*Spoiler Warning*
*Author's Note: I had read the manga for The Swordsmith Village Arc before the anime adaptation came out, so I will be talking about it a bit in this review. I do have general knowledge of how the rest of the story plays out from here, but I won't spoil anything in that regard!*.
One of the things that has always impressed me about Demon Slayer is that with every new installment of the anime, it has managed to raise the bar even higher than before. The animation and the fight scenes were abloustely beautiful and breathtaking! The fights weren't necessarily on the
...
same scale as the final fight between Tengen and Gyutaro that we got last season, but they were incredibly enjoyable in their own right and had a lot more emotional weight to them this time around. The music, particularly the intro and outro songs were highly enjoyable and fit the story well! The cast of characters that we got for this season were an interesting bunch and I came to really like the two "new" Hashira characters: Muichirou and Mitsuri. I even came to like Genya a lot more than I did previously. The villains for this season were adequate and played the part they needed to. Overall, I feel like the Swordsmith Village Arc marks a good middle point for the series and it puts a lot of things into perspective while answering some questions you may have had about the show up to this point. We got some more insight into this "mysterious swordsman" that we've seen in Muzan and his Demon's flashbacks, we got to see where the Demon Slayers get their swords from and we got introduced to the rest of the Upper Rank Demons who were all pretty cool in their own right. I think this season of Demon Slayer sets up some major things that are yet to come and I feel like this will be a season that ages better over time. As someone who read the manga prior to Season 3 being released, I was pretty excited to see it animated and Ufotable managed to go above and beyond with it!
I already talked a little bit about this above, but I absolutely loved the production value of this season. In a lot of ways they managed to improve upon their work last season, and if they keep Ufotable keeps at it I'm sure that they're eventually going to make something that will go down in history as "best animated series of all time". Though technology is always improving so things will inevitably improve one way or another, but it's still heartwarming to see that Ufotable is always looking to make things visually better. An anime like Demon Slayer deserves the best quality animation, and it shows. I didn't mind the fact that they used CGI for things like the giant pot fish, I actually liked it. The Gyokko Vs Muichirou fight and the Hantengu Vs Tanjiro, Nezuko, Genya and Mitsuri were a visual spectacle to watch. Again, the fights weren't so much an "all out war" spectacle like the Tengen Vs Gyutaro fight was in Season 2, but the fights had their own emotional subtext to them and were enjoyable to watch playout. I really loved the intro song "Kizuna no Kiseki", it's currently one of my favorite songs to listen to and there's plenty of great covers out there. The outro song "Koi Kogare" is also an underrated banger. I would say I prefer Kizuna no Kiseki over Koi Kogare though but both songs were great to listen to in each episode. The visuals for both were great. I was a little surprised by the use of still images in the outro (maybe they ran out of money in the budget lol), but I didn't mind it and thought that it did what it was supposed to. Now I was so excited for this season to air I actually watched it in subbed. As of this writing I believe they're halfway done with airing the dub and I haven't gotten around to checking that out yet, but I thought that the sub VAs were great and the clips of the dub that I've seen have also been good. I really liked Kokushibo's voice in both the sub and dub and I look forward to seeing more of his character!
Now to get into the story! This season of Demon Slayer was rather short, only being 11 episodes. However, like Season 2 it is sort of one big battle (in this case, two) playing out with the fights last a majority of the season.
Season 3 picks up right where Season 2 left off. Following Tanjiro and his friends' victory over Gyuatro and Daki, the Upper 6 Moon Demons, Muzan summons the remaining upper ranks: Gyokko (5), Hantengu (4), Akaza (3), Doma (2) and Kokushibo (1) to The Infinity Castle. After Doma messes around with Akaza prior to the start of the meeting (which results in Akaza punching Doma's jaw off), Muzan begins the meeting and admonishes his upper ranks the same way he did with the lower ranks. Muzan laments how they haven't been able to find the mysterious "Blue Spider Lilly" and and how they've failed to eliminate the head of the Demon Slayer Corps, Ubuyashiki. While in the manga, Muzan is certainly displeased with them, the anime did a magnificent job highlighting his anger towards them. If I hadn't read the manga before hand, I might've gotten the impression that Muzan would start killing them off like he did with the lower moons. While the rest of the upper moons either beg for forgiveness (Hantengu), acknowledge their faults (Doma and Kokushibo) or say nothing (Akaza), Gyokko steps forward with some "juicy information that will change everything", which causes Muzan to weirdly get on his case. He goes on a rant about not like changing and comparing it to weakness, and that he wants permeance. He finishes his rant by dispatching Gyokko along with Hantengu to the mysterious location that this information is about. Doma tries to tag along but Akaza steps in and smacks off the top half of his head, telling him to get lost. This causes Kokushibo to intervene and he cuts off Akaza's hand for disrupting the hierarchy. Doma deduces that the reason for Akaza's animosity was that he knows he can never surpass him and Kokushibo. Kokushibo then demands that Akaza respect them going forward, with Akaza vowing to kill him, which Kokushibo largely seems to wave off and disappears. Gyokko and Hantengu leave for their mission once Akaza leaves, and Doma is left all by himself. He tries to flirt with Naike, the Biwa Woman, but is sent back to his place.
Now I have to say, I abloustely loved every second of the Upper Moon meeting! It added a lot of depth to the demons and explored the interesting dynamics between Muzan's top subordinates. It was interesting to see how they all interacted with each other. I loved Doma's trolling and the imposing presence that Kokushibo had, it was enough to even get Akaza in line.
Back at The Butterfly Mansion, after having a dream about one of his ancestors interacting with a mysterious swordsman who was over to "pass along" something, Tanjiro awakens from a 2 month coma following the battle in The Entertainment District which is discovered by Kanao, causing everyone to rush over. Zeinitsu had already been discharged and sent on a mission, while Inosuke is believed to be on the verge of death until they all look up and see him hanging out on the celling. Kanao, in a rare moment of bravery, tells everyone to stop causing a scene as Tanjiro had passed out again. However she quickly loses her nerve thereafter and goes off with one of the Butterfly Mansion girls to bake something. It was an incredibly adorable scene for her character here, and sadly this is the only time we see her in this arc, especially since we haven't seen her since the end of Season 1.
Tanjiro recovers from his injuries and gets a letter from his swordsmith, Haganezuka, who refuses to forge him a new sword. The Butterfly Mansion Girls suggest going to The Swordsmith Village, where the nichirin swords are made. With Inosuke being sent on a mission of his own, Tanjiro and Nezuko are back on their own again as they travel to the village. It's a secret village with its location being a closely guarded secret, and as such there's an elaborate network of couriers and crows that eventually take Tanjiro and Nezuko to the village. Tanjiro meets with the village elder, who is told that Haganezuka is presently missing but they'll find him and get him to make Tanjiro a new sword. Tanjiro explores the village where he reunites with the Love Hashira, Mitsuri at the Hot Springs. In a bit of fan service, and in fairness, it's *A LOT* of fan service ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) , we're greeted with a spicy Hot Spring bath scene of Mitsuri around the time of Tanjiro's arrival and again when she's running towards him as her boobs are on the verge of spilling out. Tanjiro, being the wholesome saint that he is, covers her up and she embraces him, distraught that someone had ignored him. Tanjiro goes to see what's up and reunites with none other than Genya, who we haven't seen since Season 1 either. Tanjiro attempts to "bond with him through their nakedness" but gets rejected as well (Lmaooo). Tanjiro and Nezuko hang out with Mitsuri before she has to leave (and Nezuko's interactions with Mitsuri are adorable), but she mentions to Tanjiro a rumor about there being "a secret weapon" hidden somewhere in the village. Tanjiro begins searching for the weapon and stumbles upon The Mist (and amnesiac) Hashira, Muichirou, arguing with a small boy near a training dummy that bares a striking resemblance to the mysterious swordsman in his dream from earlier.
Muichirou starts threatening the boy and Tanjiro steps in to intervene. Muichirou calls the boy "worthless" which angers Tanjiro and launches an impassioned defense before he's shutdown by Muichirou who knocks him out. Tanjiro wakes up and we're introduced to the boy, named Kotetsu. Kotetsu explains that the training dummy is called "Yoriichi Type Zero" which is based on a swordsman who had lived centuries before. The reason that had the dummy had 6 arms was so that it could "accurately replicate his movements" meaning that Yoriichi is probably the strongest swordsman who had ever lived across anime anywhere (again, holding back on my manga knowledge here). The dummy was constructed by Kotetsu's ancestors and had been passed on from generation to generation. However, Kotetsu no longer has parents and as such as no knowledge on how to repair it. Tanjiro promises to protect it but Muichirou returns from his training session and caused significant damage to the dummy. Kotetsu and Tanjiro discover that it's still functional. As such Kotetsu works Tanjiro to the bone as he trains against the dummy. Tanjiro passes out and just when it seems like he die from exhaustion, he unlocks a new power that allows him to detect a scent faster than the opening thread. He uses this new power on the training dummy and decapitates it (all I'll say about this is just remember the Tanjiro's move on the dummy here. Trust me on this one.) Tanjiro and Kotetsu than discover that underneath the dummy's head is an ancient sword, though its severely rusted.
A jacked Haganezuka arrives, and he reveals that he's spent all this time working out so that he can make Tanjiro a sword that won't break. After some shenanigans, Haganezuka pledges to restore the ancient sword and gives Tanjiro a spare one in the meantime. Tanjiro tries to hangout with Genya, but Genya is still a little salty about the time Tanjiro broke his arm. Tanjiro then observes that Genya had regrown his lost tooth that we had seen in the hot spring scene back in the first episode, but Genya feigns ignorance until Tanjiro reveals he had been hanging on to it (a little weird that he did that, I'll have to side with Genya on this one). Meanwhile, Gyokko and Hantengu infiltrate the village. Genya then kicks Tanjiro out of his room until he is awoken (somewhat rudely) by Muichirou who is looking for his new swordsmith. Tanjiro says he'll go looking for the Swordsmith with Muichirou, which seems to trigger some sort of flashback for him. Hantengu then drops into the room (thinking he had finally made it to the girl's slumber party). Muichirou, Tanjiro and Nezuko decapitate Hantengu, but he then reveals his trap card: he can split into different versions of himself based on his emotions. Hantengu's pleasure clone blasts Muichirou out of the room and Hantengu's anger clone electrocutes Tanjiro and Nezuko. However, they're saved by Genya, who uses American Breathing 1st form who uses a sawed-off shotgun against the Demons. After beheading the two, they split off into two more demons based on Hantengu's sadness and joy. Tanjiro gets swept out of the room by the joy demon, Nezoku struggles to hold off the pleasure demon and the sadness demon skewers Genya which seemingly kills him. Muichirou tries to run back to help, but sees Kotetsu struggling to fight off a fish demon. At first Muichirou decides not to help him, but after remembering what Tanjiro had said, he races back in and saves Kotetsu from the fish demon by slashing its vase.
Kotetsu tearfully thanks Muichirou and begs him to save Haganezuka and his fellow swordsmith Kanamori. Muichirou is initially reluctant to help them, wanting to prioritize defending the village. However, he recalls what Ubuyashiki had said to him about "trivial events" which allow for some of his old memories to resurface. Meanwhile, Tanjiro is able to make his way back to the building. Hantengu's clones are stumped as to why they can't kill Genya, and Nezuko continues to struggle against Hantengu's pleasure demon, resorting to setting him on fire. Tanjiro is able to avoid the anger demon's attacks by using the joy demon's foot. Tanjiro is able to save Nezuko, but the joy demon returns to the fight and incapacities them. Meanwhile, the fish demons arrive at the village itself and Mitsuri sweeps in to save the villagers, using her love breathing and sword whip.
Kotetsu leads Muichirou to the work shed Haganezuka is using where they encounter Gyokko as Mitsuri saves the village elder from a large fish demon. Tanjiro and Nezuko recover just in the nick time before they get completely pummeled by Hantengu's joy clone, and they decide to collapse the entire building on them. As they're searching for them through the rubble, Nezuko grabs Tanjiro's sword, lacing it with her blood and uses her blood demon art to set it on fire. Tanjiro's sword then gloes a bright red. He faces off against Hantengu's clones with his flaming red sword, which trigger a flashback for Hantengu's clones as he realizes its similar to the same swordsman that nearly defeated Muzan. Tanjiro epically decapitates three of the demons while Genya had dispatched the last remaining demon clone. However, Genya has shockingly taken on the appearance of a demon himself. Meanwhile, Gyokko unveils his disturbing nature as he has assembled a "living art piece" of dead and/or dying swordsmiths. Muichirou engages Gyokko, who evades his attacks by teleporting between his various vases. Muichirou eventually catches up to him, but Gyokko traps him in a life sized water vase that Muichirou really has no way of getting out of on his own, leaving him to die by drowning.
Tanjiro then realizes that in order to defeat Hantengu, they need to decapitate his main body. Genya grabs Tanjiro and goes into a rant about how Tanjiro won't steal his kill and prevent him from becoming a Hashira. Tanjiro, amicable as ever and realizing that Genya still has a human conscious, agrees and asks him to help track down the main bottom. Tanjiro pulls Nezuko out of the rumble and has her protect Genya as the 4 clone demons regenerate. Genya finds the main body, which is an incredibly tiny version of Hantengu. After giving chase, he finally makes a move to decapitate him, but his sword breaks on impact on Hantengu's neck. The anger clone appears behind Genya, moving in for the kill.
We then get Genya's back story. Like Tanjiro, Genya was part of a big family supported by a single mother. Genya was the second of seven children, with his brother Sanemi, the future Wind Hashira, being the oldest. They were terrorized by their abusive father until he ended up getting killed after crossing one to many people. As such, Sanemi and Genya stood up and became the men of the house. One night, when the mother hadn't returned, Sanemi went to look for her and told Genya to watch over the others. After some time, the mother returned...only as a demon. She massacred Genya's other siblings and gave him his prominent scar. The mother was about to kill Genya until Sanemi swooped in to save Genya, tackling the mother outside. Genya ran to get help and came across Sanemi standing over their mother, bloodied and battered, as she faded to dust in the sunlight. Genya, not realizing or understanding she was a demon, branded Sanemi a murder, and presumably this is what let to their falling out as Mitsuri had mentioned that Sanemi had once said that he "didn't have any siblings". Genya comes to accept his death and laments that he coudln't apologize to Sanemi, but is saved by Tanjiro who reminds him of his vow to become a Hashira. Genya decides to hold off Hantengu's clones as Tanjiro pursues the main body.
Tanjiro moves to decapitate the main body, but his blade loses its flames and and is unable to cut all the way through. Hantengu's hatred clone, which is a combination of the anger, sadness and pleasure clones into one, then appears to confront the demon slaying trio. This clone's particular hat trick is that he can summon powerful wooden dragons. Hantengu's clone shields the main body into a wooden cocoon. Hantengu's hatred clones calls Tanjiro and his friends "bullies" but Tanjiro fires right back at the clone's hypocrisy after overcoming his menacing aura. Meanwhile, Gyokko investigates the work shed and sees Haganezuka working away at repairing the sword. Gyokko is impressed by Haganezuka's resolve as an artist, and sets out to try to break his concentration, wounding him several times. Despite this, Haganezuka maintains his focus even after becoming partially blind. Muichirou's life begins to ebb away and he begins to hallucinate. He sees Tanjiro who assures him that help is on the way. He also realizes that the reason Tanjiro seems familiar to him is that because he has the same eye color as his father. The hallucination ended up being correct as Kotetsu appears, giving Muichirou life through some CPR through the water vase. Muichirou is able to use a breathing style to escape, but he is badly wounded by the poison he had received earlier in his fight with Gyokko. Kotetsu gets wounded by a lobster demon, and we then get to see more of Muichirou's backstory: he was the son of a woodcutter. His mother fell ill and his father was killed in a storm while trying to get medicine for her. It's then we learn that Muichirou had a brother: Yuichiro. He became bitter and cynical after the deaths of their parents and raised Muichirou while remaining cold and distant from him. Amane, wife of the Demon Slayer Corps Leader, attempted to recruit Muichirou and his brother into the Demon Slayer Corps, telling them how they were the descendant of a great swordsman who had created Sun Breathing. Muichirou is interested in joining, but Yuichiro scolds him and tells him that it's useless to help others given what had happened to their father while trying to help their mother and how they will ultimately die a pointless death. That was the last time the two had ever spoken to each other. Then one night, a Demon had broken into their house and cuts off Yuichiro's arm. Muichirou flies into a blind rage and ends up defeating the demon, letting him burn away into the sunlight. An exhausted Muichirou then dragged himself back to Yuichiro who passed away from blood loss. Muichirou was then saved by Amane, and Muichirou went on to join the Demon Slayers and quickly rose to becoming a Hashira. These memories unlock Muichirou's demon slayer mark, greatly enhancing his speed and strength as he spectacularly destroys the swarm of lobster demons attacking him and Kotetsu. Muichirou then goes to save Haganezuka from Gyokko, who still hasn't been able to break his concentration (skill issue). Gyokko, who is shocked that Muichirou escaped his water vase prison, launches some more wild attacks that Muichirou is able to keep up with.
Muichirou dukes out with Gyokko (and this fight is beautifully animated), enraging Gyokko further. Muichirou then begins roasting Gyokko and his pot art, which causes Gyokko to unveil his true, final form: a giant serpent like creature (he kind of looks like a mermaid, won't lie). Muichirou is able to keep up with Gyokko in his final form, and surrounds Gyokko in a sea of mist. Gyokko lashes out, swinging widely at Muichirou's after images before he is beautifully beheaded by Muichirou. Gyokko, unwilling to accept defeat, curses out Muichirou and attempts to regenerate his body before his head is sliced up into a million tiny pieces and scattered to the wind, effectively ending his career as a demon and "artist". Muichirou's marks fade away and the poison and exhaustion catch up to him, causing to collapse. Kotetsu ended up surviving thanks to using Rengoku's tsuba which Tanjiro had given to him earlier in the season. Muichirou then remembers his former comrade and tears up and his comforted by visions of his family, allowing him to press on.
Meanwhile, things aren't going nearly as well for Tanjiro and company as they struggle against Hantengu's hatred clone. Tanjiro gets severely wounded by the demon and is swallowed and nearly crushed until Mitsuri arrives and saves him. Mitsuri then begins taking on the demon, but gets a little too ahead of herself once Tanjiro calls out to her that it's not the main body. She is then stunned by a sonic attack, but ended up not being killed by tensing her body up. As it turns out, Mitsuri's body is unnaturally strong despite her figure. Hantengu's hatred clone goes in for the kill as we get Mitsuri's backstory (even though we did get bits and pieces of it during the intro and outro, though its more than we got for Muichirou). As it turns out, Mitsuri is the only one who doesn't really have a traumatic or harsh backstory. She was born to loving parents and had a good childhood. However, she had unnatural strength and an insatiable appetite, which caused her natural black hair to adopt its pinkish-green hue. Mitsuri was due to be married, but after getting harshly turned out in the marriage interview, she decided to act more "normal", cutting back on her eating habits and dying her back to black. Eventually she realized she couldn't keep up the facade and decided to join the Demon Slayer Corps where she can be herself, eventually becoming a Hashira. Though she might've not found love from the normies, she did strike up a friendship with the Serpent Hashira, Obani (who may or may not so subtlety have a crush on her) who gave her iconic green socks as a gift. Just before Hantengu's Clone is about to develop his own crush into Mitsuri's skull, Tanjiro, Nezuko and Genya save Mitsuri just in time and she regains consciousness. After realizing that she is indeed loved and accepted by other people, and remembering that Ubuyashiki himself had said the same thing to her, she gets back in the fight and engages the Hantengu Clone while Tanjiro, Nezuko and Genya hunt down the main body. They make their way to the wooden cocoon, with Genya unveiling his ability to consume demons. The three break the cocoon open to find that the main body had ran off. Tanjiro finds the main body running through the forest and they pursue it once more.
Things finally come together here in the final episode: Tanjiro catches up to the main body using a combination of Sun and Thunder Breathing. Tanjiro attempts to decapitate Hantengu again, but he morphs into a taller and more violent version of himself. Genya is able to free Tanjiro from the clone's death grip, Tanjiro and Nezuko tackle the clone over a cliff. The clone, now badly damaged, attempts to regenerate but finds himself unable to as the hatred clone is using up too much of his power and thus can only regenerate through a demon's favorite food: humans. Hantengu runs off, spotting a group of swordsmith bystanders. Murichio tosses Tanjiro the ancient sword that Haganezuka had been working on (though it's not quite finished), and Tanjiro catches up to Hantengu and decapitates him. Just as he does, the sun begins to rise and burns Nezuko. Tanjiro tries to shield Nezuko from the sun as Hantengu rises up. As it turns out, that wasn't the main body that they were chasing but yet another clone. The clone then resumes chasing the villagers as Tanjiro tries to protect Nezuko from the sun. Tanjiro freezes up, unable to decide what to do as help is too far away. In a very powerful and moving moment, Nezuko makes the choice for Tanjiro and launches him towards the Hantengu Clone, giving him the Attack on Titan salute as she does (I know it's not actually that but I do think its a bit of a cheeky reference). Tanjiro then gets a flashback of his time with Nezuko throughout the series, which wasn't something we got in the manga.
Tanjiro catches up to the Hantengu clone and sniffs out that the main body is in the clone's heart. An enraged Tanjiro saves the villagers from being crushed by the clone as he slices him in two, making the tiny main body fall out. Tanjiro then moves in for the kill and we get a look at Hantengu's backstory: him being a serial killer and pathological liar with a victim complex. However, one day the law caught up to him and he was arrested. He was set to be executed before Muzan turned him into a demon. Hantengu then broke free and killed the magistrate, who had foreshadowed that Hantengu would one day pay for his crimes. Hantengu tries one last time to kill Tanjiro as he feels his neck being cut through, but is unsuccessful and Tanjiro successfully decapitates Hantengu, killing him for good. This came in the nick of time as Mitsuri was being overwhelmed by Hantengu's hatred clone and was about to be killed herself (we also didn't get this scene in the manga. Though I wish we got to see more of this portion of the fight, I'm happy with the little extra bonus).
Tanjiro breaks down crying, believing Nezuko to be dead. However, to everyone's surprise, she is able to walk in the sunlight and can somewhat speak. The heroes then have a tearful celebration. Meanwhile, Muzan, back in his child form, saw through Hantengu's final moments that Nezuko can walk in the sun. This whole moment, from Tanjiro putting an end to Hantengu to seeing his reaction when he sees Nezuko alive and speaking, was by far the best moment of this season, and one of the top moments in the whole series to date. Even though I knew far ahead of time what was going to happen, I still felt the emotion of the scene and the anime expanded upon the scene in a very meaningful way with the background music and flashbacks. It was a very touching moment!
We also get something I wasn't expecting either: Here we finally get the full picture of Muzan's motivations and some of his backstory. When Muzan was born many centuries ago, he was a sickly man and was expected to die an early death. His doctor gave him an experimental drug derived of something called the "Blue Spider Lilly". Muzan, not expecting the treatment to work, killed his doctor in a rage. However, the treatment worked which not only restored Muzan's strength and health, but exponentially enhanced them and turned him into the demo that he is. There was one complication: Muzan couldn't walk in the sun as he knew it would kill him. It was from there on that Muzan began searching for the Blue Spider Lilly so he can develop a way to once again walk in the sunlight and created demons with the hope that one of them could develop the ability to, killing scores of people in doing so. I was surprised that we got to see a part of Muzan's backstory as it wasn't shown in the manga until much later. We also got some anime exclusive scenes out of this which was cool. Muzan then vows to capture Nezuko and absorb her. He kills his human caretakers and sets out. I'll tip my hate to Ufotable for this one. They added something crucial to the story earlier that was originally later, and this move is for the better. They also let the backstory play out rather than just Muzan narrating the entire thing, which is something they had done with a lot of other previous backstories and I think it's good that they're approaching it in this way, it's better enrichment for the audience.
The season ends with Tanjiro recovering just enough to leave the village, and the villagers have a big celebration thanking Tanjiro for saving them, which was also an anime exclusive.
That's the story for The Swordsmith Village Arc! Now to go over some of the new/returning characters:
Muichirou: When he was first introduced back in Season 1, I didn't have too much of an opinion one way or the other. When he made his debut this season, he really came across as a dick. He (and his crow as well), seemed to think that everyone was beneath them or unimportant. However, Tanjiro interestingly observed that he wasn't like this out of malice (not sure how that works, but ok). Through his interactions with Tanjiro and throughout his fight with Gyokko, Muichirou recovers his lost memories and realizes that he was sort of trying to be like his older brother in terms of personality, but thanks to Tanjiro he had rediscovered himself and "cleared the mist in his head" as Ubuyashiki had put it. By the end of the season, Muichirou had definitely changed into a kinder, more emphatic person. His backstory was certainly tragic and it made me feel for him, especially the fact that he had to go through that at an age younger than Tanjiro too. I thought his fight with Gyokko was epic! Mist Breathing looked amazing and cool in animation form, he was moving like he was ghost! Considering Muichirou was able to defeat Gyokko all by himself, I think that as of this moment he might be the strongest Hashira that we've seen on screen so far. I don't necessarily think that it was because Gyokko was a weak or bad fighter, but Muichirou, who is also a descendant of the creator of Sun Breathing, is an undoubtedly talented fighter. I do think some circumstances worked in his favor as well, such as Gyokko not taking the fight seriously at first, but the fight was decided because Muichirou had won it, not because Gyokko had lost it. I think Muichirou had the easier fight compared to Mitsuri (Gyokko wasn't cloning himself like Hantengu was), but he did take him down by himself pretty much (granted he needed to be saved).
Mitsuri: I really liked her character! She was sweet, wholesome, charming and beautiful! It was interesting that she didn't have a traumatic backstory or anything like that (unless you want to consider her being turned down for marriage to be traumatic), so it was an interesting change of pace to see in the Demon Slayer universe. That said, to be a good character I don't think you need a traumatic or sympathetic backstory, but I can relate to Mitsuri's struggles of finding love and acceptance. I also thought her sword whip was a really cool and interesting design. Love Breathing was also nice to see animated, even though I thought some of the names were a little goofy, but I think it speaks to Mitsuri's personality well. I also don't get the "fan service" aspect of her outfit, but I won't complain about it. Overall, she was a good "older sister" kind of character for Tanjiro and Nezuko and she's certainly a strong character being able to stand up against what was likely Hantengu's strongest form for a time. Out of all the Hashira we've seen on screen fighting against a member of the 12 Kizuki, I'm not quite sure where I'd rank Mitsuri. On one hand, she pulled off some pretty incredible feats against Hantengu's clone, but she was going to die had Tanjiro not decapitated the main body. Likely I'd say she probably deserves to be somewhere in the middle. She's certainly strong, and you have to be in order to go up against an upper moon, but she's not invincible either. I do think Mitsuri could've also soloed Gyokko. It would've been interesting to see! Overall, I think she's worthy to have in the discussion of "best girl" for the anime!
Gyokko: I found his character design to be pretty interesting! The fact that he had two mouths where his eyes should be and his eyes were located on his forehead and his mouth certainly stood out to me. Though Gyokko's abilities were a bit basic, I think he is a powerful demon. His water vase prison ability would probably explain how he's been able to defeat many demon slayers and catch other humans which allowed him to rise the upper moons. I was surprised that we didn't get any info about his backstory in the series. That was consistent in the manga as well. I was actually almost expecting that we'd learn something deeper about Gyokko but that's one of the things they kept to the manga to. Ah well. All in all, I thought he was an interesting character, he was easy to dislike due to his narcissistic personality. But he was certainly a powerful villain, and I could've seen Tanjiro, Zeinistu and Inosuke struggling against him. He was a very versatile fighter and I don't think he took Muichirou seriously until it was too late. He was dominating him before he got the mark, but after that it was already too late for him. I do think he is appropriately ranked at being Upper Moon 5, but Gyutaro could've certainly given him a good challenge for his role.
Hantengu: I would say that he was definitely the main villain for this arc. He was immensely powerful. His emotion clone ability was pretty cool to see with them each having their own unique powers. The fact that there was also a "main body" this time was interesting and it played well throughout the season. They didn't add anything too new to his backstory and I was hoping they'd expand upon it a little more, but they stuck to the manga here as well and I'm fine with it. I'm a little surprised that even as a human he had that giant bump on his head, I've always wondered why that was there. At any rate, I also thought his personality of having a victim complex was interesting and I think this was the first time that Tanjiro did not feel any level of sympathy for a demon. He provided the slayers a good challenge and was a villain to be rightfully taken seriously.
Genya: Though he was in Season 1 and I talked about him a little bit in my review then, the season really added some depth to his character. We got learn about his backstory and the dynamic he has with his older brother, Sanemi, is something that'll play out in an interesting way (that's all I'll hold myself to say). I really liked the fact that he used a shotgun (American Breathing!) and the fact that he can consume demon flesh is a pretty cool power! By the end of the season, he wasn't really the gruff hardass that we've come to know, and we got to see a softer side to him. I guess life-endangering situations can form friendships!
Haganezuka: I don't have too strong of an opinion on him one way or the other. I thought his antics were funny at first, but after a point it kind of got old. I understood his mentality on "making the best sword" for Tanjiro and how he has a bit of an inferiority complex on that, but when Muichirou tossed the sword to Tanjiro in the middle of his fight against Hantengu, he just started wailing on the poor kid. Like dude...it's a life or death situation, come on! He was also a little salty at the end with warning Tanjiro not to break his refurbished sword. He does look beautiful under his mask and his concentration while enduring a beating from Gyokko is certainly something to be commended.
I know I may be in the minority here, but I thought this season was the best one yet! It explained key elements of the story, put a lot of things into context and sets up crucial story beats that will play out in a major way in the season(s) to come. The fights were beautifully animated and though they weren't the same spectacle that Tengen vs Gyutaro was, I had a fun time watching them. I was also a little surprised that Zeinistu and Inosuke weren't in this arc a whole lot (they weren't in the manga either), but I think the story did fine without them (not that I dislike the characters). In conclusion, I was very happy with how this season of Demon Slayer went. It managed to exceed my expectations!
Now it'll probably be about a year before we get the next season of Demon Slayer, but considering how they've been improving, I have very high expectations for The Hashira Training Arc! Especially since they'll also be adding in content from the light novels, so I think there's a lot of potential for them to add new stuff to the story as well!
I'm excited about the future of Demon Slayer and I'll be eagerly waiting for the next season!
Jul 6, 2023 Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
*Author's Note: I had read the manga for The Swordsmith Village Arc before the anime adaptation came out, so I will be talking about it a bit in this review. I do have general knowledge of how the rest of the story plays out from here, but I won't spoil anything in that regard!*. One of the things that has always impressed me about Demon Slayer is that with every new installment of the anime, it has managed to raise the bar even higher than before. The animation and the fight scenes were abloustely beautiful and breathtaking! The fights weren't necessarily on the ...
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 
Jul 4, 2023
Sword Art Online II
(Anime)
add
Recommended Spoiler
Sword Art Online II
*Spoiler Warning* When there's an anime that has multiple seasons, it can do one of three things: improve the show, maintain its overall quality or bring the show down. Despite SAO's overall tattered public reputation, I believe that SAO II was actually better than its predecessor, SAO. While I did thoroughly enjoy the first season and will sing its praises, SAO II improved the franchise for me and avoided many of the mistakes that SAO had made during the course of its run. Honestly there is very little for me to criticize about SAO II here, and any criticisms I do have ... of it are more so rather nitpicks and would probably serve as a critique of the franchise as a whole. It maintained a reasonable pace while telling a new and intriguing story, it introduced new and likable characters, an intriguing setting, and explored some interesting plotlines in the greater SAO story that weren't really touched upon in the first season. SAO II also allowed for both Kirito and Asuna to experience some pretty significant character growth, and if a sequel season can do that in a positive way, that's a win in my book! SAO II was a season that added onto the greater SAO story in a meaningful way and it was a thoroughly enjoyable (and at times, even emotional) experience! The production quality of SAO II was just as good as it was in SAO. The animation was great and the introduction of gunfights really added on to the show for me. The action sequences were enjoyable and beautiful. The character designs were great and the backgrounds were just as beautiful as they were in the first season. The English VAs did a great job with the characters as well and I liked the new character's voices. The music in SAO II was also very enjoyable. SAO II had 3 intros, 1 for each of its 3 arcs (also 1 of which had 2 separate animations): "Ignite" for the Gun Gale Online Arc (officially it's called "The Phantom Bullet Arc" but I'm calling it Gun Gale Online), "Courage" for the Calibur and Mother's Rosario, and "Separate Ways" for the final episode. What's interesting was that each of the intros got progressively more emotional. Ignite was a song that I could consider to be more of a "classic SAO" song and helped set the tone for the new world that Kirito was stepping into. The animations for it were absolutely amazing and got me hyped for the first arc. Courage struck me as more of a "look how far we've come" kind of song and it really drives the point home with its animations (not to say that Ignite didn't do this either, but Courage focuses more on this). Separate Ways was a truly emotional song and was a great send-off for Yukki's character. It was a great way to start closing out the Mother's Rosario Arc and finishing up the season. Out of the three I'd probably have to say I liked Ignite the best. I'll also throw out that AmaLee did covers for each of these songs and they were absolutely amazing! SAO II also has 3 accompanying outros for each of its arcs as well: "Startear" for Gun Gale Online, "No More Time Machine" for Calibur, and "Shirushi" for Mother's Rosario. Like the intros, the outros got progressively more emotional as well and they generally focused on a particular character with its accompanying animations. Startear highlighted Sinon's character, No More Time Machine was more of a "Kirito and Friends!" kind of song with Kirito's friends and loved ones received most of the screen time (and I also loved the fact that LiSa sung this song too), and Shirushi (also sung by LiSa), focuses on Asuna. I personally enjoyed No More Time Machine the most, it had a very catchy tune and though it had a very "reflect on how far you've come" vibe, it had a very catchy beat to it. As mentioned above, SAO II is split into 3 arcs this time around. Gun Gale Online/The Phantom Bullet is Eps 1-14, Calibur is Eps 15-17 and Mother's Rosario is Eps 18-24. Unlike in SAO, particularly in the Aincrad Arc, there's really no major time skips that happen. Like the Fairy Dance Arc in SAO, SAO's II story largely flows continuously. The Gun Gale Online Arc is probably what most people would consider to be "SAO II" and I wouldn't necessarily fault them for it. In its larger place in the story, I felt that this arc was a great continuation of Kirito's story and the introduction of Sinon proved to be a great foil and mirror to his character. The arc's villain was also a step up from SAO's villains. He wasn't perfect but again it was a step in the right direction. The Calbiur Arc was fine and enjoyable but it really felt like filler content. Nothing more, nothing less. The final third arc, Mother's Rosario, really brings it home and drives the rating increase over SAO for me. It gave Asuna some much needed screen time and character development and Yuuki was a wholesome and enjoyable character. They ended the arc on a very emotional note but also on a cliffhanger which I imagine will lead into the third season with SAO Alicization. Fair warning: it's going to take some time to cover the story, so if you're interested in my summed up thoughts, go down to the last few paragraphs. Gun Gale Online/The Phantom Bullet Arc: Following Kirito's decision to release The World Seed at the end of Season 1, a number of new MMO worlds have popped up. Gun Gale Online, an FPS shooter, is among one of the most popular of this new generation of MMOs. After two big scandals involving the nerve gear trapping kids in a virtual world, you'd think that now at the very least that any problems have been resolved and nobody is dying in the game and therefore dying in the real world now right? WRONG! We're introduced to the main villain of the arc (and arguably the only real villain in this season), who is watching over a livestream of one of the game's best players talking smack over his opponents for an upcoming tournament in a crowded bar in the game. The villain then shouts at the screen, accusing the player of being a bad person (usual villain stuff) and fires his ultimate weapon "the Death Gun" (ok they seriously could've come up with something better here). Though to the villain's credit, the gun does live up to its name as he points it at the screen and shoots at the player's character model, only for him to suddenly disconnect from his livestream. It's later revealed that the player had also died in real life. Kikuoka, a member of the Government tasked with handling these cyber crimes, recruits Kirito to investigate the situation (though he does so begrudgingly). We also see that Kirito and Asuna have continued their relationship into the real world and hang around Suguha, Lisbeth and Silica. Kirito eventually breaks the news to Ausna that he has to go off to the GGO world to investigate the "Death Gun". We're then introduced to our co-protagonist, a girl named Sinon (who I'll just refer to her as Sinon and not her actual name throughout the review for simplicity). Early on we can see that she's an expert sniper as she's able to take down monsters and players alike with breathtaking skill. She's able to take out a boss and then links up with some players to ambush another group of players. Things generally go well until one of the enemy players whips out a minigun, decimating Sinon's squad. After an epic firefight, Sinon ends up defeating the minigun guy by an insane, mid-air trick shot. Despite Sinon's incredible feats in-game, at the end of the day she is only human with *a lot* of emotional baggage. As it turns out, she is ironically *deathly* afraid of guns and it has to do with the fact that when she was 11 years old, she put a stop to an armed robbery killing the robber in self-defense, killing him with his own gun when the robber threatened to kill Sinon's mother. While this was an act of self-defense and justifiably so, the experience undeniably traumatized her and as such can't even pick up a gun in the real world without having a breakdown. People who know her know about this and it's often used as a tool to bully her. She is saved by her friend (who obviously has a crush on her), Kyōji, who treats her to a meal out. It's here where we learn that he introduced Sinon to GGO as a form of therapy for her to get past her issues. It brings up an interesting point about "separating" your real self from your online self which is something this arc does a terrific job of exploring. Kirito logs into GGO under his old username and character that was created by the government, though interestingly enough...they made Kirito's character a girl for some reason (almost kind of trying to go for the same awkwardness that was in Alfheim Arc back in Season 1). Meanwhile as Sinon also logs in, we see that news of Death Gun has begun to spread and that Sinon may be a potential target as she's apparently regarded as a high level player and Death Gun guy seems to be going after them. As Kirito becomes acquainted with the realities of having a female player model in a game that almost certainly has a supermajority male player base, Kirito crosses paths with Sinon. She agrees to show Kirito the ropes of GGO. However, Sinon has absolutely no idea that Kirito is actually a dude, so he fakes being a girl for several episodes. Sinon gets Kirito acquainted with the basics of the game and Kirito impresses her by winning a super hard minigame (here we learn how the shooting mechanics work in the world, which Kirito is able to exploit) to earn money to buy decent weapons. Characteristically for Kirito, he goes for the off-brand lightsaber (you can not tell me they weren't trying to parody Star Wars here). Kirito then explains he's trying to enter the Bullet of Bullets Tournament (where Death Gun is likely to make an appearance). Funny enough they only have 10 minutes to get to the sign-up place before it closes, and so Kirito and Sinon pull a GTA 5 and speed on a buggy to get there, making it in the nick of time. Kirito and Sinon sign up for the tournament, with Kirito conspicuously leaving his contact information blank (this will come into play later). Kirito and Sinon also end up in the same block in the qualifying round, meaning that they'll face off provided they make it through the initial rounds. They then go into a changing room to get ready and that's when Kirito drops the bomb that he's actually a guy. Sinon then promptly slaps him in what was a pretty funny moment even if you saw it coming from a mile away. Sinon gets pretty upset with Kirito and (understandably) thinks that he's a creep and largely gives him the cold shoulder, though she reluctantly gives him the rundown of how the tournament works. Kyōji then pops into the game to wish Sinon good luck and has a bit of an awkward standoff with Kirito as he initially thinks they're together. Sinon then decides that she's gunning for Kirito, wanting to beat him as "payback" for lying about his gender to her and she challenges him to survive the tournament, something the highly-competitive Kirito gladly takes her up on. Kirito then gets into his match with his opponent and begins deflecting bullets as if he was some kind of Jedi (Jedi Knight Kirito Arc when???), and ends up winning the match fairly easily. As he waits for his next match, he is approached by the Death Gun Guy who asks Kirito if he's "the real deal". Kirito notices that he has a tattoo on his forearm which just so happens to be the symbol of Laughing Coffin (something which is also teased about in the intro), leading Kirito to having a bit of a freakout moment. Death Gun asks Kirito the same question a few more times before he feigns ignorance. Death Gun then says he'll kill Kirito anyways regardless if he's actually Kirito or not. We're then greeted with a flashback from Kirito's time in SAO when he was tagging along with Ausana's guild to put a stop to Laughing Coffin's player killing activities once and for all. It was a never before seen sequence and it does answer a question from Season 1 in regards to what happened to our guild of virtual serial killers. Kirito, Ausana and their guild were able to defeat Laughing Coffin after turning their ambush attempt into their own ambush attempt, though it was costly on both sides. During the battle, Kirito killed 2 Laughing Coffin players, bringing his body count to 3 as he also killed Kuradeel (not entirely sure when this was in relation to Kirito kills Kuradeel but it seems like it was before). This triggers some PTSD for Kirito and it's the first time we've ever seen him regret his killing of Kuradeel in some fashion despite his death and his killing of the two random Laughing Coffin members being more than justified. Kirito then probes his memories trying to figure out who the Death Gun guy is, figuring he was a survivor of SAO. Sinon drops by and sees him having his panic attack but isn't able to do a whole lot as they're both thrown into their next matches, in which they prevail and are finally pitted against one another in the final match. Both Sinon and Kirito are already guaranteed spots in the tournament so the only thing at stake here is Sinon's pride, who is quite literally gunning for Kirito after feeling mislead by him. The two square off, and despite Sinon having both the benefit of cover and an unrestricted line of fire, she whiffs every shot she takes at Kirito. She then gets up in close quarters and challenges Kirito to uphold his promise about not holding back. The two then engager in their duel, with Kirito slicing through Sinon's bullets and closes the distance between them, having her dead to rights as he holds his sword against her neck in a somewhat steamy position as he is holding her by the waist. Kirito then reveals he predicted that Sinon would go for his legs by watching her eye through the scope. Despite having her dead the rights, Kirito refuses to kill Sinon and has her surrender the match instead, which further enraged her as she promises to beat him in the battle royal. Meanwhile, the rest of Kirito's friends realize what he's up to and prepare to watch the tournament in game like a good ol' fashioned Roman Colosseum match. Back in the real world, Sinon vents to Kyōji about Kirito. Kyōji tries to put the moves on Sinon, but she curves him, which at this point makes it obvious that Kyōji likes Sinon so he finally admits her feelings to her. Sinon is flustered but tells Kyōji she'll give him an answer on his feelings after the tournament. Kirito then admits his PTSD to his nurse who watches over him about his guilt over the 3 Laughing Coffin deaths he's responsible for. The nurse rightfully points out that while he killed them in the name of protecting others, it makes him human to feel bad to some extent for taking another life which helps Kirito towards overcoming his issues. Kirito returns to GGO and deduces that Death Gun isn't actually going by Death Gun (I mean who would?), and that he'll kill again during the tournament. He finally starts to come clean to Sinon about his reason for being in GGO and asks for her help in identifying Death Gun. Out of the 30 people in the tournament, Sinon doesn't recognize 3 of them, and as such they begin a process of elimination in trying to track down Death Gun. Sinon goes after one of the new players, who is in a battle with one of the more famous players. Just as Sinon is about to intervene, Kirito interrupts her and convinces her to let the fight play out. The new player wins, but then gets dropped by a silenced bullet. Death Gun Guy then appears, ready to execute the new player and doing an elaborate "cross" symbol with his hands . Sinon attempts to shoot Death Gun Guy, but he Matrix dodges the attack and executes the new player. Meanwhile, Kirito's friends watch the events in real time and realize that Death Gun Guy is a part of Laughing Coffin as they wrack their brains trying to figure out who it is. Death Gun Guy escapes and Kirito convinces Sinon to help him with his mission. They try to track him, but he didn't appear on the last scan of the map. With one of the three newbies dead, Kirito and Sinon track the two remaining ones to an abandoned stadium and split up. Sinon gets ambushed by Death Gun Guy, who is then revealed to be Sterben (meaning I can finally stop calling him Death Gun Guy). Sterben moves to execute Sinon, ironically with the same pistol she had used to kill the robber when she was a child (oh the irony!). Kirito intervenes in the nick of time, injuring him and rescuing Sinon. Sterben gives chase and starts shooting at the duo, with Sinon unable to return fire due to her re-experiencing her trauma. Kirito helps Sinon shoot and the bullet hits a fuel tank, causing a massive explosion allowing them to escape Sterben for now. They escape into a cave in the desert. Kirito reveals that he defeated the other newbie so it's confirmed for sure that Death Gun is Sterben. Sinon tries to go off on her own to face Sterben, but Kirito talks her out of it. The two then share their trauma with each other, with Sinon telling Kirito about the robber she killed and Kirito revealing that he was an SAO survivor who had killed 3 members of The Laughing Coffin. Together, Kirito and Sinon are able to help each other through their respective issues in what a good, emotionally powerful scene. Once the feels are out of the way, Kirito figures out that there's actually multiple people acting as Sterben: one that's in-game, and one in real life. Kirito figures this out by reasoning that since there's really no way to actually kill someone through a video game now (thanks to SAO), the only way to do it is if they time the killing so that they line up in the virtual world and real world. Kirito also deduces that when Sterben does his whole "cross" routine, he's really just checking his watch to see how much time he has before he needs to do the deed. Kirito then reasons that Sinon his is next target, meaning that someone has broken into her apartment and is waiting to kill her (that actually managed to creep me out!). Sterben is also able to find out where players actually live as he likely uses his cloaking ability to look at their personal information when they enter it into the consoles for their tournaments and target people whose places have these old fashioned locks. Kikuoka, Kirito's buddy in the government, lets his friends know the situation while Kirito and Sinon form a game plan. The tournament whittle downs to 5 players left standing and Kirito figures that he has more targets other than Sinon, such as one of the other players named Yamikaze. Kirito uses himself as bait goes out into the middle of the desert, waiting to be attacked. As Kirito waits for Yamikaze, Sterben tries to take him out. Yamikaze arrives but is dropped by Sinon, who has overcome her trauma about guns. Sinon and Sterben then fire at each other, damaging each other's weapons (this particular scene was EPIC!). Kirito goes to confront Sterben, who pulls out a sword himself out of the remains of his sniper rifle. The two then begin their intense, all-out duel, but it doesn't initially go too well for Kirito who struggles against Sterben (partly due to Sterben's unique sword, and also his trauma kicking in). As they fight, Kirito finally realizes that he never actually learned Sterben's name (revealed to be Red-Eyed XaXa), refusing to hear his name when he was apprehended after forcing Laughing Coffin to surrender. Sinon then uses what's left of her rifle to create a bullet path, distracting Sterben and allowing Kirito to whip out his pistol, damaging Sterben and preventing him from using his stealth cloak. Kirito goes all out and finishes the fight, besting Sterben, though he notes that their fight isn't over yet before his player model dies. As such, the last two players stranding are Kirito and Sinon, who agree to end the tournament through a double suicide (Hunger Games reference anyone???), which ironically according to Sinon is how the last tournament ended (though not intentionally). Kirito and Sinon tell each other their real names and in a sweet scene, Sinon gives Kirito a grenade and hugs him, ending the tournament and both of them are declared winners. Sinon logs out and checks her apartment for intruders, but the coast seems clear. Kyōji then appears and congratulates her. He then tries to make a move on her and Sinon still rejects him. Kyōji, who is now fully down bad, admits that he is one of the Sterbens and that he was in league with his brother killing people. The whole reasoning being that he was fascinated with his brother's tails of murdering people in SAO, and wanting to exact revenge on his rivals online, decided that they could do in the real world (a little weak in the motivation department but its still an improvement from last season). I wasn't exactly expecting Kyōji to be Sterben (though it wouldn't have shocked me if he had something to do with it), but looking back at the intro they did hint at him being him. That one definitely slipped past me. He then tries to force himself on her, but Sinon unsuccessfully tries to escape. She is thankfully saved by the timely arrival of Kirito who gets into a fist fight with Kyōji. Kyōji takes the syringe he had been using to kill people with in the real world and stabs Kirito, but gets promptly knocked out by Sinon who takes her stereo to the back of his skull. Kirito ends up being alright as he still had his electrode on from the hospital which prevented him from being injected with the fatal drug. The arc ends on a wholesome and emotional note: Sinon finally overcomes her fear of guns after surviving her near death experience and stands up to her bullies, taking an airsoft gun that one of them had brought to threaten her with and using it without hesitation. After getting a debrief from Kikuoka, Kirito takes Sinon to Agil's Cafe to meet Asuana, Lisbeth and a surprise guest. The surprise guest turns out to be a woman that Sinon had saved during the robbery by killing the robber as neither her or her daughter who she was pregnant with at the time would be alive. Sinon has an emotional moment with them as she finally finds her closure. So that's the Phantom Bullet/GGO Arc! To sum up my thoughts: I felt that it was an entertaining and well-told story. While I felt that it didn't quite match the magic of the SAO arc, I personally enjoyed it more than The Fairy Dance Arc. I also really liked how the story explored Kirito's guilt from some of the things he did in SAO and how he was able to come to terms with taking another person's life (even if it was justified). It added some much needed depth to his character. Though interestingly enough they didn't explore Asuana in that way for this arc, even though that she herself admits in the Mother's Rosario Arc to her mother that she killed people in SAO. Maybe she doesn't feel guilty about it, or not guilty about it in the same way that Kirito does. I don't know, people always deal with guilt and trauma in their own ways and Asuana has her time to shine and confront her issues later on in the season. Kirito also helping Sinon conqueror her issues after he overcomes his was a powerful and sweet way to bring everything full circle. I did like Sinon as a character as well. She was cool, funny and served as a great mirror to and had great chemistry with Kirito. So much so that I was contemplating if Kirito X Sinon would be a better couple than Kirito X Asuana. There was definitely some romantic tension between the two throughout this arc that drew some parallels between Kirito and Asuana. Though Kirito as usual seems to be blissfully unaware of this and I doubt he'd ever leave Asuana either (not that I think he should as well). Asuana really does get sidelined for a majority of the season (except for the last arc where she's the main character there). I liked Sterben as a villain overall, even though his motivations were a little weak but it was still a step up from Kayaba Akihiko and Sugou Nobuyuki. I do wish it ended up being someone that we had known from the first season rather than it being some random person we had never met until Season 2, I think they missed an opportunity here but that has to do more so with the janky way the story was told in Season 1. Sterben had a great character design and I loved his voice modulator. The next arc is The Calibur Arc. It's only 3 episodes and not a whole lot happens. It's a nice and cool story, but its basically filler content. What happens is a month after the conclusion of the Phantom Bullet/GGO Arc, Kirito returns to ALO and tries to complete a quest for the sword Excalibur. Kirito and Leafa round up Asuana, Klein, Silica and Lisbeth. Also tagging along is Sinon, who has been added to their friend group. They end up taking on a secret quest from an AI known as Queen Uror to prevent a race of elephant jelly fish from going extinct as they're the only things stopping a race of Frost Giants from taking over the whole world. The gang runs through the dungeon in a race against time, freeing an AI known as Freyja who transforms into Thor which helps them defeat The Frost Giant King Thyrm. Kirito gets Excalibur after Sinon saves it from falling into an abyss and after she jokingly (and flirtatiously) gives it to him, telling him he can only use it if he thinks about her every time (the fact that she had the guts to say that in front of their whole friend group, especially Kirito's *GIRLFRIEND*, earns mad respect from me). Klein also gets Mjölnir for his efforts in being down bad which led them to freeing Freyja/Thor. The arc ends off with Kirito working on a type of automated camera system that would allow Yui to interact with the real world. Ironic enough, this gadget will come into play in the next arc in a big way. So yeah that's The Calibur Arc. Not too much happens but it serves a nice segway into the final arc for the season. It was a cool action-adventure arc with some good, funny moments. That's really all there is to say about this arc. Now for my personal favorite and what really closes out SAO II, The Mother's Rosario Arc: Following The Calibur Arc, ALO gets an update adding levels 21-30 in the old Aincrad area. This means that Kirito and Asuana can return to their old log cabin that they had back in Season 1 and are able to re-acquire it. At the house warming party, Asuana gets told about an undefeated duelist named Zekken who is so good that even Kirito couldn't defeat them. What's interesting is that Zekken is supposedly not an SAO survivor as Kirito would have lost his dual wielding technique to them. Now unless I seriously missed something, this is the first time I've ever heard about losing abilities when being defeated in a duel in SAO and we've never seen or heard about this concept before, so I'm not sure what they were going for here. Meanwhile in the real world, we get to explore Asauna's relationship with her mother, which is strained to say the least. While she certainly wants what's best for Asuana, her mother discounts what Asuana actually wants. For starters, Asuana's mother (Kyouko) disapproves of her relationship with Kirito as she thinks she's unsuitable husband. Additionally she wants Asuana to go to a more prestigious school rather than the "cram school" for SAO survivors. The underlying theme throughout this arc is Asuana's struggles with finding the same strength in the real world that she has in the virtual world. Asuana logs back into ALO the next day, and after some not so subtle encouraging by her friends she decides to challenge Zekken. When she actually meets Zekken, she's thrown through a bit of a loop as it turns out that Zekken, who was assumed by Asuana to be a boy, is actually a girl. This was a humorous little plot twist they did as the story (which is told from Asuana's perspective for the most part) described Zekken as a boy and so for the reality for it to be some short, cute girl who was actually named Yuuki was pretty hilarious. After Asuana (somewhat jokingly and jealously) accuses Kirito of throwing the fight to Yuuki, she challenges her to a duel, and it is abloustely insane. Both Asuana and Yuuki give it their all, with Asuana being able to land a few solid hits on Yuuki. Ultimately it's Yuuki's fight to lose but she interestingly enough doesn't take the opportunity to finish her off. Instead she Shanghai's her into a dungeon raid on the 27th floor that her guild, The Sleeping Knights, are trying to accomplish it as a team and not as a full raid. Reason being is that they want to get their names on The Swordsman Memorial as they would also be the first players to beat the boss, and if they did it as a raid, only the person who lands the final blow on the boss would get their name on the memorial. Additionally there's a time crunch for them as they're hoping to complete before spring time as they would all be "too busy" afterward. Asuana agrees to help them but gets yanked out of the virtual world and back into reality by her mother who scolds her for not being on time for dinner (most relatable gamer struggle ever). Kyouko then wants Asuana to fill out an application form for the school she wants her to go despite Asuana's protests. Asuana logs back into ALO the next day and links up with The Sleeping Knights. They encounter a few random players hanging around the boss room before going in themselves to get a feel for the boss fight. Predictably they lose but they at least establish an understanding of what exactly they're up against and what they can expect. Asuana then tells The Sleeping Knights that the players they ran into were scouts for their guild and were spying on them in order to learn the mechanics of the fight. With now an additional time crunch, The Sleeping Knights head back to the boss room to find the guild camping outside the front door. They try to get past but are denied entry. Yuuki then decides to throw down with the entire raid team, and Asuana gets inspired by her when she says that sometimes you have to fight to get your point across. The Sleeping Knights start fighting their way through the raid team, but despite their best efforts they're very much outnumbered. However, Kirito and Klein come in to save the day to hold off the rest of the raid team, allowing The Sleeping Knights one final crack at the boss fight. The Sleeping Knights battle the four armed giant and deduce that the jewel on the chest is its weakness. Yuuki destroys the stone and wins the boss raid for the team. As such, the party member's names are etched into the memorial, completing their quest. They then have a celebration at the log cabin, and Asuana asks to join The Sleeping Knights. However, Yuuki tells her that she can't as they will be disbanding soon and that their quest was their last hoorah. After visiting the memorial to see their names etched in, Yuuki slips up and calls Asuana her older sister (she also did this during the fight with the boss), she starts crying and suddenly logs out. After not hearing anything from Yuuki for 3 days, Siune, one of the party members, approaches Asuana and ominously tells her to forget about The Sleeping Knights for her own sake (by this point, you could kind of guess where this is going). Asuana goes to Kirito who somehow manages to track down Yuuki (hacker Kirito Arc when?) to a hospital which is conducting these cutting edge medical procedures involving the full dive gear. Asuana meets with Yuuki's doctor where she learns her backstory: Yuuki had contracted AIDS from a blood infusion during complications during her mother's pregnancy. As a result, her whole family got it and she was the only surviving member. In order to survive, Yuuki has been put into a sterile room and hooked up to a device called "The Medicuboid" which is a full body MMO diving gear that has acted as a form of hospice care for her. Asuana breaks down, but is stunned when she learns that Yuuki can see and hear her through the cameras. Asuana and Yuuki meet up in ALO again where they had first met. Yuuki reveals that all the members of The Sleeping Knights are also patients with some form of terminal illness and had made a pact to dissolve their team once one of them had died. She reveals that because Asuana was a brilliant and skilled fighter, she was the last piece of the puzzle they needed in order to accomplish their final wish. Asuana then pledges to make Yukki's last moments comfortable and memorable. Asuana then takes the camera that Kirito had been using for Yui and allows Yuuki to use it. Yuuki accompanies Asuana throughout her day at school and she takes Yuuki to her old house where she learns that it's being demolished soon. The two then talk about their lives in how Yuuki had always felt that her mother never understood what her feelings were, which Asuana certainly relates too. While the two go back and forth about "whose stronger", Yuuki concedes that she's honest with her feelings. This gives Asuana the idea to try one last time with her mother to explain why she should be fully in control of her own life, and convinces her to put on the Nerve Gear and join her in ALO. Asuana takes her mother to the log cabin while its snowing, which reminds her of her life as a child. Asuana then tells Kyouko that she wishes to live a selfless life and not be so self-centered in what was a truly emotional and powerful scene. The next day Kyouko agrees to let Asuana live her life as is, with the usual parental caveat that her grades improve. In the final episode of the season, we learn that Yuuki's condition has deteriorated and she doesn't have much time left to live. Yuuki gives Asuana her unique sword skill as her farewell gift to her, which she names "Mother's Rosario" (roll credits!). After having one last hoorah with her and her friends, pretty much the entire ALO community gathers around to bid Yuuki farewell as she peacefully passes on in Asuana's arms. After Yuuki's real life memorial service, Asuana meets Siune who had just been discharged from the hospital herself after battling leukemia. Kirito and Yuuki's Doctor, Kurahashi, meet face to face for the first time and discuss how revolutionary Kirito's camera invention is and how it can be used for medical purposes thanks to Yuuki being the proverbial Guinea pig for the Medicuboid. However a very interesting piece of information gets revealed: the benefactor for that machine was Rinko Koujiro, who monitored none other than Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the SAO MMO from back in Season 1! So therefore, it can be argued that Kayaba was the inventor of the Meicuboid. The episode does end on a happy note as Kirito and Asuana are spending some time together at the park with their friends. They share a moment together before they're called over to join them for a group photo, ending one of the most emotional SAO episodes on a rather wholesome note. Well that's the story for SAO II! To give my thoughts on the Mother's Rosario Arc: I personally thought it was the best arc in SAO II and just might be the best arc of the whole anime! For starters, it gave Asuana some much needed character development as they really hadn't done much with her character since the end of the SAO Arc all the way back in Season 1. They added a deeper layer to her character which made her more relatable and likeable. They also showed that even though her mother was a disagreeable figure, she wasn't necessarily a bad person either. They offered a strikingly nuanced take on parental-teenager relationships that I think we can all relate to in some way (even though I've only been on one side of the fence there). Yuuki was also a phenomenal character. Though I had a sinking suspicion that she wasn't long for the SAO world (and I did accidentally get spoiled by a friend of mine on that), I felt that they really did her character and her arc justice. While I certainly wish she didn't die, I'm happy with the amount of screentime they gave her. It felt that it was just right, which isn't something I come across too much in anime. It always feels like they kill a lot of interesting characters off too soon and we barely get to know them (even though that's usually done on purpose which I totally understand). She was a feisty, enjoyable and adorable character and she really felt like she was Asuana's little sister. It was always great seeing her on screen and her funeral in ALO definitely hit hard. I actually attended a sort of "online, in-game funeral service" before in an MMO (ironic enough ain't it?) for a member of a friend's guild that I was a part of. I can fully relate to the heaviness of that moment and what it meant to someone like Yuuki, Asuana and everyone else as I've been in that position before. It was a truly sweet scene and it reminded me of that moment and it truly shows that even though gamers have a toxic reputation and may say the absolute most vile stuff to each other in the heat of the moment, at the end of the day, we're all human and are able to come together to wish one of our own farewell. SAO II handled that entire scene beautifully and earns a around of applause from me on that front. It reminded me about what being a gamer is truly all about. I'm not going to do a character analysis breakdown here as I felt like I did that over the course of my review through my concluding thoughts on each arc, but I will say that SAO II added on to each major character for the most part and in a meaningful way. SAO II was a solid and well-done sequel for SAO. I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how good it was! It improved upon the foundation that was constructed and largely avoided the mistakes that were made in the first season. SAO II added on new and interesting premises to the world of SAO, introduced new and likeable characters and succeeded in exploring our ever-evolving world and characters and adding depth to the story. I was surprised how the season progressively became more emotional as well. The Phantom Bullet Arc (though not without its emotional moments) was a more classic-adventure story that we've grown accustomed to in the SAO World. The Calibur Arc fit that mold even more but with some reflective "look how far we've come" subtexts and Mother's Rosario finished out the season a lot stronger from when it began. SAO II was handled and developed very well and had far better pacing than SAO did. By nearly every metric, SAO II improved upon what was good about SAO and I don't have really much of anything to criticize SAO II on other than the little jokes I've made in the parenthesis. SAO remains a rather controversial anime with the greater Anime Community and for various reasons. I've already defended SAO in my review of the first season, but to reiterate: this anime does not deserve the hate that it gets. It may be flawed, and there may be things you find personally disagreeable about it, and that's totally fine! Ultimately, I do think that when you watch just about any show, you have to be open-minded and try to let it take you on the journey it wants you to experience. If you don't like it by the end, then that's totally cool. Though I have some criticism of SAO myself, I did feel that SAO II largely avoided the things the flaws that were in the first season and I felt that it was a better written season overall. If you didn't like SAO, then chances are you probably wouldn't like SAO II. However if you did, then I think you'll be in for a pleasant joyride with SAO II!
