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I've never skipped through Mob Psycho episodes and enjoyed the past two seasons. Once again, the combat scenes were stellar, and the ticking time bomb from 0 to 100 consistently adds mystery and thrill.

However, this felt like a filler season to me. The best part of this season was Mob's character development. Unfortunately, besides this and some good emotional moments, most arcs were poorly executed. This was particularly egregious in the UFO arc with the telepathy club. It was forgettable, jarring, annoying, and involved developing characters I had zero interest in. The best way of describing these two episodes is a setup for an ... isekai that lasted a few minutes involving a minor character. Seriously, skip these two episodes. You will miss nothing.

My immediate reaction was the Gankutsuo wasn't your typical reaction. The strange art style combining Victorian-era clothing with cyberpunk was at first was unappealing but then strangely mesmerizing.

Story: 9/10

The greatest strength of Gankutsuo. Monte Cristo-esq stories are some of the best revenge stories in the literature/media period. The apple didn't fall far from the tree for Gankutsuo. Since I'm somewhat familiar with the story trajectory, I was most intrigued by the execution. This isn't the type of anime that can be watched in one sitting as it slowly builds towards a climax.

Art: 6/10

The uniqueness of the art is Gankutsuo's forte. Particularly the noses ... on characters are drawn poorly at times which took me out of scenes whenever it happened. Otherwise, the art hasn't held up to modern times too well - many background scenes are bland or repetitive. However, anytime surreal art is shown it maximizes those visuals. Overall, I'll give it a pass since it's almost two decades old.

Sound: 8/10

The opening song (We were lovers) is great and Kaishou which plays building up to/during tense moments is phenomenal.

Character: 8/10

Once again, we have the anime trope of a naive protagonist with a black and white moral compass in Albert de Morcerf. However, as more of the intentions of the Count is revealed this compass is slowly bent. The Count of Monte Cristo is a mysterious, calculating presence who in many ways contrasts Albert's personality. Otherwise, most of the supporting characters (like Albert) share some semblance of naivete as Albert. Ultimately, the naive protagonist is beneficial to this story and makes the characters one of the strong points of the anime.

Enjoyment: 8/10

Spoilers ahead!

I expected a slower build in this story to a climax so at times the beginning and middle had periods of boredom. Finally, I wanted to like the ending but it just wasn't satisfying. I'm a sucker for characters growing older and demonstrating their success after the events of the story but the romance between Eugenie and Albert didn't have a satisfying completion. Eugenie playing the piano years later and Albert hearing her playing was a perfect build-up to them reuniting. However, Gankutsuo ends before their meeting is shown which is a huge let-down for me. Anyways, this was a relatively small gripe but something that bugs me still even as I write this review weeks after finishing watching.

Overall: 8/10

My first dive into Fate. I couldn't slog through Fate Stay Night by Studio Deen but I was coming in optimistic for this one.

Story: 8/10

Kind of a Battle Royale-esq fantasy battle set in modern Japan. Emiya is a novice in this race and has to catch up. Luckily, he has the help of Rin Tohsaka, a fellow student who has been preparing for the Grail War her entire life.

Art: 9/10

UBW has some of the best art, animation, and fights I've ever seen. Considering its 8 years old from this review, UBW more than holds up.

... Character: 7/10

Emiya is the typical shounen naive and justice-orientated character. However, he comes across as inconsistent.

Enjoyment: 7/10

Could have been easily an 8/10 for me but not quite for spoiler reasons below.

Overall: 7/10



Spoilers ahead!

I didn't follow why so many characters were "interested" (they literally say this) in Emiya and were willing to keep him alive throughout the show. Most antagonists and neutral characters attempted to kill Emiya at least once and some part throughout the anime. All of them ultimately chose not to. Only one - Rin was the only character where it at least made some sense why Emiya wasn't put in the dirt permanently. I'm guessing it has to do with events from the previous Grail War, but there is no mention of this by the would-be killers.

Also, there was an ongoing trope to delay any satisfaction after a fight. There was always an excuse from those involved in the fight to "Fall back for now" or some variation of that. Early on, its explained that killing the master is the most effective method to eventually obtain the grail. No masters are killed in this season... only one servant.

Another confusing and often annoying aspect was Emiya's character. Emiya is constantly being saved. He wants to save everyone, but he ends up being a burden to his allies more than helping. It would have been better if he was at least depressed by the fact that he was failing in this regard, but that never really crosses his mind. The redeeming part is that this aspect is rightfully criticized later on in the season so I hope the second season can further develop this.

This was my first completed Fate anime. It was still enjoyable but it seems like its expected that the viewer already has some knowledge of the Fate universe and the events that have taken place before this anime. However, I'm excited to start S2 - the twist at the end was definitely unexpected.

