My Daemon Review

Posted on July 6, 2024 by dreager1

Nothing is more trendy than making your own edgy version of Pokemon and that’s exactly what My Daemon set out to do. Right off the bat you have the opening theme which is definitely like something out of a horror movie and the overall tone of the show fits it in. It definitely has some interesting ideas and I also liked how unique the abilities for the Daemon were. The show does tend to be mean spirited more often than not though and ultimately it’s one of those titles where I quickly began to root for the villains instead of the heroes. Never a good sign for the heroes…

The show starts off by introducing us to the state of the world. Humanity must contend with creatures known as Daemon that appear to come from another world. You are supposed to stay away from them except for licensed trainers who enslave Daemon with their technology. These captured Daemon are then used to murder all other Daemon and are mistreated on the side since the show goes out of its way to show how almost every character in the series is evil. We’re then introduced to Kento, a nice kid who is fairly quiet. One day he runs into a Daemon named Anna and decides to adopt her.

Kento’s Mom figures this is a bad idea but she doesn’t want to crush Kento’s hopes so she lets him keep it as a pet. Unfortunately the neighborhood doesn’t like this and the cops are quickly called in. During the scuffle, she is murdered and so Kento vows to bring her back to life. In order to do this, he will have to search for a Daemon that is rumored to exist on the other side of the planet. It has the ability to bring people back to life. This will be a tough journey for Kento though and he is effectively a wanted criminal at this point. Anna’s ability appears to be that she can suck anything into another dimension and store it for later. So the ability is crucial for keeping Kento’s Mom’s body from expiring but it may not be enough to take on the more offensive type Daemon that are out there.

When you’re deciding who to root for between the humans and the aliens, you usually want to see which character is in the wrong and then how badly will the losing side fare if the other team wins. The humans lose this test on all accounts. For starters, we know that they plan to enslave and genocide the creatures for all of eternity. They don’t wish for coexistence at all and will take the Daemon down as maliciously as possible. So clearly this isn’t really an option to root for.

On the Daemon side, most of them are instinctual. They’re like animals and are just trying to survive and do whatever they can. With only a few exceptions, it’s not like they’re making plans or anything but of course they also won’t forget how cruel the humans have been. If they were to win, they will leave the humans alone who don’t bother them and won’t be going out of their way to be cruel. With one exception there again but yes the Daemon are very easy to root for. The series is similar to Attack on Titan where they make the humans so bad that you want the Titans to win, at least early on. The show could have made everyone seem a little more reasonable to be honest.

Kento works as a reasonable main character. He’s a bit young so I wouldn’t expect him to really be dishing out the pain to the villains or anything but he means well. He has an odd energy crystal in his head that instead of murdering him, lets him sync up with the Daemon. He’s clearly a chosen one to some capacity and has a bright future ahead of him, but I do wish he was a bit older. Then he could have really gotten in some fighting of his own. Instead he often has to be saved. Kento doesn’t fall short on bravery though, as he jumps in to help Anna at all times even when it means his life.

Anna is a very fun main character. She’s super loyal and also uses her abilities in a very useful way. You may think that teleporting objects isn’t super handy but she is able to apply momentum to them. This means she effectively has an endless array of projectiles which is handy. She also has her true form which shows up a few times and does well. At times I dare say she should have put up an even better fight so the villains have a bit of plot armor this time around. Still, in the story Anna gets a lot of hype which is definitely deserved.

Azuma is a fairly talented fighter and another character who is a good strategist. Her Daemon can open doors which are effectively portals in this context. She is then able to attack and dodge really seamlessly with this ability. It’s pretty fun to see and the show is at its best when it’s having fun with these fights. Even the most standard of powers can be really deadly in the right hands after all. She takes a little while to really go to the right path but still ends up being more reasonable than most of the cast so I’ll give her that.

Kaede is the main heroine of the show. She definitely makes some mistakes along the road but ultimately comes around. She gets some plot twists which connect her to the main villain group and ensure that her role will be fairly large for the whole program. So Kaede was a good character and she’s a bit older so she could actually talk back to the other big characters and not have to hide in the back or anything like that. She could defend herself as needed which is very important.

As Kento’s mom, Kaoru was another solid character. It would have been nice if she could have appeared for more of the show as I think she would have handled things way better than Kento. Kento really fumbled the bag on several occasions, one of which was when a shapeshifter was pretending to be her. Yes, Kento sort of knew for most of it but continued to play along because it felt good. That’s still not a great look for the kid who was risking everything for this feeling when his real Mom needed him.

Iori is one of the first villains to show up. He’s a bounty hunter so the guy can fight well enough and definitely comes close to taking Kento off the board initially. That being said, you would expect him to be a little more careful and precise when he attacks. The guy should have a lot of experience but definitely doesn’t handle him self as well as you would expect. Ultimately this is why he gets absolutely rocked when he ends up taking on Kento and getting in the middle of all the Daemon.

There are quite a lot of Daemons in the show but 4 of them in particular stood out. First was the Black Hair Daemon which looks like another big horror threat. Hair has always been one of the cooler weapons for a villain to have because of how versatile it is and that’s the case here as well. It can be used for attack or defense and makes this a lethal opponent. It’s another villain that you feel bad for since the humans started this with all of the experiments. That is the case for virtually all of the Daemon that the heroes have to fight with.

Then you have Senju, the spider Daemon. It’s another super fierce opponent who has been through a lot and is finally fighting back against humanity. You’re rooting for it to show those guys who is boss and really flip the script on the current scenario. Doing that is definitely easier said than done but if anyone can pull it off, it would be this creature. After that you have Pandaemonium, the ultimate threat to the universe. You need actual nukes to take this guy on which is crazy but really good hype the whole time. Again, this is basically self defense so why wouldn’t you be rooting for this guy right? He has a great design and absolutely insane amounts of power. It doesn’t get to have quite as much character as some of the others but works well as a final boss type fighter.

Genjiro is the leader of the main villain group so you may expect him to be a cool mastermind but nah, that guy’s just annoying. He’s one of those people who figures that the ends justify the means. We get a sob story about why he really wants Anna and it involves how he lost his family to another portal creature. The problem is that he used this as an excuse to attack all of the Daemon. I could have actually had some sympathy for him if he just went after Anna and ignored everyone else but the fact that he got the whole world roped into this takes away any sympathy I may have had for the guy.

We can’t forget about the best character in the series though. Kiriko is a Daemon who can heal and shapeshift. He has a lot of tremendous abilities including a form of sorta telekinesis. It’s more complicated than that but he is able to simulate its effects. He tried to give humanity a fair shake but saw that no matter what, humans will continue to try and destroy the Daemon. There would be no way to ever achieve world peace and so they had to be wiped out. It’s hard to argue with that considering how much he had to put up with. Whenever a villain is this logical and thought things through, you need a really solid hero to try and counter his points. Again, that’s where Kento falters because he really can’t debate against him.

Kento just isn’t very mature like that. He talks about how beautiful Anna is all the time and how he likes Daemons but that’s really all he can do. He doesn’t understand what it would mean to have true peace and isn’t prepared to take either side. A half hearted approach like this ultimately doesn’t help anybody. Yeah Kiriko is taking a super drastic approach but you know…at least he is taking some kind of approach. That’s more than most characters would have managed to do.

Yura is one of those guys who ends up being a terrible character even though he had a reasonable start. The guy completely cracks before long and the whole thing makes him look super embarrassing. Look you either have an honor code or you don’t. I get that he had a sick family and needed money badly but if the show was hoping that would make him sympathetic for betraying the heroes, then it definitely didn’t work. You definitely need some more desperate circumstances than that to pull such a thing off.

Kouya is a guy who gets quite a lot of hype. His thunder punches let him fight with Daemons directly which is pretty much unheard of. The thing is, it’s unheard of for good reason. Lets put it this way, he goes up against one of the strongest creatures in the verse and actually holds his own for a bit. He’s still just a guy, I think heh should have died early on in that fight. The fact that he continued to live is something that I just didn’t buy into the whole time. No offense to his fans of course. I did like him though, he worked well as an antagonist and would hear the main characters out.

The technical aspects of the show don’t really help to support it much at all though. The soundtrack is definitely on the weaker side. The opening is historically weak and probably in the bottom 5% of all shows that I’ve watched. It’s just way too soft and that only works if you’re super scary but it doesn’t pull that off. The ost in general is fairly forgettable. Then when it comes to the animation, I would also say that it is not quite up to par. The fight scenes can look good and I wouldn’t say that the CG is terrible or anything but it’s definitely not at the level that it would need to be in order to really support the story.

So the show itself is really on its own here. It does succeed in the core premise of the series which is to explore the world of Pokemon if it was in a more grounded world where everything is sinister and messed up. However, that works to the show’s own detriment. The Daemon are written to be super realistic so they’re like animals the whole time. As a result when they’re being tortured and experimented on constantly, it doesn’t make for an easy watch. The show isn’t generally super violent or anything like that but it does have its moments. Kento’s head exploding was certainly one of those intense moments, I remember being pretty surprised there.

The show tackles some fairly heavy themes here. It makes for a compelling watch as you’re curious how things will go. It would have been nice if it was easier to root for the humans though instead of just wishing they would be defeated the whole time. You’re seriously rooting for their downfall the whole time which isn’t always easy. Since you know the Daemon have to ultimately lose, that’s a bit of a downer. An ending where humanity is wiped out may not be a popular one but sometimes it just fits and I think this definitely would have been one of those cases.

You’ll probably wince at least once per episode for the poor Daemons. On the flip side though, it is always nice when they finally start to dominate. Every time one of the humans goes down, I’d pump my fist. The fights are also very dynamic like I mentioned before. Even if I didn’t love the actual animation, the directing and writing for the abilities were on point. Every ability can and will be shown to be absolutely lethal in this show. It’s why you can’t underestimate any of the creatures here or you will end up dead. That’s something the show definitely deserves a whole lot of credit for.

Overall, My Daemon is a pretty intense title. It’s certainly not the kind of show that is going for an everybody wins kind of ending. Even though the ending is fairly light, there was definitely a lot of damage along the way. You can also tell that the situation is not completely fixed yet either. There is plenty of room for a season 2 should they ever want to do it but it’s hard to say exactly what is in the cards here. I’ll certainly be interested though, whatever they decide to do here. If you can get past all of the Daemon violence then this is a title you may be interested in checking out. A better way to gauge this may be if you have always wanted to see a much darker take on the Pokemon mythos. If so, then this should be up your alley.

Overall 5/10

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga Review

Posted on June 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Blue Exorcist. This series has always been a bit of a mystery to me. On one hand, it’s a big Shonen title where the main character has to fight off his demonic urges and slay demons. It’s very much a classic king of plot but the execution is just so different. Sometimes in a good way but sometimes in a bad way. I’ve never really connected with the series as well as most other big Shonen titles and that doesn’t really change here either. It’s a good season but not great by any means. It’s not quite as interesting as it should be and the action always gets cut off way too quickly. Well, lets dive into this.

Yukio is still jealous of Rin’s abilities and now that he is getting a glimpse of his own demonic potential, he wants power. He continues to try and repress his desires but the facade is starting to crack and he doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it. There’s not much time to think about this though as the Illuminati attacks and kidnaps Kamiki. She is taken by Shima, a double agent working for this group. Naturally the Illuminati is led by Lucifer himself. Note that Lucifer is another son of Satan and brother to Mephisto. This group will be difficult to defeat especially Mephisto sandbagging as always and the Exorcist Order being generally useless. Rin and Yukio will have to take point in rescuing her but can they move on from this big betrayal?

Naturally this is a really huge deal if you have been following the series for a long time although the anime took so long to get up to this point that I wouldn’t be surprised if most people have already heard about this whole thing. It’s not exactly the biggest secret in the series, you know what I mean? The reactions to it are very odd though. The characters get over the betrayal way too easily which is a personal pet peeve of mine. This guy literally broke all of their trust and kidnapped Kamiki so she could be tortured over and over again like in the past by a group that is clearly evil.

I think this is more than a “Do better next time” kind of speech. He should be absolutely demolished, I’d expect him to be destroyed on sight the next time that he is seen. Is that harsh? Yeah maybe but I would also argue that it is absolutely deserved. The characters are constantly using kid gloves on Shima and it doesn’t really make sense. The show goes into the specifics here and throws some more twists into the mix but none of it overrides the fact that Kamiki was very close to being dead. She had her summons get destroyed and while they managed to come back later, she was consistently put in a rough spot.

It’s why undercover operations are often not a good idea. Even if it’s part of a mission, you can’t be putting your allies in danger or sitting back while others are attacked. If you let one person get murdered to save 100, then you are starting to make dangerous decisions that are in villain territory. So I never ended up liking Shima and still blame him for everything. I’m also a little upset at the other characters allowing him back in because that makes no sense to me. Definitely a massive L right there.

Rin also doesn’t look his best here. He’s going through the classic hero issue of not wanting to murder anyone so he holds back a lot but you can always knock someone out without murdering them. It also gets to be a little much when he is also nervous even when fighting mindless monsters. Just take the super slow zombies down, there’s nothing you can really do to save them at this point. It’s also an annoying part of Blue Exorcist because every time we’re primed for a big right with Rin, it either doesn’t happen or he holds back so hard that it’s not a real fight.

Realistically he should be mopping the floor with most of the characters but it just doesn’t happen. He’s also scared of his powers enough where he doesn’t train the way that he’s supposed to. How is he supposed to protect his friends when he’s holding back like this? The whole power system of the series isn’t great either. The prayer chants never seem to work and are incredibly impractical. Unless you have someone like Rin or Kamiki backing you up to buy you time, the villains are going to slam you. It just makes over half of the cast feel rather useless most of the time. Everyone should have some close quarter combat skills or at least a big summon you know?

Okay back to the characters, Yukio is super annoying here as well. Part of this isn’t his fault because the guy’s had to go through the same character arc multiple times since the anime only arc was retconned and of course I remember this from the manga. So it just gets old quick where he is messing up his priorities and becoming a liability. If he would just talk to Rin about what’s going on things would work out better. So I put all of the blame on Yukio since he’s taking himself down the wrong path. It’s not even like the villains are encouraging this, Yukio is really leading himself downhill all on his own.

As for the main heroine Shiemi, right now there’s a lot of drama going on with her. She seems to like Yukio but is starting to like Rin. Possible triangle forming there, we’ll have to see how it goes. For now Shiemi is still way too timid and I would like her to acknowledge her own strength more. Her grass summon is really not that bad and can at least buy her some time. She has no real offensive spells but at least she can play a support role.

In that way she is more balanced than Kamiki. Kamiki has her dual spirits but they don’t even listen to her half the time ~~because they’re tremendously awful characters who refuse to honor any kind of loyalty to her despite having high respect for Kamiki’s mom~~ and put her in big danger. Kamiki has basic spells beyond that but as I pointed out before, this never works anyway so it may as well be a pointless addition. I like Kamiki’s fiery spirit but hopefully she will work with the other heroes more next time and not try to be a loner. Being a loner only works when you have the power to back it up.

Suguro is the only one who actually gives Shima a hard time so I give him massive credit for that. He sticks up for the traitor so that he’s not executed or anything like that but still doesn’t trust him. That’s how it should be, I still don’t get how you could possibly trust him in any context after what happened. That just makes no sense to me. Suguro is really held back by the fact that he can’t fight at all without the talismans so I hope he gets something soon.

Miwa tends to be a bit of an annoying character. Kind of wishy washy and never too sure of himself. Unlike Shiemi he has no great powers to help him out so right now he’s on the lower side from the cast members. Shura doesn’t do much beyond her obligatory teasing of Yukio. She is mainly injured for most of the season and when she is conscious she is being threatened by Mephisto. Honestly she is in such a terrible spot half the time. She needs to find a way to get stronger so she can actually have some freedom.

As the big villain in the Illuminati you’d figure that Lucifer would get a lot of hype but he’s very underwhelming for now. He’s super sickly and constantly coughing up blood and running out of energy. I feel like Mephisto could wipe him out of existence with ease and is just messing around because he can. It looks like the heroes are going to wait until Lucifer finds a cure and can fight at full power before they make their move so the Exorcists are as inept as always. I’ll need to see more of Lucifer to take him seriously.

His main general was one of those fat psycho doctors which doesn’t do his group any justice. That guy was super annoying so I was glad when he was taken out. Definitely one of the worst villains in the series. The backstory for Kamiki’s family was definitely a sad one. This season sure had more of an emotional feel than the last one. No offense to Suguro but his family drama wasn’t nearly as impactful. This one hits a bit harder because of how so much of it felt inevitable with no real escape.

Finally with Mephisto, he is still a solid villain but the kind of figure who could go way down depending on how his plan goes. Right now we don’t really know what he even wants to do. He clearly has enough power to bring the world to its knees so why doesn’t he? He has deals with the shady council of Exorcists but why would he even need such weaklings? We’ll find out in time but if he ends up getting one shotted or the plan doesn’t go well then retroactively it will make him such a terrible villain. Usually the more convoluted and far out your plan is, the more things that can go wrong. So he will really have to convince me here.

In general a lot of the story is still shrouded in secrecy. In part I would say that’s because we’re seeing things from the point of view of the main characters who are out of the loop on everything. We don’t really have any characters who are on the inside to give us full coverage into what’s going on. You like to think that the Exorcists have a bunch of trump cards at their disposal but I have my doubts on this. Right now it just feels like the demons have all of the advantages and the heroes’ only chance is to trust one which is rough. Rin is their only chance.

In terms of animation, the show can look good but it can also be rough at times. It’s clear that this didn’t exactly get a massive budget. It’s a shame because none of the fights look all that amazing. The best battle in the series is probably Rin vs Shima and part of that is probably more for narrative reasons than animation. I’m glad we at least get some action but it again feels like the show could be doing so much more. In the last season the big boss was a giant monster and of course we get more of that here too.

I want the show to just embrace its Shonen roots and give us some massive action scenes. Lets get some really cool feats in here and some awesome stuff you know? At least the soundtrack is really good as always. This is one area where the show has always excelled. I thought the theme song was really catchy and I also like a lot of the individual tracks. My favorite theme from season 1 only shows up like once but the new themes are good too. There’s a solid amount of variety and I felt like this got the biggest budget in the show.

While the show may not always deliver on the action front, I do think it does pretty well on the slice of life and comedy aspects. It’s a show where we actually get to see the heroes in school quite a lot. We see them learning and everything as there tends to be a lot of downtime. The gag of Rin dressing up like Shima was absolutely top tier as well. That gag actually works really well and made for a lot of fun moments. The obligatory beach type episode was also not as fanservicey as it could have been.

In general the show doesn’t go too far into that but some of the outfits are definitely geared in that direction. The romance is on the weaker side though as it all tends to feel a bit melodramatic. I feel like it’s going in a similar direction to Seraph of the End with the characters trying to hold in their emotions and everything but Seraph of the End pulls it off so much better because of how direct it is. This one’s trying to sort of be half in and half out so the romance is more annoying than anything.

Overall, Blue Exorcist had some good fights and plot twists but it’s just hard to get into the series the way the author wants you to. It feels like its just taking too much time to move forward in the plot. The fact that all of the heroes have to work with the villains because they are too weak to oppose him is also annoying. I mean it’s interesting in a sense but there doesn’t seem to be a way for them to surpass Mephisto. The power system of this world just makes that impossible for all of them except Rin who needs to get his head straight. It’s almost like a horror film where the heroes don’t stand a chance. The only other title I can think of like this is Seraph of the End where the heroes are always super doomed but at least the power system is much more supernatural so you could easily write in massive power boosts. We’ll see where the series goes from here though, hopefully Rin can finally start fighting more. There is already an exhausting amount of world building so lets move on to the big plot developments now. Either way the show does go fast though and the characters are entertaining so that will have to do for now.

Overall 6/10

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Posted on June 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the anime version for Delicious in Dungeon. I reviewed the manga recently and I wouldn’t exactly say it got the highest score. The problem this title runs into is really backed into the premise itself. The characters are eating anything that moves as they continue to sample what the dungeon has to offer. The stakes are high so you understand why they are doing this but it doesn’t help them rise up as characters at all. The show has some fun moments and action scenes but on the whole this one definitely ends up being more of a skip. It’s unable to hold its own with the big shots.

The show starts off with Laios and his party fighting some monsters. In this world there exists a dungeon that is absolutely massive. It continues to grow every day and so people travel inside for different reasons. For some they are just looking to make a quick buck and get out of there. Others enjoy the thrill of it and finally you have some who want to defeat the monster at the end of the dungeon and see what happens. Legends say that you would then become the King of the dungeon and will be able to manipulate it at will. Well, during their adventure, Falin is eaten by the red dragon and taken away. The party splits but Laios wants to rescue his sister so even without any food or provisions he heads in there with the rest of the characters. Can they win?

The animation is fairly solid here. I don’t love the art style at times but it is trying to emulate the manga so I understand the direction. The character designs are on point though and the movement is good. For some of the big fights they really go all out like with the Red Dragon. It’s just not a battle series first and foremost so I would say the animation tends to take a backseat there. In terms of soundtrack there weren’t any themes that really wow’d me. It sounds okay but is definitely below the curve for anime.

How much you enjoy the show will probably come down to how interesting you find the meals. For most cooking anime part of the fun is in replicating the recipes and having fun with that. You obviously can’t do that with most of these dishes since they’re made up of monsters that don’t exist. I suppose you could probably just substitute chicken in the recipes and see how it goes. That could be fun to try at some point but either way I feel like a big part of the appeal goes down there. It also feels like a series with a lot of corrupting going on. For example Marcille isn’t big on eating monsters and resists for as long as she can but by the end she is forced to go along with them. Otherwise she would just starve.

It would have been nice to have had one of the characters stay strong on this the whole time as a contrast or someone to tell Laios to back it up and stop being weird about everything. Instead he just gets more and more intense about everything and really just wants to eat everything. If you redid the series but it was about them eating every plant around instead then that would work a lot better. Not all monsters count as animal violence here but a lot of times they do go after some fairly realistic ones. Also, in general things like eating the dragon after beating it feel a bit off. It’s good not to let anything go to waste if you end up taking out a monster but of course the real trick would be to not destroy the monster in the first place if you could help it.

At least make the dishes look more appealing. A lot of them just don’t look good to eat in general. As for the humor, it can be more on the hit or miss side. Any of the jokes about how insane and shady Laios is tend to be more on the fail side. I’m just not all that interested in the guy and I think he takes things a step too far. Likewise the jokes about how gross the food is don’t really work…because the food does look gross. So it’s barely even a joke at that point so much as just pointing out observations.

What this really comes down to though is characters. Often times I would say a joke isn’t funny in a vaccuum so much as it’s funny because you like the characters. Like a 2/10 joke could become a 6/10 joke if you have the right character saying it. Since I’m not generally a big fan of the characters, it means that the jokes don’t reach their full potential. It’s not necessarily a writing issue although on a macro issue I suppose you could say it is the writer’s job to make the characters better.

It’s pretty interesting writing about the characters here after finishing the manga but of course the anime only covers some of the events so the characters are a bit different since their character arcs haven’t finished yet. I already went over Laios before so I won’t go further into his character. He’s just not very responsible and has terrible priorities the whole time.

Marcille has always been one of the more likable characters. I feel like she is the only one super serious about recuing Falin. Laios may be her brother but he constantly gets distracted by monsters and his hobby of eating. Look, I love eating too but it’s important to have some priorities and not just be flaky where you go after anything right? That’s my biggest problem with Laios but again let me not drill on this guy for too long. So Marcille is completely out of her comfort zone with this. She doesn’t particularly love the dungeon and she certainly doesn’t want to eat any strange monsters.

However, she puts up with everything in order to rescue Falin. This is the sign of a true friend. Marcille bails them out of a lot of difficult situations with her magic and really comes in clutch. Without her the rest of the characters would have been doomed in a big way. She is definitely the most powerful member of the group and she has the revive spell. So without her if you died in the dungeon then you would be stuck for a while. You don’t technically die permanently due to a spell within the dungeon that keeps your soul from leaving but either way it’s fair to say that you probably don’t want to die at all or be stuck there for 3 months waiting for another adventurer to find you.

In a way that has to be the scariest part of dying in the dungeon. Depending on how you die, it’s possible that nobody would ever find you. For sure that’s why you want to go in a group at the very least because being by yourself feels like it would be borderline a death wish at that point. I guess you’d really be banking on your skills to get immediately rich and run away but it’s not worth it.

Shuro is one of the most annoying characters. He claims to be in love with Falin but then the guy is going to rat her out for being a monster right away? My biggest problem with the guy is that his devotion is just not strong enough. Simply put, I don’t feel that he would have my back in a confrontation and that’s a big issue. How can I trust a guy like that? So he just ends up being extremely unlikable and you know you’re bad when you make Laios look like the reasonable one in a conversation.

I’m not a big fan of Namari leaving the party either but at least she handled things well. It was clearly a “Nothing personal” kind of vibe with her. She’s still on good terms with everyone and isn’t making threats or getting in the way. So I can definitely respect her and she is really handy in the fights. It would be nice for her to appear more but she’s just living her own life at this point and I won’t knock her for that.

Back to the main cast, Chilchuck is next on the list here and he’s also reasonable. He’s not so much in it for Falin as he is for the money and he keeps his contracts. The guy is also a nicer person than he lets on so you have to recognize that a lot of this is just the mask that he puts on. When the going gets tough, you can actually count on him which is important because you can’t say that for some of the other characters. He may not be a fighter but his locksmith skills are certainly useful when you’re in a dungeon like this.

Senshi is the resident cook running around the dungeon and he seems to have a mysterious past. Still, the heroes need to trust whoever they can at this point so right now that means rolling with him. He is useful in a fight as well and keeps the group united so he was a superb addition to the team. Without him it’s very possible that the rest of the group would have been taken out by now. He just has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. I don’t quite like him as much as Marcille but he’s a fairly reasonable guy at the end of the day who does his best.

Then we have Izutsumi who joins up later. She got hit with a curse that made her part cat which is pretty rough to work with. She is trying to find a way around that but the spell was made very carefully so there haven’t been any real leads thus far. Her best bet is sticking with the main crew though so that’s really what she does. She’s the best hand to hand fighter of the group so it’s nice to finally have a close quarters specialist.

As Falin is the main goal in the show she doesn’t appear a ton but when she does show up, she’s fun enough. I don’t care for her too much in the flashbacks as she can be a little too timid. She’s not quite as weird as Laios is but seems to have kept in some of his traits. She’s at her best when she’s more confident and crushing anyone in her way. Falin is a prodigy of magic after all who might even be able to hold her own against Marcille. She just needs to embrace her own abilities.

Finally there is Kabru who is a tactical genius. He’s always creating plans and trying to think things through. I feel like he definitely helps to keep the characters guessing. This guy is a lot of fun and after he got his own episode, I wish he could have gotten more. He’s just way more charismatic as the leader and feels like a more fleshed out character. This is somebody you could absolutely roll with as the main character. Just keep him in there and he would definitely elevate the whole cast without question. There is just no question about it. He is playing a bigger role as the season ends so I look forward to seeing more of him.

By the time season 1 ends there have definitely been quite a few reveals and a big plot shift. The series is preparing to get serious with the big storyline and I can definitely appreciate that. The new Elf characters that showed up also have a lot of potential so I look forward to seeing what they do here. They’ll certainly shake things up which I can really appreciate. For all of these reasons, season 2 seems primed to be the best and surpass season 1 but after reading the manga I can tell you that the opposite is more likely to be true. We’ll see though, the anime can always mix things up.

Overall, Delicious in Dungeon is a show with a very unique premise. It definitely takes the whole cycle of life and eating to survive themes to the max. A show like that just ultimately won’t be for me though. I tend to feel bad for the monsters here who really didn’t ask for this and the character cast is more on the weak side. So that does tend to hurt the humor a bit as well. You should be reasonably entertained for the most part but if you want a show with more intense dungeon exploring then it’s time to check out the show about the reincarnated slime instead. Although there hasn’t been much exploring in a long time there so it might not be the top option.

Overall 4/10

Rurouni Kenshin (2023) Review

Posted on June 22, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for another great anime. The Kenshin manga was always top tier so it makes sense that the anime would follow suit. I thought everything about it was real solid. The fight scenes looked good, the sound track is on point, and of course the core story is really good. At the end of the day when you have all of that in your favor then you’re really in for a good time. There’s just nothing to hold it back.

The show starts by introducing us to Kenshin who used to be a powerful warrior that terrorized the land. There was a huge war back in the day with both sides fighting for their own justice. Kenshin’s side won and now they are the government but Kenshin has distanced himself from the group. He chooses to be a Rurouni instead now and no longer fights unless it is to protect someone. He wanders into a nice town where he meets Kaoru. She has a dojo and he decides to relax there and help her out for a while. Unfortunately, his days of being a pacifist are about to run into some turbulence. A bunch of villains are running around who all want to test their might against the legendary fighter. If Kenshin doesn’t fight back, they will end up hurting his new friends. What can he do?

At its core the series is really about Kenshin trying to hold onto his ideals through thick and thin. It’s a good message and the show handles it well. At times Kenshin may hold back a little too much and some villains make a good point that his morals are all well and good but if he lets his friends get hurt because of them then that’s not a worthy tradeoff. Kenshin does have to work on balancing these things which will likely continue to be a theme in the next season.

Right now Kenshin is still a top tier main character though. He’s easy to root for and he has a lot of serious skills. So he’s definitely one of those guys who is able to back up his own tough words far better than most of the others would be able to. When the going gets tough, Kenshin does revert into his violent mode which definitely tends to do the trick in situations like this. I like his overall confidence and good natured spirit. He’s always been one of the higher tier Jump protagonists.

Kaoru is a fairly good heroine although she doesn’t always get a lot to do. Relative to other heroines I would even say that her role is super small. She will usually be around to try and help get Kenshin back into his senses but that’s about it. She is otherwise not really able to fight with any of the big characters so she stays to watch but all in all she’s a nice person. Then there is Yahiko who actually does get some fights to himself. He’s only a kid so it’s not like he can fight all that well but I’ll give him some points for effort. He really does try hard. At times he can be on the annoying side though, especially when he tries to do something without telling Kenshin and then puts himself in a dangerous position for no reason.

As the first rival Sanosuke is a fun character. He very quickly gets power creeped by other characters who show up later but definitely works well as the opening boss. His punches can really land a lot of damage and he has some good battle instincts as well. I generally like him as a character. I feel like he does need a weapon though and not that super heavy one he used in the introduction arc. That thing’s just way too slow to be usable in real life situations. At least to me that seems to be the case. He helps to provide some balance to the team though because he’s much more aggressive and in your face compared to Kenshin.

I want to give a shoutout to Kenshin’s first real opponent. No, not the fake Battosai but Jin-E, a legendary assassin. What I like about this guy is that he was legitimately very skilled. He actually gave Kenshin a good fight and his ability to choke his opponents was really intense. That’s a super good ability to have in combat since your opponent could lose focus for a second and then you win. If not, you at least disrupt his movements which is also a really big deal This guy is mainly forgotten nowadays but to me he will always be the point where the series found its stride and became great.

Then we have Aoshi’s group which was a lot of fun. They all had a lot of loyalty and fairly good backgrounds. What makes them sympathetic is you can easily see how someone would turn out like that. When you’re trained to murder in combat and never learned any other skills then it makes sense that integrating back into society would not be so easy. In particular from the minions I would say Han’nya stood out the most. He really gave Kenshin a tough fight for a while there and even won in their first clash. Yes, it was a quick clash and he had a gimmick but I still remember thinking that was super impressive. Definitely a really solid way to kick off the arc as well.

Of course Aoshi was the main star here and he’s still one of my favorite characters in the series. His sword skills are second to none and he has a solid honor code. He has his objectives and completes them but always does things his way. He’s always willing to talk back to any other villain who is trying to boss him around. Nobody is going to try and exert influence over him. That’s just not how Aoshi operates and I definitely find that to be really admirable. He’s the kind of guy that you really want to be on your team.

Megumi joins the group after this arc as a main supporting character and she fits in really well. I dare say that she adds more to the dynamic than the main heroine at this point. She is always ready for banter and being a healer is really helpful since nobody else has those skills at the moment. It means that she is really irreplaceable within the team. She definitely has a rough background and wasn’t always a hero but considering the circumstances, it’s easy to trust her as a reliable hero now.

Finally as the show began to close we were introduced to Saito who is another all star character. This guy’s abilities are really solid to the point where he really had Kenshin backpedaling. He’s another villain with a good honor code who is willing to do whatever he needs to in order to keep his honor on good ground. I like this kind of character without a doubt. His fight is one of the best ones in the series as well so you aren’t likely to forget him. I’m definitely looking forward to him getting more fights in the upcoming seasons.

There are several other villains and supporting characters at the ready but these were the main ones. The show really covers a lot of ground in these 24 episodes. It always feels good to crack 20 right off the gate so even if you didn’t get a formal season 2, it feels like you had both. That being said, the next season is already confirmed so there are no worries there. In the manga the next segment was the best part of the series so most likely that will be the case here as well but we’ll see.

One thing I really like about the show is how most of the characters actually sound like they’re from the olden days. It reminds me of the old Hollywood kind of dialogue but the Japanese version. There are a lot of terms thrown around and everything relating back to the Bakumatsu period and then you also have all of the characters generally being polite to each other. Even if they naturally don’t mean it, it’s pretty nice to hear. It adds a very refined flavor to the show and it makes the whole experience feel that much more authentic.

Meanwhile the animation is really solid like I said. The fights are really flashy with a good amount of choreography in them. The fighters move fast and each battle feels very epic. I definitely have no complaints here so far and that’s a good thing since it’s a pretty action packed show. If the fights were not up to snuff then that would be a problem. I also give major thumbs up to the soundtrack. There are a number of really good battle themes spread throughout the anime. I had quite a few that I liked and again they fit the very dramatic style of the duels.

In Kenshin, there is a lot of explaining what each attack does in between the techniques which I like as it adds to the analytical part of the show. Both fighters are working on countering each attack as soon as they see it. The cat and mouse mind games are a ton of fun all around. Naturally the season ends with a big cliffhanger as well so you have a lot to look forward to for the next season. There are definitely going to be plenty of battles there and Kenshin will really have to steel his resolve.

Way I see it, since the show takes place in the days of a lot of rampant corruption, you do need to finish off your opponents sometimes. Kenshin has a tendency to spare his foes and hope they go over a new leaf but what’s more likely is they will wait until he is not around and then go take out his friends. That is the big issue for me. For example if Saito didn’t axe off his partners afterwards, they definitely might have tried getting some retaliation and since Kenshin would be out of town, things would have gotten very bad very quickly. In a nutshell, that tends to be my main problem here. Kenshin’s mentality only works when he’s alone but once he chose to make friends and hang out, that starts to put them all in lethal danger.

One last thing I’d add is I do appreciate the quick mini arcs about weak villains because these are chances for Kenshin to show just how crazy strong he is. Like the arc with Sanosuke’s friend who wanted to bomb the capital. We get to see Kenshin from the point of view of the average fighter and naturally he’s a monster. Kenshin doesn’t need to do much in order to stop that guy. I think it’s important to have these minibosses because since Kenshin tends to only fight the strongest warriors around, you can possibly forget just how far above most fighters he is. So seeing him dominate these guys is a good idea. When he takes too long or sandbags, then it also helps make the point of guys like Saito who say that Kenshin is being too soft. One of these mini arcs had a character effectively lose the use of his wrist, possibly for good because Kenshin didn’t go all out. I thought that was a very good callback that the show made use of later on. So you end up feeling like each episode is really important.

Overall, Rurouni Kenshin is a great story that has withstood the test of time. Each episode is a lot of fun and the quality of the episodes is always at a high level. I had a lot of fun going through the show and I’m definitely hyped for the next season. There are already a ton of great villains running around and that number is about to rise even further as we are introduced to the new group. So I’m definitely ready for all that. If you enjoy a good action title then I definitely recommend watching this one. It’s really got all of the fights and quality writing you could ask for.

Overall 8/10

Mashle: Magic and Muscles – The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc Review

Posted on June 22, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Mashle. The first season was definitely great with a solid balance of action and comedy. This one follows it up pretty well with more of the same. We finally meet the big villains in this batch so you know that things are getting real. No problem though, the story still makes time for the humor and everything so the balance isn’t lost. In a lot of ways Mashle feels like a retro Shonen Jump title that could have stood in there with the classics like Naruto. It embraces the common Jump scenarios while also having a lot of fun with them.

After the events of the last season, everyone now knows that Mash has no magical abilities. This means that there are a lot of people who resent him and think he should not be allowed to take the Divine Visionary test. An appeal is made to the principal but fortunately Mash is allowed to stay on. The one catch is that the stakes have now been raised. If Mash doesn’t become the Divine Visionary then he will be murdered. There will be no escape for the guy. It’s a pretty tough situation to be in but then again, this only matters if he loses and Mash is confident in himself. We begin the next round of the tournament but of course the villains are also waiting around the corner.

The 12 episodes really go by very quickly here. It feels like the season ended as soon as it had began but I suppose that just talks to the quality of the show. As always Mash is a fun main character. I would say he is even better in this season because he has more tough dialogue with the villains. At one point he declares himself to be the strongest and in general he doesn’t shy away from any fight. It’s great to be strong but it’s even better to know that you’re strong and so I really liked the confidence there.

Innocent Zero is a pretty great villain right from the jump. The guy has big plans, big connections, and he is generally in control the whole time. That’s the kind of thing that you look for in a villain without a doubt. He also has the power to back his tough talk up as he is probably the strongest fighter in the series right now. His time abilities are super intense and then he gets another power up during the season. I was also glad to see him defend Mash during the early court hearing. It may not be for the right reasons but I’ll still take it. Innocent Zero is also a rare villain who may specialize in long distance attacks but can still hold his own against anyone in close quarters. Now that’s a perfect balance.

While we meet all of the visionaries, most of them haven’t had a chance to do anything yet. Ryoh leaves a great impression because he actually seems reasonable and defends Mash the whole time. Why would you possibly want to murder the kid who is you best hope against the villains? They’re all so brainwashed about the whole magic society part that they even go against their own best interests. Now that is a bad look if I’ve ever seen one. So some of the visionaries definitely get docked a bunch of point for this either for being against Mash or just being on the fence about this.

Wahlberg looks good in the fight but I still have to take points away for how he handled the Mash situation. Put it this way, he’s the principal and yet he is letting this whole debate go on. He should have rushed in there real quick and shut the whole thing down. All he has to say is that Mash will continue to be a student here and ask them what they want to do about that. He could likely beat most of them although if it’s a team battle it would probably be tricky. I just think he should have flexed his power a little more and actually tried to make a difference. Otherwise he’s really not using his position to his advantage. The guy’s way too passive which is my problem with him.

