InactiveUsername's Profile - Reviews

No Picture

Last OnlineFeb 8, 7:03 AM
JoinedJun 21, 2020

Anime List Manga List

RSS Feeds

Blog Feed

Sep 23, 2023

Muv-Luv Alternative 2nd Season (Anime) add

Recommended

This season is a big improvement over the first in every aspect. The mech visuals are good as always, and they even got the classic VN OP singers back to sing the OP for this season. It's less confusing for newcomers due to reaching the more exciting part of the story that also does not rely on unadapted material that much and has many fights, the character animation is more consistent with far fewer weird-looking moments, and the aforementioned good mech animation is used for those large-scale fights to its fullest potential. Season 1 was already notably better after the first three episodes, but this ...

Open

Gift

Dec 25, 2021

Muv-Luv Alternative (Manga) add

Recommended

Great if you enjoyed the visual novel. A great alternative (haha) if you don't like visual novels but want to try Muv-Luv.

The story is well-paced and conveys the information from the visual novel it's adapting in a detailed manner, making it easy enough to understand for a newcomer. The translation is fantastic, and the art is simply gorgeous. Some of the panels redefined some of the moments from the VN for me.

There are a couple of downsides.

Firstly, the ecchi. That's right, there's more of that in the manga than in the (originally) eroge VN or anime adaptation. But if you can get over seeing ...

Open

Gift

Dec 25, 2021

Muv-Luv Alternative (Anime) add

Recommended

It's not as bad as many visual novel readers and the review bombing would make you think. I understand being disappointed with a less than ideal adaptation of such a renowned VN, especially one that inspired AoT and is rated #1 on VNDB, but it's certainly not deserving to be below a 6 out of 10 on average on this website, that's for sure. As a VN reader myself, I've tried to approach this with as open of a mind as possible, and honestly, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised.

The Muv-Luv visual novel trilogy builds upon itself through emotional investment. Alternative is the ... third and final part of it, and as such, starting with it, especially with a shorter runtime will obviously diminish that intended experience. Naturally any sort of adaptation that starts with the last part is cursed in a way because of this. The first 2 parts are necessary to create a connection between the reader and the characters, including the first part that is a romcom, Extra. This later on serves as a contrast between a peaceful, carefree story and a story with the same characters, but this time with life-threatening troubles. It works as a way to show a difference in perspective in the two situations. An anime-only viewer does not get that here.

The anime also suffers from what seems to be budgetary issues with its below-average 2D animation and a near-complete lack of the original soundtrack, which could be due to licensing issues. Many VN readers were also frustrated with the character redesigns and not bringing back some of the iconic songs and soundtrack. This, along with being the third part of a trilogy with no previous adaptation of the previous two parts and a limited 12 episodes for the first season (with the first being an anime original) shows that this show has the odds stacked against it.

And yet, it manages to do many things right. The team behind this do not attempt to rush a ~55 hour VN in 12 episodes like many adaptations do, making it an above-average visual novel adaptation already. With a second season now confirmed they may get to sufficiently explore the story without rushing it to the point of being incomprehensible in an attempt to get to the finish line. For reference, the first season covered the first third of the VN's story.

Also, a lot of the new music, including the OP song, is very good. The 3D mech CGI is good as well, with good action sequences. Some moments in the show succeed at recreating the vibe of the original. In addition, I like the character redesigns, especially in many still shots where they look good, the 2D animation just needs touch-ups in the BluRay release in some scenes.

Overall, I had a good time with this first season, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it being adapted. For someone just getting into the series though, I definitely wouldn't recommend this over the visual novel or the officially translated manga, but it's definitely nowhere near as bad as people say.

Open

Gift

Back to InactiveUsername's Profile InactiveUsername's Profile

All (1)Badges

All (1)Friends

RSS Feeds

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters