Your Lie in April Review

Posted on March 22, 2025 by dreager1

Looks like we’ve got a little time loop shenanigan going on here right? Well it’s time to talk about the anime version of this series. It’s pretty similar to the manga, I’d say just sped up in some ways. It has to go pretty fast to adapt everything in time. It’s a pretty solid title for most of its run….until the ending which doesn’t survive any better than the manga. It ends up keeping this one from being a good title which is definitely unfortunate. If the anime could have only diverged from the manga, this title could have been saved.

The story follows a boy named Kousei who is still dealing with a lot of trauma after his physically abusive mother passed away. He was known as a complete child prodigy pianist. He could play the piano better than any other kid using a super mechanical style where he did not add his own personality to the music. Other kids resented him while the adults thought it was really impressive. His mother taught him well but it came at the expense of her humanity and he wasn’t really able to have friends.

Kousei isn’t able to hear music anymore and is definitely not at his best but he doesn’t play competitively anymore anyway. Well one day on the way to a double date (His childhood friend Tsubaki made him attend) he bumps into his best friend Watari’s date Kaori. Kaori also plays music via the violin and she quickly declares that he will support her in the competitions by being her accompanist. He doesn’t want to help her but she isn’t the kind of girl who takes no for an answer. So he will have to really get over the trauma here or it’s all over for him.

Kousei has to go through a lot during this series. You feel bad for him all the way because it’s more than you would want any kid to have to endure. I know that being a musician comes with sacrifice but this gets ridiculous after a while. he’s basically not allowed to live an ordinary life at all. Kousei puts in the work to get better and better but it’s really always matched by a trauma to set him back once again. The hero is a bit too timid for my liking which holds him back but I’ll cut him some slack. He can also be pretty hard on Kaori in order to raise her spirits but considering that she is quite sick as well, it makes a certain degree of sense.

So he’s got his flaws and all but at the end of the day Kousei is doing his best to help out. Meanwhile Kaori is a lot of fun. She always has a ton of energy and really keeps the characters together. She gave Kousei a reason to smile again and made good friends with the whole group in general. Not an easy feat when you are jumping into an existing friendship circle. Kaori just jumps in and it all works out. She definitely has a tough time of things as well but tries not to let anybody worry about her. So she puts on a brave face and keeps on looking forward.

Then we have the rival Takeshi who is a lot of fun. He feels like he could have been the main character in another series. He’s loud and always striving to be better and better. It’s a hard road to the top but he pulled it off. He still yearns to beat Kousei one on one but by every metric he has already surpassed the guy. It’s always nice when you see someone rise to the top through hard work and dedication outside of the main character. It can actually be rather rare.

Meanwhile Emi is the other rival and her skills are also good when she has the right motivation. Kousei is really the only motivation that works on her though. If she wans to be the best then she will need to get over that at some point. Additionally, while she likes Kousei, she never really made any obvious attempts at him. As a result it feels like a doomed romance from the start since none of them are mind readers. There is no realistic way for him to know what she is thinking after all. That’s just not how it all works. She’s a fun character though and the fact that she can reach the top level at all is definitely worth praising.

Nagi may not be at their level yet but she’s another mini rival to show up. Her role in the anime definitely feels quite a bit smaller though. She wants to mess with Kousei but basically drops that as a goal almost immediately. Here she just becomes another friend almost immediately. Nothing wrong with that of course but it would have been nice to have had a longer antagonist. She did good in not letting Kousei sabotage her big moment though. While it was portrayed as a teaching moment, I’d actually say it just made Kousei look bad the whole time. If she had not kept up with him when he started playing off tempo, she would have never come back from that.

Meanwhile poor Tsubaki can’t play the piano so she doesn’t really get to mix it up with the other characters as much. We see her internal struggles as she resents music a lot but her biggest problem is not really getting involved with the others. Her friend Kashiwagi tries to spur her on to get involved but it takes a long time for any progress. Being a little nervous is natural of course but if you stay on the sidelines forever then you will never make any progress. You have to continue to move forward. Unfortunately she is in an impossible situation due to the way the show ended and I don’t see her having any hope now. Ah well, there’s nothing wrong with just staying as friends and she can still be a super valued friend all the way to the end.

While Hiroko sympathizes with Kousei’s Mom too much, she was a solid mentor. I appreciated her being there for Kousei when he needed some help. She is a really solid coach and definitely someone who knew what she was doing. The grownups in this show definitely look rather decent when it counts so I could appreciate that. if anything it would have been fun to have seen her play the piano at least once during the series. We even got to hear the mother playing a bit before she died and that character was rough. There just isn’t any excuse for the way she was hitting Kousei back in the day. The death was still tragic but the series made her as unlikable as possible. There was really no redeeming factor for her here. Kousei wouldn’t have had to deal with so much trauma if she had treated him right.

Then of course we have Kousei’s best friend Watari. Watari’s a good friend who always looks out for everyone. Where he is found lacking is in being a reliable boyfriend. He’s always chasing after all the girls which is a bad look for him. Yes, we do see that he cares about Kaori by the end so you can say it’s one of those things where he cares about all of the girls but there is nothing genuine or noble about that. He comes off as an indecisive guy who chases after every skirt. It’s why he can only be relied on as a friend and definitely nothing more. He’s good natured and fun to have around but that’s about it for him.

The animation is pretty solid. It’s very bright and colorful. The scenes all transition together very well and the movement is good. There is even one death scene near the end that the anime extends a whole lot to really show off the animation effects. In that way it looked impressive but made the scene even sadder. Because it looks like the character is trying to hang on but it’s like the person is blowing up with lots of energy leaving the body. Resistance is futile and it’s a real spectacle. Then you later on have a background that looks like something out of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It was really cinematic all the way around. So I’d say the animation does a good job of elevating the content to a grand level, even if that isn’t quite enough to raise the score itself.

As for the soundtrack, it’s more on the okay side. None of the tunes are all that memorable. The openings are okay but probably not something I would be listening to all that frequently. It all works well enough for a fairly low key title like this one but otherwise I’d still take a more fast paced rock theme or something like that. Sometimes you just have to really surprise people with something new right? At least that’s the way I see it.

While this series is part romance, there aren’t really any pairings for you to root for. First you have Tsubaki and the random guy she had a crush on. It’s evident early on that she doesn’t actually love him a ton though and the guy doesn’t stick around for long. There is Watari and Kaori but it’s clear that Watari isn’t serious about the relationship so by those standards there’s no way you could root for this. Kousei likes Kaori but of course we definitely can’t root for that since she already has a boyfriend. That would be absolutely crazy. There is Tsubaki and Kousei but he doesn’t like her in that way so of course that was a doomed romance as well. Yeah, I guess there were no romances to root for here. It does you just how chaotic and all over the place the characters were. None of them were really ready for romance. At the end of the day they are basically kids so they’ve got a ways to go.

Okay skip these next two paragraphs that will deal with the spoiler content. Unless you’ve watched the show of course in which case you are definitely free to stick around. Just think about it carefully. Okay so of course as you’ve probably guessed Kaori dies. Additionally a random cat also dies to drive home the fact that the end of the series is super serious business. Nobody is really spared from the onslaught of rage and madness. In a lot of ways I think the saddest part about Kaori dying is that it feels like the series could have easily still had a sad ending if it wanted to by having her not able to play music just yet. Keep her in the wheelchair for a while or something. Actually bumping her off during the surgery though? It’s just too cruel.

The whole series is about moving past trauma but now Kousei ends up having a whole new trauma on top of that one. That’s exactly what I got out of this at least and it’s definitely not fitting in with the tone of fighting to the end. Sometimes things don’t work out but it’s still not the message that I would have been sending the viewers. In the end Kaori confesses her feelings but you could argue that’s the worst time to do it because now that she’s dead, Kousei has no way to respond. It’s just giving him more things to agonize over. I don’t see how he will ever manage to get over this no matter how the series tries to hint that he’ll be okay.

For the most part the series is definitely nice and happy which I appreciate. The episodes go by quickly as a result and the pacing is good. While the anime does have to jump past some manga elements quickly, it’s done in a seamless way where you will only notice something is missing if you read the manga. If you just watch the anime directly then I don’t see why you would suspect a thing. That shows just how well the anime was handled here. It is also nice to hear the actual piano playing even if I don’t understand it to the dramatic extent that the characters do as they decipher each note and cry about how beautiful it is.

Overall, Your Lie in April is definitely a pretty fun show for most of its run. I appreciate the themes of moving past trauma and all, at least while the show sticks to them. Ultimately though, a story like this completely depends on the writing and other elements backing it up. If those run out then you’re not going to have a good time. The ending just doesn’t work and it crushes the usual replay value that would be here. Sad stories are the hardest to do for that reason since everybody wants a happy ending. Or if not happy, then your task becomes 10X harder. It is definitely possible to do like the DBZ Trunks OVA from a long time ago. It’s just easy to backfire as well.

Overall 4/10

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

Mieruko-chan Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at a horror anime! I haven’t seen very many of those so this would be fun. Granted I’d say it’s also part comedy so not a full on horror but the visuals can get intense. The anime never quite manages to match up to the manga version in that area as the manga really feels like a true “Holding nothing back” horror all the way. The anime unfortunately has a big fanservice issue that the manga mainly avoids and that does end up being a crushing blow. Still there’s some fun stuff here as well so lets dive into the world of the supernatural.

The series starts by introducing us to Miko. She was living an ordinary life when she begins to see supernatural spirits. They are all incredibly scary and she has to try and keep a straight face or else they will realize that she can see them. This means Miko has to often just sit there and endure whatever visions she sees. Her best friend Hana is completely oblivious though so Miko also has to make sure to manipulate her so that she doesn’t crash into any ghosts. It really is a full time job but one that she is absolutely ready for…because she has no choice in the matter. So begins a new chapter in her life. Will anyone be able to help save her from this predicament??

This show’s fairly quick at only 12 episodes and most of those are stand alones. We only just start to touch on the more serious plot based episodes by the end so for the most part it’s really just a lot of episodes of Miko getting scared the whole time and trying to keep it together. The opening definitely reflects this well as it’s the most I’ve heard the word “Stop” in an opening ever. That’s basically all the lines in the beginning and the ending. Unfortunately the opening isn’t very good. The music isn’t great and the animation is pretty lazy. It’s a shame because it has a good opening beat but it quickly fades from there. In general the soundtrack is more on the mild side. Nothing you’ll really remember all that much. At most I guess you’ll remember the monster yell that plays at the beginning of the ending for each episode. That’s a good jump scare.

Lets get into the biggest negative right out of the gate though which is of course the fanservice. It’s very relentless and hits you hard in every single episode. You never get a break from this as the show always chooses the absolute worst camera angles. The characters could be talking about lunch and the camera is really low for no reason. We have several shower type scenes here and bottom line, the series isn’t confident enough in its plot and premise so it has to resort to large amounts of fanservice at every corner. It definitely hurts the show quite a lot because of how frequent it is. You never get a break from this at any point and that also makes it hard to recommend.