Orter is the biggest prosecutor in terms of trying to get Mash murdered. He wants that guy to be absolutely executed right away but fortunately there aren’t any other members who are quite as deranged as he is. This guy actively hires other villains to go and get Mash. You’re looking forward to someone taking him down at some point. Fortunately Rayne is one of the characters who is actually trying to defend Mash and he does a pretty good job of that. His abilities are really good and while I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t crush Margarette harder, I’d say it’s implied that Rayne is still stronger. He’s a divine visionary for a reason after all.

In some ways Kaldo likely seems to be the most impressive. He did really well when testing Mash to see just how good he was. The guy was holding his own with speed and apparently he was even holding back? Yeah that’s not an opponent to take lightly and his sword looks really cool. I definitely look forward to seeing more of him. Of course Mash’s usual friends are still around as well. Lemon actually has her big moment where she makes a big speech and defends Mash’s honor. Finn still does his best and he has a good durability moment where he stays conscious long enough for Mash to show up and save the day.

Lance and Dot take a more active role in helping out as they fight a bit. Dot doesn’t look super impressive but what else is new right? Lance does well at least and even manages to defeat an opponent while reverted to the body of a child. Now that’s a pretty good feat and definitely nothing that Dot could have matched. I still like Lance a lot as a rival even if Mash already left him in the dust big time. He’s never going to catch him at this rate.

For the villains, there were 4 main ones in this season. First up is Margarette who gets a lot of hype early on. In the first encounter with Mash, Mash actually does a big seismic toss throw to take Margarette down for the count but it doesn’t work. When you see Margarette get up without any injuries, that’s the exact moment where you realize that this is no ordinary opponent. It’s a fantastic way to generate some hype right out of the gate. The hype doesn’t stop from there and it’s a really good fight for the two episodes. I may not love Margarette as a character but you can’t deny this level of power.

Carpaccio is more of the twisted villain type. He likes inflicting pain and his ability is perfect for it since he automatically reflects all pain. Super handy, after all who wouldn’t want to be effectively invincible right? His match against Mash is definitely fun and you have to say that it’s probably the worst matchup for the guy. Mash is probably the only character who is crazy strong enough to take the damage each time and then return blows even harder. That would really be pretty much impossible for the rest of the character. I wonder if murdering Carpaccio would just get reversed before he dies or if that’s a way around the power. Either way it would be really risky to try that.

In general the villains have some rather broken abilities here. Sitter Baby is another one of them. He can turn his opponents into babies which dramatically reduces their stats. it’s a real intense power to be sure and all the guy needs to do is quickly smash his opponent or always have a partner. Either way I’d say the heroes basically got lucky here. It easily could have gone sideways very quickly for them here.

Finally you have Cell War who is a really fun villain. His ability itself isn’t quite as broken as the others but he makes up for this with very impressive physical abilities. You feel like anyone other than Mash would have a super hard time trying to block all of the rapid blows. This guy can shoot tons of spikes at you and also use them to make other kinds of weapons. It’s really an endless barrage that just keeps on coming. I thought he was a very impressive villain even if he couldn’t ultimately keep up. Few can keep up with Mash.

As always the soundtrack is super good for Mashle. I think this is one of those things that really helps the anime to keep on elevating things. It’s really cool to know you are always going to have a great track accompanying a great scene. It’s the way to go. The opening also gets real catchy this time and is a big step up over the season 1 theme song which never really caught on for me. The animation is also really solid here. They have fun with the chibi gags which hold up really well and then for the fights there is a whole lot to enjoy. The fights move quickly and have a lot of action to them. The movement is on point and it never slows down.

The technical elements do not betray the series by any means. So now you’ve got great characters, a great story, and the whole thing is completed with the solid humor all throughout the show. I’m definitely hyped for the next season to keep up this momentum. A lot of the upcoming villains already look cool from the brief look we got at them. Also due in part to how the show still lets us have a lot of slice of life moments and comedic scenes, you’re already use to all of the characters. So you want to see them continue to show up and really get some more fights in there. I really enjoyed the climax in the manga and so I bet it’s going to be extremely awesome in the anime as well.

I mentioned that the show goes very quickly and part of that is due to the really fast pacing. There’s always a fight going on or some kind of gag. You aren’t given much time to catch your breath with the fast paced nature of the show. It makes a lot of sense with how chaotic the school is in general. I do think this is a show where bad animation could have hurt it a lot since you do want the spectacle to show off what Mash can do since that is part of the fun. If he didn’t look impressive then it hurts the entire gimmick/concept.

Also, as strong as Mash is, he isn’t quite the strongest in the verse. So that’s another difference from One Punch Man, there are actually enemies who can take this guy down. Mash is given quite a bit of trouble in his fights in this season and can’t do anything against Innocent Zero. So no worries, there is still a lot of danger in this one. There is a bit of plot armor in regards to why the villains don’t just crush everybody right now though. It would have been a simple enough task and then there would have been nobody around to fight them off later on. Zero definitely fumbled the bag right there.

Overall, Mashle continues to ride all of the momentum from the first season to great effect here. It goes even farther than the first season did and I expect we will see similar success with the next season. At first glance you may figure this is just some kind of One Punch knock-off but I can assure you that it definitely has its own identity. As long as you like good action and humor then you should have a really good time here. Mash choking someone with a creampuff is probably the best gag in the series but in general the series is super funny and the jokes tend to really land. It’s a great all around title that does not really have any weaknesses. I’s all positive here.

Overall 8/10

Trigun Stampede Review

Posted on May 11, 2024 by dreager1

It’s been a long while since I saw the original Trigun so it was fun to check out this modern remake of it. It’s a very short series so it can’t quite tackle everything that the original could but does well in a compressed kind of way. Directly, I would say that the original did just about everything better than the remake but at the same time it’s been long enough where my memories of the original might be better than my experience was. I see that my review of the original wasn’t exactly glowing back then so it’s always fun to see how things have changed. Regardless, this one does a good job…even if it is CG!

The show starts by introducing us to Vash and Knives. They were raised by a nice lady named Rem but Knives ended up sabotaging the ship and basically causing everyone to die. Vash barely survived the incident and now he has to find Knives and put a stop to him before he hurts anyone else. Along the way Vash also repairs any generator that is run down and needing repairs. See, the world is effectively powered by these things and without them you can’t really get power, water, electricity, etc. You basically die without them. One lady was trying to grow plants so that they could create oxygen but everyone thinks that she is super crazy.

Also, unfortunately Vash is a wanted man with a huge bounty on his head. So he has to always be on the run. Despite this, he has managed to remain as a pacifist for all these years and really tries to never fight if he can help it. Obviously this is not an easy task by any means so definitely kudos to him for doing his best there. The problem is that when he is put into a situation where he needs to fight, he doesn’t always do well. Will Knives end up winning because Vash refuses to do anything?

In a nutshell that is my biggest issue with the remake. I felt that the first show had a much better balance of how Vash should be. Yes, he was a pacifist who never wanted to murder anyone but he was much more willing to fight and at least stop the threat. Knock someone out or capture them at least. Here, he spends a lot of time running around and dodging which lets innocent people get shot or put into harm’s way. Whereas the original Vash was a super prodigy who could stop anyone, this one feels like he gets by on pure luck most of the time. A great example of this is in the very first episodes.

So you have a crazy guy who wants to throw bombs around and destroy the town. Vash is messing around like always but you figure he has a great plan and won’t let anybody get hurt right? I mean he can’t just be acting up like this if he has no plan?….well that’s exactly what happens and it is supremely annoying. This is just disgraceful considering that we are counting on him here. In fact he runs out of bullets and it is only thanks to some quick thinking by Meryl that the town isn’t blown to kingdom come. It may seem like a minor thing but it’s quite major when you think about it.

See, a key part of Vash’s character is that all life is precious. He doesn’t care if you’re a law abiding citizen or a mass murderer, he’s going to try and protect you. He does this by honing his gun skills every day and making sure he is the absolute best so he can win every fight in a non lethal way. In the old show the only exception is Knives who Vash does fully intend to take down for good. He doesn’t have the same drive here at all unfortunately. So with Vash being clowned on here, it undermines his motivation because now he’s not going to actually save everyone. In fact, instead he’s just going to end up causing many more civilian deaths on a high order. This is not the way to go, not at all.

This keeps on happening in the show where it feels like they made Vash too extreme in his pacifism to the point where he’s just enabling the villains after a while and it nearly costs him everything. So while I grew to enjoy him in the old show, I didn’t really care for him here. It just helped to underscore why Wolfwood was a much better character. Wolfwood is the pragmatist here who does what needs to be done. Lets face it, he had a much worse childhood than Vash had. Wolfwood was tortured and experimented on for ages while basically losing everything. He’s blackmailed the whole series and still manages to help people out from time to time.

The biggest difference is that he will actually murder the villains when they are going too far. Wolfwood directly saves a lot of lives this way. Sure he may not be as heroic as Vash but to the people he saves that won’t end up mattering all that much. In a fight I think Vash would probably still have the edge here if he was going all out but if they’re both in character then I’m betting Wolfwood wins more times than not. He’s simply willing to go further and his healing factor is extremely good here. I actually think he seems more powerful than in the original version with how fast he heals from everything. He’s a great character through and through.

Meryl is a solid character here who is very gung ho and always ready for action. She disobeys orders several times in order to help the heroes out which I appreciate. It’s usually a problem if you follow orders too closely because then you lose sight of the forest for the trees. So I’m glad that didn’t happen here as it would have been a real problem. She may not be able to fight at a high level just yet but she does help out on multiple occasions and is a fun character to have around. She does a great job of being the B plot.

Meanwhile her partner Roberto is also a lot of fun. I admit that I can never take him seriously when he pulls the gun out on the more powerful villains but it is a fact that he has more experience than Meryl and helps her out on many occasions. I often disagree with his decisions but he does some of them in order to protect her. He’s rather jaded and seems to have lost faith in humanity a long time ago. It’s easy to see why with how messed up the world is in this series. It almost does seem like humanity is determined to mess up every planet in its way so you can see how that’s a big problem. So at this point he just wants to pick up his paycheck and keep his head down but having a partner like Meryl makes that impossible. They have a great dynamic going there.

From the flashbacks you have Rem who was a very solid character as well. It’s a shame that things didn’t go better for her. You could tell that she did her best to make the right decisions. Ultimately I wouldn’t put any blame on her, sometimes you do everything right and things still end up going badly. That’s just life in a nutshell after all. Finally you have Knives who is as sinister as ever but I did think that the show gave him more points this time around. Yeah he’s the antagonist but when he’s going up against the humans you’re rooting for him because of how crazy they are. It feels like every human immediately goes off the rails as soon as any accountability vanishes.

We see them torturing the plant life and Knives’ fellow friends all the time. Most of the humans don’t seem all that remorseful. We even have a whole episode to show how quickly they turn on Vash and the others when the going gets tough. Humanity can’t be trusted in this series and that’s a running theme. Vash simply chooses to help them out anyway. It definitely underscores what a nice guy he is but sometimes to a fault. Knives’ decision to massacre them all is extreme as well but is it much different than what the humans would do?

To the humans, Knives is simply a sentient plant. They wouldn’t bat an eye in murdering him the way they wouldn’t for a bunch of aliens. So to Knives the perspective is really the same here which makes sense. Whenever you make a villain like this with a solid backstory and make the humans relatively unlikable, it’s a little hard to root against him. Particularly when there are no solutions presented to combat his logic. He’s definitely one of the standout characters here and the show really made him a huge threat here, he’s even more powerful than in the first show.

Hamilton is one of those villains who reminds you why Vash is a little too lenient. If someone didn’t show up things were going to get dicey again. He’s one of the most underwhelming villains though. I couldn’t take him too seriously in a world where Knives and his gang exists. Legato barely gets to do anything in this series and he’s many times better. The guy’s gravity powers are really intense and he’s the kind of character who strikes fear into your heart the moment he appears. That is absolutely the kind of guy you want to have as a big antagonist.

Elendira appears for even less time and leaves more of an impact than Hamilton. I think there’s a whole lot they could do with her moveset. In general Knives’ group are very interesting and I would like to see more of them. You probably need to give Wolfwood and Vash at least one more powerful ally so they aren’t too badly outnumbered though. Otherwise that would really put them in a tough spot.

Then you have the villains who are victims like Rollo and Livio. Rollo is probably the most tragic character in the series. He was only a kid but due to Vash’s carelessness he had to go through a whole lot and really lost his mind. He’s a complete victim because he never had a choice in how his life ended up. Definitely sad all the way. Same for Livio who may have gotten to be older but he was molded since he was a kid so I’d say that the same thing applies to him. If anything he may have gone through even more pain than the other characters. It shows that the villains have to be taken out before they can do this to more people.

Finally there is Zazie who is a great wild card but doesn’t do as much as I would have liked. So you have the humans who crash landed on this planet a while back and the sentient plants who are trying to do their best to survive. There is a third party though, the creatures who already existed on the planet. They are led by Zazie although that might not be the right word. Zazie is the collective consciousness of these creatures and as a result he wields a ton of power. At one point he explains that whoever he decides to help will win the war which is a great speech. And then…Zazie doesn’t do much for the rest of the series. I really wanted to see him get a bigger role, maybe take on Vash and Knives. I suppose in a way you could say that he doesn’t have to do anything since he will exist as long as the planet does but that’s too passive. I want to see him do that because you can’t have one of the best scenes in the show and just vanish. That doesn’t work for me.