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 
Jun 4, 2023
Spy Kyoushitsu
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
*Author's Note: After nearly 4 months, I'm finally caught up on writing reviews as this was the last show I completed before I went all in on completing this before watching/finishing any other anime. Man, what a ride has it been...* Spy Classroom was an anime I was genuinely excited for when I saw the teasers. It looked like a promising show of 7 cute anime girls with unique skills coming together to do spy stuff. I was anticipating it to be something like Spy X Family but more so in the vein of a traditional spy story. While the actual story itself was ... alright, the presentation and execution of the story was abysmal. I know it's adapted from a light novel which I haven't read, but I'd highly doubt that they executed the story in that way too. It has what honestly should've been the final arc up first and goes back and forth between flashbacks (mostly devoted to the character's backstories) and present story depending on the episode, with the actual final arc being the next big mission which we only see one team's perspective on. While the season does end on an interesting cliffhanger, the telling of the actual story was a jumbled and made it frustrating to watch. Even more frustrating: we only ever really learn about half the cast and learn their backstories while the other half are essentially sidelined. Additionally, some of the "twists" are kind of sudden and seem pretty much shoehorned into the story for shock value. The first time was actually impressive and was done well, but after that? It felt forced. Spy Classroom has an interesting and cool story to tell and I liked the post WW1 setting (at least that's what I think it is), I think it's an under-examined timeframe in history that examines the shift in war from weapons to information. It's a shame its poor execution nearly derailed it because it had great potential. The anime does shine in its production value. The animation was pretty good and the fight scenes were well done. The art style is also very high quality and there were always plenty of beautiful background shots. The character design was also very well done and I'd have to tip my hat to the animators on this. In terms of quality, I'd dare say that it puts it in contention with the likes of AOT, Demon Slayer and Weathering With You. I'm serious the anime *looks* that good. However I do actually have one complaint about the production value and it's with the voice actors. I watched the anime subbed since there's no dub (as far as I know at least and there wasn't a dubbed option when I watched it as it was coming out). Now as much as I liked them and thought they did a fine job, a lot of them had similar sounding voices (this is actually pointed out in the anime too). Now you could generally tell who was talking and there were some girls who had deeper or higher pitched voices but for the most part it'd be kind of hard to tell who was talking if you weren't paying attention to the screen. The music in Spy Classroom was adequate. I did like the intro, "Tomoshibi". It was generally upbeat and very much suited for an action anime and it had the visuals to back it up well. As far as the outros go, Spy Classroom seemed to have half-heartedly taken a page out of Chainsaw Man's book and mostly had a new outro every episode which was focused on the specific girl the episode was about. There is a "main" outro called "Secret Code" and I thought it was alright. It had a somewhat somber, mysterious tone and it showed off each of the girl's respective skills as they're presumably out spying on a city. 4 of the girls got their own outro song: Erna, Sara, Sibylla and Grete. I preferred Sara's song the best as it was a catchy, upbeat song which is usually my music preference. Though I did enjoy the other three songs as well. The cluttered mess of the plot begins with introducing the setting's lore (which is actually well done): a decade after a destructive, WW1 type conflict between the Din Republic (the good guys) and Galgad Empire (the bad guys), the battlefield has shifted away from conventional warfare into a war of information and spies. Klaus, the best spy in the Din Republic and the sole survivor of the infamous spy team "Inferno", is given an "impossible mission" to retrieve a deadly bio weapon being manufactured in the heart of the Galgad Empire. Impossible Missions are essentially suicide missions given their low rate of success. So how does Kalus approach this? Well he picks 7 cute girls who are spy academy washouts, misfits and failures, but they do have heart! The plot then shifts to our mc(?) Lilly, who is granted a "conditional graduation" as she is assigned to Klaus's team. She arrives at a castle-like mansion in the countryside fashionably late due to her goofy and clumsy disposition where she meets 6 other girls sitting around wondering what they're doing. Klaus then reveals himself and announces that he has assembled this motley crew dubbed "Lamplight" for the specific task of completing the impossible mission. The girls are all pretty much convinced they're being sent to their deaths but Klaus vows to "teach" them. Klaus takes them through some basic spy maneuvers (like picking a lock) but he ends up being a really sucky teacher. He is shown to be extraordinarily skilled as a spy, but never takes the time to explain what he's doing or make an actual effort to teach the girls. Rather he just quickly demonstrates what he wants them to do and leaves them to struggle as he makes some abstract art in his room (which is literally just red paint splashed across a canvas). Despite some cute slice of life stuff that happens as the girls get to know each other, Lilly eventually comes to the conclusion that they're pretty much goners as Klaus hasn't taught them a single thing. Klaus spends some time with Lilly as they have a soft date around the town. Lilly pulls an impressive trap when they take a small row boat out on a lake and stuns him with nerve gas that she is resistant to due to her body's unique physiology where she's resistant to poisons (we also hear her catchphrase which is a little cringey). We then get her backstory where she was the sole survivor of a village that got gassed during the Great War and her exposure to the gas made her immune to all known forms of poison. She then decided to put her newfound ability to good use and become a spy to help people. After that revelation, Klaus commends Lilly for taking such an initiative and reveals that he had chained Lilly to the boat as it was sinking, revealing it was actually him who outsmarted her. After they get themselves out of the situation, Klaus makes Lilly the team leader of Lamplight and Klaus assures the team that he won't let them die on his watch. In order to "properly teach" them, Klaus orders the girls to successfully take him down, setting up an Assassination Classroom style scenario where the students must defeat the teacher. Lamplight gets to work and tries many times to ambush Klaus (including bum-rushing him in the shower, which was a hilarious scene), but manages to fend off each of their attempts with ease out of his Jedi-like reflexes or pure plot armor. With Lamplight's ambushes going nowhere, they decide to look into Klaus's background to see if they can exploit a weakness. We also get the exact details of this "impossible mission" in which Lamplight will be tasked with retrieving a bioweapon called "Abyss Doll", which Klaus's former team Inferno had died trying to steal it back. Klaus then tells his backstory to the girls and his reasons for accepting the mission which was to avenge Inferno. Lamplight infiltrates into the Galgad Empire to ascertain the location of the Abyss Doll and find it to be at this place called Endry Lab. The girls have a night out before their big mission and Klaus arrives fashionably late to find them all passed out. Klaus then has a flashback to his Inferno days where if someone sleeps in front of you, it's a sign of ultimate trust warming his icy and aloof heart. Klaus privately affirms he'll get them all back alive and he and the girls commence their infiltration. They infiltrate the complex just fine at first until they run into Gudio, who is Klaus's former mentor and revealed to be a traitor. He additionally sold out Inferno to the Galgad Empire that resulted in the death of the rest of the team. Guido then admits that he (somehow) had Lamplight's HQ bugged so they already knew their plans in advance. Lamplight takes on Guido, but are knocked out one by one despite their best efforts as Gudio is just as good as Klaus. Lilly then pulls out her own JoJo reference card and reveals that she already knew that there was a traitor and unveils her surprise: an 8th member of Lamplight who is a lolli (Lilly later nicknames her Lolli-chan which is hilarious). She jumps out of the case Lilly was carrying and stabs Gudio, wounding him. I will say that this reveal was well done and surprising, and the anime does show Klaus's plan to conceal Erna and as it turns out she has been in the background in several scenes, but obscured or out of focus. Klaus arrives with the Abyss Doll and hands it off to Lamplight as he covers their retreat and takes on Gudio. Klaus eventually defeats his old mentor. Before Klaus can take him back to the Din Republic, Klaus is shot at by an unknown sniper, but Guido takes the bullet for him and dies. The team makes it back to the Din Republic with Klaus holding a small funeral service for the fallen members of Inferno. The girls then finally successfully get the drop on Klaus and tie him up, declaring victory as they surround him with their weapons drawn. The girls then reveal their wish to stay together to do missions with Klaus rather than return to their old academies, which Klaus gratefully accepts. Klaus keeps the challenge ongoing as he declares they haven't defeated him yet as he breaks out of his restraints with ease. The next several episodes are mostly flashback episodes that look back on Lamplight's activities prior to their first impossible mission. They focus on Erna, Sybila and Sara with one general team episode of all the girls trying to take down Klaus. In Erna's episode, Erna's special power is revealed to be bad luck which makes accidents happen around people. Her own bad luck had rubbed off on her which held her back during her academy days, and as a result she is usually distant from everyone. Erna resolves to prove to herself that she is a capable spy and orchestrates a plan to take down Klaus. She hangs out with Klaus and leads him through the town. Her bad luck causes multiple accidents that would normally be close calls, but Klaus is able to ridiculously brush it off as if it were nothing. Klaus then reveals he knows how Erna's power actually works and that she purposefully puts herself in dangerous situations out of survivor's guilt for surviving a fire that killed her family. As Klaus and Erna have their heart to heart, they are kidnapped by a band of thugs though Klaus determines that they were hired by the other Lamplight members. The other Lamplight members arrive and help Klaus defeat the thugs. Klaus then promises Erna they will deal with whatever misfortune comes their way in what was a wholesome scene, and Erna finally feels that she has a home for the first time in a long time. In the general team episode, Lamplight decides to each try on their own to take down Klaus, but each attempt fails miserably. The highlight of this episode was that Thea convinced Lilly to put on a maid outfit in order to try to seduce Klaus. Klaus looked more confused than anything and Lilly ended up running off in embarrassment. Lilly then suggests another team effort and Grete observes that Klaus always has his meals alone. The team tails Klaus around town and determines that he's allergic to beef, shrimp, and dairy. The team then cooks him a meal containing those three ingredients and convince Klaus to eat it. Klaus eats the meal and reveals that he wasn't actually allergic to these ingredients and essentially made the girls cook him a meal (sly move, gotta tip my hat to him there). We do get to find out that Klaus is only 20 years old, so not much older than the rest of Lamplight (the oldest members are Thea and Grete, who're both 18. Annette and Erna are the youngest at 14). Klaus is pleased that Lamplight's members are bonding together, but is somberly reminded of his days with Inferno. In Sybila's episode, after a plan involving Lilly being an unwitting suicide chili bomber fails, Sybilia decides to take on Klaus alone. Sybila's "power" so to speak is that she's the brawler/gunslinger of the team. Her grand plan is to steal a classified document that Klaus is set to pick up. We also get her backstory in which she grew up as an orphan with her two siblings and became a spy to help support them and other orphans. Sybila is unable to steal Klaus's bag, but observes and encounters a girl named Fine who tries to steal from Klaus. Seeing some of herself in the child, Sybila is initially sympathetic until she gets her own bag stolen. Klaus then reveals to Sybilia that the real reason he's out and about is to try to track down a criminal who's been running a crime ring of orphans. Sybilia then helps Klaus on his mission and they eventually track down and apprehend the criminal and break up the crime ring. After having their heart to heart, the two spend the day together, with Sybilia trolling Klaus that they looked like a couple. Klaus trolls her back and makes her call him "darling" (he is a chad and a savage, there's no denying that). Sybilia then awkwardly offers to share a meal with Klaus, which he accepts and suspiciously steps away when Sybilia opens the box, only to reveal that she herself got pranked by Lilly. Sybilia confronts Lilly about the bomb and she trolls her, implying that Sybilia has a crush on Klaus. As Sybila angrily chases after Lilly, Klaus happily observers the chaos and is proud that the girls are capable of deceiving each other. In Sara's episode, it becomes apparent that Lamplight's repeated attacks have caused the mansion to fall into a state of disrepair, though none of them actually want to do chores to fix up the place. Sara, whose special ability is communication with animals, reveals her motivations for becoming a spy which is to earn money for her struggling family. However, she has so far struggled in her training as a spy. As such she feels she's only useful as a handyman and has secretly been repairing the mansion at night. After she runs into Klaus one night, Klaus determines that she's been the one fixing up the mansion all by herself. Though Klaus notes that this is unfair, Sara explains she doesn't want to bother her teammates and explains her inferiority complex. As such, Klaus challenges the rest of Lamplight to a contest with various challenges of repairing the mansion. Though Klaus easily defeats them in every contest, they do manage to put up a good effort in the final challenge of cleaning the windows. Sara skillfully employs her animals to help ferry them water. Ultimately, Sara's endeavor is successful and the team agrees to take the state of the mansion more seriously. Klaus and Sara have their own heart to heart, in which she realizes that the challenges were meant to show her own worth. The episode does end on a funny note: Sara has been trying to train a new puppy but it has a habit of biting people. It bites Klaus, who tries to brush it off, but we can clearly hear that he's in pain which is a rarity. We also get an interesting story development in which Klaus is informed that the sniper that killed Gudio was likely from Serpent, The Galgad Empire's top spy team. The final 5 episodes are a bit of a mix between the second impossible mission and getting to know Grete. After fending off multiple takedown attempts from Lamplight, Grete, whose specialty is disguises, takes the approach of trying to rizz up Klaus. She serves him tea privately, flirts with him, and tries to put him in high sexual tension scenarios (aka, walking in on her after she gets out of the shower, which Klaus himself seems to be momentarily stunned by (and calls her beautiful). Klaus is then given a second impossible mission which is track down and eliminate the Galgan Empire's top assassin named "Corpse", which his calling card making each of his victim's deaths appear to be suicides. Before going off on that mission, he is tasked with hunting down an enemy spy and takes Lilly with him. Grete then pieces together a masterplan to finally takedown Klaus. During a pursuit through an alleyway, Lilly is injured and Klaus apprehends the spy. When Klaus returns, Lilly stabs him with a poisoned needle, claiming that she asked him to. Klaus then realized that Grete disguised herself as Klaus and told Lilly to stab him when he returned so that Lilly wouldn't sell Lamplight out to Klaus (which she has done several times during the show and is partly the reason why the attempts fail). Lamplight then surrounds Klaus and Grete holds him at gunpoint, declaring victory. For a moment, it seems like not even Klaus will be able to get out of this one, but he does and takes down Lamplight with ease. As Klaus tires himself out as he takes on more missions, Grete convinces Klaus to start letting them help out more and he eventually relents when he learns that Grete had been writing Klaus's mission reports for him. Klaus also deduces that Grete has feelings for him (though that was obvious from the get go and the dude's social skills are something to be desired). Klaus then agrees to allow Lamplight to accompany him on his mission to take down Corpse, announcing he'll take the strongest 4 members. Grete also confesses her feelings for Klaus, but he agrees to wait to tell her how he feels (even though it's pretty safe to assume he has no romantic interest in her). Lilly and Sibyila worry they won't get picked and try to poison Klaus as a means of proving themselves, but Klaus dupes them into drinking their own poison. He ends up enlisting the help of Lilly, Sybilia, Grete and Sara as the "primary team". Klaus has Lilly, Grete and Sybilia pose as new part-time maids for Uwe Appel, an important political figure in the Din Republic, in order to protect him from Corpse while Sara runs surveillance. Klaus occasionally checks in with them. Appel turns out to be paranoid of assassinations and has a rather unpleasant personality, with him having this tick where he's against anything he sees as "wasteful". We then get to learn about Grete's backstory in which she is actually from a rather prestigious political family, but seems to have some sort of trauma as she gets sick around men with the exception of Klaus. Sybilia, growing tired of Appel's antics, sneaks into his office to find some potential blackmail material but finds out he's squeaky clean and an honest man (What do you know? An honest politician!). He even refuses to eat certain nutritious foods which have caused health problems for him. Appel catches Sybila in the act and seems like he's trying to decide how to fire her (either verbally or with his rifle), but then realizes that Sybilia is the one who helped take down the orphan crime ring earlier in the anime. Appel opts to forgive Sybila but decides he wants to fire Lilly and Grete but Sybilia throws herself on the sword and offers to be his driver which he accepts. Corpse then attempts to assassinate Appel but misses. Klaus suddenly arrives and pursues Corpse with Lilly and Sybilia. Corpse manages to evade Lamplight. Despite this, Appel tries to live his life as normal. Olivia, the head maid, becomes increasingly suspicious of the girls. First she confronts Grete about not mingling with the guests during a part in which she avoids punishment by telling a partial lie in how she's in love with another man which Olivia relates to. She then notes to Appel how calm the girls are during the attempts on Appel's life, particularly after the second assassination attempt. However, Grete gets her to back off as Olivia herself has also been relatively calm as well. This is the part where the series introduces a whole bunch of twists which I think are ridiculous and shoehorned. Lilly, Sybilia and Sara then begin to suspect that there's more to the plan and confront Grete, in which she owns up that she had disguised herself as Corpse and faked the assassination attempts in order to flush out the real Corpse (Which I'm not sure how that worked out, as far as I remember Grete was actually on screen during the assassination attempts but I may be wrong here). Olivia then enters the room, overhearing Grete's confession and reveals herself to be in league with Corpse. She attempts to kill them by using grenades, but the girls survive using their quick wit and skills. Lilly suggests calling Klaus for assistance but Grete reveals she was posing as Klaus as well (how?) and that he was with the other team taking on Corpse. This suggests that they weren't the "primary team" after all, but the girls resolve to handle Olivia on their own. During this episode she is also somehow able to emulate his voice perfectly, which I don't get how that works either. The girls battle Olivia, but she is able to beat them. We then get Olivia's backstory in which she was initially a consort of some sorts to a man that Corpse had killed. Corpse was about to kill her as well but she begged for her life and asked to be trained as his apprentice, and the two started a romantic relationship as well to the envy of Grete. Olivia confronts Grete on the rooftop and has her dead to rights, but successfully pulls off her trap in which she gets Appel to shoot Olivia, disarming her. Grete then reveals another secret: a disfiguring birthmark which she had used her disguise skills to hide. Klaus then arrives with a detained Corpse and Olivia loses her will to fight and surrenders. Klaus commends Grete on her dedication to hiding her birthmark and the two have a little date after the mission that Lilly sets up. At the end of the date, Klaus confirms that he doesn't view Grete romantically (because he's emo), but instead wants familial love and sees Grete and the rest of Lamplight as part of his family. He then asks Grete to reveal her birthmark to him again and he calls her beautiful, making Grete cry tears of joy. This was a truly wholesome and heartwarming scene and it definitely sends a powerful message. Without a doubt, this particular moment was one of the highpoints in the whole anime. In the final episode, which takes place in a weird timeline where some of it is before the Corpse mission and some of it is after it. Grete decides to buy a special meat pie for Lamplight and remembers that it was one of Klaus's favorite spots in town. However she finds that the establishment has been closed down because the baker has been pressured by a company called Mannheim Food Corporation who have been trying to get him to sell them the meat pie recipe. Realizing how important the bakery is to Klaus, she enlists the help of Lamplight to save the bakery. The plan is to con the president of the company by selling them a fake recipe. Lilly poses as the baker's granddaughter and "proves" the recipe is legit to the president. The president pays for the recipe, but then has the bright idea of pulling a gun on Lilly, who knocks him out using her gas. Following the Corpse mission, Grete takes Klaus and her team out to the bakery where they are restarting operations as the baker has taken on an apprentice. Grete and Klaus then return to the mansion later where Lilly worryingly tells them that the other team, (Thea, Monika, Anette and Erna), hasn't returned. The final scene of the anime is in a dark hotel room, with Thea watching over a sleeping Anette and Erna with Monika holding Thea at gun point, asking her if she is going to betray Lamplight. Thus ending on an interesting cliff hanger. Alright, now time for our spy girls! Lilly (Codename: "Flower Garden'' : While she is adorable and I very much enjoy her airhead type personality, I do question her capabilities as a team leader and a spy. It kind of makes sense why she struggled in the academy. Her clumsiness aside, she has ratted out her teammate's takedown plans to Klaus multiple times by accepting his food bribes. Though Klaus might've fended off the attacks anyway (since he has literal plot armor and Jedi senses), Lilly telling him the plans undoubtedly helped. Grete actually made it a point to manipulate her into thinking Klaus wanted to be stabbed when she took the lead on trying to defeat him. Lilly certainly has an enjoyable personality and has good chemistry with the rest of the cast and has a sympathetic backstory, but she's not the most competent spy and I do wonder just how she remains as Lamplight's leader, especially since Grete proves herself as a skilled strategist in the second half of the anime. I do suspect she may have a crush on Klaus (evidenced by the shower attack as she was blushing while avoiding looking at Klaus who was fully nude, she always sells out her teammates for him, and was super embarrassed during her maid outfit attempt to seduce him). Now granted I think all the girls have some form of attraction to Klaus, I'm not sure if they're going to choose to go down that route. Lilly also seemed like she was supposed to be the main protagonist of the show, and while she's undoubtedly a central figure and I'll never be against the anime spending time on side characters, she's often just another +1 in the group. She also really didn't get her own episode, though you can make the case that the first episode technically was. I do wonder if it's something we'll get in future content. I do think her codename is very fitting and I love the lily flower in her hair, but her catchphrase: "I'm code name Flower Garden--and it's time to bloom out of control" is kind of cringey. I rolled my eyes when I heard that the first time. She also didn't really experience a whole lot of character growth. Grete (Codename: "Daughter Dearest"): I liked her character! Initially I thought she was going to be a side character but the second half of the anime really puts a lot of focus on her. She proves to be a very capable strategist and her takedown attempt on Klaus nearly worked. She may not be the strongest member of Lamplight, but her disguise skills come in handy multiple times throughout the story (even in some BS moments). She is undoubtedly smart and really contributed to Olivia's defeat in the final arc. I do think she would make a better fit as leader of Lamplight and I wonder if it'll ultimately go down that way. Her backstory isn't really touched upon but it does imply she has some sort of traumatic experience with men, given that she's only able to be around Klaus. She does have feelings for him and her confession scene, along with Klaus's rejection, was truly a beautiful and heartwarming moment. Her catchphrase: ""I'm code name Daughter Dearest--now let's fill this time with laughter and tears" isn't the worst I've heard, but it's kind of mid. By far, Grete had the most meaningful amount of character growth out of anyone and I think she'll be one to watch going forward. Sybilia (Codename: "Pandemonium"): She was cool character and I liked her. She's the brawler/gunslinger of the group and like the Lilly and Grete (and the rest of the girls really), she has a sympathetic backstory and wholesome motivation for being a spy. She is kind of a hot-head and somewhat butts head with Lilly and the others from time to time, but she is a funny and enjoyable character. She has a lot of great one liners and when she gets flustered its adorable. I do think she has the coolest codename. Her catchphrase: "I'm code name Pandemonium--and it's time I cleaned you out!" isn't the worst either but again I've heard better. Out of everyone else's catchphrase, it's probably the best. Sara (Codename: "Meadow"). I liked her character. I thought she was wholesome and nice. She certainly has a heart of gold and I found it adorable that she's an animal lover, especially her little puppy. She also gets some meaningful character growth as she finally gets some self-confidence in her and realizes she can be a capable member of Lamplight. We also get to see just how helpful her abilities are as it comes through for Lamplight on multiple occasions. Her backstory is probably the least tragic, as nobody in her family died or abandoned her (that we know of). Her catchphrase "I'm code name Meadow--and it's time to run circles around them!" is average. Erna (Codename: "Fool"): Her introduction was certainly a surprise and she did make a pretty solid impression on me throughout the show. I did find it interesting that she was a "hidden character", and not even any of the promotional material featured her. They did a good job keeping her character under wraps. She technically doesn't have any real power but seems to habitually bring bad luck to everyone around her (except Klaus who is clearly playing on creative mode). She is a wholesome character and has a tragic backstory. She is also the token Lolli of the show, though something about her appearance reminds me of the girl from the ring. She does get some meaningful character growth similar to Sara in that she finally realizes her self-worth and begins to befriend the other Lamplight members. Her catchphrase "I'm code name Fool--and it's time to kill with everything!" is kind of creepy and foreboding, which I'll give credit to! Thea (Codename: "Dreamspeaker") : Other than the fact that she gives off some dominatrix vibes and is very attractive, we get to learn very little about her character, which I was disappointed in. She seemed like an interesting character and strikes me as one of the more "mature" members of Lamplight. As such she's the "seduction" expert of the group. I hope we get to learn more about her in future content. Her catchphrase "I'm code name Dreamspeaker--and it's time to lure them to their ruin." is pretty cool and she does have an interesting codename that I think suits her very well from the little we see of her. The final scene in the last episode seems to imply something is going on with her as Monika asked her if she was going to betray Lamplight, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what her deal is. Annette (Codename: "Forgetter''): She's one character I was really hoping to learn about, particularly since she happens to remind me of DDLC character named Natsuki who she shares a striking resemblance with (aside from the eyepatch and different colored eyes). She seems to be the demolition expert and is usually pretty wild. But we know next to nothing about her. She also talks very casually and in slang, which sets her apart from the rest of the group. I was disappointed that she didn't really get too much screen time but it does seem like Season 2 will explore her character. Her catchphrase "I'm code name Forgetter--and it's time to put it all together yo '' doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me and I wish it was a little more explosive sounding. Monika (Codename: "Glint"): Also another character who seemed pretty interesting, and who I was interested in learning more about partially because her name is the same as another DDLC character who is also named Monika. She seems to have a rather cold and aggressive disposition like Sybilia, but not as vocal. Her specialty is some kind of special mirror use. Her catchphrase: "I'm code name Glint--now, let's harbor love for as long as we can." is kind of lame and I don't know what exactly she's trying to reference here, but again we have next to no knowledge on her character. She does seem to suspect Thea is going to betray Lamplight so we'll see what happens there. Klaus: This dude has plot armor up the wazoo. Other than his fight with Guido, he rarely suffers a blow. I understand that he's the best of the best and was trained that way, but his feats are ridiculously superhuman and he gets out of way too many situations when Lamplight has his back to the wall. It's purely plot convenience that the girls haven't defeated him yet as he says "How much longer should I play along in this game?" before he gets out of whatever situation and turns the tables. Other than his outings with various members of Lamplight which are undoubtedly helpful to their own personal growth and shows that Klaus does indeed value them, his whole teaching style is "trial by fire" and he never actually teaches the girls anything skills wise. Instead he lets them figure it out for themselves, which is fine in some instances but he's supposed to train them to take on the hardest possible missions and from what we're shown during the "training" moments, it's purely plot armor that Lamplight survived their first mission. Guido: He was an impressive adversary and is the only character so far that was ever a match for Klaus and probably would've won had Erna not stabbed him. They never got into his reasoning why he decided to switch sides which I feel like is a pretty big thing to leave out and we mostly learn about him through Klaus's background and man was a harsh teacher. Ultimately he did have a good bond with Klaus and made him into the spy he is today, so he clearly is an effective teacher despite his harsh methods. I feel like he could've been a good long-term adversary for Lamplight to deal with but his debut is cut rather short as he's sniped. Olivia: I thought she made for a good main villain and served as a good foil to Grete's character. She is certainly a ruthless and cunning adversary and if it wasn't for Grete's skillful planning, she would've completed her mission of assassinating Appel. She folds Lilly and Sybilia (probably Lamplight's strongest member) like lawn chairs and had Grete dead to rights. Though I did come to suspect that she was in league with Corpse, it was kind of obvious. Still, I enjoyed her as a villain. Spy Classroom was an anime that looked promising and I personally had high hopes for, but I was generally disappointed in it. It chose to tell its story in an out of order sequence of events and relied heavily on flashbacks and plot twists. It's like they tried to be like Attack on Titan through their use of getting to a certain event and then backtracking to explain how it happened (which I wasn't even a fan of AOT telling their story like that but I digress), but they couldn't match the level of writing necessary and it seemed like the anime didn't know what was the story it was trying to tell. While the first couple of plot twists were impressively done and caught me off-guard, after a while it got to be where it really felt like things were happening solely because the plot demanded. The story of Spy Classroom itself was decent. It had some cool action scenes and wholesome, slice of life moments and the characters were generally enjoyable. The biggest thing that holds this anime back is its execution, it was something to be desired. I also didn't mind them spending some time with the side characters and allowing them to have some character growth themselves, but the only characters who really experienced any form of character development were Klaus, Grete, Sara and Erna. We did get Sybilia's backstory but she remains roughly the same character. Ditto for Lilly. Meanwhile Annette, Monika and Thea were largely sidelined in the story. It's a big cast and there's only some much limelight to go around, but they should've taken an all or one approach, but I imagine their stories will be explored in future content. Now Season 2 of this anime is premiering next month. I'll give it a watch but I can't say I have particularly high hopes for the anime improving. I hope I'm wrong and hope that the producers learned their lesson and will stick to a more consistent way of telling the story and not use their current approach. The anime has a cool set up, interesting characters and it least seems like it has a general idea of what it wants to do, but the direction is all over the place. All in all, there's some things that are certainly enjoyable in this anime, but it has just as much going against it as it does going for it thanks to shoehorned and forced plot twists and a sloppy way of storytelling. It has potential to be good and the producers can certainly turn it around and it remains to be seen if they'll take the lessons they learned from Season 1 or not.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Jun 2, 2023
Bocchi the Rock!
