Okay, you got my attention, I wasn’t really expecting that twist there at the end.
After making it through a rather slow and uninteresting start, the prison arc and the closing episode really made for a solid entry into the Star Wars universe. However, it wasn’t the best it could’ve been. I wasn’t a huge fan of the speed in which the first arc was handled, there was a bit too much setup without defining the characters importance or details in a succinct way. There were also a bunch of random episodes that were very much filler, without many events at all with just barely enough action to pass as an episode at all. In the end, the slow start and filler held down what could’ve been outstanding.
The first season didn't really have much because they didn't really resolve anything. The second season, however, felt a lot better in terms of overarching plot development and character backstory. There was some characters who really got their character developments rushed through, and even at the end of season 2, they really left a lot of issues unresolved. The various shenanigans in each episode were still fairly entertaining and the level of espionage, manipulation, and drama that high schoolers were having is quite a funny idea. It was a fun enough Anime to binge through
Might be a hot take: but I think the show did pretty good work on the source material. I’m sure there are some differences and the timeline is likely askew. If anything, my largest complaint with the show is simply that it’s put in a show form. The first couple episodes were quite boring as they tried to set everything up, but after it got going, and I started to see the connections as each storyline got under way, the show did an excellent job weaving a complex narrative. The cutoffs for each episode were rather off at times, which unfortunately made it difficult to watch on a weekly basis as it felt designed more like it should have been a trilogy of lengthy ~3hr movies instead of a bunch of hour long episodes.
But all in all, I was contented by the series. The graphics were gorgeous of course given the shows massive budget.
This is a show that does an amazing job putting together incredibly likeable and complex characters, beautiful artistry with awesome action scenes, and a pretty cool plot line; all together in one cute show! Trust me when I say, Chisato is such a beautiful and wholesome character that it will be worth it for her alone.
This was far better than I had expected going into it. The show has you on the edge of your seat almost the entire way through til it’s conclusion. Of which I think it’s very important to note, that this series very much concludes. There will not be a true “sequel” other than the actually Cyberpunk game itself. This show was short and sweet; although the series was anything but sweet. Any bits of happy and touching moments were like a beautiful stained glass mirror, right before being shattered by the harsh realities of night city.
This show was not as polished as Netflix’s hit Anime based on League of Legends (Arcane), but the action and climax was just as intense. The only thing lacking in the show, was a bit more character development, and variety of how the development was portrayed. The series fell into a habit of only adding more flavor to the characters through backstories which made characters feel as if they were simply made of “back then”, a big event happens, and then “now” as opposed to a flowing timeline of experiences.
All things considered, a very good experience, short as it was.
This was an adorable, funny and witty Anime that was so worth the watch. The dialogue and hilarity of the situations presented truly drives this Anime to rise to the top.
I was almost off-put from the series due to the overly cutesy animation at the start, but boy was I wrong with how the series would go. Made in Abyss starts off like it should be a rather family friendly spelunking adventure, but slowly descends into madness and nightmares. The Anime twisted the concepts of humanity and nature in a truly dark fashion, while remaining endlessly enticing to the viewer. Keep in mind as you descend into this Anime, your journey is made with no return.
Wow, the level of "darkness" that the Season 1 of Made in Abyss wasn't even enough to prepare me for this ride. This is truly one of the darkest Anime I've seen (without delving into the ones that exists purely for meaningless blood and gore). It ranks close to that of the Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel arc.
The visuals were striking and the music suitable. The concepts and ideas that drive this series is truly the most interesting of all. The Made in Abyss Anime truly understands what it it means to feel humanity and then strives to strip it away bit by bit until the viewer is revolted by the very willingness of humans to continue pushing forward. The movie had a few flaws here and there, one of my biggest distastes was the complete willingness to murder half a dozen of the Umbra Hands, including Bondrewd (the supposed father of their friend). There was incredibly little hesitation and emotion before and after their homicidal actions. Killing a bad guy might make it easier, but in no way is it something they should be emotionally okay with doing without some serious emotional turmoil. (The manga/LN might've handled it better than the movie, I haven't read any of it.) And just the general handling of the main characters internal thought, emotions, and conflicts could've been handled a little cleaner.
The movie was not quite as powerful as the first season (perhaps the first season took the edge of the series a bit for me), but still came with horrific and enticing plot lines that kept me thoroughly invested.
This piece works by making what seems like a ragtag team and a bunch of random events and episodes fall in place like puzzle pieces. Its just a well executed story and character development with some decent action sequences. And of course, the OP is just a classic now.
This is such a funny and wholesome Anime that is really a treat to watch. Almost all of the characters are entertaining to watch and I love the thought that went into each characters development and personality. Interestingly, the secondary character in the show, Tadano, is the one with the most straightforward personality. Which is rather strange considering every person in the school should have been admitted because of some strange quirk. So I'll be very intrigued to see if the series finally explains and develops Tadano in the third season. Overall, a really high quality Anime that hits all the tenets of Animation, Music, and Characters.
I really can’t describe this fever dream of a movie. The visuals and auditory feelings that the movie provided were phenomenal and captivating. There was so many tiny bits of philosophical food that were narrowly tethered together by the overall story. The largest downfall of the piece, is certainly not lack of imagination but rather the failure to create of characters that were interesting enough on their own.
The first half of the movie was not as carried the constant stream of visuals and the characters themselves were not shown to be complex enough. By the end of the movie, I was able to understand some additional complexities of each character, but the film itself failed to convey these complexities in a way that would keep the viewer entertained by their interactions.
Still, it was a beautiful masterpiece of visuals that can only be described as a dream of epic proportions, even if the film could only show a drop in the ocean.
The series had a couple moments where it was really quite good. I think the first two episodes were the ones I enjoyed the most, the setup and then the early interactions with Ben and Leia were wonderful to watch. Now I think the series suffered from three big issues in general:
It had some good potential to be great, but then it just kind of fell flat on the story line and opted for flashy graphics and lightsaber duels to carry the show.
This was not the best movie that I would expect out of Disney and Pixar. Yes it was a fine movie, the action and jokes were decent. Although a good bit of it was poorly or overly done, the pen for example, that was possibly one of the dumbest running jokes I’ve seen in a movie. Not clever in the slightest, just simple and dumb humor.
I personally am happy about Disney’s representation of a same sex couple in the film. It didn’t really impact the story at all, in fact, it made the relationship between Buzz and her seem stronger since there was no physical attraction at all. It’s not often you get a movie that doesn’t force some kind of relationship among the main characters.
It was simply an alright movie, not groundbreaking and just a formulaic entertaining movie.
This was actually a really cool movie to watch. The combination of crazy structures and acrobatic parkour enthusiasts is just a really cool art to watch. In addition, the music was well done. Yes it was nothing horribly new to the genre and didn't add much to the story, but it fit pretty well with the atmosphere of the film in most places.
Where the movie really fell short is its failure to blend fantasy and reality. With world building you either need to build a hyper realistic world with great attention to the tiniest details (this often leads to a lot of explaining as everything has to have a definitive cause and reaction) or you can build a world of pure fantasy and imagination.
This movie tried to make a realistically plausible that the events could occur, which is perfectly alright on its own. But then a severe lack to detail and understanding made the story seem sloppy as the world building was supposed to be more realistic. Simple things like the ability to jump on bubbles that weren't in gravity wells were left unexplained, and the simple fact that these games with children doing dangerous parkour were even allowed to exist by the government in the first place (especially after reaching livestream popularity). If set in a fantasy world these things are fine, but if you try to set a movie in the real world and treat it as pure fantasy, it leaves a bad taste.
So yes, many elements of the film were done masterfully but ultimately the lack of attention to detail made the fantasy world of bubbles that the beautiful artwork brought me into, simply pop and fall flat.