Stampede is interesting in how it’s a remake in a lot of ways while also working as a prequel. Now there are some obvious reasons you will note as to why this can’t totally work as a prequel after watching the whole series but the ending does add 2 ways that make it work. So the best way to think of this is as a completely different path that will be leading to new events. It’s as if you started a game and skipped most of the content in an attempt to speed run the final boss. Now the game is catching up so a bunch of the old missions will appear. It’s a really unique way to handle things and all in all I thought it was very interesting. It puts the sequel at a bit of a disadvantage since a lot of the best scenes are already here but I’m curious how it will go.

The series feels a bit darker than the original. The original had time for a lot of light hearted episodes and sequences in addition to the action but here because of the sped up format the series focuses more on the dark backstories for everyone. I feel like there are very few moments where the characters get to just hang out and have a good time. There is always something serious going on. At times the show can go a bit far with all of the violence and dark themes. You have quite a lot of people being tortured or dying some rough deaths. Most of the characters don’t really end up in a happy place by the end.

In fact, most of them have sad endings here. The very ending is actually really sad as well with how things went down. So get ready for a very emotional series. What helps at least is that the series never feels exploitive. It can be really heavy for sure but without overplaying the issue the way other titles were. So brace yourself to be sure but this series is still focusing on having a captivating story first and foremost. Perhaps one where you are rooting for the plants over the humans but that’s all in how you see it.

Now for the animation, a big thing here was that the show was going to be CG. Of course you know that means it won’t look as good as hand drawn but if it can still at least look pretty good in general then that wouldn’t matter right? I can satisfactorily say that it does look sharp. I would still say not as good as any of the hand drawn shows on the market but they tried pretty hard here. They do a good job of showing off Knives’ abilities here for sure. Vash’s arm cannon doesn’t look quite as good but that’s more on the story direction than the animation I would say. There are fun fights here and so in general they did the best with what they had.

For the ost…another forgettable one for the most part. The opening isn’t bad as it reminds me of the Tower of God opening. It fits the tone of the overall show. The tunes aren’t bad and there was one battle theme I liked but they could have gone a little harder on this end I’d say. Give me some really tense tunes and a bunch of opera type music. I think those would have worked really well with the show and made it even more exciting. Especially with the show’s deep themes you could have some Death Note kind of music in there and it would work really well. Maybe next time I suppose.

A final thing to note is the show spends a good amount of time on Vash’s backstory here. More so even than in the original show I’d say as outside of the whole situation with Knives we see how Vash was able to hang out with some humans for a while and how he actually knew peace for a while. It’s easy to forget but as a plant he is effectively immortal and he’s been around for a very long time. That can get awful lonely especially with the level of guilt that he is carrying. It gets really emotional with the group that he hung out with as well especially with so many secrets around. The whole show can get sad a lot of the time and this part is no exception. Again it shows how impressive it is that he is still so cheerful all the time and how he hasn’t broken down yet. I can at least give him that credit.

Overall, Trigun Stampede is a pretty good show. At times it can get a little on the violent side which just makes you mad at Vash every time since he could have done more to prevent these scenarios. Realistically you can’t blame him for everything though, Knives also deserves the lion’s share of the blame at the end of the day because he’s the one putting the gears into motion but Vash should have been better. The show has a good plot and it is very engaging though. The banter between Vash and Wormwood is as good as you might have guessed and I liked how many different parties got involved by the end. It’ll be difficult for a future season to match this one now that a lot of the big plots are completed but there is certainly room for the sequel. A lot of the internal debates like the rights for the sentient plants can continue to be a thing. Of course it does feel like a losing battle as long as the people in high positions tend to be humans. I’d recommend checking this one out and if you like it, then watch the original for the more fleshed out version.

Overall 7/10

Ranking of Kings Review

Posted on May 11, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at an anime that really became a big deal for a while there. I remember seeing the fights posted a lot as examples of great fights with a lot of fluid animation and I knew some people who were huge Boji fans. It’s definitely a fun fantasy title. One where I was not as sympathetic with some of the characters as the show was hoping I would be but it’s definitely a fun title all the way.

The show introduces us to Prince Boji who is the heir to the throne but he is very weak. Historically weak you can say. Despite his father being the strongest man in the world, Boji has not inherited any of that. In fact you could say that he is one of the weakest fighters in the land. Boji is also deaf and as a result he hasn’t noticed just how much disdain everyone has for him. When his father dies, the queen quickly enacts a vote to make his step brother Daida the king instead. Boji heads off with Kage, a shadow creature he befriended to at least learn some new skills and see the world. What he doesn’t yet realize is that Daida has plans of his own and may not be leading the country down the right path. Will Boji be able to stand up and defend the kingdom that is rightfully his?

It’s a tough position for Boji to be in as soon as the throne is given to Daida. If Boji was super popular among the masses then of course he could just jump back in and stage a revolt but the fact is that most people have sided with Daida. It makes sense to have him as a King when he is so much more skilled and possesses greater power. Boji’s idealism can only take him so far after all. It’s not exactly fair but that’s just how life goes sometimes. Even if he does get strong enough to take down Daida and all of the royal subjects, he would be destroying his own kingdom at that point. So Boji has to find a peaceful solution to all of this.

I should also mention that there are many Kings in the world here. As the title suggests, there is a whole ranking system and there is something odd about it. Something strange always happens involving the number 1 ranked King. Supposedly you are given everything you desire but that sounds a little too good to be true right? Well, it’s something Boji may have to worry about down the road so it’s something to keep in mind. Season 1 covers a whole lot of ground but you can already tell that there are many more stories to be told within this kingdom.

This is also one of those series that has a ton of plot twists around every corner. From your journey in the first episode to the last one you can expect a bunch of the fights to be recontextualized over and over again. The hero and villain of the conflict end up changing as well and so you really can’t trust anyone. It feels like Boji is betrayed in every episode after a while and even if some of those betrayals may not stick, it would give you trust issues. The show does try hard to make most of the characters sympathetic by the end but like I mentioned, it doesn’t really work for most of them. It seems like they could have given Boji an easier time if they handled things differently.

The animation is pretty good so the show lives up to its reputation there. It may not be world shattering in the way that you might hear it mentioned but it does look good. It’s going for very simple character designs which allow for a lot of movement in the fights. It doesn’t have a lot of bright energy type effects but the choreography is always good. You can be sure to see a lot of really good battles here. I’m not as big a fan of the artstyle though. I feel like it makes for more pale colors in general so it won’t stand out as much as say a show from the 90s that does have strong colors. So that part can be a mixed bag. The soundtrack isn’t quite able to keep up though as none of the tunes really stand out. I also wasn’t particularly a fan of either opening but you can’t win them all.

Shows can never resist a giant final boss near the end so you can expect a big battle but the animation still does a good job of showing off the dodging abilities of Boji. The villains have some demon dogs that they use in battle at times which are definitely the weakest of the fights because you feel bad for them the whole time. They’re not quite real dogs but the show definitely straddles the line just a bit there. Not as bad as it could be of course but I could do without those minions all the way through.

Part of the whole premise here of course is how Boji can’t really fight so the question is, will the show go all in on that and have him win with agility or will he just become super OP and broken? Well, I’d say the show does a pretty good job of focusing on his speed. Boji aims for weak points and nerve type blows to win matches in one shot even without physical power. So that was handled well and of course he still does end up being one of the stronger fighters in the end. I actually appreciated how the show focused on giving him a bad matchup constantly. He should be able to handle most of the fighters here so the show gives him the one guy that can just keep healing or the one with enough physical strength to ignore his hits. That was clever.

Okay now lets talk about the characters a bit. First up we have Boji and I will admit that I didn’t really like this guy. As a main character he went too far into the naive aspect. The fact that people would trick him into giving up his clothes over and over again is a pretty terrible look. You definitely feel really bad for him and the show does succeed in making him sympathetic but for the most part I would say that he’s not really main character material. He definitely handles his business when he has to but most of the side characters just end up being better than him in the end.

For example his partner Kage is a lot more interesting. Kage’s backstory is also a lot more emotional. The guy really went through a lot and is also in more danger than Boji on a consistent business. He pretty much has to watch his back at all times because if he doesn’t then it’s all over. His abilities are also pretty interesting with how he can change his shape and really turn any part of himself into a weapon. That’s always a versatile power and while he doesn’t scale as high as the other characters, he is definitely a great friend the whole time.

Then you have Daida who is a solid antagonist. He’s the kind of villain who doesn’t want to take any shortcuts and does a lot of heavy lifting on his own. At one point the villains want him to do something and he refuses which was good since it shows that he has his own honor code. Ultimately he was overpowered and forced to do it anyway but I like that he can stand up to anyone. He’s also reasonably strong even if he’s not super powerful. Either way he is still explicitly an antagonist but he’s one with a good personality who is fun to have on screen.

Hiling is next up and she’s one of those characters with a lot of plot twists but yeah I think she could have handled everything way better. My problem with a character like this is that the plan involves many possible scenarios where Boji and his friends are straight up murdered. At that point the intentions don’t really matter much. So she gets better as the show gets on and I know that she tried hard but I wasn’t fully on board with any of this. She doesn’t really get the thumbs up from me.

She’s still way better than Bosse though who has to be the most annoying character. So of course he is Boji’s father and directly responsible for everything going on. He put Boji in a terrible spot by making him King without giving any other directions and just left him to his own devices. For the rest of his screentime Bosse tends to be a very passive character who won’t lift a finger even when his wife or kids are about to die. This is where he really becomes unforgiveable. The conflict if supposed to be that he’s not sure which side to choose and so he opts not to do anything but of course that is actually choosing a side. Like if villains invade your house and you’re not sure who to help, you’re helping the invaders by not actively defending your spot.

It is even worse because Bosse is easily the strongest character in the entire verse. So his not helping is just such an insult to everyone involved and even right up through to the end he is making the wrong choices. So the guy is definitely annoying and I consider him to be a complete villain all the way through. It’s the only thing that makes sense and even with that he’s not great. I respect his power but that’s about the only thing I respect in the guy. He single handily made everyone’s lives much harder than they had to be.

Even the literal Demon who shows up doesn’t cause as much damage. That guy is a very interesting character though in large part because most of the series feels fairly down to Earth. (Outside of Bosse’s flashback with fighting gods and everything but the point of his origin is how crazy overpowered he is) Sure people have powers and you have an immortal running around but he is easily the most supernatural character of the bunch and shows up rather nonchalantly. I’m definitely expecting the lore to be explored way more coming up but for now he is definitely a very interesting villain.

Miranjo gets a pretty massive role here. Her origin is definitely sad and she went through a lot so it was good that she could bond with Bosse. The problem is more about how she handles this in the present and her plans. There always comes a time where your good intentions just turn into straight villainy and this is one of those times. You can’t root for her or anything because her plans are so extreme. If anything I still blame Bosse more for not actually talking things out with her though. That would have been the right way to approach this instead of being generally useless the whole time.

The way her plot ends is questionable at best though. As a romance the ending doesn’t work at all because of the age gap and the characters barely really knowing each other. Sure they talked a lot as human to mirror but most of that was for deception so it barely counts. If it’s to be more of a nice thing to finally give her protection then I dare say the heroes should have just given her sanctuary and been strong enough to make sure it was followed. This show’s not big on romance either way so it’s not like we’ll likely get many scenes about it but if this is meant to be taken seriously then it’s definitely a weak one already.

After that we have Ouken who is another big villain. He shows just how dangerous regeneration and immortality can be. Also how scary it could be in a sense since you have to live forever no matter what happens. We see Bosse crush him into a ball multiple times and you can’t help but feel like that would actually work really well even though it would be like a torture for Ouken. Being immortal is a massive price to pay and the show’s view is that it’s not worth it which I definitely agree with. Once you become immortal then it is all over. Ouken’s first major fight with the Mad King was definitely a solid way to be introduced though. In general the series did a good job with the seemingly one shot villains who are doomed from the start but still get a solid run of things. It was also a good way to keep some of the heroes busy.

Desha is a fun villain. He’s easily one of the strongest fighters in the world and lives up to the hype. He’s definitely got a heroic spirit to him as well with how reasonable he can be when working with Boji. The guy also risks a whole lot to help Ouken. Desha doesn’t appear a ton throughout the series but he definitely helps when it counts. I hope he will still have a good role in future arcs. His brother Despa isn’t quite as interesting although his lightning ability is handy at least. I appreciated the fact that he could at least fight a bit as opposed to being completely powerless.

Apeas is one of the big 4 warriors and unfortunately I did not really like him by the end. His whole thing is about being super loyal but I would argue that some characters take it too far to the point of not being loyal. It may sound like a contradiction but ultimately it comes down to you being loyal to a person or to a concept. Depending on your answer is how I determine if you are actually loyal or not. His pure combat skills can’t be denied though. He has a lot of physical strength but I’d argue he is surpassed within the same group anyway. Definitely someone you want to be careful about having as an enemy regardless though.

Bebin is another one of the big fighters and he’s solid. He’s a sneaky fighter who always has a few crafty tricks at the ready. So if you’re not careful then you will definitely end up being in trouble. He also has a ton of plot twists running around but one thing you can always trust about him are his snakes. The large one in particular is a good friend to Boji and always looks good. Ultimately Bebin is good but like the queen I feel like his plans are way too risky to the point of almost being like luck at times. I wouldn’t want him to be the one watching over me.

Dorshe is easily the most likable out of the main 4 and I would also argue that he is the strongest. His feats are the best and he really handled himself very well even when he was outnumbered. He’s a fun guy to have around and someone who is truly loyal and doesn’t just act the part. Trust me when I say that makes an absolutely huge difference. There’s not a whole lot to say about him beyond that but that’s not a negative. He’s a simple character who was brought up with the right attitude and as a result he does really well for himself. I can definitely respect that.

Hokuro is someone I’m not as big a fan of. The guy is just way too weak the whole time so even when he’s by your side, it’s not like it’s a really big help necessarily. He calls out Domas and everything but it has less weight since he can’t do much about it. Domas has to be one of the worst characters though. The guy is an absolute traitor no matter how you slice it and there was no way back for him. Right from that moment I knew he could never rebound. Some characters just go too far and have to pay the price.

Either way the big 4 are power creeped rather quickly. By the end of the show there isn’t a whole lot that they are able to do. Ouken is a villain who’s a bit of an exception to the overall power levels because of his immortality but either way he absolutely crushed them. They just didn’t stand a chance against him. By the end of the series it feels like the kingdom is in pretty good shape but of course with the supernatural lore around it will be very easy to write up a group of villains who can really threaten them. So there are a lot of ways that you can take this one.

I also hope that Boji can be a little bolder and more full of life in a sequel. In a lot of ways he is the weak point of the show because he’s just not very interesting as a main character. His fighting style is different but not the most interesting visually. So lets just upgrade him a bit and that should help the show as a whole. From there, just keep on giving us some good fights and maybe introduce a few more characters. A lot of the heroes currently around already have a ton of baggage from the whole choosing sides thing here.

Overall, Ranking of Kings is a good show. I think it’s lacking just enough to keep me from calling it pretty good but it’s worth the watch all the way. You’ll particularly have a good time if you enjoy the old time setting of kings and royalty. Right now most of the characters and organizations are all shady so we’ll see how that goes in the future. I still say that Boji should not trust anyone even with this whole adventure arc out of the way. It feels like the end game will be dealing with the demons and the mystery of being the #1 King but because of that I don’t think it would necessarily be the next arc.

Overall 6/10

Odd Taxi Review

Posted on May 5, 2024 by dreager1

Odd Taxi is one of those shows that I didn’t really know anything about but I remember when it was first announced at some kind of awards show. The teaser was so bad that every reactor I knew was making fun of it. The comments were pretty fun but it seems like a lot of people enjoyed it after the show actually released. Either that or the creators got mad because a lot of the initial reactions were taken down without a trace. Could be that the reactors were covering their tracks though. It’s a pretty unique show that has a fun mystery. I thought it was good, it may not reach the status of very good as I don’t think there is a ton of replay value here but it handles the alternate realistic universe filled with animals concept way better than Beastars ever could.

The show generally follows a walrus named Hiroshi who drives a taxi around town. He picks up various people across the city and lives a generally calm life. He doesn’t get into trouble or take risks and that’s the way that he likes it. Unfortunately, that changes one day when he becomes aware of a missing persons case. A girl has gone missing and unfortunately he is a primary suspect because there are signs pointing to his having driven her right before she vanished. He doesn’t remember….but this is one of those shows where even the main character is a suspect. So we have to determine whether Hiroshi is guilty or not. In the meantime this has gotten the attention of the cops, the yakuza, and even the papparazi. Hiroshi’s quiet life is completely over.

While the mystery is the central focus of the show, this is the kind of title where a lot of plots are balanced at the same time. You can sometimes go whole episodes without the missing persons case being the main focus. For example you’ve also got a failing comedian duo, a girl that Hiroshi has fallen in love with, inter gang battles, one guy’s addiction to mobile games, etc. Another way to look at this could be that the show is more about the city and everyone in it as opposed to just focusing on Hiroshi’s struggles.

Now, the soundtrack isn’t really doing the series any favors. It has to succeed in spite of the songs because they are quite uninspired. The opening is hands down one of the worst that I’ve heard in a while. It might seriously be bottom 5 but that’s a bold statement with how many shows I’ve seen. So for now I’ll just say that it is easily one of the weaker ones and you will want to skip it after seeing it once. Then the ending also doesn’t really work either but at least it has some life to it. The themes within the show aren’t bad but it’s just not really my kind of music. It’s a little too subdued the whole time which is likely the intent based on the style of the show but I wanted something with a little more pop.

The animation is also below average. It’s going for a stylized kind of look but for me that just didn’t work as well as the traditional visuals. Give me something with more color and impact any day. Technical elements usually exist to enhance a show to the next level as opposed to holding it back so that does put this one at a bit of a disadvantage. The show is still good but I dare say this contributed to the show staying there instead of becoming very good.

In a way the story arcs revolve around the characters so I’ll be breaking the story down that way as opposed to the traditional story arcs method. So first lets talk about Kabasawa since he’s one of the more annoying characters. Basically he wants to go viral online and become really famous. So the guy is always taking a lot of pictures and getting himself into trouble with the mafia. It takes him a long while to really get the point and in a way he is supposed to represent the irresponsible streamers that you see everywhere. So the show did a good job of really adapting that kind of person but it also means that naturally this character would not be even remotely likable. Even by the end I didn’t like him and so this wasn’t quite my favorite plot of the bunch.

For a more intense plot, we had the constant fighting between Dobu and Yano. They’re both trying to show off for their boss but this does result in some direct fighting at times. We get to see Dobu a lot more often than Yano and he is a tough gangster. The guy can fight well when he’s cornered and always has a plan. He feels a little less evil than Yano in part because of all the screentime so he gets to mellow out a bit. He makes for a good antagonist who really gives Hiroshi and the others a run for their money. He works best as a full on villain and was always entertaining. I never doubted that he would shoot Hiroshi if the need were to arise.

That said, I liked his rival Yano even more. The way he talks with rhythm and thymes the whole time was pretty cool. He actually had a pretty good theme music which would show up and was the best part of the ost. Yano debuts much later than Dobu but still gets a really good amount of screen-time. I tend to like it when villains are going at each other and this provided another opportunity for that. So all good things here and Yano’s scenes were always really hype.

Then we have the Daimon brothers. One of them is a really corrupt cop who is rather open about this while the other one is really timid and super naive. Good Daimon wants to be a good police officer who opposes evil and fights for justice at all times. His plot ties into the main one the most as this is his big chance but if it means going against his brother then it’ll be tough. You’re eagerly waiting for him to summon his bravery and start doing good but it does take a while. So he gets a good finish here but ultimately I still wouldn’t list him as one of my favorite characters or anything because it took a really long time.

As for bad Daimon, he was usually a lot more entertaining. It’s the way he’s so smug about everything, it’s fun to see him just revel in that as he makes things tough on Hiroshi. This guy isn’t afraid to be petty and so he helps the villains out quite a lot. I don’t feel like he ever got a great reason for helping the villains out but that’s actually a good thing. Sometimes people will just go corrupt easily for some money and influence. It doesn’t all have to tie into some grand sob story that explains everything.

Then we have Hiroshi’s doctor Goriki and his assistant Miho. Miho is a nice enough lady that Hiroshi falls for right away but despite that she has her dark secrets like being a bit of a thief. It’s hard for Hiroshi to get involved here since he isn’t the type to meddle and he’s no sure exactly what’s going on. Ultimately I would say that Miho looks rather bad here. She’s one of those characters who doesn’t have much problem with manipulating someone but then this whole thing started because someone manipulated her so it’s really a whole cycle. Her excuses for being manipulated were pretty bad and ultimately I didn’t think she was a great character.
I liked Goriki a lot though. He could have taken a more proactive approach rather than letting Miho do whatever she wanted though. He seemed to think the optimal thing was to take the loss and move on which is the way to go if you absolutely can’t handle confrontations but I would say overall it isn’t the right thing to do. Sometimes confrontations are inevitable or you will be walked on by everyone else. Goriki is also busy worrying about Hiroshi the whole time but the main character can be rather stubborn about things so this can be difficult.

Then you have Hiroshi’s friend Kakihana who is the most desperate character in the series. He desperately wants a girlfriend even if it means lying on dating apps and borrowing money from shady sources. He will do whatever it takes and gets into trouble on many occasions. It’s always hard to feel bad for him as a result and I don’t feel like he ever made the jump to being a good character. He just holds Hiroshi back and gets the lead into dangerous situations. Kakihana needs to be less desperate and be happy with what he already has.

Then you have the singing plot which is also really important in the show. Yamamoto is the manager of a band of 3 cats who are really popular now. The main singer is Rui while her two backup singers always have to wear masks. Yamamoto has them trying to do everything to hustle up more tickets but the guy is rather shady. He’s one of many people who asks Hiroshi for his dash-cam and seems to know more than he is letting on about the missing girl. Show biz is definitely a dark place as always but he does really well in the role of manager. At the very least, even if it means breaking 1000 laws you can bet that he will work to make the group as popular as possible.

On the surface Rui seems like a really nice person but of course you know that this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Putting on an act is what the trio do for a living after all, but she’s a fun character to have around. In general I liked all of the singers, they all had an edge to them and were quite competitive which makes sense. You don’t get to this high level by being passive after all. In a way Shiho might be the toughest of the group. She does some illegal stuff in order to get rich which involves being bait so that others can get beat up. It’s definitely not something you would be expecting a celebrity to do.

Also even if she doesn’t love the gig, she’s not exactly running away either so I do give her a lot of responsibility here. Ultimately she wants to live a really wealthy life and seems ready to go with any guy who can give her that luxurious life. Definitely not a great reason to start a relationship though, materialistic end goals like that don’t feel like they will lead to a happy outcome. Finally you have Yuki who is the newest member of the group and fighting hard to make sure that she ends up doing well here. She’s got a lot of spirit which I like and definitely has the work ethic to succeed. Her role is quite sizable and of the 3 she is easily the most likable one.

Then we have the comedy duo Shibagaki and baba whose plot has the least to do with the main one but it ultimately does connect. All of the plots converge at some point or another after all. Basically these guys have been a duo for a long time but Baba has gotten more and more distracted as he starts to pursue other goals while Shibagaki still wants to become the best duo in Japan. The fact is that they continue to lose in early rounds of the comedian championship in every year. So Baba thinks they are just on the way down here. I don’t think they worked well as a duo from the start though, they just didn’t have the banter at the ready.

I also don’t think you can possibly succeed if either member of the duo already has their eyes set on another goal. I put most of the blame here on Baba, I think he should either just have gone and quit from the jump or focused entirely for the final competition. His whole one foot in and one foot out made things really tough on the duo. As for Shibageki, he should have looked into a new partner. It seems like he wasn’t doing particularly well in the comedy circuit either but then he needs to work from the ground up and needs a partner who is ready to start from scratch to. Both of these guys were just too stubborn. It was always fun hearing them on the radio though.

We’d have whole segments where Hiroshi is just driving and listening to these guys. It felt a little like a loading screen and it worked well for the slice of life effect. The show did that well in general, a lot was always going on here but at the same time there were a lot of moments for peace like this. A good portion of the show takes place at night since that is Hiroshi’s normal route and so the vibes are rather solid there.

Then you have Tanaka who is the most deranged character in the series. Initially he just starts out as some kid who is super addicted to mobile games but as the show goes on he gets more and more detached from reality. The guy even grabs a gun and starts threatening people. He’s definitely got strong crazy vibes going at all times. While I have no real sympathy for the guy and just think that he’s nuts, the plot is one of the most engaging in the show. Partially because you know he does have a real chance of actually murdering someone since the show’s atmosphere lends itself well to that. It’s also fun when he actually does have a run in with the Yakuza. He’s definitely a very good wild card who keeps all of the characters guessing.

The most normal character in the show has to be Imai. He’s a super big fan of the idol group and so he buys all of their merchandise and attends the concerts that he can. He doesn’t have much money at all but he really wants to support them. Well, one day he win a big lottery so he can finally have a bunch of money but the Yakuza in town might have something to say about this. This guy isn’t the smartest character in the group which gets him into trouble though. You definitely want to be sure that nobody knows you won the lottery but unfortunately he doesn’t think that far ahead. Imai’s more on the naive side so he makes a whole lot of mistakes here. He was okay but I wish he was a bit tougher.

Now we’ve got Hiroshi’s plot but with the added context of all the other plots which keep involving him since he drives them all around. Hiroshi’s not much of a social guy and so he tries to avoid the spotlight but it’s pretty much impossible given his position. I appreciate the effort but yeah he’s definitely a little in over his head on this one. I thought he made for a good main character with how old and jaded he is though. He doesn’t understand any of the newer trends that the younger characters are talking about and he doesn’t want to understand them. Part of him wants to get out there and start dating while another part of him doesn’t want to risk it.

Then with the whole murder case, Hiroshi is rather cryptic. Does he really not remember what happened or is he hiding something? Throughout the show he talks to someone in his closet which is rather suspicious. Well, either way I can say that the resolutions to the plots are definitely interesting. Hiroshi also starts to show some guts later on like during a few tense chase scenes and when he shows up to rescue Kakihana. He may not always be the bravest character but he is someone that you can count on.

The season also ends with a fairly big cliffhanger depending on how you look at it. You can think of it as more of a “bad end” as opposed to a cliffhanger though and assume that things went the villain’s way. I could definitely picture that. On the other hand you can assume that at some point we will get a season 2 that wraps things up. There is certainly enough material for one but either way that was an explosive way to end things and I was not expecting that so it worked out pretty well.

There are a lot of revelations in general near the end. The biggest twist was also pretty well foreshadowed since in hindsight you can connect a few of the dots that way. They are hidden well enough where I wouldn’t expect just about anyone to guess it right away but it doesn’t feel unfair either since the seeds were there. The twist makes you wonder a bit on how a season 2 would go. It would definitely be interesting to see. In a way I hope it would keep things the way they look after the twist because it makes the most sense but I would totally understand it if the show did not want to do that.

I think one of the cleverest things the show did was introducing the girl’s disappearance right away. It’s treated like a murder the whole time but that’s not confirmed. Still, what it does is give the series a fairly serious vibe right away. This is a show with gangs running around and a lot of tension so you want to make sure that the audience knows bad things can happen to the characters. If there was no danger then the show would not have as much intensity as it does now. Even by the end they don’t cop out on the whole thing. It’s a legitimate plot that keeps on going and isn’t just there for shock value.

In general the story is more focused on a strong plot than shock value which is why I put it on a much higher level than something like Beastars. There can be some violence but it isn’t all that excessive and the show isn’t generally dealing with any super dark themes. It’s just a solid mystery with a lot of things going on. The slow pacing can sometimes approach the point of being a little boring every now and again but you do get sucked in when the mystery is a big focus again. The story itself was strong enough to carry the rest of the show.

Overall, Odd Taxi is a fun show. There is a lot of mystery involved with the plot and the characters can be interesting. The show does have a very low key vibe to it although I wish the animation/soundtrack was better. It’s a show that can keep you engaged on the first run but I don’t think it would hold up well on the rewatch. The pacing could stand to be a little faster since some parts can be a bit more dull especially if you don’t care about the character. Kakihana in particular was just annoying the whole time. There aren’t a ton of mystery anime out there compared to other genre though so if you’re in the mood for a title like that then I would recommend this show. The Taxi is definitely a fun vehicle to revolve the show around.

Overall 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song Review

Posted on May 4, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a music focused anime which is always fun. You can bet that there are some solid tunes here and the anime has a bunch of fun time travel in it too. So you’ve got a good story going with fun characters and better than expected fight scenes. All in all, this made for a winning combination. I remember seeing this one around quite a bit back when it was airing so it’s cool to have been able to check it out.

In the future, AI are evolving at a rapid rate. There are still barriers keeping them from going into every industry but they can at least sing and perform concerts as well as do basic security. The show revolves around an AI named Vivy. Every AI has a mission, a purpose for which they exist. Vivy’s purpose as you may guess is to sing her songs and reach the hearts of the masses. She must continue to hone her skills until she has gotten everyone to hear her music. Unfortunately this is difficult because her music may seem perfect objectively but it has no heart. How can an AI put heart into her music? Less and less people are bothering to listen to her anymore. Well, one day her life is turned upside down when an AI named Matsumoto shows up. He confirms that he is here to save the future.

See, in the future AI continues to evolve but it gets to a point where the world is destroyed. The AI go absolutely crazy and murder everyone. Based on readings from the future, they will be able to avoid this future if Vivy can protect someone from being assassinated. She is reluctant because this isn’t related to her mission but if everyone dies then she can’t clear her mission by default right? So she thinks this through and decides to help. Now she will have to quickly download some combat moves and save the day but can she really trust this Matsumoto? Also, will these missions help her establish some heart within her music?

That’s sort of the basic plot but there’s so much going on here that it’s hard to compress this. Another way to think of it is that Matsumoto goes back to the future after each episode to see if things have changed. Every time the future hasn’t gone any better so he goes back to Vivy with different missions to keep trying until the day is saved. You can only pull this off so many times before running out of energy though so it won’t be easy. Meanwhile Vivy tends to be reluctant most of the time but for good reason. She tends to get the short end of the stick here.

In a lot of media involving time travel, a common theme is that certain tragedies are completely inevitable. I never bought into this, but the show definitely takes the approach that it is extremely difficult to stop the dark future. Every time Vivy saves the day, a new trigger appears to keep on making things rough. Also she goes through so many different traumas in the show. It felt like just about every episode Vivy would have to watch someone close to her get destroyed and there’s no way for her to go back in time.

Matsumoto gets to head off for years and even decades at a time while she has to continue living life. It’s definitely a rough deal, one of these moments in particular really shook her to the core. So Vivy gets a ton of credit for continuing to fight despite all of these struggles. At one point she basically has to create a second personality entirely to deal with the trauma which feels like a very logical thing for an AI to do. I suppose if you are scared of AI taking over in the real world you may have a bit of a tough time with the show as well.

Like I mentioned earlier, the animation is really sharp here. There is the occasional CG that slips in, but for the most part we’re talking high quality levels of hand drawn here. The fights move at an incredibly fast pace and have some really great hand to hand combat featured within. I wouldn’t say this is an action show first and foremost so you shouldn’t expect a big action scene in every episode but they definitely show up often enough to keep this moving at a high level. We get some cool aerial fights, grounded fights, etc. The non action moments look great as well and so the series really spared no expense here. This is well above average with the animation.

As for the soundtrack I wouldn’t say that it particularly stands out but the opening is pretty solid and there are a few other lyrical songs that pop up. When the show is going into full concert mode then it works really well. The rest of the tunes will just end up blending into the scene so they’re not bad but won’t really kick things into the next level. I suspect a lot of the budget went into the opening and the different song variations though so that makes sense.

As a main character Vivy is very solid. She may be hesitant to help out most of the time but again, I’d say that it’s pretty reasonable considering everything that she goes through. At the end of the day she does help out which is the important thing. That said, I actually preferred her alter ego Diva. As Diva she is incredibly confident the first one to run onto the scene when anything is happening. I have to give her a ton of credit all the way through. If she was the main character from the start I dare say that the heroes would have won a lot quicker. Now granted, it’s easy for Diva to talk tough when she didn’t experience the tragedies directly. It’s totally possible that she would have ultimately had the same issues as Vivy otherwise. It’s only a guess though so I choose to guess that she would have stayed strong.

Matsumoto may be more logic focused but he definitely gets some emotions as the series goes on too. He’s a solid sidekick and the banter between the two characters is a large part as to why the show is very fun. Matsumoto will get sarcastic quite often and since he is far more advanced than any AI of Vivy’s era, he is able to slip past any and all barriers. Definitely not someone you would want as your enemy. He proved himself more than enough times so I was glad to have him around.

Then we had Estella and Elizabeth who showed up during a space arc. They were both solid characters and it was nice to have a mini mystery on who the big villain was who planned to destroy the space station. While Matsumoto is from the future and knows the general events of what will happen, he knows the original records of them which may not be fully accurate. Since these two are sisters it is possible that the wrong one could be picked. Especially with the local terrorist group being around to help out as always.

It makes for a pretty interesting dynamic since the terrorist group are effectively right for the wrong reasons. The AI actually will go on to murder the humans like they fear but the group is ultimately still evil. So Vivy in a way is fighting for the same cause but it’s not like they’ll team up. If anything they are still trying to destroy her for being an AI. Their main leader in particular is really petty and keeps trying to destroy her even after she has saved him on multiple occasions. He just can’t stand the idea of being saved by an AI but it is what it is.

After that, the next arc involves taking down the big machine island that was set up. This is yet another tragic event that Vivy has to go through because this is supposed to be a bright day for AI. They are trying hard to learn how to take care of humans and make them feel comfortable while also having their own spot. This should be a day for celebration, not something to be destroyed. Unfortunately thanks to the future we learn that things won’t go very well. There is a twist about the true identity of the island’s AI too which makes things even rougher. Vivy is constantly put in a position where someone has to die in order to save everyone else and that’s not an easy spot to be in. It still made for an intense arc with a very solid climax though.

In dealing with the dark future, the show wasn’t afraid to get rather dark at times too. At some points, this did mean that the show would get rather violent with the different character deaths. I’d say the most shocking was definitely the little girl in the second episode. That was a pretty rough one, I was fully expecting there to be some kind of a twist the whole time. Then you have another character who couldn’t live with the tragedy of what happened and he ends up destroying himself right in front of Vivy. It’s pretty hard to to deal with all of the deaths but of course you never want to check out early like that.

In general I wouldn’t say that the show is all that violent though. Those were the two most shocking moments because it just didn’t seem like they were going to die though. The show really made the most of the opportunity though like using that for another time skip and introducing the new personality. That was petty interesting and a good way to move on rather than dwelling on the moment or the fall out. This show never had time for that as it kept on moving forward.

So the show overall had a light tone with a good amount of banter but it would sure get very serious at different points. In general you have a little less time for humor and everything in the second half. Although calling it a whole half may be a stretch. There were still a good deal of happy moments when Diva took control for episode 9 so a better way of putting it might be that there are fewer scenes with no baggage. Even when the characters are having fun later, it’s over the piles of corpses at that point. The next arc was to prevent the songstress Ophelia from destroying herself but due to how the time travel works and everything that wasn’t quite the scenario going on anyway. We actually have Antonio doing some body swaps and being rather desperate to complete his own AI mission but it felt like he was just being a contradiction at that point. If he left Ophelia to her devices then she may have at least had a chance.

The climax here was definitely really solid though, another great fight all around. After that we cut to the final arc which is a fitting climax. It definitely does suck for the humans who are really getting murdered and run over left and right. It can maybe get a little excessive at one point but for the most part the violence vanishes again after that. I did think the climax had a few stretches of disbelief for me though. The biggest was another time jump that didn’t really seem to make sense. I don’t see how it would have been possible here. The explanation was a bit iffy because to me then you could almost create a loop and do this forever.

The action and everything was good though, my main issue is the actual ending. Both Vivy and Diva get rather bad endings here. Diva’s is probably worse because of how sad it is but I’d argue Vivy also got cheated in the end. She should have gotten a much better ending and while the show may not paint it as being overtly negative, I would consider it as a “bad” ending. Similar to when you’re reading a book that has a good, neutral, and bad ending. I would expect to find this in the final category. It’s not like it’s bad enough to lower the score or anything but it’s just a harsh climax.

Overall, Vivy is a pretty fun show. It uses the time travel well and I like the idea of these constant time skips of many years between episodes. It’s something you can really only do with the main heroine being an eternal robot like this. The ending does fumble a bit though. You still have a lot of good replay value here but I would have really preferred a more satisfying ending. After all of the trials and everything that went on, you want a really good ending. Still, I would recommend this series if you are looking for a fun time and want some good songs. There is a lot to enjoy here and the show definitely goes by quickly.

Overall 7/10

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens Review

Posted on April 28, 2024 by dreager1

Lets talk about the next big Yugioh series. This one was definitely a real change from the previous Yugioh titles which all had a consistent kind of look to them. At their core they were Shonen Jump type stories while his one was definitely more aimed at kids. Of course we know from experience that this can work out really well like with Cardfight Vanguard and Buddyfight. Fortunately I can confirm that this did work out really well. It’s got a lot of fun moments and there are a good selection of likable main characters. The stakes may be a little lower but there are still a great number of really fun duels here so they will keep your attention the whole time. I was definitely sad to see the series go.

The series is about a kid named Yuga who loves dueling but he feels like it’s missing something. So he ends up installing his own version of dueling into the Goha network computers which installs the game onto everyone’s duel disc. This new form of dueling is called Rush Duels. Basically you draw 5 cards in every turn which opens the way to a lot of combos right out of the gate. It’s a very different kind of duel and as the name would suggest, it’s also a much faster paced way of fighting. Now he is eager to play it with everyone. This makes Yuga a local sensation and everyone at school is either thrilled about the new way to duel or resents him for it. Goha is trying to find a way to remove this new style of dueling as well before it overshadows the classic form of dueling. Can they really stop him?

You might think that this is all a bit much about a new style of dueling that is optional but I can actually picture companies getting upset about this. Like if you suddenly uploaded an optional way to play Street Fighter that Capcom did not approve of. You can bet that they would have some words for you very quickly and likely would not let it stand. That’s just the corporate way. They’re in this to make money, not to make friends and you really can’t convince them otherwise unless you have the money to back it up.

The setting will remind you a little of Yugioh GX with how it all takes place at school. At least the vast majority of the show takes place there. The show mainly starts out as a slice of life title as we are gradually introduced to all of the characters and get to see what kind of deck builds they are running. This intro phase takes a while but that’s fine since we’ve got a little over 90 episodes to work with. It’s similar to Cardfight Vanguard G which had a super long intro phase but it worked out really well because then we knew the characters when it was time for the big action sagas. That’s really the approach that this game went with as well.

So after the pre arc one of the big arcs we get is about the Master Cards. These are the latest gimmick in the Yugioh verse. You could say that the whole concept of Rush Duels counts as the first gimmick but then this would be the second one. You basically merge 3 cards into one super card that takes up the various spaces and has incredible abilities. Nail’s got a master card of his own and absolutely dominates everyone. The heroes have to beat his various lackeys without losing too many rounds or their accounts are forfeit. The whole “You’ll lose your account if you lose” is sort of like the new version of the shadow game. The account issue is thrown in front of the characters multiple times. Fortunately Luke is here to keep the characters from losing but if I were the heroes I’d be getting annoyed pretty fast. That’s a big weakness with the villains actually owning the software that the game’s code runs through.

Also I should mention that the hardware that plays the software are actually real physical objects over in space. For example the Rush Duel settings turned into a giant robot so throughout the series the villains are trying to break it. It’s actually rather surreal because it’s such an odd way for the coding to work. It’s cool though so naturally I’d give it a pass. It also gives us an excuse to have some space moments. There are actually quite a few other sci-fi themes in the show as well. Several characters show up who appear to be aliens. Some of them work for Goha and some are just doing their own thing. They all look almost identical but have their own gimmicks.

It’s random in the best way. Whenever they show up you just have to roll with it and enjoy the duel. I’ll touch on a bunch of the characters in a minute but then there are a ton of more minor characters that I won’t go into. Each of these characters have their own gimmicks though. One of them really loves sushi, one loves dinosaurs, etc. They all duel with their themes in mind and Yugioh is such a big game that you can make an entire deck off of a theme like that. It’s actually impressive and speaks to how many cards there are. The duels themselves may not be as entertaining as the big story based duels but it’s always fun to see how creative the show can get.

After the Master Card debacle you’ve got a lot of mini arcs like being attacked by the hard hat crew (Not their actual names but close enough), a few tournaments thrown into the mix, Luke becoming the Luke Man, and the Goa 6 showing up to basically take over the world/the game. We even get a whole arc where everyone loses their memory of dueling so Luke has to snap them back into their senses. At some point Luke moved from just being the super cool rival to borderline becoming the main character. It’s definitely impressive.

The show is 90+ episodes long though so you do expect a lot of different stories to occur. It gets around the lack of world ending stakes extremely well with this creativity too. So in the end where would I rank the show? Well I think it’s fair to say that it still does lose to most of the classics but I would put it above Vrains and Capsule Monsters. The rest are still a little too impressive to lose. I’d say it speaks more to how great the overall franchise is though as opposed to this one not being up to the task.

Now lets talk about the characters. As the lead Yuga is a fun guy. He’s not quite as untouchable as previous main characters but that works well since it makes him very relatable. He’s just a kid having fun playing his favorite game and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that. I can definitely respect his talent right here and he has a lot of confidence. It does mean that he is overshadowed by the other two members of the main cast who just have more charisma though. All in all, Yuga does a good job of leading the show and is consistently solid for the whole run.

Then we have Luke, the absolute stand out character of the series. You want to talk about an awesome character? Look no further than this guy! He’s awesome in every possible way. The guy has limitless confidence and always looks on the bright side of things. Characters try to sometimes get in his way and wreck the vibe but he doesn’t let it happen. He’s a bit of an unassuming character since most fighters think that the guy is full of hot air and yet he manages to win just about every duel. He is undefeated for almost the entirety of the series and I don’t need to tell you just how impressive that is. Seriously, it’s an absolutely insane feat and he constantly hits above his paygrade. He takes out big enemies that even Yuga wasn’t prepared for.

Luke is a game changer and he’s a big reason as to why I would go ahead and say that this is a great show. Not just a very good one or anything like that but it is legitimately great. Luke can hold his own with any of the previous Yugioh rival characters. He may not take himself as seriously as those other guys but his sill is up there. In fact, you could argue he surpasses the other rivals in one way which is that by the end of the series he is debatably still stronger than the main character and that never really happens.

Then we have Romin as the main heroine and she’s another great character. She’s a great duelist and also has time to be a professional singer on the side. Her cooking skills may not always be out of this world but she is always ready to try something new. She is able to keep up with Luke in terms of being high energy the whole time and so that makes the trio really complete. I would say that like Luke, she is also more interesting than Yuga so it’s one of the only times I can think of where the lead ends up being carried by the other two members of the trio. Nothing wrong with that of course, they’re just helping to elevate the series to the next level.

Romin gets a whole lot of character development like Luke. She has to really decide between music and Yugioh as you can’t really become a pro at both. Both of them have a whole lot of time commitments after all and so she has to make a lot of tough calls. Particularly near the end of the show with some mind wiping going on. All in all, she’s someone that you can count on and is a great member of the main cast.

The 4th member isn’t quite as solid as the main 3 though. We’ve got Gavin next and he’s one of those guys who really follows the rules at all times. This makes him not very reasonable most of the time. He does have his inevitable rebellion mini arc where he starts to break all of the rules but that just takes him too far into the other direction. As DJ G he at least has a cool beat going though. So I give him some props there but yeah he can’t keep up with the main 3 in terms of personality and I would say that the same is true of his dueling abilities as well. He’s a solid duelist but he’s not elite or anything like that.

One guy who sort of joins the main cast a bit later on is Roa and he’s a lot of fun. He’s Romin’s cousin and another great duelist. He’s sort of like a sub rival to Yuga. Luke is of course the primary rival but Roa shows up several times to really put the pressure on as well. His skills are the real deal and his backstory is also emotional. Roa’s been through a lot but he really made a name for himself and continues to move forward. He made no excuses about what he had to go through and is a very well balanced character. He was really solid and definitely ended up as one of the best characters in the series.

After that we’ve got Asana who is rivals with Tiger. Asana is certainly one of the more mature characters. She doesn’t tend to bicker quite as often as the others and she is always ready for a good duel. She’s portrayed as one of the more powerful duelists even if she doesn’t get to duel too often. Her personality works well as a contrast to the rest of the characters. She’s certainly got her quirks as well and they’re unique like naming her work equipment. Whatever works on the path to being the world’s greatest duelist though. The show goes all out by even having a full origin story for her and Tiger. I can’t say I was expecting that but it was handled really well. A little more communication could have stopped all of the misunderstandings though.

As for Tiger, she’s a lot of fun. As Luke’s older sister, it’s no surprise that she is also extremely powerful. She can hold her own against any fighter and even physically she is a beast. She’s always hitting people with that giant weapon she is carrying around. The gag of Luke being scared of her does get old rather quickly though. I wouldn’t say that it holds its own with the other gags at all. The whole time you’re just waiting for Luke to finally get past that and show her why he is the world’s greatest duelist. As good as she is, Luke has surpassed her fairly early on in the series. It was just like a mental block where he couldn’t put that all together when he was going up against her.

Back on the main heroes’ side, we also had Rayne and Rino who would work for the student council president Gavin. I didn’t really care for either of those characters much though. They were more on the boring side and didn’t really add any good banter to the mix. I wouldn’t trust them either as they go through a lot in the show and don’t tend to come out clutch. Whenever they got a duel it would typically be one of the least interesting ones. There’s also a random subplot of Rayne liking Yuga but that never even goes anywhere. I still don’t really know why that was included at all. So these characters you could have cut out of the story and it would not have really changed anything.

Mimi is a fun supporting character. She’s a full adult who even has a kid yet she is able to pass herself off as a student most of the time. That’s definitely impressive and at one point she even finds herself as one of the top staff members at Goha corp. So something is always going on with her and she’s definitely a lot of fun. It would be nice if she could duel more and show everyone the power of an adult but ultimately that’s just not really her role. I’d say that she is one of the more wholesome characters though and I’m glad to have her around. Outside of one episode about Romin trying to cook some food, there isn’t always a lot of time available for the characters to just mess around. So when Mimi shows up, you know the heroes can relax for a while.

Unfortunately Mimi is connected to the most disappointing villain in the series in the leader of Goha. There’s this mask that basically attaches itself to people and runs the corporation. It has a super cool design and always talks tough but ultimately ends up being a bit of a chump. Seriously he’s no real threat and nobody is able to take him seriously. I can’t even take him seriously. The guy can technically fight well but just goes through so much disrespect. His hype just slowly drains away the more the series goes on. Throughout the show I never lost hope that he would turn things around and be the secret final boss or something but unfortunately that never happened. I suppose it just wasn’t to be.

Goha was still a reasonable villain because I like the idea of corporate literally being the main antagonist but they didn’t really adapt with the times. They were tough in pre arc but that was about it. I suppose if you consider the final group as part of Goha then that’s different and technically they are but I consider them to be a bit separate from the actual corporation. I suppose that’s more of a me thing though, it is technically not super logical or anything like that.

Another character related to Goha is Otes. He’s definitely an interesting figure. Sometimes he’s helpful and sometimes he isn’t. His skill level is also hard to determine because sometimes losing is in his best interest so you don’t know when he’s going all out or not. The guy could have definitely talked more to explain things though and his character goes down a very odd direction by the very end of the series. Lets just say that this guy is filled with plot twists and ultimately the final ones do not help his character at all. He drops a whole lot for me but I can at least say that he was interesting. He remained relevant in the series for its entire run which is impressive.

Another character who was around the whole time was Nail but he did lose a lot of hype after the first arc. The guy was a big deal initially because of the super powerful cards that he could use. They were basically legal god cards and nobody else had them. Once everyone got them the battlefield was equaled and Nail couldn’t keep up. Gone were the days of him being the most powerful. He’s still tough but not nearly as imposing. I like his character but he was better as a villain. His poor servant Sebastian definitely goes through a lot of issues as well. I can’t say I really liked the robot though so I didn’t feel too bad for him.

Yuga has his own robot in Kaizo as well. That guy is always being transformed into different objects and hacked so he doesn’t have an easy journey either. The guy isn’t the most heroic though and has quite a lot of issues so you can get why Yuga is always going things to him. I would have liked Kaizo to have more of a real man up moment before the series was over. Even Swirls got his own arc although of course there were big reasons for that. As for the 6 big Goha fighters who showed up later, they’re pretty fun.

You of course have the other Yuga Goha who is solid although there were a few moments where I was pretty much laughing at the guy. He starts off in a super intense way but the more the show goes on the worse he looks. At one point he just loses energy while he’s in the sky and has a sudden crash landing, another time he gets affected by the memory bug and starts acting like a child, etc. It’s really hard to come back from this, specifically as a villain since you need to be able to take the guy seriously. Unfortunately I couldn’t take him seriously after that. There was just no way to pull that off.

Yuro’s a reasonable villain. Outside of Yuga, none of them are all that villainous for long to be honest but he’s a good duelist and a balanced character. So I can’t say that I really had any issues with him. Yujin has more drive so I like that about him. He’s a really enthusiastic kind of character who is always ready to jump in and have a good time. He also has actual hobbies outside of dueling which is always cool. Yuran is the most boring. He’s an okay duelist but there’s nothing all that interesting about him. He’s a bit too quiet and mellow and I need my characters to be bold and outspoken.

Yuka is fun enough. She can actually play baseball really good and gets a whole rivalry out of that. Again, it comes down to having a hobby outside of dueling which is nice. Finally there is Yuo who is quite bold since he actually tries to take power away from the others into his corrupt games. The guy is a strong duelist as well and aside from Luke there are very few who can take him down. He’s not my favorite villain but he does get points for actively acting like a villain and just generally doing whatever he wants. He’s not just here to make friends and have a good time. His priority is claiming his right to power.

For the animation, Yugioh Sevens looks pretty good but it is a bit of a step down from the last few shows. The colors aren’t as string and it just looks a bit cheaper. I’d say that might be more on the character designs than the animation itself but this won’t be winning any awards. It’s still not bad or anything but I just can’t say that it’s very good either. It’s solid enough where it makes for solid visuals and we get some dynamic moments but it’s mostly by the books. I would say that the same is true of the soundtrack either. It’s not like it’s bad or anything but the tunes aren’t all that memorable. The show is certainly not being carried by the technical elements or anything like that. It has to succeed on the writing and story which fortunately are up to the task for this.

The show is just really funny a lot of the time. At the end of the day what you really need in order to make a series successful is either a lot of great action with cool end of the world stakes that keep you on your toes or a great cast of characters that can pull off a low key slice of life type adventure. These characters are able to pull that off and you’ll likely be grinning in each episode. Luke isn’t just the best character because he can duel but also because he’s just really funny. The guy is constantly cracking good jokes with how oblivious he is and how he takes things out of context. At the end of the day he’s the kind of guy that everyone wishes they had as a best friend. That’s the power of being a quality character.

Overall, Yugioh Sevens is a great show. I really enjoyed all of the card games and the character cast is really solid. The show couldn’t have worked nearly as well with a weaker cast so they have to take a lot of credit here. I’d still like to go back to a more traditional artstyle but I will continue checking these out for as long as they want to keep going. I’m always up for more great Yugioh content and they really did well here. If you are a little worried about starting this show, don’t be. It still hits the electric highs that you’ve been expecting from the franchise.

Overall 8/10

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens Review

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