Now my only other main issue with the show is that you don’t understand why Miko is so afraid. Let me explain here, she sees a whole lot of crazy stuff in regard to the spirits. I get how they look really scary since a lot of them are quite deformed and all. So that makes perfect sense but what really doesn’t make sense is why she is so determined that they don’t know she can see them. She acts as if they could actually hurt her but we already know this isn’t the case.

She’s already seen how tons of humans are getting stabbed by these creatures and the blows go through them. The creatures are completely intangible so none of their blows actually have any weight behind them. Given that we know this to be true, she is in absolutely 0 danger throughout the series. In theory no matter how strong a creature may be, it should not be able to be on the same level as her. It should immediately be crushed and then that would be the end of it. Doesn’t that make the most amount of sense here?

The show could prove me wrong down the road but that wouldn’t help because I need a reason for why Miko is afraid right now. From how the show begins this is something that just started happening to her so you can’t say that something happened to her as a kid with a ghost attacking her and we’d know in the present if this was the case. This was nagging at me throughout every episode because it is such a core part of the plot and yet it feels like the show didn’t think of it.

Now you may just figure that Miko is special so their attacks would land. Except we’ve seen Miko walk right through a spirit and another time she actually got stabbed by one in the train and both times nothing happened. That’s because nothing can happen, Miko is completely immune. So this just feels like a plot hole pretty much at least until we get a real reason for why she is freaking out so much. It doesn’t make sense.

Now beyond that, while the soundtrack isn’t anything special the animation can be decent at times. Still nothing too high budget or anything like that but I do like the energy effects which work well for the occasional energy blast. The character designs are good as well and so for the most part everything is fairly smooth. I think the budget was decent for the show.

If you can get past the whole premise of the show not working, the small cast is fairly effective here. Miko is a good heroine who is doing her best to survive through this crazy situation and makes sure to look after Hana as well. At times Miko can be really dismissive of Hana’s attempts to help her but it’s more that she is trying to keep Hana safe and other times she’s too lost in thought. Miko isn’t perfect or anything but she’s a very good character all around and someone that you want on your side.

Then you have Hana who is the best character. I like how cheerful and upbeat she is all the time. Hana is very quick to defend Miko from all kinds of dangers and also always wants to be there for her. Hana may not know about any monsters or special abilities but it doesn’t stop her from doing her best and getting in there to stop the creatures as needed. She rescues a dog and in general will tell off anyone who makes Miko sad. That’s the hallmark of a true friend all the way through.

One more member added to the main cast is Yuria but she doesn’t really make it until the second half. They do introduce her early on through cameos and such but it takes a while to really get going. You feel bad for her the whole time because she can see spirits and has always longed to have someone else around who could see them but Miko won’t admit it. I actually think Miko really should have told Yuria sooner. Yuria won’t be in any extra danger since she can already see the spirits so I don’t see a downside. I can absolutely sympathize with how frustrated Yuria is the whole time because to her this just doesn’t make any kind of sense. By the end of the season they finally have a formal agreement that they know about each other but I expect that the misunderstandings will continue for some time.

It’s also easy to see why since Miko did literally choke Yuria to the point of unconsciousness right. Those were desperate times based on Miko’s misconception about how dangerous the spirits were but it’s not something you ever forget if you’re the one who was getting knocked out. The Godmother shows up briefly here but she looks very bad. She’s clearly past her prime and isn’t able to deal with any of the monsters so you can only hope that she’ll do better in a future season.

The season does have a bit of a cliffhanger for a sequel but it’s not as direct as I would have liked. Trust me, I’d have gone all in with the cliffhanger and just had a field day there. I feel like you have to go bold to try and pressure a second season. The ending here still works well enough but it’s more of a wholesome ending with a few nuggets to be explored as opposed to a glaring cliffhanger.

The show’s climax does end up being the best part as we get the shrine yokai who actively fight other yokai but the whole thing is a bit of a mystery. Why did they protect Miko 3 times and why are they super upset now? That’s all to be explored in a second season if we ever get there. They’re some of the scarier monsters as well because of how well they fight although once again I would make the case that they aren’t too scary yet since we figure they can’t actually touch Miko. Until proven otherwise or a character mentions that spirits can hurt humans I just don’t see why I would believe that.

One more character I should quickly talk about is Zen. He’s a good example of how to write a solid anti-hero/vigilante. The guy has a very mysterious aura when he shows up and plays a big part in the last episodes. He even gets an emotional backstory which is probably the most emotional out of all the characters. He had to put up with a whole lot and so he’s doing things in the present as well. He doesn’t take prisoners and it’s highly implied that he straight up murders someone. Within the context it makes sense though.

There was someone going around murdering cats in the neighborhood and he couldn’t let that stand. Fortunately the show doesn’t actually show any of the murders but based on the amount of ghosts around we can tell that it was a lot. There wasn’t much point in a trial at that point since he was guilty so that was it. I look forward to seeing more of Zen even if his role probably will only get smaller from here. He was a bit rude to his neighbor for no reason but due to a plot twist involving the neighbor we can definitely let it slide.

So yeah the show has a good blend of characters. The cast is solid which is always the proper foundation for a show. The stories range from comedic to scary to serious and the all flow together pretty well. If the show could show a bit more restraint in some areas then you could definitely see how this would just be a fun show to pop in and laugh with from time to time. The world building is on point so even with only a few episodes you feel like you know the score pretty well.

There’s also a lot of ways the show can go from here. If they really do pursue the idea that most of these ghosts just have unresolved issues then Mieruko could become some kind of spirit detective who helps them move on. It could also get more action packed if she gets a spirit summon of her own to deal with them. It’s always a risk changing genres but there’s just so much room for it that you feel like the show should go for it. You can absolutely still keep in the comedy and slice of life stuff while also having the big plot episodes. It could also make for some more solid plot twists like with the father and Zen, both of which are handled pretty well if you didn’t know about them previously.

Overall, Mieruko-Chan has a lot of entertaining moments within it. If they were to ever ditch the fanservice for season 2 then there would be a lot of potential here. The story itself feels like it’s going to end up being a wholesome one as not all of the ghosts are bad. In time Miko should be able to master her ability and then we’ll really be set. In the meantime though I wouldn’t be able to recommend this one. If you can get past the fanservice then sure you should go for it but that’s a big if.

Overall 4/10

Den-noh Coil Review

Posted on August 10, 2023 by dreager1

Seems like there’s quite a few ways to spell this anime’s title. I’ve seen it as Deno Coil, Den-noh Coil, Dennou Coil, etc. I suppose they all get to about the same place though. The show’s a slice of life style mainly revolving around a bunch of kids but it doesn’t get as colorful and energetic as you’d need to make this show pop out. Slice of Life titles usually need to be really funny as a comedy or have some kind of really engaging storybeats to keep you in the mix. I think this one suffers from the main kids the most since you wish they were all a bit older to have some more intense plots.

The show follows a bunch of kids who live in a town that is mostly normal except for the digital aspect. See kids all wear these fancy glasses that let them see the digital world now and so they get to see all kinds of monsters and other creatures that aren’t actually around in a physical sense. Still, the old technology is getting dangerously outdated so there are cleaning robots that patrol the streets to destroy the cracks in the system. This means they will also destroy any old creature programs no matter if that animal is a trusted pet or something like that. Characters have to deal with loss, betrayal, and mysteries. There are quite a few characters running around the town after all. Can you trust the government or the kid rebels? The main character Yasako will have to find out because she really just wants to have fun over the summer.

So I would say here the main issue at its core is that the show’s cast just can’t hold up the plot. You won’t be very engaged with what’s going on for most of the adventure because there just isn’t much of a reason for you to be engaged. The kids are messing around in town but for the most part it’s not like the stakes are super high. They may get the glasses confiscated or perhaps or perhaps blasted by the robot but in most cases it doesn’t seem like this would be dangerous. There are definitely some exceptions and we do have a missing persons subplot so things are happening but the main kids aren’t part of the most interesting plots.

The show’s animation style is also not that good which doesn’t help matters. All of the color feels drained away the whole time. It looks more like a mainstream anime type movie than a full anime. The sharp colors are really needed to take this one to the next level or at least to help because it gives you something fun to look at visually. There is a decent track or two in here for the ost though so I’ll give the show props there. On a technical level it’s not really holding its own all that well.

The most brutal character in the show has to be Kyoko though. She’s Yasako’s younger sister and all of her scenes can be hard to watch. She’s young enough where she can barely talk but is always getting into constant trouble. She doesn’t understand the stakes which means that she is always getting in the way as well. The worst episode in the series is easily the one where she is spreading a virus to everyone by kissing them. That episode was cringe and also just pretty gross. Take her out of the series and it immediately gets better. Not saying it becomes a great show overnight or anything like that but it absolutely does improve quite a bit.

Isako is trying to single handily carry the series for the most part but that’s a tall order for anyone. In her plot she’s trying to find her missing brother which is a compelling plot. The darkness of the cyber world is vast and it’s difficult to have any leads with the government keeps closing up the cracks. That’s part of why she ends up being a big hacker because that’s possibly the only way to get to the truth. She quickly takes over the local gang and in general she is a very pro active character doing her best at all times. Definitely should have been the main character if you ask me a she also gives us some actual fight scenes against the robots thanks to her talismans.

Then we have Haraken whose plot is a bit similar in some ways. In this case he’s looking for a friend of his in the digital side. It’s possible that she’s dead but he figures there’s still a part of her out there. He’s not as good at hacking as Isako so it’s a tougher road for him but his aunt works with the government which does give him a foot in the door. It does mean breaking her trust though so it’s a pretty steep penalty. He’s very determined to find the friend and you get it since if there’s any chance that she is alive then he really can’t stop until he finds her. Being stuck in the shadowy digital realm on your own would be rough.

While most of the show takes place in the human world we actually do see what the digital realm looks like at times. There’s also some spooky visuals where we see the shadowy denizens of the digital realm show up to resume their kidnappings. You definitely don’t want to let them make any kind of contact with you or it could be all over. Of course if you take the glasses off then you’re usually in a better spot but sometimes ignorance is not bliss.

It is always funny when we cut back to the adults who just think that the kids are all really crazy. Without the glasses after all this probably does look like some kind of elaborate prank the whole time. The adults don’t really have time for all of that after all. They’d much rather the kids have some real hobbies and hang out outside. The whole AR tech and digital world is pretty well detailed in the world’s lore so from the adult’s perspective it’s just another tech. People work in the government and close up the holes but as far as the adults are concerned that’s really it. There’s no monsters to worry about or things like that.

At most I’d say the robots running around do seem potentially dangerous. They’re rather large so if they fall on a kid that’s game over. Also the lasers may not deal permanent damage but it still seems like it would be really disconcerting. Maybe if you don’t wear the glasses you wouldn’t notice that you’re turning pixelated but then you probably are still talking about a ton of radiation. Nothing’s perfect of course but yeah the dangers of technology are very real.

Back to the characters, Daichi starts out decently solid as the leader of the gang but once he gets humiliated by Isako he is never the same. The guy loses most of his dignity and spends a lot of the show complaining. Mix in some shipping in the show and he definitely lost his edge real quick. He beats some of the other kids but yeah he’s definitely not going to be very high at all. He might beat Grannie though. She has an organization all about completing small missions and using the digital realm but it felt like she wasn’t super helpful for the important matters. She’d get sidetracked by having to go to the hot springs and such.

Yasako may be the main character but she’s not one of the more interesting people here. She is a nice girl who wants to do the right thing but in a lot of ways that’s the extent of her character. She’s hoping to make some friends and wants to help other characters in their quest but she never really has as much of a personal stake in all of this. If she was a bit bolder and less timid that would have helped her character a whole lot. Give her a little more intensity or hacking skills at least. Since she’s not a hacker like the others she isn’t able to fight much until she at least knows how to throw the talismans.

Speaking of cyber risks, the talismans were clearly super painful to use so if the parents found out about that they would be outlawed real quick. I guess it’s like you’re overloading your brain a bit or if you believe Isako’s explanation it’s like putting a bit of your core code/soul into it. Either way that’s definitely pretty dangerous no matter how you slice it. Fumie is the tough member of the group and even she wasn’t big on that. Fumie was pretty fun for the first half but unfortunately she pretty much gets written out in the second part. It’s not like she moves away or anything but her screentime just got significantly reduced.

It’s too bad since she had a fun personality and helped to at least get Yasako to take more risks. Finally we have Tamako as one of the grownup figures here. It’s always good to have an adult to shed some reason on all of this after all. She may end up getting the company in trouble a lot and tends to lower her guard but it was still good to have a different perspective on this. You can only watch the kids mess around for so long before you need a leadership figure in there…if she really counts as one.

So there’s quite a bit going on here and a lot of characters at the ready. It’s not like the show stays aimless forever. The first half is about showing you the rules of the verse and setting up the plot points before the second half really dives into them. Typically this is a pretty good formula but the problem is that the setup still revolves around the kids and there’s only so much you can do to make that very interesting. As it stands the show was not able to pull that off at least as consistently as it would have needed to in order to make this a really solid show.

I’d like to take the concept and make it more action based. The fact that these guardian robots can shoot lasers already sets up for a nice premise about stopping them when they end up taking over. You could have a robot invasion and the heroes have to try and fight them off. Then you remove the kids as the adult step in. We don’t have to worry about any romances or kids being annoying either. The show will perhaps be less unique but I think it’s worth it to get this into the next level. There was a lot of effort put in here but I’d say it was put into the wrong places.

A slice of life is only as strong as its main cast and by the end you’re not going to love the characters. I had my favorites to be sure but put them in almost any other show and they would be fairly low tier. You need the characters to all pop out more, give them some more interesting traits or again just make them funny. From the poster at the top you can see how the cast is fairly big and yet most of the characters won’t leave much of an impression on you other than that they cause trouble a lot.

Overall, Den-noh Coil is a show that just didn’t have many draws for me. The main characters being kids definitely doesn’t really help since I need the adults and as a slice of life it wasn’t really funny enough to turn the corner either. I think you absolutely need to age the kids up for the show to really have a chance. It doesn’t make any big mistakes either, it just can be boring at times. That’s why I’d say it doesn’t quite get up to the middle level, however it’s not an awful show or anything like that. Naturally if you really enjoy shows about kids hanging out and working together then you may have a good time here. I’d just recommend picking a show with a bit more pop like Megaman NT Warrior.

Overall 4/10

Godzilla Singular Point Review

Posted on July 5, 2021 by dreager1

Netflix has had a very interesting history with Godzilla. By interesting, I meant that they tend to throw away the usual Godzilla playbook and come up with something very different. It’s an interesting attempt but they tend to fail a lot more than they succeed. Unfortunately this one is no exception. It’s easily one of the worst anime I’ve seen and I don’t have a ton of hope for the sequel unless it decides to actually have a purpose this time. My main issue with season 1 is that often times there is no point to what’s going on. This anime also shouldn’t have even called itself Godzilla.

The story starts out by following Yun and Habero. They work for a robotics company that sends robots out to their clients. Yun is a genius who can predict events up to 2 weeks into the future simply by analyzing behavioral patterns and such. One day, a song rings out from a nearby facility and they decide to investigate. They end up being captured and escorted out but now crazy things are happening around the planet. A red smoke is appearing and Kaiju are descending onto the planet. It may be the end of the world as they know it, but can this be stopped? They’re going to have to take their Jet Jaguar robot out for a test drive.

Meanwhile Mei Kamino is the main character of the other plot. She has been called in to help the company decide what’s going on with the song since they don’t want to be the ones responsible for the end of the world. Well, the good news is that Mei mostly knows what’s going on. It’s a song from the future using a computer that can’t possibly exist yet and for a material that doesn’t exist in this timeline. Now she just has to figure out what’s going on and they’re good. Can she do it before the calamity wipes out the universe?

There is a ton to unpack here so strap in guys. Before doing that though lets get the rather unimaginative cast out of the way first. You’ve got Michael who is a politician that has a lot of connections. We barely even know what he wants out of this but clearly he needs to be one step ahead of the instance so he can capitalize on it and help his political career. I like the guy’s confidence at least even if he doesn’t really contribute to the story.

Lina is Bearach’s daughter and she doesn’t really do much until the final episodes. She’s not thrilled about how all of these crazy situations require her dad to be away from home so often. Still, Lina has a good head on her shoulders and at least rolls with what’s going on. You won’t be seeing her panic. Bearach is a more tragic character since he’s a complete genius but the problem is that within this series there are at least 4 other geniuses who are smarter than him. At least this guy is pro-active though and does a whole lot more than most of the other characters around here.

Li is one of those characters that the anime ditches without a second thought. She’s pretty smart and has a lot of influence since she made the most headway with the impossible materials. The main issue though is the fact that Mei has surpassed her. Mei continues to find out new things about the material while Li does nothing with her knowledge. Seriously, every episode has her saying things like she is already aware of what Mei has discovered…but to what end? We never actually see Li doing anything to help out beyond just giving speeches.

Kai is a character who will probably be getting a bigger role in season 2. He appears to be a reporter or at least that’s what he claims but the guy is very suspicious. He seems to know a whole lot of what’s going on and the guy just so happens to be trespassing whenever he appears. Not that the heroes can say anything since they’re guilty of the same thing. I like this guy’s energy though so he’s definitely one of the best characters.

Tsunetomo is one of those troll characters who insists on getting in everyone’s way and making a mockery of things. He’s got to be the absolute worst character in the series and every scene with him is incredibly annoying. His partner should have called the cops and had him arrested. When you choose to do nothing like this guy then you’re just a flat out villain.

Goro talks a good game but he’s also a very weak character. The guy just can’t fight and his robots were getting absolutely shredded. I like when characters have a lot of confidence about them but it has to be earned. This guy has yet to do anything that would make you respect his abilities. In the end he just ends up being someone that you will be shaking your head at. He’s effectively the comic relief of the show but never ends up being funny.

There’s not a lot to say about Haberu despite him being Yun’s friend. The guy just doesn’t get much in the way of character. Of course, that’s fairly true for Yun as well. He’s pretty emotionless and his only character is the fact that he’s a genius. I suppose at first they were building him up to be rather skeptical and not trusting of anyone but that vanished after episode 1. He has a lot of good back and forth dialogue with Mei over texts even if the guy always likes to start his sentences with “Let’s assume that..” even when they’re talking about something that has already been proven to be true. I like the genius aspect though so he’s good at least.

As for Mei, she’s okay at best but unfortunately she’s a lot more timid than Yun. She may know all of the answers but has a tough time just jumping into the fray and pointing them out. She ultimately does get the job done I suppose but with none of the main characters being very emotional or aggressive, it means that the show will usually be very low energy.

That’s where Pelops II comes in. She’s really the energy of the series. Effectively she is a free domain AI that Yun came up with and downloads into anything. Each Pelops II is different though and they all have different names despite the base code. This way each plot always has a Pelops with it. I’ll give her more credit than the rest of the characters since half the time the only way to progress is for Pelops to run some simulations and see what’s going on.

All right, we’re through the characters. Unfortunately the animation here is also very sub par. This never looks like a show that came out in 2021, not even close. It’s Netflix so there’s a lot of CGI running around here. Unfortunately it’s not the good kind. This gets shredded by most of the CGI stuff I’ve seen of late. In part I suppose it’s because this isn’t an action oriented series so it can’t really show its stuff.

Godzilla is once again barely able to move. He’s not literally made of rocks like in the trilogy but you can’t expect any real action scenes here. The Rodans can fly a bit and their tussles with Jet Jaguar are about as good as it gets. The hand drawn parts are okay but there are no noticeable moments. So the animation is better than things like FLCL and Pop Team Epic but compare it to almost any traditional anime over the last few years and it’s likely getting stomped. I’ve seen 80s and 90s anime that looked far superior to this one.

I’ll throw the animation a little bone though. The final two episodes actually give me a little hope. Sure, the ending was anticlimactic but I’m talking pure animation here. Godzilla’s Atomic Breath looked really good. You might be thinking that energy effects are the low hanging fruit since they should always look good but you have to start somewhere. It at least made for a good backdrop in the final episodes and looked rather impressive. If the next season has more action, particularly more beam battles then the animation should improve around the board. Now that’s a part of the show that has some potential. If you pause the screen at the right time some of the still images also look good like the Jet Jaguar one I picked out. I really dislike the character design they gave him but the image looks sharp. So it’s very rough around the edges right now but at least there is potential.

As for the soundtrack, it’s pretty solidly low tier. You have a remix of the classic Godzilla theme which is always memorable but it’s a very slow song so it’s not going to make the show seem any more exciting. The only musical theme that I liked a lot was the opening. The intro to the show has a lot more energy and suspense than the entirety of the anime. I’ve listened to it quite a few times now and it’s really solid all around. The images are also cool as they’re vague without being nonsense.

Okay, now lets talk more about the actual show/anime. A huge chunk of the show is told to us via text messages between the main characters. See, when the Kaiju start attacking the first thing everyone needs to find out is why the red dust is appearing. The red dust seems to be connected to the Archetype, a mysterious new kind of object that can use time travel to replenish energy.

We’re first shown this at an expo where it is able to capture two lights, one from the present and one from the future. The kicker? This material is from the future so how did it get to the present? Well, the Red Dust conveniently brought it. How did it do that? The show won’t bother explaining that part but we can assume Ashihara somehow brought some from the future.

Here’s the thing, the show is really focused heavily on the time aspect but it doesn’t make sense most of the time. Okay put it this way, you can have a super computer that brings information from the future. It’s not solid so that’s fine. How are you transporting actual objects from the future without a time machine though? No matter how you slice it that’s pretty iffy. Not as iffy as hiding a code that can physically change the size and shape of an object to also be given super abilities mind you but it’s pretty suspect.

I enjoy all of these theoretical discussions though. That’s the kind of topic you could listen to for hours and at least follow along since it’s usually pretty interesting. Where things go wrong is that the series is supposed to be a Godzilla title. Godzilla himself doesn’t really appear much until episode 8 where he ends up murdering himself by mistake and then he returns later on. Why is Godzilla disrespected so much here?

A single blast from his Atomic Breath was enough to melt him from the inside out? That’s just awful durability. This is also bar none the worst Godzilla design I’ve ever seen. I’ve made fun of the Bear face from the American Godzilla films from time to time and that his design sometimes looks a bit too thick to be ready for hand to hand fights but at least it looks like Godzilla all the way. Same with the chicken form from Shin Godzilla but I still make fun of that one so I wouldn’t put it in the same ballpark.

This one looks absolutely like Titanosaurus and doesn’t look like Godzilla. I don’t know what the animators were doing but they definitely weren’t watching the original films. This is also truly just a mindless monster called Godzilla. Most of the Kaiju here are really only the characters in name only. You have the droves of mindless fodder called Rodan that are barely even sentient as they crash into everything. Are we supposed to take them seriously? You have the climbing Kaiju who doesn’t even get named and a bunch of Manda.

The only Kaiju treated with a lot of respect here was Anguirus. He’s given some pre cog abilities where he can predict the future and dodge attacks. That was cool and a good way to make the time manipulation work for you rather than it being the other way around. It was one of the only moments in the whole show that I would actually say was “cool” and not just emotionless.

Going back to the core issue of the series though, it’s just relentlessly boring and aimless. So all the talks between the two main characters are at least leading up to something right? Well, not really. They spend a few episodes discussing a possible code only to find out in the final episode that there is no code. It was already sent in the past so they just wasted all of their time and ours.

All right, at least we will be able to figure out a way to stop the Calamity right? Wrong, Ashihara figured that out decades ago and put in a program that would make Jet Jaguar ready for this. Pretty impressive that he predicted 50 years ago how the company would build Jet Jaguar and that they would turn on the machine at the precise moment needed to download it.

There’s coincidence in shows and then there’s just the plot saying it’s time to go. The only explanation for this that isn’t awful is that Ashihara is actively time travelling to fix events in the future into his favor. While that is possible, that’s not how the show has been showing us time travel so far. So far it’s mainly been about calculating the future as opposed to travelling.

Let me put this plot in order real quick so we can break it down. This is effectively the timeline of the show. 50BS (Before Show) Ashihara realized that a calamity was going to destroy the world so he built a song into his company’s computer and left instructions for it that were to be opened 50 years later. He then hid the broken bones of an old Godzilla in the basement to transmit the song. Next, he created a computer that is able to read data from the future and buried it into the center of the Earth. He left it with some instructions on how to locate Archetypes and how to build the Orthogonal Diagonalizer which is the only weapon effective against the stronger Kaiju. He then vanished.

So we can now cut over to the present. Everything is unfolding exactly as Ashihara predicted. That’s why we have a Super Computer that is slowly being dug out of the planet and a bunch of Archetypes for things that don’t exist. So we’re in a good spot except why did he have to be so coy about this? If he just left clearer instructions then we’d be good. Perhaps he is a villain since he seems awfully shady but then why even leave all of these notes?

Part of why the show feels utterly pointless is because the main characters didn’t accomplish anything. Ultimately Ashihara did all of the work. The heroes were just following his ideas and recreating the steps he took but even by the end they were too late and he effectively had to step in with the song. That’s why it’s all so aimless and it’s why even the techno babble couldn’t save it.

Usually for these things there is a purpose. Watch A Certain Magical Index/Railgun for a great example of technological speeches and concepts that always serve a purpose. Whether it’s to get a leg up on the enemy or to try and solve some ancient puzzle that crosses the boundaries of magic and science. There’s always a reason that they’re discussing things. Even the Ironman Technovirus movie which was not the best at least had a reason for why they were talking about morality and destiny.

Here? Even the characters seem unsure at times. I still say Yun was bluffing to an extent such as when he started back pedaling in his texts saying “Let’s assume such a material could exist” when Mei just sent him photo evidence of it existing. Maybe he was on auto pilot by then but it could be that he was trying to sound really smart but knew that she had surpassed him by this point.

I’m just not yet convinced about the time aspects of this either. If you could see information from the future then you must be looking at an alternate timeline or else it would keep on changing. So lets say that’s true then it’s still really handy but it doesn’t change the fact that obtaining materials from the future would be impossible. Creating mini loops using the Archetypes would also defy every kind of science law imaginable. If you could pull that off then what’s to stop you from putting the world on loop accidentally? The instant someone weaponizes this it’s all over.

The sad thing is that this show could have really worked if it went in a different direction. First off, this should not be called Godzilla as I mentioned. The Kaiju scenes are all just time wasters and serve no purpose in the story. Cut them out entirely. All right, so we’ve got them out and now there’s no Jet Jaguar either. Refocus Ashihara as the main villain who is introducing this tech into the world. The world is in danger because messing with time is dangerous and the Archetype will cause the calamity.

Now you have Mei and Yun debating about whether the risk is worth it or not. Have one of them think it’s a good idea to keep the Archetypes while the other doesn’t. Now you’ve got an engaging series and a reason for their discussions. Suddenly each conversation has a lot of weight to it because both side is pretty valid. No matter what option they choose, it would be a fun ride all the way to the end.

Because when you think about it, Kaijus just showing up is extremely random. Why would using Archetypes even summon these guys in the first place? The only option the show gives you is that Godzilla is effectively a manifestation of the universe. He keeps things from going out of control. It’s stated almost explicitly that using the computer too much brings about the calamity. So the universe calls in Godzilla to protect the past from being altered?

Now that’s actually a very interesting angle so of course the show doesn’t go there. The Kaiju are all just mindless acts of nature. They serve no purpose here and should have just not been around. Hopefully Season 2 can handle them better. If we get a change in plot I think it’s definitely possible, it just has to be handled with care but surely it will have more of a focus than this one.

Don’t call yourself Godzilla if the star player misses the first 6 episodes. You just can’t do that. We have some mild action scenes but it’s not that kind of show and you can tell since it’s all rather half hearted. I’d also say the show’s directing needs to be more focused. Stop having every news channel cut the other one off. They’re never able to have a full conversation and it’s a gimmick that gets old almost immediately. Come on now, there’s no reason for that. Just let each broadcast play. It’s an intentional design choice so it’s not an error but it’s bad design.

As a final note, the calamity is supposed to wipe out the entire universe. My question would be…how? Godzilla’s laser isn’t destroying a city, let alone the universe. If Godzilla is the calamity then there is no way he is going to destroy the universe. So presumably there has to be another layer here like destroying Earth will somehow affect the rest of the universe. That or when Godzilla died in the explosion, it would destroy the universe. Kind of a desperate move for the universe itself if it’s summoning these Kaiju. I suppose the easiest solution is just that meddling with time causes a paradox which destroys the universe but you definitely have to use a lot of head canon for this show.

I could probably keep going but I think you get the gist of it here. Netflix clearly wants to turn Godzilla into a deep philosophical series and I have no idea why. You can turn any series into that direction of course so Godzilla is just as qualified as anyone but it does take away from the appeal of the series. People watch Godzilla for big action scenes and a lot of special effects. Not for talks on the inner mechanics of the universe. Again, if there was a point to it and not just “Eh, lets just let Ashihara save the day” then it would be different. As it stands, you could remove every human character from the story entirely and Ashihara would have still been able to save the world with Pelop II. That’s the most depressing part when you think about it. (Climax made no sense power level wise)

While this is definitely a show that is getting a low score, what prevents it from going lower is that at least it did have some positives. There were some characters I liked as I mentioned earlier and at least the discussions were interesting. They may have been fruitless but introduced unique concepts at least. I can’t imagine majoring in a field to study things that don’t exist though. How do you get a job off of that or is it something you just have as a personal achievement? The energy effects looked good and we get the occasional battle scene. Anguirus’ time pre cog was neat. It also helps that the show didn’t make any huge mistakes either. There’s no fanservice here or anything like that. If it was less boring it would probably jump up a star or 2 as it is. It’s not like the writing is bad either, it just didn’t know where to go.

Overall, That’s Godzilla Singular Point in a nutshell. I really didn’t think it was possible for the show to fumble the ball so badly but it is what it is I suppose. The show ends with a direct cliffhanger so I have to assume that a season 2 is in the works. Hopefully it should beat the first season. In a lot of ways it shouldn’t be hard but if we’re going to just do everything all over again then there may not be a reason for it to improve. What’s so hard about playing it straight for a change and having a Godzilla anime about giant monsters battling it out all the time?

Overall 4/10

Luck & Logic Review

Posted on March 28, 2018 by dreager1

Well, it’s time to look at a new Bushiroad production. The others that I have reviewed have all been excellent for the most part with the occasional 7/10 which is still pretty solid. Unfortunately this is the first negative installment from the company. Luck & Logic falls into the unfortunate fanservice trap which is really what nails it. The low budget doesn’t help much either, but that’s the kind of thing that really just limits a show from getting a higher score as opposed to bringing it down. Still, not every show can be a winner I suppose.

The show takes place in a future where monsters constantly invade the planet through rips in time and space that come from another world. Earth has monster hunters who merge with their partners to stop them. The issue is that there are only a handful of agents in every city and do the monsters always seem to have the edge. Still, there is currently a balance and the system works well enough. Tsurugi was a hero in Hong Kong, but he was forced to enter overdrive to stop the villain and this led to his partner being scattered forever and he barely survived. See, every person is made up of cards and the cost for using this super ability is that you lose all of your cards. If you friends don’t find them in time then you will permanently lose your self. One card is your memories while another is your emotions for example. Since there are dozens of cards to find and they are all pretty important, it is easy to never be the same after such an event. Tsurugi was lucky enough to stay intact though but he is transferred to a new unit where he will get a new partner. Will he fit in with the group and continue to protect the world from monsters? He sure hopes so!

So on the surface this is another classic “Defend the world from monsters” story. It is fairly episodic as each monster is usually defeated in a single episode. There are some underlying plot elements that continue though and it all leads up to the final 3 episodes which is the big plot related fight. That sounds about right for a 12 episode show like this one. The early episodes are all about getting to know the characters. The pacing is solid and the show certainly doesn’t drag on as you can probably guess. There isn’t really anything all that unique about the show, but so long as the execution is on point you don’t need to do anything super special. Unfortunately the show’s main gimmick is what gets it into trouble.

So, as I mentioned you have to merge with a partner to activate your super form which lets you fight the monsters. This form runs out of stamina almost immediately though so try to end the battle within a few minutes. Also you have to be completely in sync with your partner or the transformation will fall apart. The very iffy thing with the transformation though is that you have to kiss your partner or make a whole lot of contact in general, but basically every team goes with the first option. Naturally you can see how this would be a problem. It’s a pretty iffy excuse to just have the whole cast get in on the action and even conceptually it makes you wonder just how tough this is for the characters.

Take Tsurugi and Athena. They know each other for a few hours and then they are suddenly made to be partners and have to undergo the transformation. It’s all rather drastic. Unfortunately the series doesn’t even make the transformations rather tame like Sailor Moon and they have quite a lot of fanservice. Seeing as how the transformations happen in every episode, you can see how this would drag the show down a bit. One of the final episodes is probably the most drastic as everybody transforms back to back in that episode so it’s whole minutes of everybody just transforming. This gimmick is ultimately what hurt the show the most as there just isn’t really getting around this. Both the fanservice and the concept of what you have to undergo in order to transform is pretty bad.

Thanks to these scenes, the series had a real fanservice issue. Then we also had the typical anime character who is obsessed with bringing down the show. In this case the “old man” character was Tsurugi’s dad who is always messing around and trying to get his son to do the same thing. It’s one of those running gags where you have to wonder how people actually find it funny. It’s just grating and fortunately the guy doesn’t appear all that often which is a good thing. With the major issue out of the way now, lets look at the cast.

Tsurugi is the main character here and he is known as the best agent in the world. He was able to overtranz (It’s pronounced like Tranz instead of Trance so that’s how I like to spell it) and live after all which isn’t something that just anybody can do. That being said, maybe anyone could do it as two other characters in the series do the same thing and survive, not to mention that Tsurugi also pulls it off a second time. Tsurugi can’t help it if he is the best and naturally he quickly becomes the leader of the group much to the sadness of the former commander. He’s a nice enough guy who gives pep talks and tries to keep morale high. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much character beyond that and of course I still find it iffy that he had an original tranz partner that he never mentions or seems to care about at all. That person likely didn’t live through the experience or lost her memories but that’s why moving to a new tranz partner is so iffy. He also tends to overreact when Lucifer shows up but I guess he is a big deal.

Athena is Tsurugi’s tranz partner and she seems like a nice enough character. She does hide her connection to Lucifer from the others but I think the heroes made a mountain out of a molehill on this one. It’s not like they were teaming up or anything. She is a very loyal partner to Tsurugi and since he was her first covenentor I don’t have the same problem with them tramping as I did with Tsurugi.

Tamaki used to be the leader of the squad before Tsurugi stepped in and took her throne. She definitely doesn’t take this well and I can understand why she wouldn’t want to be taking orders from someone who came out of nowhere but that’s just how it goes sometimes. In real life that happens all the time as well. She does eventually get past this though and is an okay character. It’s just unfortunate that she looks weak. To an extent all of the characters look really weak, but Tamaki stands out in particular as she doesn’t have any real offensive abilities. She can heal herself and others which is really useful in most circumstances, but not in a 1 on 1 fight like she was forced into during the last 2 episodes. Still, she is good at tactics. Her partner Venus is the worst of the hero partners. To counterbalance how stoic and unmoving Tamaki is, Venus turned out to be a serious flirt. Surprisingly the show doesn’t focus on it much which is a good thing, but since that is her main personality you can see why she wouldn’t be one of my all time favorite characters or anything like that.

Chloe is definitely the best member of the main characters as she is always ready for a fight. Unlike the other characters who are basically all yes men, she thinks about what is being told and decides whether to believe it or not. She is a detective part time as well and her fire form is one of the stronger abilities in the show. Chloe may not uncover all that much in her detective info gathering but the attempt is really what counts. Ultimately, Chloe has more personality than the rest of the cast and fortunately it is a good one. Valkyrie is Chloe’s partner but like the other monsters she doesn’t get a lot of personality. I guess she seems like an okay character, don’t expect her to get too many lines though.

Olga is the big rival of the series and always talks with a lot of confidence throughout the series. You can barely believe your eyes while this is happening since he is the only agent to not have a partner yet. As a result, while he has the very powerful ability of reading the future, there just isn’t much that he can do about it. It was fun to see him admit that Tsurugi was smarter than he looked when the main character admitted that Olga was an incredibly skilled agent. Naturally as Olga was desperate for power this made it easy for Lucifer to begin his plan. I do think that the conclusion to Olga’s character arc was a little rushed though. He goes from being public enemy number 1 to being the leader of the group in the span of a few days? I don’t know, when people try to destroy the world you expect a different kind of reward than that. I don’t want to make the group sound too naive so I should mention that they have bombs floating around Olga’a head in case he ever tries anything. I guess that’s better than nothing.

Lucifer is the big villain of the series but he was probably made to be a little too powerful the whole time. Without a Tranz partner he was already stronger than the whole hero group and then he got a partner and got even stronger. There was no way he could possibly have been defeated at the end and the fight should have been over in a snap. Granted, Olga wrecked his chances at the end and Lucifer should have just tried to end everything on his own. He certainly isn’t a very cool villain either as he loves his nightclub experiences too much and a subplot is that he has grown a bit of a cult. People get to tranz with him to have a bit of a thrill. I know that the heroes can’t do much about this since he would beat them up but it would have been nice to have seen them try to stop him, but they never made a single move. The monsters of the week were typically cooler characters even if they were basically just around to get stomped. At least they all showed up again at the end of the show…it wasn’t just to save budget.

Asuha is the sniper of the group. She can turn invisible which is always a good tactic and her bullets pack a punch. She also has a more legitimate character arc than most of the other characters as she waits for her mother to show up every night. It breaks curfew but why should Super powered fighters have one anyway? It’s easy to see why Veronica lets it go since losing one of the few fighters that the heroes have just wouldn’t be tactically wise. Next to Tsurugi, Asuha is definitely the most useful member of the group. Her partner is Artemis. Artemis has a more important role than some of the other partners and can always be counted on to at least back Asuha up when the going gets tough. She can be a little abstract and random at tones but never becomes too annoying.

Yukari is probably the worst member of the group by far. She can’t really fight at all and her partner is always making fun of her. She allows him to think that he is her master during the show and never really claims her dignity back from that. Even her costume is fairly half hearted. She is supposed to be the nicest character in the show but once again “nice” became synonymous with being weak which is unfortunate. So much for that eh? Maybe if she kept herself from crying in the last episode that would have at least shown some character development in her defense.

Veronica is the field commander for the Logic troops. She may not be the highest ranked overall but is considered to be extremely powerful. She gets a lot of hype throughout the series but unfortunately never lives up to it. Like most of the cast she seems to just have one technique at her disposal. In this case it is her bombs and such a technique can only carry you so far in a fight. Fact of the matter is that she runs out of stamina about as quickly as everyone else and her bombs have no real effect on any of the really powerful opponents. Veronica is a reasonable leader nonetheless and is at least quick to jump into action compared to other leaders like her boss. The head of the organization doesn’t even seem to have a monster of his own at the ready.

Nemesis is Veronica’s partner and always seems to be very powerful. We never actually see this but it is certainly very implied. Even though Nemesis is very old she still acts like a kid and enjoys having fun just like everyone else. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a darker side to her. Not that this show had time to delve into anything like that though.

Shiori is Tsurugi’s sister but she doesn’t get to do a whole lot during the series. She does get Tsurugi to promise that he will always win in a fight though which he uses as motivation to get past any obstacle in his way. She is a big improvement over his father.

Unfortunately the animation is a mixed bag. On one hand the actual visuals look really good. The character designs are sharp and the colors make it clear that this is a modern show. However, the show does seem to be rather low budget so when it comes time for the fight it suddenly dips in quality. We get a bunch of CGI and there is barely any real animation. The characters aren’t moving and instead seem to be frozen in place half the time. Most battles revolve around the monster shooting a blast and then Tsurugi blocks it. Don’t expect a lot of fast scenes or anything like that, the action scenes are basically turn based battles. It feels like a budget issue as opposed to a director choice, but you never know I guess. The soundtrack is rather generic and I don’t really remember it having any notable themes. Ah well, I guess there weren’t too many chances to play it even if there were a bunch of good themes since the fights never lasted too long.

Overall, Luck & Logic definitely didn’t have enough luck to actually end up being a good series. It had some decent ideas, but having two characters merge was not a good one or at least not in the way that they pulled it off. They should have just fused DBZ style whether it be through the earrings or with the dance. Either way I could definitely buy into that and it would have solved a lot of the show’s problems. If you don’t mind the fanservice then this is a reasonable action anime to check out. At the same time, there are a bunch of shows that use the same concept but to better effect. The final episode does give you a glimpse at what the show could have been with a proper budget and better fight scenes as it feels a little like the climax of Buso Renkin or the beginnings of a Saint Seiya fight. Having the whole show be like that would have been hype. If you want to check out a better show in this genre, go watch Devil Survivor. That one has a lot of monsters and action but stays classy throughout.

Overall 4/10

Inhumans Review

Posted on March 7, 2018 by dreager1

The Inhumans were pushed heavily throughout the comics and shows a few years back. Marvel did their best to try and use them as replacements for the X-Men although this plan failed and the mutants are back in business. This TV show came out during this interesting period and all it did was show why the Inhumans were never all that popular. They just aren’t likable characters.

The show starts off with showing us the Inhuman civilization on the Moon. Things may look peaceful from a distance, but the citizens are not happy as King Black Bolt has separated them into an outdated caste system. Depending on how you were born you were doomed to work in the mines or you can live above ground. Now you may recognize this system from many villain groups like the Soul Society, Skypiea, or even the world of Black Clover. Since you know the format then you know that Black Bolt is the main villain so an up and coming Inhuman will stop him right? Well that’s where Maximus comes in.

He realizes that the caste system is immoral and decides to quickly put a stop to it once and for all. He achieves a coup d’etat and usurps Black Bolt of his crown and banishes most of the royal family to Earth. Black Bolt swears revenge and that he will destroy Maximus when next they meet. Show’s over right? Well, Maximus is the main villain and Black Bolt is the hero…..just let that sink in for a little while.

Despite the summary Maximus is obviously a villain from the start. It’s just a shame because he is completely right about how Black Bolt has become a dictator and isn’t treating everyone equally. The show just wrote itself into a corner because this makes Black Bolt a total villain so Maximus goes over the top and starts murdering everyone while also trying for someone who is already married. Clearly the show was worried that Maximus was going to be the best character in the show otherwise. Naturally as a result of all this I am definitely not a Maximus fan. While he may be slightly sympathetic at first he completely goes nuts and loses whatever credibility he had. It’s a shame, but just having a sob story won’t be enough to get you anywhere.