I honestly didn’t expect this movie to be that superb considering it’s precursor was just a slightly better than average Hollywood movie for it’s time. But with this movie they managed to keep the same feelings and atmosphere as the original while elevating it to the modern aesthetics of plane fighting and action films. The cinematography was masterful and it really made for a great movie. They did a decent job with the story too, not horribly special, but just good enough to keep things moving at a strong pace.
It sure was a movie from the 80s! It wasn't all bad things, especially if you can just listen to 80s music on repeat. I had a good laugh about how many times the movie just vamped "take my breath away" in the background. The movie was interesting with the storyline and the actors made their interactions enjoyable. I swear Tom Cruise was smirking in 80% of his time on screen. Some good jokes, some strong action, some sad tones, and some romance. Really all you can ask for from a classic Hollywood movie.
Just another cute little teenage romance rolled up to one little bite. Its got your traditional characters, the normal friend archetypes, and your perfect happy little ending. Nothing new in the rom-com genre, just some pretty pictures and some dramatic moments to jerk your tears.
For the quality I expected of this show, I was disappointed.
The set design was cool, but it was no more than your average medieval set design. Forget the fact that it’s a land of magic and mystery, it’s just your average medieval scenery reused from old Disney movies. The set design in LotR was far superior.
I was equally unimpressed by some of the competition designs. An Easter egg hunt was the best you could do? There weren’t even any twists to make it interesting.
Another big issue is that of the characters. Obviously it’s supposed to a reality TV show not just a true fantasy. I can forgive a little bit of the awkwardness at the start as the guests get accustomed to the set. But the lines that the “real actors” have are also delivered poorly in most cases. Which is honestly not the fault of the actors, they simply had shallow character design that made their character arcs obvious from the first sentences they uttered.
The entire show gave me DnD vibes which makes me wonder, why didn’t they get contestants that were more interested in DnD and could roll with the story better. But of course, I’ve seen avid DnD players design more interesting storylines with greater depth character arcs so I can’t blame the contestants for struggling to go with the plot anyways.
It was an interesting show to try and remake, but I don’t think I’ll be recommending this one.
I came in to this fairly low expectations and I was absolutely wowed by whole movie. The animation had a cute quality to it but got incredibly vast and scenic for just the right moments. The music soared and flowed like a river throughout the film, matching the animation and the story progression perfectly. As for the story, it was really quite well done. It was highly reminiscent of Princess Mononoke (another fantastic film that you should watch) with the idea of spirits coexisting with humans despite the human evolution destroying their homes. The various amounts of comedic relief were well done and got a few chuckles out of me. The film explored the concepts of duality in all things quite well so that even a child (such as the child Hei) could understand.
For all the cliché filled plot, this was still a pretty entertaining movie. Ryan reynolds and walker scobell played off each other perfectly for a crazy comedic duo. And there were a handful of funny references and futuristic action scenes to keep things interesting.
This was actually so much better than I expected going into it. I had heard some good things, but it still exceeded expectations. The animation was a really cool mix between crisp animation and hand drawn caricature style. The humor was surprisingly funny and the sheer absurdity of the scenarios really brought back home how silly our everyday lives can be. Not to mention a relatable story about the complexities of human character and relationships. Overall, it was really enjoyable to watch, might even be worth a rewatch in the future.
To be perfectly honest, this movie just summarized all the best parts of the original SAO that I enjoyed so much before the Aincrad arc got rushed into its completion, so of course I'm inclined to like it. But it really doesn't include a whole lot of new content. So the real test on whether SAO Progressive is the best way to watch this Anime will come with the release of the second movie, and I eagerly await it. If it's as good as I'm hoping, I'll probably just recommend people skip the original Anime and watch Progressive then they can watch the series at their own risk.
Season 1 was a phenomenal hook into the series, and while there were some really good moments in season 2, there was also a lot of really slow paced filler / plot development episodes where nothing really happened until the very last minute of the episode to act as a cliffhanger into the next episode where the process repeats.
The animation and music were about average for an Anime of the genre, but the Ending theme was phenomenal so that was a definite plus. This show definitely could've been something really special with gorgeous animation and scenic views, action scenes that build character development and plot at the same time, and more. But instead what we got was a decent Anime that was still worth the watch.
