"You have no enemies"
Just finished watching Vinland Saga 2 which I have been keeping on hold after watching the first 14 episodes. I decided to binge the next 10 episodes all in one go and I think in my opinion Vinland Saga is not just one of the best Anime to ever exist, but it is one of the best most inspiring fictional stories ever written
I can't express my feelings on how good this season in particular was, so much better than season 1 in my opinion, season 2 had a much clearer and a better direction and they also doubled down on the action. Can totally understand people calling this a farming simulator. But if you guys know me I prefer character development over anything mindless action and killing dudes left and right. Although there is such a good balance between the 2 overall in the series. I feel like season 2 did a much better job at storytelling. The characters are nothing less than memorable. I love the cast, may have cried a couple times for their backstories and an untimely death of one of my favourite characters in shows midway through the season. I easily get emotionally attached to characters, especially female characters I just can't help it, not trynna be a simp or whatever it's just me.
Please watch this show.
Wow! Just wow! This is probably my second favourite crime show besides season 1 of true detective. There's a bunch of things True Detective does better but Black Bird absolutely stomps TD in terms of storytelling. The show is beautifully shot from the opening shot to the final closing shot, a lot of heart poured into each technical aspect.
At it's core Black Bird is a show about loss and redemption. Based on the true harrowing stories about Larry Hall, our main character is Jimmy Keene who is a drug dealer sent to get a confession out of Larry Hall for the crimes he committed. Through a series of beautifully crafted timelines, a harrowing series of crimes. The actors each give 120%, absolutely mesmerizing performances by Taron and Paul, and Ray Liotta too.
The show is pretty simple...yet it's so complex, I dont have quiet the vocabulary to express my fullest emotions about this show, so I'll try my best, please excuse me for my bad English.
First of all, Larry Hall is a terrible person, every crime he committed disgusts me, but you see the show does such a good job at not just spoon-feeding the audience on how bad Lary is, instead they give us...the audience a simple backstory to him too, his difficulties and for a moment you can do nothing but even feel a tiny bit of compassion to this monster. I mean his whole life, almost nothing has gone his own way, he wasn't born with the best circumstances, his parents wasn't really caring for him. The only person he could talk to or feel safe was with Gary his twin brother and later on Jimmy. Maybe...just maybe, Lary could've been a sweet caring guy, he just needed a little bit of attention, you can see that clear as day when he is conversing with Jimmy, he just needed someone to talk to. I'm not trynna say what Lary did was right or anything please don't get me wrong he got what he deserved in the end but just imagine how precious human life is and yet how so fragile we are. At the final few minutes, I ended up shedding a tear or two for both these characters, such a beautiful show.
Alright, there it is...the "best" new anime of the season. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this but it would've been great if this came out a few years ago. With the release and the popularity of action shonen anime rising by the minute, it's too easy to call out these types of anime to be filled with cliche tropes so I'm gonna be slightly critical here.
Firstly, I'm really happy with the production decision they made here. Real ballsy of them to develop characters because they know there is nothing much to be discussed story-wise. I have a couple of criticisms here which I don't wanna go deeply into considering this is just the first season. But since we're here...I do not like the 'internal monologuing' here at all. It's probably a personal thing but it kinda gets annoying I feel like I'll get used to it in the coming episodes. Adding to that point there's a lot of exposition happening here in terms of the power system. At the same time, I feel like there are no other ways to go around it so I can excuse it.
Having said that, negativity aside there's a lot to like here, the later half of the show has some incredible fighting action sequences, the choreography is excellent and the powerups pack a punch. I love the character design, the voice acting is incredible and I love how they decided to expand more into characters without making it seem too rushed or too fast. The power system which is probably the biggest strength of the show is one of the best I've seen in the genre, although it follows the same weakest-to-strongest trope they add their twist to it with the power system. They also throw in a bit of fan service which I won't complain about as long as we get more of Cha Hae In.
In conclusion there's a ton of room for improvement here, I could see this being the magnum opus of new gen anime.
EASILY one of the best shows this year and this thing is flying under the radar as far as I can tell which is a shame. The first five episodes in the hospital are incredibly transportive due to the cinematography, set design, and performances. Every actor embraces their role so well and everyone feels so real. This is probably the most grounded show this year while also being able to draw so many emotions out of you. I felt anger, fear, anxiety, endearment, and overwhelming grief and sadness in the first five episodes alone. Episode 5 in particular stands out as one of the most emotional and heartbreaking hours of TV I've ever watched. The only emotion that seemed to be missing was happiness or joy. It is really lacking in levity, but at the same I'm not sure that adding levity to a true story like this would be the right thing to do. I bet that any feelings of levity were severely absent for the real life doctors and patients of this story, and therefore the tone of this show feels like a faithful thematic adaptation. My one complaint was the juxtaposition between the first five episodes and the last three. The first five episodes in the hospital produced some of the most engaging and emotional television I have ever watched, and I just don't think the final three episodes was able to match this. The final three episodes are by no means bad, but they feel like they comprise a completely different of show and inherently the legal aftermath section of the show just isn't going to be as engaging or enthralling as the first five episodes actually in the hospital. Because of this the show dragged a good bit in these last episodes. Once we get to the final three episodes the show also narrows in on continuing Anna Pou's story, but most of the other characters get little to no screen time after being major parts of the first five epodes. I had gotten attached to those characters and there was a harsh cutoff for most of them after the fifth episode. I do, however, think that the final three episodes do a great job of adding complexity to Anna Pou's character and the entire situation at the hospital, as well as adding well-written new characters. Overall, even with the harsh transition after episode 5 I still found this show as a whole to be incredibly engaging and emotional. One of my favorite limited series.
2022 TV Shows Ranked --> https://trakt.tv/users/justinnumerick/lists/2022-tv-shows-ranked?sort=rank,asc