Black Bolt is just as bad but he was never sympathetic. He can’t talk which is supposed to make you sympathetic I guess, but as he is king we can blame him for a lot of what is wrong with the society. He kept in the caste system and looks down on his own people. He is incredibly arrogant to the point where he doesn’t like anyone to make contact with him since he is so above them. He locked one guy in darkness for eternity which is certainly a cruel fate and even hid secrets away from his wife and inner cabal. This is because at his core, Black Bolt doesn’t trust anyone. The only part that I guess could be frustrating for Black Bolt is how Medusa is his interpreter, but she rarely repeats what he actually said and likes to come up with her own version. He definitely needs to find some way to talk through writing or electronically.

I also have to say that his abilities were not impressive in the slightest compared to what you would expect. The show spends the entire season building up his raw power but the big moment at the end where he finally lets loose only amounts to some rocks being broken and the metal cube not even getting a dent. All I’m saying is that I just didn’t find this impressive and the show could have done a whole lot better if you ask me. As a whole, the Inhumans just seem fairly weak and wouldn’t last long against the Avengers or the X-Men. They are all glass cannons with no real defense.

Karnak is a hand to hand fighter with the unique ability to see all of the angles. It is definitely a cool power to have since he can think things through so clearly that he can basically get a do over on any situation. While this ability isn’t as all encompassing as the famous Spider Sense as Karnak won’t know about attacks from behind, it’s good for any fight that he jumps into. Naturally since this ability would likely be too good, Karnak inexplicably trips and loses his ability for most of the season. That’s just annoying since of course now he is just a normal human who needs help from everybody. He also gets the worst subplot in the show as he goes to this place where they’re growing drugs. He helps for a while, but one of the guys goes crazy and starts murdering everybody. Karnak manages to escape with the girl and then they part ways, but the romance was absolutely brutal. This is mainly because Karnak is another one of those characters who doesn’t know much about social behavior and as such he has to be taught romance. It’s all very cringe worthy stuff.

Then we have Crystal and her subplot. She was taught that humans are all beneath her so she should not speak to her, but Lockjaw gets run over by a car for the edge factor so she has to find a vet. She meets up with a surfer dude, well he is the one who ran over her dog and he introduces her to his ex girlfriend who is a vet. The whole scenario is so absurd that it is almost funny. The guy gives her pretty bad advice the whole time as he says things like “your family can wait” as having a fun time at the beach is just a better way to spend the day. He isn’t a positive influence and the problem is that he’s supposed to be the person who gets Crystal to see that humans aren’t so bad. So much for that plan right? Crystal is also annoying because of how extremely powerful she is. She could destroy Maximus at any point in the show, but hesitated too much and loves firing warning shots. She could have saved quite a few people if she had actually made a move instead of waiting. Big mistake on her part if you ask me. So she isn’t a bad character but she is definitely an annoying one. I wanted her to take more initiative so having her become the Queen of the Inhumans would have worked really well.

We can’t forget the actual queen though. Medusa serves as the voice for Black Bolt but as she is basically a yes man for a while, her role barely matters. She does seem to have a little more humanity than Bolt though and at least gets him to be less strict on the corrupt rules that were in place. She can come off as rather mean at times and a little overdramatic when it came to her hair. Still, I have less faults with Medusa than the other characters. She is at least a character who tries to make a change in her situation.

Then we also have Gorgon with his strong stomps. I guess he is super human when it comes to physical abilities but they definitely aren’t at a particularly high level. He is the tough member of the group, but always seems rather outmatched in the various fights that he is in. You never really expect him to win although he does look good when going up against the humans. I guess we will give him some credit for that. There is a big decision that has to be made involving whether they should try to bring him back or not. All I can say is that the group’s bickering and indecision is another reason why they will never be as good as the others. Karnak was Bolt’s most trusted adviser and even he ended up defying him. Considering that Bolt was going to destroy him for this one choice I can definitely say that Karnak made the right move.

There is also a human scientist thrown into the mix who looks like someone out of the Supergirl show. Louise serves as the general audience character who does her best to help and even defies her bosses when she really wants to pursue a story. She doesn’t add a whole lot to the story if we are being honest and just works as a plot device to help the Inhumans secure cars and other necessities in order to reform the team. She could have definitely been worse, but I wasn’t really a fan of the character.

The best character in the film is certainly the regenerating assassin who serves Maximus. Having excellent hand to hand skills in addition to a healing factor is certainly crucial to have at the ready and it’s a shame that her boss was so crazy. Auran definitely was hoping that Maximus was going to be a just ruler, but it simply wasn’t to be. Auran ended up making the right calls by the end and is someone you can trust to keep her word. Being honorable is always a good trait for a protagonist or an antagonist. It shows that he or she has confidence in winning a battle with anyone. If you have to cheat or resort to sneak attacks, then you clearly aren’t as tough as you thought you were. It’s even worse if the villain is one of those people talking about survival of the fittest. So much for that right?

Mordis is one of the other big villains and he gets a ton of hype. Everyone fears him including Black Bolt. The thing is, he’s basically just a weaker Cyclops. He completely relies on his eye blasts and is otherwise a normal mortal. His constant joking around is a nice change of pace from all of the ultra serious Inhumans, but he really couldn’t live up to the hype. He ends up going down pretty quickly when the adventure actually gets tough.

The pacing is fairly good at least since this is basically just an extended movie turned into a short show. Either way, something is always happening and it doesn’t have time to be all that drawn out. Certainly a good thing. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the show thanks to its lackluster cast and it not striving to have quality writing instead of random romances, at least it didn’t keep in going and going for too long. It knew to end before going too far off the deep end.

The show isn’t all that violent which is a good thing. It never gets quite as intense as the Agents of Shield or anything like that. We have a regenerative character and we see her heal from a wound but it’s nothing too crazy. There is also the animal violence of the dog being run over. If he had died or something then the show would have really done down the tubes. It’s definitely good that the show avoided that land mine.

I suppose I’ll give the show’s scenery and costumes some props. I thought they did a good job with Black Bolt and Crystal’s costumes. They seemed to be pretty comic accurate. They weren’t really trying with Medusa since most of the plot revolved around her losing the hair anyway, but I suppose the actual costume was on point. The suits may have a hard time translating into live action for many heroes since they just feel like cosplay at times, but as long as the look is right then it’s fine if it looks rather fragile. That’s a very slight stretch of disbelief to imagine that the fabric is just really tough.

The fight scenes may have been scarce but we still got a few good ones like Medusa vs Auran. Lets face it though, Auran should have absolutely clobbered her. Medusa is tough because of her hair, but Auran is an advanced master of hand to hand combat. Throw in the regeneration and this is absolutely no contest. If they said beforehand that Medusa was also known as one of the best fighters or that she had super strength then maybe it would be believable, but otherwise I just couldn’t take the fight’s outcome seriously. Too bad we didn’t get more hand to hand fights like that, but the show at least did give us a lot of posturing between…well everybody. Every character here has a huge ego and they are intact by the end so if we get a sequel prepare for a lot of “I told you so” remarks and smirks. I really don’t see this show getting a sequel anytime soon though.

The best part of the show is probably when the villains and heroes have their first major encounter in the forest. The heroes spend a lot of that time running away and surprisingly there isn’t actually much of a fight but I was done with the whole “Heroes scattered in an unknown town” plot. The actual confrontations are what we came here for after all. Black Bolt did appear to be incredibly naive when he met with Maximus for the first hostage exchange though. In what world would Maximus actually release control back to Black Bolt in exchange for his life when he could just destroy Bolt where he stands? Maximus went as far as to betray his whole family and risk being assassinated to become the ruler. A few words wasn’t going to switch that at any point. Naturally this just causes Black Bolt to fume a little more, but I don’t see how he became the King with those tactician skills. Oh right…he was born into the crown, Bolt didn’t actually earn it. That’s the whole premise of the show.

Overall, Inhumans was a failed experiment of Marvel’s which likely won’t be remembered all that much in the future. It wasn’t a terrible attempt, but it just didn’t have enough good fundamentals to stand on its own. Some guest stars would have really gone a long way into making this a better show. Even if it had to be human guest stars like throwing the Agents of Shield in. That would have worked for me.

Overall 4/10

Sword Art Online II Review

Posted on January 6, 2016 by dreager1

The first Sword Art Online show had started off as an all star but quickly turned into a trainwreck. This one doesn’t crash and burn in such a way, rather it suffers from a myriad of issues from the get go. The sequel just seemed to have lower standards across the board. I still can’t call the show good as a result, but we do get some nice fight scenes. This series has 3 arcs, but most of the review is spent on the first one, as it is the longest. Get ready folks because there’s a lot to bash here! That being said, this still manages to beat season 1!

Kirito doesn’t really want to go on dangerous virtual reality missions anymore. Why would he want to do this after nearly dying right? Well, things change when the government makes contact with him regarding two pieces of important intel. Someone has been terminating players in the new Gun Gale game. Kirito quickly reminds the agent that it’s impossible to injure a real person from a video game. The agent agrees, but he wants Kirito to investigate a little anyway. Kirito heads into the game and things get personal when he finds out that this “Death Gun” character may be a Sword Art Online survivor. Can Kirito really take this guy down or will his long break from playing shooters come back to haunt him? Granted, Kirito finds a beam sword, which greatly helps him in the battles.

Meanwhile, there’s a new character in the mix. Her name is Sinon and she intends to win the big gun contest so that she can get over her fear of those weapons. It’s an intriguing way to cure her fears although I do see the logic in it. Still, it’ll be very tough to win the contest when Death Gun and Kirito have also entered to complicate the situation rather dramatically. Kirito is and always will be known as the ultimate gamer so he’s not going to just let Sinon win when there’s still a job to do.

One gimmick that the anime decided to use for this arc was for Kirito to be in a feminine designed avatar. Another character makes it clear that it’s still a male one so that’s good for Kirito, but he still manages to look like Lucina and decides to mess with the other characters a bit. It’s rather unnecessary if you ask me and I missed his standard design. Kirito’s normal design is just so cool that you didn’t need to mess with it.

This does lead into the animation angle a little. The first show’s animation was top notch. Some of the best animation in the business and it was at a theatrical level. Every episode felt like a movie. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in this show. It looks good for the most part, but it never comes close to looking like the first show. It still keeps the theatrical feel to an extent, but there are episodes where the budget is noticeably low and the quality really falls. Most of the fight scenes aren’t very exciting and that’s why we always need Kirito to save us. If it’s an action scene from Sinon, you can expect the animation to not be all that great. The anime uses more shortcuts and simply feels a little more like a cash in sequel. It’s rather unfortunate.

