Here is the whole database of anime that I wrote in February, the project is finally complete so here is every single review in case you wanted to read the whole thing without going through every single post. It is unformatted and just short reviews which are a small part of the overall project. Interestingly enough I wrote this at the same time I was writing my book, so that was 50k words + the 40k words of this over the space of less of a month. So I’m pretty happy with that work output.
Absolute Duo – ADB
This anime is the exact same as other harem anime’s, which means that you either think that’s the best thing ever or a terrible show you should avoid. Not that it doesn’t have any positives at all; I remember enjoying its comedy (as I did for all harems) with the same usual cast of repeated trope characters but it’s fine if you like that sort of thing.
As for most harems the plot isn’t great and relies on that same save the girl trope at the end to create a nice ending, if you like harems I’m sure this will be the worst part of the show for you. I don’t remember thinking the magic system was great, but it’s a harem! If you like that sort of thing (and you shouldn’t) then it’s right up you’re ally!
Aho Girl – ADB
Aho Girl uses very simple comedy to great effect in my opinion. If you find that you hate episode one then I wouldn’t recommend continuing because it won’t get much better than that! I’ve heard people criticise the main character either stupidly for being ableist or correctly for thinking she’s annoying. I do see other people think that she’d be annoying but I find the humour fairly endearing.
There are no real notable characters but the episodes are only 12 minutes long at most and they’re fun enough to give you something to do! I wouldn’t recommend it over other better shows but if you like that style of crazy and upbeat comedy then it might be worth a shot!
Akame ga Kill! – ADB
My feelings towards this show are a little bit mixed. On the one hand it has pretty good action and no reluctance to hold back on violence in any way at all! But on the other hand it’s fairly long, repetitive and has little else besides the action and minor character moments. Don’t let this detract too much though because it’s still pretty fun to watch!
People say that this show has way too much gore, and I run the risk of sounding really edgy when I say this but still, till this day I have not found an anime I thought was gory, and that can be hard to understand for people who think this counts as gore. Anime violence and blood has never creeped me out ever, and I’ve gone into many shows considered gory to try and make myself feel bad and squirm. All the violence in this show is implied, basically because nobody wants to animate gory scenes it’s all done off camera where everything is implied to have taken place. Yes a girl might get her head cut off but it’s not shown, and all we see after is blood, and blood on its own is not gory.
The show doesn’t play around with plot armour and really only the predictable characters have it, what that means is that people die. It makes sense but some of the time it felt unnecessary.
There are two troupes of people who are against each other and all the deaths simply feel like they were made so that both sides would be more or less equal, it’s not a great way of going about it.
I liked this one overall but that doesn’t mean it’s Immune from criticism and I’m sure most action fans would like this!
Akira – ADB
Akira is a must watch film even if you don’t have much interest in the story, its impact on anime was dramatic and it was an important part of anime history which you should see! I even have this one on DVD, yeah I guess those are still a thing, I have a video tape of the first Pokémon film as well!
The animation of this series is brilliant for the time and has a unique style which is really cool to watch. The plot isn’t massively detailed or exceptional but it’s very cool and set in the next world war which adds to the cool setting, this is also made better with really interesting fights! I don’t think it’s a masterpiece but it’s still a pretty fun film!
Amaama to Inazuma – ADB
Sometimes slice of life shows can really bore me, and sometimes they immerse me into the world really well, this show is the latter. I really like the calm, feel good nature of this show even though the child (whose name I can’t remember, I’m writing around 200 anime reviews in a short period of time on the same word document so please… understand) is my least favourite character. She’s not terrible but sometimes her loud crying outbursts or bratty moments are really annoying even if she acts far better than any child should do at her age.
I like that the teachers student secretly liked him and comes around to cook, she’s really cute and her moments are funny as well! The cooking is really calming to watch too.
The show kind of feels longer than it should do and I remember caring less towards the end. Despite this I can recommend it if you like this genre.
Amanchu! – ADB
Sometimes slice of life shows can really bore me, and sometimes they immerse me into the world really well, this show is the former. Yes the visuals are brilliant, or brilliant at first, but there’s not really much else besides that. The characters feel way too similar and they get boring over time because of how simple they feel. More than a few of the characters act way too childish and they don’t really feel like real people.
As well as this, while the setting is cool I got bored of it really quickly and I started to dislike the environment. The idea is that the people will do diving and explore really cool environments, but they spend nearly all of that time doing something else. Another problem for me is that it seems to be set in reality, which is a bad thing in this case. There’s only so much to see in a diving show that it gets to a point where the weakness of the characters don’t make up for the ever weakening interest in the environment. Say this wasn’t in reality where they could explore a massive pirate ship wreck every so often I’d be a bit more interested, perhaps they could find a treasure map carved into a piece of wood so they can still see what it says and explore many nice environments trying to find it, oh well I guess that’s what a place further than the universe is for!
I think if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll think it’s cool but to be honest I don’t think this show holds up at all. Slice of shows don’t always have to be calm and dull, in fact pretty much every show could be considered a slice of someone’s life, the moments don’t always have to be calm or cute and a lack of excitement really made me dislike this show at the end, I only completed it because I felt like I had come far enough and should finish it, something that I learned from later.
Assassination Classroom – ADB
I found this show really funny and interesting. I really love seeing the students develop their skills on their mission to kill their teacher and earn more money! It’s great to see the relationships develop over time as their bond develops. I also liked how the question of “how will we kill the teacher” turned to “Do I really want to kill the teacher”. Whilst this has many slice of life aspects the show really does have a lot of action, presenting us with tense plot lines as well as insightful spying and stealth techniques, kind of, it’s hard to tell if some of them are just stupid.
Assassination Classroom Season 2 – ADB
Alright the first season of this show was one of the first anime’s I saw knowing what anime was. So later when the second season passed I had lots of time to forget about it. And I didn’t like it nearly as much, I don’t know if it’s that I got bored of the initial premise or if the show was actually worse but this time it didn’t do it for me.
The show just feels a bit too shouneny and formulated for my liking, and the characters came across as less interesting because despite the fact that they are assassins they still interacted in quite a boring way. There were plently of aspects that I liked but more parts were boring in my opinion.
Still, you will probably love this still if you really liked season 1!
Ao Oni: The Animation – ADB
Sometimes you watch really short anime even if it’s not that great just so you can complete it and increase your number of completed shows by 1! If you’re looking for one of those shows I’m pleased to inform you that this one is actually pretty alright and is almost guaranteed to have more massive blue monsters in it than any other show you will watch!
Four extremely tropey characters are in a haunted house and in each episode they get eaten by a blue monster in some new, strange and quite funny way. These moments are funny to a pretty high consistency and it’s interesting to see the new scenarios the creators can come up with.
Arakawa Under the Bridge – ADB
Arakawa under the bridge is a brilliant comedy with the crazy and unique directing of Akiyuki Shinbo. This show is whacky and it’s sad that people see a man with a star for a face and turn this show away instantly this strangeness works to its advantage constantly to make a comedy with some of the most iconic characters out there who you know by face not by name.
It’s not the most brilliant comedy and not every joke hits, and at times the pace feels slow with a low energy. Despite all this it’s a very earnest comedy which is worth at least a watch of episode one.
I particularly like the dynamic between the main character and the girl, Nino. The two complement each other very well and the difference between the held back and often deadpan girl is far different from the guy who’s crazy and gets beat up by little children constantly.
Something often missed about this show is the sheer uniqueness of its setting, it’s under a bridge! The amount of high school comedy’s, though I love them all the same, pretty much makes this a must watch for fans of the genre with its unique setting which has a surprising amount of brilliant scenarios to explore. The background of a bridge by a beautiful river can also add to the slice of life aspect of the show, in the low energy times there’s always something nice and cool to look at!
I couldn’t find this show in a very high quality release; sometimes I really love watching low resolution shows and would often choose them over their higher quality counterparts. Unfortunately this show doesn’t look nearly as good as it could with its lower quality visuals, something just seems lacking when the backgrounds are paid attention too so much. Though if you can find it in a better quality you’ve got a good show ahead of you!
Aru Tabibito no Nikki – ADB
Some people love this arthouse show, but I honestly don’t get it and really dislike it. Luckily for me it was a short show so I was able to finish it! Unluckily for me I have to write a review about it criticising it for being something more than boring.
The purpose of arthouse anime is to express emotions and points in ways that cannot be done with other forms of entertainment. But can I honestly say this was arthouse? It didn’t have a unique style and from what I can remember it was just about a guy walking around in the desert.
I’m sure the whole thing was about loneliness and being unable to express yourself but it’s not interesting in this bland environment with a boring main character.
You can like it if you like it but I really don’t get it, I also can’t think of a recommendation for this show.
B-gata H-Kei – ADB
B-gata H-Kei isn’t a show for everyone, but I love the idea of it. It’s about a girl who wants to have 100 sex friends (the perfect woman (jk)) but is so embarrassed that she can’t really have one. That’s all you need and if the idea of that premise sounds good to you this is a show you’ll love!
She initially tries to seduce a very nerdy guy because she thinks he’ll be easy to get, which is completely incorrect. Every nerdy guy (like me) knows that nerdy guys are probably the hardest people to obtain a relationship with, especially if you have Yamada’s personality.
Speaking of Yamada’s personality, what is it? She is brave to an extent but she keeps on letting herself down. When approaching the nerdy guy she likes to do it on her own terms in circumstances that she has control over, and as soon as any aspect of control is taken out of her hands she panics and acts badly. This way she had the confidence to be in romantic situations but panics at the worst times possible, and I can relate to that.
A greater aspect of the show for me is that Yamada slowly falls in love with the nerdy guy and you realise that they make a really good match, despite the intentions Yamada has to ditch him once she has him as a sex friend.
To move on to the negatives the jokes don’t always hit and they get very repetitive towards the end. We also have a floating tiny version of Yamada with a moustache and beard to give imaginary advice to the audience. I don’t like her input very much because it’s already explaining a pretty easy joke to understand though it’s not so obnoxious that it would make you hate the show or anything like that.
I would simply recommend this to people who like the premise and that’s all.
Bernard-jou Iwaku – ADB
What was this show? It’s a short episode series about people talking about books together. It wasn’t very engrossing but it wasn’t so bad that I could drop it and since it was very short why not finish it?
The more you know about books the better this show will be for you, a lot of the books are more popular in Japan but at the times when I actually knew the book they were discussing I had a really good time!
Other people who just are book lovers in general but maybe won’t be familiar with ones most famous in Japan would still get a kick out of the way book fans talk to other book fans. I’m sure there’s a lot of enjoyable relatability here for any anime fan who consistently reads books among friends, but sadly that audience is dying out by the day.
As a blogger I read a fair amount of blog posts but not books so much anymore which is sad, for a long time I was an avid reader so it wasn’t something I had problems relating to.
The characters really feel like friends which is a nice time, maybe watching this show will make you laugh at the relatability or encourage you to start getting back into it yourself!
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I – The Egg of the King – ADB
Films are something that I find pretty difficult to like and I often tend to dislike for reasons that I can’t really describe. It’s normally a mixture of things I dislike and my short attention span that cause me to lose interest half way through. If you want to know how much I dislike films then I should tell you that I found Princess Mononoke and ghost in the shell pretty boring and I’m not referring to the new live action version!
Mabey it’s my dislike for the standard type of storytelling in films that made me enjoy this anime film a lot. While I do admit that I wouldn’t have really understood anything if I hadn’t read the manga or watched the anime I don’t really care, after all I did watch the anime and read the manga so I understood it all fine. As it didn’t really subtract from my viewing experience then I really don’t care.
What I loved about this film was their willingness to change scenes and moments quickly. I find films that try to stick to one overarching story pretty boring as I tend to undermine the characters actions as unimportant and generally don’t care by the end because I know they’ll win anyway. The fast pace story was much better for presenting more ideas and more action scenarios in a shorter amount of time.
I can only really forgive the three films for everything that they cut out as they really don’t have that much time. This film has a runtime of 80 minutes so over three films that brings us to roughly 240 minutes and roughly 4 hours. When you take this into consideration I’m fairly glad with the progress that this film made. I look forward to seeing the next one and seeing all the drama that takes place. I myself am fairly critical of the start of the golden age arc even though I love it. The medieval castle battles tend to become very similar to each other and the drama and character moments mainly serve as set ups. In this way I’m glad that a lot of it was skipped to save time.
In the Berserk anime and manga there was a constant on-running villain that returned to most Berserk battles. He acted very comically and felt like a comic relief character constantly with insane plot armour. All interactions with him felt a little unimportant due to the fact that the characters actions had no real effect on the villain. In this case I was glad that it was skipped as it is much worse than the overall rest of Berserk in my opinion.
I’m not really sure what to think about the show skipping Gut’s back story and instead showing the messed up flash back. As the film really didn’t have much time to go into details then I felt like they did an alright job in telling you Gut’s back story. They did just a good enough job to make you know that he killed someone who he cared about and had a seriously traumatic life before the story started. That’s good enough in my book.
The only real problem for me was that Casca didn’t really feel like a main character in this film and was pushed to the side in some cases. This is something that I dislike but can live with because I liked the rest of the film anyway. I also know that Casca will have her moments later so I’m not too bothered.
Overall this film was really entertaining and far better than most over films that I’ve seen as I could actually make it to the end of this one. I can’t recommend this over the manga and 1997 anime though. It is far worse and is very difficult to get into for new fans of Berserk. If possible I recommend reading the manga and anime at the same time (as the events happen) and then chose which one you like best to watch or read the final eclipse arc at the end as it’s truly epic.
So that’s my review of the Berserk Egg of the film review I bet it was the only review of this film that you’ve seen that didn’t talk about 3D animation… oh wait. As well as this I absolutely hate the letter box visuals of all films but I could overlook it due to my enjoyment for the film.
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II – The Battle for Doldrey – ADB
This Berserk film is very similar to the previous one and covered what I would expect it too. My brief opinion is that it was worse than the first film yet still alright, I feel like the extra run time was actually a detriment to me as I started losing attention towards the end. Despite all this it covered what I expected it too in an interesting way.
The film started in the way I expected it too with the character interactions with Guts and Casca in the cave after suffering during a battle. They did a good job at developing her character during this moment yet it focussed on some of the parts that I dislike about Berserk.
When reading the manga I find it quite easy to read action and I can read it very fast and quickly. Miura also keeps the action fairly short in my opinion and makes it fast paced and interesting for me to watch. The problem with some of the action scenes in this film were that they felt a little slow and drawn out.
I don’t want to see Guts make some stupid decisions in a fight. Even though he’s a brilliant swordsman he won’t deliberately disadvantage himself any more than he needs to by doing a ridiculous action move.
The same reoccurring villain that constantly shows up was done badly though I think it actually does it better than the anime by not really focussing on him much. He feels like a very minor villain which makes you not notice him much – which is good.
The casca flashback is done very badly in my opinion. Whilst the first Berserk movie didn’t give much detail away this flashback basically told you everything whilst being obnoxious. The movie tries to make the scene feel more dramatic by using blurring effects. This doesn’t help as it’s an entire scene that gets repeated and it feels needlessly traumatic as it would achieve the same effect without the crazy effects that were added.
One thing that I find quite interesting was not revealing the leaders attraction too Griffith and their history. The emotional impact of leaving it out is therefore reduced however in this case the film gives it a different meaning. Everything is implied and the emotional impact is that Griffith is so adamant about his dream.
The only annoying thing that I found was the lack of opposition towards Griffiths rise to power. One enjoyable thing about the anime was seeing the reactions of everyone at court and their actions to stop him. Whilst we did see this in the first film we missed the best part of this in the second. I loved the manipulation with the poison and fire plot to kill the queen, it really did a lot to put Griffith in higher regard and show his great power and scheming abilities. This being skipped wasn’t too significant but I felt like it was an important moment.
Besides this it ended quite well with Griffith getting captured. I reckon that it serves as a great set up for the next film. I predict that it will feature a short part of the rescue and mainly focus on the eclipse for the finale.
Overall this film was pretty good but lacking in some areas which made it suffer more than the previous. The animation didn’t bother me but the letterbox view was seriously annoying for me. I recommend it if you like Berserk and have seen the anime and manga of it.
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III – The Advent – ADB
Something that I praised the first film a lot was how it managed to fit a lot of events in to one very short film. This third adaptation of the golden age arc from berserk was both long and didn’t fit a lot of events into it, making it boring in my opinion as everything was so slow.
If you don’t know the spoiler about the end of the golden age arc then you’re in a good position to choose the best way to experience the ending for you as you can consume the start of the anime, manga and films before you get to the end of each one to experience the ending with. Whichever one you like the most you should watch or read as the reveal will be the best in that medium for you. Also if you don’t want to be spoiled early skip the guardians of desire arc in the manga (chapters 3 to 8) as it spoils the finale of the golden age arc for the most part.
So if you haven’t seen it then you really want to go in unspoiled by me so stop reading now. Ok when the only thing to talk about or the first thing to come to mind is the finale or spoiler aspects of the film too me it doesn’t make me think of the film in a good way. It’s much like Gurren Lagann the only time when I hear people talking about it is the spoilers, every time someone mentions a spoiler I want to try and watch it but I don’t as I want to go in unspoiled. The only thing that people talk about in that show are the spoilers so it makes me think that everything else besides this isn’t really that good (I watched some of Gurren Lagann and I was right). It’s this kind of thing that makes the film pretty bad in my opinion. The dramatic reveal is the only real interesting thing and it’s pretty good but doesn’t last for as long.
The fact that this film is longer means that they slowed the pace of the Berserk films completely. As someone who’s already seen the Berserk anime and manga I know what will happen and what’s going to happen in the future. The slow pace in contrast to the previous parts made me bored easily as I knew what would happen anyway.
The world of demons with the behelit was something that I thought would be done well but for me it came across as cheap and bad looking, not threatening at all. The fact that the movies didn’t give us much time to become endeared too the characters it didn’t really feel as dramatic as it should have been.
Despite this I tend to be a massive film critic hating most of them so if you consider yourself a person who likes films and can sit through one easily and you like the world of Berserk then you will probably like this.
Black Jack Specials – ADB
Black jack is a pretty big ongoing series as far as I’m aware and this is a fairly good place to jump into the series if you like that sort of thing! Black jack is a doctor who charges vast amounts of money for doing the most impossible and difficult medical operations.
I wasn’t actually very impressed with this show, the scenarios may have been cool but they got old very quickly and the show felt very slow. I would have preferred a faster pace with maybe two operations per episode to avoid the slow pacing that made me find it difficult to continue.
Something you might find interesting is that the adults wife looks like, and behaves like a little child. It’s not sexualised at all so I’m fine with it but I couldn’t help but find it strange when it wasn’t his daughter or something.
Every premise that you like the idea of is worth a look at episode one, black jack has a pretty big following anyway so maybe there will be something here for you.
ERASED – ADB
Erased had a massive following initially, and from what I can tell everyone pretended to not like it nearly as much once the show had ended. Probably because of it’s disappointing reveal at the end which many people didn’t like even though I was ok with it.
So a guy has his mum murdered and travels back in time to try and find the killer. The idea of a man trapped in a boy’s body, his own body from the past, is interesting because it makes you think about what you could have done differently when you were a kid.