(Anime)
add
Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
When I first heard about Bocchi the Rock when it was exploding in popularity, I decided to give it a watch to see if it was worthy of the praise and hype it was receiving. I'm proud to say that this is one of those times where the praise and hype were warranted. Bocchi The Rock was a bit of an acquired taste for me. When I was watching the first few episodes, I wasn't super into the anime and thought that it was just alright. However, as I kept watching I found that the anime and its characters slowly grow on you ... and I found myself enjoying the anime more with each episode I watched. I found the characters to be endearing, the music was awesome to listen to, and the comedy was great and continued to improve in every episode. Bocchi The Rock ended up being an unexpected gem I came across and I would consider it to be just outside my top 10 list in terms of rankings. It was a very enjoyable watch through and I really have nothing but kind things to say about it here. There's also only 12 episodes, so it's a pretty easy watch. Bocchi The Rock's production value was excellent and shows how much the producers really cared about the anime. It had great animation and art style, particularly during all the performance scenes. Apparently, they had used motion capture technology and animated that into the anime during all the various concerts that Bocchi and her band put on throughout the show. So you can really feel the weight of the instruments and it feels like you're watching genuine live music. The anime also occasionally changes up its style for comedic effect whenever Bocchi goes through one of her episodes such as using clay models, 3d modeling or just making her into Godzilla. A lot of them are usually references to something. At first, it threw me off and I wasn't sure if I liked it, but after a few episodes I ended up really enjoying this little running gag. My personal favorite had to be when she was transformed into a 3d model and she flew into the wall. There's a lot of great comedy in Bocchi The Rock and the animation did a great job with selling these moments. The character designs for the anime were on the simplistic side but what I found to be interesting was that with each of the 4 main characters, they designed them in such a way that it subtly communicated to the audience just how introverted/extroverted and confident/shy they each were through their hair designs. That shows the great level of planning and attention to detail that went into the production of this anime and it's something I can really appreciate. I also thought the VAs were great for the characters and I didn't mind watching it in subbed (even though I wish there was a dub for it!). Bocchi The Rock is primarily a music anime, so this is going to get its own section. The music in Bocchi The Rock was excellent and very enjoyable to listen to. Heck, I still actively listen to the songs from this anime! The anime had one intro: "Seishun Complex" and four outros: "Distortion", "Karakara", "What's Wrong With" and the last outro being used for Ep 12 exclusively "Morning Light Falls on You" (which is also the name of the episode as well). What's interesting is that each of the outro songs are sung by a different character. Kita sings Distortion, Ryou sings Karakara, Nijika sings What's Wrong With, and Bocchi gets the final song, Morning Light Falls On You. There's an old saying that music is the one true universal language that can traverse any language barrier and touch the soul. All these songs are Japanese and despite me watching over 20+ shows at this point (granted mostly in dubbed), I don't understand Japanese (I've picked up on a few words by now of course). But each of these songs communicated to me the type of characters each of them were through the melody and instruments they used. It was a "this is my song" kind of deal and I thought it was not only beautiful to listen to but it was a great touch to the anime to give each of the main characters their own song, even if it was only for 90 seconds at the end of an episode. I liked each of the songs, but my personal favorite was Distortion. I loved the upbeat melody and the vibe of the song, it very much reminds me of Kita and I also think the song speaks to what the anime is about: how 4 girls, each who are all different in their own right and have their own unique set of challenges, come together to play in one, cohesive band. At least that's how I interpreted the song by listening to it and the cute little visuals that went along with it told me. It has a very catchy beat and it's currently one of my favorite songs to listen to, especially from this anime. Kessoku Band, the in-universe band that the characters form, play 2 songs: "If I Could Be A Constellation" and "I Will Never Forget". I liked both songs pretty equally and they were great to listen to. Both songs also have their own meaning, and though I'm not sure how much I believe this, Constellation is supposedly a love song about Bocchi and Kita. At first I thought this theory was a little out there but the more thought I put into it, the more I think it makes sense. I'll go more in depth when I talk about their characters further down below, but the production team really knew what they were doing with every aspect of this anime and it shows. The story of Bocchi The Rock begins when we're introduced to our main character: Hitori Gotou (who I'll just be referring to as Bocchi). All her life from her elementary school days to the present, she's always been extremely shy and socially anxious, so much so that she's pretty much gone her whole life without making a single friend. However one day during her middle school years, she sees a band being interviewed on TV. Like her, one of the band members had severe social anxiety and didn't have many friends before joining the band and becoming popular. As such, Bocchi decides that the best way to make friends is to become a guitarist herself. She still isn't able to make any friends because of her social anxiety but she does find some success online recording covers for some popular songs. Bocchi tries bringing the guitar to school with her in hopes someone would approach her, but sadly no one does. That is until one day after school when Bocchi is sitting in a park alone with her guitar and is approached by Nijika, a girl who goes to another school. Nijika, who is a confident and outgoing drummer with a dream of starting her own band (though her motivations are a little vague from the start), is impressed that Bocchi is a guitarist and asks her to join her band to replace their old guitarist who had run off. Bocchi initially isn't sure what to make of this, but gives in after Nijika begs her. Nijika takes Bocchi to her sister's underground bar called "STARRY '' where she introduces her to her fledgling band's bassist, the calm and collected Ryuo. The trio put on a live performance for fun, but Bocchi's social anxiety makes her unable to face the audience, so she plays from a mango box (I'm not sure how this actually works but anime!). Ryou then gives Bocchi her nickname, though despite Nijika being a little hesitant (given that "Bocchi '' quite literally means loner), Bocchi loves it and goes with it. She then officially joins Nijika's band which is called "Kessoku Band ''. Bocchi also learns that Nijika and Ryou are huge fans of "GuitarHero '' on the off-brand YouTube site in universe, but Nijika and Ryou don't seem to realize that GuitarHero is actually Bocchi. Nijika invites Bocchi to stick around but she takes off, having reached her limit for social interaction for the day. Bocchi then attends a band meeting with Nijika and Ryou to decide on some band stuff like t-shirts and getting to know each other a little bit better, and then the topic comes up about ticket sales. Bocchi learns that clubs charge bands to perform and that they have a specific ticket quota to meet. As such going forward, they'll need to put up some money in order to keep playing at Starry. Nijika convinces her sister, Seika, who is also the manager of STARRY to give them jobs. Bocchi is highly anxious about her new job and tries the oldest trick in the book: making herself sick so she doesn't have to go to work. However, it fails and she ends up going. Despite her anxiousness and social anxiety inhibiting her ability to interact with customers, she's able to make it through her shift and even gets inspired by seeing another rock band perform. Bocchi heads home, having taken one small step out of her shell. However, ironic enough she does end up getting a cold at the end of the episode. Poor Bocchi! With Kessoku Band in need of a vocalist, Bocchi takes it upon herself to seek one out. She discovers that one of her classmates, Kita, is a vocalist and a guitarist herself. She also learns that she had recently been in a band as well. After several hilariously awkward attempts at approaching her, Kita eventually tracks down Bocchi after she runs off after one of her botched attempts at asking her to join and Kita learns that Bocchi is a guitarist. Bocchi then asks Kita to join her band, but Kita admits that she's practically a novice and Bocchi would have to teach her. Bocchi tries to sell to Kita that she's this "energetic cool person" and asks Nijika to bring a bunch of energy drinks to STARRY. Bocchi leads Kita to STARRY where she realizes that Bocchi is leading Kita to her former band. Kita reunites with Nijika and Ryou and profusely apologizes for running off on them in a pretty funny scene. The members of Kessoku Band convince Kita to spend some time with them and Seika convinces Kita to help out as members of the band are working during a performance. Kita becomes an instant hit with the others, which makes Bocchi feel jealous and envious of Kita's outgoing nature. After working the performance, Kessoku Band convinces Kita to give them another try and that Bocchi will help her learn the guitar. We also learn in this episode that Kita might have a thing for Ryou as she is constantly simping for her and calls Ryou her senpai (all in all, she sus). The next order of business for the band is writing some lyrics for their original song. Bocchi tries to envision herself as this extroverted and wild party girl, but ends up freaking her family out. The band then hangs out throughout the city in order to try to find inspiration and to just spend some time together as friends. While they're out, they take some pictures together to try to boost their online presence and Bocchi has a hilarious freakout at the thought of becoming "an attention whore". They end up taking their iconic photo of all them jumping mid air with their signature facial expressions which is also seen in the intro. Bocchi later hangs out with Ryou where she reveals she was in another band prior to meeting Nijika and she quit that band because she felt that they were "selling out". Ryou also begins this habit of begging money from Bocchi with the promise of paying her back but she never does. Afterwards Bocchi receives the inspiration she needs and gets to work on writing the lyrics for their new song. Kessoku Band then gets told by Seika that in order to play at STARRY again, they would have to audition just like all the other bands do. The girls then practice their audition, putting in lots of time and effort into perfecting their song. As they prepare for the audition, Bocchi realizes that she's no longer doing this band for her own benefit, but for her friends as well, and the band really comes together here to support each other. They do the audition and Bocchi manages to go God mode with her part, and they successfully pass the audition. Seika privately admits to her friend, PA-san, that she was only blocking them from playing to motivate them. Seika allows them to play at STARRY and each of the girls are tasked with selling 5 tickets to break even with the venue costs. Bocchi then has another freakout as she doesn't know 5 people. As Bocchi desponds over how to sell her tickets, she crosses paths with a functioning alcoholic named Kikuri. Kikuri starts talking to Bocchi and reveals that she plays bass in another band. After hanging out for a bit, Bocchi reveals her predicament to Kikuri and offers to attend the concert and help her sell the remaining tickets she needs by putting on a live performance. Despite Bocchi's initial hesitance, she learns to go with Kikuri's flow and ends up attracting a small crowd where a couple of girls buy tickets. Bocchi then gleefully tells her bandmates that she sold her share, but they press X to doubt. Nijika and Kita then decide to hangout with Bocchi at her house so they can pick a t-shirt design for their upcoming performance. Bocchi goes all out with the decorations and reveals that she hung up hundreds of copies of her band pictures all over her room, which creep Nijika and Kita out a little bit. They don't end up actually getting any work done and mostly goof around for the most part. Additionally, Bocchi's family sort of steals Kita and Nijika away from her and she ends up feeling a little left out as they're far better hosts. We also get to see Bocchi's little sister be a savage and the family dog (appropriately named Jimmi Hendrix) who is adorable). They end up going with Nijika's pick for the t-shirt design but another problem arises: there's a typhoon heading their way which threatens the date of their performance. Unfortunately, the typhoon does indeed come and suppresses turnout for Kessoku's performance. After hearing some less than thrilling comments, Kita, Nijika and Ryou seem to take a morale hit while Bocchi is determined to press on in an unusual display of courage. The performance doesn't go too well at first, with the band playing at a mediocre level and messing up where they shouldn't. Bocchi rallies her strength and pops off with a sudden guitar solo, turning the performance around for Kessoku Band in a pretty awesome scene. After the concert they all hang out and Nijika reveals to Bocchi that she had figured out she's GuitarHero and doesn't mind that she was keeping it a secret. Nijika then reveals that she formed the band to follow in her sister's footsteps and officially dubs Bocchi: Bocchi The Rock!. Summer Vacation hits and Bocchi mostly spends it to herself and laments how she hasn't hung out with her bandmates. To remedy that, Kita, Nijika and Ryou invite Bocchi to hangout with them. Despite many things going wrong for Bocchi during the trip, she toughs it out and admits she had fun. School then rolls back around and Bocchi hears that the school is requesting bands to play at the upcoming cultural festival. Bocchi fills out an application and goes to turn it in, but gets cold feet at the last second and passes out. Kita later secretly submits the application for Bocchi but seems to regret it upon seeing her reaction. Kikuri then pulls up to STARRY and invites Kessoku Band to see her band play. We also learn in this episode that Seika and Kikuri used to be bandmates and we get to see Nijika have a cold side (much like her sister). Seika also forces Kikuri and Ryou to pay Bocchi back the money she's owed. The girls go with Kikuri to the club and are initially intimidated by the "punk rock" atmosphere of the club but end up enjoying the performance. Kikuri then reveals to Bocchi that she used to be a social outcast and loner like her and she solved her problems by drinking (which ah...I don't know if that's the best message to send to her, Kikuri), and Bocchi muses if she's going to become an alcoholic loner while her friends move on with life. Kikuri promises to see their performance at school and Bocchi tells Kita she's now looking forward to the performance. The Cultural Festival rolls around and Nijika and Ryou drop by to visit Bocchi and Kita. Nijika and Ryou find Kita, but they discover that Bocchi has gone missing. Also, Bocchi's class has decided to a "maid theme cafe" and they deduce Bocchi got too embarrassed to do it (as she is only seen with her signature track suit and crumbled to dust out embarrassment when Nijika and Kit *adorably* peer pressured her into trying on a different shirt*). Meanwhile, Bocchi is in a secluded area of the school and tries to find solace on her off-brand YouTube channel, but realizes she hasn't uploaded in a while. She is then found by Nijika, Kita and Ryou who drag her out of her shell and back to her classroom, where they too don the cute maid outfits. Kita and Nijika are the typical anime girl maids while Ryou manages to make two bodybuilders into subs with her cold and intimidating demeanor after they try hitting on Bocchi (who is completely spaced out). Kessoku Band scouts out the gym where they're performing and Bocchi goes into how her guitar is actually an old one she got from her father's. In the final episode, Kessoku Band takes the stage at the cultural festival ready to perform in front of a sizable crowd including their friends and family. As they do the concert, things seem to be fine at first but Bocchi's guitar is out of tune and one of her strings snaps before her big solo. They manage to continue on through Kita's improvising and Bocchi using a glass container as a makeshift bottleneck slide. Kessoku Band finishes their concert to thunderous applause and Kita allows the band members to introduce themselves. Kita allows Bocchi to have her moment in the spotlight, and Bocchi.Exe promptly stops working, so she tries to be cool and do a stage dive, but ends up face planting into the floor (lol, poor Bocchi). After she recovers from her epic face plant, Bocchi is in need of a new guitar and her father reveals that he had secretly monetized her channel and gives her the money to get herself a new one. She goes to a music store with her bandmates. Bocchi then realizes that with all the money she made, she could quit her job at STARRY. She goes to Seika to quit, but loses her nerve and instead ends up just thanking her for the job and pledging to work harder (even Seika doesn't buy the act). Kessoku Band goes to the music store, and despite being utterly terrified of interacting with the staff, with Kita's help Bocchi settles on a new guitar and runs out of the store without it. In the final scene, Bocchi stares at herself in the mirror, inspecting her new guitar. After hilariously apologizing to her old guitar, insisting that she hasn't forgotten about it as her family looks on in secret, concerned. Bocchi then gets ready to go out, telling the viewer she'll be back later as we get some final shots of her room, and the empty front door where she was just a moment ago. Now to get into our favorite Kessoku Band Members! Bocchi: She was a character that really grew on me. At first I didn't really get her act too much, but after the first few episodes I started to understand her character better and found her to be relatable to an extent. Though I'm not an introvert or have social anxiety myself per se, I do get her thought processes at times and how she gets nervous in some social situations and just completely freezes up. I even felt bad for her on a few occasions, but her meltdowns/freakouts were some of the best moments in the show. She has a great relationship with the rest of the cast and I really found her to be an endearing character. The anime also did a great job showing some character growth for her, as she is slowly starting to open up more. Though she certainly has a long way to go to be a "normal" person socially, she's certainly taken some steps forward in that endeavor. As a musician, she is an impressive guitarist and a great member of the band and pulls through multiple times for them. I think she has a great future ahead of her! Kita: I really enjoyed her character! She was funny, sweet and wholesome. From a writing perspective, I found it interesting how she is in many ways Bocchi's opposite, yet they both have something major in common: they both lack confidence. The difference there being is that Kita chooses to charge head first into situations and go with the flow while Bocchi just freezes up. Essentially, if this was a "fight or flight" kind of scenario, Kita would usually choose fight while Bocchi chooses flight (to give proper credit, I got this from a YouTuber review who pointed this out). Kita had a lot of great moments, both funny and wholesome, and she is a major driver in Bocchi's growth as a character. Her relationship with Bocchi is also something interesting to talk about as the song "Constellation '' has been discussed as being a love song between the two characters. Since Bocchi wrote the song and Kita sung it, it could in some ways be interpreted as Bocchi "confessing" how she ultimately wants to be with Kita as the "stars in the sky forming the constellation" and how she hopes that it lasts and they don't drift apart with Kita just singing out Bocchi's words. Alternatively, since Kita is singing the song, it can be interpreted that Kita is singing out her feelings for Bocchi. There's also a line in the song that says "I've really only ever had that one star" in which it can be viewed both ways as both the characters really admire the other, with Bocchi viewing Kita as someone with the confidence she's always wanted, and Kita viewing Bocchi as a talented musician and hopes to one day rise to her level. The anime has pretty much all but confirmed that Kita swings that way (given her simping for Ryou), so I don't think its entirely out of question if they make a Kita-Bocchi ship reality, but I don't think Bocchi is at the level where she could handle a relationship (let alone process a confession, the poor girl's brain would fry). I think those are two characters to watch if they choose to continue doing future content for the story. The writers really gave a lot of thought to Constellation, and I do believe there is a deeper meaning behind it, but whether its a love song is sort of up to your own interpretation. Nijika: Also really enjoyed her character! Nijika is the glue that keeps the band together, and as someone who played in percussion myself back in the day (I'm really not *that old*), I definitely liked her drumming skills! I thought her motivations for forming Kessoku Band were relatable, wholesome and well-established. She is the character that allows Bocchi to start on her path to overcoming her social anxiety and becoming a better musician, and she provides a lot of support for her. Nijika is a wholesome character, but she also does have her "dark/yandere side" moments when she tells off Kikuri or gives Bocchi a side eye for thinking the obvious sometimes which was hilarious. I really liked it when she was chasing Ryou around with her drumsticks after she refused to swap instruments with her for a picture. She can be a really funny character when she wants to be. Ryou: I liked her character! She was the classic cool, calm and collected bassist of the band. However, she does have a sneaky side as she routinely borrows money from Bocchi without paying her back (until she's forced to do so by Seika). She has a lot of great moments herself in the anime. The moments when she goes on about music history were funny, her trolling of Bocchi was great and she was always an enjoyable presence on screen. Seika: She was very much the "mom" figure of the anime, but she's great for supporting the other characters. Seika is a great role model for Nijika to follow and I think her challenging Nijika and her band to audition to see if they were worthy of performing was a great call on her part. She's giving them real world experience, and though she may come across as crass and grumpy at times, there's no doubt in my mind she wants the best for her sister and the rest of Kessoku Band. Kikuri: She was a very fun character! I found her pretty hilarious and her drunken shenanigans made the anime even more hilarious. Though, I can't help but feel that if the show decides to take a darker turn, that Kikuri is sort of a foreshadowing character for what Bocchi could ultimately become, and Bocchi herself even mused at one point if she was going to become like Kikuri to combat her own social anxiety. Pa-San: She has that goth girl aesthetic. Though she doesn't get a whole lot of screen time and is usually in the background, I really wish we got to know her more and hope we'll get to learn more about her in future content. Her character design was too cool for her to be passed up as a side character getting the background treatment! Bocchi The Rock was an extremely enjoyable and wholesome anime. It had great music, awesome and relatable characters, and was just a fun, slice of life story about 4 girls with a common dream coming together, overcoming their challenges and working to achieve their dream. It was really heartwarming to see. Given how much of a success this anime was, I really do think they'll make a Season 2 of the anime. I'm not sure if the movie will be sequel content or just a recap, but I have high hopes for the future of this franchise! I do wonder if there'll be some sort of dark twist coming. Bands are definitely not above having problems and there's plenty of famous examples you can point to, and there is some dark tones that lurk deep beneath the wholesomeness of the anime (Kikuri's alcoholism, Bocchi herself acknowledging throughout the series that the only way she'll make a living in music if she's highly successful, and some of the song lyrics in Constellation and Never Forget do have some dark, edgy lyrics which Ryou herself acknowledged to Bocchi in one episode when she made a comment about how hilarious it would be for a peppy girl like Kita to sing dark lyrics). We've really only dived into Bocchi's problems this season and scratched the surface on Kita's, Ryou's and Nijika's (though their respective struggles may not be as profound as Bocchi's). There's a lot of potential in direction for a story like this, but I do enjoy the wholesomeness and the charm of this anime, so I am rooting for Bocchi and her friends to succeed! Bocchi The Rock is a solid anime and was highly enjoyable to watch! I proudly recommend that you give it a try for yourself! And just remember... Distortion is motion!
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 
Jun 1, 2023
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
add
Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
I feel like the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" can apply in some way to Sword Art Online. For those reading this who don't know: for one reason or another, SAO has a rather controversial reputation. Even amongst an old friend group of mine, a few of them would always talk poorly about this anime by saying how supposedly bad it was among other things. This is what initially piqued my interest in the SAO universe and I wanted to give the anime a fair chance to see if it rightfully earned the scorn that it had received. After watching ... through SAO's first season, in my humble opinion I do not believe SAO deserves most of the hate that it gets. That's not to say that this was a perfect anime and it definitely has some low and downright weird moments, but for the most part it was a fun and enjoyable story to watch unfold. I found that a big part of SAO's charm for me was that it's based on an MMO RPG type setting, and being a pretty big gamer myself, it's something I was able to connect with fairly easily. It was a great "gamer's anime". It has a lot of great action moments, great and enjoyable characters, and an interesting tale of survival, romance and loss that reminds us of some harsh life lessons that I think most people can relate to. The production value of SAO was solid. It had great and enjoyable animation, particularly in the action scenes. It had beautiful and interesting character designs and background art was beautiful. It definitely felt like the story was taking place in a fantasy world and it looked like a fun world to be in despite the circumstances. I found the English VAs to be solid picks for their characters. One thing I did find particularly funny was that the English VA for Kirito is also the VA for Eren Yeager in AOT and Inosuke in Demon Slayer. It may be a small world in the English Dub community for anime, but I did find it amusing to hear Bryce Papenbrook's voice again after I had watched AOT and Demon Slayer. The music for SAO was amazing and some of the songs are currently my personal favorites from anime. SAO has two intros for this season's respective arcs: "Crossing Field" and "Innocence", as well as two outros "Yume Sekai" and "Overfly". Both of the intros and outros are solid songs and great to listen to and have great visuals to go along with them. However, I would say that I preferred the first intro "Crossing Field" and the second outro "Overfly" as I found both songs to have a very catchy melody and enjoyed listening to those particular songs more. As I mentioned, SAO's story this season is split between two major arcs: Aincrad (Eps 1-14) and Fairy Dance (Eps 15-25). The Aincrad Arc is largely viewed as the "original" SAO while the Fairy Dance is more so viewed as sequel content and where some SAO gets its controversy some. I personally found that both arcs had their own strengths and weaknesses, but I thought the Fairy Dance arc was a reasonable and logical continuation to the story that was established in the Aincrad Arc. I will warn you now, the summary of the story is a long one, so if you're interested in my summed up thoughts, go down to the last few paragraphs. The Aincrad Arc: The story of SAO begins when we are introduced to our main mc, Kazuto Kirigaya (who I'll be referring to as Kirito, his gamer tag), logs in to a new MMO RPG called "Sword Art Online" (how fitting!) using a relatively new piece of technology called "NerveGear" (which seems to represent a more advanced version of the Oculus Headset, even though this anime long predates the Oculus). Kirito happened to be a beta tester for the game so he knows a little bit more than the average noob would. He ends up crossing paths with a guy named Klein struggling to 1v1 a boar (he has some "skill issues" as we say in the gaming community). Kirito helps Klein master the basics of the combat system and some other aspects of the game. After playing for a little while, they discover a small problem: there's no log out button, thereby trapping them within the game. The game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba, then transports all 10,000 SAO players to the town center where he reveals that they are all stuck in the game and if they die in SAO, they also die in the real world. The player will also die if their NerveGear gets forcefully disconnected in the real world. Kayaba's reasoning for doing all this was so that he could "play God" in his own little world. Kayaba states that the only way they'll be logged out safely is if they can clear all 100 floors in the game. Kayaba then disappears and mass panic ensues. Once people have had time to process the revelation, Klein invites Kirito to join up with some of his friends, but he declines, taking a "lone wolf" approach to gaming. One thing to note about the Aincrad arc is that there's a lot of time skips. Sometimes, events between the episodes will be weeks or even months, which wasn't something I was a big fan of as it rushed some aspects of the story. One month after SAO launched and Kayaba revealed the truth about their situations, 2,000 players have already died. Kirito attends a meeting organized by another beta tester named Diabel. One thing to note about the beta testers, also called "beaters" in SAO, is that the main population of the gamers in SAO view them with suspicion (which is somewhat justified) and just generally look down upon them. As such, Kirito initially keeps his status as a beta tester under wraps. Diabel reveals that they have located the first boss and are putting together a raid team. Despite many of the players viewing Diabel with suspicion, they agree to join up with him. In this meeting as well is our other main protagonist, Asuna, who Kirito meets. Initially they're kind of edgy with each other, with Asuna declaring death was inevitable and wants to go down fighting, while Kirito wants to beat the game to make it back into the real world. The raid goes well for the most part with the team successfully knocking down the boss's health low and dispatching the boss's minions. Diabel goes for the killing blow, but is mortally wounded by the boss's special attack. Several other players are killed as well. In his last moments, Diabel asks Kirito to save the others and to finish the raid. Kirito and Asuna team up and go God mode, killing the boss. The other players then accuse Kirito of being a beater as he was familiar with the boss's mechanics, thus blaming Diabel's death on him. Kirito owns up to the title and claims the black trench coat that becomes his hallmark throughout the show. Some more time passes, and despite Kirito being a relative loner, he ends up deciding to join a small guild called "The Moonlit Black Cats". It is then revealed that like most MMOs, SAO has a player leveling system and Kirito is a far higher level than any of his guildmates but decides to keep it a secret so they don't think he's somehow looking down on them. Of the course of his time in this guild, Kirito becomes rather close with one his fellow guild members: Sachi. One night, Sachi reveals that she's afraid to die and Kirito comforts her. The two then begin to...uh...sleep together. Though Kirito says through his monologue that nothing happened. The relationship can sort of be viewed as a sibling kind of relationship (and oh boy will this come into play down the road), but you can't help but feel that there's some sort of romantic element to their relationship. When the guild leader goes off to buy a proper house for the guild, Kirito, Sachi and the rest of the guild decide to do a dungeon on floor 27 in what's supposed to be a "go there, kill some mobs, grab the loot, go home" kind of mission. You know, a 20 minute adventure. They find a little side room with a very tempting treasure chest and they decide to go for it. However, it ends up being a trap and the party quickly becomes overwhelmed. Kirto's guild mates, including Sachi, are cut down one by one. Summoning the strength of God and plot armor, Kirito manages to survive the ambush. He later tells Keita, the leader of the guild, what happened. Keita then decides to test if there's fall damage in SAO, leaving Kirito as the only survivor of Moonlit Black Cats. Some more time later, Kirito meets up with Klein and his buddies to do a boss raid. Kirito acquires a rare and special item that is capable of reviving a dead player but the catch is that it can only be used within 10 seconds of the player's death. Kirito ends up giving it to Klein, figuring he'd need more than he himself would. Christmas time rolls around and Kirito receives a pre-recorded message from Sachi. She reveals that she figured she wasn't going to make it out of SAO and asks Kirito to not blame herself for dying and to keep moving forward in what was definitely a heart wrenching scene. Throughout the second half of the third episode, we can see just how deeply the loss of his guild affected Kirito and how he double downs on this mindset of being a loner. Even though we didn't get a whole lot of screen time from his guild members so there wasn't a whole lot of time for us to get attached to them as well. Kirito then crosses paths with a girl named Silica (real name Keiko), a beast tamer, and saves her from some ape monsters. However, her dragon pet was killed trying to protect her. Kirito promises to take Silica down to the 47th floor to retrieve an item that can revive pets. However there is a small time crunch as it must be done within 3 days of the pet dying. Kirito escorts Silica down to the 47th floor. They kill the monster and obtain the revive item, but are then confronted by Silica's old guild. Kirito reveals that they are "orange players" who are players that commit crimes and also explains to the audience the existence of "red players" who're PVP murders. "Green players" are your normal, law-abiding citizens in SAO. Silica's old guild tries to force her to hand over the revive item, but Kirito vows to protect her. The guild attacks Kirito, but because he has such a level advantage over them, their attacks don't do any serious damage. Kirito then badly wounds the guild and forces their surrender, with Kirito revealing that the whole escort was a bit of a ploy in order to arrest the guild. Silica thanks Kirito for his help and successfully revives her pet dragon. After yet another time skip, Kirito then meets up back up with Asuna, who has joined one of SAO's biggest guilds: Knights of The Blood Oath and has ascended to the #2 leadership spot. By this point Kirito is more or less a mercenary. He attends a meeting led by Asuna who is laying out a plan to lure out the boss. She suggests essentially kiting the boss out from its place into an NPC village, but Kirito objects, not wanting to risk the lives of the NPCs, so there's a bit of butting heads here. After the meeting, Kirito takes a nap under the tree and is later found by Asuna. At this moment, Asuna learns to appreciate the calm and peacefulness in the world of SAO (despite