I really, really wanted this to be good. My last hope for the novel idea of the original SAO series fully realized into an epic saga of years of internal power struggles, the real risk of death and murders, an ever changing Kirito personality, etc. Of course, my hopes were a little high above the skies of Aincrad.
The animation was actually pretty plain in the first bit of the movie. It did get better as it went on and the fighting scenes were impeccably animated as always (nothing can compare to demon slayer animation these days tho). Music was kinda lackluster though. Maybe I was just looking for those nostalgic SAO original themes, but it was pretty normal and ordinary BGM.
Personally, I watched this in theaters with subs. And the subtitles were perhaps some of the worst I've seen in a while. Super bland language in the dialogue and plentiful easy to spot English mistakes. I was kind of expecting better for what I thought was a fairly high budgeted film for theatrical releases.
It was nice to actually get some more original plot and character development, whereas the first SAO progressive movie was just copy paste from the series. However, it was pretty poorly executed. I think there was a decent enough bit of material to work with, its simply that the dialogue failed to make anything where they weren't swinging around sword interesting. And of course, we more or less know, that certain characters can't die which can detract from the tension. I think more time needed to spent on lesser seen characters from the original series, if only to provide more attachment when lives are at stake.
It wasn't what I was hoping for and really hurt my hopes for the franchise improving on subsequent progressive movies. I wouldn't recommend this progressive film for anyone other than diehard fans sadly.
It’s actually so bad, that it’s rather funny and entertaining even. The fact that there is almost no dialogue in the movie, makes it feel like such a niche and unique indie movie. Except, indie movies usually don’t star Nicolas cage
Not the best Disney movie, but also not the worst. There was some neat metaphors to be made throughout which provide insight to very real issues in todays society with how we treat others and how we treat the environment around us. However, most of the metaphors in the movie were very much overly apparent and rather surface level. The amount of morals and metaphor they crammed into this movie made it rather dry and difficult to stay fully engaged with if you weren’t a fan of the psychedelic visuals alone.
It was really entertaining and I enjoyed watching the show. But the cute graphics weren’t enough to overcome the sheer thickness of the plot armor. Eventually it got to the point where the main character is just immune to death itself, so there’s really nothing to worry about. Not to mention it was starting to feel like that one Pokemon rom hack where all the Pokémon are just girls…
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Damn this show really hits me in the feels. Do not watch this unless you want to see the very things you love ripped away from your trembling fingers. The natural cycle of human life is both so immensely sad and wonderful at the same time. I do wonder though, why is naivety so easily lovable when it comes to people? I look forward to seeing what else they can do with this show.
Okay, I have to concur here. That was an absolutely beautiful ending to this series. And man am I a sucker for these perfect Tsundere arcs.
It was completely just recap of pretty much all the bits and pieces of Wakaba that they slowly added through the series so far. Yet somehow it was still a pretty strong emotional episode.
I honestly can't even make heads or tails of this film. It was really good to watch, especially for such an old Anime film. I don't even know what is going on with all this psychological trauma after watching this. Apparently I need to go find a therapist somewhere to explain what the hell just happened to my psyche.
It started off as a somewhat interesting concept. But then I quickly found out why Rimuru is considered the "most likeable protagonist" by so many people. Quite frankly, Rimuru is so incredibly overpowered throughout the series that he cannot possibly lose and that creates zero tension in any of the fights. Secondly, the character will make friends with literally anything he sees. And is probably the most uninteresting and supposedly "perfect" character that I've seen. Rimuru is so "likeable" to the point that it makes me hate the character. With a mundane backstory and not a single flaw or conflicting emotion, watching Rimuru make "choices" is the equivalent of watching paint dry -- it's incredibly obvious what the outcome is.
The show had (emphasis on had) a couple of redeeming qualities. They introduced a character with a level of moderate depth and intrigue. If this show was literally just about the life of Shizue then I might have found some enjoyment from her expoits. But then of course, they had to kill off the most interesting character in the attempt to make Rimuru appear with some amount of emotional depth.
But this is all really just regarding the first arc of the first season, in the second arc, they completely sidetrack the entire story to go on a quest to save some orphans -- because that's the right thing to do?
Really, the animation is alright and there sure a lot of "cute anime girls" with enough fan service to distract the average viewer from the lack of substantial plot.
But alas, I am still going to waste my time by watching season 2 because apparently, people have said that it got more interesting.
This is unironically one of the absolute best episodes of the season, the fights scenes were good and there wasn't as much blatant "I'm too OP" immediate victory. Too bad this series wasn't completely centered on Shion's travels and the foes she encountered. Her entire storyline is far better than anything presented by the main protagonist.
