupid. Speaking of art direction, Kaguya-sama: Love is War is the rarest case where picture sometimes jokes by itself, no text needed. Highest production quality extends to the drawing in general, visual beauty of the show can be seen by mere glance at Kaguya’s eyes. What is more important, though, is that art is diverse, shifting constantly between various styles (due to parody needs) but realizing each imitation impeccably.

Characters based on quite common tropes but writing around them is brilliant. Blend of Lelouch/Kira like arrogance and cute shyness in protagonists is hilarious and, at the same time, extremely smooth and plausible. Both Fujiwara and Ishigami seem like bland stereotypes at first but the way they are blended into main flow is smart and funny. But what surprised me most of all in Love is War is how acute physiological exposition is. I mean, it is an upfront comedy but portrayal of Kaguya and President’s feelings and thoughts is far more believable and relatable than in many purely dramatic competitors, even acclaimed ones. I guess it is a side effect of the fact that Love is War is a romance in a core. Romance is, by the way, quite prominent with actual progression and attention. So the series is not an endless charade of meaningful jokes but a focused story with a clear artistic intent. But funnily enough, I’d rather see the romance gone. It is just everything about comedy is so good that romance counterpart simply looks quite ordinary.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen is third anime ever that made me laugh. Third anime ever that could compete with western sitcoms. Is there more shows like this one?

8/10

Minor spoiler.

Feeling a surge of power to withstand vapidity of another young-lad-oriented anime, I decided to check out legendary Sword Art Online.
Yes, it was bad. But I thought it would be much worse.

Story: 5 / 10
Utterly generic details but a surprisingly coherent overall plot. SAO is not a infinite money generator (or at least it was not at first). The story here is existent, it is progresses steadily with each episode, has a clear beginning and clear end, has a nice flow, a few twists and even features character personalities changes. It also does not emphasize action but strives to be versatile. Good ... “on paper” but terrible in realization. Unfortunately, struggles of Kirito in virtual world are plain and unoriginal thru and thru. Each specific encounter, each specific scene, each specific line of dialog and, oh God, even each specific animation sequence is ostensibly taken from “that very same” Japanese bucket of templates. Funnily, it is so generic that it is not even bad. It is just... drab.
But here comes few pleasant surprises. First: people die… kinda. Bloodlessly dissipate into cute particles but still die. It adds some slight seriousness to transpiring events. Second: there is no hard work. Even better: protagonist is overpowered almost from the very beginning. Willpower is still present though. Third: romance.
No premises say that the core of Sword Art Online is actually romance. The story about Kirito and Asuna love is done so smoothly, weaved so gently into pointless wandering around cliche world that it becomes the only element that brings enjoyment from watching. I may be biased because the last time I saw a proper romance anime was years ago but still I don't quite recall any *action* anime about *romance*. And I definitely can’t name a multi-genre anime where romance progresses throughout the story in believable way. Beautiful.

Art: 3 / 10
Weakest suit of SAO. Color palette is insipid. Total absence of any special touch in design: ordinary shadows, effects, animations, decorations, costumes - everything. Did they even try while drawing or simply borrowed some first year art student’s notebook and copied everything from it? Character designs are especially horrid with their flagrant unremarkableness. RPG world is a setting where fantasy can run wild: miraculous attires, fabulous locations, grandiose contrasts. SAO offers nothing of the sort. What you can get is dozen of characters wearing the same costumes and faces as in any other RPG anime and several monotone regions inspired, probably, by Windows XP default wallpaper. Ah, yes, ridiculously incongruous fanservice is present too.
The other art disaster is battles. Sword Art Online, RPG about clashing swords, could have been a dream playground for fighting animation maniacs. Or brilliant strategists. A-1 Pictures had no such people, sadly, so combat scenes deliver nothing in particular. (A sigh maybe).
In anime, art is often the component that can makes you forget about other negatives. In SAO it is the opposite. Art here does nothing but reminds you how miserable everything else is.

Sound: 7 / 10
From sound I require only two things: do not repeat and fit. Do not repeat means do not play same cheap melody over and over again. Fit means do not break the mood with inappropriate music. Both requirements are met. In fact, soundtrack of SAO is dramatically diverse, featuring various styles and instruments. SFX and voice acting are qualitative enough not to raise questions.

Characters: 4 / 10
Secondary characters are direct copies from “Complete guide to character stereotypes” textbook so they will not be even mentioned. Concerning protagonists.
Kirito is a king of typicality. Your regularly Japanese protagonist. Hero-savior. Let’s iterate through such character traits. Tries to help every passing stranger? Check. Always put others before himself? Check. Never tries to bother the same others with his own problems? Check. Ever considers himself a worthless creature? Check. For unknown reason attracts multitudes of people(girls)? Check. Lacks any believable personality drawbacks? Check. I got used to such specimen a long time ago but the problem with Kirito that he is *nothing* but these characteristics. When you take a renown template have some decency to put at least a drop of your own imagination into it. Speaking in generic phrases about generic topics with monotone voice and zero plausibility - blatant example of “bad acting” in anime.
Asuna saves the day. Diverse character with color and touch. Withdrawn yet cheerful, fearsome yet gentle, strong yet dependant - these contrast is what makes her memorable. Her portrayal is multilayered, progresses smoothly throughout the story with simple but meaningful steps. Especially commendable the way how she gradually opens up to Kirito and a blend of her warrior-like conviction and feminine genuity. She acts in some cliche ways, of course, but it never overshadows the sheer beauty of the character.

Enjoyment: 6 / 10
As I wrote before, the mystery about SAO that it does not really causes hatred or anything. It is simply average. You will probably watch it with quite easily and even enjoy some of the moments. I personally enjoyed romance but was very frustrated with art.
So if you have seen every other RPG themed piece of art out there and want more - go ahead, SAO should be eatable. I would still recommend to tune down your expectation though.

Overall: 5 / 10
Predictably generic but with some surprising moments. I do not regret but I will forget.

It is a tricky thing for me to judge Hunter x Hunter because HxH features literally all elements I assiduously hate in anime and yet... I could watch dozens of HxH episodes without skipping a blink. And this is basically review in one sentence. Let me get a bit into details though.

It is easier to start with negatives. HxH is a pure shounen fighting anime. By ‘pure’ I mean “using every shonen trope possible” . Protagonists are male children of genuine goodness, occasional attempts of author to taint them with negative seem phony. HxH is about fights and superpowers: about 70% of screen time ... will be alloted to various character battles. Lightweight supporting humor is present. Adventure is present too: fantasy world and lots of journing. And, finally and most riveting, HxH is all about friendship and hard work (*sigh*). In fact it is *so* about hard work that I was shocked. 100 episodes of 148 (I mean it) you will hear phrases like “I need to train more”, “I got to get better”, “I am still too weak” every 3-4 minutes. But the problem of pure shounenism of HxH for me is not excessive self-betterment but the fact that the overall screenplay is extremely predictable - HxH follows the trodden path shared by all shounens. Some (most) people like watching through various realization of same blueprint because they like that blueprint. But I do not. If I should decide to give another iteration of shounen a chance it is because I naively hope it will surprise me in some way, that it will deviate. HxH did not deviate, unfortunately, but it *did* surprise me.
But before the elaboration I want to pinpoint another two derivatives of being an shounen. First is a cheap, simplistic picture. I jumped onto HxH after Mushishi and it was like replacing heavenly bath with puddle of dirt. Is being a long-running series an excuse to draw jauntily? Luckily, character and world design is charming in core so it somehow negates plain picture. The second is music. Voice acting is OK but soundtrack… same bunch of vapid annoying melodies, all 148 episodes... Why do you have to be so cruel, Madhouse?

So what is the surprise of HxH? Why does it have such high rating? For me It is brilliant writing and extraordinary production quality. I wrote above about how HxH is being typical and unoriginal but paradox is that HxH is *not* generic at the same time. Yoshihiro Togashi (or people who adapted his script) was at the peak performance, it seems, because he managed turn filthy overused shounen road into beautiful wondrous terrace. His writing, his style, his vision and rhythm are so fascinating and so smart it amazes from episode 2 to episode 148. Yoshihiro Togashi’s best trait is that he always knows where to stop and turn the situation around. While watching HxH there were dozens cases in the story where I exclaimed “Aha! Now you have no other option but to used that stupid cliche! You lost!” but he *always* managed to find a way out. And this other way… seem so natural and fresh, it gave HxH a boost of respect each time and put me back into my noname seat.
The author’s cleverness and unorthodox approach to the shounen is seen in every detail. Heroes have believable motivation, villains are not brainless “conquer the world” idiots. Every character is provided with rich, logical introspective which makes almost all of them very likeable and interesting. Protagonists’ personalities evolve and change over time. People die, heroes die! Plot often branches into multiple subplots. Narration often shits between multiple actors. Every little character has detailed personality. Battle are… they deserve separate paragraph.
Fights of HxH are probably the smartest component of them all. In fact they are not really fights, they are standoffs. Heroes are put into situations with no clear solution, and often restricted by various conditions. The spotlight of narration will be on the search for winning scenario. In HxH logic and intelligence wins over willpower or goodness (can you imagine). Viewer always will be provided with elaborated comments by the narrator explaining chain of thoughts of current actors. These explanations usually extremely logical and believable. Yoshihiro Togashi’s superpower system or confrontations in general are not objectively the best explained or scientifically accurate but better than the most thanks to the trite yet clever tactic: Togashi does not create situations he cannot explain properly. If he writes something you can be assured there will be no logical holes in the narration.
Final brilliance of HxH, and the primary one for me, is that HxH is ultimate adventure. The journey to find prodigal father is supplied with such enthralling events in such intriguing sophisticated world you cannot but be in awe in the end of the series and desire more. Modern cities with skyscrapers, serene medieval villages, mafia with guns, warriors with swords, arenas, natural landmarks, dangerous organizations, super families, mystic monsters, internet, cars, ships. The blend of *everything* by Yoshihiro Togashi is, as always, smart thus spectacular and great. Concerning HxH events, aka arcs, they are simply classic, they epitomize how it must be done. In particularly Phantom Troupe, the independent bunch of overpowered villains… yes of course someone did it before, but I am pretty sure no one did it better than HxH at the time. And 61 episode long Chimera Ant arc? It could have been shorter, but do not pretend it was not epic. The HxH plot device that the world is filled with “adventure stuff” is so stereotypical but, yet again, Togashi manages to weave upon it a magnificent background with great many possibilities.

All the good things I wrote above can be applied both to manga and anime. Specifically concerning anime, I am pretty confident it does every little thing in the best manner possible except aforementioned picture and music. General direction of the series is good and matches perfectly with adventure mood of HxH. Animation sequence did not seem cheap or loosely built.

Hunter x Hunter is a paradox for me: it is a typical shounen but the one I cannot help but marvel. Maybe it is even greater than Alchemist, I don’t know. But I know one thing: I want more. And so I grieve Yoshihiro Togashi clearly does not intent to finish the story. The story where so much left untold.

8/10

Akatsuki no Yona is beautiful, diligent and even realistic but it is shallow and very generic. 24 long long chapter filled with insipid feeling, identical males and zero progress - that was my limit. You may tell me, “It’s a shoujo, what did you expect?”. Well, I don’t know, I guess I expected some pleasant surprise. Shoujo authors tend to write genuine, down-to-earth pieces but here it evolves into nothing but the Nadeko level story about poor little girl surrounded by noble handsome boys. What even worse is that backbone of the narration is not the thrill of adventure in form of elaborate substories but ... a cliche theme of friendship where main heroine plays oh so typical role of selfless idol of goodness disguised by tons of phony self-reproach. Mizuho Kusanagi at least could have inserted these templets into some form of action, or anything else that grabs attention, but no, Yona’s recruitment of males are the most boring friend acquisition I have ever seen.

I would be glad to pick up Akatsuki no Yona again… just tell me where the story actually starts.

