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I didn't realize this was a Predator movie the first time I saw the poster and thought this was some random horror movie but the positive buzz certainly didn't pass me by so here we are again. After watching it I'm certainly... shocked?
From the get go this did very little to pull me in, be it the CG animals, one-dimensional plot or the the selfish attitude of our heroine. Now obviously one can argue how much that all matters when the action is good but it didn't really scratch that itch for me either... the Predator fighting with the animals was certainly entertaining but random guys biting the bullet with mostly offcam/unclear CG gore not so much. Would have been nice if they showed some wits when they fought him at the camp but somehow him going invisible is enough reason to lower their weapons and start talking to each other. She saw how the camouflage works multiple times in action already..?!!
What all those scenes, and the movie poster for that matter, certainly established, is that our protagonist has little to worry and that a showdown was coming but I would never have predicted the amounts of bullshit that would contain:
- Somehow becomes a baller and expert in alien technology. Knows when the Predator is coming, takes her magic herbs to immediately lower her blood temperature (but is not shivering and still standing up) and is in the Predators path who obviously doesn't see a standing corpse right in front of it or notices her moving out of the way...
- Never used the gun but knows the right angle to shoot and remove his mask (betting on this being a weakness when this did little to stop it before).
- Gets to conveniently escape for the n-th time and has enough time to finish up some traps (which the Predator even hit on some random tree lol).
- Gets hit to the head twice from the shield that cut through the Predators limbs, spear and even stone but is unscathed.
- Can easily remove a fang attached to it's face to save herself just in time.
- GPS dog that always magically reappears is ready to bring her the tomahawk...
- Manages to sit on top of the Predator and even pull him into the bog with a tiny rope and a much much smaller statue.
- The Predator obviously submerges immediately, but little does it know of her the grand plan to have him placed at that exact LOS of the mask in anticipation that he is gonna fire from his gun (despite not having had his mask for the whole time) while he is already targeted by the laser the entire time... b r a v o. Obviously that one shot was also enough to kill it.
...
Honest to god - how does a movie with such a contrived finale get so much praise, or even leave the script writing phase??

Not as terrible in execution as Arkangel but I couldn't help but burst out laughing in one of the key moments due to the stupidity of this where it should have been a moment of tension instead. I mean that this show is an anthology is a good thing but this was on par of British no-budget genre film... if you want me to invest in your setting at least bother to make things to have at least a little bit of sense. Turning it black & white is not enough.
- The dogs technical functions seemed to jump around all the time... This is sort of endless. / Can magically generate and store power forever apparently (since it can still charge from within the factory)... still goes on standby. / Instead of killing the target point blank it prefers to instill a tracking device before it kills the person. / It just hides in the factory.. because robots. / Abandons factory straight away and goes for the target not instilled with a tracking device. / Can at first only track people via tracking device (still kills the other guy and can drive a car just fine however), later on it can still employ a sort-off wallhack (it did the tracking by an endless stream of blood left behind LOL)... however once it was in the house it could not see behind the furniture she was located at. / Can apparently only kill with a weapon(knife here) after it lost it's weapon - scary. / They suddenly swarm the area so they can supposedly communicate with each other, but that isn't really seen in their behavior regardless.
- The reason for getting a teddy this far out can't be made up. If this really was a dangerous world people would have helped themselves differently (and not by leaving the dying kid there). This wasn't just something that happened a few days ago anyways.
- We are supposed to believe this is a world that exist. So obviously she first runs away when the first guy gets attacked, only to stand still to have him tell to run away again on which she still does this as she wouldn't have cared either way.
- These things get rekt by energy drain, paintjobs, trees and are only good in close range. Now this will wipe humanity out for certain...

This show has definitely lost it's charm. I was really hoping to find some of the spirit of the first iteration but as the "CW" logo in the corner would already tell you... it's just a generic/cheesy fantasy show now with nothing to show for it. The new sisters have a dynamic I just don't care much about and where as the Halliwell's had a lot to work on, including their powers these ladies already decide after the first episode that they have to science the heck out of magic (which hardly ever comes up anymore). No one really cares about the "Book of Shadows" anymore (which was turned into a voice activated search device) or exploring witchcraft since their power level is just too convenient (and that is not even relying on the power of three). Heck, they even added in Phoebe's premonition power in form of a device now... Maybe it's because I'm bored at this point but they really cram a lot into the episodes but it's all moot story threads. There have been multiple episodes now with major mood whiplashes too so yeah... it's bad; and this is not even mentioning the "woke" writing which can be in a league of it's own. I should have dropped this way sooner...

I was a bit shocked when I first clicked the IMDB to see it's deep red metacritic score but thought that just maybe it was just pissing of some reviewers... but they are right. This movie sucks.
Unfortunately it's not just a few things that went wrong but the whole thing throughout. First there is the "plot" - haha, just kidding? The survival game scenario can nowadays hardly be called original but never before was it done as superficially as here. None of the characters are worth giving a damn about either because they do not get any development. What we ended up with here is a boring framework for killings, which aren't even worth your time. While they can be considered violent, they lack any punch due to the storytelling but also because it mostly happens off-screen (but not even gore could have saved this). All but the "final" killer in the movie are just time wasters as they absolutely fail to be a threat to the group and are solely defined by their costumes or speech... having just watched the most recent Purge movie I gotta say even that one packs more punch and originality. And if anything screams creativity then it's dark lit pipe-rooms which make up for most of playing field in this.
So yeah, this looks like a passionless side-project for Zombie and I'm sorry for anyone who supported him during it's funding.

I guess I'm contrarian when I look at all these high ratings but what ever.
The plus side is that there is more time with the 'characters' this time around as they're already "assembled" and the action scenes and CG is well done but that is all it's going to get.
The movie is long, really long - despite there being a gaping editing hole already. You still could cut an hour off this without loosing anything important though. It's depressing how something this shallow has been blown up like this.
How great is that we're getting superheroes instead of some other generic action movie. Let's just do all the standard stuff with CG anyways. Some yadadada in some slave country, a trip to Manhattan, South Africa and lets not forget a derailing train action scene in Korea. It's also quite dumb how random the powerlevels are in this (not that the group makes any sense like this anyways).
The big bad? The more he opened his mouth the worse it got. No one said anything about a degenerating A.I. His plan was shite and so was the execution but otherwise someone had to actually write a compelling story that is more than action sequences (or beepbeep to quote Black Widow). You better not be poking for holes in this as it's littered with them.
Too make matters worse the ending was actually the worst part. I don't think we need 20 scenes of them saving a family from the 10th floor or a lady out of her car when countless other people get fucking crushed. A sleazy guy like Stark is already the most popular one of the assemble anyways so why would anyone need confirmation that the guys are not evil? The fighting goes from one-shotting robots en masse, punching them a lot and even drop-kicking a single one - these guys sure are effective (it's amazing how much attention those copy paste robots get). I'm really glad tho that Captain America's spidey senses can feel the "waves" they're attacking in so he can do more drops.
Too bad the Marvel's circle-jerk isn't going to stop anytime soon (with Disney joining in). I rather have the other ones back because they do not get hyped like these movies so I can ignore them more easily. I wonder how many directors more they're going to burn down the road.

When the Hellsing TV version was initially released I was really into the show's edginess. At that time we didn't even have a broadband connection and so for most episodes I was left with checking sequences from the already downloaded packets and waiting for it to complete (funny how times have changed). Despite all this I never actually watched the whole thing. So to check this off I decided to watch the OVAs instead since they have been released for some time now.
Most people with the intention of watching "Hellsing" already know this but I'm saying it again; there is little reason to check out the TV version with the existence of the Ultimate OVAs. They are not only superior in production values but also true to the manga source material. So instead of fighting ghouls and vampires created by computer chips this builds to a showdown between religious factions and an army of vampire Nazis in the middle of London.
The thing is obviously not perfect. The comedy feels a bit misplaced and the pacing towards the end a bit uneven (with a lot of focus on shots of impaled people, blood streams, crosses or ruins) and the chief Nazi was quite anti-climatic.
Still, if you're up for a ride with one of the most overpowered protagonists ever and are not put off by a rain of blood and body parts this will suffice and is probably the only show of it's kind to receive this deluxe treatment.

Thanks to some wonderful poster artwork and being billed by Noé the movie already earned itself the "artporn" joke. While this isn't true for most of the movie there are indeed some pointless sex scenes to be found.
The story is told from the perspective of Murphy who isn't happy with his current relationship, partially forced on him by an unwanted pregnancy. As he gets a call from his Exes mom worried that she'd done something to herself he starts to reminisce about their old relationship... while doing the opium he got from her "for when he's down". Those segments sometimes carry a Before Sunrise vibe to them but mainly depict what went wrong for the two and sex.
It was sort of nice getting the personal views from the main character (which fit his persona really well while being sort of misogynistic) and Noé adds his directorial flair to many scenes. The music is also really diverse from classic pieces to doing drugs to Salem or a lengthy guitar improv song over a threesome.
While I enjoyed myself in the first half it got rather tedious later on. I don't think we really got into their " love" and some parts of their characteristics were missing; Murphy for instance studies filmmaking (he is an exchange student and came to Paris for this) but this never plays into the plot except for countless movie posters in his room and some dialogue calling 2001 a must-see! Noé also references himself a lot in the movie from naming the MC after his mom, the couples son Gaspar and casting himself as a character called Noé into the movie while calling himself a pedophile...
As for the sex scenes, they're not a big deal mostly and shot well. As the couple gets into their experimental phase however this escalated quite bit with a visit to a swinger club or inviting over a trans only to handle that immaturely. The money shot is obviously also in this in 3D.
The movie had potential but it just doesn't deliver what's needed.

Aw yeah! This is a proper sequel for fucking nazi zombies!
I have to admit that I did't dig the first one all that much but with the zombie battalion moving from the get go it's a lot more fun.
Content wise this gets a lot more absurd which allows for some interesting setups and a battle between German and the Reds. The story continues where the first movie ended but there is a flashback so you get at least the gist of what happened if you haven't seen it (and we all know there isn't a deep story here).
It seems like after having directed a movie in Hollywood that Wirkola's budget for this one was a lot bigger. The zombie fx are all consistently good and the gore is fucking everywhere.
They also went out of their way to break plenty of taboos with holding no restraints when it comes to the nazi decimating the villagers on their final mission. You better not be offended because there are some hilarious deaths thanks to that.
The biggest weakness are probably the members of the US zombie hunter squad whose characters are written a bit too comic-ey but thankfully their screen time is balanced enough. I take it they were added to appeal to a wider audience since whenever they're involved the whole cast is speaking in English.
I can only recommend checking this one out as its funnier, gorier and even has cuter zombies than the first one!

This movie tells your typical love story of two people meeting, falling in love, going through conflict and meeting again one day.
Yes, like you havn't seen that before.. - but there is a twist! It's told using footage of 450+ movies. It often doesn't take more than a couple seconds to jump to a different movie and thanks to the great editing job this flows pretty well and isn't as distracting as it sounds. The scene arrangements even allow for certain in-jokes depending where they have been taken from. The whole thing is also more involving since there is not only the story itself you're putting together but also the context of the scenes and the quiz that runs in your brain about where it's from, where it's at and if you know X, Y or Z. The entertainment value further raises by the amount of the movies used you have seen. It certainly makes for a boss level super-cut.
The director György Pálfi (Taxidermia) put this movie together with four editors over the course of three years. It is the result of the Hungarian state funding not giving new grants for projects for a year and his reshuffeling of post-production budget he got for previous movies.

I wanted to attend a screening of "Grave" (now re-titled to "Raw") almost a year ago from today but it was canceled so I have been looking forward to it's regular release ever since. The general press continued to hype this up, the trailer looked quite dope and even Mondo jumped on the wagon doing the OST pressings... expectations high [✓] (check).
As one can already see by my rating they were not met at all... I was even more so offended that it got that much praise. Frankly put: the movie sucks.
I don't quite understand what it is that some people saw in this... maybe they're vegetarians or just got distracted by the shlock.
The so-so concept which consists of elements all done before is terribly under baked. The changes occurring in the main girl are not really grounded in her character but rely on music or shlock scenes to progress but even with those I feel duped. Nothing in the setting helps to support the story (and it's nonsense) and instead makes the whole thing seem even more unrealistic and distracts with some overly edgy bullshit.
As the movie progresses it just falls apart even more and looses it's focus, building towards a tonally misguided ending. It almost felt like a joke.
The only positive thing I can say that the cinematography is quite good for the most part ¯_(ツ)_/¯...

Higurashi is an adaptation of an independently released horror/mystery visual novel series. While those kind of games usually work in the way that you have multiple paths you can choose (and often have a "definitive" true end after you played through all of them) this one actually has an overarching mystery behind them. So instead of getting a "mixed" adaptation or only one of them you get them all.
The basic setup for the different arcs is always the same: Our protagnonists goof around in the town of Hinamizawa in your typical 'Slice-of-Life' manner until shit hits the fan on the night of the local Cotton Drifting Festival. By no later than then someone has lost all their marbles thanks to the curse of Oyashiro, smashing all their friends to a squishy red mass.
To keep the mystery flowing each of the arcs features variations within including who will be covered in blood at the end and in each of them you learn some new hints to what is happening. Most of the arcs also get an "answer arc" to them in which you see things from a different character's viewpoint covering more ground (although only two of them are present in the first season).
If you want to know the truth behind it all you will have to watch season 1 and 2 which leaves you at 50 episodes. From that point on everything is optional. Season 3 is 2/5th fanservice and 3/5th a new arc and season 4 is just an hour long action/gore fest that isn't really in the spirit of the first two seasons.

Now the reason why I watched the show is simply because I love horror and if you see recommendations within the genre it does not take long for Higurashi to pop up. It is however not exactly what I hoped for. Due to the repetitive nature it can sometimes be tedious, especially so the "The Disaster Awakening Chapter" arc in the second season. The early parts of every arc are also often really silly.
What it really does do well is building the mystery and changing the tone from cutsey to sinister.
The art itself hasn't really aged well and isn't detailed but the expressions of the maniacs are always great and I loved how the crazies sddenly et demon eyes. The sound design is OK and I guess has many taken from the game and no one can hate on an OST composed by Kenji Kawai.
The whole thing is flawed in my book but it is an interesting ride.

PS: I called the show just "Higurashi" but the full romaji name would be "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" for the first season and the official english title is "When They Cry". If you were to translate it directly from the Japanese you would get something like "The Moment the Cicadas Cry" which sounds just as shit so yeeah, it's easier that way :)...

You can't call out the ABCs of Death for not being an ambitious horror anthology! Featuring shorts for every letter in the alphabet made by directors from all over the world with a budget of 5000$ each. This might be a bit much so it work's best on the small screen, giving you the chance to think about them or just taking a short break (it's clocking at a bit more than two hours). There is bound to be difference in the quality of the segments when it comes to anthologies but overall I found it to be an enjoyable project. Some shorts failed the mood a bit and "M" was a major disappointment (no idea what he used the 5000 bucks for). If you're a horror fan, nothing should stop you from watching it. I would not recommend it for casual viewers.

Standouts: D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento) / L is for Libido (Timo Tjahjanto) / N is for Nuptials (Banjong Pisanthanakun) / P is for Pressure (Simon Rumley) / T is for Toilet (Lee Hardcastle) / U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley) / X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) / Y is for Young Buck (Jason Eisener)
Bads: G is for Gravity (Andrew Traucki) / J is for Jidai-geki (Yûdai Yamaguchi) / M is for Miscarriage (Ti West)

I really don't know about this... The middle school drama is a big turn-off for me, especially since none of the characters seem believable. Grief is apparently not something this show has time for and weird scene flow is also not helping (7 minutes in heaven but it plays out like they've only been in for a minute / Chucky going from playing with the little girl and not knowing where Lexy is to being right under her bed with a knife (which he didn't bring and the kids at the party are certainly aware of his presence) / Jake going back into the mansion to "show Lexy" only to find her with her sister ready to go when she had just placed herself in the center of attention seconds ago (also what is up with the trench coat - she was wearing an overall so it's not like she used that to conceal her costume??))... Really the only thing making this passable is Chucky himself but he isn't his usual "killer doll" here and they're really forcing his dynamic with Jake (which potentially leads to him getting in the backseat even). I guess the next episode will be telling of the direction of the show.

Pretty much agree with @randompadley except that the last 20-30 minutes weren't much more exciting either.
The movie seems to have been written around one core idea but failed to even setup a believable "celebratory weekend get-away" to make up the runtime. Add in tons of classic facepalm horror moments and shitty characters et voilà.
I'd honestly have skipped this seeing who directed it but with the other poster variant it made it appear like there might be something cool going on (with the flipped perspective of the house and the figure in the sky). :thumbsdown:

And while I don't need a resolution to a movie necessarily the reveal that it's just a random stranger doing this only left me with more questions in how this all played out. Kinda hard to believe this setup over a weekend and I doubt the MO should just have been that he likes watching and then killing strangers. I mean he rents the place beforehand to set it all up so just how many places could he possible have "sliced up" by this method... His plan was also far from foolproof. They could have easily have made it away (as shown by the stupid chase scene in the forest)... there is also evidence on their phones, etc. so why even bother removing all the cameras :rolling_eyes:.

I give this show one thing, it's ambitious in it's production but content wise it's terribly lackluster. Feels like Watanabe is on it's way to joining the ranks of eccentric elderly Japanese directors :rolling_eyes:...
Set in the future one of it's early themes is the idea of AI song production VS that of humans but really it doesn't do much besides raising that question. Even more so the duo of "Carole & Tuesday" felt inhuman as even towards the end they felt like blank slates which magically create new songs over night... I mean it's not like they already overproduce popular music without AI and here they champion a duo which exist as singer/songwriter in the thousands today...
After you get through what is basically the anime equivalent of a real world talent show it branches out to immigration topics (people of Mars vs. Earth) but everything t here feels forced and superficial (even stupid at times).
And really that superficiality can be found everywhere, be it an unrequited love interest (which has 0 impact on the character) or a guy basically saying he is doing his last performance for them and that they carry his hopes only to not ever come up again (???) (heck - we have TWO stalkers)...
Recommended if you like talent shows I guess..?

There was an Interview with Tow Ubukata on ANN a while back where he talked about the limitations he had when working on Psycho-Pass 2 given that it was squeezed in front of the movie... as it turns out that isn't a good excuse as to why it was so lackluster then the movie works really well as a standalone entry. The existing characters besides Akane and Kougami get very little screentime so they had plenty of freedom.
Anyways, the plot isn't all that movie worthy but the export of Sibyl-"Lite" adds some needed world building as to there the system stands in the world. Since this all plays out abroad in a tropical setting it feels different from the show and the action focus is a lot bigger. It is sort-off filler (depending on Kougami's future role) given that there isn't much lasting impact to the general "universe" from these events.
The animation and action is done well and an upgrade compared to the show plus the dominators wreck a lot more havoc with extra focus on the guts.
All-in-all it's a solid action flick for me but not much more.

(If you haven't seen the show you could watch the movie anyways as the gist of it gets explained in the OP but I can see some head-scratching without any previous knowledge of the show).

I looked at this and thought myself: yeeah... this is going to be another dumb action flick - you don't want to watch this. But then I saw Christoph Waltz on the bill and figured this is Quibi's attempt to create a hook*... But really all the people attached to this must have either envisioned a different version of this or just plain don't care.
The plot... is generic and predictable, the action is rather lame no small thanks to the "choreography", the "hunters" are caricatures and the whole thing is more or less shot to accommodate portrait mode and sports very little flair. Not that the production values wouldn't be sufficient for a "flick" but it just can't safe writing this bad. The scenario this plays out in is already quite unrealistic (and they even have the audacity to imply this is a long running tradition that has been going on for centuries) but there are also like 3253895725 plotholes in this. Don't get me wrong... it can be quite hilarious at times (far more than most comedies) but it's not a thrilling hunt. Maybe they thought their audience is just watching this one poop at the time (would explain all the annoying exposition dialogue) but if they can't even work within their own story to make things SEMI realistic I can't help but call this shite.

*Like 90% of all Quibi press/reviews reviews were put out for the launch with only 1/4 of the content available...

Figures I never wrote something about YowaPeda so what better moment for that than the start of it's second season (and 4th cour).

Bike racing is not exactly the usual theme for a show but Japan is capable of doing manga about just anything (it's also not the first anime of the sport). To make it's appeal a bit wider the main character of the show is well... an otaku. Because he fails to form an anime club at his school he ends up joining the bicycle club. By appearance he certainly does not look like he would be any good at that though. The twist however is that because his parents didn't want him to ride too far away they not only gave him a granny bike but also manipulated his crank so that he has a harder time to speed up. Being the otaku he is he regularly rides to Akihabara down a steep hill and then back up again (while singing his favorite anime theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrshPMtH0CY). So without even knowing he had quite the harsh training which translates quite well to an actual racing bike.
While I just made it sound like the otaku stuff is strongly present in the show, it's actually not at all. It hardly ever comes up or is just used in the omake. The core of the show is the bike racing and it's huge cast of characters.
Now what about the story? There isn't really all that much here except for the races which brings me to one of the show's issues: The pacing. It is all over the place! I guess it started with the training camp arc where some episodes would cover just a small piece of the route and push cliff hangers. Despite being enjoyable it is a bit tedious when watched on a weekly basis. The first big race is the Inter-High race whose whole first day and parts of day two (of 3) are covered by about 16 episodes - that are ending season 1. That's right! A race that is still ongoing when the seasonal break comes. One could argue that they fucked up rather badly OR they knew all along that another season was coming (which isn't typical).
Another issue is the formula of the show. Race -> focus on a character in the race -> flashback episode. The cast is big and it's an efficient way to go about it but you can see it coming from miles away.
Unlike other sports show the power ups here are not that frequent or at least not too fantastical. The cadence gets insanely high and the convenient catch up is there but it would be boring other wise.
Presentation wise it's not the prettiest show but it looks good enough. They make heavy use of 3D models for the races though which might not be everyone's cup of tea. The score is good and I found myself enjoying the upbeat OPs and EDs.

I doubt that anyone is going out of their way to catch up on the 40 episodes released so far (there is a compliation movie out) but if biking is your thing (which isn't for me) or just like sports anime it's worth it. The fujoshi will keep the show strong and I'm certain we will get more of these weird stage plays too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrKr-iWyWs.

Gnaahh~ here we wait again.. the third movie should be fun with the Eclipse finally happening. I even went back to see if there have been some more manga chapters released since I last read up only to realise that in the last 5 months only three new ones came out. I sure hope we don't have to wait another 20 years for it to complete >_>.

As for the movie itself: While I still enjoyed it overall there are plenty of issues. The CGI is still present but it feels like they amped up the use. While sometimes this works, there are many scenes where it looks choppy and ugly as hell. This is rather unfortunate since Berserk is known for Miura's awesome visuals. The other major drawback is the pacing/adaptation. The movie is too short given that the 25-episode anime for the same arc wasn't enough.. how are three movies supposed to work? They skip a lot but still have some scenes running longer which results in a weird pace. The biggest drawback because of that is the lack of character development. Their connection to the Band of the Hawk isn't really there as they hardly get any screentime (which lessens the impact the Eclipse will have), Griffith's determination is played down and Gut's just the muscle. For people new to the franchise it'll just be a medieval action story without much depth...

It would be great if it actually sold well in Japan but that doesn't seem to be the case. It would have been awesome to get the other arcs animated aswell although they would have to make improvement's to their CGI (I don't dare to imagine how the battle versus Ganishka would look).

Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin in romaji) has proven to be one of the rare shows that sparks the attention from people who don't regulary watch seasonal anime. I mean, just look at the numbers on trakt alone: Two of the other more popular shows that started at the same time, Maou-sama and Gargantia don't even come close (less than a 100 watchers on the last episode). But not only that - even in the anime community itself it gained immense popularity and currently is still in the Top 10 on Myanimelist (kind of the western Facebook of anime). What is to take away from this is certainly that it seems to make for a good entry-level show but it's not one without flaws and I can't frankly understand why it gets that much praise (oh hello SAO!).

I first came into contact with it's manga because it ranked extremly high on Mangaupdates with some of the genre tags I browse. After reading the first 15 or so chapters I deceided to put it on hold. It didn't impress me and the art was everything but pretty (given that it was the authors first series and he didn't draw much before this). So when the show came around I saw potential for improvement given that the art could only get better plus action never suffers from being animated. This also means I had certain expectations and some of the early tension had been lost on me due to knowing some twists.

Now the story itself has plenty of shortcomings but is still entertaining. It starts out like your grimdark show about the struggle of mankind (in this case versus the titans) but it falls into the usual shonen trappings further down the road. I also find most of it's characters kind of stagnant in terms of developments and it's everything but subtle. The source material is still being published and is probably not even at the midpoint of which thr first season maybe adapted half of. This also means there isn't an ending yet. There is plenty of padding going around in the show and they added some filler to end it before the start of a new arc. I don't think the filler was all that bad but the padding put it's toll on it. Some episodes are extremly tedious to the point that nothing at all happened.

One the shows biggest problem for me comes in terms of animation quality. There are good looking scenes and the 3D rendered high-speed slides through the city on their 3DMG always looked great... it's just that it was inconsistent to the max. Quite early you begin to notice copy pasta and the worst possible use of stillframes with narration or dialogue over it. This is done a lot in the industry and it isn't necessarily a bad thing but the way they do it in this is so in your face and frequent you just can't help it. There was some talk about them lacking animators and that they were apparently looking for more but that couldn't have been the only issue. Around the episodes that relied on it the most a new OP hit the show with plenty of quality animation so yeah... The level of detail also decreased towards the end whenever it wasn't a closeup or something in the focus.

I guess this sounds really negative but I still gave the show a 7... it is just frustrating to see this hyped to the heavens when it really is far from perfect. If you're looking for an action show, sure - give it a go. It's just nothing great. I'm sure there will be more coming down the road (there have been spin-off stories already) and I cannot wait to see the train-wreck the live action movie planned for 2014 will be.

R.I.P. Moe titan.

Looking past the early attempts for brownie points I did not really find something to grasp onto.
I have very little memories of the previous TV adaptation but it's certainly sad to see an iconic character like Salem was be pretty much non-existent in this. This version of Sabrina not shying away from the darker implications of witchcraft is certainly one of the better aspects of the show but it was still weird to watch as it's those elements that bite with the more YA topics of it (which shouldn't be when it has a demographic of 18+ tbh).
At some point I feel like Netflix took the "we don't have to limit episode run times" moto as an excuse to just stretch out content to better fit their business model... you can watch a 10 hours long season only to get superficial storylines. Many aspects of the show are only just starting to develop (her "mortal" friends in particular) and a lot of what went on felt very contrieved. It's so inconsistent that it feels like someone forced them to do it that way. But remember, she is a bad ass witch yo..! How this comes to be does not matter. Morality jumps all over the place unlike Sabrina's powerlevel which is Mary Sue tier. Her relationship with her boyfriend is awkward to watch and must have been though for the actors as well, her friends are just background noise to randomly insert when needed... and so is a lot of the stuff (including the past of her parents)... At this point I feel like I could rant on for quite a while so I'm just going to go ahead and lower the rating further. Yes, you can watch it... but I'm not sure who really should.

Ajin is the second time Polygon Pictures got Netflix on it's production committee but just like Sidonia it's all CG again which already kills off some interested parties which is weird seeing as the manga is rather popular. This series as it is now is pretty much a cross promotion: the first half of the series, with a little less content, ran in cinemas as a limited release (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-compel-2015) with the content of the second half of the TV series premiering in May as Part 2 (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-collision-2016). The final arc of the anime will stay exclusive to it's cinema release only. If you're wondering what route you should pick I'd say watch this and then the final movie. They're not that self contained that you need the "movie" experience.
As previously mentioned this is all CG and that is fine by me. There are still issues but I actually enjoyed watching it a lot more than reading. The story isn't really a standout and has enough violence in it to sell the seinen but it's still worth pointing out that just after a single volume the original writer left for another series of his and left the work to his artist who then took over both roles and that isn't a bad thing as it only improved. As of now we're pretty much at a Death Note-esque duel between the protagonist and the antagonist which is sort of enjoyable considering they're both immortal and can utilize some interesting strategies.

Don't get fooled by the first episode. This show is pretty bad (at least if you expect quality writing out of it).
The main problem for me was the lack of story. They setup a life or death siutation but instead of showing the players coping with it we get a timeskip and a chronological adaptation of the source material (light novels) which means lots of irrelevant side stories. The stakes are mainly ignored and hardly anyone works toward the goal of completing the game (clearing all 100 floors). When the SOA story arc comes to an end it is abrupt and makes no sense at all due plotarmor. The second arc is still airing but luckily it'll be over soon. All changes have been for the worse.
Another issue are the characters; cardboard cutouts and personality changes on demand. Most of the women (or better girls) tend to exist to form a harem for our MC. Speaking of which, this show goes full-shonen as far as his powers go. It is ridiculous what he can pull off (getting his own skills in an mmo, hacking, highest leveled player in the game when all you see is him idlying and helping lowlevel players.. it get's even worse in the second arc).
Given that it is an action show you would at least expect the fights to be good. Unfortunatly these are a letdown. The bossfights usually look rather bad. Not only because of the CGI but the way they animated it. There is hardly a battle choreography and they overuse still frames. You can literally see that the only things animated are the flashing lights which are supposed to represent sword strikes.
Add to this the ever increasing fan-service, silly dialogue, unbelievable romance and countless things that make no sense.

Due to reasons I cannot understand this show is popular and sells really well so a second season could happen.

I like horror, I like anthologies... but I don't like this show.