I've given the same overall score to each of the parts, this will be my combined review of Season 1 and 2. Each season starts out great then goes downhill somewhere partway through. There are times in each season when the story and characters are moving towards an interesting direction and then it gets bogged down by dialogue and monotony for not just 1 episode but the REST OF THE SHOW!

Character: 5/10

Unique to Re:Zero is the mystery in each of the characters (at the beginning at least). There are few characters who are only "Good" or only "Evil" characters each time Subaru returns from ... death. Most are either good with aspects of evil or vice versa. The mystery creates a thrilling experience where I don't know what to expect. However, once characters become concretely "Good" after Subaru finds the best combination of actions to obtain his ideal timeline they become 1-Dimesional and speak in a similar manner.

It'd be nice if there was something interesting that was exchanged but nope. If you took a shot each time a character said "love" or "save me/him/us/etc", some episodes would hospitalize you. I understand all the characters other than Subaru are experiencing intense emotions they might not have realized they had already experienced before but saying "Love" a thousand times depreciates the meaning behind the word.

The MC has moments of competency after returning from death, but other times has the SAME REACTIONS even though the situation is similar or the same from death earlier.

However, there are some characters who remain "grey" throughout the show and they're definitely the most interesting.

Story: 6/10

Difficult to follow at times, which aids in the mysterious nature of Re: Zero. However, once the mysteries become clear I'm not sure why it was so convoluted in the first place.

Art: 8/10

Visually appealing world and characters.

Enjoyment: 4/10

Great moments overshadowed by repetitiveness.

Overall: 6/10

Man, season 1 was good but I did not expect to like part 2 as much as I did. This was almost an improvement in every category. As always, minor spoilers ahead!

Story: 8/10

MC and his party have a main overarching goal with some side-tasks. Consequences are direr as they try to navigate themselves out of difficult situations while trying to maintain a positive outlook despite depressing circumstances.

Art: 9/10

Something I forgot to mention in my review for Part 1 is how they don't have a traditional anime opening. Even though they're sometimes stills with only 1 or 2 characters moving, they do a fantastic job of ... introducing the next location they're traveling to or some additional exposition. I've never seen this before in any anime in recent memory, so this blew me away. Otherwise, they maintain the excellent quality of art and animation from the previous part. A minor gripe is that there wasn't more spell usage in the action scenes.

Character: 10/10

Each of the characters had some annoying flaws from part 1 are improved upon and serve to define multiple character evolutions.

The biggest improvement, this part is a major redemption to Rudeas' past life. He faces not only physical threats from the monsters their party faces but also emotional threats from the characters he is close with. The MC takes advantage of each of these opportunities to mature. Not to mention, we are shown more flashbacks of his previous life. More focus is centered on the regrets he had from his previous life which directly translate to positive choices he makes during his journey.

Ruijerd, Paul Greyrat, and especially Eris became incredibly more interesting and nuanced from the challenges they faced. Eris' journey is similar to Rudeus and she became one of the most likeable and improved characters by the end.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Characters are way fricking better combined with amazing art and animation. Lots of wholesome and sad moments. For sure one of the best anime of the year and can't wait for S2!

Overall: 9/10

SPOILER WARNING

I came into Mushoku Tensai with some idea of why other people disliked it. So despite the controversies, it wasn't as shocking as it might've been. At the time of writing this, I've already watched Part 2, however, I'll still try my best to only keep my state of mind from Part 1 in this review.

Story: 8/10

There isn't any large over-arching story other than Rudeus discovering his world, improving his abilities, and meeting other characters for the first half. However, the characters face a massive event partway that leads to positive and interesting changes to almost all of the characters.

Art: 9/10

Animation on the spells ... is top-notch and lots of work has been put in to create a visually appealing world and characters.

Character: 6/10

Until the major event, most characters other than the MC are fairly basic. There would've been any drawbacks to decreasing how pervy the main character is. I would've enjoyed more screentime of Rudeus improving his magic.

However, the characters are improved due to some unexpected circumstances later on that lead to more nuanced characters for some who I had assumed would only be background characters.

Enjoyment: 8/10

An enjoyable first part that makes me excited to see the sequel!

Overall: 7/10

I consider Horimiya to be the baseline anime romance. If you're recommending a romance anime for someone whose never watched any before, this is the pick. This is the vanilla of romance anime MCs romance doesn't months or years to develop, Hiro and Miyamura are in a relationship fairly early on.

Story: 6/10

The story, in the beginning, is engaging and I was invested in the main relationship. Later on, the focus was on the relationships of other characters, and these either dragged on too long or seemed forced.