Recommended, but not the Anime of the century, let alone the decade.
First off, figuring out the order in which these episodes should be watched was probably the hardest task for any Anime I've seen, find a chronological list and just stick with it even if things seem off. And that's even after watching things like Steins;Gate which is literally has a different and confusing time travel paradox every other episode.
Kyoto Animation did an excellent job with this one as the animation, sounds, and visual themes all work perfectly to contrast the completely inane occurrences of this show, and I mean inane in the best way. While the story can feel incoherent at times, it really has a remarkably well woven thread throughout the entire show and the character's get fleshed out along the way. Enjoy the crazy ride with this one.
My recommendation for the truly endless eight, watch the sixth one and the last one. Do NOT condemn yourself to watching them all, you will only make yourself miserable or bored of the show unless you do what I did, which is essentially to leave it on as background noise while completely ignoring it.
Then after Season 2 go straight for the movie, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya. It's truly a fitting conclusion for the series and was a nice that had all the niceties of the show wrapped up in one package.
Its a pretty average Anime with mild amounts of ecchi moments, raunchy behavior, and "assemble the Harem!" kind of thinking. But the content and story-wise rating is equivalent to that of something like Fairy Tail: extremely easy to digest and requires no thinking on behalf of the viewer. And as such, I would recommend you focus on not thinking, because otherwise you'll notice the incredible inconsistencies, moments that just don't make any logical sense, and the numerous events that are honestly counter-productive to the current plot and/or previous plot points.
I really only rated it this highly because I'm just a massive sucker for Tsundere relationship arcs, and let me tell you this arc just kept going.
It was a really good movie, it was filled all the usual timey-wimey shenanigans that you have come to expect of Haruhi Suzumiya. The metaphors and concept behind the movie is truly admirable and I've never wanted to appreciate the "weird" in my life so much. This was a much better feeling to leave off on than the Endless Eight (which I still think was well imagined, just poorly executed). The character development throughout the entire piece is truly central to enjoyment of this movie, you need to understand the tiniest changes in Kyon's behavior and thinking as he comes to terms with how much he loves his life (and Haruhi) as well as Nagato evolving from a humanoid interface to more something a little more human with emotion. It's still not the most moving film I've ever watched, and it certainly required an awful lot of backstory from the series to understand, but if you enjoyed the series even the tiniest bit, you'll be happy with your decision to watch this too.
Honestly, this series is really a mixed bag when you look at it as a whole. There were some really great moments and the pretext of the Aincrad arc is purely phenomenal material and world building, with a pretty neat set of plot twists built in. I could spend a lot of time picking out the little points that I was annoyed by or hated, but there are plenty of other reviews that do that with very similar opinions to my own. This Anime will always have a bit of nostalgia for me and its a big part of why I enjoy Isekai as a genre. The series really is worth a watch and there's a good chance you'll have some enjoyable moments, but there are a lot of parts where things are honestly really dumb, riddled with holes, or should have been left for hentai.
If you want to watch what I might consider the "ideal" parts of the series, this is what I enjoyed the most:
The Aincrad Arc: S01 Episodes 1-14
Alicization Arc: S03
War of Underworld Arc: S04
Although I include the Alicization stuff because there were some really good moments, there were also a plethora of extremely poor moments that I only considered acceptable because the animation and soundtrack in these seasons are quite splendid.
As expected of this genre of Anime, this is exactly what it is intended to be: the obligatory Cute Anime Girls (TM) in bikinis episode. Plenty of thirsting and practically like watching hentai without the sex. Yup.
A pretty chill, low-stress RPG anime. The graphics were nice and there were plenty of "cute anime girls doing cute things" to keep you entertained while there weren't any big battles. I personally found the second half of S1 to be a lot more fast paced with all the battling and events but "to each their own" with this one. And how maple manages to do so much damage without any MP or AD, that's totally beyond me, something something game design, I guess :shrug:
