This Anime is just like watching a beautiful poem unfold and progress. Reminds me a great deal of the famous works of Miyazaki.
The source material for this must’ve been incredible. The plot, the allegory, the characters, and everything about the story was so perfectly orchestrated. Even when I could predict certain plot twists, it still felt as if the release was good. I started to truly empathize with the characters and the aftershock of each death or character development in the series felt truly important. Gesicht was incredible throughout, and I really loved Epsilon’s character too, although I would’ve loved more development for his character.
The animation and music here just tied the whole package together. There was a lot of slow burn and tension building throughout the series.
A fairly solid Anime that portrays a lot of meaning in a short amount of time, after all, a picture is worth 1000 words.
For someone who was a novice to everything about art, I learned a fair amount about the creative devices used by artists in the development of their pieces.
This is effectively the only soap opera-like show that I've genuinely enjoyed for a period of time. I really liked the "who's the cleverest" battles of wit that the show effectively continues throughout. However, like all good soap operas it starts to drag as the characters have really just been there forever and have a well established trope already.
Now this is the right way to blend the Chunibyoo genre into a real engaging story. I challenge the viewer to try and decide reality from fiction. But after you decide, think about which part you enjoyed more!
Now that's how you make a zombie show
One of the best Slice of Life Anime I’ve seen in awhile. The build up of friendship and worldly experiences between the two main characters was perfect. Not to mention the witty dialogue was excellent through most of the season. The emphasis on art and animation (with a little Hina doll history too) was wonderfully represented.
This show was kind of up and down for me. It was a really cool game sim feel to the show, but there were just parts where the overall plot lines seemed random, and with a lack of urgency. Graphics and voice acting was simply average, nothing too incredible. Although the fight scenes definitely provided a different feel than normal, with more emphasis on outwitting your opponent than simply overpowering them. I feel like with some better pacing and updated graphics, this show had the potential to be stellar, but it was still pretty great overall.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Definitely just another one of the many "assemble the harem" kind of isekai animes. There are some interesting powers and it there some interesting ideas with gaining power from eating monster meat (kinda surprised they haven't made a ton of sex jokes about that yet tbh).
Anyways, expect a lot of ecchi and raunchy moments, probably not the best Anime to watch at work or with your mom. You can also expect the typical harem shenanigans and the weakling guy to suddenly become the most overpowered character pretty much in the duration of the first episode. But hey, it sure kept the weak storyline rolling fast.
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.
The graphics for this Anime are typical of a 2000s Anime, but the story and the character development are really where this Anime takes the cake. I’ve always been a sucker for Tsundere character development, and Aoba Tsukishima has just reached one of the top spots. I couldn’t imagine a better story arc with it’s complex relationships and progression over time. Man this Anime really takes you for a ride. It’s probably less of a Sports Anime, and more along the lines of RomCom / Slice of Life — but without the cheesy Shoujo romance stuff. Highly recommended.
First off, I really can't ignore the power of the graphics. They are absolutely marvelous and I can tell how much effort Kyoto Animation puts into every detail.
It does have a somewhat laid back start where it feels as if the story is going nowhere, but I recommend you stick through the series at least until episode 5 where the first mystery that arches over multiple episodes wraps up. At that point, you'll have a good idea whether this slice of life, but really a mystery drama, Anime suits your tastes.
As for me, I quite enjoyed it. I took it slowly compared to others that I rush and binge through, but it was still enjoyable regardless.
This is a really strong Anime with an emphasis on character development that many other (even much more recent) Anime cannot fathom the depth. The show is very bluntly about child abuse, unrealistic pressures, fear of failure, and most importantly, suicidal thoughts and heavy depression. Many have said that the writer/director was heavily depressed while working on the series, and that the show stems from his experiences. You can truly feel the pain and the self-loathing through the repetition of phrases like 'I hate everything' and 'I hate myself.' You can't always hear when someone else is suffering, but this Anime makes their feelings heard.
The series is quite chaotic, but it was still an excellent work of art that really tried to put something special out there for the world to understand. It tried to convey some of the deepest of most complex human emotions, and that is an especially difficult task.
The psychological ending (ep 25-26) was filled with primarily dialogue and it was quite tough to get through, however, it did make a lot of sense for the characters and was important for the coming of age and self-realizations the characters needed to have. But it was just portrayed in such a low-budget way that made it hard to enjoy, even with the context of the 1990s graphics.
For those watching on Netflix, I would recommend watching the series (the episodes on Netflix are the Director's Cuts with extra important bits on the last 4 episodes). Then watch The End of Evangelion afterwards. Personally, I think of EoE as a sort of alternate ending, so be prepared for a very different style of ending than presented in the original series. But still a very important contrasting perspective that accents the series quite nicely.