If you could go back to your past and change things I wouldn’t really want too because I wouldn’t want to repeat everything, I’ve put a lot of work in to get to this point so I’d rather not have to do it again! That’s more the arguments for why I don’t want to wind back a few months in time but if you transported back into your child body then there is no doubt that you would capitalise on this, buy a bunch of bit coin and never work again. This premise is what attracts me to the show so much.
It’s not perfect, the characters act a lot older than they should and there’s a lack of suspects, making me think it was this mysterious genius hiding in the background that we’ve not seen ever, kind of, that’s what I wanted it to be because it made the most sense to me at the time. A big problem with the mystery genre that I have is that the criminal always has to be one of the characters and can’t be a psycho genius so good at covering his tracks that we never see him! That plot point would kind of suck anyway but it seems like a genuinely possible thing to happen for me!
The environment and world seems really cool to me and I love the interaction between the characters. Most popular runaway shows like this have a strong start and fall towards the end and that’s definitely true here.
I can assure you that you have a high chance of being sucked into this show’s world and ideas, it’s not just interesting and I like the interaction and crime solving that goes on in the background. It has plenty of flaws but I reckon it’s still worth your time!
My Hero Academia – ADB
The single greatest part of this show is episode two where all the emotion kicks in and I started to tear up. To me the start of Midorima’s journey is a lot better than the end and I like his potential unlocking as the series continues.
All of the fights seem to have something extra, like emotion and character progression staked on the outcome of fights. It even makes the most inconsequential ones feel great to watch and not stale like so much of the action you may have come across.
There are some downhill moments but the large cast of excellent characters really helps keep this show in good standing, so it’s a pretty good shounen, I’m not sure how seriously you should take this opinion because shounen really isn’t my genre.
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – ADB
Well it’s a harem, so you know what you’re getting yourself into and whether you’ll like it or not. This time the main character has no friends (relatable I know) and joins a friend club, to be with… friends.
Honestly the comedy is fine if you like that sort of thing, I just think there are so many better shows you could watch far more impactful than simple popcorn entertainment like this show. But who am I to comment? If this show can make you feel like you’ve got lots of cute girl friends (not girlfriends) then more power to you!
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Season 2 – ADB
Look, I hardly had anything to say in the previous review of season one so what do you expect me to say about this one? The quality doesn’t fall between seasons; the sad thing is that it doesn’t increase. I hate harems but you can like what you like I guess.
5cm’s a Second – ADB
Makoto Shinkai, what a brilliant filmmaker! No. Literally all his films are average or worse, and this one is worse. Just watch Digibro’s video on it which could summarise everything a lot easier, and a lot better than I could.
This series is so boring, Shinkai fails to establish a bond between the audience and characters so when things start going wrong we’re meant to care, I didn’t care though. The point of this show was to express a vision of a fading relationship which can’t be saved, but it’s pretty boring because for 2/3 of the film they don’t spend any time with each other and spend too long thinking of each other.
In a way I can relate to this but it’s ultimately pointless in my opinion and against my values. Do not worry over one girl/boy for your whole life! It’s ridiculous! There are many possible people you could be in a relationship with, so don’t spend your time thinking about the one who got away!
Garzey’s Wing – ADB
Ohhhh, some people love it, some people hate it, and some people are me. Well that’s not exactly true.
I can understand the idea of this being so bad it’s good, but I can’t laugh in that kind of ironic way, sure it’s stupid but not stupid enough for me to find it consistently funny. The fact that I also feel like I’m following along with the story doesn’t help me appreciate it any more!
It’s strange, try it out if you want some ironic humour but it’s really not for me.
Charlotte – ADB
I remember liking this one quite a bit. I liked the school superpower setting and the way the plot unfolded. I’m not going to say it was brilliant but Charlotte is one of those action shows which won’t amaze people who hate action but completely satisfy anyone who likes it, giving them a little bit more at the same time.
I remember this a lot for the OP, which I thought was really fun to watch, and the visuals were nice too! A pattern you may be noticing with me going back through my whole archive, putting it in the database is that I’m pretty bad at talking about shows I watched many years ago!
Cheating Craft – ADB
What a wasted premise! Watch the first episode and stop, the first episode’s great and it’s all downhill from there. The first episode is a beautiful one shot story about a duo of a learner and a cheater who are on complete opposite ends of the class system because one failed the exam and one passed, even though they were working together. It’s a really sad and moving tale and is all you should watch!
If you were interested to continue then this is what would happen. The new characters would be stupid and generic. The cheating would be terrible and even more unbelievable, it would also introduce a romance that is very poor especially when you consider the small length of episodes they had to flesh it out. I watched the whole show in order to write a post telling people not to continue past episode one but I eventually pushed it to the side and forgot about it.
Chrin No Suzu – ADB
This is an old, and very obscure film about a sheep, it’s a really sad and moving tale despite the fact that it seems aimed for children and has clear aspects that weren’t for me. It has a slow start but really gets better once you see the development of the characters.
Chirin’s mum gets killed by a wolf, Chirin is a sheep by the way, and he goes to the wolf to learn from him, so that he can one day kill him. Watching Chirn journey and encounter the wolf is fascinating and his growth as a sheep is fun to watch! But the sad thing is that it’s his ultimate downfall at the end which causes him to struggle so much despite the strength he gains. I don’t want to ruin this one, so spoilers from here I guess?
Chirin learns from the wolf and becomes a terrifying ram, with grey skin and terrifying horns. He kills his mentor while they’re attacking the sheep but the sheep don’t accept him due to his monstrous growth and he is forced to live alone in isolation.
Clannad – ADB
I don’t understand why anyone likes this show; it’s the most boring pile of trash you will ever see. Alright maybe it’s not that bad but it really does suck. So what sucks about it? The first thing is that this anime is basically cry bait, they are transparent that their only motive is to make you cry and it falls flat on its face. People say it gets better in after story but I watched the first few episodes of after story and it was the exact same level of boring.
This is how terrible the show is: The first arc which is like 10 episodes is about giving away starfish to make people go to a wedding, if that’s not boring enough already all the starfish disappear so it was all pointless! Nothing happened in the first opening parts of the show and everything we worked towards sucked so badly. If you’re going to bore me to tears at least make a reason for it instead of letting nothing matter!
It’s very obvious in the first arc that the girl is a ghost or something and the reveal is so underwhelming and obvious that it makes me annoyed that it was all that was going on. I also hate how some of the issues don’t matter at all. When a girls in trouble lots of effort is put in to help her but when a guy has a problem e.g this guy that nobody can take seriously and can’t get into a relationship is completely ignored.
The most compelling part of the story was the relationship between the main character and his dad because it was actually serious! I don’t want to see you gardening for three episodes in a row as if it means something!
Nothing at all matters in this show; the problems of the characters are fairly simple and are easily resolved. They are fleshed out in the most boring and uninteresting ways just so you can cry, forget about the bad stuff and think it’s the best anime ever made. Well it’s not, it sucks and is terribly boring and I’m honestly bitter about it. The people in the community who like CLANNAD (especially my friends) were insistent that this show was great and made me finish to the end, and I’m annoyed. I wasn’t at first but writing this really made me mad.
The fan base of this show is pretty terrible as well, you criticise the show and suddenly you’re a heartless sociopath who can’t feel any emotions! If you like this you’re the terrible ones for finding an attachment to the most boring characters possible!
Tell me about every single character in this show, and analyse why I should care about them. Nothing about the characters in the show appeals to me. The main character is dull and a transparent self-insert character. The blond one is a comedy relief character who takes down the seriousness of the whole show and the girls fall into very easy tropes which are hard to ignore when you’ve noticed them.
You can like it I guess but weak cry anime is not what I’m looking for. You people who praise CLANNAD for being so sad and emotional, watch school days and you’ll understand the level of depression a show needs to take you to be compelling – a level of sadness so severe that most of its fan base turned to hate the show. When CLANNAD gets to that level call me up and I might finally watch afterstory.
Corpse Party – ADB
Corpse party is notoriously one of the most gory shows out there, the only problem for me is that I didn’t really find it gory at all, but I never find anime gory so if you like that sort of thing you know where to go (here). It was more gory but I was able to keep my distance away from the show enough to not feel anything when tongues were cut off and e.c.t.
The plot of this show is fairly bad really and I think the show relies on gore to side-track the reader from the pretty bad plot going on in the background. We constantly transition between characters and you don’t really remember who anyone is at all and the plot is just walking around an abandoned building trying to escape.
I’d recommend it for Halloween or for a fun late night marathon but not as a general rule, this is definitely worth checking out if you get creeped out by gore easily as it’s horror will be a lot more effective for you.
Cowboy Bebop – ADB
Reviewing anime series’ is something that I’ve never tried before or even wanted to do, I’ve however had a change of heart in this regard as I would like to discuss and talk about specific shows so that people can get suggestions to what they should watch and what they shouldn’t. From now on I will be trying to review every single anime that I’ve completed (155 so far) to see if anyone might like similar shows that I have a taste in. I may change from reviewing to analysing if I find anything interesting so this isn’t going to be a normal review series.
Unlike most reviewers who review based on art, sound, story, characters, animation and enjoyment I will be rating solely on enjoyment. This means that I won’t be giving away any bonus points for good art or anything. If you want more on this read my blog post titled “Bad Animation Doesn’t Matter In Anime”. To rate all of these shows I will use a random number generator from 1 to 155 and talk about what ever show appears. I got 21 so that means that I’ll be reviewing cowboy bebop!
The world of this anime feels properly lived in and real, the sheer amount of locations and plots that appear give the anime a real sense of scale far beyond the normal standard for space shows. The advanced technology is surprisingly realistic (for my expectations) and I love how they uncover old relics that are outdated today like VHS players.
On the whole each episode is treated as its own separate story, often introducing new themes and characters while still keeping to the overall story of “we must earn money to live”. The characters are all loveable and interesting, their backstory is never deep enough to warrant huge attention or episodes but they’re still touching and heart-warming anyway.
This is clearly a space action type anime and a must watch if you’re a fan of the genre, heck – this anime probably made you a fan of the genre – but I can’t help feeling that it’s somehow a slice of life show. Everything portrayed is a part of their everyday life and their amusing struggles to survive; it feels like a glimpse of their entire life’s and all that it is, constant fighting and drama. You can imagine the constant hardships that the characters face and the problems that they have whilst still getting a cool action fix.
On the whole you can watch the episodes in any order but I don’t really recommend it as the events really add up in the finale episode. At the start I was worried about the show being a generic action show due to the badly developed villain and bar fight gun scenes the episodes are unique and won’t feel repetitive.
I really love the soundtrack, whilst TANK is a great opening too get you in the mood I love the ED (The Real Folk Blues) far more as it’s just brilliant. The background music is extremely distinct and just adds to the brilliant atmosphere.
This is an anime that you should really give a chance too, whilst there are some boring parts and episodes that you might not find interesting it’s a very compelling, enjoyable space narrative which can still give you plenty of surprises.
I can’t Understand What my Husband is Saying – ADB
This show is very short in episode length yet really fun to watch. The romance between the otaku and normal girl is interesting and the whole premise of most episodes is the exact title. She can’t understand her husband because he’s an otaku and has a knowledge she isn’t able to get, or want to get. The show is funny and sweet to watch so it’s a good show to spend the evening watching so you can finish it in a day.
I can’t Understand What my Husband is Saying Season 2 – ADB
Season 2 is the exact same quality as season one, nothing new is added and the plots and scenarios are only developed on. The comedy in this is as strong as ever and is still a great way to spend the evening to relax and have some relatable humour about people not understanding you at all.
Daily Life of Highschool Boys – ADB
This has some pretty good high school comedy. The show utilises running jokes really well and even goes so far as to stop conventions such as removing the main character just so it would be funny. The facial expressions are hilarious and communicate the humour really well.
A lot of people praise this for its relatability but I honestly can’t relate very much to being this stupid. Despite all that they are relatable to when I was much younger to that age and I feel like the characters internal monologues explain the jokes and build them up very effectively.
The way different characters are revisited and running jokes continue often leads to a better ending.
The main issue for me is that I didn’t fall into its style of humour until late into the series. The anime failed to initially interest me into the relatability and location of the characters and it was difficult to find anything funny until the end. I would say that it was my style of humour and I did laugh a lot at the start, there was just a section in the middle which I didn’t think was funny and there were more than a few episodes where I never laughed at all.
So it’s great if you’re a fan of comedy and if you like the setting but if you are still unsure watch the first episode and if you don’t find if funny I’d say you’re not missing much.
Date A Live – ADB
The show is about a guy seducing aliens (who look exactly like teenage girls) into falling love with him so that they don’t take over the world. If I heard this plot today I would groan with annoyance but if that genuinely interests you then great! I remember finding it funny anyway so if you want to watch it for that then go ahead!
The most interesting thing to me about the premise was that the guy had to make the girls fall in love with him when they were on a violent reign of terror. This is done in the most unbelievable and terrible way since the girls are so boring and flat that attaining them doesn’t feel important at all. If you are looking for something to do with this premise then I’d recommend the short manhwa “skill of lure” since it actually uses techniques which you could see working in believable ways and actually gives you advice if you choose to follow it. This show does no such thing thus the only interesting part, since the end of the world plot line is nothing to brag about, is the comedy which is only good if you’ve not seen their jokes before.
Date A Live II – ADB
Something that I remember talking about from the last post discussing season one was the terrible ways the guy got the aliens to fall in love with him, read “skill of lure” instead which is a manga handling everything much better, it’s apparently an adaptation of “The Game” which discusses real life seduction techniques which this show obviously never uses. So watch that first.
However if you want to continue your harem power fantasy from the first season then go right ahead! If you can’t tell my tastes have changed a lot since watching this so it’s not like I don’t get why a person can’t like it because I actually did. The show had comedy which was brought down by everything else.
Needless to say if you liked season one continue to season 2 but honestly if you like harems, and think it’s your favourite genre then continue watching them until you see the “secret” which will put your view on the genre in perspective.
Death Note – ADB
If you haven’t watched Death notes then, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? Seriously watch it right now! Death note gives us a brilliantly gripping story which is still easily accessible. It’s not mainstream in the same way Naruto and Pokémon is mainstream. It’s mainstream because it’s genuinely good and has a very wide appeal.
The plot is of criminal vs a detective and the mind games and strategy is epic to watch. It is so fun to theorise about the future events and see the twists and turns in the story. You will find yourself constantly blown away by the mind games shown and its epic, but not all the way.
The final third of this show really, really sucks. Death note turns into a fun and entertaining story to one made of simple conveniences and ways that nobody could possibly know. I can’t spoil it so you definitely should carry on watching but the downwards spiral isn’t so bad that the whole of death note sucks.
Some people love the final parts more but I still have yet to see a good reason for why for any of them. Nobody has explained it well enough to me and the expectations of the start as well as the epic moments are never carried over and they never feel the same.
This is absolutely a must watch and was probably the anime that made me continue more and it impacted me so much better. Most of the shows I like have very little merchandise but I don’t think there’s anything to say that death note doesn’t deserve it’s success.
Death Parade – ADB
I don’t think this show was that great despite all of its praise because nothing really grabbed me too much at all.
The characters, despite having backstories, were presented in very uninteresting games and the games didn’t have enough depth to be truly strategic like the ones in Kaiji for example. The questions and situations to do with the afterlife wasn’t interesting to me and the plot progressed in a slow way that I didn’t like.
Nothing stands out to me about this show, the dark aesthetic feels poor and while the world might be interesting there was nothing to distinguish it as anything above average.
It’s not all bad and does have entertaining aspects so if you like the premise then you will want to check it out anyway. It’s just not really my thing.
Devilman Crybaby – ADB
This is the first anime I can honestly say that I watched mainly because of the visuals, animation and music. I didn’t think the characters or plot were very strong and I also thought that the events were poorly written a lot of the time but all that was pushed aside because it was simply a joy to watch.
Something to know about me is that I hate the modern anime aesthetic (SAO and shows that look like that) because they feel soft and way too similar. Devilman was able to look modern but also different and cool at the same time, its art style was iconic! I like those solid black boarders around everything much more than the soft edges I’m used to seeing!
Episode wise the opening ones were my favourites as they were slightly more slice of life and it was fun to learn about the characters along with seeing their ordinary lives. Once it got more serious the plot started to suffer in my opinion but it never got so bad.
Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? – ADB
I watched three episodes of this and thought it was ok, then I watched the forth and realised that I had been sucked in to this terrible clichéd and boring world where nothing matters at all. The distance of relatability and tension in every single scenario was very apparent and only succeeded in making me finish it because I liked the humour and was on a completionism stretch at the time.
Nothing good stands out about this show once you’re aware of the terrible tropes that animation companies feel incessant on using. And do tropes matter? Of course they matter. When all you see in a show is a series of walking tropes it’s hard to immersed, or feel any sense of danger or happiness when things start working to or against the players advantage.
One of my least favourite tropes is the idea of a boy with the natural talent to be better than everyone because it’s just boring and convenient. It’s so much more interesting and rewarding to see the struggle of a main character, and watch him/her have to deal with defeat and tragedy over and over again. This show is not that so what’s left? Well nothing but a clichéd and standard story which fails to do anything noteworthy.
Flying Witch – ADB
Slice of life shows aren’t one of my inherent interests but Flying witch was often really nice to watch. It provides a pleasant experience for anyone who wants to relax. Unfortunately it’s so out of my nature to relax that it took me ages to finish this but you’ll find a great thing if you watch this in the right mood.
I like the way spells are treated as normal and the characters are cute and fun to watch. It’s a great show if you enjoy this kind of thing.
Furiko – ADB
Furiko is what some people would consider a perfect film because it technically had no flaws. I completely disagree, this was a really bad film.
The first issue was that it was three minutes. Three minutes isn’t enough time to get attached to anything and therefore the payoffs later in the film don’t matter much because these are people you’ve just met.
In terms of plot, it could only really be done in its unique style and was nice enough but had little interest or emotion relating to me.
Another thing to this show’s disadvantage is that the art style sucks and relies on the gimmick of a clock turning.
I would never call this bad but it’s definitely no masterpiece and is very impactful. I think about my top shows every day because they relate so much to my experiences and character – this film doesn’t do that for me and failure to do that is what makes it a 9 at best though in reality I think it’s a 3.
Watch this because it’s one of the better short films but it’s still a short film which is difficult to get invested in.
Ponyo – ADB
I watched Ponyo a while ago and I loved it! It was an enjoyable, fun ride of the movie with a backdrop of interesting themes I could appreciate. It’s a great film which is easy to watch and I recommend it to every anime fan and any movie fan who likes studio Ghibli.
This is by far my favourite Ghibli film and I’ll go into deeper into this in the future as the topic is completely different. I don’t want to compare other films; I want to praise this one!
The show gets you to love the characters straight away! Even the perceived villain was eccentrically cool and weird which made up for his fairly two dimensional character. He was funny to watch yet threating enough that the conflict didn’t feel completely useless, mostly because they didn’t focus on it very much. He was bad enough to be funny but not so endearing enough that we started to feel bad when things went wrong for him.
Then Sousuke was immediately a character we could get behind. He was independent enough to collect a fish and actually look after it! He was responsible and tried to protect his secret whilst also enjoying the fish’s (Ponyo’s) company.
And Ponyo didn’t get much characterisation but we grew to like her as she sprayed people who disliked her with water and looked like she was genuinely having a good time.