First chapters of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, pt.3 are disappointing: the concept behind renown stands may seem childish, first battles result in ‘classic’ enemy-becomes-friend scenarios and protagonist Jotaro Kujo reminds too strongly of his predecessor. But hold out for thirty chapters and you will start to realize how brilliant the creation of Hirohiko Araki is. Stands will become just another form of superhuman abilities, shounen tropes fades quickly and and Jotaro will transform into unique, awesome character. In fact, most of characters of Stardust Crusaders are awesome because of Hirohiko Araki one-of-a-kind approach to the story. He never tries to *teach* which opens up an opportunity ... to portray villains as human beings and not the devices to make heroes bond together, train willpower or contemplate the values of life. Same *not teach* technique strips the story of unnecessary templated episodes about friends, hard work and other bullshit. Everything is simple and honest: protagonists are compatritriots united by duty (much more plausible cause than most shounen have) against an ambitious spiteful man. Each of characters has quirks and traits that makes them fun and distinct.

But the main revelation of pt.3 are stands. Stands are cartoonish creatures standing behind host. Sounds stupid, yes? Don’t worry, in middle of journey you will forget about that detail and most stands will be perceived simply as superhuman powers, like in western comics. Each fight will begin with a mystery: what is our enemy stand? And will revolve around strategic approach of how to deal with adversaries, utilizing our strengths and exploiting their weakness. In fact, that is why Hirohiko Araki made stands of protagonist so trite and unsophisticated: so no encounter will have an easy solution. No encounter will be dull either. Hirohiko has done a extraordinary job: the journey to Egypt is filled with dozens of stands most of which being intricate and unorthodox. It creates this engulfing story train where you can’t wait to see who will be the next enemy and what are his powers. So if you one of those people who likes to be passenger of said trains - JoJo pt.3 is definitely for you.

Unfortunately, I’m not exactly one of these people. Ninety nine percent of of pt.3 are battles. There are literally only two or three chapters that are not the part of some fight. Protagonists can’t make a step without encountering another stand user which is kinda ridiculous. There are literally no story twist, side stories or any other plot deviations. It’s all just fights, one after another, non-stop. It makes Stardust Crusaders look very discreet and unnatural. It also makes me very sad because, ironically, the slices of life in execution Hirohiko are *extremely* good. The tiny bits of peace at the start of each new battle arc are so entertaining that I just couldn’t help but ask myself: “Why, why did he have to end them so soon?”.

All in all, Stardust Crusaders transforms JoJo into what it is even today: smart stylish collection of epic strategic battles. Yet pt.3 is too blatant about it - more sophisticated plot definitely wouldn’t have hurt.

P.S. Bulkiness, gore and strong language are fun too.

7/10

The sound of silence is quite audibly heard in a monotonous beauty of bashful Mushishi. This is a road to nowhere yet, somehow, every little step brings a bit of understanding of the way. Perhaps it's a conscious writing, the one where author doesn’t say too much or too little; perhaps it’s masterful supernatural wrapping which turns mushishi into unfathomable and surprising adventure; perhaps it’s gamut of drawing showing each and every color of ordinarity; or classical music that echoes in your soul long after the credits faded away; or, perhaps, it’s the lonely character of Ginko, who blesses the common way of life yet ... forced to ever wander the tepid laps of Nature. ‘Everything is in its right place’, both in meaning and realization, Urushibara Yuki proves that novelty can be found in the most modest corners of life. Yes, I wanted some stories to end differently, I wanted Ginko to act differently, but still, in this coven of ingenious mushi tales none have left me indifferent but many’ve struck me like a lightning on a cloudless day.

9/10

ONE’s superpower to decorate trite truths with intricate details is as astounding as his ability to create identical all mighty protagonists. For half of the story he manages to deceive me into rumination about how complex is the coming-of-age problems of Shigeo are, how delicate and colourable the plot about his brother, and how surprisingly peaceful the anime about psychics is. Yet you can not swim against the (main)stream forever, ONE or not, eventually the boat of goodness will pick you up, exhausted, and carry you into explored waters of templates, banality and infantilism. That is the resolution of the deceptive beginning but, actually, who ... cares about philosophy? All you need is lov… khe-khe... battles. Late on the arrival, final episodes reveal the true genre of Mob Physho 100: shōnen villain smasher, with all the typical flavourings. I wish I could distinguish Mob Phycho 100’s implementation from countless others… but can I really? Can you? And though I slightly enjoyed originality of the animation, was almost charmed by charisma of scallywag Reigen and laughed at a few jokes, that is definitely not enough to leave a mark on neither my heart, nor my brain.

