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Oh The Promised Neverland...Tokyo Ghoul wrote the book on “how to successfully butcher a anime adaption in 12 episodes”, TPN manages to accomplishes the same outcome in record time of 11 episodes!!

Apparently the author didn’t like how the manga turned out so they worked with the studio to go a different direction. Whether it’s true or not I have no confirmation but I’m going to analyse the anime and mention parts of differences the anime made, so if you’re playing on reading the manga this is your spoiler warning:

The first 2 episodes where the kids left the farm and are trying to survive in this ... new world was cool, sadly soon after it begins to derail. This is pretty evident with how the kids managed to take down demons so willy nilly without experience and somehow learnt their weakness was the head.

It seems a lot of anime watchers weren’t unaware of some plot holes. Like could you answer this:
1. Who was taking care of the shelter before the kids arrival?
2. What was the “HELP!” and the names carved in the room at the shelter?
3. Who was behind the armed soldiers who raided the shelter?

Are we going to learn this? NOPE! The anime cut out the content related to those characters whom manga readers learnt about by this point in the story.

The plot convenience in how the kids escaped the armed soldiers with their being a secret hatch leading underground and a demon randomly appearing behind them to eat the soldiers was so bad.

The events that transpired when the kids reach the Demon City was mostly anime original and from my standpoint it's worse: 10 mins wasted on SOL filler of the kids hunting/gathering food at the base, a contrived chase by dumb and dumber demons (Team Rocket of TPN) and Norman early reveal, which had no emotional weight.

Let’s take a minute to talk about Emma:

Emma is so annoying.

She doesn’t want to kill demons despite demons wanting to kill her and her family and Norman’s plan being the best solution. It doesn’t matter that her whole family happily want to get rid of the demons, Emma doesn’t want to because muh conscience. Why does one person’s feelings dictate the safety of everyone else?! And of course the kids are guilt tripped into going along with her plan.

Emma’s a selfish, stubborn and naive little girl who doesn't have a fundamental understanding of how the world works. Her eternal optimism puts Naruto to shame.

Let’s address a few episodes now:

Episode 7:

90% of what happened in this episode comes from the manga, the differences are:

- Norman isn’t a 13 yr old genius. There was a timeskip in the manga and we met him later so the Lamba gang’s perception of him made more sense.
- We got the flashbacks that went into detail to what happened to Norman at Lamba and the gang. Telling us rather than showing what they went through makes their rage against demons less justified and I guess Emma more reasonable (?)
- The location is different. In the manga we weren’t still at Demon city and Norman didn’t magicially have a potion ready for tommorow to kill the demons. We were at Norman’s hideout with the hundreds of kids Lamba’s group has saved as it was mentioned, but not shown this episode (might appear next episode tho)

Episode 8:

Rejoice anime watchers, I do not hate this episode!

The anime original scenes e.g. the massacre at the demon town was good. When Norman turned and Emma’s perception was child Norman was cool. The soundtracks during the massacre elevated the unsettling feeling of demons overloading & eating each other.

The anime made the demons more sympathetic and Norman conflicted with his decision to kill the demons, whereas manga Norman poisoned most of the town no hesitation.

Note: Manga Norman is older and he weren’t there when he poisoning the demon town because it was only a was a diversion to his main objective. I doubt the anime will mention [spoiler] the demon royal family [/spoiler] since there’s only three episodes left.

What I didn’t like:

Norman and gang’s time at Lamba was rushed

Emma’s magical fast travel to stop Norman. The group was days away and you expect me to believe Emma and Co. saw what was happening and got their in a few hours? (being generous)

Wow. Norman changes his mind rather quickly. He convinces his followers to do the same and they quickly accept despite all the shit they’ve went through made them hate demons.

I don’t like how Emma magically undos all the character development Norman went through. What's the point of Norman going through all of that trauma and his personality changing as a result, if it's all going to be written out like it was nothing?

The old demon who prayed in the temple that the kids were hiding drank the cursed blood 700 years ago, found a human (most likely Minerva) 15 years ago that gave him crucial information about the blueprint of Grace Field House- which he conveniently was carrying as it’s conveniently the only gate to the human world and a cure for a disease that most likely would not have even existed back then, and the pièce de résistance: the little demon girl’s name is Emma....

Plot convenience on steroids in the anime.

I understand what the writers was going for withe demon girl Emma but it’s too on the nose like Martha scene in BvS.

Episode 11:

The last episode was so incredibly rushed the animators gave up and decide to give us a powerpoint montage.

Here’s a few explanations & differences to clear things up:

- Ratri was butchered. He does a lot more in the manga, but he hardly did anything as a villain in the anime until he slit his throat. 


- In the manga, Mama dies trying to protect Emma from a demon who survived.


- The man who welcomed the kids to the human world was a member of the Ratri clan 


- Demon royals have like a arc about them. The big war involving the Queen and 5 noble houses was skipped. Emma and co. magically defeating them and saving the demon kingdom in the anime was ridiculous.


- Sonju is reveal to be the youngest Demon prince and the old demon was the High Priest who he looked up to.


- Musica does become Queen, no her and Emma aren’t a couple. 


- The promise was a BIG plot point throughout the story. The floating demon and dragon were in a different dimension and it was the ‘first demon’. Emma had to make a deal in order for everyone to go the human world; in the manga Emma sacrificed her memories of her family. 


- In the manga they already rescued the kids from the other farms and everyone went to the human world together except the mamas who stayed behind to protect them against demons. When Emma transported she was sent to a different country and since she lost her memories she lived there. The Gracefield gang spent two years looking for her until they met up again, Emma still didn’t know who they were but had a feeling she knew them and they hugged- THE END.

Conclusion:

There was 80+ chapters the anime cut:
- A lot of fan favourite characters e.g. Yuugo who you’ve probably seen be mentioned was removed. It’s disappointing because he was a important character as he was the first man the kids ever met. His character development and the effects the kids have on him was amazing and it’s gone.
- Goldy Pond which was the 2nd best arc.

The anime has cut more content from the manga to skip to the last arc, while making some changes- the drastic change being the direction with Mama. However, none of them has improved the story. The anime is directionless. The world building compared to the manga is severely missing and the pacing is too rushed.

I had low expectations but by the end of it TPN staff managed to exceed my disappointment so well done! The only hope now is if we get a TPN Brotherhood one day.

Until then, if you like The Promised Neverland and want to get in the manga I recommend reading from chapter 34 (better yet the beginning since s1 still skipped content and important dialogue).

If Naruto and Fairy Tail had a child that would be Black Clover:

Asta is your typical loud shounen MC who doesn’t develop or have any depth. He’s literally no different than Luffy, Natsu or Seth.

BC is filled with one dimensional, gag ridden, underdeveloped caricatures. The BBs are literally defined by their few personality traits e.g. battle freak Luck, Sis-loving pervert Gauche, Henry’s dyslexic speech patterns, one- dimensional food eating Charmy. There’s only a few good characters in this show. Noelle being the best of them because despite her tsundere moments and being a love interest, she’s had the most growth, has a character arc entirely ... separate from Asta (unlike Yuno) and is consistently relevant to the story.

Yuno is a bland Mary Sue who spends more time developing offscreen and pulling powerups out of his ass than being a character

The dialogue is terrible and repetitive: “AsTa, iM gOinG tO bE tHe WizArD kInG”, “No YuNo, I’m GoInG tO bE WiZaRd KiNG!”

The villains are generic, undeveloped and have little to no motivations e.g. Fana and Beast man repeating the same dialogue: “DESPAIR!!, DESPAIR!! HATE HATE!!” Ladros was such a generic evil villain that he was forgettable.
The elves are ALL copy and paste of each other with no variety. I got bored of hearing elf #121 scream “I hate ningens!”. The Devil is the big bad guy of the first saga and yet he’s the most bland, one dimensional plot device of a villain I’ve seen since Zetsu. He has no motivations to do what he does, he’s literally “I’m evil because plot”.

The fast-paced pacing is NOT a benefit as fanboys would like you to believe. Instead of taking the time to flesh out the world or develop characters, the plot always opts to go straight for the fights which have no substance because there’s no emotional attachment to these characters.

Black Clover has the worst power system. It’s basic, doesn’t have definitive rules or limitations and is entirely plot convenient. For example, Noelle could acquire a new spell at the right time, which is exactly what she wanted because Tabata wanted her to. She’s done so with her battle suit. Yuno does it EVERYTIME. It doesn’t have well defined rules like FMA or HxH that are set in their power system so it’s rarely broken. BC’s method of learning new spells is entirely deus ex machina.

If there was a list ranking every shounen, then Black Clover would be at the bottom of the barrel.

I’m disappointed with Danmachi season 2. I was looking forward to this anime for so long, but when it came it was such a let down. [Spoilers]

The War Games was bad:
• Apollo was like a generic rapist straight out of SAO
• Apollo family chasing Hestia’s family throughout the city in broad daylight. The problem with this is it shows is there’s no government officials to prevent something like this happening between other families. It makes Orario being a peaceful city and not a warzone make no sense.
• The War Games was too short. We had 3 episodes of build up only for the event ... to end in one episode.
• Hestia’s family beating Apollo’s was too easy. It was unbelievable that 5 people would be able to breeze through 200 without any serious injuries. Bell’s power boost was so poorly written that I questioned if this was fanfic. He went from getting his ass kicked by a lvl 3, going off to train for a few days and winning the rematch. Why? Because Ainz showed him how to dodge 1 or 2 hits. The problem i have with this is they don’t SHOW us Bell’s training, we’re only given a few lazy panels and are meant to be okay with this.

I liked the darker tone in the Prostitute arc, too bad it was mainly prostitutes chasing Bell to take his virginity and adding 1 girl more to the harem. We got some backstory on Samurai girl which made me care a bit about her. Fox girl was pretty much a damsel in distress. I hated the reveal in the end that she didn’t actually sleep with anyone considering what made her interesting was that she did ‘taint her body’ and didn’t feel she deserved being saved by a hero. She may not know, but it completely undermines her development for the viewer.

I don’t know what to call the next arc because it was pretty much a mess. Pacing was eradic e.g. ep. 11 we left of with Bell and Hestia falling from a cliff, the next we’re at a village and everyone’s fine. The only good thing about it was the focus on Bell’s love for his kami sama. However, I wish Bell addressed Hestia’s feelings like he was told so she could move on but instead he does the opposite and said he loved her... That’s going completely against what the story has been built around which is Bell’s love for Ains. Speaking of Ains, I don’t know what role she played this arc besides being a third wheel robot in a love triangle. The glimpse of her showing some emotions over the Black Dragon scales was the first time i think I’ve been interested to seeing where her character goes. I don’t see the point of Ares considering he just disappeared from the story.

Bell’s development was awful this season. It’s like the same ‘pushover coward to confident hero’ character arc he went through last season, which is why he hasn’t really changed. I don’t like his ridiculous power boosts e.g. other characters take years to level up once, Bell went up from lvl 2 to lvl 4 in like 1 month...

There was a few decent-good fights/animation e.g. Bell Vs Prostitute onee-san, but the fights and pacing wasn’t consistent enough.

Overall, Danmachi S2 wasn’t good as the first season.

Rising of the Shield Hero? More like rising of the Edgelord Hero!

[Warning: Spoilers]

Shield Hero is another overrated isekai the fandom overhyped it being "different from other isekai" and to an extent I could see where they’re coming from since it did have a promising start, but then it continuously declined with each episode and devolved into a generic, power fantasy, loli harem isekai.

Story (3/10):

The story is about 4 otakus who get summoned into this world where they’ve become legendary heroes and have to defeat the succession of waves to save the World in order to go home. However, the show would be over if ... we fought all the waves so quickly, right? To drag out the story, we follow Naofumi’s party daily lives as they: learn about this world, fight monsters, fulfil side adventures, buy new items/equipment, become merchants and start trading (which comes off as bootleg Spice & Wolf), and most importantly deal with the latest contrived drama Naofumi has gotten himself into. I’ll explain this in more detail later on.

Characters (2/10):

Naofumi starts out as this misunderstood ‘nice guy’. That’s all I can describe him because he had no personality and we know barely anything about him or his past. He gets played by Myne and is accused of a rape accusation. This is only the first of many acts created to shit on Shield Hero. The show constantly goes out of it’s way to portray the royals, heroes and pretty much everyone in the world as unlikeable assholes to make Naofumi the victim. Naofumi is the “nice guy” who believes he has terrible luck for being chosen as the shield hero, which is seen as the worst class. Myne’s betrays him, steals all his money, he gets a false rape accusation, a bad reputation, ostracised by everyone and because of this Naofumi’s drastically changes into a edgy ‘morally grey’ anti hero- who buys a child slave in order to fight for him. Thus the story how the Edgelord Hero is born!

My problem with this is Naofumi at the beginning is a blank slate that isn’t fleshed out enough so his sudden change doesn’t resonate with me. I’m not yearning for Naofumi to go back to his old self because we didn’t spend enough time for me to care about him. Edgelord Hero doesn’t have much of a personality or endearing qualities, he’s just a standoffish, cynical asshole who’s less sociable, has trust issues and asks quest givers money for his help.

The amount of forced drama is so poorly written and contrived that it’s emotionally manipulative. The writer wants you to feel sympathetic to Naofumi’s cause and root for him in this ultimate underdog story. Too bad I’ve got none for the Edgelord Hero! For example, why should I be rooting for him Vs Spear Hero to win his duel so he can keep his slave?

You want to know what I don’t understand? Is these evil assholes who are hellbent on screwing with Edgelord Hero, [i] need him [/i] to save their world. He has no reason whatsoever to fight for them, so why do they hate him with a passion? Why do they keep handicapping one of their four chosen heroes? For example, the King giving him less starting gold, not giving him information about the hourglass to access the waves, not letting him class upgrade. It makes no sense.

We aren’t given a explanation as to why they act the way they do, so unless it’s for the Lolz, it’s to make Edgelord Hero the victim. LN readers are constantly saying “there’s a reason for all this, you just have to wait!” but the writer has dragged this out for 20 episodes with little hints alluding to why (e.g. a history of nefarious shield heroes), while adding more contrived drama to the point where I’m exhausted and desensitised to the whole situation. The reveal after all this buildup was sooooo underwhelming. The consequences was incredibly childish and pathetic, that I will spare you the details and just say it was akin to one of the school playground punishments.

Raphtalia is a bland, poorly written heroine (Demi-human) who went from a scared, meek little girl with a tragic backstory of being tortured, in slavery, had PTSD over her parents death, to losing all her flaws and any potential of emotional conflict that could have led to some good character development because of how she changed in a instantaneous, implausible manner e.g. an absurd personality change and rapid aging that happened offscreen after two episodes to gain qualities to make her the “perfect waifu”. Her development is too unrealistic. She remains a static “Naofumi sama” bot for the rest of the show.