Art: 8/10

The characters are drawn well.

... Sound: 7/10

Intro OP is a banger, but otherwise nothing special.

Character: 5/10

The weakest point for me here. There are no overly out-of-left-field plot points or characters. They have real personalities and values, however, that makes the character conflicts bland and repetitive. The character who is most unique is eventually pressured to act like the normies.

Enjoyment: 7/10

I still enjoyed the anime quite a bit, but it's more of one that's not too memorable.

Overall: 7/10

Solid, good romance anime that doesn't take many risks. Horimiya is for you if it's the first romance anime you've ever seen or you just want something more satisfying.

Great anime that begins as a slice of life following the day-to-day life of taxi driver, Odokawa and his interactions with his clients and friends then pulls a 180 into a drama. Odokawa pushes away people from getting emotionally closer to him and settles for smaller interactions where he's more comfortable. Unbeknownst to him, these small interactions have a domino effect with massive consequences forever altering the lives of him, his friends, and strangers.

Story: 9/10

The anime benefited from slower pacing at the beginning of the anime so the faster pace of the ending felt more chaotic. Although, if the ending was drawn out a bit ... more I think the impact of the reveals would have been more intense.

Art: 8/10

Unique art style and characters were all varied.

Sound: 7/10

The opening song is great, but otherwise nothing noteworthy.

Character: 9/10

I'm a sucker for flawed characters who overcome them in their own ways. Some characters that were annoying at the beginning were resolved by the end.

Enjoyment: 8/10

The twists at the climax of the story kept me on the edge of my seat.

Overall: 8.5/10

Great show and I'm glad Odd Taxi received recognition for anime awards. Excited for the Odd Taxi movie! In the running for one of my favorite anime of the year.

Really enjoyed the first season, however, this season was a bit disappointing. The first had good moments, but the second arc really dragged on. I dropped the show at the end of the first arc but have come back almost a few years later to finish it. Just for that fact I can't give it a high score even though I ended up enjoying the show overall.

Story: 7/10

The first arc was good, although the antagonist's motivations never become clear. Guess S3 will go further into that. The second arc was pretty boring by comparison.

Art: 7/10

The animation was very good and the characters are drawn ... well although Hiyori doesn't seem to be drawn as well as most of the other characters.

Sound: 10/10

Kyouran Hey Kids is one of my favorite anime songs. The rest of the OST is very good too!

Character: 6/10

The most memorable character development was for Yato and Bishamon. Yato's background and his relationship with Hiro, Bishamon, and Kazuma were finally explained. However, I sometimes found Hiyori a pointless character even though so much emphasis is placed on her involvement. Either make her a side character or make her more of an important character. Yukine was annoying but got better at the end. Ebisu was an alright character that was also better at the end.

Enjoyment: 5/10

Funny and good moments, but never consistent enough to hold my attention.

Overall: 6/10

Glad I've finally finished season 2 though it didn't hit the mark of S1, I didn't expect the twist at the end so I'm hyped for S3!

Great anime that starts out as a slice of life set in space and then evolves into a drama. Planetes follows astronauts who are glorified garbage people employed by Technora that spend each day to clear out space garbage floated around Earth. As mentioned multiple times in the anime, their work is critical to the future of space development. However, by the time of this story their department is underfunded and undervalued. Only the dedication and competency of the crew as well as the favor of the space station's director are what keep them afloat. Their day-to-day lives are eventually disrupted by the ambitions of ... several of the younger members of the space station - particularly Hoshino, the protagonist. However, these ambitions become tested once a new member, Tanabe, joins their crew.

Story: 9/10

A unique story that handled deep questions on the purpose of life, love, and politics all set in an engaging world.

Sound: 7/10

Enjoyed the OP, but the ending was annoying at times since it was jarring when the episode ends at a dramatic moment/cliffhanger and the ending played.

Art: 7/10

Characters were drawn well, nothing special. World and animation of space ships were great.

Character: 10/10

The best part of the anime. All characters are well-developed and while some were definitely less interesting, the development of the main characters was incredible. It is rare to see such flawed individuals try their hardest to achieve their dreams in such a realistic manner.

One thing I want to point out was that I really didn't like Tanabe's character at the beginning. However, even against harsh criticism of her naive ideals, she persevered. Not in the basic anime way where the "Power of Love or Friendship eventually wins!", but in a hopeless manner. Her self-doubt keeps mounting until a critical moment appears where she must make a decision to maintain them or not. Both options with grave consequences.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Plenty of bitter-sweet moments, but really appreciated the care in building flawed yet passionate characters.

Overall: 9/10

One of the best anime to be set in space I've ever watched and in the running for the best anime I've watched in 2022.