The story is fairly simple but made interesting through great animation and visuals. The show is about a boy who gets a fish named Ponyo, she heals his wound by licking his blood and absorbs his DNA to become more human like. Due to this humanness the two form a love for each other which is tested through tragedy and difficult times. It’s a fun kind of love story which is a joy to see unfold.
I talked earlier about interesting themes and the most notable one straight away is water pollution. A beautiful sea is shown with rubbish littered all over it and it’s presented as terrible for the fish. The fact that ponyo is humanised to such an extent makes me think that a lot of the start was against pollution since it’s extremely easy to see.
As well as that I think it’s interesting the way the characters dealt with the flood at the end. It was treated as some kind of adventure but it was clear that the adults were putting on a brave face and were terrified for their friends, families, fellow citizens and properties. The idea that this place of tragedy was framed in such a way shows the hope people should have and that they shouldn’t let terrifying events tear their lives apart through causing misery. The children’s carelessness is further shown when they don’t shut their door after leaving on their boat. I was very concerned! Water could have easily gone in there and caused a lot of trouble! Oh well, I guess you have to forgive some things a film does or you won’t be able to appreciate the other great things the film has to offer.
The moment I became sold on the film was when Ponyo rushed along the tops of fish to try and get to Sou. The animation was fun and really enjoyable, it just kind of made me laugh at how sweet and innocent it was.
Overall I’d say you should definitely give Ponyo a shot. It might seem childish but the fun ride combined with interesting visuals make is good anyway.
Ghost Stories – ADB
Ghost stories is just hilarious, if you’ve not seen it you owe it to yourself to watch it dubbed. For the uninitiated the sub of ghost stories performed very badly compared to what was expected, this led to the best decision ever. Let’s just say whatever the hell we want as long as it loosely follows the same story. This leads to jokes that you’d never get from any anime and most normal cartoons.
I can understand if you dislike this at first (I did) but on my re-watch I understood that it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously at all. That’s where the comedy comes from; you can turn it on, sit back and relax while enjoying the comedy that’s intertwined in the story.
The story is pretty catastrophic and would be rubbish if you watched it subbed, due to the normally dull episodic structure. The episodes focus on a new ghost or scenario each episode and how the kids deal with it (surprisingly well) these scenarios can range from a complex time travel plot to discover the histories of the ghost book or just simply hearing fur elise on the phone constantly.
The dub voice actors enable an extremely funny narrative in each episode with this dynamic and you’d be surprised at the amount of crude jokes that can be slotted in to this. If you’re a fan of sexual jokes and humour, this anime will appeal to you far more than most.
I like the portrayal of the strong Christian female character with many issues. She often blames others for being “filthy sinners” and is constantly shoving her religion in their face. Not something that I think should happen in real life as it’s obnoxious however this character makes religion funny without being outright offensive to Christianity. It’s actually quite believable that a Christian might have these views but it’s simply funny when she states them out loud.
Her character creates a lot of chemistry with the Jewish character and as you can imagine there’s a lot of controversial yet humorous scenes between them. This show treads the line between offensive and acceptable with many jokes that would be unacceptable in real life but made fine in the context of the anime. If you get offended easily e.g. you got even a bit annoyed at the fact that I talked about two different religions and the way they act (even though I’m a Christian myself) then this might not be for you.
There are so many jokes about sex and romance in this. It’s implied that the female main characters mother from the past is sexually attracted too her which creates a funny episode ending. On top of this the teachers outright proclaim that they’re going to have sex with the other teachers, it’s just hilarious!
As you start to get to know the characters more you start to see the characters in a better way and find their comedic interactions more hilarious than they could ever be from a funny moment’s compilation.
I love the op and ed, whilst they might not be the most appealing to others they’re catchy and deliver a good and fun atmosphere. I love that feeling when the ED “Sexy Sexy” plays and you hear the words “yuugure no kanata kara shinkirou” whilst taking satisfaction in the fact that I’ve just seen a brilliantly hilarious episode.
Have you noticed that I’ve not really talked about anything besides the comedy? It’s because that’s mostly what it’s got going for it. The visuals and animation are old and outdated and the villains are disgustingly terrible. But that’s why it works so well, you get to see a whole cast of voice actors who don’t care and are just trying to have fun with their work. Give it a try, don’t care about the villains, just settle down and relax, you won’t regret it.
School-live – ADB
The most interesting thing about School live is the massive spoiler which you shouldn’t have read, maybe I’ll censor the synopsis or write my own fake one. Basically if you care about slice of life and moe in any way at all you will want to watch this to see what this does to the drama.
Let’s say you liked the twist in Madoka magica, this is similar but more dramatic in my opinion.
So watch episode one to completion, after that you can read what I have to say. Also if you want a spoiler review then continue. The spoilers start now.
This is probably the best zombie apocalypse anime out there! I love the complete delusion of the main character that has a clear disability and putting some innocent school girls into a zombie apocalypse is a fascinating thing for me. The characters are fairly generic but the premise alone can carry this show. I really love the walking dead the game and have made many zombie apocalypse parodies myself (when it was cool) so I found this one a real treat.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki Kun – ADB
Everyone loves this show, it’s a classic comedy.
I would describe GSNK as a comedic parody of everything you’ve seen before as well as something great by itself. A lot of the jokes and premises are to do with the common tropes you have already seen but their awareness of them is used masterfully to play on your expectations and still create something genius.
I wouldn’t say that it stuck with me in my head for long but it was a really good show to watch and laugh when you feel like watching something funny.
Girlish Number – ADB
Girlish number is an anime about the voice acting industry for anime, so if you have any interest in the production of anime, or any investment in the industry then maybe this is worth a shot.
Basically Chitoge is taken on for a really terribly made anime (like the asterisk war or sao) as a voice actress based on her looks and she tries to get into her career and do well. Unfortunately her personality is terrible and the whole thing is about the worst possible people working in the worst possible way.
For me it had a lot of boring parts but overall was a good experience and insight into a production cycle I would have otherwise known nothing about.
Golden Boy – ADB
I have episodically reviewed three excellent anime’s to completion. You’ve got the excellent cult classic of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The deep, philosophical and scary Shiki, and last, but not least… golden boy.
Golden boy is brilliant, I like it so much. It’s somehow able to have a deep philosophical message with great ideas every episode and constant fan service at the exact same time. It’s honestly the best mix of anything you will ever come across in your entire life time!
I can’t honestly say that the deep themes and ideas will be noticeable to an everyday person on the surface, you need a high IQ to understand golden boy… yeah… So if the meaning is lost on you then check out the episode reviews!
Each episode Kintaro (one of the best protagonists in anime ever) meets a new hot girl while living a job as a freeder and involves himself with her in some way causing her to fall in love with him. Then kintaro leaves and the girl embarks on a quest to travel the world in an attempt to find him.
On the surface this isn’t a great premise but it’s the mastery of the details and plot that goes on which really makes the show great. You just have to trust me with this one. Watch the whole dam thing, then read the episode reviews if you don’t get it, then read the episode reviews anyway!
Great Teacher Onizuka – ADB
GTO is a classic must watch in my opinion because it’s a classic must watch that you should watch. Who doesn’t love a teacher that would torture kids and feel an attraction for the students he watches over? Honestly that’s not what it’s about really but what it is about is students, and how GTO can help solve their issues.
It feels like the creator of this show really hated the school system and uses GTO to be the ideal teacher who is prepared to use any method to help any student. It’s obvious that Onizuka really cares about his students and doesn’t care about getting in trouble to solve every problem that takes place. Oh and believe me there are a lot of problems!
Initially his class hates him and does things to try and make him leave, but he doesn’t because he cares about the kids. As he slowly wins people to their side the class realise that he is a much better teacher that actually cares about them (unlike their previous ones which is why they prank the teachers so much) and they seem to finally find their place in the world and have their faith restored in teaching through GTO.
Also the manga writer obviously hates the school system and wants GTO to be an ideal teacher, despite his flaws. His most notable flaw is that he knows absolutely nothing about what he teaches, but besides that he’s great!
The Fruit of Grisaia – ADB
Yes it’s a harem and ultimately one of the better ones. This is because it seems most representative of a light novel. A great harem fan once told me that harems were about exploring each character’s routes to find out why each one of them would be a good person to be with. This is the only real show where I can say that that happens.
You will spend 2-4 episodes exploring the nature of each individual character of the harem, discovering their backstory and some are more interesting than others, a lot of them can be really strange. So this is basically a harem you are allowed to watch!
It still has a tonne of harem moments that suck though.
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor – ADB
Ultimate survivor is one of the most epic anime’s out there and I love the strategy and mind games that took place here. Say for example if you’ve seen death note, I would recommend this next. Simply because the mind games (and they are games) remind me so much of the conflict between L and Light except through a game and not a crime mystery.
But saying it’s what you should watch after death note doesn’t quite do it justice because it easily surpasses death note on nearly every episode. The highs are better, the steaks feel higher (even though technically they’re not) and the mind games are more fascinating.
Kaiji is just a sad protagonist as well whom everyone can get behind. He is a survivor and not a huge baddass who knows how to do everything. Kaiji is an addict who loses and keeps on losing. It’s called ultimate survivor because ultimately Kaiji can’t hope to win, just survive.
It’s always very quickly apparent that Kaiji is out of his depth in nearly every situation he plays against the evil Teiai overlords. Thinking about his strategy and what you would do is also interesting. It’s just a thrilling tense watch which is an epic!
Kaiji: Against all the Rules – ADB
Despite the immense praise for season 1 I cannot say that season 2 lives up to the greatness of season 2. Yes a lot of it is cool but it has many things that take it down. The first problem is that the gimmick and mind games of the first game involve only one simple thing, the most predictable thing possible (no spoilers in case you don’t figure it out) and that game takes place over the first half.
The second half of the series isn’t even against a person so the mind games are redundant and it’s about beating a pinball machine. Granted a lot of it is good and the strategies are interesting but the show spends way too much time watching pin balls fall with nothing happening. It’s repetitive and dull. If they had cut the game shorter the show would have done so much better.
I can see why they did it though, the following arc of Kaiji is a huge game of mah-jong (one of the worst games in anime ever just from confusion alone) and they had to fill the episodes with something. I honestly would have preferred filler to the stretched out content of the pinball machine. It’s not even too difficult and could work well.
How about instead of getting a huge loan for the pinball machine we have a five episode arc where he buys a card counting guide for black jack and then wins the money from a casino, or maybe he just wins by luck. This plot point is actually used later when they gamble on a horse to win. Winning money from horse riding is fairly rare and so much more could have been done if they won the money through other means. I.e black jack, I think card counting would be a bad idea but having an opponent who was card counting would be really interesting.
This is a completely honest and true story which happened when me and my friends were playing black jack together. Basically I didn’t use card counting because I don’t know how, but I won every single game of black jack and… got 5 21’s in a row! I was so lucky and they made way too many jokes about me cheating. I only wish we were playing for actual money! Another story, I know a little bit about black jack because I can program and I’ve actually programmed black jack! So yeah, maybe I like the idea of this game way too much.
Also the game can’t be poker because in the current arc of the manga they are playing a fascinating version of poker called one poker which is genius. If you want to continue the manga but don’t want to see mah-jong, then honestly skip it and watch part 4 of the manga. Before you go on thinking that you can’t handle constant changes of games and wins/losses with Kaiji through 3 more parts when you’ve already seen 2/5’s (and a lot of games) the next 3 parts all take place in basically the same week, don’t all involve Kaiji and are all connected together in a coherent way that justifies the extra parts added. So don’t worry about Kaiji losing everything from the bog, because even 3 parts later his winnings is still all to play for.
So yeah, watch the show anyway but don’t let your expectations get too high.
Phoenex Wright Ace Attorney – ADB
This anime was fine, I think the strongest thing for it is the mysteries and visuals but honestly it doesn’t feel special or noteworthy at all; not much good going for it but not much bad either.
I had already played the phoenix wright game so I found myself disappointed because the anime felt really slow to watch and I had already experienced the story in a much better way. It’s a somewhat more innocent and playful take on the mystery genre and I think the courtroom parts shine far greater than the parts outside of them due to the extra drama.
I think that the style of phoenix wright is a lot more suitable for the light novel ds/phone format where you actually NEED to find an investment in everything and figure things out on your own. Having things spelt out to you can either mean you get everything straight away and the whole thing feels pointless or you miss details, have no idea what’s going on and are ultimately disappointed by the end result.
With mystery I don’t like it when I feel like I have too much information since I would rather think of a crime conceptually. The difficulty here is that the light novels need you to pay attention to detail since you need to constantly read through item profiles and data logs so you can never get the full experience of figuring it out for yourself like you would in the games.
The LN’s have a lot of information for you to digest and with the slow pace yet overwhelming amount of information it’s really hard to engage with this show. It does improve as you progress through the series and anyone who likes a good mystery and never got to play the games should watch this anyway.
Hajime No Ippo – ADB
Do you like boxing? Whatever your answer is it doesn’t matter since Ippo is just an epic must watch.
You get sucked into this world of epic boxing and training, where the motivations and inner conflicts of the main characters are so hype that you can’t help but find yourself invested in everything.
The fights are a vicious brawl where every character gives it everything they have to try and win, their passion is infectious. The characters are so very compelling as well with Ippo’s simple passion to the complex internal and external difference to Takamura’s excellent character.
This anime takes every single good thing about Shounen and sports while throwing everything else away. It’s such an epic show! It’s also so addictive that I wanted to stagger how I watched the show. So I’ve not seen the 2nd season even though I really want too just because I will have no time left for anything else!
The characters feel real and I like how despite the simple setting and premise the characters can still have meaningful hang ups and flaws. This is a must watch and easily in my top ten favourite anime.
Handa-Kun – ADB
I would only recommend this to people who want a fun light hearted yet whacky comedy. I would not recommend this to Barakamon fans at all. I’ve only seen the first episode of barakamon (I intend to finish it) but I think completing it would ruin my enjoyment of the show.
Handa-Kun should remain in some spin off universe far detached from everything happening in barakamon. There is no way anything like this could ever be taken seriously in something like barakamon.
Despite all its criticism I genuinely found this show really funny and entertaining. So watch it for the comedic aspects only!
Hataraku Maou-sama – ADB
To me this was a fairly average yet funny comedy about the simple premise of the devil working at McDonalds. However for some people it’s one of their favourite anime’s so I’d say that you should watch it because I enjoyed it a lot, and many other people enjoyed it more.
The jokes are great but something else that’s interesting is the way the characters get their lives set up together as Japanese citizens is so interesting!
I wouldn’t say that is has any deep messages or anything like that but it’s a pretty good comedy!
Highschool DxD – ADB
Let’s not beat around the bush, High school DxD is a very fan service orientated show which doesn’t require much attention to detail, thinking or knowledge too watch. It’s a very simple action harem show. I will be reviewing all three seasons in my quest to review all 155 (and counting) anime on my completed list so let’s start with the first season.
Season one is probably the best and most interesting. It needs to set up the harem and then teach the viewer about the concept of the world. It does this though fun comedy moments and exposition coupled with fan service. It’s very generic in terms of getting the harem and it doesn’t feel well earned at all, something that I enjoy in harems is a good reason for them to exist in the first place. The characters just fell in love with the main character because he’s strong (I don’t find that very interesting) but the characters are still likable even though they’re still tropey.
The start of season one is far better than the end due to the fact that I like the calm jokey moments far more than any serious story. I don’t really feel bad about saying this but it has a terrible save the girl plot line which kind of sucks, never seen that before am I right?
On the whole the show suffers from the problem of the fan service and comedy being much better than the actual story. People who claim that it’s got both types of good plots are simply mistaken. The humour and fan service elements were far more entertaining than the story so it leaves you wanting just that – because it’s hilarious. Not that attempting to fit a narrative in is a bad thing; it’s just off-putting to have the characters fight a guy who can destroy the world whilst still sleeping with each other every night. It just tonally doesn’t fit, causing the main story to suffer due to it not feeling serious.
The other narratives in the next season are also pretty boring. The thing to consider is that I didn’t find it that interesting but I still watched it anyway, meaning that it’s at least interesting enough to keep your attention for twenty minutes. The last season ruins some of the characters for me, the main example being Rias.
Despite the fact that Rias and Issei aren’t in a relationship she acts far too possessive of him, she’s always the excuse for why other characters can’t confess and it sucks for that reason. It feels like she detours everyone from Issei while doing nothing with him herself. Needless to say she’s a pretty bad waifu. Akeno was much better and had some very funny moments later, she doesn’t care that she’s his third choice which is pretty sad but far better than what Rias was doing (nothing at all romantically).
Overall if you want a good action show don’t watch this. If you want a good fan-service show then don’t watch this. If you want a fan-service comedy then watch this, that’s all I can really say, I don’t really like recommending something like this especially when theirs other great anime out there.
Highschool DxD New – ADB
If you liked season one then this is just more of the same. All of the seasons have blurred together in my mind so it’s hard to separate them from each other but if you like fan service and comedy you will like this! I don’t think anyone is actually watching this for the action but if you are its fine. I would honestly prefer if it was a slice of life with the same characters since the action is a whole lot worse than the normal comedy which takes place. But maybe that’s just me.
High School DxD BorN – ADB
I basically ran out of things to say since I covered the first two seasons already but it’s more of the same, but a little bit worse. Yeah I think this final season was the worst one mainly because they ruined one of the better characters.
Rias sucks in season 3, she becomes a terrible character and really unlikable. She just constantly cockblocks Issei while giving no fan service of her own. She is so annoying! If you can get past that though this show can be alright!
Highschool of the Dead – ADB
We’re continuing our trend of reviewing fan service anime and I think that this one is actually alright. The animation is crazy and I think the zombie apocalypse setting is really interesting. The drama can be pretty cool and the action is really entertaining.
Himouto! Umuru Chan – ADB
Umuru is about a girl that on the surface is perfect, but can transform into a hamster. After watching the first episode of season 2 I’m convinced that I wouldn’t enjoy this show but it was a fun ride for me at the time so maybe you will like it too.
The appeal of this style of humour is the relatable otaku jokes and jokes about the hamster girl criticising her brother and being really good at video games. Not a lot of the jokes will hit but the slice of life aspect can be really nice.
Grave of the Fireflies – ADB
Some people think this is a really gripping and sad anime about the consequences of war and WW2. I just think it’s boring and something I don’t care about.
Everything in this film is really slow and it’s difficult not to fall asleep too. Every sentence feels like it takes 4x too long to say and I never felt a compelling reason to be invested in any of these characters.
If you go in expecting a deep film about the difficulties and terrors of war you will find what you want. If you just want a good entertaining film (like me) this isn’t for you.
Hotarubi no Mori e – ADB
I decided to watch this film because it was only 45 minutes long and would end fairly quickly, establishing the story and entertaining the reader very easily. This did not happen for me.
The series tried to go for a really entertaining and dramatic romance story but I felt like it was so rushed that it did nothing for me. Not to say that it even felt rushed, in fact the show even felt too long for 45 minutes, it was more that the show wasn’t able to form a connection with me so I felt nothing towards it.
Hunter X Hunter 2011 – ADB
This is the best action shounen out there! Don’t be put off by the small child with spikey hair because his name is Gon and he’s awesome!
The character development in this show is excellent and I found myself going back to episode one to see how one character in particular had changed so much.
Each arc feels so different and original with deep and complex ideas which are just epic to see in what is on the surface, a kid’s show.
The visuals and fights are great but the progression and scale that HxH takes place on is brilliant. The principles of nen are fascinating and really entertaining and every arc after that feels epic. You should definitely watch this.
Inari Konkon – ADB
In this paragraph I’m going to explain why I watched this show because I think it’s funny. I listen to a podcast called “The Pro-crastinators Podcast” which has a certain mascot that nobody knew for the longest time. Nate (from the podcast) found the picture without knowing where it came from and put him as the mascot because he looked like a pro-crastinator. Well much later it was found out that he was a guy from Inari KonKon and I added it to my watch list. Much later I actually got round to finishing it!
So Inari KonKon was really good, entertaining and emotional. The main character recieves special powers from a god and they start hanging out together… and drama ensues. It has both romance and drama which interact really well. The story has two elements, Inari’s persuits of love and Inari’s relationship with the god. Both are done well.
The lessons Inari learns and friends she made at the end leads to a huge, brilliant climax which made me tear up inside. It was great.
Inferno Cop – ADB
Inferno cop might possibly be the best short 2-3 minute episode anime ever created. While it has repeated card board cut outs with simple characters the charm and humour is excellent.
You are not coming to inferno cop for anything other than to laugh, and it can achieve that insanely well. It’s really funny and has the most stupid settings every episode that feels like a kid came up with every story line. It’s this that makes the show so great though.
Inuyashiki – ADB
One of my favourite anime’s from last year was Inuyashiki so this review has been a long time coming! Let’s get into it a whole two months after I said I would – this isn’t going to create a worse blog post in the slightest!
At the start of this show Inuyashiki is in a terrible situation. His family hates him just because he’s old, boring, and from the looks of it, failing at his job. He suddenly is diagnosed with a terminal illness and will spend the last days of his life in misery with family who don’t seem to love him. It’s really sad. But then he’s unexplainably given a second chance along with superpowers!
This sudden tone shift is brilliant and I love the way we start to focus on other people’s problems and what Inuyashiki can do to help that really makes the show entertaining in my opinion. You could say that the show is about good vs evil but I feel like the journey is so much more complex than that.
Let’s talk about some of the complexities then, when reviewing I don’t like to split things up into categories and just talk about the good things.
What I find so interesting about this show is that there are two Inuyashiki’s and two Hiro’s. The real Inuyashiki died in an explosion knowing only pain and suffering from the ones he loved while another robot replaced him with his same memories. Inuyashiki doesn’t have a human brain or any human aspects, his programing just works in the way that he can function exactly like the old man.
Oddly enough it’s this lack of humanity which makes him so human and it brings up more philosophical questions which are interesting to think about. The robot has felt like he has lived a complete human life and everything he does is human but in reality he can’t exactly feel anything, so it brings up questions about how they should be treated, especially when they help people so much.
I really like the episodic events that take place in this show. Something I admire about the anime is that it won’t hesitate to use terrible violence to make the villains look worse. Initially Inuyashiki just saves odd people until he finds Hiro, who is the main villain of the show.
Even though it could be stated Hiro is one of the least interesting parts of the show and lacks a motive for what he’s doing I think it works in the shows benefit due to his nature as a character. Hiro was the second person who died with Inuyashiki and he’s become a person who’s bored with the world. Hiro now feels like he’s above it all because of his powers and tries to escape boredom through evil acts.
The more interesting thing about him is the way his friend turns his back on him to help Inuyashiki and how his mum reacts when she learns Hiro is responsible for the murder. People talk about Hiro a fair amount in this show and this is true for his classmates, one of which is inuyashiki’s daughter who’s in the class with him. I just find it so interesting how people will or won’t believe their classmates are evil and the way one of the classmates gives him shelter later in the series is brilliant.
Hiro is stronger than Inuyashiki but it doesn’t have to be that way. I like how the only reason Hiro is stronger is that he’s more tech savvy than the old man and knows what to do and how to do it.
Besides all this, there is something so entertaining about this show to watch. I like the action, the explosions are really fun to watch and the problems in the background provide a hugely great backdrop to the action that takes place.
3D animation can be jarring for some but in this case it really shouldn’t matter. One of my first blog posts was “bad animation does not matter in anime”, later creating addendums with hand shakers which just makes me sick to watch. Inuyashiki does no such thing and isn’t actually bad animation as there are many positives to it. The world feels different to any other in anime and provides a unique watching experience. I also think being able to see the robot parts coming out of the 3d model serves to show a much better transformation from man to machine.
So what makes this show a must watch? Well it’s so interesting to watch in every single thing that it does. The action might be brilliant but the moments in between them are so interesting to watch as they nearly always involve interesting character moments and progression as well as a lot of strategy or build up to conflict which is so entertaining to watch.
I hoped I would have more to say but I think I’ve got the message across. Now if anyone disliked this show I really want to know why so please tell me so I can explain better why I disagree with you!
Infinite Stratos – ADB
Theirs a separate genre of harem called the mecha harem, a genre which is the most derivative of them all. This falls into that genre and is just mostly trash honestly with the exact same jokes and scenarios you’ve seen everywhere else. Don’t watch it unless you are one of those freaks who likes harems.
Infinite Stratos 2 – ADB
Well Infinite stratos 2 is such an improvement on everything in season 1… no it’s just the same garbage. You have no reason to even begin thinking about watching season 2 before watching season 1 so I hope you didn’t actually expect me to say something here. I HAVE NO MEMORIES OF THIS SEASON AT ALL! IT’S THAT BAD! IT’S A HAREM, WATCH IT IF YOU LIKE HAREMS!
Itsudatte My Santa – ADB
Itsudatte My Santa is only 2 episodes long so I was able to watch the entire thing. It wasn’t brilliant however I feel like it was made with the kind of cringey love and passion only possible in Christmas anime’s such as this. So don’t even think about watching it before Christmas, so wait a long while after this post comes out!
Our protagonist has the unfortunate name of Santa since he was born on Christmas eve, and he has to spend Christmas alone since he has no friends or family to talk too. But the real Santa has other ideas.
It’s near possible for mere mortals like us to understand the miracles that Santa can perform on Christmas, but this show at least tries to explain how it’s possible. There are many, many Santa’s who are all delivering presents at once all with different levels of training. How is it possible to use magic to create presents or have undetected flying reindeers? If any of you see Santa be sure to tell me! But the fact that not many people have testimonies of Santa such as Santa from the show makes me almost think I’m insane.
So one of the real Santa’s appears to Santa and tells him that she’ll make him happy just for one night. At first I thought I was watching a hentai however as the episode continued it soon became clear that she’d be fixing his life together.
Despite all this it is confirmed that Santa loves Santa and the show becomes a small love story where the two people fall in love. So if that sounds like something you’d like to see at Christmas then be sure to check it out!
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – ADB
I really don’t understand the appeal of JoJo and I didn’t really enjoy it that much. The opening episodes were kind of interesting but I thought it wasn’t nearly as good as anyone says it is. I find it strange how people can enjoy the fights and find the plot interesting; an ancient mask that gives the wearer immense power sounds completely unoriginal and boring, just like any other anime. As well as this the fights are pretty awful and theirs a three episode fight halfway through which really sucks as nothing happens and it’s not important.
I initially was going to drop the show after these episodes but my friend told me that it ended at episode 9 and was actually pretty good after that boring bit in the middle. I didn’t think the fight with Dio was great but it was far better than any previous things but it was pretty dull in my opinion.
I never really cared about the characters or thought that I should care. All three of the main characters were bland and boring JoJo was the strong guy who fought and the other two watched and had the same personality, only sometimes watching.
Action is something that I really dislike anyway so I don’t really think that it was worse than any other action anime that I’ve seen, I just didn’t like it.
Junk Boy – ADB
As I was trying to find shows to watch that were similar to golden boy I came across this one episode OVA called Junk boy and it was well, pretty bad.
Unlike many I didn’t really dislike the art style or animation; I knew it was late 80’s show anyway so I didn’t expect much. It just seemed normal to me; however the thing that didn’t feel normal to me was everything else.
A common criticism that’s put against this OVA is it’s portray of women which even I think is pretty bad (and I liked Golden Boy!). The reason why it gets its criticism is probably because its characters aren’t children who don’t know what love is and the fact that the main character is so terrible that no one should love him at all. It could also be that it doesn’t really feel like a harem show and more ecchi.
So the main character gets a job in an adult magazine company where he has to approve the images that they’ll put in the magazines. This basically results in him looking at an image and having it that if the image is good enough, he’ll get a boner. It’s not a realistic job at all and kind of sucks.
The next story arc in this 45 minute episode is when he goes to a photoshoot for a model and she really isn’t into it. He then gives her a speech about how she was his hero and that he used to get off to her and it probably stopped him from being a rapist. She then sees how big his penis is and starts loving him, not because of his speech but because of this, I can see how many people don’t like the portrayal of women in this, they’re portrayed as easy which even offended me a bit.
Sure all of the girls in harems are portrayed the same but they’re treated more as having a high school crush than girls who impulsively make out with men.
The second story arc then focusses on the love between the protagonist and a news reporter (or rather the guy constantly trying to pursue sex) and it starts with him going to this brothel type place and doing it there. But after, the news reporter comes back and says that he was terrible and selfish in bed.
So the main character then starts selfishly and terribly trying to have sex with her again because he wants to prove her wrong, this doesn’t go well until he takes her on a bike ride around the city and she sees the connections that Junk boy has and they then make out. The annoying thing is that no lessons were learned here, he’s still extremely selfish whilst doing it and it sucks.
It then ends very abruptly, implying that he’s not going to stay with the girl for another time.
I went into this under the impression that it was going to be like Golden boy but it simply was not. It was reasonable to see why people would fall in love with Golden boy but not Junk boy and the fact that Golden Boy never sexually harassed people makes him far more likable a character. In Golden boy we can see that most of the women aren’t really easy and that the ones who are, tend to be extremely manipulative to try and use it to their advantage. It’s just that golden boy is a really good guy with lots of talent that he gets these girls.
Anyway this OVA sucked.
Ninja Scroll – ADB
All I have to do to sell the appeal of this show is link two endless Jess videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3hiTzT7mG8&t=295s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWVUDTYqF0
But I don’t want to leave you with just that so I’ll put my friends review of the series in here as well. If any of you were wondering what happened to that friend I said that it was only for a month, a month passed and Veol didn’t want to carry on. So that’s it really. I think it was because I wanted to change too much since there were a lot of errors and I wanted the whole thing to be in full English.
“Hey guys, this my first ever post and it’s going to be good. Let me take you back to 1993, to Ninja scroll. I wasn’t born then but I think it’s clear that anime has changed over time. Ninja Scroll came out when anime didn’t mean little children frolicking, generic main characters or tentacle porn. This was when anime was cool.
Ninja Scroll is cool, dark, and has ninjas! It also has sexual harassment and licking but they’re not scared to show it unlike Sword Art Online which I finished yesterday. It was pretty decent but didn’t have the dark, awesome action of Ninja Scroll. Or if you’re a stupid (As an author I’ve been told by the administrator that I can’t swear, or imply It.) weeb Jewbee Ninpuuchou.
Sure swords are cool; they’re sharp, metal, pointy, strong and dangerous but that’s not what this anime does well. It’s not how the swords are used but the fight choreography which wins you over to enjoying it. The swords look cool and real and the fight scenes feel real in its own world. What do I mean by this? Ninja Scroll is pretty unrealistic because of the crazy powers of the demons; they can go rock solid, squirt bees (favourite scene) and e.c.t. So in a world where this is possible I don’t find it hard to believe that a super human ninja would exist who isn’t that realistically scary.
So Ninja Scroll isn’t very realistic, but who cares? It’s fun! Whilst I would like to see a Japanese anime about realistic stealthy ninjas I don’t believe the lack of realistic ninjas or villains should hinder enjoyment whatsoever.
A thing I love about this film is the fact that the film has a lot of fights but not a massive amount of run-time. This means that all the fights are fairly quick, fast-paced and fun. Each fight has its own gimmick which was always fun to see play out. Even if the female main character acted like a weakling just so the main character could save her I enjoyed the action she brought to the fights and most parts of the story, since it would have been boring with just one ninja.
Now let’s move onto the story, or lack of it. I basically had no idea what happened, the story isn’t explained very well – probably because they cared more about the action. The story is just a set up for fights. The creators didn’t have to invent 8 demons to destroy the world, they wanted action.
A huge concern for most people (I can imagine) is the animation and visuals which are very old. The visuals feel old but also stylised and interesting, cool yet old and wise like a kind ninja master. The visuals look really good despite all of this and I didn’t notice any bad animation.
So if you like pure action, ninjas and cool stuff in general you should definitely check Ninja scroll out.”
K-on! – ADB
There is no reason to hate this show; it’s really good and one of my favourite youtuber’s favourite anime. I didn’t think it was a masterpiece but I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the subtle character development and feeling of genuine friendship the show presented.
One of the most emotional things about the anime is the songs they sing which are really impactful and made me cry. It’s also pretty funny and a joy to sit back and relax too.
K-on! Movie – ADB
One of my favourite films I watched this year was the K-on movie, where the cast went on an end of year trip to London! And it was really great to see the characters in a city I’ve visited often, since it’s a pretty nice place!
One thing that I forgot before the film started was how great the cast is. It’s really easy to overlook them due to their moe aesthetic and jolly nature but they really are a joy to watch. They have such a strong bond and chemistry with each other that it’s difficult to stop watching.
The theme of friendship may be overused in anime but it’s rare to see it done so well. The four main characters Yui, Mugi, Ritsu and Mio are all in the same year but they have to leave Azusa behind who’s in the year bellow them. To celebrate their time together they fly off to England and sing a song about their love for Azusa. Paying attention to these lyrics almost always makes you cry and it’s a very fun time. These characters practice and put lots of effort into demonstrating their friendship and they payoff is massive.
So let’s discuss some of my favourite parts of the film!
One of funniest moments was when they got their turtle to choose their holiday location. The idea of leaving your fate for a week up to a turtle is really funny to me! In the end the turtle choses somewhere in Europe so they end up going with London since Yui wanted to go there anyway.
Thanks to a massive failure in Japanese to English translation the characters end up being forced into performing in front of people for their food. It’s great to see the cast sing their music but the confusion was made even worse when it turns out they’d taken the place of their friend by sheer coincidence!
Another great moment was the confusion of where people went at their hotel! When Azusa leaves Yui gets worried that she’s vanished and returns to the other room to ask for help, the only issue is that at the same time Yui enters Azusa leaves, causing Azusa to have the same reaction and a loop to begin where everyone is searching for everyone. It’s confusion and comedy like this that can just effortlessly make me laugh!
And of course the best part of the film was the section at the end where they sang the song they’d been making for Azusa and it’s a really moving moment. Listening and paying attention to the lyrics made me tear up and really appreciate the relationship that the entire K-on class has.
While it’s not a perfect film and has some boring sections and an initial feeling of wanting the plot to progress faster it’s a good experience overall!
K-on! Season 2 – ADB
I liked season 2 more than season 1 and everything built up in the first season is only improved on as the band get popular, do cooler things and have more fun times. It’s a cute girls doing cute things show but it has a lot of meaningful character development and interesting moments which makes the show so good.
Nausicaä of The Valley of The Wind – ADB
Here comes the point where everyone starts to hate me: I really didn’t like this film. It felt really slow paced and boring in a world I thought wasn’t particularly interesting, I don’t really have a lot to say other than I don’t tend to like most films anyway so you should give it a shot because a lot of people like it. I also didn’t get most of it and became so bored with the start that it was difficult to watch the rest paying attention and not on my phone.
Berserk 1997 – ADB
Berserk is a brilliant anime that I’d consider a must watch for anyone who likes and enjoys anime. From the outside looking in this show appears to be some kind of dark, demonic action show but it really isn’t. There’s a lot of gore and action in most episodes however it never seems to be the main purpose and idea. It really feels like the characters are the most important part of the story and how they interact and react to each other in the scenarios that take place.
The world of Berserk is completely medieval and bad ass. The world feels very real and political and the drama that takes place during these politics is really entertaining and feels joyful to watch. It genuinely felt so gripping that no time at all had passed whilst watching the episodes! The world also feels structured. What I mean is that it doesn’t feel like the creators are randomly creating characters to place in the world, it feels like they already exist and the characters just run into them because they were in the right place at the right time (or normally the wrong place at the wrong time) which really creates an entertaining story.
The narrative follows the story of Guts, an extremely strong swordsman who has had a very difficult, traumatic past and runs into a band of mercenaries called the band of the hawk. It then follows the drama with the leader (Griffith) and the commander (Casca) as they go about their adventures in trying to achieve Griffith’s dream for the band of the Hawk.
The philosophy of these ideas and the consequences of them are a major theme of the series. The anime explores the consequences and benefits of war, ambition and purpose and doesn’t try to persuade you either way. It shows you the lives and events of the people in the war (which has lasted about 100 years) and allows you to draw your own conclusions and ideas about what’s going on.
The story gets continuously more and more dark as it progresses to an ultimate finale at the end which (without spoiling anything) is pretty good, that’s all I can really say.
All anime’s are pieces of art in one way or another with some themes or messages that are presented but this one feels like it’s on an entirely different level. Theirs clear purpose, themes and ideas expressed here that feel so very real and the work and ideas of the creators and manga author Kentaro Miura shine through in every aspect of this show.
A common criticism that I hear from the show is that it looks bad or that it has bad animation. Do not worry about this at all, the animation isn’t stellar but it’s not terribly bad. If you find the story and ideas that I’m telling you interesting then you really won’t care about the animation at all: I hardly noticed the low animation quality myself. The aesthetic and visuals are also brilliant, it really brings the story to life and the old animation look just adds to the medieval and old time setting in my opinion.
This anime has pretty much my favourite sound track. I love the atmospheric music which is prevalent in the slow calm moments of the series. Everyone loves “Forces” but I really like “Earth” and “Gattsu” is probably my favourite song of all time never mind my favourite track in an OST.
Overall this show is a gory action anime with so much more. It’s massively refreshing from the standard action show and explores really interesting themes that you might find yourself thinking about for your lifetime even if you eventually forget the show. This show is absolutely not for everyone and the manga is rated 18+, though as someone younger than this I can say that it’s not really worth that rating. Theirs tragic things but they won’t disturb you or creep you out if you have any tolerance at all but If you can’t stand the image of an anime character chopping a guy in half then you’ll be absolutely fine.
Just watch it. Simply just watch it. I could (and indeed I have) write far more words reviewing this telling you about how good it is but I don’t feel it’s necessary. If you like the idea of war and everything I’ve told you about then this is definitely an anime for you.
Kill la Kill – ADB
Some people love this show and are ecstatic about it. I can’t understand why. Sure it’s a great show with fun action and nice moments but that’s about it. It is only entertaining through interesting action and antagonists alone. I just can’t understand why people think this is excellent though. It’s great but no masterpiece in any way at all and I don’t think it comes across as deep in any of the ways that other people claim it does.
Kimi no Na wa – ADB
I don’t get why anyone likes this film at all. IT’S JUST BORING! I like parts and I think the body swapping idea is cool and all but it doesn’t deserve nearly as much attention as it gets. I wasn’t sucked into the emotion of it and the reveal at the end was simply stupid and didn’t make sense at all. I don’t think the characters are interesting and have a lot going on either so I would not recommend this film, watch Ninja scroll instead! It’s a much better anime film even though it’s massively different.
Parasyte – ADB
I thought this would be a dark and spooky horror show, but it’s just a dull and generic action adventure show. The idea of parasites can be terrifying to me and I was just annoyed that they advertised it wrong. I think the coolest parts is the main characters transformation and the opening but once you’re past that it just turns laughably tropy and nothing at all like what you initially wanted.
Maid Dragon – ADB
This one took me a while to watch because each episode is so similar to each other and it feels difficult to binge watch. Despite what I just said I mostly enjoyed this anime overall and the innocent yet funny slice of life aspects were really entertaining.
The world of Kobayashi is a mix between normal life and a fantasy world of terrifying dragons, needless to say it’s interesting to see dragons in daily life so you will probably find something you like in this show!
Kodomo no Jikan – ADB
Now on to the review!
This anime is pretty controversial and many people have problems with it which I’ve addressed in this post here. It’s basically a disclaimer for everything I’m about to say and something I can point you towards if you have any concerns.
Something I’ve noticed when reading reviews on my anime list is that most of the negative reviews have completed the show. The drama and characters provide an interesting enough story to keep you interested throughout the entire thing. It’s pretty much a horrific slice of life show which will make you uncomfortable even if nothing could be happening.
The story is from the perspective of a 23 year old teacher who has to deal with a 7 year old girl trying to seduce him. This teacher is weak and stupid. As well as this, due to things like blushing and reactions it’s very probable that he feels some level attraction towards the kid, which is pretty scary to see. As well as this, other characters have drama and conflicts which divert from the main story. They are sometimes contrived but often interesting and meaningful. The best side story was an explanation of someone’s history and it had interesting impact on the rest of the story.
It’s through this that Kodomo No Jikan is able to get away with so much. Well not exactly get away with it; the fan service is heavily criticised (rightly so) but it does work for the story. It works as it makes you uncomfortable with the situation – increasing the steaks of the scenario and makes you feel horrible because of the potential consequences. Let’s just say that it’s an experience to watch.
The anime feels like a precautionary tale without an ending. Everything feels dodgy and most events tell you when the correct time is for other people to intervene. The main character does the least thing required to avoid every situation. He’s not 100% stupid because he knows the boundaries but he is stupid for treating the girls’ love so lightly when avoiding it should be deadly serious even when it affects his personal and professional reputation. At one point the child sneaks into his bedroom and instead of shouting and raging, making sure nothing happens like that again he just gets rid of her without issue.
The incompetency displayed by everyone in this anime should provide a resource for what not to do, how not to react to children and when to take situations seriously. The fact that this incompetency is so prevalent is what makes the show so good, tense and interesting to watch. I recommend it to anyone partially interested in the consequences of the subject matter.
The art isn’t particularly great and the music isn’t that noticeable but I think that doesn’t matter too much since if you’re watching 7 year old fan service you probably want to see it in the lowest possible quality anyway.
So watch Kodomo No Jikan if you want to see a horror story of an anime, exploring topics not really explored before. Also if you got triggered by this remember to read the criticisms post for this anime as it might answer your concerns.
Konosuba – ADB
Konosuba is an expert on using inside jokes and constantly building on ridiculous situations for comedic pay offs only rivalled by prison school. The main character is thrown into a fantasy world after dying from shock from a tractor and just messes around doing nothing but trying to get by in the terrible world he inhabits.
You’ve probably seen this already but if you haven’t you’re in for a treat!
Konosuba season 2 – ADB
The second season of Konosuba came out at the start of this year and I loved it! The outrageous comedy continued and well that’s pretty much it. It’s a fantasy comedy about taking down the evil lord (or something) and saving the world basically accidentally.
This show was more of the same and what we’ve come to expect to the series. What made the series worse in my opinion was the way it diverted between situations. What I mean is that we got a few episodes in the starting city, a few episodes traveling to another city and more episodes in that city. I personally think these middle episodes suffered from not being in the city and having scenarios around it and I think the starting episodes didn’t work as well since the lead up from the previous season had to be rebuilt and the first city didn’t really have a good ending in my opinion; they just left it. The final episodes also suffered because we didn’t have much time at all to establish the city before the evil guy attacked and the episode ended.
In the first series so much of the comedy was a result of the characters’ previous actions and these didn’t really stick over the course of travel. I would have preferred spending more time in the second city as I think it would have made the final pay off a lot better.
Despite all this I still enjoyed it and it’s definitely a very good show. That’s pretty much my explanation for not putting it higher.
Is this a Zombie? – ADB
Something about this show is just strange and the anime knows it. The main character even dresses up as a magical girl to fight people. There is a clan of only vampire ninja’s and that’s only the first few weird things! At the end of the day this doesn’t take itself too seriously and is only really something to laugh too.
I remember enjoying this a lot even though its plot was fairly simple.
Is this a Zombie? Of the dead – ADB
A common trait when I review season 2’s is that I can’t distinguish between each season well enough, this has happened with is this a zombie? If you liked season 1 you’ll like this as well and there is no noticeable drop in quality.
The Garden of Words – ADB
This film is terrible, like really really bad. The characters are so very boring and stale. Sure one makes shoes and the other is a teacher who doesn’t like her job but that’s hardly anything to find interest in and ultimately the characters don’t feel real or like anyone I’d care about.
This film falls into a trap many films fall into, where the pacing is so slow and every single line of dialogue feels like it takes way too long to say, to the point where every sentence feels boring especially when most of the time the characters aren’t talking about anything important in particular.
You could like the animation and visuals but they seemed pretty normal and unimpressive to me.
The ending, which was meant to be emotional, just fell flat because you’re so annoyed by the characters until the end of it that anything that happens later doesn’t feel special.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – ADB
There was a part half way through this series where I stopped watching for a large amount of time, because the show ended half way though and the follow up arc really sucked. The opening is brilliant though and everyone should watch it. I wouldn’t say that the final held is even that bad, it just feels a whole lot worse.
The start of the show is mostly action where it’s a society after they just completed their industrial revolution travelling around on trains to escape the zombie apocalypse. That plot is great but once the characters arrive in a new location it goes downhill.
They introduce a terrible one note villain and have a dull save the girl plot line which you’ve seen over and over again. It was disappointing but I’m not sure what I expected to happen.
Kuma Miko – ADB
Some people were put off straight away by this since it looked like some romantic relationship between a bear and a little girl. This isn’t what the show is about, it’s more of a father daughter friendship that takes place.
The girl wants to leave the city but the bear doesn’t want her to go, so he gives her challenges that she needs to fulfil to prove that she is capable of leaving. It’s more of an endearing slice of life show and the situations are unique enough to be interesting.
The main girl goes on to be in an idol contest and a lot of the plot involving that is really interesting.
So watch if you like slice of life and don’t mind the strange idea of the premise.
Kuroko no Basket – ADB
Oh no, Kuroko no basket has three seasons… I have to talk about all of them individually!
Season 1 sees the start of a basketball club which is destined for greatness. The team bond that the main characters form as well as their chemistry and superhero like ability is so fun to watch. They villains are set up really well and each game is just a joy to watch.
Kuroko no Basket Season 2 – ADB
I believe that season 2 sees the start of the final tournament to decide once and for all who is the best and which one of the best five basketball players wins. The first fight is against one of the main enemies who are rumoured to be the strongest, this game is great because it pushes everyone’s boundaries.
Each game after that is also pretty good. The games of KnB follow the exact same structure, where it looks like they’re going to lose and then they pull it out of the bag later. I still think the teamworks and gimmicks is what sells the show despite that.
Kuroko no Basket Season 3 – ADB
The most notable game here is the final against the last member of the big 5 and 3 of the forgotten kings. It is a really epic fight and I love how each game grows more intense and interesting over time. New super powers unlock and a really hype finale takes place. It’s a great show.
Kuroko no Basket: Last Game – ADB
The last ten minutes of this film had no subtitles! It was pretty annoying. I enjoyed it up to that point because KnB is kind of a comedy! The stunts are so extreme and cool that I just find myself laughing. I really love the sense of teamwork within the team and it was as best a film I could hope for. It was also nice seeing all of the generation of miracles playing together.
Black Butler – ADB
I had to force myself to finish this one. While initially it had a lot of interesting things and I liked the idea but I just quickly became bored with it. Everything felt slow and I found myself losing interest.
I can see why a lot of people like this but it’s really not for me.
Kuzu no Honkai – ADB
I know when an anime is one of my favourites when it can instantly hook me. Nothing on this list ever came close to giving me an impulse to continue to the next episode like this show has. In my opinion the drama is so interesting and scummy that I just had to continue. This made it difficult when the show was still ongoing.
Every single character in this show is pretty bad and mostly a terrible person, but it’s really interesting to learn how they got that way and what they do to try and achieve happiness in their own life.
The characters in this show are pretty miserable and jaded, not having much going on except for the drama highlights shown to us. I just found the events so interesting and the stupid way the characters behaved painful and fun at the same time to view.
I think a common criticism of this show is how badly the characters are treated and how terrible they are. I agree that this is true but it’s because of this criticism that I like the series so much, it’s just really interesting to me.
As a pretty nerdy anime blogger none of these events are relatable to me so it’s interesting to see a lot of them for the first time. I have a friend who at the time seemed to be in constant drama to do with things like this and imagining my friend being like this is really funny to me as well. It could also be the fact that I’ve heard about a lot worse so these scenarios don’t make me feel as bad inside.
If you like the idea of a dramatic and sad romance story then you should definitely check this out!
Profesor Layton and the Eternal Diva – ADB
I’ve played every professor Layton game and love the series greatly, the puzzles are fun to think about and I really love the interactions between the characters, so this film felt like my kind of thing and it wasn’t great but it was still pretty good in the end and what I would expect from a professor Layton film. The most enjoyable parts were where they solved puzzles and had to work out what was going on, these were pretty simple however it was a film and adequately difficult in the time period given.
The parts that seriously dragged this film down were the moments with the extra characters and non-professor Layton type scenarios. Whenever Layton tackles a revolutionary topic (such as something like time travel even though that wasn’t in the show, it’s just an example to hint at something similar) there is a rational human explanation towards it and it’s pretty fun to try and work out. So here’s me trying to work it out and finding it difficult and it’s just simply the revolutionary discovery! It’s not a trick or a mystery! It’s just a crazy futuristic technology which shouldn’t exist! It was pretty annoying…
And it might have been just me but the characters became so difficult to keep track of that I didn’t really get the ending because I had no idea who was who and who did what. But if you’re not spending time trying to unravel every secret mystery so it might not be such a problem!
Little Busters! – ADB
I think this show is one of the dullest shows out there. I hate the slow pacing and most of the jokes aren’t very funny at all. I couldn’t find a reason to connect or care about the characters so everything felt pretty bad to watch.
Mangirl – ADB
Don’t worry; the hilarious title is about girls making a manga and not something else…
It’s a cool short show that spans the course of a year about a manga magazine. It’s very light hearted and portrays it in a comedic way – rather than a serious business way. The theme continues when I say that it was pretty good but not great. The short episodes allowed for some fun comedy elements but nothing more than that.
Masamune Kun’s revenge – ADB
A boy got rejected at a young age by a ”Cruel Princess” and now to this day she is still at it again rejecting people in the most humiliating ways possible. She’s cold hearted and mean and our main character tries to make her fall in love with him just so he can reject her and have his revenge!
This idea for a story is great as it’s relatively original and gives great opportunity for comedy. What this show ended up doing though felt a whole lot different and it was a little bit of a let-down. While the ending still entertained me and I liked the new drama I couldn’t help but feel like the story I got was different from the story promised.
The female love interest Adagaki Aki suddenly became a nice person and the girl we saw at the start was completely forgotten. It then became very quickly clear that the two love each other so the whole premise changes to become completely ignored. I would be extremely surprised to find out that Masamune actually rejected Aki, it might actually persuade me to continue with the manga!
Despite its flaws the show is still very entertaining and funny and worth a shot if you like the idea of the show!
Mayoiga – ADB
I thought this one was pretty good because it was able to pull me in and keep me interested despite its stupidity. In the new village that everyone finds a lot of strange things start happening and it’s very entertaining to watch. The drama at the start gets stale eventually but then you launch into this series of crazy action things when everyone starts to lose their minds!
There are enough interesting things in this mystery that you will always find something to appreciate, but I understand that this show really isn’t for everyone.
Mirai Nikki – ADB
No matter how hard I tried I could not finish a single episode of this show without saying the word “yandere” in my head. Yuno is a psycho and it gets old quickly. Her transformation from normal student to crazy person is really unnatural as well and isn’t justified in any way at all. It feels like the show is just doing things for the sake of it, instead of carefully planning story and Yuno’s outbursts in ways that make sense.
A lot of people find this show entertaining and while I did at first it quickly became dull to me when the same things happened and it was just fighting at the end of the day. It’s a decent action show for fans of the genre and can be great if you get sucked into it’s world.
Mob Psycho 100 – ADB
Mob is such a great hero that you just want to see succeed. He is shy but has a lot of power and it’s very fun watching him go through his daily life, especially when he joins the body improvement club instead of the supernatural club.
This action show also focusses on the sadness of mob’s brother and his adventures though the discovery of his powers, and what he does with them is very interesting because it contrasts Mob greatly.
The finale of the show is also a brilliant watch as we see the excellently written mentor to Mob discover and unleash this power that he pretended to have all along.
I think this show is great, and not just for visuals and cool fights. All the characters have good goals and character arcs which makes it both fun and compelling to watch.
Momokuri – ADB
This is probably the most relaxing and peaceful anime about a stalker you will ever watch. The main girl stalks Momokuri and obsesses over him, then she asks him out and he says yes. Then we get to see their relationship develop and great humour through the girls stalkerish tenancies even though they are still going out.
I can’t say that I remember a lot of it but they introduce some other fun characters as well and deliver a genuinely good romantic comedy.
Princess Mononoke – ADB
I really don’t get why people like this film or other Ghibli classics like spirited away. It was seriously boring. The slow start felt unnecessary, even most ten out of ten reviews on MAL describe the plot by spoiling the first 30 minutes just because nothing happens.
I really don’t get why it’s so loved by everyone. The message felt simple and was something that I already thought was obvious and the rest just felt like filler. I could genuinely explain the entire film in one sentence because the film felt so stretched out too me.
If you like films then you’ll probably like this because it’s well-loved but it just doesn’t do it for me. I’m attracted too anime by the short episodes so films really aren’t something that I like as much.
The Seven Deadly Sins – ADB
Sometimes I’m not entirely sure how to think about a show. On the one hand Nantsu no Taizai was a cool action I enjoyed, it also felt repetitive to the genre and boring at times. The seven deadly sins are so powerful that they destroyed a kingdom or something but that just means it feels strange when they fight equally with pretty much everyone.
The fights are repeated a lot and most of the screen time is just combat, this means that everyone gets plot armour and their power is greatly reduced since they want to create an equal fight. While this might be tense it’s ultimately not satisfying overall. Maybe a better compromise would be only combat when it really mattered and more time spent exploring and looking for the other sins.
I did enjoy this but it’s with the knowledge that it didn’t do much in terms of uniqueness. Still if you like action then this will definitely be worth you’re time.
Mysterious Girlfriend X – ADB
This is one of my favourite romantic comedies and it’s not at all weird or strange unlike what you’ve heard from everyone! The biggest turn off for people is the fact that the two people in the relationship exchange drool often. While this does creep me out the actual meaning behind it and what it means to the main characters is something special that you just have to witness.
The couple gradually learn more about each other and the way their knowledge progresses is just really endearing. It might be slow for some but I thought it was really sweet.
Neon Genesis Evangelion – ADB
Just watch it. You really need to watch all of it if you have any investment in anime, especially the history of anime at all. It’s good so just watch it. If you find the slow start difficult to get into then just use this for help: https://mybrainiscompletelyempty.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/evangelion-month-the-book/
And you Thought There is Never a Girl Online? – ADB
This feels like another one of those clichéd harems except for the fact that it’s about a couple who form a love from playing together online. It can be great if you like that kind of thing and the main girl is pretty hot but I ultimately don’t think it was worth completing. The female main character is really stupid and a lot of the drama is poor and dealt with in strange ways.
To someone unfamiliar with tropes the reveal that the three most interesting and attractive girls in the guy’s class all suddenly want to spend their time playing video games with him might feel epic but for someone like me I would rather see a whole show about a guy eventually finding that than having it sprung on him straight away. So yeah this is nothing new.
Nisekoi – ADB
Nisekoi was my first harem anime, and that means for the longest time it was the only one I thought was good since of course everything else was copying it! I liked it at the time but now I can say that it is full of tropes and the only reason why you would watch it is for the comedy, which is just like the comedy in every other show you have seen already. I remember thinking this was really good at the time with a lot of good humour so it might be worth watching just for that.
Nisekoi Season 2 – ADB
I think season 2 is a little bit shorter than season 1 which is bad but ultimately nothing happens. You’ll have to read the manga for that! If you made it through season 1 then I have no doubts that you are very invested in who will win Onodera vs Chitouge and I’m pleased to inform you that the progress made in the relationships will only be a repeat of season 1.
While reading I really didn’t care but now I think that Onodera was the better written character since I like the childhood friend trope more than the tsundere trope. I also thought her embarrassing humour was a lot better and the fact that she introduces her little sister later into the manga is also pretty great.
No Game No Life – ADB
I really liked this one because of the games that the main characters played. I just enjoyed the strategy and the way everything unfolded in the end. A lot of the plans were revealed at the end so that we were kept guessing and I ultimately would have preferred to know more however it was still satisfying enough to be a good show.
The main things that take away from this show is the strange way fan service is implemented with little reason for it and the few comedy moments that really don’t work. Besides all that I think this show is worth your time.
You’ve probably seen this already but if you haven’t most people like this.
Ojisan To Marshmellow – ADB
A girl loves a guy who likes marshmallows and uses them to get the guy into situations where they can be together. It’s a very funny and sweet show with great comedy moments. It’s also very short so you can watch all of it in a very short space of time.
My Wife is the Student Council President – ADB
This is a fan service comedy where all of the jokes take place from the fan service. A lot of characters only feel like they’re there so each character can appeal to a different person and it feels like it’s a show purely for the purpose of 14 year olds to fantasise about it and apply it to their own life. So why did I watch all of this? Well let’s not talk about that!
I honestly have no idea what happened in this show but I think the structure of every episode is the exact same, while I’m sure I found it funny I hated how repetitive it was and how even though there were a lot of other characters they were paid very little attention too.
Watch it if you like fan service or the premise, if not then I’d avoid this one.
My Wife is the Student Council President Season 2 – ADB
Season two is more of the same with one key difference, better fan service, so this show is now vastly improved. That is the main difference so if the show does one thing better than last season its better. The main thing I have against the show is that it spends less time on the characters I liked more and gave episodes to characters that we didn’t know very well. It would have been good to have these episodes but we learned nothing about them so they felt like a pointless episode to cater to all members of the audiences’ taste in fan service.
If you managed to work your way through season 1 then I’m sure you’ll have no problems with season 2.
One Outs – ADB
One Outs is epic and in a similar line to more popular classics such as Kaiji. This anime brings the insane mind games from death note and the high stakes difficulty of Kaiji to the world of baseball and it’s brilliant, even though I hate baseball. But this isn’t about baseball, I don’t understand the game very well so I will try and explain it as best as I possibly can. The main character has an impossible agreement where he gains a large amount of money for bowling batters out, but losses a lot more if he doesn’t. So this creates a really tense situation where every throw and catch counts.
The game is literally just baseball but there are so many different ways that it’s used effectively and it explores all possible ways the game can be rigged and changed to the point where the baseball is irrelevant and figuring out the opponents secret, or how they found their secret is all that matters.
While the main character acts as some Sherlock like genius he still feels human and realistic. Gambling genius’ exist who are psychological experts that have the confidence to know what to do in most situations. It’s more the fact that he explains most things that he does, and how a normal watcher could have found it out if they were paying attention that makes his discoveries so satisfying. I did work a few things out but at every single time the main character explained it, so that I didn’t waste any time seeing the characters bumble around in confusion.
The baseball team is a losing team and it’s great to see them gain their victory back. The baseball team has the most fans even though they lose often so it’s brilliant to see.
A fascinating aspect of the show is the tyrannical owners of the baseball team who only care about the money. Since they have their agreement with the main character they try and do everything possible in order to ruin the main characters efforts and make the team lose. So this is both a battle against both sides and it’s great to watch unfold.
While being an outsider at first the level of team work that builds up between the characters is excellent. Did I also mention that I watched this entire show in 240p? Yeah I put up with those visuals because the show was just that great.
One Punch Man – ADB
You have probably seen this already but I think it has a great start and then progressively gets worse. I loved everything to do with the hero society but hated it when the action was taken anywhere away from one punch man.
I think the jaded nature of OPM creates an entertaining character flaw that I love seeing explored. It’s just that the need for action and dramatic pay off at the end ruined the show for me. I would recommend it to everyone since it’s so popular and genuinely has a lot of aspects to enjoy but its not my favourite.
OniAi – ADB
This is another one of those incest anime’s. Despite a lot of people saying that there is so much incest in anime I don’t actually think there’s that much. When I think of typical incest anime I think of shows like this and it’s hard to find anything else to compare it too on this level. I don’t know, maybe I just haven’t seen enough hentai (announcing the next project HDB… No)
I found this funny and the way characters flocked to try and attract the brother was funny at the time as well. I think that now the humour would have aged on me since I’m more used to the tropes however there was something more sexual about the jokes that made me like them at the time.
In the OP there is a girl who is put into a position where it looks like she’s sucking the guys dick, the camera then rotates to reveal that she is actually secretly playing the recorder while hiding under his desk. If that style of humour is something that you like this show may just work for you. If you hate that kind of thing, stay well away.
I’m not sure about my opinions on this because of the reasons mentioned earlier but I don’t feel like going back to find out where I stand on this show.
Spice and Wolf – ADB
This is one of the rare shows where I like the dub more than the sub. The problem is that the show has constant non-stop talking and the dub is just a lot easier to watch.
Spice and Wolf is a great mix of romance and medieval economics, some of the schemes were so fascinating that I just needed to look more into it myself. This was the whole basis for the spice and wolf post I wrote and the fact that it taught me so much speaks for itself.
I like the twist and turns of the plot and the dub actors make it far more obvious that the characters love each other. The female voice actor for Holo sounds really bland and disinterested in spice and wolf however her dub voice actor, despite how generic she sounds, provided a more interesting personality for the character. I think the fact that I had spent so much time away from dubs saved it for me since the voices were unique enough that it really didn’t matter.
So watch it for economics talks, read my post if you don’t understand it; I had to research the things myself, and enjoy the love story at the same time.
Ooyasan wa Shishunki! – ADB
I just don’t think you should watch this. Even though I gave it a 6/10 I cannot remember anything about this. I see the cover art and know what happens in the first episode but nothing after. So I can basically assume that no matter what follows it isn’t great. Still it’s a slice of life comedy with very short episodes. So if you binge it in a night you may have a fun time.
Orange – ADB
I enjoyed orange even though it wasn’t perfect and thought it was a fairly interesting mystery. The use of time travel and letters creates a lot of plot holes but I think that’s fine. The writer really wanted the show to be about letters from the future and built a mystery around that. The whole idea of what the show is interests me so I liked it.
The drama isn’t excellent but it was good enough for me. I can imagine a lot of people being annoyed by the characters and how much importance they place on events that are just bad. Another problem I can see others having is how badly the characters react to a lot of things and how they don’t follow the actions in the letter.
My thoughts was that after the first event was so serious the fact that the letters keep coming made me think that there must have be something big coming so it was very strange when the actions weren’t obeyed.
The thing I liked was the believability of the situations, I thought that every situation was something the characters had a chance to fall into and the consequences, while sometimes farfetched, actually had some emotional weight to the story which I really liked.
Shomin Sample – ADB
One guy goes to a school full of posh women who are so bad with men that their school decides to invest in bringing a guy to an all girls’ school. This is how you create a harem. You have a funny premise and get through the rest of the show on repeated tropes, this one even has a save the girl plot like every single other harems you’ve seen!
Sure it’s funny if you like harem humour but honestly the premise is explored really badly so if you liked that it won’t do much for you except make you watch the first episode.
I never got the impression that these girls were bad with guys; if they were I would have enjoyed the show a whole lot more. The issue is that everyone is normal except for the fact that they’re really posh. I’m sure there are girls in the school that genuinely need the guys’ help but he just hangs out with everyone who would be fine anyway!
Something that I would have loved to see was actual days in the dude’s time table where he had to talk to every single girl over the course of a week or month and tell them what they needed to do to improve. This would create humour and actually justify him being at the school. You cannot get a guy in to help the girls socialise with men while only the 5 most outgoing females talk to him! If they had him in the school it would have been great to see him actually be used!
Oh well, watch it if you like the sound of it anyway.
Ore Monogatari – ADB
This is a brilliant romance anime that gets to the point quickly and has lovable characters with brilliant events that just make you feel good to watch.
The main character is huge, big and isn’t the best looking, but he’s great and the person who is attracted to him is really sweet as well. The dynamics between the main character, girl and the other more attractive guy along with the friends they make on the way provide a really nice romantic comedy which every fan of the genre needs to watch.
Oreimo – ADB
I don’t actually remember the ending to this show but from what I heard season 1 didn’t end so well. Basically Oreimo feels like a show about sisterly and brotherly love leading characters to help each other and put up with family conflicts. Then from what I heard the show always pretended not to be incest, until it turned into incest. So that’s just what I heard.
To praise the show the parts about brotherly and sisterly love are alright and it’s good to see them overcome each other’s struggles. I didn’t like the main character because he was generic and didn’t have much going for him but the sister was cool because she was an otaku.
I can’t really help you with recommending this but it really didn’t stand out in my mind, so I would avoid the show unless you don’t have anything else on your list you want to see.
My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering With My School Romantic Comedy – ADB
This show is about a harem, and even though I hate the harem, something that it does better is creating jokes that I’ve not really seen before. The main character is basically in a visual novel where every so often he needs to make a random decision where he has to choose between two random things, both of which are terrible. He is often forced to either act like a pig or be placed into a harem of gay guys. To the shows credit this is a lot better humour than other shows and I like it a lot more. Still the rest of the show is pretty bad.
Recently I have been really interested in anime’s about terrible reality, characters struggling and mental illness. This is reflected with a lot of my 3X3. So I feel like this could easily have been one of my most liked shows if they took the issue with a lot more realism.
It would have been great if society actually had rejected him, if he was diagnosed with all of these mental conditions he didn’t have, if his terrible condition led to him doing terrible things that impacted his adult life dramatically like skiving all his exams or saying things to people that got him in a lot of trouble. Seeing a guy experience reality in this way, with people sympathising with him, some hating him and some wanting him to get better would have been more sad yet compelling for me as that reality would be a fascinating thing for me to watch.
Please Tell me Galko Chan – ADB
If you have not seen this great video about stereotypes in this show because it’s amazing and far better than anything I’ve ever written: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91GukQP7kG4 . Sorry I don’t remember who the guy who made this was, but he must have been the best guy ever to make something like this.
I thought this was a really funny show about three girls who ordinarily wouldn’t get along well with each other. It was a good time but that was it. Seeing the video made me realise the deeper messages of the show and was great. I don’t want to say anything else because I would rather you saw the video instead, even if you’ve already seen the video I would recommend watching it again because it’s just that good. Then watch everything else the guy has made as well.
Overlord – ADB
This project called the ADB features every show that I’ve seen to completion, nothing that I’ve dropped at the time of writing. (Now 13th of March) This means that if I review a show and say that I don’t like it I’ve changed my mind towards the show at some point. I can understand the appeal for nearly all of these shows (except for ones like CLANNAD where I forced myself) but while I will criticise this show know that I did like it at the time.
Revisiting overlord made me realise how bad this was. It is simply generic action with not a whole lot going on. I liked the fact that the show made it interesting with an overpowered protagonist and I enjoyed the way the main guy levelled up through the ranks. Now I think that the OP protagonist undermines the action and there is so much talking that it’s really boring now. It takes itself too seriously and has really bad plot events in my opinion as well as boring characters.
The finale of season 1 was terrible and by far the best section is the middle where he levels up through the guild ranks but in terms of action stories you could go a lot better. I hate action anime anyway and very few are ones that I really like. Hunter x Hunter will always be the best action shounen, Hajime no ippo will always be the best sports action and Berserk (1997) will always be the best of mixing action with excellent plot. Don’t even think about watching this until you’ve seen the others!
Perfect Blue – ADB
This film is so good that I even recommended it to people who don’t like anime or subtitles. Most notably my Uncle because his favourite film is eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and the shows are similar yet different in really interesting ways. While Sunshine is about love and discovery, as well as complete confusion perfect blue is terrifying.
Calling something terrifying often means that it’s scary and horrible to sit through, that it’s painful and difficult to watch. Perfect Blue isn’t like this, the ideas and events that happen are terrifying to think about without making you actually feel bad or paranoid for watching. It’s about mental illness and the horrible side effects that can occur from being a public persona.
This will contain spoilers and will not be a review; if you find what I’ve said in the previous paragraph promising then I’d say give the film a go and then come back.
A weird thing about Japan is the way they treat their pop idols. Mima, the main character who starts as a pop idol, is treated as pure and innocent by her fans, like somewhat of a special object which is righteous and untainted by the rest of the outside world. Any idol who wants to keep her fan base makes sure to protect their image of innocence and doesn’t enter any relationships or similar, this makes their fans hold them very dearly, often to the point of obsession.
In the film people go so far as to stalk and harass Mima because they cannot possibly fathom that she’s not the avatar she used to portray herself as. This then leads to the utter destruction of her image, servery cutting her ties from her past self. The acted rape scene. This traumatised her and others enough to completely destroy two people and their perception of Mima who’s idolic self is now gone. The speed at which she became destroyed was terrifying and the split was even worse.
Two people get the mental illness folie à deux (Madness of two) where symptoms of delusional disbelief and hallucinations are passed from one individual too another. Then throughout the film we see the consequences of this from the perspective of a sufferer and the nightmare it induces. The consequences spiral and increase until the very end where she recovers and becomes normal, as most people do when separated at hospital.
But the trippy ride through that makes you relate to not keeping a grasp of reality and having no knowledge of what’s going on. She murders a person only to find she’s being filmed and the body’s gone, just to go back later and find the same guy dead. What happened? We can speculate a lot (e.g. she wouldn’t be able to be successful if she murdered someone, she’d be in prison) but never know for certain.
And similarities to perfect blue can be brought back to real life where theirs a much bigger relevance than there was at that time. With more and more people being able to become popular, using social media more people have an audience where more things like this could potentially happen. And that’s pretty terrifying.
Plastic Neesan – ADB
This is a short comedy show which I had fun binge watching in one night for fun and then forever forgot about. It’s funny and the fact that it’s so short makes it easy to consume. I don’t have a lot to say. My recommendation to you is that you create a list of insanely short three minute episode shows and then spend a week binge watching one a day. It actually sounds really fun to do that and compare each show to the other shows at the same time.
Pokemon – ADB
(When I wrote this I was pretty emotional about this show and it led me to maybe be a bit harsher than I should have been. It’s a fun watch but I would only recommend returning to it if you saw the show when you were young and are feeling nostalgic. I think all versions of the Pokémon show are very similar so even though I’ve probably seen all of Diamond and Pearl I will not be talking about it. Even though that Ash vs Paul battle was so epic)
When we were growing we all had something that we cared about greatly and for me, this was Pokémon. I don’t actually remember the first episode that I ever watched but I’m very confident that I watched it before any other anime. It would have probably been Diamond and Pearl but I’m not 100% sure, the original series might very well have been re-airing first as I distinctly remember knowing who Misty was. This very well could have been because of the Pokémon movie but I really don’t know.
A problem that I had when I was young, and watching Pokémon, was that I felt bad about watching it. I liked to imagine myself as older and more mature, so after a while I felt bad about watching it. I was under the impression that Pokémon was actually that good so that didn’t help the idea. As I watched more I started to notice the repetitiveness of the episodes, the slow pacing, and the inadequacies of Ash as a trainer. So I started to question, will this ever go anywhere? No, unfortunately it won’t. Pokémon will never end because Ash will never win.
Due to this idea, watching Pokémon started to become pointless and boring. I’d record episodes but forget about them leaving many to build up over the course of weeks. When I had a lot, I’d binge watch them all in a day, find them ok but not amazing and then feel sad that I spent so long watching Pokémon – the show that never ends.
Luckily I didn’t feel this way about the games, they were great and I still have the new ones (though I’ve not got round to moon yet) but I had no real idea how popular it was. Everyone in school had heard of Pokémon but nobody was claiming that they watched it – it was probably embarrassing to admit. Even in my group of friends who were obviously nerds (you’re reading a blog post about Pokémon written by a 17 year old so yeah…) it was never mentioned.
Pokémon always felt weird to like and it felt bad that I had nobody to share my interest with. As I slowly met new people who knew Pokémon, it was the best thing ever (at the time) and it was cool. When I had friends to talk about Pokémon with it was fun to complain about the show, we could rag on it together and it was fun! I’m pretty sure we all still watched it anyway, up until a point until we slowly forgot about the anime without even realising.
I only had a small amount of conversations about Pokémon X and Y and to this day I have never talked about the sun or moon anime (never watched it either) yet the few times that I have come back to Pokémon for an episode or two, I’ve come to terms with the whole reason why I liked it so much. It’s a cool, relaxing time where you can expect an episodic adventure of some kind. It will be repetitive and childish yet it will be a cool time.
Unfortunately now that I can’t get back into Pokémon again because I care about many other things I can look back on it as a series with highs and lows. Yet I can confidently say that at the time, I really cared about it…
But Pokémon never cared about us. We grew but Pokémon never grew with us. Ash never became stronger, Pikachu stayed a Pikachu and we never did see Ash get together with Misty/May/Dawn/whoever comes later. I think it came from being in the right place at the right time, so that they could use us to spend our parent’s money.
And when I reached this conclusion after many days of questioning I saw the length of time that Pokémon has been out for and I realised that I wasn’t even the first one. Pokémon has been doing this to people who are adults now… wait; I’m nearly an adult now? (If you count 18 as adult). The genwunners who were there at the time have grown and Pokémon let them go, so that they could deceive a whole new group of children.
The people who were there when Pokémon was coming out for the first time had hope for Pokémon, they believed that Ash would become the very best, like no one ever was. These people look down on us negatively as if we’re inferior for not being there when Pokémon first came out, for growing up with a different series of Pokémon, A series where Ash was doomed to never become a Pokémon master, a series filled with filler and characters that they don’t like.
Just remember that we believed Ash would become the very best as well, we had hope too. And it died.
So as we neglect Pokémon and time goes on, as they introduce more and more Pokémon, more and more gimmicks we become more and more separated from something that we once thought was ours. We don’t know the Pokémon’s names; we don’t understand the new forms or systems. We’ve become the dull people that our child self never wanted us to be. We are now the people who we used to laugh at for not knowing Pokémon.
We used to know Pokémon. But now we don’t know what Pokémon is. And what Pokémon is, looks unlike what it was. So Pokémon is now the mysterious thing that we don’t get anymore, the thing that we can’t connect with.
You might be reading this, criticising these thoughts and ideas with hope, coming in with evidence to prove me wrong and ideas that Pokémon cares about you instead of the age group that you happen to be in. Just remember, when you turn your back, when you think you have it under control and leave. When you finally come back and remember Pokémon, It will have long forgotten you.
Prison School – ADB
This is one of my top ten favourite anime and I love this show a lot. Not only does this show have hilarious comedy, making use of serious comedy to the greatest effects but it feels so enjoyable that even though it’s whacky you can buy into everything.
I would go so far as to call this show a masterpiece of comedy writing, and if you want to understand everything that it means when I say that I have a three part series talking about why the comedy in prison school is so great. That’s right! I needed three posts to get to everything! (https://mybrainiscompletelyempty.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/comedy-needs-to-feed-into-itself-prison-school/)
The basic idea is that every single funny event, while whacky and crazy, is made even better by the way it ties into the greater story. Any show that can make a guy seeing a girl pee an important plot event deserves a watch in my book and there are so many things that excellently tie into each other to provide a satisfying and entertaining conclusion.
Yes it has scummy fan service but I don’t think the characters are very attractive, and often the fan service makes them look worse and more villainous. The fact that they feel ok with doing this, making one of the girls’ traits that they sweat uncontrollably to disturb the reader shows me that the show, while has a lot of fan service doesn’t prioritise this and is able to create and epic and dramatic story about five guys who got messed over by the system.
Chivalry of a Failed Knight – ADB
What I’ve learned from doing this is that no matter what I need to get that review done. I have about two weeks to schedule half a months’ worth of content so I can’t let myself not write. Even if it’s saying the same things over and over again for very similar shows that review is still a review and it is my correct opinion towards the show. It’s not easy talking about great shows and I wanted to keep them short but it got out of hand with the length quickly. Oh well.
This show is a generic and fairly bad action show that is similar to the other ones that you’ve seen. It’s not terrible and I could see someone liking it but it really isn’t for me. It feels like it’s way too much for children and is really simple, I would have preferred more dark/ adult things and would have found it more entertaining with these things. Still not every show has to be for me, maybe this one is for you.
Re:Zero – ADB
Re:Zero is not good, that’s pretty controversial to say but it’s a seriously boring action show that I only finished because it was popular.
I don’t care if you have something interesting to say about Subaru’s character arc because he is the most annoying person in anime ever, is terribly stupid and horrible to watch. His transformation from normal dude to psycho isn’t done well and feels so sudden that you cannot care for him. They also pay too much attention to him and the way characters interact with him is also terrible.
The finale just demonstrates everything bad in the show. We get a lot of episodes in the finale, then he dies and we do the exact same thing again. It really sucks. The whole thing with the whale is boring and a lot of the things in between are really painful to watch since the characters aren’t anyone you would want to care about.
I don’t get how anyone likes Rem so much or any character really. They feel boring to watch and don’t interest me in any way. This is no longer my kind of show, I would say if you like seasonal anime you will definitely like this/ have seen it already you will like it though, since I hate basically all seasonal anime.
Re:LIFE – ADB
Since I’ve been doing this in alphabetical order it’s fun to compare shows, so now we have the second (and last) re: show to talk about, and thankfully this one is great.
The main character is an adult who has really messed up on a social level and needs to go back through high school, not to learn but to gain social skills necessary to interact with society again. So the main character is the kind of flawed individual I tend to get really interested and invested in.
This is a high school drama, and a lot of it is high school issues I can imagine people not really caring about. It wasn’t amazing but was still entertaining to watch and relatable. Anime often has to strike a balance between interest, uniqueness, relatability and realism and minus the whole travel back in time thing the anime probably paid too much attention to realism without putting any of the drama in the rest of the other categories. Still it was fine and the highs of the show more than made up for it.
Despite the fact that it’s got this messed up main character the show keeps a comedic tone and has scenarios to reflect that. It also has a lot about romance which is great to watch as well. So yeah add this to you’re to watch list.
Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle – ADB
Every converted anime fan has a harem that breaks them out of the cycle of watching nothing but anime harems. While you might hate the show that causes this change you can look on it later with a look of thanks as your last goodbye to the genre. So that’s why I have mixed thoughts towards Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle, it’s the show that caused that change in me.
I remember being a fan of the harem genre and being a little dissatisfied with it. I enjoyed the comedy more than anything and liked the comedy of tropes, but then I always had the thought that everything is just copying everything else. I would often think “Oh this is just copying Nisekoi” or any other harem show without thinking of the genre as a whole. Well this show was the ultimate moment where every single thing in this show was derivative of every other harem I had seen, with a bafflingly stupid and incoherent plot at that. But that wasn’t where this ended.
I saw the fan feedback for this show, and people actually wanted a sequel! I was then even more amazed when I saw news (I think it was fake news now) that there was actually a season 2! It made me think about the shows I had seen and I made a few realisations.
While not all harems could have done this the only reason why Nisekoi was my favourite show at the time was that it was my first. If I had seen everything in a different order then my attitudes would have shifted entirely. I would have been baffled at the people wanting Nisekoi season 3 while wanting this show to get a season 2! Then everything fell apart and I may as well explain why.
Every character in the show was someone I’d seen before. Not only that but every plot I had seen was something I had seen before. What I mean is that not only were the mechs copies of everything else but the whole marriage plot and ending was also the exact same!
This is obviously an exaggeration since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a harem this confusing but on the whole this is proven to be correct.
Just repeating things that have already been said isn’t necessarily cause to call a show bad. There isn’t a lot of original things anyway so if you’ve consumed so much of everything else of course things are going to start repeating. It was the fact that everything was so boring and nothing made sense.
I felt like I was watching the whole show out of order. In fact I probably was watching the whole show out of order since the app I was watching it on actually had done that before. There was this one episode which ended on a cliff-hanger after the characters had been exploring a dungeon for the whole episode and I made a stupid remark thinking that they’ll all be at a party in the next episode. Well I was right.
I understood nothing about the plot by the way, it’s exposition was like SAO but also worse since what they were explaining was so stupid you had no idea what was happening.
So should you watch this? Not if you have taste. But if you like harem anime I would call this a must watch since maybe this might be the one to finally break you!
The Disastorous Life of Saiki K – ADB
This is one of the best short anime’s that I’ve ever seen. The comedy is so good and the use of jokes is excellent. None of the characters are very fleshed out but seeing them though our main characters perspective where he can read minds is great since we get to see each of their perspectives.
There are enough characters and the show goes on for long enough that you get to know all of them really well. It has 120 episodes in season 1 and there is also a season two which also goes on for long enough. If you like comedy’s or short anime you can’t go wrong with this.
Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto – ADB
Sakamoto is a great comedy and responsible for a lot of views on my blog. The sakamoto theory post is my most viewed thing and as of March (when I’m writing this) it easily has over two thousand views, so yeah this show is great everyone should watch it and then read the theory post.
I love the comedy of this show as it revolves around Sakamoto who is cool and perfect in every possible way. Everything he does is cool and its fun watching great things happen.
In each episode everyone learns something from Sakamoto and these lessons are fascinating and great. Watch it.
Patema Inverted – ADB
The premise of a world where gravity is the opposite way may sound interesting but this show translates it into a really terrible show. It’s all so boring and there is no sense of location in the show and everywhere feels random. I also don’t like the save the girl plotline and a lot of things don’t make sense to me. I have a really negative view of films in general so it might be worth a watch if you’re a fan of films.
School Days – ADB
You should definitely watch all of this, it’s a great show. The drama of this show is excellent and will make you feel sad with how it connects with you. The ending is great though and the show has a really good message at the end even though a lot of people hate the journey. I don’t think I’ve seen any drama done better, this definitely needs to be watched if you want to see the best drama has to offer.
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei – ADB
A lot of high school comedies have clichéd characters, this show replaces those high school comedy tropes instead with some of the most messed up girls you have seen. They are really fun and entertaining to watch but they all have their own problems which are entertaining to see since it’s not taken so seriously.
The most interesting is Zetsubou sensei who is a teacher who wants to kill himself every day. It’s really interesting to see this kind of character walk around.
I would say that this isn’t always funny, a lot of the jokes are hit and miss and theirs many things that are only funny in Japanese. So this isn’t a comedy you should prioritise but I think you should get to it eventually.
Seitokai no Ichizon – ADB
This harem is interesting because it only takes place in the student council room and is stupid. In the whole first season nobody loves him anyway and it’s only in their heads with no external evidence. As the show progresses not only do we get fun comedy but also get to see why each one loves him and it’s great to see. This is one of the better harems you should actually watch because it’s basically a comedy with characters who keep their loves to themselves.
Seitokai no Ichizon Season 2 – ADB
I remember season two of this anime being just as funny as the previous one yet less emotional. In the last one we got to see emotional reasons spread out across the show for why each one loves him, this is gone and is completely replaced. This means it’s worse but you’ll still like it if you thought season 1 was good. So that’s it.
Seitokai Yakuindomo – ADB
I really need to re-watch this show. I watched this when I was way too young and all the jokes were about sex. If you don’t like sex jokes then stay away from this because there is probably at least one every 30 seconds without exaggeration. I think it was because of the Japanese which made a few of them go over my head but it was probably due to my young age. If I want to re-watch this again then surely this is good right?
Spirited Away – ADB
The best anime film of all time… is hated by me. Spirited away is nothing but a heap of boredom. Nothing appeals to me and everything is slow, difficult to watch, painfully slow and the plot seems to focus on so many things that don’t even matter. So there you go, that’s what I think of the best anime film of all time. Since this is so well loved maybe you’ll disagree with me though.
Serial Experiments Lain – ADB
A lot of this show is slow and difficult to watch, but it’s really interesting. It’s all about technology being integrated with human life and is scary when you see the dangers of the online world. Lain is such an interesting character and the show is so trippy to watch that her difficult quest is only really understood once you’ve seen it a few times or had it explained to you.
I would recommend it anyway because of the interesting way technology is treated. The phrase “we are all connected” still sends shivers down my spine after watching it. I watched digibro’s episode reviews as I saw it and it really helped to see the extra things I missed.
My Bride is a Mermaid – ADB
For a long time this was my favourite anime but now that I just look back at it all I see is a romantic comedy. My views of anime are difficult to trust from a long time ago but I remember finding this one really funny and endearing. I saw this in the dub and the introduction of a character called Maki was the worst thing ever because of her voice but once that was out of the way I ended up really liking it.
Shelter – ADB
This is a short music video, I really like it! It’s about a girl trapped in a fantasy world that she creates around her and its really nice. The animation is cool and it’s only five minutes long. It blew up online so in case you haven’t watched it here is the recommendation!
Shiki – ADB
I have reviewed every single episode of Shiki and it’s a great show. The dynamic of humans vs (non-spoiler thing) is epic to see and because of the way the opposition is treated it’s fascinating to watch. I sided with the humans because the (non-spoiler guys) are unsustainable and if you want to know why then read the whole book about it! https://mybrainiscompletelyempty.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/the-shiki-diaries-1-22/
Shimoneta – ADB
A boring world where the concept of dirty jokes doesn’t exist… This is about dirty joke terrorists! It’s great to watch not necessarily because of the characters but what they do and what events take place. The people they are trying to convert often don’t understand when they see anything sexual so it’s funny in that regard. It’s just a great comedy so I recommend adding it to the list.
Attack on Titan – ADB
You’ve seen this already, most likely, and probably want to hear some good praise. So here is my praise; I liked it at the time. The opening premise was pretty good and in retrospect the show gradually got worse to terrible over time. The most boring parts were the huge fights which took too long and went nowhere. Also the writer of the anime clearly has no direction at all to where his manga is going since the plot has changed so much over time. This means that the events we get are introduced in such a crazy horrible way that it’s hard to believe anything. You’ve seen this already, I saw it and it was a show that got me into anime but I can look back on it as something that has been beaten in quality over and over again.
Shinmai Maou no Testament – ADB
Do you like fan service and want to see porn but without actual sex but an abstraction which makes it basically the same thing? No? Well avoid this one. The plot in the background to this show is so bad and hard to keep track of that the only thing I see people liking is the fan service. I would say that I like it but it’s not interesting and gets really old really fast. It doesn’t help that the characters are boring as well.
Squid Girl – ADB
Squid girl isn’t exactly a deep, philosophical show with important themes to be explored and commented on. I’m sure if you looked at it deeply enough you might reach a reasonably profound message, but it’s simply a slice of life comedy about a little girl who wants to take over the world! The words “little girl” and “taking over the world” don’t really fit into the same sentence do they? It’s this odd match of childhood innocence and ruthless, violent conquest which makes this show so entertaining to me.
It’s rare to hear this from others but I think one of the best things a show feel, is effortless. I don’t mean that I like shows that quite clearly had a lack-lustre production cycle; I mean that I like shows that feel effortlessly good because it means attention and hard work was put in to make the scenes fit in brilliantly with each other. The way this show can make me laugh so easily, when many other shows struggle to do so, is what makes it succeed in my opinion, as it continually flows effortlessly from one hilarious moment to the next.
This shows attitude to jokes is one of my favourites. Whilst many are predictable, they take the predictability to the absolute extreme, to the point that the thing you thought would happen cannot really be compared to the actual joke. I remember really well one of the first episodes had a banana peel on the floor: you know what the joke is! But the following occurrence was so extreme and crazy that you can’t help but laugh.
This isn’t just my weird sense of humour from years ago; I went back to watch a random episode and loved it greatly! As well as this, the show uses a lot of inside jokes, of which I understand can viewers being infuriated by if they hate them. The thing is, I love the inside jokes! I cannot, no matter how hard I try, stop myself from laughing whenever Squid girl says a sentence with “De gesou” at the end.
A way of describing the feelings I experience whist watching is that it sort of sends me into a trance where every single little thing is funny and I have no idea why! There are even some episodes where the comedy should clearly be toned down yet I laugh all the same! To me this is the perfect slice of life show: It doesn’t ever get boring and is consistently funny.
But what is consistently funny? I’ve not really explained what the show is about. Well I don’t want to spoil anything really (some of the best punchlines come from subverting your expectations) but each episode has three story arcs where basically any crazy and funny scenario can happen.
The levels of wackiness in this show are at the same level of Bobobo-bo bobobo (A series that even if you’ve not seen it, sounds pretty whacky) except for the fact that it doesn’t leap and constantly change the stories direction. You’d think that over two seasons and 72 different scenarios that they’d get old or run out of ideas over time. At first I thought the same, but now, I’m not even sure if that’s possible! There are so many factors of life that all the characters have yet to be explored that I don’t see the creator running out of material for a long, long time.
Let’s talk about the characters, which can easily be described as one-note. I’m not going to deny that they’re not complex but I feel like the interactions between them are done really well and the character chemistry is brilliant, instead of the character development. What this means is that the characters just fit together, in a really nice way to watch. The fact that they’re so one note can often be used for comedy since the show loves subverting your expectations moment after moment.
So when you watch squid girl you’re not expecting a deep narrative with complex themes which many of its critics like so much. I agree that theirs a time and a place for deeper shows, but how much will I care when I’m relaxing and laughing my head off to this extreme, childish joke whilst looking like someone who should be in asylum? If you’re looking for a show to relax too and laugh at, you can’t really go wrong with this show!”
So there you go! That was what I wrote, I didn’t have enough time to proof read the entire thing but that’s the problem with a challenge like this. I’ll leave you with the post I wrote around a year ago for comparison and then you can vote in a straw poll to say which one was better!
“My favourite anime is squid girl! Why? It’s not like I haven’t seen many shows, it’s hard to justify why when I have shows like these on my anime list. (The intention was to display more shows which were consensually good)
Part of my enjoyment for anime is when a series subverts expectations in some way. That’s why I liked Gakkou Gurashi! So much. So when an anime that I think will be stupidly bad turns out to be something that I like, it makes the enjoyment even better. Somehow watching a show thinking that it will be bad makes me enjoy it more (when it’s good) than a show that I already thought would be good!
Actually all of my favourites on my anime list are shows that I thought wouldn’t be good at a first glance. This isn’t saying that all bad looking shows are good, just that it’s worth trying different things.
Squid girl was one of those things. Somebody asked me to give them a random anime recommendation so I pressed randomize on the crunchyroulette and got this show. That was my first ever exposure to the show, I never realised it was decently popular, so I thought it was a bad dumb show. I mean I was half right. Squid girl is dumb.
The 3 stories in an episode structure really lets any random scenario go by and their all funny. It’s amazing how so many dumb stereotypical characters can make me laugh in any situation. What’s weird is how predictable the show was. Once the situation has been established I’m able to guess most of the jokes before they happen. Yet it’s still funny. Actually I want to say that for this show it’s somehow funnier.
Squid Girl Season 2 – ADB
Season two of squid girl is more of the same. I thought that eventually squid girl would run out of ideas but this show made me convinced that this couldn’t be true! It’s just as lovable as ever, so it’s cool.
Shinsekai Yori – ADB
From the new world isn’t a brilliant show but I like it a lot. It feels like a lot of it is boring but I love the aesthetics so much that the environment and world is great to see anyway. I love the way the plot comes together when you realise how important everything was and the background plot is put into action in the end. I think it’s a mixed bag but ultimately a really interesting fantasy show.
Food Wars – ADB
I liked food wars. Each episode was interesting and every single reaction to eating is entertaining to watch. The show is able to keep things competitive and interesting with a variety of cool challenges and things to spice it up! The huge cast of characters is entertaining and the shounen formula applied to cooking is really fun to witness. It all ends with the characters being launched into a tournament arc that starts the next season. Watch season 1, I’ll talk about season 2 later.
Food Wars Season 2 – ADB
This is the only show on here that I haven’t completed. Currently it sits at 12/13 episodes completed and it will stay that way for a very long time out of principles, and a really stupid sense of pride.
In season 2 with one or two exceptions every single episode is the exact same. Some characters cook for a while, then their food is tested. That is it. It’s the most boring and formulaic thing to see and I refuse to watch any more of this droning repetitiveness! I don’t need to see episode 13, because I’ve seen it already through every single other episode. It feels like I’ve seen every single episode 11 times since they all copy each other and I really disliked this one.
People have told me it gets better so even if I watch season three I will skip the finale to season 2. They will tell the viewer in season 3 who won anyway so it doesn’t even matter.
Heaven’s Lost Property – ADB
There are many great things that this harem has. While it’s still a harem this is the closest to great a harem can be since it treats the characters like characters, has real character development and genuine comedy as well.
There is more character development to witness in the first episode than there is in many harems. The transformation of the main character is also great to see.
An anime youtuber explains it a lot better than me, I recommend watching this whole series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyC9pGr03Pc
I watched season 2 as well but I just got so bored with covering season 2’s with basically nothing extra to say so I won’t be talking about it.
Soul Eater NOT! – ADB
Well this is the only thing to do with soul eater I’ve ever seen and I do like this one. This was my first slice of life show and it was so strange to witness for the first time how nothing could happen in an episode yet still be interesting. I was brought into the calm world of the academy and it was really nice to see. Some SOL shows bore me to tears but I think this is a great one. I don’t think fans of soul eater would like this because I get the impression that this ruins a lot of the main show but it might be worth seeing.
Steins;Gate – ADB
This is a really good time travel show and it explores time travel really well in my opinion. The first part of the show is a fun slice of life show about the discovery and testing of time travel, before things get really serious in the next half. I won’t spoil anything, except for the fact that it’s great.
Steins;Gate Movie – ADB
This film is all about Okabe being removed from the steins gate time line and the rest of the cast trying to help him return. The cast are just as lovable as ever and it’s a really nice cool movie which has an entertaining plot whilst also providing a back story for a lot of Okabe’s nature, making the film feel like a worthwhile experience instead of a simple ad-on.
Summer Wars – ADB
It should be known by now that I normally have a very controversial opinion on classic anime films and this is no exception. I thought it was boring and terrible. I couldn’t get invested in the characters and the story was completely uninteresting too me.
It had a fair amount to say but the fact that I got it didn’t mean that I thought it was good. A lot of it felt obvious and childish. From all of the movie advertisements that I’ve seen I thought that this would be far different. I expected a slice of life / romance show with an outdoorsy feel, I thought it might turn really sad in the end but wasn’t completely sure.
What I got was family drama about a family that I didn’t care about and a dumb save the world plot which was given way too much attention.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – ADB
Watch this in original broadcast order; it doesn’t matter if it looks like the plot makes sense going chronologically! Do not do it! Also watch season 2 integrated into season 1. Remember you can always re-watch the first 6 episodes anyway once you’ve seen it already. Don’t spoil the payoff for yourself!
Haruhi is just a joy to watch with a thrilling plot line and funny events. It’s a classic so you should definitely watch it.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 – ADB
Season 2 of Haruhi is not good. It would be fine if not for a certain arc called the endless 8. Basically skip the 8 episodes since they’re exactly the same as each other with only different animation and voice acting. I watched about 5 or 6 episodes of this on the same day before giving up. I had worked out what the characters needed to do to stop time from resetting anyway so it made sense.
People defend it as seeing the world from Nagato’s perspective however that doesn’t stop it being insanely painful. Just avoid that and the season will be alright for you.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Film – ADB
This film is great, but pretty long and confusing. It’s Haruhi and could easily be one arc of the show. It’s not a slice of life version of Haruhi though and continues straight on from the light novels and the next plot line is really interesting.
I would also recommend finishing the manga since the plot lines of the manga bring the drama back to Haruhi and are fun to read.
Sword Art Online – ADB
I thought this anime sucked before it was cool…
It’s true though! It was one of the first anime’s I watched, I never thought it was terrible but I thought it was really boring and only finished it since it was so popular. The worst thing about the show is how boring it is. I can still appreciate someone liking a show even if it has all the extra problems SAO has if it was interesting at the same time, this show does not do that.
It’s too late, the damage is already done! I can already tell that you’ve seen this show already! Oh no!
Sword Art Online Season 2 – ADB
I liked season two better purely because I found the world of gungale more interesting than the previous worlds. Even though it had its own problems the action and Shinon’s backstory was interesting enough that I could put up with it.
Then the last arc sucked so badly. It introduced five terrible characters, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you by now that they were insanely boring, and made you think you cared about them because they all died. The ending might be sad, but it honestly feels like cry bait and comes across in such a scummy way that I can’t like the show.