As for the soundtrack, it gets completely lolstomped by the original. Disclaimer: it’s not a bad soundtrack. Sword Art Online II still does the world proud and I like the battle theme. It also reuses a lot of themes from the original to help itself out. That being said, you won’t be blown away like you were with the first show. It’s sad since more techno music would have been appropriate for this season, but we only got a few really good tunes. Again, that’s impressive for the average show, but it’s not enough to even come close to topping the original.

While this show doesn’t explode like arc 2 of the original, we get another similar villain. The show seems to be obsessed with this kind of plot. The heroine even gives up once again temporarily and while Asuna had no choice, but to stick around, this other character has no excuse for this brief hesitation and lack of will power. It’s pretty unacceptable. Moreover, the show also has more fanservice than the original. I won’t say that the original completely avoided this trap because it most certainly did not, but this show was more frequent with this issue. Sinon’s costume isn’t terrible and it’s certainly no Satana, but the camera always zooms in on inappropriate angles, which makes it bad.

I’ve always felt that the costume is not much of an issue. You can have a character with Power Girl’s costume and provided that the camera plays it straight and never focuses on the gap, then it’s basically fine. For example, Harribel’s costume never seemed all that bad. Kubo quickly made this an issue by having her super form make it worse, but in the manga there was never any attention drawn to it (Besides the cover) so it was easy to just ignore. The anime completely shuts down that escape option and it’s pretty disappointing. We’ve also got random scenes of Asuna in the bath and the show continues to show why the quality of the original arc will never return. It’s just another thorn in the show’s side.

Finally, before getting into the positives let’s tackle another negative. The show takes itself way too seriously this time around. As a result, the show makes Kirito, Sinon, and most of the characters look bad at different times. Gone are the days when Kirito was completely fearless and picking fights with anyone who crossed his path. He is petrified when Death Gun shows up and constantly freezes up during the series. He nearly cries during a few different moments and while he initially took the Sword Art Online experience pretty well, his personality regresses rather seriously in this title. The show is really trying to appear to be very deep and emtional when it really isn’t. One of the reasons why the original Sword Art Online was so great (Arc 1) was because it was very happy and chipper despite the stakes. The stakes were raised and things got serious in the climax, but it adapted accordingly. The whole plot with Death Gun just feels forced and rather out of place.

Likewise with Sinon. You could have whole episodes about her shaking in front of a gun and reminding us of her origin story. (Which honestly wasn’t even that traumatic considering that she saved everyone in the shop and became a bit of a hero. The whole thing was also super unrealistic since the mother didn’t appear to be pleased, but anyone would be glad to have their life spared and the villain defeated. Sinon should have been looked up to by the masses. It just didn’t make sense) Cut the drama Sword Art Online and let’s get back to what made the show good.

As for Sinon as a character, she was decent at first. It’s quite sad that one of her very first scenes involves a guy trying to hit on her, showing once again how sad this show has become. Still, in Gun Gale, she is a tough warrior who has a great reputation. She wants to destroy Kirito in the competition for betraying her trust and puts up a good effort, but I can’t stand her human form. It’s probably the worst from all of the Sword Art Online protagonists and it makes it very hard to root for her. It was simply too much of a contrast and is basically like Homura’s form from her origin days…if she had no character development and never gained any strength of self or conviction to make the hard calls. Sinon is decently good with a gun, but is virtually useless in close combat situations. There’s no way that she would have done very good had Kirito not been around.

As for Kirito, he’s still the epic character that we remember from the original show for the most part. He manages to drive something that is almost impossible to drive within seconds and constantly pulls off hype moments like nobody’s business. He even beats a speed challenge that had never been beaten in the history of the game. I feel like the author tried to make Kirito as extremely awesome as possible and it was definitely a good move on his part since that’s why I like Kirito. He’s basically the ultimate character and never loses. How can you not root for him? Well, there are actually a pair of reasons that I can think of.

For starters, he finally made the decision to have a girlfriend in the first show. You all know what I think of the many flawed romances in media, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that this is an okay decision. In that case, then he needs to make this clear to everyone, but when introducing Sinon to the gang, he referred to Asuna as being merely a friend. That’s just terrible writing and really seems out of character for Kirito now that he’s not a free agent. He should have stayed as a free agent, but since he didn’t, he’s got to play by some new rules now. Also, Kirito looks uncharacteristically weak during the final fight against Death Gun.

Due to the true identity of Death Gun, we learn that he’s actually pretty weak and that Kirito should own him rather easily. Instead, Kirito is actually getting wrecked in the close quarters fight. Gun vs Sword would be fine, but it’s a sword battle so Kirito should have the massive edge. The fight makes no sense and is just very frustrating as the writers clearly have no idea on how they should handle the show anymore. It all comes down to the author of course and I feel like he’s losing his grip on the show. Correction, he already lose his grip on Sword Art Online and I feel like the anime are going to continue to stay in the negative zone. It’s too bad since the show always has the potential to be an 8 or a 9, but it simply can’t live up to that.

For example, if we go to the pros for a second, let’s look at the technical merits of Sword Art Online. As I mentioned, the animation is still pretty good for the most part. The soundtrack is very good as well and the fight scenes are great. They pale next to the original SAO, but shine when compared to the average show. It still feels like a movie and Kirito makes for an amazing main character. However, the fanservice, repeat of the Fairy Dance Asuna plot, and the uncharacteristic moments from the main characters are what really hurts the show in the long run. It just can’t survive these negatives and I feel like the author will just keep on making these mistakes over and over again.

Aside from the main arc, there are two minis that are included. The first one is a quick mission in fairy world as the heroes try to get Kirito a new sword. The animation hits an all time low in this arc and there’s really no point to it. The heroes face some monsters and then they head home. It’s fun to see the whole team together again, but it also makes them all look a little bad as they have a tough time facing off against some monsters. Still, I’ll admit that it’s a little nostalgic and Kirito’s back to his real design so it wasn’t all bad. Klein also got a bigger role, but it’s not much of a role and he’s just around to make Kirito look good. He wasn’t needed as a result since Kirito always looks cool.

The final arc tries to be even sadder and more dramatic than the Death Gun arc and fails miserably. Asuna meets a new fighter named Yuuki, who is supposed to be the strongest swordfighter of all time. She even defeated Kirito. (lol) Asuna agrees to help Yuuki and her team beat a boss in the fairy/SAO merged game so that their names can be engraved for all of time, but will they be able to accomplish this before another team shows up? Well, this arc did have 1 really good moment. Kirito shows up to fend off dozens of teams of players and manages to slice apart a magic blast. That shouldn’t have been possible and led to a lot of hype moments for Kirito, which is always a blast. They hint that Kirito still lost in the end, but it was still a great entrance and probably the best cliffhanger in the entire show. It was an awesome moment. We also got some good fight scenes like Asuna vs Yuuki and Yuuki vs Kirito. I remember the fights only being all right in terms of animation, but it was still nice to see. There was just a lot of plot hax everywhere and I still don’t buy Kirito getting beat, but I’ll just mark it down as him deciding to hold back to spare Yuuki’s feelings. Yuuki was in a difficult position after all and Kirito’s a nice guy so letting himself be defeated is the least that he can do.

If the arc had been played straight with a lot of action and cool moments, it would have been great. Instead, we get some drama between Asuna and her mom as the subplot and the main plot is also bogged down by the drama. For Asuna and her mom’s plot, you could think of it as a classic case of being in a Star Wars discussion. (Epic way to drag the name into my review for more clickz) While everyone is debating whether or not Episode VII or Episode V should be known as the greatest in the series, you’re off to the side shaking your head since you know that Episode IV is the way to go. Why is this relevant? Well, Asuna and her mom are both wrong in their debates.

I was on the Mom’s side for part of it. I agree that Asuna clearly has no idea what she’s doing and she’ll probably regret not having any aspirations or deciding to play video games for so long while she’s abandoning her real world connections. Video games are clearly epic and should be played for at least 20 hours a day, but it starts to get in the way of the real world. Still, the mom decides to give her more arranged dates and has a very old school way of thinking which is completely outdated and makes her look bad. As for Asuna, she looks terrible in the debate the whole time since her answer to everything is that she’ll be okay as long as she’s with Kirito. It’s pretty naive and sad, but she’s right that being paired up with some random joe is even worse and marrying based on social standings is not the U.S. way unless you’re a celebrity. Still, in the end, it’s hard to be invested in the plot.

May as well put this out there now, Yuuki’s a better character than the rest of Kirito’s allies combined. Unlike Asuna who always wavers and went from being a strong female lead to a character who has literally switched game positions to be more of a healer, Sinon who used to be a strong female lead and then had a dose of the real world, Klein…who is Klein, etc; Yuuki’s a strong fighter who never gave that role up. Her abilities were at a high level and she was a determined character who could have easily been the lead heroine in another title. She has the right attitude when teaching Asuna that sometimes you have to fight back against the bullies instead of letting them step all over you and your politically correct demeanor. It’s a shame that due to circumstances she won’t be a main character. She was also needlessly cryptic about the whole thing, but I suppose that she still made a good decision. After all, otherwise she would have to have a long conversation filled with tears and drama from the other characters so maybe it was for the best. Of course, she didn’t count on genius level Kirito being able to track her down from anywhere on the planet. That’s Kirito for ya though.

This series of Sword Art Online may have been bad, but at least it was still epic. Arcs 2 and 3 weren’t, but they were basically the side show bonus stories in the anime as Gun Gale was the main focus. (Alllllll though, if the series had just been Arc 3 or Arc 2, maybe the show could have gotten a solid 6) The first arc still feels like a nice movie event despite it not being quite as professional as the original. It has sown the seeds for future arcs so I’m sure that this villain organization shall return soon. The laughing coffins (And their recycled flashback that appears maybe even a dozen times during the show) will be back and in full force. Hopefully they end up being good villains and hopefully Kirito isn’t depowered since he should wreck those guys with ease.

Overall, Sword Art Online II feels like a cheaper, cash in version of the original. However, it doesn’t tank quite as horribly as the first show so it still gets the better rating. It’s a bad anime in the end and can’t cross the halfway mark so I don’t recommend it. I’d sooner recommend Attack on Titan actually so if you want a more intense anime with the same English Dub voice actor for the main character, that’s the show to check out. Or Blue Exorcist as well. For Sword Art Online, I’d recommend just watching the first arc of the original show and then pushing the rest of the series to the side. It’s simply not worth the time and who knows how the next SAO show will turn out. It may just be on a downwards slope that will keep on sinking and sinking as time goes on. No matter what else happens though, the series will still have Kirito and that means that it always has a chance.