So this show wrote "diversity" on it's blurp thus forcing me to touch upon that. This translates into either female directed and written episodes or otherwise black/hispanic/asian guys. Similar things applies to the cast... And thereby makes a strong case against the diversity hire (note: this is not me saying skin color or ethnicity is an indication either way but this project certainly seems to be based around this).
Anyways; I know none of this "viral" fiction they are based on but they are pretty much irrelevant since what do you even make of two sentences (typically connecting a statement to something eerie/bad)... Petty really is that most of these do not work well with the 20 minute episode format. I often got the feeling that they're trying to imitate horror films they've seen but just have no clue what made them work. Budget is low with often unfitting music, lots of weird edits and acting all over the place. The cap on the length also means bland stories and very few surprises. I'd say two of them are passing at best, while others like "Little Monster" are so horrifically bad that they turn into comedy.
Not recommended...

Myriad Colors of Phantom World is the most recent in-house Light Novel adaptation from KyoAni. Unlike the ones before they didn't even award it their own grand prize (after which they publish submitted works). For whatever is written in the original work not much seemed to have made it on screen besides the core concept of the phantoms (I have however little proof for this except the back blurbs google translations). The episodes are all episodic and varying greatly in quality, most of them are however bland setups for fan service and action scenes. Don't get me wrong, they can be creative... it's just that the whole cast and the battles they're put in are not engaging at all.
The characters have the depth of whatever waifu generator that is cool right now. Needles to say they don't need much of a personality. This also fits in with whatever (little) logic this world carries; each and everyone of them feels redundant as it's mostly a gamble as to whose power is able to defeat what phantom.
I have the feeling this wasn't anyone's passion project and the intended audience is probably quite young given the lengthy exposition intros every episode (or maybe that is related to them opening up an English website).

I belive "Wake Up, Girls!" was intended to be the first full series made by Yutaka Yamamoto's Ordet Studio to put them on the map or at least make some revenue? They certainly were ambitious with forming their own idol group to base their series on and open with a movie premiere a day before the show start... maybe a little too much.
The story follows a newly formed idol group from Sendai which isn't as lively as Tokyo and thus isn't used to something like an idol group. The format is the usual underdog story that ends early enough for them not having their breakthrough, leaving space to whatever they want to follow up with.
Initially we see a certain degree of criticism of the idol industry like the rival idol group being presented as an army under a draconian leadership, a girl being kicked-out of the group for a romantic relationship or the WUGs being pimped out to a concert in skimpy outfits (no shaved heads though). To really be the anti-idol show though it would have needed more of that because as the show progresses it doesn't concern itself with that anymore. (Let's just hope the AKB48 director does not book his own group for the Olympics in 2020 at this point.)
The biggest issue I had with the show is the Studio itself. They're only about 10 guys or so and they do not manage to keep the visual standards they set themselves in the movie. Every episode has plenty of animation outsourced and gradually increases the QUALITY. The dances look absolute shit at times to the point where you often don't recognize certain characters or only by hairstyle and color (ex. http://i.imgur.com/nhAy9jN.gif). The CG effects are also not pretty nor well integrated (ex. http://i.imgur.com/ctqlB8h.jpg). Certainly does not speak for your "animation" studio.
Overlooking all that, the characters were diverse enough and not just a "product" and the drama worked well enough. It's not something I'd recommend though unless you want a little insight on the idol industry and not the girls being super heros like in AKB0048 (http://trakt.tv/show/akb0048) or your typical worship/moe-blobb show like iDOLM@STER (http://trakt.tv/show/the-idolmster) and it's various spin-offs.

In my never ending naivety of trying out not too shabby looking found footage movies I gave this one a try. As @kingkon_nl already pointed out this isn't one for the highlight reel. My problem isn't necessarily with the poor FX or the bad acting (Jamal is just as bonkers behind the camera) but the way this all plays out. Instead of devoting time to the process of finding the three supposed specimen the movie cares more about setting up the internal drama of the crew. Their "amazing" project then ends up being 1:1 interviews with each of them in a creepy location. It's no surprise to anyone that things obviously go wrong but even this is in sequence; ohhh nooo, the skinwalker is running after us ---- ohhh noooo, the vampire is attacking ----- oh noooo, there's a demon here. The time devoted to the "ohhhh noooo" part of the movie is actually quite lengthy but also what was the final turnoff for me... how the hell do you make those so boring? It's like 40 minutes of night vision and just running from things. The only semi interesting moment was with the demon (the fog was a cool effect, not the CG however) but even that resulted in nothing.

The fuck is this movie? I was expecting voodoo... but hey, that's not really on the cover ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

Like many of the bad found footage films nothing interesting is happening until 2/3rds into the movie however in this particular case it goes absolutely bonkers. I mean I was sort of impressed at their attempt to create the hellscapes but a low budget production and clumsy film making aren't going to cut it. They built their own set (which was quite obvious) and they certainly liked it thus it got reused non-stop, just like the mediocre lead actress's "range" (just doin' some screaming y'all). Many of the scenes ended up being more silly than anything but still quite unpredictable and thus still interesting to watch. The included obscenities and ending helped the atmosphere of the setting but it's also part of why I'm highly confused... the mythology is non-sense. There is some pseudo voodoo in this - probably - I don't know really because last time I checked you do not use a philosopher's stone in voodoo... there are also ghosts(?) and once everything goes to shit there is just every random satanic imagery at play you can think of but then Satan himself sits on a throne with a philosopher's stone??? I give up really. You probably shouldn't watch this.

