Back to xdvr's Profile xdvr's Profile

MAL really needs to do Series and Seasons as separate reviewable thing.
I really don't care for voting a single season, so this is for all of it.
So thanks to Mothers Basement for pointing this one out as worthy of time, as he's right.

KonoSuba is trash. There's no doubt about it... but instead of dumpster trash this is takeaway trash - you know it's bad, but by god it's so enjoyable. It's also actually decidedly quite well observed of humans.

Story is per normal a load of thin nonsense to carry the characters and it knows it, allowing the great characters to do the ... heavy lifting. Again they may be heavy leaning on archetypes but they've got personalities, and do all the heavy lifting.
I don't think I've ever felt my teenage life felt more than by Kazutrash.

It does that rare thing of making you actually care for them.

Art is great, voice acting and dubbing both worth your time.

Fan Service is heavy, but without it you'd lose a lot of the story of awkward humans being awkward.

And if you're one of those self important derpy idiots that cannot accept that humans are always flawed well that's a you problem and must be a joy to be around.

I grew up watching some of the original Anime spin off from the manga in the 90s.
You can still tell that this was written in the good ol' days of manga/anime where it was totally all boobs and gore.
Now what's not to like with that? Well... I'm old and I've seen a lot of other things and this isn't enough to captivate like it did a young boy.

I've got to start with the art direction, which I've seen criticised. It's spot on, capturing the 70s manga style which was much more comic. You can see how the lineage of this traces back to ... original Astroboy/Tetsuwan Atomu.

Story wise, it's really quite faithful to the manga, which is 10/10 spot on as it should be. I despise adaptions (unless done by the original author) where they take huge liberties, and we've seen in more recent times (well apart from the US where they produce the worse crap possible with Rings of Power) where directors are able to keep their ego in check. It's famous for a reason and doesn't need some 3rd rate idiot inserting their own rubbish that needs the z rate hacks at Screen Rate to be bought to justify it.

The whole theory behind it isn't bad - and was an original take back then - it's less so now, so newbies will either hit that they've already seen this, or will really enjoy.

It is definitely worth watching for a piece of re-enacted and righted history (the original series and OVAs deviate wildly from the manga and miss many of the biggest points), so it leans into the mangas message that Humans are weak trash, as we're currently seeing around the world. Ah well...

Life's too short for mediocre anime.
So in my new "If ain't good dump" this is the first to get dumped, and I sat through Devilman Crybaby before this...

This was stuck on my list at some point due to it's above 7 rating, which has in more recent times dropped below 7. This is correct, it's not a Good piece of media, but from my view it's not even a 6 "Fine".

There's nothing wrong with the animation, voice acting, dub etc... it's just... well the story is boring, treads old ground having been done many times before, and lacks nuance. Now sometimes there's enough ... uniqueness elsewhere that these things can be forgiven but as a package this just misses the mark. And for all this, it must be doing something right as it's not a Bad anime.

It may be great for people new to Anime, but it's not for someone in their 4th decade, and looking through the reviews of those that think it's great or bad seems to justify this. All the great reviews are from people who've not reviewed and recent acounts. Will be one of those they look back on and go "oh why did I think so highly".

Thought I'd got through the other Science Adventures, thank god I didn't start with this one or might have done the lot.
Did Stein;Gate years ago when it was all the rage, and it was great having that weekly release.
Have since done Robotics and Occultics - neither on the same level but watchable.

This on the other hand... you hear there's a lot wrong with it and they aren't wrong.
Animation and Voice Acting is great (except the extra squeeky voiced one - get in the bin with this crap continued dubbing).
But it's the story - it's just not engaging and really badly paced.
First episode is great and ... then off the cliff it goes and pretty much flatlines. Even when you get revelations they just don't land.

Oh OP and ED music is unmemorable generic anime.

I always like to have a dig around the reviews to see what others have said and especially in the opposite opinion to see what they think, and then go see what they rate. Normally I find that they like all the utter trash childish anime and have obviously missed the point entirely. Interesting there's a few people in this one that don't fit this and I'm genuinely surprised.

I blitzed this in a day - which is rare, but it was good enough to keep watching.
It's not Bebop, Monster, or Pluto good - but then again what is?
It's also not Iseku trash, which instantly ... means it's better than 95% of anything in the last 10 years.

But why is 91 Days is good?
It is very well written - people act like real people (although driven by plot people do , and there's a good understanding of what people do.
Angelo is broken - and you've got to love a broken protagonist you can actually relate to instead of a boring OP one.
He's got the dead tone of a PTSD burnout and acts like a PTSD burnout.
His friendship wish Corteo feels real.
The reviewers don't like episode 7 - it's called love, and if you don't understand this you've never lost someone you love. Imagine if you'd lost someone they turn up and then you have it within your power to save them? Wouldn't you? A genuine beautiful piece.

It's 12 episodes - I don't need 200 episodes to tell me a 12 episode story. Thank you!
It's well voice acted.
It's well animated and the movement looks great/realistic (except the bonus episode which looks really cheap and doesn't add anything).

So... if you want a grown up action anime this is up there.

There's a lot right with this, but it can't escape the gravity of poor/generic writing that is currently infecting a lot of manga/anime.

For the majority this is probably an anime they will enjoy.
For old discerning gits who've been watching Anime since the 70s... it's all been done before, commits the same problems a lot of the current crop do. Don't expect anything new, expect okish writing, expect OP protagonists that don't have any character arcs or any fear of issues, and reminisce back to the 80s/90s when we had some truly great anime that surpassed it's source (ahem... GITS).

Going to start at the ... big thing it gets right: the world building.
Loads of interesting things to get behind at the beginning and it's dipping into 1800 European etc allows you to make some leaps without having to spell it all out.

The art style works really well - backing up the whole 1800 European, slightly Steampunk thing that's going on.

But, as said the problem is the core: the writing... which is largely Over Powered wish fulfilment rubbish for children or those weak of adulting.

The characters, although all very likeable are all instantly overpowered at the beginning, so you only get fleeting bits of any real danger, and after 5 episodes you realise that it's all good - nobody's gonna die but the bad guy and it's just plain ol' plain old in a new set of clothes.

Ok... Wasted enough time on this already.

After the Lodoss War OVA this is an utter multi-train crash where all the trains contained trash.
I've been trying to get through this for the last 24+ years since it's initial release. Back in the day before the internet made finding this easy it was all dodgy VCDs from some random model shops... and this was always a struggle to find... and then you did and you understood why: it's offensively bad.

I'm struggling to find a nice thing to say about this... except the OP Music: it's surprisingly great - and you'll find yourself humming it around the ... house.

But I know what you're really here for - some more chibi bashing... and my god does it need bashing so this crap goes away and never ever comes back into this type of anime. It's utterly charmless and hugely annoying rubbish that takes up sometimes over half the run time of an episode... for what? I want to cause harm to whichever idiot decided this needed to be there.
I don't have the words to reach the depths to describe quite how backed up a sewerage system this is.
I know much like Fate there's a whole "Chibi Cooking thing" for the painfully short of adult as well... but that's a whole separate series that can be very ignored by anyone who's not a child.

As others mentioned, there is a lot of overlap with the OVA (due to how the OVA is a mix of stories from the LNs/Manga).
So what to do if someone has already covered the same material? You make it better right... right??? right???????
Nooooo, lower quality everything: animation, voice acting (both Japanese and English dub), and somehow make the story bad - upping all the poor aspects.

Unlike the OVA which is the closest thing I've still seen to a proper enacted RPG session (even better than the recent US ones), this ditches that entire feel for a very poor run of the mill 90s fantasy anime.

Someone needs to save everyone a lot of time by removing every ms of Chibi crap from this and reducing the runtime to about 1.5hours. Or just go watch the OVA again, as everything is done better... 8 years earlier.

Half way through 2nd season, and this is a lot better than 1st season.
It's still a pretty standard anime, clearly nothing new, but it does it well.

Why? The big thing less childish humour.
Not sure if this was choice by the writer or the adapter - either way, great choice.
Feels far more grown up, less jarring "rubbish humour time just after you've seen someone turned to mush!"
This was already noticeable in the 0 Movie, where they allowed the emotional impact to land.

