So instead of the Mulan from the animated film who had to work hard to acquire the strength she needed to achieve her goal (which teaches you to keep trying no matter what and you can achieve anything) she was replaced with a Mulan who was special from birth and already had everything she needed to achieve her goal which is just the opposite of the original message of the animated film which I could see alienating people and teaching a younger audience the wrong message.
Also the transition sequence for Mulan heading off to war was also rather disappointing compared to the original film. Instead of a sequence of cutting her hair and giving up what she has to save her father from going to war it immediately cuts to her already in the armour and setting off to the camp. In my opinion this ruined the emotional connection to Mulan and didn't allow the viewer get a deeper connection to the sacrifice she is making for her father.
Despite it missing a lot of what the original film had I don't think it was that bad of a film if you don't compare it to the original (like most of Disney's live action remakes).
I was waiting until Tower of God had finished to give my overall verdict on the show and what my thoughts were when watching it. Before I talk about anything my opinion is solely based on the anime alone and nothing from the Webtoon since I haven't read it at all.
To start off I really wasn't a fan of the art style (too minimalistic and lacking in depth & detail) but I know the art style was chosen to somewhat replicate the art from the source material which I can somewhat overlook and after a couple of episodes I got used to it. The thing I can't overlook was the terrible animation (I don't know if this was due to Crunchyroll's budget (highly doubtful since GOH looks a lot higher quality) for the show or the animation studio's (Telecom Animation) talent that handled TOG), all the fight scenes felt really flat and mediocre (except maybe the Yuri vs Yuga fight which didn't really have a lot of animation but felt more impactful and stronger than any of the other fights throughout the show).
Episodes 01 to 11 (and somewhat 12) feel very slow in terms of overall story development besides a few glimpses into side characters origins & scenes outside the tests. The show feels like it gives very limited information with only small little Easter eggs of information here and there to keep you hooked. Also while I got to better know certain characters and got the core logic/ dynamics of the series I still have tons of questions regarding a lot aspects of the series (I don't know if its better explained in the WebToon or in more expanded upon further down the line) such as how some characters seem like they originate from the world of the Tower (like Khun, Anaak, Endorsi etc.) where as characters like Bam, Shibisu, Serena feel like they were somewhat Isekaid into the world.
Episode 13 is definitely in my opinion the turning point of the show and really rewrites the shows character dynamics and what we presumed had actually happened. It is only until the story is flipped and seen from the perspective of Rachel that our main character had been chasing all this time that we have a true insight into the events that had unravelled and the kind of person she truly is (which I just loved). Also given the events of the final episode I now see what we have seen so far is the prologue to the main arc of the show (the actual climbing of the tower) and Bam getting his answers.
The best thing about TOG (the thing that got me interested & most excited about the show) was the OST composed by Kevin Penkin. Like Kevin's previous works (Shield Hero, Made in Abyss, Under the Dog etc.) the music is top notch and is the key element that really draws you into scenes and amplifies the show, to be honest if the anime didn't have his music I would of definitely rated the show lower since it feels like the shows really relies on the musical score to support it.
To conclude I do think the show was very overhyped from the start but despite having mixed feelings with the series I would like to see a Season 2 and continuation of the story (especially since I'm not a huge fan of manhwa/ webtoons for various reasons) and since the show was relatively popular I could definitely see that happening (there's enough content for another season looking at the WebToon). To be honest even at the end I still feel like Bam doesn't have much individuality as a character, he still feels very two dimensional and really only obsessing about Rachel was his main characteristic throughout the show (running around and being depressed like a dog who has lost their owner). Bam is also unfortunately yet another anime character that falls into the overpowered but doesn't know it trope which was rather a disappointing aspect of the show.
Honestly after all the hype I’ve heard about Breaking Bad I thought I would finally sit down and get an understanding of all the breaking bad references I’ve heard over the years and why the show is so highly praised. I was always skeptical of starting this show since Brian Cranston has always been (still is) Hal (Malcolm in the Middle) for me and I didn’t want to start thinking about him as Walter White/ Heisenberg. Another thing that stopped me originally from watching was that I thought there would be too much emphasis on the drugs (making, selling, etc.) than the psychology of it (power complex, turf wars, murder, etc.) but luckily it focuses more on the later.
The first two seasons were rather slow & repetitive in my opinion, constantly going back and forth about making meth (or not to) and Walter's physical/ psychological condition. After season three (more precisely after the introduction of Gus) I think the show definitely picked up due to the exponential growth of operations and looming threats.
Some things I didn’t like about the show were the unnecessary character stories (Marie’s shoplifting/ lying, Skyler’s cheating, etc.) even if they gave us a deeper understanding of what the person is like. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the end scenes playing out bit by bit at the start of the episodes leading to the season finale since you knew it wasn’t going to be that detrimental to our main characters (which was mostly correct) and personally felt like it to took away some of the anticipation (in terms of storytelling). I also watched the series on Blu-ray and was rather annoyed that the subs for the Spanish/ German weren't embedded which meant I had to keep turning on & off the English subs to understand what was being said.
Overall I was happy with how the series ended (except how a few characters died) which made me happy since a lot of very popular series generally have very crappy endings (like Game of Thrones).
Luckily, I got to see this at the cinema last night (I’m in the UK). Overall the film was enjoyable and just screamed Studio Trigger in the way the movie presented itself (mostly character mannerisms). While I love seeing films that try and take on a new visual aesthetic like Promare the mix of CGI and 2D animation was something I definitely had to get used to while watching the film (wasn’t blended perfectly in my opinion). A lot of the fight scenes were very fast and at times rather hard to discern what was happening at points due to the speed, camera movement and minimalistic art style (Example: Galo vs Lio fight).
I can also see the issue regarding plagiarism for Promare because of Fire Force since the two concepts are similar (even though trigger won't admit they stole the concept for the film when Okubo shared the concept for his new manga before releasing despite some staff openly saying that they stole the concept from the original draft of Okubo’s Fire Force) but it was interesting to see how two similar concepts took different direction in terms of world-building and overall plot.
The film also suffers from the Shonen trope since the film just has a continuous powering up system throughout the film which just tries to keep one-upping itself all the time within my opinion a just over the top and rather ridiculous (but beautifully animated) conclusion to the film.
If you want to watch a rather fast-paced and heavily stylized film then I would definitely recommend it, enjoyable none the less though.