Too bad they skip the subs for all the songs:

触れたら崩壊 仮想の世界
Everything I touch crumbles down in this imaginary world
何度も創りなおして
How many times have I rebuilt it?
ずっと待ってた 身体甘くして
I've waited for so long that my body became skilled.
月の裏側から
From the other side of the moon

さみしいかみさま
A lonesome God
あたしのこといってんの
Is telling me...
さみしくなんかない
Don't be sad...
さみしいとか考えない
Don't think about sad things...

ねえ きみの生まれた世界は
Hey, there in the world you were born...
きみの過ごしてる味は
What's the flavor your time is spent?
甘い 辛い しょっぱい 苦い
Sweet? Spicy? Salty? Bitter?
それとも 酸っぱいの？
Or is it poisonous?
どれくらいの愛情を
Where is your love?
この世界に向けてんの？
Are you pointing to this world?
影 嘘くさいな
The reflection is unnatural...
仮面舞踏会みたい
Looks like a masquerade party...

ぐるぐるぐるぐる まわる
Going around round round
すぐすぐすぐすぐ空いちゃう
So quickly it is thinning out (Of people)
ぽっかり空いた穴から
Gently disappearing from the hole
甘い 淡い 痛い 溢れる
Sweet Faint Pain is brimming over...

触れたら崩壊 仮想の世界
Everything I touch crumbles down in this imaginary world
何度も創りなおして
How many times have I rebuilt it?
ずっと待ってた 身体甘くして
I've waited for so long that my body became skilled.
月の裏側から
From the other side of the moon

触れたら崩壊 妄想の果て
Everything I touch crumbles down as this is the end of the illusion
何度も創りなおして
How many times have I rebuilt it?
ほらみて触れて
Oh look! I'm touching...
何か感じて 本当のアタシを
It feels... Really I'm...

触れたら崩壊 妄想の果て
Everything I touch crumbles down as this is the end of the illusion
何度も創りなおして
How many times have I rebuilt it?
触れた途端に崩れて消える
Right when I touch it, it collapses and disappears.
あたしの中のアタシ
The me from within me.

I 愛 I 愛 I 愛 しりたい
I love I love I love... Want to know.
I 愛 I 愛 I 愛 - あいして
I love I love I love... - I love (as in she loves someone)
I 愛 I 愛 I 愛 アイがなくちゃ
I love I love I love... I lost my love.
この世界は破滅よ
This world is doomed.

--

ゆめみてたのあたし
The me from a dream
天と地の丁度真ん中
Right in between heaven and earth
浮遊する揺るがないあたし
I'm there floating quietly
誰もが羨むんだ
Envying everyone
唯一 絶対的な存在
I'm the only one that exists...

こんにちは
Good afternoon!
こんばんは
Good night!
おはよう
Good morning!
はじめまして ありふれていて
"Hey how is it going?" are a common thing
当たり前でないふれあいを 知りたいの 求めているから
I want you to greet me different than the others
対等の 価値ある何かを ありったけ あたしにだけ
That you give me everything that you have, only to me
運命 奇跡 導きがあって あたしに会えたあなたは幸せ
Fate Miracle Divine guidance... Being able to meet me brought you happiness.

足りないものしかない
There is nothing that suffices
足りないものしかみえない
I can't see nothing that suffices
あたし以外のすべて
With the exception of me
きらめいてみえるのなんで？
Why does everything glow?

楽しいな 楽しいよね
Is it fun? It's fun!
嬉しいな 嬉しいよね
Are you happy? I'm happy!
あなたもそうならみんな同じ 話しましょう
You are like that, just like everyone. Let's talk.
何から話そう
What should be talk about?
ワクワクするね ドキドキするね
You're nervous huh? You're excited huh?
今が一番 幸せ
Right now I'm the happiest...
みんな と出会えて良かった
I'm glad we all met.
あたし ひとりじゃないんだ
I'm not alone.

満たされた願望
The wish I could fulfill...
これが求めてたきもち
This is how it feels to have wished
あたしもみんなと同じ きらめいてみえるはず
I'm just like everyone too... I should see the glow too now...
叶ったはずの夢だ
My wish came true in a dream.
これが求めてた居場所？
Is this where wishes are?
まだあたし以外がすべて
I still see the glow
きらめいてみえるの
in everything else (everything that's not her)
叶ったはずの夢だ
My wish came true, in a dream.

足りないものしかない
There is nothing that suffices
足りないものしかみえない
I can't see nothing that suffices
あたし以外のすべて
Everything that is not me
きらめいてみえる理由
Glows for a reason.

すき、スキ、好き、大好き。
Like, kiss, like, love.

ないものねだりなあたし
I beg for what I don't have
いつから壊れていたんだろ
For the things that have been broken for who knows how long.
ゆめみてたのあたし
The me seen in a dream
ゆめでもみれて嬉しかった
But being able to see it in a dream made me glad.