This may sound sensitive to some, but I have to say, this show romanticizes slavery. It sweeps under the rug the nature of Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia’s master/slave relationship, him buying her out of necessity because Edgelord Hero can’t attack or trust anyone else to party with. Edgelord Hero punishing Raphtalia when she didn’t bend to his orders. It’s worse in the manga where it was stated Edgelord Hero bought her because she’s a girl that looks similar to Myne so he could project his pent up hatred on her.

They wasted the opportunity to explore the themes/morality addressed with slavery and their dynamic in detail. For example, Raphtalia essentially was a broken slave who’s lost everyone she’s ever cared about. It’s clear Raphtalia developed stockholm syndrome for Edgelord Hero over a few instances of kindness due how shit her life has been and the story about the legendary Shield Hero who will save the demi humans. Instead of showing how unhealthy their relationship is with both of them depending on each other to “lick each other’s wounds”, leading to some good character development for both of them, it’s portrayed to make Raphtalia the perfect waifu who unconditionally loves Edgelord Hero, who worships the ground he walks on and will stand by him even when everyone in the world’s betrayed him. Doesn’t that sound like a edgy fanfiction to you? They could have slowly developed their relationship into a genuine romance with them gradually growing closer- slowly letting each others walls down, begin to trust each other (despite being ostracised from society) and eventually fall in love.

It was hard to watch the scene where Raphtalia was angry that the kingdom freed her from slavery and was defending Edgelord Hero basically saying:

“Naofumi sama is kind! He feeds me, bought me a ball, he tortures me when I don’t bend to his will i.e. being scared to fight, but it’s okay because I want to be his slave!” Her level of stockholm syndrome surpasses that of a battered wife. Raphtalia is nothing more than pure waifu bait. Worse of all is Naofumi doesn’t see the problem with slavery, he doesn’t change his perspective with the slave trader and becomes a regular customer, hell he doesn’t even apologise to Raphtalia. This is further evident when Raphtalia wants to go to the slave owner’s shop to get a new slavery mark because she likes being his slave- she wears it as a badge of honour now. Who the hell cares about her years of PTSD when it’s magically cured from a few moments of kindness?! As long as you fed and pet your slave then you can be a great slave owner!

Filo is a one-dimensional, generic, cute bird loli with no depth. The only reason she’s a loli is for fan service. I despise Filo because when she joins the party the story goes downhill. It started off deep with a darker tone to it which was interesting, but slowly devolved into a lighthearted, generic harem isekai with loli’s joining one after another. The parental relationship between Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia becomes a competition between Filo and Raphtalia for the Edgelord Hero’s affection, despite him not returning it. Malty gains feelings for him too, because it’s not Isekai if all the girls don’t worship/ fall in love with the self-insert protagonist right?

Myne is a one dimensional, spiteful, unlikeable, basic bitch with no depth. I don’t think ever witnessed a character who was created to be as insufferable and hated like her. Her only motivation in life seems to be ruining Edgelord Hero’s life e.g. faking a rape accusation, stealing all his money, lying about Raphtalia being held against her will as a slave, interfering in the Shield/Sword duel while trying to have the King and Pope cover for her. I don’t even hate Myne anymore because that’s what the author wants and won’t give him that satisfaction. I feel sorry for her for being a victim of bad writing. Together with her trusty sidekick Spear Hero they become so comically evil, i can’t take them seriously. There a discount version team rocket because even they have more depth than them.

The king is another one dimensional prick who’s hated the Edgelord Hero since his inception.

The Queen feels like a plot device. She’s isn’t present for the first 15 or so episodes to allow for Naofumi hate conspiracies to continue and when she eventually shows up out of the blue after her Country had gone to shit. She magically solves all of his problems. The Queen’s reason for being away from her Country is absolute BS, since if she really wanted to reprimand the King her little shadow bodyguards could have delivered the message.

The three heroes are one dimensional caricatures. We never follow their journey, view events from their perspective or really learn anything about them:

Motoyasu aka. Spear hero... the guy has the most screentime out of the three and yet he’s a utter moron lacking any brain cells. Seriously, his level of stupidity is unrealistic. For example, who the hell starts a fight in the middle of the city? and when they get called out for damaging the place he gets all pissy about being a hero. The dude was the first to pipe up accusing Naofumi being a sexual offender, all the while trying to molest Filo at every given opportunity. Why is are these hypocrites okay with this? Pedoyasu needs to be castrated because his Filophilla is uncomfortable to watch. Honestly, I’ve given up on Spear Hero. The guy’s either being a brainless pawn or straight up comedic relief.

I literally can’t describe Itsuki aka. Bow Hero, because he has no personality or character besides a hero complex.

Ren aka. Sword Hero (Not Kirito) seems to be the most competent out of the three, too bad he’s still as bland as the others.