their dire circumstances) and decides to take a nap with Kirito nearby. When Kirito awakens, he finds Asuna resting nearby and decides to watch over her until she awakens. When she does it leads to a little bit of awkward romantic tension and she invites him out to dinner. Kirito and Asuna clearly have a budding romantic relationship but so far it's mostly Kirito being a smartass and Asuna seemingly contemplating murdering him. Their lovely evening is ruined when a player by the name of Caynz is murdered. What's particularly interesting is that the towns are considered safe zones so nobody should be able to die (or at least, be murdered in PVP). This leads to Kirito and Asuna once again teaming up to investigate the murder. They learn through another player named Yolko that she and her now dearly departed boyfriend Caynz were part of a guild called "Golden Apple" which has since disbanded. The story goes that the former guild leader, Griselda, was attempting to sell off a valuable ring that was obtained through defeating a boss. Her husband, Grimlock, was against selling the ring, while Caynz and Yolko were for it. Griselda was killed while selling off the ring. Caynz and Yolko tried to investigate the murder, but the weapon used to kill Griselda and later apparently Grimlock were from someone they didn't recognize. Kirito, Asuna and Yolko retrieve the weapon that was used to kill Caynz and they take it to Agil. Agil examines the weapon and determines it was forged by Grimlock. So the evidence seems to point towards a phantom Grimlock killing his old guildmates. Once they realize that it's probably Grimlock, Yolko is then killed when a knife is hurled through the window. Kirito pursues Grimlock but he escapes via teleportation crystal. Asuna and Kirito then take a break and eat a sandwich, and after he accidentally drops it, Kirito realizes that Caynz and Yolko faked their deaths using the teleportation crystal. They then track them down to Griselda's grave, where a disguised Caynz and Yolko are interrogating a former guild member of theirs named Schmitt to see if he's the culprit. That's when a very much alive Grimlock pulls up with the player murdering guild "Laughing Coffin". Kirito arrives to save the day and forces Laughing Coffin to retreat. Grimlock then admits that he wanted the ring (one ring to rule them all!) for himself and that while he very much loved Griselda, he felt that she loved SAO more so than she loved him and worried that she would leave him. Asuna then arrives and apprehends him. Before they leave, they see Griselda's ghost briefly appear. We're then introduced to Lisbeth (real name Riko) who is a blacksmith and a good friend of Asuna's. When Asuna drops by to get her sword repaired, she later mentions that she's meeting up with someone later, which causes Lisbeth to tease Asuna over having a boyfriend despite Asuna's insistence that "it wasn't like that" (uh-huh), but privately Lisbeth is envious and wonders if she too will ever find love (girl, I've been there). Later, Kirito drops by, wanting a stronger sword. Lisbeth proudly gives her the strongest sword she ever made and Kirito proceeds to break it "in a test" against his current sword. Lisbeth then flies into a hilarious frenzy and threatens to kill Kirito. After calming down, Lisbeth tells Kirito about a rare mineral that they can use to make a stronger sword. They just have to go to the lair of a crystal dragon in order to obtain it. Kirito initially wants to go alone, but after some begging from Lisbeth, he relents and lets her tag along. They go to the 55th level and their journey goes well for the most part until they fall into a pit with no way out. They decide to try to wait it out and hope that the dragon comes by. During their time together, Lisbeth begins to develop romantic feelings for Kirito. The dragon returns to its lair in the pit and Kirito defeats the dragon to obtain the mineral. As they're falling back down to safety, Lisbeth semi-confesses to Kirito saying "I'm *falling* in love with you!" (badum tss!), but Kirito doesn't hear her as they are quite essentially sky diving. They return back to Lisbeth's shop where she forges him a new sword. Lisbeth tries to give her confession another go but Asuna comes in, noticeably wearing special earrings. After Kirito makes a comment that she's wearing the earrings he got for her, Lisbeth puts two and two together and realizes that Kirito was who Asuna was talking about. She then runs off, with Kirito eventually tracking her down by the riverbed, crying. Lisbeth then thanks Kirito for the time they spent together and welcomes him to her shop anytime, with Kirito being (frustratingly) oblivious to why Lisbeth was upset. Kirito then obtains some rare rabbit meat and initially tries to sell it to Agil, but Asuna unexpectedly drops by the shop, also acting a little uncharacteristically nice towards Kirito. Kirito shows Asuna the rabbit and she invites him over for dinner as she has a very high cooking skill. Despite Asuna's bodyguard, Kuradeel, objecting, Kirito gladly accepts. Kirito goes over to Asuna's place and the dinner has all the hallmarks of a typical romantic themed dinner. Afterwards, Asuna invites Kirito to spend the night, which he accepts. Asuna begins to...disrobe...and invites Kirito to become a true gamer. Kirito is completely flabbergasted and didn't mean it to "spend the night" like that, which enrages and embarrasses Asuna, causing her to falcon punch Kirito (ending his time in SAO. Roll credits! Nah jk). It's then heavily implied that Kirito did in fact reach true gamer status by scoring with Asuna and the two officially begin their relationship. Kuradeel begins harassing Asuna by continuously following her around (I mean he is her bodyguard and has been ordered to protect her). Kirito then squares up with Kuradeel and beats him in a 1v1. Asuna then orders Kuradeel back to HQ and he begrudgingly does so with his tail between his legs. Kirito and Asuna are then clearing a dungeon on the 74th floor and come across the boss room. They cross paths with Klein and his guild. Another guild pulls up wanting to take on the boss, and despite the objections of Asuna and Klein, let them take a shot at it. They later come back to find the guild completely decimated in the face of the boss. They try to take on the boss themselves, but find it extremely difficult to defeat. With all hope seems lost, Kirito is forced to unveil his secret rare ability: dual wield, which allows him to defeat the boss. The revelation that Kirito can dual wield attracts the attention of Heathcliff, leader of the Blood Knights and Asuna's boss. With Asuna increasingly being strained between her guild duties and Kirito, Kirito confronts Heathcliff and makes him a deal: If Kirito can defeat him in a 1v1, he will allow Asuna to leave the guild. Should Heathcliff win, Kirito must join the guild. Asuna warns Kirito that Heathcliff is undefeated and has some crazy stats, while also never having his HP dip into the yellow. Kirito duels Heathcliff in a highly publicized fight. Despite Kirito putting on an impressive performance against Heathcliff, he loses the fight which is one of the few times Kirito actually loses a fight. He is then Shanghaied into the guild. Kirito then confides to Asuna why he doesn't like to join up with guilds and tells her about his experiences with his last guild. Asuna promises Kirito that she won't die and that she'll always be there for him. Kirito is then selected to accompany Kuradeel and Godfree for a skill's test. When they stop for a break, both Godfree and Kirito are poisoned by Kuradeel, who reveals himself to be a member of Laughing Coffin. Kuradeel kills Godfree, and proceeds to nearly kill Kirito before Asuna arrives just in the nick of time. Kuradeel does a little war crime by committing false surrender, but Kirito steps in and saves Asuna and killing Kuradeel, the first time Kirito has killed someone in the series. Kirito and Asuna kiss and they then agree to marry. Kirito and Asuna then go on a honeymoon and acquire a log cabin deep in the forest on floor 22. It's all mostly fun, slice of life type stuff until they begin to encounter a ghostly young girl lurking in the forest. At first they don't think much of it until they one day find her collapsed in the middle of the forest where they then decide to take her back into the log cabin for the night. Furthermore what's weird about this girl, she doesn't have a cursor above her so they can't figure out her name. The girl wakes up with no memory of how she got into the forest and only remembers her name being Yui. She then decides to acknowledge Kirito and Asuna as her parents. Kirito and Asuna aren't quite sure what to do with Yui so they go all the way back to the 1st floor where there's an orphanage for young players and to see if anyone is searching for her. The orphanage owner says that Yui isn't a runaway and has no idea who she is. After turning away a guild that was extorting taxes, Yui freaks out, glitches and passes out. They are then approached by Yulier, who is second in command of the Aincrad Liberation Force (the guild that was extorting taxes and who was also the guild that got decimated in the episode Kirito revealed his dual wielding ability. Yulier explains that the rightful leader of the guild was overthrown and is presently being held in a secret dungeon on the first floor. Kirito, Asuna and Yui agree to help Yulier and they travel to the dungeon where they square off against a highly difficult boss. The party seems unable to defeat the boss until Yui reveals that she's actually this special, indestructible AI and kills the boss by lighting it on fire. The party goes into the dungeon containing a special game master's console. It's then revealed that Yui was originally designed to be an emotional support kind of AI, but has had her programming altered to instead monitor them. Yui then states that she has felt at home with Kirito and Asuna and regarded them as her parents. The game then begins to delete Yui, but through some quick thinking by Kirito, transforms her into an in-game item in the form of a crystal which he gives to Asuna. They then free Thinker, the rightful guild leader. Kirito and Asuna return to their cabin and Kirito meets Nishida, an older gentleman who is an avid fisherman. Despite his fishing skills, he's unable to cook, so Kirito invites him over for dinner where Asuna cooks. Nishida reveals that he has been trying to catch this big fish for some time now and Kirito agrees to help him. As Asuna watches Kirito battle the fish, she fondly recalls how she fell in love with him to Nishida in a rather sweet and heartwarming scene. They eventually succeed in catching the fish with Asuna intervening. Kirito and Asuna get a summons from Heathcliff in which they are going to be raiding the boss room on floor 75. Upon arrival they learn that a previous group of their guildmates were killed in an attempt to clear the room. Taking no chances, Heathcliff enlists the aid of several other guilds, including Klein's and Agil's, to take on the boss. After an epic and costly battle against the boss, they successfully clear floor 75. During the battle, Kirito concludes a shocking discovery: Heathcliff is actually Kayaba's avatar, realizing that his health never went below a certain percentage and that he seems completely unexhausted while everyone is drained and tired from the battle. Kirito then uses his high IQ and realizes that Kayaba wouldn't want to just sit back and watch the players progress, but to be in on some of the action himself. What better way to do that then to be the leader of the biggest guild in the game and a renowned duelist? Kirito tests his theory and attacks Heathcliff, revealing that he has an immortal object barrier around him (Essentially he was playing on creative mode the whole time). He then admits that he is Kayaba as well as the final boss of the entire game, proving Kirito's theory right. He paralyzes everyone and offers Kirito the chance to duel him and to end the game early if he beats him in a duel, even removing his God powers so the fight is fair. Kirito accepts. He puts up a great fight and lands some solid blows on him, but ultimately isn't a match for Kayaba. Asuna, mustering the will power of God, true love and anime, somehow overcomes the paralysis and shields Kirito from Kayaba's finishing blow, sacrificing herself. Kirito, enraged, picks up his sword and finally defeats Kayaba, though at the cost of his own life as well. Kirito awakens on a floating platform in some heaven-like space over Aincrad where he is tearfully reunited with Asuna, telling her that he won. They then meet Kayaba in his true form. He then reveals that he essentially transferred his consciousness into the virtual world and pretty much made himself into an AI, leaving his physical body behind. He then went more in depth with his reasoning in which he wanted everyone to be able to enjoy his world through his sick and twisted God complex. He bids Kirito and Asuna farewell and disappears as Aincrad slowly falls apart. Kirito and Asuna have one last emotionally charged moment together in which they tell each other their real life names and that they will one day, perhaps in another life, find each other. The world then collapses fully as the e-couple tearfully embraces each other. In the moment, we might've expected this to be the end. Kirito did technically die in his duel against Kabaya and Asuna did die. However, Kirito awakens and finds himself in a hospital bed, having survived the SAO experience. He rises, and though physically weak, he picks himself out of his bed into the hallway, determined to find Asuna and fulfill his promise. That's the end of The Aincrad Arc. To give my thoughts on it, I thought that out of SAO's two arcs this season, The Aincrad Arc was indeed the better of the two. It had a great and compelling story that was fun to watch unfold, phenomenal action, amazing world building and great characters. It was particularly funny to watch some of Kirito's and Asuna's early interactions and how eventually their relationship gives way to a slow burn romance. Kirito, however, is certainly one dense MC. He had some good chemistry with Silica and definitely had some potential with Sachi and Lisbeth but opted not to pursue them either out of obliviousness or just not being interested in them like that (which it's probably a little bit of both). The only complaints I'd offer up about this arc was that the time skips were a little jarring and it definitely felt that the story was too fast paced for me to care about some of the side characters that have a major meaning in Kirito's story (mainly the Moonlit Black Cats). I also thought that Kabaya's motivations as a villain were rather weak, even though I did understand them. I thought he was certainly an interesting villain but he was just some guy with a God complex which did not make for a compelling villain to me. I will say that I thought it was a great twist having him be Heathcliff as a literal frontline observer, it did make for a pretty big revelation. Overall, I felt that some aspects of The Aincrad Arc were rushed, this was definitely peak SAO for me even though I did enjoy the arcs that have come after this. It was a fun and engaging story and if they had chosen to end the story here, it might've made for a pretty emotionally charged ending. Though I'm glad that the story got continued. SAO's second half continues the story in the world of ALfheim Online (ALO), which is considered to be the successor to SAO. The Fairy Dance Arc: There's a two month time skip and Kirito is readjusting to life back in the real world. He has regained his strength but has still lost 2 years of his life being trapped in SAO. It is then revealed that Kirito has a sister, Suguha who he lives with, though their relationship seems a little distant at best (not just from Kirito being away for 2 years). They also used to practice Kendo (Japanese Fencing) together before Kirito went hardcore into gaming. Kirito challenges Suguha to a Kendo duel, and uses his old signature SAO sword style against her. Kirito learns that the real world isn't SAO and gets defeated by his sister. Kirito was eventually able to track down Asuna but there's a slight complication: she, along with 300 other players of SAO, were never logged out, leaving her in a comatose state. Even worse: Asuna's father's associate, Sugo, attends to marry Asuna, claiming that he is owed for keeping her alive and despite her being in a comatose state. Sugo threatens Kirito and tells him to stop visiting Asuna. Unable to do anything, Kirito breaks down to his sister, who comforts him. We then get an...interesting family revelation here: Kirito and Suguha aren't actually siblings, but cousins. Suguha's parents adopted Kirito into their family after Kirito's parents had died. What's more jarring: Suguha apparently has romantic feelings for Kirito (SWEET HOME ALABAMA!). So that was...interesting...to learn about. Kirito then receives an email from Agil which is a screenshot attachment from another game with a character that looks suspiciously like Asuna. Kirito meets Agil (real name Andrew), where he explains that the screenshot is from a new MMO game called ALfheim Online (ALO), a fairy based RPG game where players can fly. Agil tells Kirito that the screenshot was taken by some players attempting to get to the top of "The World Tree" in the game. They then discover that Asuna's father's company made ALO, and with Sugo's intent to marry Asuna in mind, Kirito deduces that she was somehow pulled from SAO into ALO. He then vows to go into ALO to try to rescue Asuna. He takes up his old gamertag. Interestingly, he still has his SAO game data, including Yui's in-game item. Kirito resurrects Yui into a navigation pixie. Yui explains that ALO was made from SAO's servers, so the data was likely copied over. After learning the basics of flight, Kirito then saves a Sylph fairy named Leafa who is being chased by fairy fire Salamanders led by a guy named Kagemune. He befriends Leafa who gives him the rundown of the game and teaches him how to fly properly. They then travel to a town and meet up with one of Leafa's friends named Recon. Kirito explains he's in the game because he wants to get to the top of the World Tree, which Leafa explains is easier said than done due to the quest being extremely hard and players aren't able to fly to the top due to flight limits. Leafa promises to help Kirito get to the top of the tree and she logs out, which ironically enough she is revealed to be Suguha (oh boy you can see where this is going...). We then see Asuna's predicament: as she is trapped in a cage under the "care" of Sugo, who goes by the in-game persona Oberon The Fairy King. Sugo reveals that ALO is essentially a mind control experiment and that he wants Asuna all to himself. After he leaves, Asuna prays that Kirito will come rescue her (trust me, he's waaaay ahead of you). Suguha then recalls how she got into online gaming, which was basically trying to impress and get to know Kirito. She then meets up with one of her IRL friends who is Recon in ALO. The dude obviously has a crush on her, but she tells him that she'll be assisting Kirito with his quest to get to the top of the World Tree. Leafa reunited with Kirito in ALO and she tells the rest of her party she'll be taking a leave of absence from them to help Kirito. Her party members get salty and vow to outcast her from the Sylph race (ouch). Leafa then declares that Kirito is her new partner and they flee the city. Sugo returns to try to seduce/torture Asuna, and he confirms that Kirito is still alive. When he leaves Asuna for the day, she spies the code to her cage and begins biding her time to try to escape. While enroute to the World Tree, Kirito and Leafa seem to have a bit of a flirtatious relationship and they take a break logging out to refresh themselves. They then pass through a large cave that ultimately leads to an underground city. Leafa then receives a partial message from Recon warning her to be careful. They are then ambushed by a large squad of Salamanders assisted by Mages. Kirito solos the group while Leafa stays behind to heal him. Despite Kirito's impressive feats, he's unable to break the enemy formation. Yui then tells Leafa to cast some protective magic on Kirito while he transforms into an illusion of an old SAO boss (this was a great callback to the first arc). Since there's no "die in the game, die in the real world" mechanic, Kirito destroys the enemy Salamanders and bribes the last guy with an in-game item in exchange for information much to Leafa's objection. The Salamander reveals that they were ordered to attack them by Kagemune, the Salamander Kirito messed up to save Leafa. Leafa logs out to get a hold out of Recon, where he tells her that Sigurd, one of their former mutual party members, is really a spy for the Salamanders. Additionally, the Salamanders plan to attack the Sylphs and the cat fairy like Siths (The Sith Lords!) who plan on making a treaty. Kirito decides to put his quest on hold to aid Leafa in helping her friends stave off the incoming ambush. Kirito and Leafa arrive just in time as the talks begin to warn the Sylphs and Siths of the incoming Salamanders, and like clockwork they arrive just on time. Kirito pulls his usual "I got this" routine and approaches the leader of the Salamanders, a guy named Eugene. Kirito bluffs that he's some special ambassador and that attacking the talks will risk war with all the other races. Eugene of course doesn't believe this and challenges Kirito to a duel. The duel is pretty epic, with Eugune's sword being able to phase through Kirito's in some instances. It initially seems like this is Eugene's duel to lose, but Kirito ends up winning using his dual wielding ability after having "borrowed" Leafa's sword during a distraction. Sigurd gets outed for his treason after he had attempted a coup. With the Sylphs and Siths planning to assault The World Tree, Kirito donates all his money to the effort, which leads the Sylph leader and Sith leader (who is a fairy cat girl mind you) to flirt with Kirito, making Leafa jealous. With each passing episode, it does seem that Leafa is becoming more attracted to Kirito, but with the irony not knowing it's her brother/cousin/whatever they are. Meanwhile, Asuna takes her chance to try to escape, getting out of her cage and making her way into The World Tree to find a way out. Kirito and Leafa finally reach the capital city which is conveniently located beneath The World Tree, but their mission is delayed to an emergency maintenance shutdown. Kirito then takes Suguha to visit Asuna in the hospital and reveals to her that he'll be attending a special school to help the victims of SAO catch up on their studies. Meanwhile, Suguha internally seethes that Kirito seems more interested in Asuna than in her. Back in ALO, Asuna comes across a strange lab where these giant purple squid-like snails are conducting experiments on the brains of the 300 comatose patients. Asuna then gets caught by squid snails, and almost successfully escapes thanks to their sheer incompetence. But she does grab an ID card before she's put back in her cage. Kirito and Yui do some early recon and Yui does a scan of the tree, confirming Asuna is indeed at the top of The World Tree. This throws Kirito into a frenzy as he tries to reach Asuna. He first tries to fly up but hits a barrier. Kirito then calls out to Asuna, who tosses the ID card off to the side in response. Kirito bids Leafa farewell and he attempts to reach the top of the tree by himself. He encounters hundreds, perhaps thousands of Guardian Knights that serve as the enemy of the quest, and despite Kirito taking out many of them, he is overwhelmed and defeated by them. Leafa then revives Kirito and tries to get answers out of him, and Kirito lets it slip that he's trying to rescue Asuna. This causes Leafa to freak out, realizing that Kirito is her brother/cousin, and Kirito learning that Leafa is actually Suguha (The entire arc was building to this moment, and it was as hilarious as I envisioned it!). Kirito then confronts Suguha/Leafa in the real world where she breaks down and admits that she has fallen in love with him in the real world and in game (SWEET HOME ALABAMA!), which rightfully shocks Kirito. Kirito then recalls his earlier life and remembers learning the truth that he and Suguha weren't actually siblings. This caused a bit of a rift to open up between the two as he further poured himself into online gaming. Kirito then tries to set things right and asks Suguha to meet him in ALO. Suguha then decides the way they're going to sort this out is by having a good ol' fashioned sword duel. After a brief exchange of blows, Suguha loses her will to fight and the two apologize to each other. Kirito puts his exact feelings for Suguha on hold until Asuna is rescued, and Suguha agrees to help Kirito this time, even inviting Recon along. The trio try again to take on the endless swarm of Guardians, and just when it seems all is lost, the cavalry comes in with the Sylphs and Sith coming to help Kirito get through to the top. Kirito then breaks through a door using his dual sword skill and makes it inside The World Tree with Yui guiding him through. Kirito and Yui navigate through to the World Tree and have a happy reunion with Asuna. However, it is cut short as Sugo arrives and paralyzes them, forcing Yui to retreat. He then reveals to Kirito that it was he who was keeping Asuna trapped in ALO to use her and the other 300 SAO survivors as guinea pigs for his mind control experiments. He then chains Asuna and exposes Asuna's bare chest (yeah not gonna lie this scene was very hard to watch). Before giving in to total despair, Kirito hears the voice of Kayaba who encourages him to stand and fight. He also gives Kirito his old admin access which allows him to override Sugo's powers. He then removes Sugo's powers and turns off his NerveGear's pain absorption to a dangerous level, really intent on (rightfully) kicking his ass. Kirito *WHALLOPS* Sugo and tortures him severely before his character is logged out. Kirito logs Asuna and the other survivors out of ALO. Kirito is then greeted by Kabaya in his AI memory form (holy cameo Batman!) and gives him a special item called "The World Seed '' which contains the ability to create new MMO worlds as a parting gift. Kayaba asks Kirito to plant the seed, but ultimately leaves the decision up to him before he disappears for the last time and Kirito respawns back at The World Tree with Yui, who had stored herself in Kirito's NerveGear. Kirito then logs out of ALO and rushes to the hospital to see Asuna. However, Kirito must face the final boss in order to rescue his beloved. Sugo, salty that he got his ass kicked in a video game, decides to pull a pro-gamer move and takes the fight to the real world, attacking Kirito with a knife. Things go a little bit better for Sugo this round, as he's able to land a few cuts on Kirito, but his bad eyesight and burns from his NerveGear frying him make him unable to kill Kirito, which results in him getting his ass kicked a second time. Kirito contemplates killing Sugo but ultimately spares him (see if I was in his shoes, I would've ended Sugo's whole career right then and there). Kirito then meets Asuna in person for the first time and they share a kiss. The Police arrest Sugo, Asuna's father's company is dismantled and ALO is shutdown. Kirito, Asuna and Suguha meet up with Agil, Silica, Lisbeth, Klein and some of the other people we met in SAO where they congratulate Kirito on defeating SAO and ALO. They then examine the World Seed and they discover that it's a new operating system that can revive the MMO genre. Kirito decides to "plant it" and it ends up spawning a whole plethora of new MMOs. Kirito and Suguha seem to make amends as he vows to "properly" defeat the SAO world this time. The gang flies towards the new SAO world and the season ends. *Whew* man, that was a lot to cover, wasn't it? To give my thoughts on The Fairy Dance Arc: while I didn't think it was as good as The Aincrad Arc partly because it was essentially continuing an existing story and had a pretty high bar to clear in order to surpass the first arc. The Fairy Dance Arc added some new and cool things but not to the level of The Aincrad Arc and The Fairy Dance arc was primarily finishing the story of The Aincrad Arc. That all being said, I personally still enjoyed it and thought that it was a fine continuation of the story. I liked the new world and I thought that the ALO story was fine. The Fairy Dance Arc did not share the same flaws as The Aincrad Arc, there wasn't a time skip every episode, in fact, from what I remember there wasn't any time skips at all. The Fairy Dance Arc also had a better villain who was by far the most detestable villain in anime that I've come across so far. That said, while Sugo's motivations were rather basic and cliche, he definitely came across as a more dangerous villain than Kayaba ever did. However, while The Fairy Dance Arc did not share the same flaws as The Aincrad Arc, that doesn't mean it didn’t have flaws of its own. The whole dynamic between Kirito and Suguha was...weird. While I didn't mind them playing it from the "Suguha falls in love with Kirito in game but doesn't know it was him" angle, her feelings extending like that into the real world was a little creepy. It didn't ruin the story for me but it was just weird and unnecessary. It's also a major head scratcher for why Asuna's father would allow Sugo to marry Asuna in the first place, especially while she's comatose. Aside from some other overarching headscratchers, The Fairy Dance Arc was a fine and enjoyable story. Now for the characters (won't be going into every single one): Kirito: For the most part, I enjoyed his character and I thought he was a finely written mc. He is a little cocky and arrogant, though he does have the skill to back it up. He does get humbled a few times in the story and he does learn from those lessons, especially when it comes to the lessons of loss and love. The one thing that is slightly frustrating about his character is that he is dense as a black hole. While he may have only ever had eyes for Asuna, he clearly did have some chemistry with Silicia, Lisbeth, Sachi and regrettably, Leafa/Suguha. He could've scored with any of them very easily. I do find him to be a commendable character as well: he deeply cares about his friends and loved ones, and the fact that he was so willing to put on the NerveGear and jump back into another MMO again after being trapped in SAO for 2 years just on the possibility of Asuna being there, definitely speaks volumes about the kind of person Kirito is. I know if I was in his shoes, I would've definitely been a lot more hesitant. Overall his chemistry with the rest of the cast is great and enjoyable to watch unfold, and it makes for some of the show's best comedic moments. Asuna: I really liked her character! She's definitely one of the only few characters that can put up with Kirito's cockiness. She has great chemistry with him and with the rest of the cast as well. Though we don't go too much into her backstory this season, a lot of things can be inferred and implied about her upbringing and backstory. However, Asuna is certainly a character that is tough is nails and has incredibly strong willpower. She's somewhat of a soft tsundere in her relationship with Kirito (the "You dummy!" line before she punches him in EP 8 comes to mind), she opens up to Kirto and is actually a sweet, kind, caring and resourceful person. She's also a very impressive duelist in her own right and she endures a lot in the show and I'm happy they ended the season with her being reunited with Kirito. Suguha/Leafa: Putting the weird incest stuff to the side, she was a fine character. She's a capable and dependable person in both the real world and in game, and definitely cares about her friends and loved ones. Some of her personality reminds me of Asuna in which she has some soft tsundere moments herself, but she also has Kirito's cockiness and arrogance at times as well. I knew that it was eventually going to be revealed in the story that Kirito and Suguha were going to find out about each other and it was hilarious to see it unfold. I'm glad that she was able to put the weird incest tendencies to the side by the end of the show and have a normal, healthy relationship with Kirito again. Yui: I found her character to be adorable. Though she was primarily a "guide" kind of character, she definitely helped Kirito and Asuna's character growth along by acting as their "child" (which was a little weird but I think they played it off rather well). I also did find it interesting that she was an AI generated by the game to be an emotional support system as such for players. It really helped to bridge the real world and the game world together for the cast. Klein: We don't see a whole lot of him since his debut in the first episode. He kind of fits the "best friend to the MC" role, but at the same time he's not really that as Kirito largely sticks to himself for the most part until he starts running with Asuna. Overall he was a nice character, he had some funny moments and was enjoyable to see on screen. Silica: I also liked her character and found her to be wholesome and adorable. Though we don't really see that much from her in the show. Aside from her debut in Episode 4 and in the final episode, those are really the only times she shows up. She is definitely a sweet character and really cares about her loved ones and pets. She was certainly a wholesome character and I wish she got more screen time. Lisbeth: Also another character that I liked but didn't get a whole lot of screentime. She makes her debut in Episode 7 where she spends the episode hanging out with Kirito, and doesn't really show up again until the end. I found her character to be enjoyable and she had some great chemistry with Kirito. She was also a character that I relate to on some level and I really felt for her when she realized that Kirito and Asuna were together. She was sweet, nice, funny and a little bit of a savage. I wish we get more screen time from her. Sachi: She was sweet and nice. For what it's worth I thought she was a fine character, but I wasn't particularly attached to her. If they had kept her around longer, I might've felt more bad for Kirito and her when she got killed off. I know she exists to give Kirito trauma which would also serve as *character development* for him down the line, and while I felt bad for Kirito having to go through that, I didn't find it to be such an emotionally impactful moment. Agil: I liked his character. He got a little more screen time than the rest of the other side characters and has some good funny moments with Kirito. Though his appearances are rather scarce and he only fights in a couple episodes. But he was a nice and chill kind of character and I wish he was more involved in the story. Kayaba: I didn't find them to be that particularly compelling of a villain. While his disguise as Heathcliff was well conceived and executed, it was a good revelation in the show. While he was undoubtedly a powerful character, his reasons for trapping 10,000 people in an online game to fuel a God complex were a bit underwhelming. It kind of felt like he was a forceful artist forcing the viewer to enjoy his art, and maybe that was the point of his character. I don't know. I didn't dislike his character but I didn't think he was a well-written villain. Sugo: I found Sugo to be a better villain than Kayaba, but he wasn't a major upgrade either. His reasons were more compelling and the story definitely sold him on being someone you can hate (while someone like Kayaba you might not feel strongly one way or the other, with Sugo, you'll definitely feel a certain way about him). However, his motivations were rather bland. Him enslaving the minds of 300 people for some sort of mind control experiment was fine, but him wanting Asuna for some reason and felt like he was entitled to her somehow was weird. Sugo came across as a more dangerous villain than Kayaba did, but they might've oversold the creepy and weird factor. Overall he's probably a textbook villain which is fine since it worked for the story but its rather bland and I've seen villains like that before hundreds of times. To wrap up this already long review, I felt that overall Sword Art Online was a fun and enjoyable story. I also found it particularly relatable as someone whose played MMOs before myself and the game kind of allowed me to visualize what my characters must've been going through the many times I had them do boss raids and dungeons only to die horribly. Plus being trapped in a video game where if you die in the game, you die in the real world too is always a fascinating and interesting set up, and SAO handled that very well. It was a fun watch. It certainly had its weird, creepy and cringey moments, but it didn't take away too much from my watch experience. I can understand why SAO might not be for everybody, but I definitely think a lot of hate it has received is overblown. I thought SAO was a good anime and I'd encourage you to give it a try yourself!