What else did it get right?
The normal overpowered lead that saves the day all the time isn't quite as overpowered.
That ... god awful Lost in Paradise is getting further into the mists of time - Directors/Producers: MUSIC MATTERS.

There's a lot to recommend here... But... we'll swing back on that.

Good voice acting both Japanese and Dubs. The voices suit... well except the normal dub rubbish of Squeaky Karina. (Please stop casting whoever that is doing that voice... find someone who sounds like the original Karina. No it doesn't portray a younger person it just sounds rubbish.

The themes are fantastic - especially in this world where the right appear to be growing. If you're watching and think the 86s are the Right Wing you're an idiot... go back to your stupidity.

So why do I think it's not as good as it could ... be?

1. Takes too long to get to the meat. 6 episodes. This goes past the normal 3 episode rule and the only reason I stuck with it is other old school MSG Fans represent.

2. My ever present gripe on modern Anime: Infantilisation through the continued crap anime trope of "awful humour". 86 offends hard on this trope - punctuating the fantastic bits of human gravity and breaking/devaluing their moments.
They'll be remarks that these are "light relief" but no it's exceptionally tone deaf to this anime's topics, and in doing so devalues it massively.

At some point others will catch up on this point... but if you're not there yet, don't worry... give it a few years and you're start seeing the problem with this YA rubbish. More on this below.

3. THAT song - no... just no: Fight Scene - chuck in the chugging song, other moment, chuck in the rubbish song. The actual OST is great.

BE WARNED MINOR RANT ABOUT THIS ISSUE FOLLOWS AND INCLUDES LIGHT SPOILERS FOR OTHER SERIES.

This is another series accursed with the current trend/trope of childish nonsense in manga/anime that needs to go in the bin if it wants to continue being considered an adult medium. 86 is not an adult anime due to this nonsense, it's tween/Very YA. If someone cut 86 and removed all the unrequired jarring humour scenes - this would elevate it considerably.

This is however not the first, a brief think threw up these:
MSG 79, MSG Zeta - Humour is in the right places.
MSG ZZ - Highly regarded as the worst MSG by a long shot, and just generally crap and why is that? CHILDISH HUMOUR!
Cowboy Bebop - knows when to pull the humour out.
Ghost in the Shell manga - Childish Humour
Ghost in the Shell 1 and SAC anime - No Childish Humour and all the better for it.
Berserk? Humour was balanced through Golden Age, afterwards really descends.
Jujutsu Kaisen feeling disconnected for you? You're not alone, that'll be that childish Humour mixed in every 5 minutes - Oh no, someone's been turned into something resembling The Thing, quick throw some humour on it. Does the whole thing a massive disservice. Should have concentrated more on why the 80s anime was better - less crap humour.,
Made in Abyss - knows when to pull the humour. Ie. Best friend turned into mush in a can... doesn't then go "Have some humour! Ha ha I'm so funny...", in a natural place where it won't break the mood - fine. We won't mention the manga... why can't people just be normal?
Monster - No stupid humour.
Pluto - No stupid humour.
One Piece, Food Wars, etc, etc, why's the humour great here? Cause it's a comedy series, and also they get timing. Serious moments are allowed to be serious moments without the author thinking they're funny.

Part of my "Rewatch all the Manga Entertainment UK we used to have on VHS", watching them in chronological order.



Art - Beautiful high quality 80s anime. You can see the budget on screen. This type of stuff is why so many people complain about CGI. The characters are distinct enough to easily recognise who is who. The various space vessels are beautifully designed - think Ulysses 31.

Story - SUBS NOT DUBS
Yeah, 100% with this one... this is early days, when the dubs were generally low quality translations and low to ok quality performances. Have you got the right version? Is it 2h+, then yes.

The ... Manga Entertainment release is massively cut by nearly half the film!
I watched them back to back, Subs first and then Dub just to see what I watched as a kid.

This really shows - for instance - why's their a 4 sailed barque in space? Watch the sub, it explains this.
It then goes onto explain those big red lines a lot better, with a genuinely gorgeous opening.

Is it a masterpiece? No. It's probably a similar level to Dominion Tank Police or Bubblegum Crisis.

Music - Classic 80s anime > orchestral or RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWK! Hell's yeah. It's not quite Bubblegum Crisis RAWK tho.