The three heroes are more like the three stooges. Everything about them from the lacklustre characterisation, to their dialogue and actions are some of the most lazy, poor written I’ve ever encountered. It’s really annoying that they are continuously portrayed as incompetent morons who can’t do anything right, since their sole purpose is to make Edgelord Hero look good saving the day! I understand it was it meant to be a plot point to portray how they view the world as a game e.g. them not treating the NPCs as real people or not properly completely a quest, however the writer goes out of his way to emphasise the stupidity of these idiots by making the three heroes' attacks always follow the same move of “Meteor shot/thrust/slash" and attack at the same time like when they fought the dimensional spirit it’s simply lazy writing on the writers part. Their development is inconsistent. After Edgelord Hero points out the three heroes flaws and they come to terms with him not being the guy he’s been portrayed as you’d think these guys would grow, but nope. The three heroes are the still the same idiots who antagonise Naofumi, still use the same attacks and treat the world as a game. The heroes (especially Motoyasu) always follow every word Myne says, being gullible to the fact that the Edgelord Hero is being setup at every opportunity for no reason. I think the worse case was when Myne said Edgelord Hero was brainwashing Melty so she tried to kill her sister.

The game mechanics are stupid and unnecessary in this fantasy setting. It’s been proven time and again that levelling means absolutely nothing.

The way how the everyone in the Country is portrayed as unlikeable, cult following assholes who hate Naofumi is beyond unrealistic. None of them behave like real people. Whenever Naofumi points out how obvious it is that everyone is conspiring against him, no one seems to bat an eye? They never believe him, which to be fair he does a shit job at defending his case e.g. The heroes accuse the Edgelord Hero of brainwashing his party and yet they have no evidence to support their claim. Does Edgelord Hero mention this? No. Why doesn’t he show one of the heroes his skill tree to show he doesn’t have a brainwashing shield? Myne states that Melty has been brainwashed and has to be rescued, she then proceeds to try kill her and all the heroes do is stand there like dumbasses as if she didn’t just do what Edgelord Hero was saying. Myne’s whole potryal and evil laugh is like the most generic mustache twirling villain ever.

The pacing was bad. The constant montage sequence to try develop character interactions where they’re bonding isn’t working. It’s a shallow attempt to make me care about them. Another problem is the way it’s chopping scenes together e.g. Edgelord Hero & Raphtalia are waiting for Melty & Filo, the next they’re meeting the Pope.

I really don’t like the rage shield. Not only is it a powerup that focuses on his rage boner, it defeats the purpose of him being a tank. It’s bullshit that the lower level tank is doing more damage to the enemy than the three heroes combined who are higher levelled, got better gear, equipment and are offensive classes. It would have been better if the heroes cooperated and Edgelord played the tank. Not to mention, there’s no real consequence for using the rage shield. Edgelord Hero didn’t need time to learn how to master the shield e.g. he just uses it in the second wave not because his party or the other heroes were defeated and it was his last option, but because it was taking to long to defeat the boss. In fact, there’s no tension in the show. Edgelord Hero is stronger than everyone in the Country who could try to mess with him. His party is loyal to a fault and will never leave him.

Animation (5/10):

The animation is mediocre, the CGI is horrendous. Don’t believe me? Look at the T-Rex. Th action scenes are terrible. Not only are they so static that it reminds of you a Pokemon battle where characters take turns attacking, but the choreography and storytelling is weak.

Conclusion (2/10):

Naofumi is a classic example of a MC who in real life would be so unlikeable that no one would hang out with him, let alone have girls fawn over him. This show panders to the types who want to think it's the worlds fault.

Everything that happens to Edgelord Hero is fuelled to making him the poor misunderstood victim of a revenge story going against the authoritative power (e.g. royalty, legendary heroes), who are the bad guys. The audience is supposed to emphasise with his plight as a underdog trying to free his name/reputation and build towards the satisfying climax where Naofumi sticks his middle finger at the big guy as he finally gets his revenge for all their wrongdoings... The problem here is the execution is appalling.

Shield Hero has the elements to be a good show, such as an interesting story, usage of game mechanics and world building, but the storytelling is badly written, the characters having no substance, the villains have nothing going for themselves and are comically evil- to the point it becomes repetitive and boring. If you need to hammer down the same plot points and themes while sacrificing any potential interesting thematic elements then you’re doing something wrong.

I’ve read the manga to see if it might change my perspective and manga/LN readers kept banging on how much better it was. I’m pleased to inform you, that’s not the case. The anime has been more faithful than most isekai adaptations. They did change a couple of scenes and remove, but that was bound to happen due to time constraints. The anime toned down Naofumi and omitted his inner monologues to make him more of a generic, good guy isekai MC. I don’t see this as much of a problem though, since him being a edgy insufferable twat like his manga counterpart isn’t any better.

The point is the manga isn’t much better than the anime, as it still suffers from the same pitfalls. Shield Hero is shallow, poorly written revenge porn.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" [Warning: minor spoilers]

Mob Psycho proves how effective this can be as it soars in popularity, despite the story following the same formula it did last season with the first 1-8 episodes being slice of life comedy on Mob’s daily life doing mundane events. If this was another anime these episodes would be classified as filler, but since it's Mob psycho "everything is super important for Mob's personal journey!" The supernatural parts were episodic psychic hunts of the week against random, one note rumours, ghosts or urban legends such as a old granny running in a tunnel or a ... naked creep in a raincoat. They're just a bunch of over exaggeragated, random ideas that don't contribute to the overall story.

In the last 9-13 episodes the show focuses on Claw as it ups the scales with a bombastic "take over the world" arc, in a similar fashion to every ending in a typical battle shounen. The problem here is the setup is all rushed. There's no build up to this massive climax, no foreshadowing to what the boss's plans are, who the ultimate 5 are etc. It all just comes out of nowhere starting over a massive moment in the form of shock value to get Mob involved.

Fans praise Mob for how character driven it is, centering around Mob's personal journey. While Mob does receive a lot of character development, especially the two episodes focusing on Mob and Reigen's relationship and how much Mob has grown in comparison, it's not partially difficult to develop someone who's a blank canvas. Yes Mob develops emotions and becomes a better person, but that doesn't excuse him having the personality of a wet towel.

This season focuses more on Mob and Reigen, which as a result were the most interesting and developed characters. That's not to say that others such as Mogami and Serizawai didn't receive a good amount of development, however the rest of characters were either too simple or undeveloped. I know nothing more about Mob's classmates, Tsubomi or gym bros than i did last season. Mob's brother or Teruki don't receive much focus. The boss was a generic bad guy who wants to take over the world because he can since he's the strongest esper. Not the most compelling motivation now is it? The villains such as the Ultimate 5 or former Claw members were forgettable since the show didn’t spend time to actually develop them.

The animation is amazing, as expected of Bones and there's an abundance of sakuga throughout the show. I didn't find any of the new osts memorable, but the opening song and visuals were equally as catchy and creative as the first season.

The fights scenes were underwhelming, aside from the gang Vs Shimazaki. For example, Mob Vs Mogami was a bunch of flashy esper attacks compared to Mob Vs Koyama last season which had better choreography, animation, higher stakes and more intensity. I’m positive people only enjoyed this fight because of the animation. I'd like to add that since the Mogami arc was shorten, the payoff for what Mob went through weren't nearly as satisfying or impactful as in the manga.

The big final battle was hard for me take seriously. It felt rushed, the choreography was lacksuter and the way they upped the scales so drastically clashed with the tone set in the earlier lighthearted, slice of life episodes this season.

Look, I like Mob. I've watched the anime and read manga, but i can't understand all the praise. I mean, look at it's absurdly high MAL score. What does Mob Psycho do that's so special compared to other shounen? Because I'm clearly not seeing it.

Every season there is one entry the anime community overhypes beyond belief and this time it's Kaguya sama.

Story? There’s no story beyond two teen high schoolers failed love attempts at getting the other person to confess. Fans have dubbed Kaguya sama as the "Death Note of romance", which is laughable because the mind games here are pretentious, basic tactics.

The comedy is hit or miss most of the time, with the odd joke being able to crack a smile from me. The jokes and gags are repetitive and become stale e.g. the skit where the President and Kaguya gave love advice dragged on too long. ... The episode about the wiener joke (no, I’m not kidding) was so childish.

The characters are a bunch of troupes who receive no character development: Kaguya is a rich, childish, pampered tsundere with barely any endearing qualities. Chika is the cute ditsy airhead, Ishigami is the depressed emo okatu that fans relate to calling him "our guy". He's easily the worst character because of how one dimensional he is and all his jokes being so predictable e.g. "oh no, Kaguya is going to kill me! I'm going home President!". The president is the hardworking and studious guy. He’s the best of the main cast in my opinion. He's the most interesting, relatable and got varied comedy.

The main problem with this show is the narration. The narrator might as well be his own character with how overused it is, to the point it becomes overbearing and annoying. The writer clearly didn't grasp the concept of "show, don't tell" because i don't want to be told about the characters and their thought process like they’re puppets. I don’t know why the narrator is keeping score of their matches because it ultimately amounts to nothing and we get the same rinse-repeat scenario next episode. He’s often mentioning stuff that’s obvious on screen with info dumps, which is jarring because it comes across as if the viewer is too stupid to think for themselves.

I’ll give it to A1, the animation is great, the osts are good and the stylistic presentation is visually impressive enough for you to overlook most scenes taking place in one location. The opening visuals are creative, however the opening song is cheesy and the ending is forgettable.

Overall, Kaguya sama is a fun rom-com, but it's cliche and filled with troupes that would otherwise be criticised in other shows. The dynamic between the two leads doesn’t change as they are no closer to confessing to each other than they were at beginning. It's baffling to see so many positive reviews and the amount of praise it’s received when it lacks substance and does nothing special compared to other rom-coms.

"Do you like running?"

Run with the wind is a sports anime about a group of University students forming a team to enter the Hakone Ekiden. I'm going to keep this review short and as spoiler free as possible.

Story- (7/10):
It's a simple story, nothing special. It's offers a nice change of pace from your typical sports anime considering the characters are college students and their goal isn't to be the number 1 school team, but simply run in Hakone.

Characters- (8/10):
The crux of this show is the characters. If you're not connected to the characters then this show probably won't be for you. We spend ... a lot of time with our main cast watching them grow as runners while deal with their own personal issues e.g. Kakeru's traumatic past, King's struggle to find a job, Nico rediscovering his love for running. A lot of the character stories are relatable and makes you want to root for them, especially Prince. The character interactions are great and everyone gets an ample of screen time.

That being said, I think some of the characters could have been better developed e.g. Sasaki, who's Kakeru's old team mate is a dick with no redeeming qualities. Fujiwara who's the top runner is pretty bland as a character. There's no focus on anyone else in their school teams aside from those two characters. The coach does next to nothing for most of the show. Hina is kinda of the manager, but doesn't really have any depth besides being the supportive cute girl. Also, the twins comedic relief is a bit annoying.

The drama and conflicts could have been handled better too e.g. Haiji gets away easily for persauding everyone to join the team. Kakeru's rivalry with Sasaki and the reason Sasaki acts like a dick is petty. King having no other option to get a job so he runs with the team is unrealistic. One of the members of the getting sick right before the race had no foreshadowing. However, my main problem with the show is you need to suspend disbelief at times. Aside from Kakeru and Haiji, the team consists of a group of rookies trying to enter Hakone in a couple of months compared to elite runners who have probably been running their whole lives. I can suspend disbelief for most of the team because it’s a sports anime despite it being illogical for them being able to compete, however Prince throws logic out the window. Prince is a otaku who reads manga and can't run to save his life. I like him, but under no circumstances would he realistically be able to qualify, let alone run in Hakone.

Animation & Sound- (7/10):
The animation is fine for the most part, though it does get derpy at times. The opening and ending is great.

Overal- (8/10);
Run with wind is a good sports anime. It's motivational and has beautiful messages. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys running.

What started off as a unique premise of a middle aged man being reincarnated into a Slime in a fantasy setting, slowly devolved into another generic, power fantasy Isekai. [Warning spoilers]

The light hearted slimevilization was fun for a while, but it became boring.

Story (4/10):

There’s not much to the story. Rimuru says he wants to get avenge Shizu and defeat the demon lord Leon, well not really it’s just building Rimuru’s nation until the next enemy attacks. There’s no tension/stakes, especially after Milim joins. The loli demon lord is too OP for her own good. She could oneshot all of the enemies, but doesn’t because ... of plot convenience. Milim’s basically a get out of free card as long as she’s by Rimuru’s side, which removes tension from an already tensionless story.

The world building isn’t that good. While we learn about the races/species that inhabit the Great Jura Forest and watch how Rimuru’s nation is built, we don’t know much about the other regions. If the story shifted it’s focal point to other regions the world would have felt more grand and alive.

Characters (1/10):

The characters are one-dimensional and are only made likeable through a couple of character traits. They aren't remotely realistic or relatable. They don’t develop past their initial introduction. The author constantly introduces more characters instead of developing the ones he has already e.g. Benimaru looks like he has potential, but he doesn’t have much going for him besides being a loyal servant like everyone else.

Rimuru has no personality or character flaws aside from being a laid-back ‘good guy’. He’s pretty much a self-insert character. Everyone loves Rimuru in the world. They worship Rimuru and join his side soon after meeting him, to the point it becomes cheap and unearned. They literally bow down and promise to serve him and in return they get a powerup from being given a name! It reaches “SASUGA AINZ SAMA!!1!” in terms of annoyance.

The Great Sage is essentially a exposition plot device. It knows and explains everything in this world that Rimuru is unfamiliar with and solves all of his problems. Basically it’s lazy writing.

The humanification of the races annoys me because it’s blatant fanservice. For example, Benimaru turns into a handsome man, Shion turns into a busty oppai bodyguard, the lizard girls look like hot kunoichis. Whereas, what happens to Gabiru & the male lizards? They just get wings...

The fight scenes are awful. The writer approaches them by making Rimuru so ridiculously overpowered and the enemy so much weaker that they stand no chance in beating him, so fights end in a oneshot. When the enemy is stronger than Rimuru, Milim just takes care of it. Slightly off topic, in the fight against Charbydis, it annoyed me that Rimuru forced her to sit out while willing to risk the danger of his people and rely on his allies when Milim’s standing right next to him. Rimuru came across as a hypocrite when he insulted Souei, Ranga and Shion and told them to “rely on me a bit”.

I digress, my biggest problem with Slime is how EVERYTHING gets handed to Rimuru easily:

• Encountering the goblin village and becoming their leader right away.
• Defeating the Orc Lord
• Dwargon King arriving with his men and issuing a duel-> ends up forming a peace treaty
• Charbydis was described as an apocalyptic event coming to destroy the Jura Tempest nation and had the whole forest scared-> Milim one shots him.
• Carrion shows up and makes a non aggression pact because plot
• Milim betraying the Demon lords to join Rimuru’s side because of honey and them being “best friends”...
• Rimuru asking enemies to become friends and build a nation together.

Everything seems to work out for him. None of the races fight in his nation or have any conflict. Rimuru acquires abilities to resolve any situation because of how overpowered the great Sage is. It really should have some drawbacks.

If this was one situation I would overlook it, but it’s a constant occurrence. Nothing feels like it’s taken seriously. There’s no meaningful/real conflicts.

Any build up to a situation is always killed off in the most anti-climatic way e.g. Charbydis was hyped up being this Calamity as strong as the Demon Lords, however everything was resolved in less than a day and ended with Milim oneshotting him. What did Charbydis subplot add to the story? Nothing, besides being a shoe horned plot device that came out of nowhere to show powerful Milim is. I would have enjoyed watching everyone fight together to defeat the “raid boss”, but instead she made everyone’s efforts seem pointless.

Animation/Sound (6/10):

The animation is average. The soundtracks are fine. I do enjoy the opening and think the upbeat, lighthearted song fits the tone of the anime.

Overall (2/10):

Slime peaked in the Shizu arc. Everything revolving her was great. It’s really telling that even though Shizu had little screen time, she managed to be the most fleshed out character in the whole show.

Slime is relatively good until the Orc arc. It goes downhill in the 2nd half, particularly after the arrival of Milim. According to manga and LN readers, the anime skips a lot of content, especially world building and it’s noticeable e.g. the students arc is rushed, we get subtle foreshadowing about Veldora, something strange about Chloe’s summoning but the show doesn’t expand on them.

Slime would have been better if it wasn’t always so lighthearted, if it stopped introducing so many characters without developing out the previous ones first and followed through with the buildup instead of everything getting easily resolved.

Overall, it feels as if the story is on easy difficulty.

Radiant is the spiritual successor to Black Clover. I say this because the same strengths/issues I have with that series are present here.

Story (5/10):

The story is about a cursed boy named Seth who becomes a sorcerer and goes out on a quest to find Radiant in order to defeat the Nemesis which inhabit this world. It’s pretty much your typical shounen premise where Seth yells he’s going to find Radiant and become the Wizard King/Hokage!

You know how important first impressions are? Well the first 10 episodes leave a lot to be desired considering they’re more or less filler content. Radiant only starts to get ... good during its first arc- Rumble Town at ep.11.

Characters (5/10):

Seth is like Asta’s twin brother. Seth is dense, dumb as bricks, reckless, childish, loud and annoying. Pretty much your typical shounen protagonist. His constant screaming isn’t as annoying as Asta, but it’s still obnoxious. Admittedly, he does get some character development later on this season e.g. he questions whether nemesis are really bad, which is good.

Melie is probably my favourite out of the main cast. I like her design and her split personality caused by her curse. If she weren’t so ditzy, going along with Seth’s shenanigans and got more focus on her then i’d say she has potential to be a great character.

Doc is arguably the worst character in the series. He’s a annoying, one dimensional comedic relief character. Literally the only things to come out of his mouth is about debt or him fantasising about being with Ms Melba. We get it, you like Ms Melba, now change it up!

When I first saw Grimm I thought he’d be more than a cool, mysterious character. Turns out i was wrong. He doesn’t have much going for him character wise. It may change in he future.

The Inquistion are the military faction in this series, and I have to say they’re pretty bland compared to others I’ve seen in shounen. The writer didn’t put in any effort to creating them and it shows:
The newbie- no depth, bland design. The boy doesn’t even have a name.
The vice captain- Same issue.
The only character that stands out is Captain Dragunov. He’s cool, badass and seems to care about his men.

The villains are generic and poorly written. For example, Konrad is pretty much a mustache twirling, shallow racist.

Animation (5/10):

The animation is pretty medicore, however I despise how bland all the spells look like green sparkles.

Sound (4/10):

The opening song is pretty enjoyable, but some of the osts are forgettable. Osts play a big part in the appeal for battle shounens, so that’s disappointing.

Overall (3/10):

I didn’t enjoy Radiant for the longest time. I often questioned why I continued watching it. I do believe the show gets better once you get to Rumble Town arc, so I reccomend watching up to there before making your decision whether to continue.

If you’re looking for another battle shounen where you can kick back and relax then you may enjoy Radiant. It follows the typical shounen troupes and doesn’t try to be anything other than that.

TTGL is one of most overrated anime I’ve ever watched. It’s literally a Fairy Tail version of a Mecha, filled with: corny childish speeches, deus ex machinas and power of friendship.

The show never attempts to explain anything e.g. mechas joining together because it falls back on its premise of “kick logic out of the wall Simon!!1!”

70% of the characters are one dimensional and irrelevant to the story. Simon is a generic beta crybaby that turns into a Kamina clone. Kamina is your typical, confident, never-give up aniki (big brother), Yoko has no character and is just there for boobs fanservice. The first half ... of the story is boring, repetitive mecha of the week fights. The second half turns into some convulted fight against aliens. Spiral power is the worst power system I’ve ever seen. The final fight has to be the biggest asspull I’ve seen in anime.

TTGL lacks any substance or complexity, unlike what the fanboys want you to believe. It’s a over the top, “turn your brains off” show for kids. I might have enjoyed this when I was 10, but not anymore.