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 
May 30, 2023
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
(Anime)
add
Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
*Author's note: This anime was my first exposure to the Cyberpunk universe, as such, this review is from the POV of someone who has only watched the anime and originally knew next to nothing about Cyberpunk.* Watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a truly amazing and enjoyable experience. In just 10 episodes, it managed to tell a story that was captivating, exciting and a little unexpectedly tragic with a dark and mature tone. I got seriously invested in the anime, and almost every aspect of the story was well executed. For someone who had next to no idea about the Cyberpunk universe, this anime inspired ... me to look more into the lore and even get Cyberpunk 2077. So even if this anime was a massive ploy to draw in more players for the game, it certainly worked on me which I would say is a good thing! Even though this is one of the shortest anime I've watched to date, it managed to wrap up its story with less episodes than some other anime that received more episodes. It just goes to show you that the number of episodes a series has doesn't define its quality, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an excellent case study of that. Though I think it certainly would have benefited from an extra episode or two (and I certainly would've loved to have more), it didn't truly need it and it successfully told the story with the 10 episodes it was given. The production quality of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was phenomenal. The animation, particularly in the fight scenes, were downright enjoyable and fantastic! The art style was a little different from what I was used to, but I quickly got used to it and came to really admire it. The character designs were awesome and it really sold me on the "futuristic, criminal underworld" kind of vibe that Cyberpunk is all about. The English VAs were amazing, and I absolutely loved that they got Giancarlo Esposito to voice Faraday. He was a rock solid pick and I loved his character! I also really liked the fact that Zach Aguilar, who voices Tanjiro in Demon Slayer, also voiced David in this anime. Though Tanjiro occasionally cursed in Demon Slayer, David certainly cursed a lot more and I couldn't help but laugh as I mentally pictured Tanjiro acting like a gangster, I got a real kick out of it! I also really found it really nice that they were able to get Alec Newman, who voiced Adam Smasher in the games, to return to voice the character in the anime. Being that was my first impression of the character, it definitely sold me on how big of a deal this guy was in the Cyberpunk universe (In the game, maybe not so much!). Otherwise all the English VAs were great picks for their characters and sounded exactly as I would've expected going off their designs. I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the music of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in it's own paragraph. Though the intro "This Fffire" and the outro, "Let you down" weren't exactly my style of music, they were both extremely fitting for the show and the animations and visuals for them were rock solid. What ended up being my favorite song from this anime was "I really want to stay at your house". We get to hear it three times throughout the anime and in particularly big moments in the show (once in Episode 2 and twice in Episode 10 during the big finale). If you asked me to give you a song that perfectly sums up the anime, it would be this song. There's no doubt about it. Everything about it is beautiful, and there's some amazing covers out there on YouTube for it as well (girl_dm_ has an amazing cover worth checking out). It's a truly beautiful song that really tells the story of both David and Lucy and their story throughout the events of the anime. It has a great melody, very fitting instruments, and the vocals switch between the natural human voice and this robotic filter that was incredibly well thought out. This song is a masterpiece and I still listen to it even long after I've completed watching the anime (Though I don't get emotional like some people do when they listen to it). The story of CyberPunk: Edgerunners is its own masterpiece: it's a prequel to Cyberpunk: 2077, taking place 1 year before the events in the game. A majority of the story's events take place in Night City, a technological metropolis that is plagued by violence, crime and corruption. The anime really sells you on this idea of an overly corporatized society as just about everything costs money and certain privileges and rights are behind these "packages" that cost even more money. The world building that the anime did in the short amount of time it did was phenomenal. The actual story opens on quite the exciting note: we're greeted by a tall, burly man later identified as James Norris, equipped with all sorts of cybernetics and armed to the teeth going on an absolute rampage against a bunch of police officers. Through the police's chatter the man is revealed to be a "cyberpsycho". He ultimately activates a special spinal implant that allows him to go at super speed (faster than Sonic, probably) and he easily wipes out the remaining police officers. However, a special SWAT unit known as "MAXTAC" intervenes and easily puts down Norris. The whole scene was one hell of an introduction to the anime! We're then introduced to our main protagonist, David Martinez, a young man who had watched Norris's final stand through a "braindance" (not to be confused with lap dance, though it sort of is the same concept). After being briefly greeted by an erotic scene, he's revealed to have been talking to a black market doctor appropriately named Doc who had been streaming Norris's rampage. It is then revealed that David is attending a prestigious school known as Arasaka Academy and that his mother, Gloria is an EMT. The Martinez's live in abject poverty in a crummy apartment but David is able to attend the academy thanks to his mother. True to the anime's theme of an overly corporatized society, David is being forced to pay for software upgrades by the school in order to keep attending, money of which he and his mother don't have. He is able to acquire some illicit software that supposedly does the same thing as the school's, but it ends up crashing the school's system. Gloria agrees to pay for the damages to the school's system and scolds her son on the way back while offering meaningful life advice. However, the Martinez's are caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout which crashes their car and Gloria is badly injured. David isn't even able to see her because he doesn't have the appropriate "package". As Gloria receives care in the hospital, he comes across a spinal implant called a "Sandevistan '' in his mother's belongings which coincidentally belonged to James Norris. He tries to sell it to Doc but he offers an unsatisfyingly low price for it. David returns to school where he's harassed by a guy named Katsuo (who also happens to be the headmaster's son), who gives him crap for crashing the school's systems and makes fun of Gloria. He further implies that she's a prostitute and that's how David is even able to attend the academy. David squares up with Katsuo, but ends up getting folded like a lawn chair because of some special karate card he has in him (which probably has the Karate Kid movie on it anyway). After getting his ass handed to him, David gets more bad news learning that Gloria has died, leaving him behind the iconic yellow EMT jacket. David, left quite literally broken and broke, decides to have the Sandevistan installed. The installation process is brutal as David is left quite literally wide awake (And without anesthesia! Yikes!) as his spine is removed and the Sandevistan is installed. David returns to school and squares up again against Katsuo in a re-match where he easily gets revenge using his enhanced strength and speed thanks to the Sandevistan. He beats up Katsuo in full view of the school's security cameras and is subsequently expelled. However, Katsuo's father, Tanaka, who is also an Arasaka Executive, notes that David was able to use the cyberware without any apparent side effects and thus becomes a person of interest for Arasaka as they view him as a test subject for their latest product. David becomes a drifter and crosses paths with a pick pocketer who had tried to steal one of his chips that are in his neck and uses the Sandevistan to catch her. She pulls him aside where she briefly seduces him before pinning him to the wall and finding out about David's Sandevistan. She then invites him to be her partner as they steal chips from Arasaka employees, to which David agrees. The pick pocketer then reveals her name as Lucy. Lucy actually made her debut in the first episode as a sort of background character when David was heading to school and where we see a black silhouette and light purple hair traveling through the crowd which briefly catches David's attention before losing her. After a night of pickpocketing the subway, David collapses from overuse of the Sandevistan. Lucy gets him medical attention and the EMT in the ambulance ends up trying to rob David of his Sandevistan. Lucy then saves David from the EMT trying to rob them and she takes him to Doc where he explains that there's a real cost to using cyberware, especially something as powerful as the Sandevistan. Doc gives David some immunosuppressants to help combat the side effects of overusing his cyberware and warns that he can use it probably 2-3 times a day despite his unusual high tolerance. Lucy then takes David to her apartment where she reveals her dream of someday moving to the moon and leaving Night City behind. Lucy then partakes in a braindance with David where she shows him the moon's surface and where they can experience its low gravity. This is also the first time we hear the song "I really want to stay at your house" and it fits the scene perfectly. Lucy subtly flirts with David the whole time and just when things are going a little too well, the braindance gets interrupted by the arrival of a gang of Edgerunners led by Maine. After David is pulled out of the braindance, Maine explains to David that his Sandevistan was originally meant to be his as his late mother had promised to give it to him, and also reveals that she was one of his associates. David reveals that he's Gloria's son and offers to work for the gang, pointing to his high tolerance of the Sandevistan. Maine, deciding to honor his friendship with Gloria and intrigued by David's potential, decides to bring him aboard and gives him the chance to prove himself worthy. Lucy is then revealed to be in league with Maine and after realizing the whole braindance was a set up, loses his trust in her and returns home. David then gets acquainted with the rest of Maine's gang: Kiwi (the primary "netrunner"), Dorio (Maine's girlfriend), Pilar (the gang's tech guy), Rebecca (Pilar's sister and the resident loli gunslinger) and Falco (the gang's usual getaway driver). David's first mission is to partake in a heist to steal navigation data on an Arasaka executive from his chief of security, a guy named Maxim. Rebecca "accidentally" spills her drink on Maxim at a bar he frequents and distracts him while David and Lucy break into his limbo to steal the data. The plan ends up going awry and they are forced to steal the limbo. They're chased and eventually cornered by a street biker gang sent by Maxim, where they make their stand against them until Maine comes to their rescue. David is officially inducted as a member of Maine's gang and becomes an edgerunner. He meets the gang's fixer, a man named Faraday who works for Arasak's corporate rival known as Militech. It's revealed that the navigation data stolen is being used to try to track Takana's movements. David receives a message from the academy offering him to return but he turns it down, fully embracing his new life of crime. It's around this time as well that Rebecca seems to take a romantic interest in David, but as it's seen that he seems to be more into Lucy than her, reluctantly sits by as they grow closer together. David proves to be a very eager recruit for the gang as he ends up running errands for Pilar and Rebecca, takes driving lessons from Maine and jogs and pickpocketing missions with Lucy. Overtime David comes to feel at home after undergoing several missions with them. He comes to realize he has genuinely fallen in love with Lucy but is unsure if she feels the same way back. The series begins its dark turn where after a night out on a bar, Pilar begins to harass a homeless guy taking a leak. Consistent with nature's law of "fuck around and find out", Pilar fucked around and found out by suddenly getting his face blown off by the homeless guy who also turns out to be a cyberpsycho. The Gang does battle with the cyberpsycho, with Rebecca instantly being thrown into a rage. They end up barely surviving the encounter and are saved by David's use of the Sandevistan. David and Lucy then spend some time together after the battle and she reveals her dream of going to the moon is genuine. David vows to take her to the moon and they kiss, officially beginning their relationship. The gang continues their efforts to track down Tanaka. Kiwi discovers that he indulges in illicit braindances made by Jimmy Kurosaki, who David is familiar with. They attempt to go after Jimmy, but he ends up turning the tables and kidnaps David instead. He then begins to torture him through horrific braindances and attempts to induce cyberpsychosis on David but he is rescued by Lucy and Dorio. Jimmy is forced to lure Takana in but he ominously warns David that his Sandevistan will make him go cyberpsycho. The gang is able to get the drop on Takana and capture him, but Jimmy is killed in the crossfire, with his last moments being to ominously smile at David. The gang quickly evacuates their hostage as a Trauma Team arrives to try to rescue Takana. Continuing the ominous trend in the show, Maine begins to exhibit signs of cyberpsychosis. He begins to space out, hallucinate, struggles with controlling his implants and his temper. Dorio tries to get Maine to agree to "bulk down" once the mission is over but he insists he's fine. It gets bad enough to where he suddenly snaps and attacks Kiwi when she's doing a dive into Takana's mind to extract information from him. With Kiwi out of commission, the gang turns to Lucy as she's the only other netrunner available and she begrudgingly agrees to do it. Takana regains consciousness and begs David to release him, revealing that he's the one who rescinded David's expulsion from the academy and tells him the edgerunners will kill him after they get what they want from him, which puts David in a bit of an ethical dilemma and he hesitates in putting Takana back to sleep which causes his implants to short out which risks killing Lucy as well. Dorio is able to disconnect Lucy and a Trauma Team arrives to extract Takana, leading to a massive shootout. Maine, teetering on the edge of cyberpsychosis, sends David and Lucy to get away while he and Dorio distract the authorities in the meantime. Maine gives in to his cyberpsychosis and spaces out in the heat of the battle. Dorio sacrifices herself to protect Maine from a fatal shot. With Maine and Dorio taking too long, David uses his Sandevistan to try to rescue Maine, but he finds Maine about to burn Dorio's corpse. Maine tells David to keep on running as fast as he can and finally accepts his fate, blowing himself up, Dorio and the Trauma Team. David retrieves Maine's arms (something that Maine had promised to give him if he ever died) and he and Lucy tearfully escape. The whole scene was emotionally charged and beautifully executed and Maine had a send off that he deserved. There's then a time skip in the show which happens a few months after the failed Takana heist. David has taken Maine's old mantle as leader of the gang. Lucy refuses to rejoin the gang, claiming she's still "messed up" from Maine's death. In the time since David has taken control of the gang, he has grown to be an infamous edgerunner himself, having Maine's arms and various other upgrades installed and has a more bitter disposition than the kind-hearted, optimistic boy we once knew. The second half of the season opens up with David, Rebecca, Falco and a new edgerunner undertaking a mission to rescue a girl from the vicious Maelstrom Gang. They end up rescuing the girl from the gang, but the new guy ends up falling victim to a trap and meets a gruesome end. During this mission we see just how far David's abilities have come and he's certainly become a talented edgerunner in his own right. David is then approached by Faraday who offers him up a test job to see if he's worthy of completing the job he had originally assigned to Maine and is encouraged to try to recruit Lucy again. David returns to his new decked out place that he shares with Lucy and he tries to get her to join back but she refuses. He then confronts her about her past as she's been coy about her life up until now and Lucy reveals that she was a child netrunner for Arasaka who had tasked her and her peers with retrieving old data from the old internet. It was a dangerous job as it was plagued with all sorts of malware and rogue AIs that killed many of them. One day, Lucy and her surviving peers decided to escape and she narrowly survived the escape attempt where she ended up in Night City where she linked up with Kiwi who introduced her to Maine's gang. Lucy admits that she initially cared for nobody else but herself but when David came along she learned to care for others and worries about the toll his new cybernetic implants are taking on him. David has begun to exhibit some early signs of cyberpsychosis as he is a lot more brutal with his kills and once spaced out when he was in a shootout with a gang when he was with Rebecca. Meanwhile, Lucy kills an Arasaka edgerunner who was trying to retrieve lost data that was deleted from Takana's records. David agrees to take on Faraday's assignment and raids an Arasaka lab. He kills the lab director and brutally murders an innocent bystander unprovoked, further showing signs of cyberpsychosis. Arasaka investigates the death of their personnel and pins it on Millitech. They target Faraday, who narrowly escapes. With Millitech essentially hanging him out to dry for his lack of results, Faraday switches sides and joins up with Arasaka who tasks him with finding out who has been killing their agents and hiding their data. David begins to physically suffer more from the effects of cyberpsychosis and is haunted by the killing of the innocent bystander as she reminded him of his mother. Lucy takes him to see Doc where he recommends scaling back his implants, causing an irritated David to lash out and attack him. Doc reluctantly hands David the medicine he needs but warns that he is on an unstoppable march to cyberpsychosis as the medicine will sooner or later stop working. David tries to recruit Lucy one more time but gets the same answer. David contemplates breaking up with her which causes Lucy to panic and fight to keep the relationship. She assures him that she'll rejoin once she's "taken care of something". Meanwhile, Faraday buys off Kiwi who sells out Lucy as being responsible for the death of several Arasaka agents and the one hiding all data regarding David and his Sandevistan use. Lucy tracks down an Arasaka agent who was supposedly looking for Takana's data, but it ends up being a trap set up by Faraday and Kiwi who apprehended her for Arasaka. After interrogating her, Lucy owns up to being responsible for hiding Takana's data and its revealed that Arasaka had been eyeing David as a potential test subject for their new piece of cyberware known as "The Cyber Skeleton". Faraday then assigns David and the gang a mission to assault an Arasaka convoy containing the Cyber Skeleton with the hopes of capturing him and turning them over to Arasaka. David, Rebecca, Kiwi and Falco assault the convoy and manage to commandeer the truck containing the cargo they were assigned to obtain. After commandeering the truck, they are assaulted by Millitech's forces who pin them down. David, against Rebecca's advice as he continues to inch towards full-on cyberpsychosis, and through Faraday pretending to be Lucy encouraging to put on the cyberware, puts on the Cyber Skeleton and uses it to wipe out Militech's forces in a display of its power. Lucy briefly escapes and warns David about Faraday's trap but she is quickly recaptured. With the Cyber Skeleton equipped, David vows to rescue Lucy and enlists Falco and Rebecca in the effort. Kiwi is later outed as a traitor and flees. David, Rebecca and Falco make their way to Arasaka Tower where Lucy is being held, fighting off NCPD, Arasaka and Militech in the process. Through David's repeated use of the Cyber Skeleton, he inches closer to cyberpsychosis and the medicine he's been given by Doc no longer works. Rebecca, who had feelings for David, comes to the conclusion that she can't help David and the only person who can would be Lucy. She vows to help reunite the two for his sake in a pretty emotionally charged scene. With Lucy secure and David on his way, Kiwi decides to bounce and tries to cut ties with Faraday, however, he decides to kill her in order to tie up loose ends. Before Kiwi meets her end at the hand of Arasaka's agents, she tips off to David that Lucy is being held at Arasaka Tower. The trio assault the tower with David storming the tower solo to find Lucy. Realizing that the situation has incessantly escalated, Arasaka deploys their best asset: Adam Smasher, to deal with David. it's also revealed that the Cyber Skeleton was ultimately intended to go to Smasher. David storms the tower, rescuing Lucy and severely injuring Faraday. David goes to confront the Arasaka Agents when Adam Smasher intervenes. After some trash talking, David gets distracted when the Trauma Team arrives to rescue Faraday. David gets distracted and Smasher wounds him, causing David to fully give in to his cyberpsychosis and lashing out in all directions, killing several Arasaka Agents, Faraday and The Trauma Team. Smasher is easily able to match David's Sandevistan speed and launches him out the window. Lucy is able to briefly restore David's sanity (through the power of love, all things are possible!) as Lucy laments David's choice to put on the Cyber Skeleton. David tells Lucy he has nothing left to live for but tells her she still has a dream and he was glad to protect her. Adam Smasher then pursues them on their descent down. Rebecca and Falco engage in a shootout with Arasaka, NCPD and MaxTac as David and Lucy arrive to be extracted. The gang's reunion is cut short as Smasher stomps on Rebecca, killing her and causing the gang to fall into the level below. He then one man punches Falco, disabling him, as David tries to take on Smasher. However, Smasher easily outclasses David and with him suffering from the effects of cyberpsychosis, isn't able to put up much of a fight. Lucy tries to hack Smasher's systems but he forcibly breaks the connection, wounding her. Falco tries to drive off with Lucy but Smasher takes aim, but is unable to take the shot as David uses his powers to distract Smasher. Smasher proceeds to tear David limb from limb as Lucy begs Falco to turn back for David, but he sorrowfully reveals that he had made a promise to David to have them escape without him. The duo escape, but Smasher beats David to a pulp. As he stands over David victorious, he muses that he had some fun after all and offers to make David into a "construct". David tells him that he doesn't care, prompting Smasher to somewhat reluctantly execute him. Some time later, Lucy is able to fulfill her dream and move to the moon. As she walks the surface, she laments how David wasn't able to join her for the occasion and remembers the braindance they shared when she first showed her the dream. Lucy essentially has a "I achieved my dream, but at what cost?" type moment as she embraces the sunlight, and the show ends there with "I really want to stay at your house" playing throughout this last section of the final episode, ending it on a very bittersweet note. Now time to talk about our edgerunners! David: He was a very-well written mc. The story did a great job chronicling his progression from a sweet, nice, optimistic and caring kid to a battle-hardened, cold, borderline insane individual with nothing left to lose. David was a character that you can truly say was born on the wrong side of the tracks and was a victim of his circumstances. Him losing his mom effectively sealed his fate. The anime also did a great job showing his progression with the use of the Sandevistan and his progression as an expert edgerunner. Clearly, the writers had a plan for him and though the death flags for him were essentially planted for him from the get-go with James Norris's character (as they ended up using the same Sandevistan), it was truly tragic and emotionally charged to see him killed off. Though they interestingly handled his death differently than some of the other characters. When a major character in the series dies, usually we're greeted to a brutal replay of their death from different angles. We hear the sound of Smasher's gun as he shoots David, but the transition is a splash of blood as it switches to an overhead long shot of the Arasaka Tower Complex so we don't actually see Smasher shoot David (though it's more than implied that Smasher did kill him, and the wiki confirms it as such!), and that's led to theories that he actually survived. Given that the creators themselves said that they don't intend to continue this story, it seems that David is indeed dead and that the story of this group of edgerunners has been concluded as they're all mostly dead. I definitely felt for David, he was a phenomenal character with great character development and he went out in a blaze of glory. He has some great quotes in the anime as well, mostly towards Lucy about not giving up on your dreams which are both motivational and inspiring. The one thing I wish we got to see from him is him actually stepping up to lead Maine's gang and spending more time with him as he progressed into becoming a veteran edgerunner as the time skip basically skips over all this. Lucy: She's definitely the girlfriend you'd always fantasize about, but there's obviously more to her character. Lucy was a great character and also experienced some great development over the course of an anime, going from a selfish and petty thief to someone who had compassion for someone other than herself. She also had a truly tragic backstory and her goal of moving to the moon was certainly realistic and compelling for her character. I am glad that she survived the events of the show and was able to fulfill her dream, but it was at a heavy cost and you can tell in the final minutes of the show how much people like David's and Maine's sacrifices meant with her so she can finally experience her dream. It turns out to be a bittersweet moment as she was able to finally enjoy the moon, but wasn't able to experience it with her loved ones. She has a flirty, "dommy mommy" kind of vibe in the early episodes, especially when she's teasing David, but behind that and her originally cold, selfish disposition, she is truly someone who cares about her friends and loved ones. She has some memorable quotes throughout the anime and has some great action sequences. The only thing I'd ding her character on was following Maine's passing, she wasn't more direct for her reasons not getting back with the edgerunners and should've been more forthcoming about Arasaka's interest in him. Though I don't think it would've changed a whole lot, she definitely should've told him. Rebecca: She was a fun, enjoyable, hilarious and wild character. She's the kind of girl best friend that would certainly make a good girlfriend too, and she has some of the best comedic moments in the anime. What's interesting about Rebecca is that she originally wasn't in the show but was written in as a last minute edition, and man what was that fantastic call! Every moment she was on screen, it was chaotic, epic and hilarious which is definitely the hallmark of her character. Her romantic interest in David also added an interesting love triangle perspective to the show, though they never did much with it. I was really sad when they killed her off, but to be killed by Adam Smasher is its own medal of honor. Kiwi: I enjoyed her character, and she was a good choice to betray the gang to Faraday. She definitely has that "expert criminal" kind of vibe and she also states a couple of times throughout the anime not to trust anybody which turned out to be rather prophetic. Kiwi wasn't a major character and didn't have a whole lot of screen time, but she was a solid supporting character and definitely made things interesting when she betrayed the group. Her change of heart was also nice to see but it did come too little too late. I figured that after she betrayed David and the gang, her death was inevitable, though I was somewhat surprised that it was Faraday's men that took her out. Maine: I liked his character. Though he's not the best mentor figure, he is the closest thing that David ever has to a real father figure in his life it seems and he definitely cares for and takes after his crew. His descent into cyberpsychosis was tragic to see and also a great foreshadowing moment for David and his eventual fate. His final send off was emotionally charged and I was sad to see him go, but he got the best fate he could've in his situation. We weren't ever given his backstory and only received glimpses of his early life through his cyberpsychosis episodes. I wish the anime dived into his backstory a little bit more, but overall Maine was a well written character and fulfilled his role in the story as David's mentor/father figure well. Dorio: I gotta be honest with her character design: I thought she was a guy at first. She doesn't get a whole lot of screentime, but she was an enjoyable side character and it was sad seeing her get killed protecting Maine as she was going through a cyberpsychosis episode. There's not a whole lot to say about her. Falco: We don't see a whole lot of him but he was also an enjoyable side character. I was a little bit surprised that he survived but he was a nice and enjoyable character so I was glad that he did. Like some of the other characters we don't get much from him in terms of his backstory but he is shown to be someone that's dependable and stood by David, Lucy and Rebecca until the end which is always admirable. Gloria: She was a sweet, nice and hard-working woman who wanted nothing but the best for her son. Her death was tragic and she almost would've certainly disapproved of the path he took afterwards, but he did die protecting his loved ones so I'm sure that's something she would've understood. Doc: I liked his character, he was funny and entertaining. We didn't see a whole lot of him though and mostly exists for foreshadowing purposes or to provide information about the world of Cyberpunk. Faraday: He was a great villain. Ambitious, cunning, manipulative and opportunistic, he had a lot of great moments throughout the anime and definitely got the death he deserved. I never trusted his character and figured he'd end up being an adversary in the end, so I'm glad I ended up being right on that. Adam Smasher: A phenomenal and intimidating villain. He's only in the final episode for a brief time but he's someone who definitely left an impression. He had a "Darth Vader" kind of vibe to him and was an imposing and overwhelming presence. Smasher was the kind of character where he came, he saw, he messed things up, and left. He was a great final boss and his contrast with David's character was well done and very poetic. It left me wishing he had been on screen longer but he fit the role of a "final boss" type villain very well. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a truly phenomenal anime. It was very well written and highly enjoyable to watch. It had great characters, solid writing, great action scenes and truly heartbreaking moments. Cyberpunk's ending is definitely on my list for most bittersweet endings and though I hope they continue the character's stories in some fashion, I'm more than satisfied with how the story ended and with what we got. It's definitely an anime that left a very strong impression with me and is one that I would rank very highly, just outside my top 10 and it's something I'd definitely put in a top 15 list. There are some "fan service" type moments but it never felt forced and only ever added on to the scene. For as good as Cyberpunk was, it wasn't entirely flawless. I found that there was some nitpick worthy moments such as Lucy being more upfront with her past and Arasaka's interest in David, and I wasn't a huge fan of the time skip (not that I'm big on those to begin with), but Cyberpunk handled the time skip well and it finished its story very strongly in 10 episodes, a lot better than some other anime that I've watched that are given 12 episodes or more. I do think an extra episode or two would've definitely added on to the story but I don't think it would've been essential to the story. Overall though, Cyberpunk was a well written story with a solid execution. It managed to leave a strong enough of an impression that got me interested in the Cyberpunk universe so I would say this anime is a great introduction for it! I gladly recommend this anime to anyone who's interested in the Cyberpunk universe or those who're looking for a bittersweet sci-fi action show. It may only be 10 episodes, but it certainly didn't feel that short and it's a very enjoyable story! To end off this review, I'll just leave you with the verse that I think best sums up this anime's experience: "So, what do you wanna do, what's your point-of-view? There's a party soon, do you wanna go? A handshake with you, what's your point-of-view? I'm on top of you, I don't wanna go, 'Cause I really wanna stay at your house! And I hope this works out! But you know how much you broke me apart, I'm done with you, I'm ignoring you, I don't wanna know..."
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 
May 27, 2023
Satsuriku no Tenshi
(Anime)
add
Not Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
If I could sum up Angels of Death in one word it'd have to be: "weird". The anime has a pretty interesting premise and it starts off on a rather strong note. However, as you get further into this 16 episode anime, the flaws become more glaring. Despite its simple premise, the plot slowly unravels as the motivation of our emo (I'm not kidding when I say this, she quite literally is) heroine, Rachel Gardner, begins to fly in the face of basic reason and logic. Essentially, Rachel wants to die and she wants our other mc, Isaac "Zack" Foster, to be the one ... to kill her because of a promise they make. Okay, fair enough. Why does she want to die? Because she killed her abusive dad...in an act of blatant self-defense....yeah... Since this act of killing is a sin in Rachel's eyes, the only way she can properly atone for it is for someone to take her own life. She can't commit suicide, because that would be a sin too. The logic here is faulty and quite frankly stupid. I understand that she's a mentally unstable character, but this is lackluster writing at work here. Once her reasoning for her motivation is finally fully explained, it just thoroughly confused me. To top it all off: they decided to end the anime on a rather ambiguous note which was immensely disappointing in the face of a story that had lost all its steam by that point. The ending was this anime's last chance to save itself and it opted to dig its own grave further. It might just be me, but if you base your story on one character dying, you'd want to show said character's death in all its glory, right? Angels of Death opted to end the story in the worst and most unsatisfyingly way possible. It's honestly a shame. While it can certainly be assumed that Zack killed Rachel and granted her wish, her death (if it even happens) is never shown and nobody is ever found so you can never know for sure. The final shot is quite literally a splatter of blood on the windowsill (presumably from when Zack broke into Rachel's room) and Zack's (bloodless) knife on the floor. Though he did have his scythe so he presumably would've used that if he even did kill Rachel. The one thing that was consistently good about this anime was its production value. The animation, art style and character design were all solid. The anime would also change up its art style sometimes for comedic effect, such as in one scene where they convert Zack and Rachel into chibis which was adorable to see. The English VAs did a fine job and were good fits for their characters. The intro, "Vital" was alright. I didn't find it to be a particularly memorable song but it did the job it needed to and the visuals were cool as it showed off all the characters. However, I really enjoyed the outro, "Pray", as it mostly centers around Rachel and the religious theme that surrounds the anime. It also takes us through all the locations in the facility where the story takes place which was cool to see. The song had a really catchy beat and had a fitting somber tone to it. I still listen to this song on occasion, so I at least got something out of this anime! I also did find it ironic that each episode is named after a piece of dialogue that gets spoken in the episode, I found that very fitting as well! The plot for Angels of Death starts off strong but loses steam the longer you watch. The story begins as we're introduced to the main protagonist, Rachel Gardner, a 13 year old girl who is sent to a hospital after "witnessing" a murder for counseling. She is brought under the care of Dr. Danny Dickens who is supposed to help her psychologically recover from the experience. Rachel then wakes up in an unfamiliar area that looks like an abandoned city with no memory of how she got there. Over an intercom it's decreed that she's some sort of "sacrifice". She tries to search for a way out but is suddenly ambushed by a crazed man in bandages wielding a scythe. Rachel narrowly avoids death and escapes via elevator and seems to get back to the hospital. She reunites with Danny, and it becomes clear that he's an eye-fetish creep. Once Rachel picks up on Danny being another insane psychopath, she tries to escape but is cornered. Danny makes a comment about reuniting her with her parents in hell, which seems to trigger some lost memories for her. Just when it seems like she's a goner, the bandage guy from earlier busts into the room and stabs Danny, seemingly killing him. He then goes to kill Rachel, but ends up losing his bloodlust over the fact that she's apparently not afraid to die. Danny tries to get back down to where he comes from but is unable to. The mysterious intercom voices then declares bandage man as a new sacrifice as he apparently broke some rule that he wasn't supposed to leave his floor. He then resolves to leave the whole building as he tries to force the elevator open, Rachel timidly approaches him and asks him if he could kill her (...wut?). The bandage man then introduces himself as Zack. The two strike up an agreement: if Rachel (who is far smarter than Zack, who is a self-proclaimed idiot), can help the two of them escape the building, he will kill her provided that she "makes a face worth killing". To seal the deal, Rachel makes Zack swear to God that he will be the one to kill her. Thus a type of "my brains and your brawns" duo is formed. The duo advances to the next floor which is a graveyard kind of floor. Eerily, they find Rachel's name written on one of the tombstones. They split up to look for clues and Rachel comes across a secret room containing a mysterious letter in which the writer claims to know her "true wish". She also finds out Zack is a serial killer, which doesn't seem to bother her. Zack destroys the tombstones out of boredom which accidentally opens up a passageway into the next room. Rachel tells Zack that she knows about his past, and simply reiterates her desire to be killed by his hand when he presses her on the subject. They are then confronted by a boy wearing a pumpkin for a head: Eddy Mason. Eddy reveals that he has fallen in love with Rachel at first sight (aww how wholesome!) and wants to kill her and bury her so they could be together forever (uh...I guess that's wholesome?). Rachel repeats her desire that Zack kills him, and after a lengthy chase and battle, Zack kills Eddie and buries him in the grave intended for Rachel (how poetic). The duo then advance to the next floor which resembles a prison. Zack and Rachel then meet the floor's boss: Catherine "Cathy" Ward, who gives off some Junko from Danganronpa type vibes. She subjects the pair to a variety of sick and twisted games and booby traps, involving an electric chair (which Zack idiotically sits in to rest), gas rooms and a miniature house puzzle that mimics Zack's abusive upbringing, but the duo manage to survive by working together. It's here where we learn about Zack's tragic backstory in this little arc certainly makes me have some sympathy for the guy. He certainly didn't have it easy growing up (being abandoned by his mother after her lover had lit him on fire, forcing him to wear bandages to hide the burns) and then being turned over to abusive foster parents where he eventually snapped and started his serial killer career by murdering the foster parents. The final obstacle before confronting Cathy is a classic "guess the poison" type scenario in which one drug is harmless and the other is dangerously hallucinatory. Zack decides to take both. He succumbs to the effects of the drug as he is forced to relive his past and is about to kill Rachel but she manages to reason with him after reminding him of their promise. However this only works temporarily and Zack ends up chasing Rachel into the room where Cathy is. Cathy tries to goad Rachel into killing Zack, but refuses. Zack then stabs himself in an effort to control his murderous impulses brought on by the drugs after Rachel's speech saying it's everyone's choice to be kill or be killed, but it turns out the gun was unloaded. Cathy comes out from her safe room and threatens to kill her and torture Zack, but she pulls out a gun and vibe checks Cathy in what was a pretty badass scene. Zack then collects himself and strikes down Cathy. Rachel tells Zack why she was brought here in the first place and he passes out from his wounds. With Zack slowly bleeding to death, Rachel is forced to strike out on her own to find help for Zack. She finds herself in a church room and meets the floor master: Abraham Gray. Rachel asks Abraham for help but is told that the only medical supplies here are back down on Danny's floor. The two then make a deal that he will lead her back to Danny's floor to get the medical supplies for Zack in exchange for Abraham subjecting her to tests of her character. Zack also additionally requests that Rachel retrieves his knife. Abraham instructs Rachel to power on the elevator and they backtrack to Cathy's floor, where she encounters zombies but dispatches them using Cathy's traps. Rachel then finds Cathy's body missing and she begins trolling her from the grave calling her a sinner (like she has room to talk). Rachel and Abraham then make it back onto Eddy's floor where she crushes a bunch of hands that pop out from the graves. Rachel also finds Eddy's body missing as his ghost haunts her asking her about her supposed lack of compassion. They finally make it back onto Danny's floor and Rachel goes 3 for 3 on missing bodies, and even better, the medicine is missing too. Meanwhile, we got more backstory on Zack where he is taken in by a kindly blind old man after he murders a woman for accidentally splashing him with her car. The old man shows genuine care for Zack and provides him food and a safe place to rest. Zack kills another random person to strike fear into the old man, but he's unphased for some reason. However, he later learns that he was mugged and killed. Zack then realizes he has a fetish for crushing happiness after he avenged the old man by killing his murderers. Danny, somehow alive, then pulls up to an unconscious Zack and debates killing him. Zack wakes up and finds Danny alive, who survived because of literal plot armor. He offers Zack the medicine he needs in exchange for gouging out Rachel's eyes, but he refuses and Danny leaves him to die. Rachel visits Zack's place and finds the sorry state that he lives in, retrieving his knife and realizes that she doesn't really know that much about him. As they journey back up, Grey questions Rachel's motives and somehow gets the conclusion that she's a selfish witch and questions her belief in God, causing her to have a mental breakdown as she runs off to try to find Zack. Zack then fights off a giant snake which leaves him even worse for wear. Rachel reunites with Zack and he lets her keep the knife as she goes to track down Danny. Rachel runs into Abraham who reveals that he has the medicine that Zack needs, but decides to subject her to the Salem Witch Trials in order to try to figure out who she is. The witnesses against Rachel are Eddy, Cathy and Danny, all who quite literally tried to kill her for no reason and could hardly be seen as fair judges of character and has no witnesses in her corner. It's hardly a fair trial. Honestly, was she not supposed to kill them or defend herself in any way? I honestly don't get what the anime is trying to tell me here and it was around this point where the plot starts to unravel because of sheer stupidity. Anyways Rachel gets sentenced to be burned at the stake for some reason and as she prepares to be burnt at the stake, she reflects on her relationship with Zack and decides that he's her God (...wut?). She cuts herself free and returns to the present after deducting this was all a drug induced hallucination. She confronts Abraham and forces him to surrender the medicine. Rachel reunites with Zack and patches him, declaring to him that he is her God (and even Zack is like: lol wut?). The pair advance to the final floor in the building which begins to look all too familiar to Rachel. She begins to grow hysterical and begs Zack to kill her as he investigates the floor further. Rachel ends up fainting from her hysteria and Danny arrives to lock Zack out of the room, only offering to unlock the door should he learn everything about Rachel's past. Zack begrudgingly complies and does his best to avoid as many death traps as possible, but ends up falling into a spike pit only to be saved in the nick of time by Abraham who reveals that he controls the entire building and he's essentially running a giant social experiment to observe those who claim to believe in God. "Sacrifices" are sent to each floor to endure the floor's various trials that are overseen by the "Angels" of that floor. Abraham helps Zack along and he finds a newspaper and later Danny's interview of Rachel recounting the details of Rachel's parents' deaths. Rachel's parents had a toxic relationship to say the least and they hated her just as much as they hated each other, so she was made EMO long before the events of the show it would seem. Rachel's dad one day snapped and stabbed Rachel's mother to death, and went to kill Rachel herself before she shot and killed him in self-defense. Rachel, completely broken by this point, then stitched her parent's bodies together in order to create "the perfect family" and left it like that for a week before the police arrived. He also learns of some of the other messed up things she did, let's just say she really likes stitching. Danny then goes into his own messed up backstory and how he got his eye-fetish, in which his mother committed suicide because he was born without an eye. He became obsessed with Rachel's because her mother also had blue eyes like her. Zack then pieces together that Rachel is the "angel" of this floor (which was a well pulled off twist). Danny confirms this and reveals Rachel wanted to subject herself to this trial after she had found renewed faith in God after reading the bible. Realizing that Rachel had lied to him (and it was established early on that he *HATES* liars, even serial killers have standards I guess), he calls off the deal and declares that he isn't her God. Rachel becomes distraught and tries to shoot Zack but misses. Zack then chases Rachel, dodging the various traps and finally cornering her, asking her if she intends to kill him (ah the hunter becomes the hunted!). However, Danny ends up cornering both of them and Rachel shoots him instead. Rachel affirms her commitment to die by Zack's hand for the 100th time, but is conflicted because she has once more lost her faith in God and that in her warped mind, there was nobody left to forgive her for her crimes (the sewing up bit, she might've gone too far for sure. But killing her father? Girl that was self-defense! Unless if that doesn't exist in this anime.) Zack brings Rachel back to her senses and the two renew their partnership. They go back to Abraham's floor where they encounter him yet again. Abraham asks her once more about her identity and intentions, with Rachel telling him she has finally accepted herself and will take responsibility for her own choices. Abraham accepts her answer and not so subtly points out where the escape route is. Danny's body goes missing again and Rachel's gun is destroyed. After bashing through the stained glass, the building's self-destruction sequence activates. The building begins to burn down, and Zack briefly panics because of his PTSD from being burned. But he bashes through the steel bars blocking their path and the remaining obstacles, but breaks his trusty scythe in the process. They finally reach the final floor. Rachel asks Zach if he still wants to kill her, and he re-affirms his promise for the 100th time. Danny, who refuses to die, pulls up on his OPS and shoots Rachel in the back. Danny reveals that he's the one who activated the self-destruct sequence and intends to kill everyone in the building, trying to taunt Zack that he won't be the one to kill her. Zack then takes a principled stand saying he doesn't care if it doesn't end up being fulfilled or not, just that a vow was made and he's doing his best to honor it because if he didn't he'd be a liar (and become the very thing he swore to destroy!). Jealous by Rachel simping over Zack, he shoots her again and prepares to kill Zack, but is dropped by Abraham with a good ol' fashioned crossbow to the back. Abraham allows Zack to escape with Rachel as he prevents Danny from stopping them from escaping. Abraham has a final conversation with Danny in which he reveals that he's fascinated by the Zack's and Rachel's relationship in how they supposedly changed each other. Danny and Abraham then presumably die as the building collapses around them. Zack escapes with Rachel just in the nick of time and surrenders to the police and hands Rachel over to paramedics. Rachel is brought to a mental care facility where it becomes clear to the audience she's faking her progress and longs for Zack to kill her. As it turns out Zack is on death throw for all the murders he committed. The anime ends when Rachel is laying in her room and Zack breaks in to fulfill his promise. With the police having surrounded the building and closing in, Zack drags Rachel out the window with him. Rachel tearfully and graciously thanks Zack for honoring his promise, and Zack tells her to shut up and smile. The final shot is of the broken glass and blood stain on the windowsill, with Zack's bloodless knife on the floor. (Yeah I thought it was unsatisfying too). Now for the characters! Rachel: I never really understood her reason for wanting to die. At first I thought it was because she wanted to be reunited with her parents, but once we find out about her backstory, it seems that she never really cared for them (I mean she did kill her dad). Then I thought it was because she had simply given up on living (which is kind of the case as far as I can decipher), but it's through some misplaced belief that she committed a sin by defending herself from her father *WHO WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO KILL HER* and thus the only way she can be absolved for it is through her life being taken. She can't kill herself though because that'd be a sin, which seems redundant and pointless. If you think you deserve to die because you committed a sin, then there's not really much point in committing another sin since you're already condemned to die. Now granted Rachel did some other messed up things like stitching a dog up and stitching her parent's corpses together, but she makes the sin out to be killing her father. It'd be a sin if it was outright cold-blooded murder and maybe that's how she sees it through her interpretation of the bible but that's not reality. I don't know, Rachel has some pretty weird logic and it's hard to follow it. She's clearly a person who is in great need of mental help given all the trauma she's experienced. She's not a sane character and perhaps the best way to analyze her is to take the logic out of it. Aside from that, I thought she was an interesting and intriguing character. I did like the twist they did in which she was "the angel" of the final floor and the revelation that she was responsible for her parent's deaths (both of which I kinda saw coming but its nice to be proven right!). Overall her backstory was fine, but it got ruined by her weird motivation and reasoning. She has great chemistry with Zack and they undoubtedly grow closer, and their interactions did make for some comedy at times. It feels like they have a sort of sibling relationship but it sort of felt like there was a romantic undertone to their relationship, which uh...wouldn't necessarily be a good thing! She also had some great moments in the show, particularly when she dropped Cathy and Danny, those were well done scenes. Zack: He was a fun and simple character. He had a lot of great moments and he was a character. He had great chemistry with Rachel, who had a relatively wholesome, maybe somewhat creepily romantic undertone, kind of relationship with her. He truly got the most laughs out of me and was just always an enjoyable character on screen. Like Rachel, he had a rather simple motivation, but at least the story didn't ruin his reasoning for doing what he did or his motivations. He had a good, tragic backstory that genuinely made me feel sorry for him. Honestly, I think he was as perfect a character as you could've gotten in a show like this. Eddy: We didn't see too much of him. He was quite literally the first boss and went down pretty easily. I did find it funny that he wore a pumpkin on his head. His obsession with Rachel was kind of weird and felt forced. I get that it was a "young puppy kind of love" (as a lot of love at first sight stuff is) but I feel like they could've done something better. His backstory isn't really covered in the anime so there's not a whole lot of reason to particularly care for him as a character or feel strongly about him one way or the other. Cathy: I got Junko from Danganronpa vibes from her (which is a good thing!) She was clever, cruel and sadistic and I really enjoyed the little arc that they were on her floor. It definitely kept the show interesting. She definitely had the coolest death in the anime when Rachel and Zack double teamed her. She wasn't in the anime for that long and her backstory isn't really covered either, but she did her job in being a "mid level boss". Danny: Dude was weird. He made for a good and creepy antagonist but he survived way too many times. I can forgive him surviving once, maybe twice, but afterwards it was getting ridiculous with the amount of times either Zack and Rachel would drop him. Even Abraham couldn't kill him and he shot him twice! I get that he's a doctor but he's not immortal (as far as we know at least, and we know for sure Eddy and Cathy are dead as they physically don't show up again after their deaths, even if their bodies have vanished). He's a character that had literal plot armor. Abraham: He was cool, but also weird. He wasn't quite an antagonist, but more so just a neutral observing party (aside from him manipulating Rachel). While it's revealed that he is the one who controls the whole building and that he brings in to test people who consider themselves "devoted to God", it's never explained why he does this and his backstory is never explained either. It seemed to me like he was running one giant social experiment for the hell of it. Angels of Death was a weird anime that started off well enough, but had a disappointing ending. It had an intriguing premise: two characters who were polar opposites (at least in their demeanor) making a peculiar pact to escape a house of horrors and murder? It sounded promising to me! It had a lot of cool and enjoyable moments in the story but they did not handle Rachel's story in the best way. As I was watching, I figured that the direction they would've gone in was that Rachel felt like she needed to die for some reason or was just tired of living, and that when her and Zack finally busted out of wherever they were at, she would finally appreciate the meaning of life after working so hard to stay alive through some pretty brutal obstacles, and maybe Zack somehow gets rehabilitated through this experience and they live happily ever after or something. Instead the anime chose to double down on its story and ended in an open-ended way which brings the story to a dissatisfying and underwhelming conclusion. If they wanted to have Rachel die (which in fairness the anime practically spells out that she's going to die ever since the first episode), they could've shown ZacK killing her and bringing the story to a close or go off in a completely different direction. Additionally, a lot of the finer plot points are never really explained and glossed over, and there's just a lot of things that quite frankly don't make sense or are either stupid. For what it's worth, I assume Rachel is actually dead, given that the anime aired 5 years ago now and there's never been any mention of additional content as far as I know, but they could perhaps do more content if they wanted to given the nature of the open ending. Typically, shows want you to have some kind of moral or takeaway after watching it. I honestly couldn't tell you what the moral or takeaway is for Angels of Death. It has a lot of religious and philosophical elements, but it didn't feel like it was trying to push anything on to you or tell you anything particular about it. The best thing that I can come up with is that perhaps it's a commentary on how blinded a person can be by their beliefs and maybe it's some kind of warning to not let your beliefs get to you like that? At the same time it doesn't feel like the anime is trying to warn you against anything like that either, perhaps it's just presenting? I still haven't been able to figure it out, and it might be from the poor execution of the story. In the end, I was disappointed by Angels of Death. It wasn't a total dumpster fire, but I've seen far better storytelling. I get that this is also adapted from an RPG game, and apparently they choose to stay faithful to the ending in which I'm not sure if they should've. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this anime. For me, it has far more points against it than for it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
May 26, 2023 Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
To say that I enjoyed this anime would be an understatement. Another turned out to be an enjoyable, exciting, fun and thrilling anime to watch! Even more so than I had expected going into it. Another had me so invested in the story that I ended up binging the show all in one day (something which I don't really do as I generally try to pace myself). It even managed to round out my top 10 list (as of this writing). Another successfully pulled me into it's horror, mystery and survival themed story as our cast of characters attempt to solve the mystery behind ... their classmates' deaths as they're picked off one-by-one. The story enthralled me and kept me guessing as I went through each of its 12 episodes, and I was impressed enough by it to watch the OVA (which was a little more slice of life themed but it helps to set up Mei's backstory). While there are some scenes and plot points that have the classic "dumb horror movie logic" or didn't quite make a whole lot of sense, I still found it to be an extremely enjoyable story and had a fun time watching it. The production value of Another was solid and has aged well. You can definitely tell it's in the late 2000's early 2010's style (as the anime came out over 10 years ago now). The animation, art style and character designs were solid and well done. I watched this anime in subbed (as Crunchyroll does not have the dub version and I'm too lazy to seek it out), and I thought that the VA's did a great job. The music was excellent and helped set the creepy and foreboding tone of the anime. I particularly enjoyed Another's intro: "Kyoumu Densen" which I'd consider to be a banger with its exciting, somewhat creepy and aggressive tone. It really fit the show well and the visuals for it where excellent. Jayn on YouTube also has a great English cover for it and hearing the lyrics in English makes me appreciate the song even more. I also liked the outro, "anamnesis" which took on a more solemn and reserved tone as it showed a still image of our cast of characters as it panned across the screen, but to me it wasn't as memorable especially when compared to the intro. Speaking of the characters, I had a hard time remembering most of their names and the only ones who I could consistently remember where the main characters: Kouichi and Mei. It's a fairly big cast of characters so it'd hard to remember everyone's names. One thing that I found particularly neat (and creepy) about this anime is that each of the episodes are named in such a way that you're constructing a life sized doll. The episodes have names such as "Rough Sketch", "Blueprint", "Bone Work", "Put Flesh", etc. I didn't pay it much mind at first until a friend pointed it out me and it creeped me out. Funny enough dolls are sort of a plot point in this anime, so credit to the producers and directors for being creative here. The story of Another is where the anime truly shines: the set up for the plot revolves around an incident that took place in the year 1972 at Yomiyama North Junior High. Particularly class 3-3. A student tragically died midway through the year and his classmates and teachers decided to honor the deceased student by continuing to act as if he was there. Somehow this invited death and the curse of class 3-3 began. Once the year ended, when the class posed for their "end of the year photo" the deceased student showed up in the picture. Since then, one student or their family member in Class 3-3 would randomly die every month throughout the school year, often in particularly gruesome ways. This strange phenomena had been occurring rather consistently in the 26 years since the 1972 incident. Some classes either briefly or entirely managed to avoid this curse but those instances are presented as the exceptions and not the norm in this grim pattern. The actual story begins and takes place in the year 1998. We're introduced to one of our main character's: Kouichi who is a transfer student and starting late due to being sick in the hospital. He's greeted by his soon-to-be classmates: Izumi, Kazami and Yukari, all of whom are on the student council. The visit turns out to be rather strange as they ask him a lot of personal questions and are just anxious in general. Izumi, the student council president, also seems to be holding back some important information on Kouichi but promises to explain things to him in time. While Kouchi is in the hospital, he encounters a mysterious girl named Mei who wears an eye patch in the hospital's elevator (in a good jump scare scene too), as she drags a doll behind her to visit the morgue. Kouichi gets discharged and stays with his Aunt and Grandparents. His Aunt happens to be an alumni of the school and gives Kouichi some big-sisterly advice to prepare. Kouichi Grandmother is a sweet, nice old lady and his Grandfather seems to be off in his world, but something he says here in the early episodes will end becoming relevant much later in the story. Kouichi then finally attends school and runs into Mei again. What's rather ominous is that he seems to be the only person in the whole school who acknowledges her, and her ghostly appearance and aloof behavior lead you to have all kinds of theories. Kouichi manages to hold a real conversation with Mei where she tells him that Class 3-3 is "close to death". Then one of Kouichi's classmates named Naoya accidentally reveals that the class is cursed but doesn't go into much detail and clams up when pressed. Mei also has scattered appearances in the classroom as some days she's in class while other days she's not. Kouchi finds himself drawn to Mei and asks Sanae, a nurse he had befriended while in the hospital, about anyone who might've died the night of his discharge and she reveals that there was indeed a death. Furthermore, the name of the deceased happened to be "Misaki", which is Mei's last name (at this point I was wondering if Mei was a ghost haunting the school). Kouichi then resorts to stalking Mei and follows her to this creepy doll shop where he finds a doll in Mei's likeness in the basement of the shop (creepy) and even runs into Mei herself down there (usually this is where a person becomes separated from their internal organs). Mei, somewhat flirtatiously, then reveals that her eyepatch is covering a fake eye that can see if death surrounds a person and so she's able to predict when someone will die. She then tells Kouichi about the story of the student who died in 1972 and how the class is cursed. Kouichi asks his fellow classmates about it but they're of no help. Kouichi later learns that it was Mei's cousin who died and pieces together that Mei was paying her final respects to her departed cousin. Mei also reveals to Kouichi that he's "the only one that can see her". Yukari then seems to try to start rizzing Kouichi up but has a total freakout when she sees Kouichi with Mei. She panics and runs down the stairs where she promptly eats her umbrella, marking the first on-screen death of the series, with Yukari's mother also dying later. Kouichi then starts trying to figure out what exactly is going on. After he manages to save his classmate, Aya, from a falling sheet glass, he starts hanging out more with Mei (despite her initial hesitance early on) and introduces him to her family. Mei ominously tells Kouichi that the curse "has already begun" and also reveals that Yukari wasn't the first death of the school year like most people think, but it was actually her cousin. Kouichi confronts his classmates about the whole situation and Izumi admits that she wanted to tell him about the situation and "the rules" that they abide by in order to combat the curse (in which they choose to ignore one student for the whole year and act like they don't exist). Izumi then says she meant to tell Kouichi but once he apparently started hanging around Mei, "it made things difficult". Mei later explains that every year since 1972 there's always been one extra student on the roster (even if it appears physically that everyone is accounted for). This extra person is "the ghost" (or imposter if you so prefer) and everyone's memories are altered to where "the extra " that they've all known so its next to impossible to sus them out. The extra student also doesn't know that they are dead. Thus ignoring one chosen student will somehow equal things out and spare them from death. However, this doesn't always work. Sanae dies when the elevator she's in crashes down into the shaft and crushes her, and another student dies of a heart attack. The class then takes drastic measures and starts ignoring Kouichi as well. Kouichi takes advantage of this newfound freedom to hangout with Mei some more and there's a hilarious scene (which turns out to be a daydream unfortunately) in which they dance in front of everyone in the class. Needless to say, I've been shipping Kouichi and Mei. Something interesting then happens in the story: Kouichi then receives a call from his father to ask how it feels to be back in Yomiyama, but Kouichi states that this is first time here. After an awkward phone conversation, Kouichi and Mei then decide to ask the school's librarian for help as they start investigating the curse and find that it was the death of a student named Misaki (very coincidental eh? He's not related to Mei however, Misaki is actually his first name) that started everything. When they return to class, their teacher then breaks down, feeling guilty over the lost lives of the students, and proceeds to paint his chalkboard red after eating lead in what was a pretty dramatic and unexpected scene. Realizing that ignoring both Mei and Kouichi hasn't made the curse stop, the class decides to stop ignoring them and work together to find a way to stop the curse. Kouichi then learns of a former student named Katsumi who was a student in 1983, which was the only case where the curse completely stopped halfway through the year. but he apparently left behind a clue for future students to find as a means of stopping the curse. Despite Kouichi fearing that he may be the imposter, Mei assures him that he isn't. The anime then gets its token beach episode as the cast of characters decided they need a break from all the gruesome deaths they've witnessed, and supposedly the curse doesn't extend outside the town's limits. Kouichi, Izumi, Naoya, Takako and Junta go to the beach where they coincidentally run into Mei whose family happens to have a timeshare nearby. They also get to meet Katsumi in person to interview him about the curse and how he stopped it, but he's not particularly forthcoming but manages to tell them that the clue is inside the classroom. The characters then enjoy their day at the beach with some typical slice of life stuff happening, but their beachball happens to land in the water and begins to drift. Junta goes into the water to retrieve it but suddenly passes out and his body is horrifically torn apart by a passing motorboat. The cast then begins to worry if the curse truly has no geographic limit, however they later find out that Junta suffered a head injury while in town and it just happened to catch up with him while they were away. The cast then visits the now abandoned which has been sealed off following their teacher's suicide and they manage to find Katsumi's tape inside the supply locker. They play the tape in which Katsumi reveals that the class of 1983 visited The Yomiyama Shrine in hopes they could be blessed with some kind of luck but two students managed to die on the trip. Before it could be further explained, they're forced to eject the tape in order to avoid being caught which accidentally damages the tape. Aya, the girl who was saved by Kouichi earlier in the anime, is killed in a road accident after a boulder forces them into a ravine and Yumi's brother dies after a truck carrying an excavator smashes into his apartment. The remaining survivors of Class 3-3 go to visit The Yomiyama Shrine in hopes of replicating whatever Katsumi did to break the curse for this year. The tape gets repaired and Katsumi admits that he accidentally killed one of his fellow classmates after getting into an argument with him. Much to his surprise, nobody else remembered the student and thus Katsumi realized he killed the extra student which broke the curse. Katsumi then left behind the tape as a guide for future students. Kouichi then sneaks into Mei's room to talk (in what was a somewhat romantically charged scene, I was yelling for them to just kiss already). Mei then reveals the specifics of her power to Kouichi and that her cousin was actually her sister. In the final three episodes, you can say some stuff goes down. Kouichi finds the resort manager killed by his wife, who has gone insane and starts attacking people randomly. The dining hall had also been set on fire. Making matters worse, the tape goes missing and as it turns Takako got his hands on it and believes Mei to be the extra, claiming that he remembered her differently (though this was most likely because of her sister). Takako broadcasts the tape and whips up everyone into a frenzy to try hunt down and kill Mei (though just for good measure Takako, who goes fully insane, starts cutting down his fellow classmates anyway just for good measure in case he's wrong). Kouichi fights off his fellow classmates as he desperately tries to defend Mei, and ends up leading several to their deaths as more students die as the resort begins to collapse. Izumi kills Takako, but she is promptly killed when trying to kill Kouichi and Mei. In her final moments she realizes Kouichi isn't the extra as she remembers briefly meeting him 2 years prior after a funeral. Kouichi and Mei later get separated, and the librarian pulls up to rescue whatever surviving students he can. Kouichi later finds Mei standing over his Aunt Reiko who had attended the trip, ready to kill her. Mei then tells Kouichi that she's the extra (as it turns out the extra can be a faculty member too!) and admits she was holding out on telling him because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Mei further explains that their class actually had the correct number of seats this year, but they were the only class to have an Assistant Homeroom teacher (that being Reiko), and so the missing chair was actually in the faculty room. Despite Reiko's pleadings, Kouichi reluctantly executes her an axe and remembers that she was actually murdered in 1996. This twist was played off exceptional well and it certainly surprised me, but I ended up kicking myself as the show had hinted at the extra being Reiko early on. Kouichi's Grandfather, who is portrayed to be this frail and possibly senile old man, made a comment about "My poor Reiko, God Bless her soul" (something along those lines), was the dead giveaway that it was Reiko all along, and we're shown her being mugged and killed with her body being thrown into a river afterward. After the curse has ended for the year, Kouichi and Mei reflect on their journey. Mei reveals that she's not so much into technology as she hates cellphones, but knows her mother will get her a new one after she had thrown her phone into the river after the resort crisis. Kouichi asks if he can call her when she gets her now and Mei says "sure". ending the harrowing story on a somewhat optimistic and romantical note. In a final post credits scene, Naoya and the very few surviving members of Class 3-3 put a new tape in the locker explaining how they defeated the curse and provided an updated guide on how to overcome it. The OVA serves as a prequel to the story and goes more into depth about Mei's character and the relationship with her sister. It ends up being revealed that her sister wanted a doll for her birthday, but tragically died just before. Making it more tragic, Mei knew her sister would die sooner or later as she saw the aura of death around her, did everything she could to keep her alive. As such, Mei, who has a fascination with dolls (as does the rest of her family), delivers a doll to her departed sister which we see in the events of the first episode. Now for the characters. Given that it's a big cast, I'll just hit the major characters: Mei: I liked her character and thought her backstory was well written. Early on I thought she was a ghost haunting the school and that Kouichi was somehow the only one who could see her for some reason, but when it was revealed that she was the token "sacrifice" for her classmates to ignore, I genuinely felt bad for her. She might come across as a little creepy and weird at times, but she's truly a nice and caring person and has plenty of cute and funny moments throughout the anime. She has great chemistry with Kouichi and I was shipping them hard throughout the anime. The ending seems to imply that they'll get together though. I will say that she should've been more forthcoming about her powers to Kouichi as she knew for a while that the extra was Reiko. Though its not explained for how long she knew, Mei likely knew for a big portion of the series. But again if that was the case, the story would've been a lot shorter. Still this is an example of characters being dumb in the horror genre, even if her intentions were pure she might've saved the lives of most of her class had she been upfront with them from the get go. Kouichi: He was a fine MC, though a little on the bland side. I definitely felt for him as he got roped into a situation that was a lot bigger than himself, and the revelation that his Aunt was the extra was undeniably a hard thing for him to process. We definitely see him struggle with the revelation as he decides whether or not to trust Mei and kill Reiko. Overall he was a likeable character and he had great chemistry with Mei and was literally throwing hands with his classmates in order to defend her. Izumi: A lot of the misunderstanding that happened in the story probably could've been avoided had she just told Kouichi what was up in the first episode, but then the story wouldn't have really happened. This is a pretty big example of the "dumb horror movie logic" that happens in the anime. She comes across as bossy at times but she definitely has a softer side and does try to be genuine friends with Kouichi up until she looses her mind with the rest of the class. Her death scene was impressive and I did feel sorry for her. Reiko: I definitely wasn't expecting her to be the extra, even though the anime was screaming the answer in front of my face. Throughout the anime she's presented as a big sister like figure to Kouichi and acts as a chaperone of sorts during their trips. She was a nice character and her death was nothing short of tragic, even more so that she had no idea that she was already dead. For her to be killed by her nephew was definitely poetic. Naoya: He fits the "best friend" to the MC role, and is a bit of a klutz as he accidentally damaged the tape. Overall though I thought he was a fine supporting character and I found it fitting that he made a new tape to leave behind to explain the curse to the future students. Tomohiko: He went from being a side character to a full-on menace in the final arc, and he was truly terrifying as he was cutting down his classmates left and right to find the extra. He did a good representing the collective insanity as the class as everyone broke down trying to put a stop to the curse once and for all. Yukari: She was the first character death we saw on scene, and as much as I almost hate to say this, she also had the funniest death too. Falling down the stairs and literally eating the umbrella was shocking yet a little bit funny. It should definitely be on dumb ways to die. Yukari didn't get a whole lot of screentime, but if she had lived she might've added a potential love triangle to the anime as she seemed interested in Kouichi, though he definitely got along better with Mei regardless. Another was a fun, suspenseful thrilling watch. This was my first time experiencing the horror genre in anime, and though it ultimately came across to me as more of a mystery type anime with horror elements, I was genuinely impressed with what I saw. The horror was well executed, the death scenes as well as the dream scene in Ep 8 were well done and hit their marks. You also never truly knew who was going to die next because of the randomness of the curse but a character pretty much died almost every episode. I wouldn't recommend getting attached to any of the side characters as they all pretty much end up dead by the end of the show. Other than Mei, Kouichi and Naoya, there's only a few other survivors of Class 3-3. The curse also seems to some extent wipe the memories of the survivors after the school year had passed, but I honestly don't know how anyone could forget their entire class being nearly wiped out. As much as I enjoyed Another, it certainly wasn't a perfect show. Though I'm not sure if I can call them plot holes, the two big things that stood out to me while watching was Izumi not being upfront with Kouichi about the curse and the plan to ignore Mei (as difficult as it may have been to explain to him), which could've saved a lot of grief on their end and preserved the charm (even though it probably wouldn't have worked) and Mei not telling the class about her magic eye or telling them or Kouichi that Reiko was the extra. I understand that one or both of those events would've dramatically shortened the story, but they're classic examples of the characters being dumb in the horror genre. I'm also not entirely sure how pretending that somebody is still alive "invites death" but I guess it might be some sort of taboo to do that. Overall, I truly enjoyed watching Another! So much so that I decided it was worthy of rounding out my top 10 favorites list! It has some worthy nitpicks, but it's still an enjoyable and thrilling watch. It's not too scary and it has a great mystery with enjoyable characters as they fight against the supernatural. I would definitely recommend Another if you're looking to get into the horror side of anime or if you like the mystery/horror genres!
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 
May 25, 2023
Kanojo mo Kanojo
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
*Author's Note: There's some discussion about the anime, Rent A Girlfriend, as I find the two similar in concept so I compare them. There's no major spoilers for RAG here*. I'm honestly not sure how to best sum up my experience watching Girlfriend, Girlfriend. The anime put forth an interesting and thought-provoking concept: can you be in a romantical relationship with more than one patterner and is that kind of relationship sustainable? I certainly applaud anime for doing something I haven't seen before or trying to think outside the box, and while I'm sure that Girlfriend, Girlfriend pretty much does what just about any ... other harem anime does, I'd consider this to be one of my first real harem anime (I've seen Rent A Girlfriend, but the execution is different as Kazuya mostly finds himself drawn to one girl while the others are pining for him). I think Girlfriend, Girlfriend tackled the aforementioned question well and it raised a lot of interesting points about what goes into a polygamic relationship. I can also appreciate the show taking a generally light hearted and comedic approach to the question, as the characters themselves openly acknowledge "yeah this situation is kind of ridiculous". So what's my gripe with this show? Well, I think it's painfully dragging out the whole polygamy relationship for plot reasons and the fact that the main character, Naoya, and his actions quite frankly make little to no sense to me. I'll dive more into my issues with his character further down in the review but to sum it up now: I did not like his character and I didn't find him redeemable. Not for being some sort of jerk or that he treats the girls in his harem like trash (quite the opposite actually), but because his actions throughout the show are generally dimwitted and stupid as he desperately tries to get his harem to work. He has no problem two-timing with his girls together, but there comes a situation roughly halfway in the show where there's a third girl introduced (I mean hey 3's a party am I right?), and Naoya refuses to include her on the basis that three-timing is worse than two-timing. Now I'll agree with him on that but the principle is very much the same and I view it as once you cross that line, it's a slippery slope downward. It's not so much that I disagree with polygamy or I believe that it doesn't work at the end of the day (that's for an entirely different discussion and I'm not trying to inject my personal views too much into this review), but my complains stem from the set up and the maintaining of the polygamy in this anime...it's just bad and cringey to watch at times. Simply put: the execution is generally bad, but the show doesn't take itself seriously for the most part either. I did not take any issues to the production value of this anime. The animation was good, I liked the character designs, and the art was enjoyable. The English VAs did a fine job and fit their characters well. The music was satisfactory, I didn't find it to be anything particularly memorable but it did its job. The intro for the anime is "Fuzaketenaize" and the outro is "Pinky Hook". Both had pretty good visuals and conveyed what the show was about pretty well in a light-hearted manner. Now as for the plot, there's some stuff to talk about: We're introduced to our main character, Naoya who has finally achieved his long held dream of turning his childhood best friend, Saki, into his girlfriend after hundreds of past rejections by her. It's established early on that Naoya was (and still kind of is) *DOWN BAD* for Saki who is a loud, smart and energetic kind of girl and would seemingly never go for someone as spineless as Naoya, but I digress. Naoya is on top of the world as he is very much in the honeymoon phase with Saki. However, now that Naoya is in a committed relationship, he is apparently the new hot commodity for girls in this anime to confess with their love to him (What do they say about wanting something you can't have?). He is approached by a girl named Nagisa who he had never met before (No, not the one from Assassination Classroom!) and who for whatever reason confesses her love for him and asks him out. Nagisa politely turns her down, stating that he already has a girlfriend, but Nagisa tells him she just needs to try harder (Um...okay?). This apparently triggers a Vietnam flashback for Nagisa as he is reminded of all his failed attempts to get with Saki. After succumbing to the power of big ol' anime tiddes and big blue eyes, Naoya then pulls a complete 180 and folds as he accepts her confession. Nagisa, understandably excited, then brings up the question: "Hey wait you said you had a girlfriend". Rather than cheat on Saki with Nagisa, Naoya resolves to find a way where he can date the both two of them with them both being okay with it. So Naoya brings Nagisa with him to ask Saki about being in a polygamic relationship, and she rightfully freaks out and contemplates leaving his dumbass right then and there. Nagisa then works her charms and Saki eventually relents. Naoya decides to take what seems like what's already a bad idea and have both Saki and have them both move in with him. (Nothing like rushing an already big decision!) Nagisa ends up being a pretty good housewife, but she starts developing an inferiority complex due to Nagisa's more mature figure. Then the awkward topic of sex comes up in this new wacky relationship. Nagisa offers to let Saki go first, but Saki insists that her and Naoya aren't that far into their relationship. Naoya then says he wouldn't mind a threesome (lol) and even Saki is tempted (Saki lesbian arc when?). After Saki seemingly declines it, Naoya decides to be a celibate monk until they're all more comfortable with each other, much to Saki's disappoint which she tries to hide (Go to horny jail, Saki!). After some more awkwardness, Naoya, Nagisa and Saki all resolve to sleep in the same room together. It's then revealed that Nagisa has been skipping out on school and as a result is far behind. Particularly, she is bad at math (Hey just like me! This particular scene is also one of my personal favorites in the show). The topic then comes up about how they're going to manage their relationship while at school and Saki insists on keeping the arrangement a secret and just publicly have it to where Naoya and Saki are still together. Once it's revealed that Nagisa has no friends, Naoya attempts to proclaim that she's his girlfriend but is hilariously shot down by Saki. Eventually, Saki changes her mind to where they can all hangout when they're alone which is at lunch time. They eventually settle on the gym store room which is out of the way and has a padlock. Saki then begins to worry about her place in the relationship as Naoya and Nagisa are the only ones who actually do anything in terms of chores or providing anything, despite their insistence that she's fine. Saki goes to horny jail as she tries to seduce Naoya, which he declines. She then accuses Naoya of preferring Nagisa because of her big ol' anime tiddies and moves back in with her parents (ironically they're next door neighbors). Naoya tries everything he can possibly think of in order to try to win her back but is curved by Saki each time. He ends up staying up for three nights straight as Nagisa feels guilty for spending all this newfound alone time with him. She then pulls the ultimate trump card and stages an incident where Naoya "accidentally" touches her boobs for Saki to see, which causes her to fly into a jealous rage and storm over back to Naoya's place. The three end up talking about their respective roles in the relationship and Saki admits she feels inferior. Nagisa surprisingly admits that Nayoa also does too much for them and that by somehow taking all the responsibility he was somehow being self-ish (Okay...?). Naoya then passes out from his 3 day exhaustion and Nagisa and Saki debate how exactly they'll be "equals" and they both come to figure out that they're both gamer girls. They play this mobile game which I guess is supposed to be Raid Shadows Legends reference and Nagisa is actually pretty bad at the game, so Saki tries to teach her (I mean hey, I like me a bad gamer girl too...wait this isn't the review for that!). They then also watch the equivalent of a twitch streamer in this anime by the name of Milika in an effort for Nagisa to try to learn the game, and it turns out she may be going to their school because their school uniform is in the background in one of her thumbnails. We then get introduced to Rika, who is actually Milika, who pulls up on them while they're having lunch in the storage room in an effort to hide herself after her thumbnail screw up. In a panic and also one of my favorite scenes (actually I saw this scene on TikTok and that's what piqued my interest in this anime), Naoya reveals his whole arrangement to Rika which causes her to start trolling them. Naoya desperately pleads with Rika to keep quiet and even offers his *WHOLE LIFE SAVINGS* as hush money which Rika declines. Nagisa then finally gets a word in and exposes Rika as Milika (the name does kind of give it a way too, doesn't it?). The two parties are at a stalemate and they agree to keep quiet. Rika then decides Naoya isn't so bad and what's to make their throuple a quadruple by joining in on the action. Rika then gives her "qualifications" and even has Nagisa beat in the big ol' tiddies department. Naoya declines, as not only do Saki and Nagisa don't trust her (for good reasons too), Naoya tries to take a principle stand that three timing is somehow worse than two timing (which even Saki calls him on his BS) and that her reasons for wanting to date him are shallow (which he's not wrong on). Rika, who can't handle rejection, then resolves to join the relationship by any means necessary. The next few episodes resolve around Rika hilariously trying to join into the polygamy. She literally stalks them home and sets up a tent in Naoya's backyard. Despite the fact that the situation could've easily been resolved had they just called the cops on her (which if memory serves it was brought up in passing), Naoya, Saki and Nagisa engage in a game of attrition with Rika as they hope to wait her out. Rika tries a variety different ways to seduce Naoya and he himself even admits that he's not sure if he can resist her charms forever (I mean bro you folded once for a girl with big bondonkers, you'd definitely fold for another girl with even bigger bondonkers). They eventually resolve to just give away her stuff to charity. Rika then angrily confronts Naoya out on the street and tries to out him as a groper. Naoya offers to replace everything if she just leaves and Rika.EXE still can't process why Naoya won't go out with her. He then reasons because he's wholly committed on making both Saki and Nagisa happy, which causes Rika to actually fall in love with him. Rika's father then pulls up and tries to drag her home after learning that she's been a tiddy streamer on off-brand Twitch. He also tries to delete her account, but Naoya talks him out of it and sticks up for her, which causes Rika to fall hard for Naoya which Saki and Nagisa pick up on and worry they'll have to fight her for Naoya's attention but at least she ends up going back home. The story then takes a weird turn when Saki's mom (ignorant of the polygamy), tries to set up her daughter to try to "be intimate" with Naoya. It eventually gets to Saki's head that since Naoya is easily flustered and that he's determined to treat them equally, she may never get laid, so decides to go back to seducing him. Her elaborate trick is to wear a seductive bunny costume (Bunny Girl Senpai reference anyone?), and manages to get him to touch her lack of tiddies despite his no sex rule. Nagisa finds Saki's Bunny Girl Senpai and initiates the sexy cosplay wars by dressing as a classic maid and even calls him "master" at one point. At school, Rika returns to try to apologize to Naoya, thinking that he rejected her out of anger and offers to let him humiliate her but he insists that wasn't the case. Naoya attempts to apologize but it makes Rika want to confess and Saki later hears Rika admitting to herself that she's in love with Naoya. Rika tries to subtly rizz Naoya up, so Saki goes full over-protective girlfriend mode and clings to his side throughout the day. Saki refuses to leave Naoya's side so much so that they end up having to change into their uniforms in the same room. Nagisa uses her blackmail to lure Rika away from them to buy Naoya and Saki some breathing room. Later, Nagisa admits she was jealous that Naoya and Saki got to spend all day together and Saki offers to give her and Naoya some alone time, but Naoya insists that Saki watches him and Nagisa cuddle, which apparently turns Saki on as she "punishes" Naoya. Rika continues to try to rizz up Naoya, but because Naoya is dense as a black hole, he can't really tell if Rika is into him but he is starting to suspect it. Saki and Nagisa then lie to Naoya and convince him that Rika is just overly horny and is trying to get her hands on any man. Naoya then apologizes to Rika in front of the class for thinking that she had a crush on him, which pisses her off and she drags him away for a private chat. Naoya then explains she thought Rika was "in heat" and Rika initially blows a gasket for Naoya being stupid enough to believe the obvious lie but decides to play it off as having a cold. Naoya affirms that he'd still reject Rika because of his commitment to Nagisa and Saki, so she decides to turn the tables and announce her love for Naoya in class before dragging him to the gym storeroom to reveal her evil plan of continuing to flirt with him until he finally falls for her. Naoya, with the mental fortitude of God himself, resists Rika's advances but Rika goes with the nuclear option and kisses him before running off. Nagisa and Saki are rightfully upset but they decide to not count the kiss as there was no emotion so that whenever they do kiss Naoya, that will be their first kiss. Naoya, oblivious to the entire situation, suggests they go on a date to lift their spirits and Saki suggests a hot spring date. The final arc of this show revolves around Naoya, Saki and Nagisa visiting the hot springs and doing their best to keep their relationship from being outed to their friends. Shino, Saki's best friend who set her and Naoya up to be together, begins to grow suspicious of Naoya's activities and tries to confront him but is blocked by Saki. Nagisa debates if she should make a move on Naoya but after seeing how Saki is still distraught over Rika's kiss, she decides to support her instead. As they travel to the hot springs, Naoya figures they can be more open about their relationship as they don't know anybody there and so he holds both of their hands in public which causes people to stare. Saki then internally wonders if she'll finally get laid on this trip. Rika then finds out about the date and decides to stalk them as Shino decides to follow them as well, still suspecting that Naoya is two timing. When they arrive at the hotel, they find Rika lying in wait for them. Making this more complicated for the trio, Shino also shows up. Nagisa decides to blackmail Rika into saying she tagged along with her to avoid outing the polygamy to Shino. Nagisa and Rika then pretend to hang out around Shino, essentially self-sacrificing herself, but Naoya refuses to leave her out of the date and sneaks across the roof to see her. Nagisa refuses to go with Naoya. He then finds himself alone with Rika who tries to seduce him once more. Rika then tries to win over Naoya but her towel accidentally falls off and he's able to escape, but then falls into Shino's bath. Shino then confronts Naoya and asks if he's cheating on Saki. Naoya tries to run but Shino tries to stop him, causing her towel to fall off and when Saki and Rika pull off they find the two in a rather...compromising position. Nagisa then cleverly takes the photo to use as blackmail on Shino. Saki then punishes Naoya for his mess up. Nagisa tries to let them have their alone time but Naoya refuses to leave her out. The incident is found by the other hotel guests and Saki punishes Naoya again. Saki then tells Nagisa she doesn't have to sacrifice herself for their sake and Nagisa admits she's used to working hard just to be considered average. In the final episode, Nagisa goes into why she fell in love with Naoya, and she basically admired Naoya's persistence of trying to win over Saki. As a result, she dedicated herself into being the ideal girlfriend for him (now if something like that could only happen to me...) Naoya overhears everything and encourages her to stop holding back, which causes her to run off in embarrassment. Naoya and Saki chase after Nagisa, with Rika and Shino also joining in after they bump into her. During the chase, Nagisa explains that it's impossible for her and Saki to be equals and that she has to be subordinate (which she makes a very good point). Saki, Rika and Shino can't keep up with Naoya and Nagisa with Naoya eventually catching her and insists they'll work through whatever issues arise. The others catch up and Nagisa finally drops the charade and admits to Shino that she's also dating Naoya by kissing him on the cheek. Saki happily accepts this and declares that her and Nagisa are now rivals for the title of "senior girlfriend". The three of them then runoff from Shino and Rika and enjoy the rest of their vacation. Shino then sits them down and tries to understand the relationship. She criticizes Naoya for two-timing and puts forth a lot of legitimate and logical reasons why polygamy would be difficult at best to maintain (girl was spitting facts in this scene). Naoya then plans to tell Saki's mother about the arrangement but Saki rejects the idea. Shino then resolves to break the polygamic relationship to save Saki. The scene also seems to imply that Shino may be falling for Naoya too as the background fades to black and rose petals drift across the screen which has been reserved for the romantic scenes in this anime, especially after she tearfully says she "won't give up on Naoya". In the final scene, they're all back at school with Rika once again trying to rizz up Naoya, and Saki and Nagisa protectively cling to him as they have a stare down with Rika. Shino sees them and then accuses Naoya of 3 timing. As the camera pans up towards the credits, Rika insists she'll make Naoya fall for him while Saki worries for their future. Nagisa assures her that'll be alright and Naoya doubles down that he'll make Saki and Nagisa happy. Alright now for the characters! Naoya: I hated his character. Now I don't know what goes into someone's head when they decide to have an open relationship or engage in polygamy and I'm not trying to judge here, but his reasoning made abloustely no sense to me. This man spent his whole life trying to get with his childhood best friend and was so down bad for her that he was literally on his knees for her, and then once he finally gets with her, he turns around and almost immediately falls for a girl who he had never met before all because she vows to be persistent. If I was Saki I would honestly be questioning his loyalty and would've dumped him. Now, Naoya does end up being a loyal boyfriend and often overextends himself to try to make both Saki and Nagisa happy. I will give him credit for staying true to his word and for not crossing his own lines in the sand that he draws when Rika tries to seduce him (even though I think from a principal standpoint it's kind of moot, but adding on to the polygamy would probably make it more unstable than it already is so I understand that part. Besides if Saki and Nagisa don't want Rika in, she's got no shot). Aside from his loyalty and commitment, both of which are essential ingredients in any healthy relationship period, there's really no reason to like Naoya. The fact that he folded so quickly to Nagisa and was insistent on making his relationship with Saki (mind you she did sign off onto it after being talked into it), the anime gave me reasons to dislike Naoya rather than like him. He's also a pretty bland character and the anime doesn't offer much reason for the audience in rooting for him aside from his loyalty and commitment to Saki and Nagisa. It's impressive that he pulled two beautiful girls, but I do think he'll find himself having to choose between one of them in the end. He's certainly among my least favorite MCs in anime. Saki: I honestly felt bad for her character. By all accounts, she had a great relationship going with Naoya and then got talked into being in a polygamic relationship with him and another girl that she wasn't initially sold on. I do suspect that she's bi as she does make a lot of admiring comments about Nagisa in her internal monologues, which I think can provide for an interesting dimension in the story should they choose to make it go down that way. It'd also be pretty hilarious to me. She also rejected Naoya hundreds, possibly thousands of times before she finally agreed to date him, so I'm curious as to what changed. All we know is that her friend Shino set them up and we're not provided more information beyond that. Since we eventually got Nagisa's backstory, I would imagine this would get explained at some point down the line. Saki is a relatively bland character representing the childhood friend archetype and seems to be something of a tsundere herself, but she was a likable character and I honestly felt bad that she was pretty much dragged into all this. Also let's not forget she has to contend that she has to contend with a perhaps more objectively attractive girl for her man's attention and is often worried that Naoya will leave her because of Nagisa's attractiveness, so she feels the need to do these drastic things to try to maintain her position in the relationship. I can relate to her struggles to a degree. Again if I was her, I would've dumped Naoya's ass and I'm not sure what's going on inside her head. She did have a lot of good and funny moments throughout the show and her relationship with Nagisa was wholesome to see as it developed, despite some of its weird turns. Nagisa: I did like her character. Though I think her reasons for liking Naoya were pretty flawed, she did come across as a likeable character and a genuinely nice person. For most of the series she does try to pull her weight into making the whole polygamy work and doesn't really try to one-up or take advantage of Saki expect for her kiss with Naoya at the end and her frenemy declaration with Saki to compete for this title of "senior girlfriend". She does seem to have a lot of respect for Saki and I'm curious why she also wanted to go along with the polygamy, but I do wonder if she may have feelings for Saki as well. Her thoughts on Saki aren't as clear as it is vice versa. She also has a ruthless side which I like, this girl can whip up blackmail like she's baking a cake. You would definitely not want to get on her bad side. She has great chemistry with Saki and is a generally wholesome and funny person as well. Nagisa had a lot of great moments in the show. Rika: She's as much as a villain as you can get in a show like this. While she's certainly attractive, she's also very petulant and gives off a lot of "mean girl" vibes. Her affection towards Naoya is truly mind boggling but some people can't take no for an answer and she's one of them. Rika does make the story interesting and I think she's a good rival character but I'm not sure what more they can do. Naoya is clearly weak willed (if he fell for Nagisa, he can probably fall for Rika), so I'm curious what scheme she has up her sleeve in order to insert herself. But I will say her repeated basic attempts to rizz him up are starting to lose their comedic value. Speaking of which, Rika does have some good and hilarious moments throughout the anime and did help to keep things interesting. Shino: Even though she was prominently displayed in both the intro and outro, we really didn't see all that much of her character throughout the anime but she got more screentime in the end. She's Saki's best friend and is responsible for her and Naoya getting together (though how is still not explained). I do understand her reasoning for being opposed to the Naoya's polygamy and her frustration but if her friend is ok with it, I don't see why she should care that much so long as her friend is happy. This leads me to my theory that she is also interested in Naoya, given the rose petal scene at the end when Naoya affirms his commitment to Saki and Nagisa. They also had them be awkardly on top of each other and that's typically a sign of characters getting together or having romantic tension. They're definitely setting her up to be another antagonist character though I suspect she'll eventually try to either get Naoya all to herself (for some reason), or join the polygamy as well. Girlfriend, Girlfriend is a show I can best sum up as "interesting". It had some genuinely funny and enjoyable moments. The relationship between Saki and Nagisa as it developed was wholesome to see as they supported each other, and Rika made things interesting. The show also did explore an interesting and legitimate question about polygamy: "can all parties in a relationship like that truly be equals?" and it so far seems the show is trying to answer "no". My biggest gripes with the show was that I found Naoya to be a generally unlikeable character and that a lot of things that happen in the plot are forced, and some plot points are a little questionable to outright ridicilious. Overall though I did find myself more often than not enjoying it as I laughed to myself and asked what my life had come to. The anime did happen to remind me of Rent A Girlfriend. It's a somewhat similar set up of 4 girls ultimately trying to or at least are interested in getting with the protagonist. However, RAG tried too hard to take itself seriously and GG openly made fun of itself, which makes some of GG's cringe more tolerable than RAG's. Though Kazuya isn't trying to be in a polygamy in RAG, there is chemistry between him and each of the 4 love interests just like there is in GG (even if some of the relationships aren't as profound). So would I watch a Season 2 of this since it's been announced and is coming soon? Eh...why not...I'll probably wait for the dub though. If you like cheesy harem anime, Girlfriend Girlfriend will probably be right for you, but I'll admit it wasn't half-bad.
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 
May 21, 2023
Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru
(Anime)
add
Recommended Spoiler
*Spoiler Warning*
Though I was well aware of My Dress-Up Darling's "saucy" and "risqué" reputation, I actually found it to be an unexpectedly good and enjoyable anime. It had enjoyable and likable characters, an interesting premise (despite it being a pretty low stakes, slice of life kind of anime) and a fun story. There was plenty of fan service, but it never felt particularly forced and it generally served to advance the plot or to draw the characters closer together. Though it has the basic plot set up as a lot of other slice of life anime (being that two polar opposites meet, become friends, ... fall in love, etc.), it does manage to put an interesting twist on the overall story with both characters having a unique and interesting hobby and how they come together to support each other. A major theme of this anime is acceptance of one's self and interests, which is always a good message to send. The story was handled very well as we get to see the relationship between our two main characters: Marin and Gojou grow over the course of its 12 episode run. There's no particular drama that happens in the show, it's just a slow burn of romance, and I admire the show for pulling it off with a simple plot setup. The production work on My Dress-Up Darling was solid. It had great animation, colorful and beautiful character designs and solid artwork. I watched the anime in English Dub (like I usually do), and I was really glad that AmaLee was the voice of Marin (she also has a lot of great covers for anime songs on her channel and I'm very familiar with her work). She was a great fit for Marin's character and knocked it out of the park. Gojou's VA was also a phenomenal choice and did very well in his role. If I were to ever rank all the anime I've watched so far by their English dubs, My-Dress Up Darling would certainly rank very high. My Dress-Up Darling had a good intro and outro: San San Days being the intro and Koi no Yukue being the outro. While they weren't particularly in my style of music, they were pleasant to listen to and very fitting for the show. The intro does spoil all of Marin's cosplays (which I rather would've been surprised), but the outro has these cute little drawings of Marin and Goujo in space. What was also interesting was that there was also another anime in the show's universe, in which Marin watches one of these shows and gets inspired to cosplay one of the characters. The anime that Marin watched also had its own animation style (reminiscent of Sailor Moon) and it was also voice acted as well (there's also some other things, like an erotic visual novel that Marin likes, more on that later). It was a very cool touch for My Dress-Up Darling to have and shows the level of world building that this show has. Diving into the actual story: we're first introduced to one of our main characters: Gojou. His Grandfather, Kaoru, is a renowned Hina doll maker and young Gojou becomes inspired to be a Hina doll maker too just like his old man. However, as his hobbies go outside the "predetermined gender norms", Gojou is ostracized and shunned by his friends and as a result becomes a shut-in with no social life whatsoever, dedicating all his time to his studies and making Hina dolls. However, his life suddenly changes when Marin, the prettiest and most popular girl in this anime's school, quite literally falls from the sky onto his desk. After a bit of an awkward conversation, Marin rejoins her friends (it's never explained why or how she fell). That's the first time the two characters meet but their more official introduction happens a little later on in the episode. Gojou, being the introvert and softie that he is, is unable to say no to people and gets roped into doing cleaning duty as "a favor" where he actually talks to Marin for the first time as she assigned cleaning duty with him. Marin gives him a good life lesson about standing up for yourself and having a little spine and Gojou seems to take her words to heart. When the family sewing machine breaks, Gojou ends up using the ones at school to tailor. It's then that he runs into Marin once more and awkwardly reveals his hobby. Marin actually expresses admiration and shows off her secret hobby: cosplay. More particularly, cosplaying erotic video game characters from a game called Slippery Girls 2 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) . Gojou accidentally gives a harsh critique of Marin's attempted cosplay (her reactions were pretty hilarious) and after Marin gives a long winded explanation of the character she's cosplaying as (which is also hilarious) and once Gojou realizes this isn't some sick, elaborate prank, the two decide to team up together despite Gojou never making clothing for a real person before. Marin then pulls up to Gojou's place (the first time other than his mom had been in his room, presumably) to do measurements. The whole time he's measuring her, Gojou is a hot mess as she's not only in a bikini but Marin shows no remorse in teasing and joking about the whole situation. Gojou's resolve to help Marin only grows and he decides to give Slippery Girls 2 a try for "research purposes" in which the Grandfather awkwardly (and hilariously) pretends to brush off. Afterwards, the amount of sexual tension hitting Gojou makes him have enough thoughts that would make someone go to horny jail, and then accidentally ghosts Marin before she quite literally hunts him down. Gojou explains he's getting cold feet, but Marin assures that their new found friendship is genuine and invites him out go shopping for supplies for the cosplay (all on Marin's dime too!) We get an interesting revelation from Gojou where he admits to Marin that he only ever uses the words "pretty" or "beautiful" when he truly means it and doesn't throw it around like some superficial compliment. Marin then mentions that there's an upcoming cosplay event coming soon, and Gojou presumes that Marin wants to attend with the cosplay outfit. Adding onto Gojou's stress, his Grandfather accidentally injures himself upon seeing some of the stuff he bought. Marin ends up being supper supportive of Gojou through this time, and with other things he has to attend to like managing the doll shop on his Grandfather's absence and school, Gojou pulls several all nighters to accomplish his tasks and complete the cosplay in time for the event that Marin had mentioned. However, as it turned out, Marin didn't specifically ask for the outfit to be ready in time for the event and tearfully apologizes making Gojou work his butt off, but he assures her its fine and she tries on the outfit. They attend the event where Marin is a major hit among the crowd and they post the pictures of the event online. Gojou worries in the back of his mind if this is the end of their friendship. However, Marin tells him its not by asking him which cosplay they should work on next which relieves his nerves. Gojou, running on fumes, calls Marin beautiful which instantly makes her flustered especially as she knows that Gojou is being serious when he says things like that. We get to the half way point of the show, and Gojou's Grandfather returns to fiind Gojou and Marin hanging out, which causes him to immediately jump to conclusions which they assure him they're just friends. However, as soon as the thought of them being together is planted in Marin's head, she quickly realizes she's fallen for Gojou and has an adorable freak out moment. Marin then joins Gojou and his Grandfather for dinner where she reveals her home situation (mother is dead, father is away on business, typical anime backstory). We're then introduced to the rival waifu (and resident lolli): Sajuna Inui, who is also the famous cosplayer "Juju" who Marin idolizes. After a very awkward first impression, Sajuna asks Gojou to make her a cosplay outfit from another in universe anime after seeing Marin's cosplay online. We then get to see just how dedicated people like Marin and Sajuna are to cosplaying, as they tend to go for cosplays that they can reasonably match (a tall girl won't cosplay as short girl), which Sajuna respects Marin for. Though Sajuna's respects has limits and she initially chafes at the idea of doing a group cosplay with Marin until she offers to split the studio costs. All the work on cosplay seems to be paying off for Gojou, as his Grandfather praises his improvement with drawing faces on the Hina Dolls. Gojou then hangs out with Marin at her place to binge watch the in universe anime they're cosplaying from, and Marin freaks out the whole time in her mind as she considers this a "home date" with Gojou. She even cooks food for him, despite it not turning out the greatest. Gojou and Marin then meet Sajuna and her sister, Shinju, who looks like an adult even though she's in middle school (ah anime logic!). As it turns out Shinju is Sajuna's photographer and is pretty great at photography and editing. They then do to the photoshoot at the abandoned hospital, with Gojou even letting Shinju get in on the action by cosplaying as a character from the anime by lending her his school uniform, which these scenes take place in flash back from across a couple of episodes (a little of, that was then, this is now type scenes). During the shoot, Sajuna turns out to be scared of the dark and passes out when Gojou takes her hand (I smell a love triangle brewing). Gojou and Marin then hang out again, going to the beach (Gojou then enters the water and points to the horizon, asking Marin if they will finally be free if they kill their enemies over there), and reflecting that he didn't really get out and about a lot as a kid. Marin promises to spend the summer with him and she has another adorable freakout and sneaks a photo of him. Marin's feelings also start to become more pronounced for Gojou when she adorably pouts upon hearing that Sajuna had visited him. Marin and Gojou begin working on their next cosplay character, which I can best describe as a sexy ravenous WWE fighter. The horniness becomes too much for Gojou, who is unable to see her in the costume as its too revealing for him. Marin teases him but agrees to be more careful with her choices, which was a pretty nice thing for her to do. The final cosplay they work on for the season is not necessarily anything less sexy but has a little more clothing to it. If you guessed "succubus" you'd be correct! After Gojou hangs out with Marin in a manga cafe and becomes super flustered when being alone with her and that's when reveals her next character, which they decide to do after Gojou encourages her. Gojou goes through the motions of putting the cosplay together, and the shoot is in a love (sex) hotel. They reenact some parts of the manga the character is from, and there's one particular shot where Marin is on top of Gojou. After hearing a couple engaging in sexual relations in the room next to them, Gojou freaks out and tries to get Marin off him, but instead he grabs her by the waist, making her moan (ARA ARA ONI-CHAN~ jk she doesn't say that), and the lights go off when Marin accidentally drops her phone on the light switch, leaving the two in a very compromising position. They move in to kiss...but are interrupted by the phone going off, telling them to leave, and the two leave looking flustered as hell. In the final episode, Marin reveals that her father is currently forbidding her to go to the upcoming summer festival due to her not doing her homework as she's been modeling to get an expensive camera for her cosplay photo shoots. They then watch a horror movie together, with Gojou being super into it and analyzing the costumes while Marin is scared out of her poor mind. Gojou opts to help her with her homework but they have to go back to school to retrieve her work books (a little subtle Your Lie in April reference there), and Marin ends up being a little bit of a klutz and falls into the pool where Gojou saves her. Marin is then able to finish her work and takes Gojou to the summer festival where she wears a yukata. They watch the fireworks together and Gojou and Marin have a bit of an intimate moment, but Marin does another tease by sticking out her tongue and revealing that it's turned blue from the snow cones they had earlier. Gojou also ends up carrying her home after she bruises her feet from walking in sandals. The season ends when Gojou, falling asleep, is called by Marin who wants to hear his voice before she goes to sleep herself and because she freaked herself out by watching another horror movie. Gojou eventually passes out, and once she realizes this, Marin confesses her feelings to a sleeping Gojou. Huh, out of all the plots I've summarized in my reviews, this was definitely on the short side! Now for the character commentary (which will also be relatively short): Gojou: He was a well-written and solid MC, and especially one that I can relate to. He's shy, introverted, very polite, passionate about his work and a true workhorse with tangible goals. He's definitely the kind of person I could count on if I ever needed help. One of the great details in this show is that they showed Gojou progressively getting better at not only costume design but making his Hina Dolls, as he'd always struggled with getting the faces down right but thanks to his time working on costumes and with Marin he's able to significantly improve which his Grandfather takes note of. There's no doubt in my mind that Gojou loves Marin, given how he acts around her in particular throughout the show (and aside from the fact that he tries to avoid looking at her in a lewd away and that they almost kissed). I'm not sure if it'll be Gojou or Marin who confesses their feelings first to each other (I'd make the argument that Marin's confession to Gojou in the last episode didn't count as he was asleep and most likely didn't hear that), but time will tell. Marin has definitely had a positive effect on Gojou's character as he becomes more open as a person, and though I wouldn't call him an extrovert he's certainly made progress. He also doesn't freak out as much about lewd topics around Marin towards the end of the season, but that might be because he's grown used to it as well. It can't be denied that he experienced some real character growth and I hope they continue on with it. Marin: I loved her character! She was very well written, had some of the best comedic moments in the anime, and always came across as a genuinely nice and caring person. Marin was definitely more than just another pretty face and had a tangible goal herself in wanting to cosplay as her favorite characters. She was always a character that meant what she said (even though there were times where she slightly miscommunicated, but we're all human) and always respected others for their unique tastes and shunned anyone who picked on anyone for it. Her interactions with Gojou were by far the highlight of the anime and was able to establish great chemistry with him. Marin is definitely the kind of girl we all wish was real. Though she didn't experience much character development, she did get to learn how to be in a meaningful and supportive relationship with someone which is always wholesome to see. Her little freak out moments were always hilarious and cute to see and she does an excellent job pulling off her cosplay shoots! I'm definitely rooting for her and Gojou to get together. I'm not entirely sure when particularly that will happen (though I'd imagine it'd be a series finale kind of thing), but they do seem to be on the precipice of getting together. Now I'm aware romance and slice of life anime will stretch out and delay the big confession scene for as long as possible. So either something happens that will temporarily drive them apart, or they're going to stretch it out and my money is on them stretching it out. But I could be entirely wrong here and they'll continue the show even if they get together, there's plenty of paths this story can take. Sajuna: She came across as a bit prickly and icy at first, but she showed that she's not half bad herself and is super supportive of her sister trying cosplay out herself. She also warms up to Marin even though at first she gave off the kind of vibe "I'm too good for you", but comes around and openly respects her (I'd chalk her up to being a tsundere and short). Additionally, it seems like she has feelings for Gojou too, so it'll be interesting to see where there'll go with that especially since she's aware that Gojou and Marin aren't dating (yet). Love triangles are always a sure fire way to add drama and tension to the show, and granted this show has been rather lax on that front with no serious drama happening, you can't help but wonder if it'll actually stay like that. As much as I enjoyed the show, I certainly wouldn't mind a little spicy drama and Sajuna seems like she'd be the choice to make that happen. Shinju: I did find it amusing that the taller, more adult looking sister was younger than the sister who is shorter. But for what its worth, they gave Shinju her own personality and own interests and it definitely felt like she was included in the story. It'll be interesting to see if she continues to participate cosplaying but I think she probably will. Kaoru: This man was the GOAT. He had some great, hilarious moments and was always a supportive figure to Gojou. There's not a whole lot else to say about him but I enjoyed his time on screen and definitely wouldn't mind seeing more from him. Nowa: She's Marin's best friend. We don't see a whole lot of screen time from her, but she seems to be a nice character. Given that she has a unique design that sets her aside from all the other background characters and has a similar "goth aesthetic", I wonder if she'll play more of a role in the story going forward. My Dress-Up Darling was a show that surprised me. While I was expecting it to be a rather fan-servicey kind of anime (which it had it's moments, don't get me wrong and I didn't mind that stuff), I was impressed that they were able to tell a compelling story with those elements and incorporate them into the story. It's a low-stakes, relatively drama-less, slice of life and romance anime, so what might be the appeal to this? I would say it would be the fact that it's because it's fundamentally about two characters, who're essentially complete opposites of each other in almost every sense, are able to come together to form a healthy and supportive relationship through their mutual hobbies and interests. We get to see that relationship develop and blossom into a borderline romantic relationship, and it's pretty wholesome! If you want a pretty stress-free anime where you're not super big on seeing the characters fighting with each other constantly, then My Dress-Up Darling might be for you! While I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is the best romance or slice of life anime of all time, there's not any major flaws I can point out with this (aside from maybe the fact that if they continue with their present formula of cosplaying, hanging out, more emotional tension, then yeah it could get stale after a point), it's still pretty solid and this anime has my recommendation! My Dress-Up Darling is a great show and it was fun to watch! I'm happy that they'll be continuing the story with another season and I'll be eagerly waiting for it!
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 |