As someone not overly fond of anime, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be a total mess that somehow kept me watching. I'd need a full novel to air my gripes with the show, but I'll try to keep it short.
Starting out as a pretty standard Isekai, the course of the anime is upset by an early misadventure, making our hero pretty unwelcome in the world he was summoned to save.
I've only come to be familiar with the Isekai genre, in which the characters, often Japanese teens, end up in a video game type world with an absurd level of strength relative to the average person, but RotSH fits the mold very well.
From the very beginning, our heroes are barely surprised to be summoned in another world. One has a bow, another a sword, a spear or a shield. "Yeah we've seen that in MMORPGs, move along" they say, despite apparently not being aware of what a tank is. The show goes on a whole story arc insisting on the importance of the lives of NPCs, despite having a literal health bar shown on screen.
The characters are cliche to such an extent it can become amusing, they are completely oblivious to the bad intentions of people around them. Most of the cast is completely one-dimensional, those accompanying our hero in particular have almost no agency and behave in a comically irrational way that sometimes border on deranged. The backstories of the secondary cast come out of nowhere and just serve as confirmation that they strictly conform to the cliche archetype they're meant to represent.
Despite that, and much more (passive protagonist, unengaging story, poorly defined world), the anime does attempt to embark on a more elaborate story than a standard Isekai and depicts more complicated interactions between characters, even if it fails at doing so. If you're just an occasional watcher of anime, I wouldn't recommend Rising of the Shield Hero, but some anime aficionados might be interested in its nonstandard story and dark themes.
I was recommended by a colleague to watch this show. To put it bluntly I was sceptical - it seemed just like a kids cartoon, and I am in my mid 30s - but I decided to give it a go, mainly because he kept saying "trust me"!
Over the past month I have watched the entire series and must say I was quite impressed. While it definitely is aimed at a younger audience, like all good children's stories it appeals to parents and children alike. If anything, it appeals to adults because it reminds them of what they loved about children's stories as kids.
The first season took a few episodes to get going. It took me a while to get into it and embrace the characters. The early episodes tend to be generally self-contained stories, however towards the end of season 1 the story takes off, and the story become much more serialised. From then on out it is a really enjoyable ride all the way through to the series 3 finale. If anything it gets better from season to season.
The animation is first rate for TV. I have never really watched any anime (or anime-style, in this case) series before so I was definitely going into this green, but I found the quality to be first rate. The characters were also very well written, and the constructed world of element benders was believable within its mythos. I highly recommend this to kids and adults alike. Better still, watch it with your kids.
At the end of the day, they are just telling good stories, and who wouldn't enjoy that?
Fun fact: The names Frieren, Himmel, Stark, Fern, Eisen, Heitel, and Flamme are words taken from the Scandi and Germanic languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and German) which represents their character's traits.
E.g., Fri(eren) is loosely translated as "The Free" or "The Frozen" in German, Himmel is "The Sky", Stark (or Stærk) is "The Strong", Flamme is "The Flame", Eisen is "The Iron", Heitel is "The Cheerful", and Fern can be translated as "The Detached" or Remote.
I see people complaining this show is too “woke.” I think it is great. I’m liking even more than The Boys.
I'm always amazed that the anti woke people don't realise The Boys is making fun of them
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.
Such an amazing adaptation that you can tell gives attention and care to the source material and animation. This was such a great watch considering I binged the entire thing, and it truly was a rollercoaster with the amount of twists and turns. Highly recommend this to anyone, even people who may not be fans of animation because this is really a classic.
Absolutely hilarious people griping about "woke themes" - you know The Boys is also extremely woke, right??? It's a nonstop critique of fascism, U.S. imperialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and every other power structure that exists. So...yeah.
Anyway...Gen V fucking rocks and I am so excited to see what's next and where they go with everything. It's everything I would have wanted from a spin-off with a younger cast. I'm obsessed with this universe!
First episode rocked. I couldn't be happier about a season based on The Boyz.
Loved the characters and the kids playing them, it's a new generation of actors. Loving the story arch so far. Can't wait for the next episodes.
Even though this anime has those same old cliches, It was quite interesting. Character anime was good and some of the scenes were very cute. Action part was king of OKAY though.
Worst part was, they didn't adapted the entire Manga or Light Novel, have to read those to complete the story.
Ted Lasso is feel-good TV perhaps at its absolute best. It gives us a titular character who is so off-putting to everyone just from his relentless positivity, spirit, and heart at the beginning, but slowly is able to win over every single person around him and inspire all those around him to strive to be the best versions of themselves through the same resilient positive spirit achieved by leniency on others. The writing throughout this entire show has just been top notch, with characters that are fully understood and character arcs that are incredibly satisfying. By season 2 Ted is even given much more depth and we see the struggling parts of him, fully fleshing out his character as someone we can both related to and aspire to be. The comedy is also seriously fantastic right from the beginning. Jason Sudeikis is just so hilarious and in a world full of darkly comedic shows these days, Ted Lasso is a breath of fresh air that proves feel-good comedy can be just as good if not better as long as it's done right. The first season was a certified knockout and probably one of my favorite seasons of TV ever, and while the second two didn't quite live up to that, they stood out in their own ways and ultimately the show ended on a perfectly bittersweet note that exemplified the central themes of the show in the best way. If you want genuine laughs, emotion, and incredibly lovable characters with stellar writing (which why wouldn't you), then this show is for you.
9.3 // Excellent
I thought the first episode was interesting, if not a little slow. I am now 4 episodes in and I am hooked. Really familiar tropes are turned on it’s head and it’s such a great watch. I wasn’t a fan of umbrella academy as I thought the pacing was terrible, however with ‘the boys’ I feel so far they’ve nailed it. Everything feels relevant and not filler, I can’t wait to see more!
Edit: finished now, a brilliant watch throughout. The quality of this show put into context what has been wrong in other superhero shows for me. A breath of fresh air in a stagnating genre. Great job guys.
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.
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.
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:
The Anime is incredibly scenic with beautiful animation and a soundtrack that matches its visual splendor.
I was pretty immediately hooked, the episodes felt so detailed and intricate. There was plenty of mystery and intrigue throughout. The flow of the story was somewhat jagged at times but the overarching plot was almost like a vapor that haunts each episode. I really loved treating the war as the antagonist, each episode you could feel it’s haunting echoes. The death of character you just met felt real and painful because you know there are thousands more who died the same way.
I wish that the series delved a little further into the backgrounds and stories of each other character. I think that exploring the backgrounds of the other auto-memory dolls would greatly expand the depth of the story and add to further character development.
Overall, I really loved the way this series was presented. It really is a work of art.
This is THE anime that we've all been waiting and yearning for. Many of us hardcore Mushoku Tensei fans have been waiting years upon years for an anime adaptation to finally hit, and HIT it has. I was a little skeptical with a brand new studio undertaking this, but all the previews had looked great so I was cautiously optimistic. The source material is my absolute favorite isekai series (which says a lot) and the light/web novel will always hold a special place in my fandom. So how were the first two episodes so far (first has aired officially and the first two were previewed beforehand)?
AMAZING. I really don't know if it's just because the source material is that good, but this has been a SPOT ON adaptation so far. Right when I heard "Gintoki" as the NEET narrator, I knew shit was gonna be good. The sense of humor and pervertedness of Rudy is really well incorporated throughout the first two episodes, and makes this more than just a "another OP isekai". But even with that sense of humor, the anime has taken great depths to give solid (but not overwhelming) background info on the characters and highlighting particularly serious moments. This was especially evident in the second episode where the handling of Rudy's "fall into NEETness" and past trauma was interweaved perfectly into his current situation and setting.
I can't wait for the rest of the anime to air. It seems that a second cour has already been green-lighted so let's hope this can turn into one of those long-running anime series. If they can make it to the school arcs, I'll have lived a complete life...
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.
In many ways, it's a very inspired TV show that pushes pushes you to be the best you can be with great characters and a great story .
The transition into the second half when it begins the second arc is a bit jarring and a bit of a drag at first, but it leads into some of the best moments of the series.
I really feel this has been let down by the lecherousness of its creators. Overall, the adult content is probably worthy of nothing more than a PG rating, and I'd be comfortable with explicit content if it were handled well. Instead, sexuality is treated extremely immaturely with Simon's face constantly inadvertantly finding its way into cleavage and it's just an annoying distraction from the otherwise great story.
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.
I really liked this series. Considering that this was a random pick up and I had zero expectations, I was very pleasantly surprised. As a 4-koma series, comedy is the name of the game and what you get is a never ending stream of gags and silly situations and the vast majority worked for me. This is probably the funniest series I've seen since Daily Lives of High School Boys, another unexpectedly great and amusing series.
If you want a fun series with likeable characters that is relentlessly funny and makes some playful jabs at the Shoujo genre, I'd definitely recommend this one.
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.
Prepare to have your mind blown. This is "food porn" at it's absolute best. A must-watch for sure.
This is a masterpiece. Simple as that. Definitely in my top 3-5 animes of all time. This show has everything (comedy, romance, drama and, of course, tons of action). You fall in love with all of the characters and every side story and character really gets developed over 64 brilliant episodes. Don't think. Just watch.
Accidentally stumbled on this and it's insane and sadistic and I love it! Definitely not for kids, not even for most adults. Crosses the line left and right so be warned.
Having finally finished my slow burn of this series all I can do is agree with other comments here. This series offers a sense of tranquillity when watching that I have rarely seen anywhere else. You just get absorbed into sometimes dreamlike atmosphere of it all. Each episode is somewhat self-contained and you really never know how it will end. Some end on a happy note, some on a sorrowful one, some are more ambiguous or bitersweet.
The message throughout is very much that Mushi are not malevolent or evil, they are just like forces of nature, and can be harmful or helpful to humans. Each story is more about how people deal with these things, with Ginko travelling around and helping where he can.
With a second season just around the corner all I can really do is repeat other people's recommendations - if you haven't already, watch this series.