4/10

In long forgotten 2004 Shinichirō Watanabe, director of superb and astounding Cowboy Bebop, finally finished his second work: Samurai Champloo. Well, what is there to say: that Japanese dude knows how to rock! (emm, ‘rap!’ probably would be more applicable to this title)

The journey of headstrong and daring 15-year old girl Fuu to find mysterious ‘samurai who smells of sunflowers’ in company of two ronins, taciturn and solemn samurai Jin and loudmouth blusterer Mugen who fights like dirty break-dancing monkey, is amazing, breathtaking adventure. Built around the same devices as Cowboy Bebop, it is a set of self-contained episodes, each having a story worth of ... whole movie. A mix of comedy and drama, each comedy episode is fun and each drama episode is believe. The atmosphere of the road, of the optimistic aspiring self-realization is so heartfelt that it will keep you in a light and good mood throughout all 26 episodes. But if you’re looking for an action, you will get it too! The swordfights in Samurai Champloo are awesome, especially if you’re realism fanatic. The last battle of Mugen is, mayhaps, the best fencing scene I’ve ever seen. And the music, the music! Being the rock lover, I’ve never thought hip-hop beats would be so cool. But it’s not just about hip-hop, but about the placement, the choice of rhythm, style, mood. The scene of country traveling with blind musician woman? Godlike.

But let’s get down to earth. Unfortunately, optimistic frivolous theme has its price. This is the story about friends. Again. I don’t know what the situation was in 2004 but as a viewer from 2019 when I see such ‘anime friends’ I know *exactly* how *every* main plot intrigue will be resolved. The same goes for characters. And though they are awesome, well-design trio, (especially Jin, whose emotional reticence makes him the most realistic and plausible one) each of them has some templated ‘friend’ traits. The most annoying being “I don’t care about you, guys. I can leave whenever I want”, but they, of course, care. Nevertheless yet again we are watching an episode where “not-friends” argue and separate only to be reunited twenty minutes later. How many times have I seen it? Ten? Fifty? Hundred?... So, ultimately, the stories that managed to surprising me was about secondary characters. Thanks goodness, it is the eighty percent of episodes! But even among them are cases of templating… For example, story about good kid stealing to buy medicine for his mother: we saw exact same fable in Cowboy Bebop!

But never mind that rambling. It’s all callous nit-picking of a petty man. What you should mind is feel, look, style, music of Samurai Champloo. And, of course, the adventure. The adventure that will be sung through the ages.

7/10

THE anime that defines the word itself.

Children piloting giant robots in defense against unstoppable mysterious threat. Who would have thought such premise will develop into anything greater than a series of pop stamps but it has. The story of Neon Genesis Evangelion is rich, complex and challenging, yet, I must admit, at times it looks like a poorly improvised surreal painting. The reason for this can be found in a history of Evangelion’s creation: the production team were patiently and meticulously working on Eva, all according to script, and then suddenly they realized they hitting deadlines. They made only a handful of episodes so the ... remaining were needed to be rushed. This created a perceivable rift between first half and second half of the series: the first half is consistent careful show and the latter is lumps of extemporaneous ideas mashed together with original design. This discrepancy is certainly a downside but there is a bright side about: the second half is where Evangelion is truly original.