Really great Shounen Anime. Honestly this series practically defines how the Shounen should feel in terms of crazy shenanigans and emphasized action. With a neat little story woven throughout, Gurren Lagann was quite entertaining.
Actually this was quite good. It had a very typical ecchi and harem start in the first 6 episodes, but then it actually pulled some solid character and relationship development. And instead of giving into the harem, the main character actually focuses on one relationship. Of course, they introduce new side-chicks almost every episode, but there were some interesting stories mixed in. There wasn't nearly as much sex appeal as you would imagine, honestly there was more nudity in mainstream Anime like Food Wars than in this. Some of the animation also was kind of like a watered-down version of Demonslayer swordplay, which is saying a lot since thats an incredibly high standard to live up to.
This was just a solidly entertaining Anime to watch, I zoomed right through the episodes and I kinda wish there was a second season to at least finish the tournament.
Another superb film. The action was some ufotables best work and the animation was overall just incredible to watch. Not to mention the story and the twisting plot lines of motivation and long made plans was incredibly well done. Some things aren't made perfectly clear to those more unfamiliar with over-arching story (since its quite complex), but most everything was implied or briefly hinted at, making the movie incredibly faithful to the story and the complexities of the world that contains it. I'd highly recommend this trilogy to anyone who has watched Fate stay night. This trilogy truly brings the story into a living piece of artwork.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the first Heaven's Feel movie (likely because it feels slow to someone already familiar with all the setup). But wow these movie took the challenge and went absolutely marvelous! There was so much detail and incredible action scenes and the story went into such depth about each character's motivations, and I could just go on and on about every little facet of this movie felt incredible. And yes it got very dark, very quickly. If you suffer from PTSD on the subject of sexual abuse, you have been warned.
Overall, such an incredibly powerful film, I'm so glad that I got into the Fate/Stay Night series. ufotable has done a praise-worthy job of bringing this story to film.
This was actually a spectacular anime! It was crazy fun to watch and each episode was pretty much watch at your own pace. If you love Shoujo anime, then maybe you will watch this and reconsider that. It pokes all sorts of fun at the genre as a whole following every over-used Shoujo plot line and then bursting the bubble. It was also really cool to take a quick peek at some manga creation. This was just a really well done rom-com and I wish there were more than 12 episodes.
There were a lot of great moments that really made you go from loathing the existence of humanity to cheering on the good people of the world. But between all of these great episodes there was some strangeness and unreasonably slow pacing.
The second season definitely surpassed the first one on all regards though. I’d still give this show a strong recommendation and I absolutely loved the entire Kawamoto family throughout the entire series. They were the most heartwarming bunch of characters around.
This might be one of the best Anime movies I've seen, despite being over 20 years old at this point! The beautiful hand-drawn animations and moving music create a magical yet imperfect world. An imperfectly human world. This movie holds its ground against the many movies that depict the Humanity vs Nature archetype. You cannot help but be provoked by the fragility of life and the depiction of life and death in the movie perfectly describes how life ebbs and flows. All of this heavy and philosophical reasonings about life are nestled within a story that even a child could understand. No character seems to be truly evil, and the only one that seems truly good is Prince Ashitaka. But even he is struggling with his corruption.
This was a masterful story that kept me in awe and entertained all the while a philosophy of life was weaved throughout. Well done Studio Ghibli.
If you watch this, keep in mind the target audience of the show. It is 100% intended for children. Sure you can argue that Avatar the Last Airbender was also targeted for children, but ATLA is an outlier among a sea of children's shows. The story is average, the fighting scenes are pretty good, and it is simply just entertaining when you are running your brain at like 5% capacity. Among all the other children's Anime I've seen, this one has been one of the best.
I'm going to preface this by saying I am absolutely in love with 90% of Key's visual novel adaptations. Charlotte is one of the most interesting Anime's I've seen in a while. My biggest complaint is that character development happens at a rapid pace to focus on the story acceleration (which has proven common among Key Animes). The end result is that a character can go from 0-100 over the course of an episode or from sociopath to Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Charlotte has a similar setting to My Hero Academia, but the feel of the Anime couldn't be more different. There is so much more character in this Anime which makes it blur the line between a slice of life and an action Anime. This story got so much deeper and stronger as it progressed while My Hero Academia just touts the same theme over and over again, only keeping viewers around for the action.
Overall, I'd greatly recommend this Anime. It was short and could've been much more, but it was still very strong in its own right.
Sure the movie was filled with Cliches about a father and a distant son. But the atmosphere of the movie was like a party! Crank the music up, start cooking in the kitchen, and just relax with a cold one. That’s how this movie is meant to be enjoyed.