Tanaka Kun is Always Listless – ADB
For a time I thought this show was better than Sakamoto, even though I disagree now I still like it a lot. The relationship where Ota cares so much for Tanaka and is prepared to help him is so endearing and the lazy humour is great when mixed with the higher energy characters.
Thermae Romae – ADB
The main character is a roman architect who makes the roman baths. Instead of having any originality he goes to the future to the Japanese baths for ideas and it’s really funny. The comedy is very innocent as it often comes from the main character not knowing anything and then realising something amazing.
It’s very funny also very short so it’s easily watchable in a night if you have the time.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – ADB
It’s rare for me to find a time travel film which tackles it’s time travel mechanic in such an interesting and personal way. Instead of a simple save the world plotline the show explored the less catastrophic, more fun side of time travel whilst still creating an interesting, high stakes story which is fun to see unfold.
The main character Makoto is airheaded and failing at school. She tries very hard but just can’t seem to avoid trouble everywhere she goes. I’ll avoid spoilers for now however the title itself tells us that she leaps through time to change recent events which she’s unhappy with. I like the fact that she’s a normal girl and has no major events she wants changing, like most viewers I’d assume. This means the things she changes timewise are more comedic than anything. And I certainly found myself laughing at all the jokes that came up because of the personality of the main character.
Makoto’s best friends Chiaki and Kousuke play a valuable and entertaining part in the film. They become involved in conflicts (emotionally and physically) and become involved once the conflicts of Makoto’s time travel takes place.
A big theme in this film is consequences, and how being a girl who suddenly knows everything might not lead to the best relationships with others. As well as this, inevitability and how to get round it is another idea explored in a really interesting and sometimes funny way. This doesn’t form the main conflict however it’s certainly there and the way Makoto deals with it is very entertaining to watch.
Like most films, it’s split into three sections. The first one is when Makoto learns time travel and conflicts are introduced. The second part is about Makoto learning more about the power and discovering the consequences of her actions ending with the third part which I won’t spoil. The opening is a very dull part of the film as we see a huge portion of Makoto’s day for no apparent reason. As the film develops this set-up is brought back in interesting ways so that the pay offs feel absolutely amazing.
The story opens up as we continue through the film but it’s all done well and nothing really feels too out of place. You might find yourself saying “why didn’t she do this…” but these occurrences happen so infrequently that it’s really hard to care. Since every scene is there for a reason, a lot of these moments are social commentary which was considered more important than events which weren’t necessarily logical. The film doesn’t beat you over the head with social commentary or points about society however it leaves ideas out in the open for those who are interested to think about.
With great sound and animation I think this film is well worth a watch even if you tend to dislike anime films. It’s too fun and engaging to pass.
It’s very rare for me to find a film I enjoy, long term followers can attest to this by seeing my reviews of classic films such as Princess Mononoke and Your name. So when I start praising a film as well as this you know that it’s probably worth watching!
Tokyo Ghoul – ADB
Gore is something that I seem to be immune from in anime, because when I google gore into MAL I see shows like this and laugh, this has no gore in it at all and is on the same level of gore as attack on titan, I can’t constantly repeat myself so I explain everything here.
Still this show isn’t all bad and I liked the transformation and life of a ghoul. I was lost at the end and sort of found the ending boring and generic but on the whole the action was ok, yet a bit shouneny and formulated for my liking since it felt like a lot of other shounens I had seen.
Tokyo Godfathers – ADB
This anime film is about homeless people who find a baby in the snow and try and return it. It was enjoyable overall but I found it boring and uninteresting in places. The characters were cool and I liked their back story which was developed further as they learned to express themselves better.
It also takes place on Christmas eve so it might be fun to watch as a Christmas movie or just for enjoyment in your spare time.
Tonari no Kaibutsu Kun – ADB
This anime is all about studying and helped motivate me to study more once I saw how the main characters hobby was studying. I don’t think it’s anything special but I liked the difference in nature between the girl and guy and thought the dynamic worked really well to pull the girl into interesting scenarios where she could be pretty funny.
Tonari no Seki Kun – ADB
This is a short show about a boy and girl in a class playing games. The joke is that the boy plays the games and the girl gets in trouble for watching. It’s not particularly great but it’s a fun short show that I watched most often while eating lunch.
Tonari no Totoro – ADB
After finishing the film I felt a little unsatisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it however I just felt that nothing really happened. After 86 minutes I ‘d expect something to change or develop much more than what actually happened in the film. I get that it tries to capture the emotion and wonder of young children in a new place but it was still unsatisfying in my opinion.
This is because after the excitement of Totoro everything didn’t seem to matter. I knew the sister wasn’t going to be missing and the mum was ok. This could have been because the build up to the climax was too late and I couldn’t get invested.
Despite these criticisms the slice of life aspects of the show was pretty good and rarely became boring. I’ve notoriously hated on films in my blogging history but I’m glad the films I’ve named here have been ones I’v enjoyed!
I wouldn’t watch it again but it certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve wasted my time.
Toradora! – ADB
This show is a great love story where two characters help each other to find love for their best friend but it doesn’t end up working out that way… it’s still great though.
The biggest disappointment for me was that I watched it dubbed, and that meant that I missed all of the subtlety behind the characters motivations which I really hated.
Every single character is great, I like it!
Trinity Seven – ADB
This is a fan service harem, and the gimmick this time is that they are all trope characters but it’s the guy who is the perverted one. That kind of person is less annoying to watch but it is still terrible to see in a harem. It is a typical show, play around with fan service and then save the world. Basic harem stuff, I do not recommend.
Trinity Seven Movie – ADB
I made a post about this already however I will still say that it sucks. I watched the original trinity seven series when I was still into harems and I didn’t really have much of a strong opinion of it. Now I can say that I really dislike it. Even for a short film it was needlessly long and had far too many characters that I didn’t remember in it. As well as the generic villain the entire thing really bored me just like the other films that I’ve talked about.
Tsurezure Children – ADB
I really enjoyed this show from beginning to end. The anime features short skits from a range of couples in a school to present comedic love stories for (almost) every stage in a relationship, making the school feel more integrated and realised than many other shows I’ve seen.
Adapting a series from a 4-koma manga is difficult since you’ll need to make a lot of things up. Having just four panels a chapter can work for comedic purposes but very difficult to adapt to a coherent story which is emotionally engaging. In this regard I believe the show worked very well! Most of the stories were at least a little relatable and the conflicts were often hilarious, sometimes overlapping with other stories making the world feel more fleshed out and bringing new levels of fun and dramatic irony since us as the audience are the only people privy to what’s really going on between everyone. I appreciated this aspect greatly.
I think a huge amount of people could have been disappointed by the show because of the fact that not all of the relationships became real and not everyone got what they wanted in the end. Since these manga’s try and go on forever then I really expected this to happen but it wasn’t entirely disappointing. Some people just take a long time when it comes to things like that and they can’t be rushed since the manga would be over too quickly and it would betray their characterisation of a lonely and shy person. What we got instead was a compelling story from most characters which was built upon by others.
As the show was from many characters perspectives then it’s easy to see how drama could be caused, whether it’s jealousy or simple dislike. I’m glad that the show instead opted to do a more idealised perspective on school since I’m way too used to things like that already! All of the characters were likable and only cartoonish bad in a likable funny way which still endeared you to the character. Whilst jealousy was part of the show it wasn’t one of its main themes which was good since jealous people can be the most annoying people to see a story through.
The only main drawback is the repetitiveness of the scenarios. All of the characters seem to put the idea of a first kiss on a pedestal and most of the stories are focussed around it. This can feel tired sometimes since it’s not really such a big deal and there are much better story arcs available for use. The culture of Japan is different however having all the characters think the same opinion towards one thing is boring even though it’s fun to see how different characters can react.
Anime has a whole lot of tropes within it and that’s often a bad thing, the similarities between characters can really destroy your enjoyment of a show. That’s why this is particularly interesting. Since there are so many different tropes in similar scenarios an enjoyable aspect I found was comparing them and seeing how different tropes react to the same scenario. It’s like a compilation you can watch to see various trope characters on display! And being able to make boring topes interesting is a really high compliment to a show when in actual fact it’s lazy writing, only less lazy writing than everyone else.
I want to share a few of my favourite moments from a show. Two characters who love each other both want to send a confession message at the same time. Only one says to meet them in person and that confessing over text is degenerate and the other actually confesses! It’s a hilarious, cringe moment which was great to watch sort it’s self out because at the end of the day it’s a funny misunderstanding.
There’s a lot of funny stuff like this which the show could only get away with by presenting the show in its format. Its format by the way is 12 minute episodes with a three minute sketch per couple, alternating between many each episode. It’s great because if you hate one couple the next one might be good. In fact a number of people from the opening episodes complete their story arcs towards the beginning and are completely written out! It shows the manga writer doesn’t drag scenarios on longer than they need too and is prepared to drop characters when he’s done with them. After all, it’s a school! Just create another character and say they were in the school all along! And you’ll have to watch the rest to find the other brilliant moments of which there are plenty.
A common failing of high school anime is making the students not involved in the story seem bland and useless, with the most boring uninteresting lives. But by having most side characters also have story arcs this trap is removed. As well as that many other side characters are well and uniquely designed making each person in the student body feel individual and important. In fact by delivering interesting story arcs to some of the most seemingly uninteresting characters (yet making it fun anyway) they become heavily characterised and interesting. I feel like they could have been added to the cast at any moment as soon as they found a romance.
The animation, music and visuals are nothing to write home about and the comedy and stories are very simple. That being said it’s only a short show which I believe is funny, unique and engaging enough to be worth those few hours of your precious time.
Umi ga Kikoeru – ADB
I had high hopes for this movie coming from studio Ghibli and my track record with them however I came out having enjoyed it, overall disappointed. And whilst I can dissect the themes which created my disappointment and how they artistically contribute to a greater message or value I’d much rather talk about why the romance didn’t interest or connect with me at all.
As a disclaimer to anyone who is thinking about watching this film, it’s good and interesting to watch but the ideas and story aren’t really compelling specifically the romance which I will get into now.
Successful romance anime combined with drama have huge conflicts which are so satisfying to see solved that you spend the next three minutes celebrating to yourself with no audience. These issues are often relatable, make sense and overall grip you to feel compassion and empathy for the characters involved if the situation calls for it.
This is best done by making the viewer want the couple to succeed. This can be done in a variety of ways such as making you like both of them or presenting a consequence for if they don’t or just a good motivation. You saw the title; this review is going to be about how this film messes it up!
Rikako comes across as a lying, scheming, manipulative, selfish bitch. And Taku comes across as a normal nice guy. So when they are eventually left with a chance for the two to become a couple you’re left with mixed feelings. Its’s as if Rikako’s taking advantage of him and it’s a terrible feeling to end a movie on.
When I say “Studio Ghibli Film” people leap to Miyazaki but he didn’t actually direct this one. This could explain the quality and execution of the romance. However Tomomi Mochizuki has worked and directed many other great anime’s most notably season one of “Ranma One Half” which I loved so I feel like this could just be my disagreement with an artistic message instead of simple incompetence. After all, nothing bad could ever possibly come out of studio Ghibli! Yeah… Yeah…
Is it just me or is someone who’s constantly crying to get what she wants, constantly getting people to go well out of their way to do insignificant things for no reason and spoilt by their parents the most insufferable character in existence. And studio Ghibli doesn’t use an art style good enough to make these criticisms seem light, if you know what I mean.
The story just feels incoherent and stuck together. I honestly couldn’t tell you if the whole film was a flashback ending in the present or not. And plot points were introduced with seemingly no relevance.
The first part of the film is basically useless because nothing important happens which couldn’t be summarised in a short few minutes. It’s good movie practice to start a film as late into the overall story as possible as to not bore the reader with an intro where they can’t see where the rest of the plot is going. You do not want to hear “And this is when it all started” 20 minutes after the film starts! Just cut it out! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! Establish everything as it goes along! The way the plot works leads to a point where this is entirely possible if they just do two things.
The first is to completely ignore the school trip cancelation plot line since it was only ten minutes, offered nothing to the rest of the film and ended up on the trip anyway. Then you start the film when the girl wants to be leant money and he needs to go to the elevator to get it. It would have been a much better film in my opinion if they just explained everything in that elevator and continued the story right from when he gave her the money! That’s just my personal opinion though, I believe the characters have enough personality and intrigue to make you continue watching and enjoying them without the opining setting them up for you. Ghibli have the animation to express emotion and thought so well anyway.
A lot of events that happened kind of felt there to pad out the movie. Whilst a lot of them I can identify for artistic purposes they weren’t really expanded enough on to be compelling or thoughtful, they were kind of just there, which is one of the worst things a film can be.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still Ghibli and it was still an enjoyable ride which I don’t regret watching too much since the ideas were interesting to think about and it’s rare to see a female character so realised that you can question their true nature so deeply and feel so twisted about. It’s only around 70 minutes so why not check it out?
Watamote – ADB
Watamote is funny, not cringey and I won’t hear anything else about it! There is like one or two moments that are cringey, for the rest of the show I can distance myself away enough to find it hilarious.
It’s through this seriously great comedy that we witness the sad life of an otaku who just wants to fit in with everyone. I like everything she tries to do and the way she thinks is so entertaining. Her mind-set is brilliant for this and obviously not admirable but hilarious all the same.
Anyone who liked the anime for this really needs to read the manga, you have got too, I‘m not going to spoil anything but just do it!
Kiss Him. Not me – ADB!
I’ve seen very few reverse harems but the fact that they have a slightly different style of humour and plot lines means I can enjoy them even if they are obviously generic. I became invested in this show where randomly one day the main girl suddenly lost a tonne of weight, became really cute and then suddenly what’s this, all these guys are showing up around her? How did that happen?
There was one moment where I would have thought the show was epic but it wasn’t fulfilled. There was one point where the girl put all her weight back on and the main cast of boys had to deal with her new look. I would have had more respect for it if they had kept her that way but it never happened. It was still nice though.
SNAFU – ADB
This comedy show is witnessed though the jaded eyes of the main character that has a very strong negative opinion of things and comes across as really pretentious. Don’t get me wrong he’s great and his attitude is interesting but he can go on for too long and comes across as way too cartoonish for my liking.
The unique perspective of the main character makes the show interesting to watch so maybe give it a chance. I will also be skipping season 2 for this show because I don’t have a lot to say.
Yamada Kun and the Seven Witches – ADB
Well this was the first (and I think only) show that I watched all on one day. It was a fun time and a really interesting show.
There were seven witches in a school and they all were needed for something. Finding and using these great powers was really fun and I don’t regret it at all. It’s funny and has a lot of good stuff going on which makes me recommend it.
Yamishibai – ADB
Yamishibai is a collection of horror stories which you should binge on a spooky October night for the best atmosphere possible. All the stories in season 1 are great (this will change in later seasons) and the narration is creepy and really adds to the whole thing.
There is this one story about a hospital which I still remember. There were three guys on the roof of a hospital chanting and the creepy animation is still something that I remember strongly. It doesn’t scare me but it still creeps me out.
Yamishibai Season 2 – ADB
From what I remember season 2 is more of the same, and the only reason why I’m covering it is that I will also talk about the next seasons since I do have a lot to say. So yeah it’s as spooky as ever, binge watch it all on CR and you won’t be let down if you are in the mood to be scared!
Yamishibai Season 3 – ADB
Season 3 forces a monster into every possible sketch when they’re just not needed. To make matters worse all of the monsters use CGI and look terrible. You find yourself thinking “What is this thing?” trying to understand the image instead of actually being scared. The fact that you know the show will just be a monster just makes your investment a whole lot worse.
Yamishibai Season 4 – ADB
The stories in season 4 weren’t great either, most of them felt a bit dumb. The animation of this season and potentially a lot of season 3 was severely worse and was obviously just a series of pictures with very little animation present, I say bad animation doesn’t matter but lazy animation makes a show feel a whole lot worse. People don’t always like old 90’s shows for the animation but a lot of it is unnoticeable to me, this is just blatantly cost cutting and it’s not fun to watch. This series also had live action segments, which I do admit did have better animation, but it completely ruined the immersion for me and felt extremely forced and extremely unnecessary.
Yamishibai Season 5 – ADB
Season five was a return to form in my opinion and was on par with the first two seasons. The best thing was that the old, creepy narrator was back and its animation returned to normal and it learned its lesson by not repeating the other mistakes mentioned.
Yugioh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
This film got me into yugioh! And made me buy a few decks for it. The whole story is a fairly simple card game but it’s so dramatic and has a lot of great moments that it’s hard not to get sucked in. It sees epic monsters that I can still remember like Andro Sphinx, Obelisx the Tormenter and the rest of the Egyptian gods. Sure the finale may be solved easily but it’s a fun friendship type thing so who cares?
Yugioh Bonds Beyond Time! – ADB
The only Yugioh! I had seen up to this point was the old movie; the classic abridged series and a little bit of 5ds. It was interesting meeting Jaden and seeing three guys work together against a common foe must have been a lot of fan service for people who like the series. I don’t remember a lot except for the fact that it was a cool duel! So if you like the idea of a cool duel, unfortunately without motorbikes then this is a good movie experience.
Zankyou No Terror – ADB
So when everyone is criticising Zankyou No Terror for going down the toilet I have to feel ashamed for not really feeling the same way. The show was enjoyable to me for its aesthetic and cool visuals and the story which was set up well. It felt continuously interesting to me for a very long time as I became very invested in the characters and events.
I didn’t think that everything made sense in the show and I noticed some of the plot holes but I didn’t really think it made it so much worse. I also thought that my expectations for the series were a whole lot different from everyone else’s.
When I see some terrorists who are still in high school, are able to raid and obtain a lethal weapon from an isolated fortress in the middle of nowhere and upload a YouTube video about it, I don’t really have high expectations for realism or for things to make sense all the time. I also don’t see a plot which will become massively interesting or mind-blowing either, I didn’t feel any hope for the future of the series as I couldn’t really see where it was going.
So in a way, I expected it to lower in quality as time continued, I don’t even know if it did lower in quality – most people just say it did without explaining why.
I’ve Always liked you – ADB
Guys we did it, this is the last ADB post I need to write! YEAH! I just need to schedule all 200 posts or so now… so that’s something to celebrate! Without further ado here is the last review of the first batch:
I’ve always liked you is a short film based on a misunderstanding. A girl has confessed so much to a guy but he thinks that she is just practicing. So yeah it takes an hour to solve this problem.
As bad as it sounds you still have a fun experience and the ending is satisfying.
Alright that’s it I’ve finished it! Except that I still have a lot of work to do, oh well. Also this will be out 200 days after I wrote it too so this probably won’t make sense either. I guess I’m just a failure or something.
That’s it! Thank you for reading. In the time between writing this and finally releasing it in 6 months time I will have watched more, so season 2 may be coming soon!
These posts almost never get any likes because nobody can be bothered to scroll down 40k words so if you’ve reached this point thank you very much!
My Brain Is Completely Empty 
Congrats on finishing!
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Thank you!
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Wow, this database looks super thorough! I’m interested in some of the shows you wrote about, so I’ll definitely take a closer look at some point in the near future. Very cool!
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Thank you! This is a compilation of posts that came out daily since February, consisting of all the anime’s I’ve seen. Thanks!
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