The first half lays groundwork for the straight-out-of-factory story about how it is good be good (my guess of initial script contents): rely on others, never give up, appreciate what you got, etc. Generic.
The latter half, on the contrary, steps away from banalities, dives into physcology, and actually ask questions of viewers without providing answers, a rare approach in pop culture and a common one in classics. Yet it *is* a helter-skelter. Already complex plot of Evangelion turns into psychological mess by the end of the series which renders it rather incomprehensible (infamous last two episodes). This mess is what caused an uproar and divided viewers opinions. I personally find the latter half amazing but I totally understand people who will label it garbage, there *is* a basis for this. So be forewarned: if you are after plain entertaining anime, Evangelion may not be a good choice (or at least the end of it).

Yet let’s strip Eva of controversial parts and look at it again: Evangelion is still brilliant. What makes it brilliant are characters. What makes characters shine is realism. Each primary character of Eva is provided with extensive background and believable features. And though Asuka and Rei nowadays would fall under certain archetypes (tsundere and kuudere respectively) Evangelion refined these archetypes so masterfully that those girls now can be considered perfect models of their domain. And Shinji… Shinji is still unique. For me, Shinji is probably one and only anime character who actually feels real. The one and only character whom I wouldn't be embarrassed to put straight into, say, Leo Tolstoi's book. The reason for such plausibility is that Shinji virtually has believable negative traits that causes believable problems for him and and for others.

The other thing to mention about this trio is their memorable everlasting visual design. Well, maybe not Shinji, as he’s a boy, but the girls’ images are unforgettable. The choice of colors, apparel matches perfectly to the temper. The piloting suits deserves whole separate review. They are so catchy that they are still imitated in other anime works. Other than that drawing style has no highlights: it’s an honest art of old with realistic diverse faces and bleak colors. But let’s return to the characters, as there are a bit more to say.

Shinji, Rei, Asuka are gems on their own but Evangelion is not limited on them. Eva includes a large cast of adult characters that have an significant screen time. That mere fact is already boosts realism and calls for applause but Evangelion manages to create and impeccably present meaningful stories behind each of the prominent adult. It is a breath of fresh air in the suffocating mass of children based animes that unfortunately dominate the mainstream.

Time to comment the focal point of Neon Genesis Evangelion: mecha. You will see giant robots fighting other giant robots. Well, not robots per se but robot-like organic creatures (‘Angels’) but it is semantics. The battles looks fresh even in 2019. The writers’ fantasy was enough to create a set of Angels where most of them are fundamentally different from the others. So each mecha fight is something new and unique. But unfortunately Eva ignores completely scientific aspect of mecha so don’t expect any plausible explanation on magic transpiring on screen. Thus mecha side of Evangelion is slightly above average so, as it unfortunately takes most of the screen time, seldom you may be get bored.

The sound of Evangelion follows the same realistic approach of the art: there are no background music, only acrid sound effects. The seiyūs are remarkable. The OP and ED are horrible, and, for some reason, they are present in every episode, even where they break the atmosphere, like the last two.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is genre defining classic anyone who considers himself an anime-guru must watch. It is a landmark in character design and its serious and artistic approach to the story raised anime as whole to the brand new level.Yet, undeniably, stitched together latter half of the series is too incoherent to be called perfect and the cautious first half is too simple to cause an awe.

8/10

Clannad After Story picks up the narrative where it's less successful predecessor ends it. the play was performed, Tomoya makes important step; tears of joy, laughter of happiness; last year of school life begins and our noble self-deprecating bum Tomoya gets dragged in whirlpool of his (girl)friends problems and stories. “But this is exact copy of Clannad 1 (and, in fact, any other harem anime)”, I exclaim silently to myself and droop my head in disenchantment. “But there must be something there!” hopeful me whispers over my shoulder. “Ok, I’ll give it another chance”, I answer and dive into the kind naive world of Clannad. ... Thanks God/Science I took the leap.

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As I mentioned above, first half of series follows the ever present and over beaten template: innately good and selfless hero attracts an infinite cast of girl characters, each having a ‘quest’ which can only be resolved by altruistic sacrifice of the protagonist (and support of friends, of course). Though, as we are dealing with sequel, we have already conscripted familiar ensemble: moe queen Nagisa, best friend-clown Sunohara, professional tsundere Kyou and, forgive my laziness, about five or six other school characters that fall under same or other stereotypes. (The protagonist himself falls under regular cynical high schooler stereotype.)

All in all, implementation of said templates is decent. None of the supporting actors surprised me in any way but none caused a vomit ethier (by the way, praise the sun! Fuko is absent in After Story!!!). Should I mentioned the obvious fact that each of the characters is perfect kind being that lack any bad traits? I mean realistic bad traits and not the “Christ, I can’t even help 3475 people at once, I’m worthless!” ones. I hope that goes without saying.

I do have some praise for characters though. Nagisa, despite being so so moe, is utterly cute and adorable so you can’t help but feel felicity while watching her and listening to splendidly picked voice actress. I won’t commend Sunohara himself but rather commend his mere presence a company. It gives at least a droplet realism to totally unrealistic situation where “useless outcast” gets surrounded by three thousand cute girls. At least there are two males here. And… that's it about school characters praise.

First half follows format of prequel where two-three episodes comprise an arc that regales us some incredibly genuine, kind, naive, breathtaking, heart-soothing story about happiness and sadness, values of love, friendship, family, dedication and diligence. I admit, they are good. But nothing more. As always, Japanese are painting life problems in a *ideal* world which immediately renders them worthless in all aspects but one: aesthetic pleasure. But I do (not) complain. It’s standart in anime. Just, specifically in Clannad After Story, I can’t help but berate some ark moments: the ‘evil’ soccer team (like, come on, contrast in decency between Tomoya group and soccer team was so immense that it don’t know how else to name other than idiotic; the only thing missing was evil laughter ‘MU HAH HA’ and we would have got typical japanese villain), gangs wars (‘noble bandits’, yeah, totally realistic). But, as I said, the stories *are* entrancing. They leave you with aftertaste of joy, delight and, more often, gentle sadness. If you a romance lover, that is.

In any case, life goes on and after ten or so episodes Tomoya graduates school and becomes fully fledged grownup. And that’s where Clannad After Story really begins and elevates above the throngs of mediocre animes, rightfully taking the title of second best slice of life series.

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It’s hard for me to pinpoint the greatness of this part, as objectively speaking, we are still presented with same ideal kind word where each problem is resolved by naive virtue known to any six year old. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Right way is simple and yet few can follow it. And so is Tomoya, who now enters adult life devoid of strong purpose and lacking experience. And thus begins his long journey of transformation from listless no one to earnest member of society. Yet life is known to be a bitch so this journey is filled tragedies and obstacles…

And this is probably what you’ve been advertised of, am I right? “The legendary tragedy Clannad After Story”. Well, if you haven’t, than I say it. Indeed, the struggle of Tomoya’s day to day existence won’t leave unscathed even the most callous cynic. There can’t be a touching story filled solely with happiness. Tomoya’s tale isn’t exception. There would be grieve… but with genuine effort and support of loved ones it’ll turn into candid happiness.

The tune is old as pyramids yet Clannad portrayal is so sincere, so honest that it goes straight to the heart and keeps grip on it until very end. And, to be honest, it’s still very naive, but at same time it is so *right*. It is so right that you can’t help but look at yourself, wondering “How can I change for the better?”. Yes, it’s one of the few art pieces capable of changing outlook on life. Even if a little, it’s still tremendous feat.

Concerning narrative, we still have same storytelling arc format. But, as there is no school anymore, subjects are shifted towards more realistic daily problems such as work and family. Each event is supplemented with rich Tomoya’s introspective. School friends fades into background which is, in fact, immensely positive change. Few characters I didn’t mention before become prominent: Nagisa’s parents, eccentric and absurdly young looking couple. They fit quite nicely to the story and deserve credit.

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In general, Clannad wins not with pure plot or writing but with directing and presentation. The drawing style seems mind blowing at first but quite quickly gets pleasant and casual (though shots with multiple faces still look ridiculous). Music matches perfectly to each situation; delicate magical feel of it readies your eyes to spurt a few tears at culmination of the arc. But what moves more than anything is sincere honesty of unfolding life which will surely resonate with your own.

School Days: 5/10
After Story 10/10

Total: 7.5/10 ~ 8