Overall 4/10

Slayers Excellent Review

Posted on May 8, 2015 by dreager1

Slayers has had some ups and downs as a franchise. Due to its unique mix of comedy and action in the main shows, it can be hit or miss. The shows are able to utilize this quite well and the movies have had success as well. For some reason, the OVAs are the ones that have a lot of problems. Just like the first OVA, this one was not very good. It focused way too much on the fanservice and comedy angle while neglecting the action that brought this series a lot of fame and fortune.

There are three episodes in this OVA. The first one involves the initial encounter between Naga and Lina, which is how their adventures ultimately began. Naga will stop at nothing to defeat Lina, which proves to be a thorn in the side of the main character. Naga may be decently powerful, but she’s also reckless and leaves a lot of damage and devastation in her wake. She claims to be Lina’s rival, but she’s really more of a tag along at this point.

It’s intriguing to see how these two met, but I can’t say that a whole lot came out of it. After the first few minutes, we are essentially back to the status quo except for the fact that Naga is trying really hard to surpass Lina when in the current days, she is already accepted as a rival. The episode had potential, but then the OVA decided to play up the fanservice angle. I’ll mostly talk about that towards the end of the review. Needless to say, of the three episodes, this was likely fell in the middle. I’m glad that Lina essentially proved that these two fighters aren’t even close, but more of a serious fight would have been nice.

The second episode involves a rich girl who has hired Lina to be her bodyguard. Lina accepts because of the huge sum of money that will be given to her as a reward, but this appears to be a rather large error in judgment. Lina has to pay for travel expenses and for the food so she quickly spends her reward. To teach the rich person a lesson, Lina arranges for some bandits to kidnap her, but this may backfire when real ones show up to take her!

The rich person seemed to be par for the course as far as these individuals tend to be in anime. Her laugh was very similar to Naga’s, which was eerie for Lina the whole time. Still, it wasn’t a bad segment at first, but the ending quickly drove it down to last place from the 3 episodes. It was simply terrible and an example of why mixing comedy with action is rarely done. Typically, the result is that both areas will fail and that’s what happens here. It’s one of those stories that was simply better off not happening.

Finally, we go to a village where two fashion designers argue about whether clothing should be classic or modern and risky. Lina and Naga naturally choose two different sides so then they argue about which one is better as they burn down each other’s bases. By the end, they start to learn the values of friendship, but I can’t say that it was a very entertaining episode. It’s actually tough to decide if this one actually beats the first episode or not, but I believe that I gave it a slight lead. At least Lina hesitates a little when asked to blow up the opponent’s base. Something that Naga certainly didn’t do!

All right, let’s look at the main reason why Slayers Excellent was doomed from the start. It all goes back to the fanservice angle. There isn’t a ton of it visually, but when you consider the chest insults directed at Lina, it gets to be a bit much. There was also a random hot springs scene thrown around and a lot of attention is given to Naga’s outfit. It’s seriously sad and I haven’t seen this much fanservice associated with Slayers since the first outfit. There’s nothing over the top, but it still happens enough to make me give it a thumbs down right away. This really just exposes the fact that the writers were not confident with their story so they felt like they had to add something to throw the viewers in at the expense of a few stars. A good Slayers story should always be a 7-8, but this one was not good.

At least the animation is decently good as can be expected. It’s rather old so J.C. Staff doesn’t look quite as good as they do nowadays. Right now, they are one of the best animation companies of all time. I would need to compare Slayers to other shows of this era to properly rank it, but it looks good enough. There aren’t many energy blasts after all so it’s a little harder to gauge. It has that 90’s feel, which is always a good nostalgia boost to any series. I consider DBZ to look great even though I have seen many say that it wasn’t very good even for its time.

Excellent’s soundtrack is decent although very generic at this point. The series needs to try and add in some new tunes at this point. Relying on the same classics is all well and good, but more variety is always a good thing. The new tunes may not be instant classics, but you’ll never know how good they can be if you didn’t give them a chance. These tunes are decent, but they certainly aren’t very thrilling or memorable at this point.

Lina is a good character as always. She may not be a hero, but you can still root for her as she typically only beats up opponents who get in her way. Getting rich is a noble goal and she typically doesn’t take any short cuts. Unfortunate things just tend to happen to her so that she never ends up with any money in the long run. She seriously has no luck when it comes to anything financial so it is a good thing that Lina is one of the strongest sorceresses on the planet.

Naga is really the only other recurring character and she still isn’t a good supporting character. She has some good traits like being overconfident and constantly trying to one up Lina, but that’s just not good enough to overshadow her negative qualities like the fanservice and chest comments. She also gets the duo into a lot of trouble by not thinking things through and just being very reckless. I like when characters are reckless, but when it is intentional, not accidental.

Overall, Slayers Excellent is a trilogy that you should just skip. It doesn’t add anything worthwhile to the Slayers mythos and you can essentially say that it is just poorly written filler. The actual filler in the series is better than these episodes, which really says something. The animation and soundtrack are decent, but that’s not enough to save this one. I’d advise you to skip this and just watch Slayers Next if you’re looking for a nice fantasy adventure. Slayers has a lot of different shows and movies so you just want to memorize the full titles. Next>>Try>>Gorgeous>>Whatever else the others were>>>Excellent. I do like the fact that all of the movie/OVA titles are basically synonyms. It’s a fun trend, even if the OVAs can’t live up to their titles.

Overall 4/10

Slayers Special Review

Posted on January 20, 2015 by dreager1

Looks like it’s time for the next Slayers adventure. This one also takes place in the past so Lina is with Naga instead of the other fighters. This special is basically an OVA that consists of 3 episodes so you can also think of it as a mini series. Each episode has a stand alone plot, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on the series. It doesn’t work this time though as this is probably the worst Slayers product yet. It’s not awful, but it just doesn’t have most of the qualities that makes Slayers a likable franchise in the first place.

The first episode involves a deal that Lina almost made with a mad scientist. Ultimately, she decided not to team up with him since he wanted to turn her into a giant monster. Years later, he has finally hunted her down with clones of Naga. Their laughter overwhelms Lina and she is brought to the enemy’s lair. Naga will now have to get past her clones to save Lina before she is turned into a Chimera. This could be her toughest mission yet!

This was definitely the weakest of the three episodes. The villain wasn’t very interesting and having the clones beat Lina so easily was pretty anticlimatic. It was unique to have Naga be the one to save her, but the actual episode just wasn’t that funny. It would have been cooler if they had just played it seriously since the actual plot could have been good otherwise. The dream sequence at the beginning is good though.

Next up, Lina and Naga are hired to protect a boy named Jeffrey. His mom wants him to get more confidence and experience in the real world so she hired some fake bandits to go on a mountain. Lina and Naga are to escort Jeffrey up the mountain so that he can vanquish these hooligans. Unfortunately, real bandits have defeated the fakes and Jeffrey turns out to be an incredibly weak fighter. Lina and Naga must defeat the villains while making it look like Jeffrey has done this on his own…which could be harder than expected.

This was the best episode of the three although that may not be saying a whole lot. The running gag of Jeffrey’s mom beating up the heroes starts to get old pretty quickly. The final boss was pretty intense until the plot twist that we had (not) been waiting for occurred. While the episodes try to start off on a serious note, they quickly go back to their comedy ways. It’s one of the things that typically makes Slayers a fun franchise, but this OVA just didn’t know how to transition from serious moments to happy times. As a result, it basically destroys the episode. At least Jeffrey has good intentions…he’ll need them since he has nothing else at his disposal.

Finally, Lina and Naga chase after a sorcerer who has stolen a mysterious mirror. He uses it to make shadow clones of the two heroines and they are opposites in every way. This means that the clone of Naga is really shy and Lina’s is a humanitarian who’s always ready for peace. Lina and Naga must get past these clones if they ever want to break the mirror once and for all. They can’t let these clones tarnish their reputations!

Using the clones plot two times in three episodes? You can tell that the writers were getting pretty desperate by now. It is certainly more entertaining than the first episode and the actual concept is pretty fun. That being said, I would have preferred a serious battle with the fakes than just watching them humiliate themselves. It’s also a bit much since I like to think that an opposite Lina would still know how to use self defense. The villain was better than the one in the first episode, but he still wasn’t a very good character.

Lina still has her accent, but she doesn’t seem as tough as in the film set around this period. She is overwhelmed by the laughing of the clones and she just doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to prove herself since there are no real villains to be found. She’s still a good main character and she’s still adventuring for riches and glory, but Lina is only a shell of her former self. We have her personality from the previous installments, but she is just there. Lina doesn’t get any big moments or fights.

Naga definitely looks a lot worse here than in the film. She may have done a good job against her clones, but she really seems to serve no purpose. When she’s not teasing Lina, she’s taking sides with the villains who fight her. She also gets blasted quite a few times by Lina when she stops paying attention to her surroundings. We know that Naga can fight, but as with Lina, she doesn’t get a chance to show this.

One of the problems that Slayers has always had is the fanservice. Typically, it is limited to chest comments, but it goes a little farther here. Naga seems to primarily appear for fanservice, which means that she doesn’t get a whole lot of character this time. Since all of her appearances involve fanservice with the usual chest comments still around, it doesn’t make for a good combo. This certainly drags down the OVA as it definitely would have gotten around a 6 without this unnecessary addition. The fantasy aspect can hold its own so the animators definitely didn’t need to resort to cheap tricks.

I never thought that I’d say this, but another one of the problems is what usually gives Slayers its greatest strength. I’m talking about the writing. It just was not up to par with what I’m used to seeing in the series and it really showed. The jokes typically relied on fanservice or overused tropes that have been played out. The banter between Gourry and Lina is gone since he isn’t here right now and Naga just doesn’t complement Lina’s character very well. It’s one of the reasons why the prequel continuity will never be as good as the main one. The supporting cast just isn’t very good. (The lack of action compared to the real deal is also a factor to be considered of course)

The animation is pretty decent. It’s definitely not what you’d call high budget, but it doesn’t look bad either. You could just call it standard or average, which will suffice. There are no real fights so that makes it hard to gauge the animation anyway. As long as the talking scenes look good and the backgrounds are clear, then the OVA is doing well. I have no qualms with it in this area. The soundtrack is pretty plain though. You will quickly forget that there is one and it may work well with the scenes as you are watching the episodes, but it is instantly forgettable. Again, that’s better than not having a soundtrack or having a bad one, but the OVA could definitely do better.

Overall, Slayers Special is not quite as special as it seems. Slayers Perfect did a better job of being good and I would still recommend the normal TV shows over both of them. At 3 episodes, you’ll be done with Slayers Special before you know it, but it’s still an OVA that you’d be better off skipping. At most, I would recommend it to ultimate Slayers fans who want to watch everything related to the main series, but it’s essentially three filler episodes so it’s not like it’s going to develop the characters at this point. The OVA just makes too many mistakes and a switch in writers may be called for at this point. At the very least, you’ll like the design for the main villain of the second episode.

Overall 4/10

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