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Sep 23, 2020
This became quite the surprise show of the season. What initially came off as a promising yet overly familiar show about the last of humanity fighting for survival ends up being more than meets the eye by the second episode. Although it is that reveal in the second episode that can be a total turn off for some people whether it be narratively with the change in direction that people thought the show was going to go with, or artistically with the new art and character designs mixed into the show. But as weird as the reveal may be, the creators really stick to this
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idea and end up handling it to a satisfying degree till the end.
Spoilers ahead
As it is stated in the synopsis the show is about the last of humanity living in a mobile fortress that the show is named after, and defending/hunting bug like creatures known as Gadolls. Using the parts from the Gadolls as food and resources and most importantly using their blood as fuel. Accompanied by the humans are the Gears who are a strangely rainbow colored human like beings who make up most of the fighting force against the Gadolls. With Natsume, our main protagonist, hoping to join and fight alongside them, although ends up being dashed away by not qualifying. And what could have just been a bog standard show about Natsume trying to work hard to prove to them that she is capable ends up being more than that by the second episode. Because while the plight of human survival is a true reality, it is being used for the expense of other beings as a sort of Truman Show-esque MMORPG so they can have fun killing Gadolls and collect their blood that they need for survival as well.
The show ends up being split into two different plotlines with the primary one being the standard plot from the beginning about Natsume trying to work and improve herself in order to one day fight against the Gadolls, unaware (like most humans) of the greater system controlling them. While the other plotline follows her mentor Kaburagi who is part of the system and is trying to destroy it for himself and in order to stop the artificially perpetuated suffering that humans had to go through for so long. As he sort of uses Natsume to unknowingly help him due to the fact that she is an anomaly in the system. With both plotlines inevitably coming together during the final 3 episodes delivering an otherwise satisfying conclusion.
For a show that only had 12 episodes they were able to do a whole lot with it. Although one of the things that was pushed to the wayside would be character depth. Many of the side characters are two-dimensional at best. Even the main two duo of the story have simple characterization and easy to understand mentality, personality, and motivations. Of course none of this is a bad thing as many of the characters have easily likeable personalities and even the main antagonist has a weird charm to him as well.
It also helps that the show has some pretty good production values especially when it comes to it’s zero g-esque, but overall it’s just very good. The most important part is whether or not you can accept the shift in story the show is going for in the second episode. Because if you can, you’ll find a pretty decent show that’s worth watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 15, 2020
Forgettable, that’s all this show is, just so god damn dull and forgettable. I don’t mean just the entire show as a whole but also after each episode it’s difficult to really remember what happened. There’s just not much there plot wise that’s really worth remembering despite how much terminology and infodumping the show does. So much of it is just unnecessary as the information seems to extend farther than the show's 13 episode scope. Outside of what little there is worth remembering about the show, there’s not much that’s memorable about the show in of itself. There’s nothing about the setting, the characters,
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the battles, the interactions, or just about anything else about this show I really want to remember for the sake of remembering. The most effort I have put into trying to remember this show is from doing this review and saying every once in a while, “oh, I guess that did happen….”
The plot for the show, at least for the first half, is the basic misadventures of playing for an MMO. going on quests, fighting monsters, meeting new people. and so on. It seems like something that would be fine and simple, but somehow the show managed to make it such a chore to get through. For you see, one of the main points of the game is that the AI is advanced enough to pass off as real people and can be perma-death-ed. This in turn creates some sort of stakes and tension in an otherwise easy going game, especially for our main protagonist who does see them as real people . While it may seem like an interesting take by using a new perspective, there’s never enough time for these AIs to really care for them. I guess the closest thing to them would be the embryos that are humanoid companions to people such as the main protagonist. Of course all of the ones present in the show are one-dimensional and don’t really help support the point. Then again it’s not like the player characters are any more interesting or complex, so it could have something going for it in-story.
Aside from Ray Starling being the main protagonist there’s not really much about him that’s noteworthy. I guess the fact that his chad older brother plays the game as well, and also that there is probably someone behind the scenes manipulating Ray into being something great, but not much of that really matters. I don't really plan on talking about the rest of the characters because i'm not really keen on creating a laundry list of them and their one note characteristics. It only really peaks in terms of characterization for 3~4 characters and it’s mostly backstory for why they ended up joining the game. But I will put a small footnote for the fem-boy character Rook Holmes mostly due to his character class being a pimp and his embryo being something akin to a succubus, and that’s pretty funny for some reason.
The worst part of the show is the last half when a tournament is interrupted by some player character stealing the AI princess of one of the games kingdom . While it seems to be doing the appropriate thing in setting up this entire event with an antagonist, tension, and a goal, the entire thing is just an utter bore. With most of the focus being player vs player battles with the only consequence they’ll have is being unable to log on for 24 hours (which is really dumb). It’s only made worse by how unironically try hard the players make it. It wouldn’t be so if it was for this event, but it’s kind of been a thing for the entire show and it’s really hard to care about anything that happens at this point.
I wish I could say something about the visuals or audio but there;s nothing to really write home about. At this point I'm already mentally checked out from having to remind myself what the hell happened in this show. The most positive thing i can say about this dull, forgettable, disposable show is that at least it wasn’t too annoying to get through.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 28, 2020
Well we did it, we have a show that embodies diminishing returns and makes ass, tits, and the idea of sex such a dull experience.
It’s not the content's fault, that’s ok for what it is, but it’s more on how repetitive the structure of the show is. With mostly every episode focusing on one or two different types of girls or activity, and making a few sentence review of their brothel excursion. It is obviously a more episodic show, but none of the events really stand out from one another. Most of them are so interchangeable with only the minuscule of detail making them
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watchable in chronological order if there is any at all. This comes down to most of them just being just downright forgettable with the only memorable ones being the weird ones like the egg laying one.
Hell it doesn’t even stop at the structure of the show, a lot of the “sex” scenes are repetitive as well. It’s obvious that they have only so much wiggle room, but come on. Just a bunch of girls touching themselves, girls focused from belly up bouncing up and down, a bunch of innuendo for fornication, and a couple camera pans to boot. There are only a few moments where they step a bit past the line to make it look like out right sex, but it’s still few and far between. None of this would really bother me, but I just happen to notice them because there’s very little else interesting going on.
Down to it, the fact one-dimensional characters boinking highly feminized one-dimensional fantasy species in a nondescript psuedo-european fantasy setting doesn’t suit my fancy. Or maybe it doesn’t because the act of them “doing it” really isn’t that titillating or entertaining.
There are ecchi shows that are more hardcore than this show, and hentai that are just as softcore. And if you are reading this, then you obviously have access to them and are more deserving of your wasted time and genital juice. While this show isn’t bad if you look at it from the appropriate perspective, there’s nothing in it that makes it above being average at best.
Also if you are wondering why i kept up with this show anyway. It’s because crim is a cutie pie ;)
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 25, 2020
I don’t like talking about other anime when doing a review, since I just want to focus on just the show. However it is obvious that a superficial comparison can be made on this show and a previously aired title “Rise of The Shield Hero”. Since I remembered when Shield Hero was airing a few seasons ago, I made an off hand comment that the Protagonist was basically an example of a min-max build(even though it was against his will). Lo and behold that this season introduces another min-max build but this time is properly acknowledged, and also happens to be another defense build with
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a shield! It’s a funny coincidence more than anything, and where most of the comparison ends.
BOFURI as it is called due to it’s absurdly long title is a rather delightful show to watch. Yes, the fact that it’s another virtual reality Isekai may be a bit eye rolling, but it does help that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has a very light tone to the point that it can be considered slice-of-life, since it very much is. It basically looks into the life of a teenage girl as she has fun with her friends in the virtual space. The only thing making her stand-out from the crowd is that she naively Min-maxed a defense build that in turn led to her getting favorable results. Essentially she found a way to break the game and make herself drastically overpowered in a short amount of time. It amounts to very little aside from making boss fights and pvp tournaments very easy for her because in the end, it’s just a game.
That’s really the crux of it all that makes it stand, the show acknowledges that everything is just a game and nothing more. The characters all get along and there’s rarely(if any) deep seated rivalries or drama because it would be petty because it is just a game. All the NPCS are obviously scripted and quests that can be easily circumvented or easily accomplished. And while the main protagonist may be an overpowered tank, she does get nerfed from time to time. Although she usually bounces back from it with some other new thing the story hands out to her. Yes, things really do come very conveniently to our main protagonist, Maple. So much so that combined with her happy-go-lucky attitude she comes off as a Mary sue with her only fault being clumsy. Of course this power fantasy is only in the game, because out of it she’s just a clumsy girl and nothing more.
If it isn’t telling from the last paragraph, a lot of the characters in this show don’t have a lot of depth to them. Which is all fine for the most part, since their simplicity is part of their charm. It’s that casual carelessness and easy to understand personalities that makes them easy to attach to. such as Maple’s best friend Sally who is very supportive of her and who purposely created her own min-max build that compliments her friends. Even the “antagonistic” characters such as the leaders of the flame emperors who comes off as a very serious try hard person. Only for it to reveal that it;s more of a front for her to impress her friends and is also really a bit of a crybaby. Although it’s not uncommon that some of the characters can be forgettable even in Maple’s own group.
While the production value for the show is as decent as it comes these days. The soundtrack is worth taking note of. Not because there is something remarkable about it, but it does end up having a place within the show. Mostly when it comes during the fight sequences and the montages in the show. Especially the montages which the show has many more than it should have. It has a very distinct musical and vocal track that gets played again and again for each montage. It’s a decent song, but it would be nice to have something different. The same goes for the fight sequence song as well.
This is a show that isn’t planning to aim high and I guess i can respect that. All it wants to be is a carefree enjoyable show, and it succeeded in doing so.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 22, 2020
One of the most basic things that is taught in introductory psychology is of the ego, super-ego, and Id. they all play a part when it comes to the self with the ego being the consciousness, and the superego and id more or less being the unconscious. From what I've been told, a simple way of looking at it is like imagining them being the angel and demon sitting on someone's shoulder. The Id being the demon who bides the person into committing what can be considered bad acts. To act upon the carnal desire that is instinctive in us, to indulge in our sexual
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and aggressive drive as animals. The superego of course is the angel who doesn’t make us do good, but rather to constrain us from falling into our Id. The superego is society and culture, and the rules and lessons that we come to learn from it at a young age. Slowly reinforcing the idea that by giving into your desires might lead to consequences, until it is ingrained into the mind into the concepts of shame and guilt. The ego then is just you, the one who decides upon them, but it is not a false dilemma of either/or. Rather it’s one of mediation that best suits the person and situation to be able to act upon. It’s not a really good analogy, most really aren’t, but hopefully it’s good enough to understand.
As in the title, the show is about invading someone’s Id, their unconsciousness. Mainly pertaining to serial killers who act upon their Id and unknowingly leaving consciousness particles at each crime scene. Particles that a bureau is able to use in order to examine and even track down the criminals. The method of examination is via a technology system that allows a qualified user to jump into someone’s Id well in order to figure out the mind of the murderer. It’s very soft science-fiction so thinking very hard on how the system works will just get you nowhere.The show does give some roundabout way to how it works, but it’s more to its detriment than anything else. It’s just used for having an interesting take on a killer's psychology without the cat and mouse chasing or long internal monologuing.
The structure for the first half of the show is a bit weird as it has a feeling of being episodic, but there’s just enough content that glues them all together so that you have to watch it in a successive manner. Aside from the first two episodes,and another few near the end, each episode explores a different Id well. As the Id is part of the unconscious, they don’t adhere to the same rules of reality as one would expect. From the way the environment looks such as being broken apart or isolated, to the way the “people” in the wells look and behave, and also how the scenario plays out. Each one is influenced by the serial killer’s mind and how they see the world, and it’s up to the detective to figure it out. Not only a means of understanding their mentality in order to get the jump on them, but also since the well is still connected to the criminals, new information can still slip in making the investigators more aware of their locations. Although the way they go about finding info about the serial killer is a bit convenient from time to time. Using sometimes the most banal of clues to find a good chunk of info about them with pinpoint accuracy.
In some way I do find the Id well and the scenarios that are brought up to be very video game-y. Viewing each new well as a sort of new level in a puzzle game. I guess it’s because it reminded me of something like psychonauts. Although the level of participation that you have in the shows mysteries vary. From being a bit too easy that it can be figured out almost near the beginning of entering the wells, and other times they come in with a late game curve ball that really felt out of nowhere. Nevertheless I would say the way they go about each new well is overall clever and usually enjoyable to watch.
The second half of the show does through the show into a loop, shamefully however is that the direction is downwards. It does start interestingly enough as another standard-ish operation that becomes something more than previously expected. Getting more info about our main protagonist as well as the system that brings them in the Id wells. However the show lingers onto this plot point for too long that it starts to get boring. It gets hard to care about any new story revelations, character motivations, or even who the elusive main antagonist is. It’s basically the show trying to quickly funnel the show down to its conclusion and have everything in-story answered and wrapped up.
Before getting into what little I can say of the other characters, I'd first like to talk about John Walker. An elusive antagonistic figure who happens to appear in many of the Id wells that the Protagonist enters, and also a suspect in the protagonists predicament. They are the main perpetrator who seems to be connected to many of the serial killer cases in the show, and most likely pulling the string behind everything. I personally was able to figure out who the character was about a few episodes into the show. Not by any means of clues or foreshadowing, but rather just a process of elimination and luck because any other way to figure them out can prove to be difficult.
It does make sense that it’s hard to figure out who the antagonist is mainly because not a lot of focus is given to many of the characters. The characters who have the most characterization are the ones who are allowed to enter the Id well. The main protagonist Sakaido, a young girl who can pass as a middle schooler Koharu, and also the first serial killer of the show, Fukuda. The other serial killers mostly have their personality showcased in their Id wells with a bit of backstory just in case. As for the people who work for the bureau, they are like the forensic investigators in crime scene dramas, but without the snark or personality, just very one dimensional.
Doesn’t really help the characters when the art style is also makes them look very dull. Most of them have an angular like design to them that is also minimalist or basic. One of the more odd choices is the design of some of the characters' eyes. Some of them are depicted to be more slanted rather than the more standard version you see in most anime. However they are still proportioned the same way as the standard depiction, that the result makes it look like they sometimes are squinting. Nevertheless despite how dull the show looks it still provides a serviceable experience towards the show.
Small Tangent: one of the interesting things to note about two of the characters that can enter the Id wells is that they both have holes in their head. It means very little until you look into the main writer of the show's history who once wrote a short story called “Drill Hole in the Brain”. Maybe it’s a bit of self-indulgence, but whatever. Just something I happened to notice.
The show is only able to stand above the average crowd due to it’s interesting ideas and moments, but that is just for the first half and a bit that gets carried over towards the second. The rest of the second half just leaves nothing but disappointment. It’s obvious what they were doing in order to wrap the show up, but there was never enough in the show that could make any pay off satisfying. What could have been a decent show, came out being average at best.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 13, 2020
There’s no real grand, or even minuscule message that the show delivers when it comes to love despite all the data examination and rumination. It’s for the most part a par for the course mediocre romantic comedy with some science strewn about to give it some sort of differentiation.
The plot mostly consists of the entire group doing experiments to quantify what love really is. It mostly has the experiments devolving down to gaffs and goofs and not much else. The experiments aren't even the science portion of the show, but rather it’s the theoretics and laws that are thrown around; usually accompanied by a bear
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to unnecessarily explain it. Mostly used to pad out the shows run time as they provide as much substance as just name dropping the theories and moving on, and it’s also the most patronizing shit ever. Aside from all this, the only thing that is noteworthy about the show is that it circumvents some story tropes via lamp-shading or parody. It would be a very admirable feat if it weren’t for the fact that it falls into similar trappings later on.
The characters aren’t much better, they might even be a bit worse. None of them are really worth listing off due to how 2-dimensional they all are, so here’s just how it is for all of them. They all follow their standard personalities from their introduction till the end without much more characterization, or development that hadn't already been obvious. Although most of them aren’t really annoying (at least up to a point), they are all still just flat forgettable characters that are a dime a dozen in this genre.
I would say that it’s an ok show but much of the last third really makes me want to say otherwise. Just a bunch of unnecessary drama on that part in order to create fake tension, even though it ends on a happy but predictable note. It’s definitely isn’t bad, but you most certainly can find some other mediocre rom-com shows that are better than this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 6, 2020
Heidi is one of the most defining shows in the world masterpiece theater catalog. Before Heidi the other shows consisted mostly of collections of stories that became Anderson Stories, Rocky Chuck, and Moomin, and they also did an Adaptation of the manga Dororo. Heidi however is just based on a single novel and becomes the precedent for most other shows in the programming catalog afterwards. Nevertheless the show by itself is a delight to watch and has aged very little since it’s release in the 70’s
Everything about the show Heidi is simplistic and small. With only about a dozen notable characters and only two dramatically
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different settings, the show does a decent amount in it’s fifty episodes without being really boring. Each episode is a new adventure for the young girl from going on escapades in the alps with the young goat herder peter, or her means of trying to entertain herself and Clara in the restrictive mansion in Frankfurt. Each episode is as calming and satisfying as the last, and despite being a children’s novel the show doesn’t come off as patronizing towards it’s viewers. The characters of the show are also a delight to watch as well. The main character Heidi is a bundle of joy who uses everything she learns to her own advantage, especially when going off to a new setting. Her grandfather is also a very interesting character. Coming off as a rugged gruff isolated man who also has a much more sympathetic side and with Heidi, he becomes more open towards other people.
It goes without saying that many of the people who made this show went on to become big names in the anime industry. With Takahata and Miyazaki who went off to make studio Ghibli, and Tomino who made the popular Gundam franchise. It really shows with how good the character designs for many of the characters are. The wonderful use of setting that makes them come alive due to their color and detail. The animation is consistent and resourceful throughout the show lending to the vibrancy of the characters and setting. Not to mention it’s soundtrack that adds to many moments of the show as well as characterization.
The show still has some discrepancies however, with many interesting plot threads(?) just never coming up again. Heidi’s Aunt Dete being more of a plot device who’s never seen again. The highly optimistic tone that maybe too much more some people, and so on and so forth.
Overall though this is a show that i think is pretty good and has stood the test of time. It’s a show that I can't help but recommend to others. Because if you are willing, the show will wrap you up in it’s charming ways from start to finish the same way Heidi does towards other people.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 26, 2019
The only reason I kept up with this show on a week to week basis as it was airing was because the shows art-style had a certain nostalgic feeling to it, but I could never figure out why though. Going through most of the staff who worked on the character designs, art direction, and also the director just in case revealed very little to what I was feeling. I could see some semblance in some of their other works, but those are the ones I have yet to watch. While the ones I have watched from some of them look far different than this show.
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The closest comparison that I can think of is that it kind of looks kind of like Mamoru Hosoda’s work. I guess it’s mostly for the simple but appealing character designs, but it kind of can also be seen the background designs, color pallet, and the animation. I would even say that it has a very movie quality to it, but obviously downgraded enough so that it’s more suitable for tv. But outside of my nostalgia senses I would still consider the visuals to be overall good and appealing to everyone, the story on the other hand…
As in the synopsis, Stars Align starts off as a story about a new Student being recruited into the Soft Tennis Club. Soft being the keyword as there’s not much hard on attention placed on the sport compared to other shows with sports in them as well. The sport and the matches do take a considerable chunk of time from the show, but they are not the central focus. There’s no hot blooded matches, no intense rivalries, no amazing techniques(maybe strategies,but not that much), and no grand competitions. The highest stake that the sport has is that the club might close due to the student council not wishing to put a budget into a club that does very little. Even then it’s not much of a looming threat, and more so something that is stated a few times just to acknowledge that it’s still a thing.
What the show is more focused on is the personal and at times interpersonal circumstances that this group goes through. The most noticeable ones are the club members relationships with their parents. The two that are presented the earliest are of the main duo, Maki and Toma. Maki, the new student, lives with just his mother. As it turns out the father is abusive and extorts money from them via Maki when the mom is away at her job. On the other hand Toma, the leader of the tennis club has a strained relationship with his mother. This leads to Toma not believing he is as good as his brother, who also played tennis, and also leads him to have a sort of complex that leads to him having fits of anger. The other club members also have their own child-parental conflicts from controlling parents, passive aggressive parents, being adopted and so on. I would go into more detail with them but there isn’t much which leads to the core problem with the show.
This shows has an abundance of things it wants to do and has only so little time to do them. It wants to go into the lives of all the club members and what they’re going through, it also wants to focus on some non-club members as well, and it also wants to have some tennis matches have some sort of substance to them. This leads to the show only being able to not really go that far with any of them. It really touches the surface on almost all of the subjects that it brings up. The example I will bring up is the kid who becomes the manager for the club, forgot his name. The reason he becomes the manager is that he is gay and has a crush on Toma, and by being the manager he is able to support him. It’s obvious he won’t confess his feeling because Toma is seemingly not gay. Then it goes more into it by having the kid being maybe into cross-dressing and having a conversation with Maki about transgender-ism. Later on the Kids mother kind of finds out about him cross-dressing in a disapproving manner and that’s it. It never goes into depth with any of it which leads to much of it feeling vapid and forgettable, which in turn affects the characters in the same way.
I really do believe that this show had what it took to be a really good show. However it’s stopped by having a mean case of window dressing. You can see the components at play at many moments in the show, but they are also so far removed that they aren't able to play a crucial part in the big picture, and end up being redundant. At most, I thought this show would only be average at best, but at every turn more stuff was added to a show without resolving what was already there. With so much feeling underdeveloped, I can only think of this show as a sad disappointment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 25, 2019
The main thing that is clamored about when it comes to Oresuki is the “twist” that occurs midway during the first episode, even though it’s quite explicit in the synopsis. Anyway, the gist of it is that the first half of the shows first episode comes off as a generic school romance anime. The protagonist is a by the numbers nice guy with a supporting cast consisting of the obligatory girl childhood friend, the elegant girl student council president, and a cool guy friend to help him out. All together they play through the motions of the show until a point where it looks like
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the childhood friend and student council president may confess to the protagonist, only for it to slap him in the face when they actually ask for his help to get in a relationship with his friend. Disillusioned and in the privacy of his home the protagonist reveals that his personality is a facade that he used in hopes of having his own harem as would be the expectation from a show like this. This “twist” forms the main idea and tone that will run throughout the rest of the show, most of which I would argue isn’t for the best.
This idea is the sense of duplicity that not only comes from the main protagonist, but also from every notable character in the cast. No matter how they act or what they do, there probably is an undercurrent of something quite the opposite. It does a good job early on for creating a sense of doubt for the viewers. However, the show really plays into it far too many times that it starts to feel predictable and too reliant on it's twists. It leads the show to only laying down two roads to go through but with the shows modus operandi, you can easily guess which one they will go with. I would chalk this up to the show letting the cat out of the bag far too early that the impact it had in the first few episodes die down way to quick and it is unable to replicate it again. Even more so is that once you get past all the duplicitous nature of the show, you realize how inconsequential the plot really is.
This also goes to the characters as well. Once you look past the thin covered veil, you can see how paper thin these characters are. Sure the duplicity lends to many of the characters being two faced, but it doesn’t equate to complexity or depth. They still play within their designated archetypes as any run of the mill harem rom-com only with the added degree that there might be something more underneath. Most of the time there really isn’t, and when there is it doesn’t really add much to the character that has already been known. Nevertheless they aren’t bad, and depending on how you see these kind of shows, they make a somewhat decent cast of two-dimensional characters. The best character being the main girl Pansy who’s the only character that worked well around the show.
If you are wondering why I haven't called any of the characters by their name until now, it’s because it requires a space of its own. One thing this show has going for it in spades are it’s meaningless meanings. By this, I mean their names have some meaning behind them. The most obvious ones being the girls who literally wear their names they're called on their hair as flower ornaments such as pansy, cosmos, himawari(sunflower), etc. And as we all know flowers are full of meaning, but as said before in the last paragraph, it adds very little to what is already known to the character. The main character and his guy friends have a bit more going on with their names, but not really a substantial amount. The main protags name is Joro which is translated to “watering can”, while his friend is called Sun-chan. Two essential things that are needed in order for plants such as flowers to grow. One being cold water that’s useful when there’s no rain, and the other being a warm glow star. Overall they are just neat tidbits that people can find appreciative from this show.
A bit less than the last one, but there a some literary titles that are dropped into the show. Three of which i can bother to think of off the top of my head, Dr.Jekyll And Mr.Hyde, Crime And Punishment, and I Am A Cat. the most obvious one being the first one explicitly presented, Dr.Jekyll. Being the case of one man living two different lives and how that is directed towards Joro and his two-faced personality of one being kind and the other one being more of a scumbag. The other two books are a bit more up in the air on whether or not they also play into the same role of Dr.Jekyll, stand for something else, or are just there because the setting takes place in a library.
The other thing that Oresuki has going for it is it’s comedy. One of the first things that easily comes to mind is how this show can be viewed as a parody of the genre that it’s playing. From the subversion of expectations, to the nonsense characters and situations throughout the show. The obvious one being “the bench”, a magical bench that appears just about anywhere, and brings a foreboding future towards Joro. It does happen enough time that it starts to have a feeling of ad nauseam, but that’s also part of the humor as well due to how overused they are in the genre as well. The other example is “the baseball game” an event that coincidentally lead to the motivations of most of the characters of the show. Starting off as a generic plot point only for every new character adding a new perspective to the event that gets increasingly ridiculous, even if there seems to be more going on underneath. The show also has its share of standard comedy that you will expect from the average run-of-the mill comedy anime. However for all that it does to make fun of the genre of harem rom-coms, it inevitably falls into line with the rest.
One of the worst things that can happen to a fictional story that attempts to be subversive, satirical, or a parody is that they may fall for the same narrative trapping that they are deconstructing or making fun of. It makes you wonder what was the point of all the setup, if the payoff is the same as the derivative works that it’s riding off of. At least with the more generic and derivative works you get what you expected, through and through. What was the point of the deliberate use of characters and plot elements, when they end up being the same shit as everything else. Why bother giving Joro a two-faced personality, when his more or less “good side” is the one that prevails the most. Why bother knocking back the harem aspect in the beginning of the show only to prop up a much bigger one later on. Seriously, why bother when in the end it ends up being a pile of nothing.
In this day and age, where every form of fiction is easily available for almost everyone. It is quite easy to get quickly used to story conventions and tropes. Leading some to create works that differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd by being subversive or meta, and thanks to their understanding of the tropes used they are able to succeed in doing so. Yet it comes to a point where it is done so much that it ends up being the new norm. To be so overdone that it is forgotten why they need it to be subversive or meta in the first place. It only becomes a dumb game of the author attempting to one-up the audience in the most stupid way possible, and that’s what Oresuki is. A harem rom-com that tries to play smarter than it really is and only reveals time after time how it’s just kind of... Dumb. That’s the greatest use of duplicity this show inadvertently ends up achieving.
Also they did the redhead girl dirty and that’s unforgivable...
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 21, 2019
I don't know what anyone else could have expected from this show, of course it's terrible. But this is a kind of terrible that I find to be very appealing to watch at times. There's something about these battle harems that I find really enjoyable, but it's really hard to put my finger on what precisely it is. Maybe it's the base level titillation from the abundance of fan service. it could be the absurd and roundabout ways shows like these justify their fan service. Perhaps it's because of it's simple portrayals of characters.There's also the paper thin plot it has until it falls into
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the deep end and simply becomes a joke. Or just a culmination of all the above which this show more or less is.
Val x Love is kind of a monster of the week type of show with a thin coating of Norse mythology hence the Val in the title standing for Valkyries. Valkyries being the nine girls, each on fitting into a specific archetype such as the loli, kuudere, himedere, etc etc. Although the blonde haired tsundere also facilities as being the "main girl". All bounded to the main male protagonist who they must form a special/romantic bond with in order to level up like some video game character, and be more capable to fight the enemy and prevent Ragnarok(I think). The way that they bond is usually for the most part risque and mostly serve as the fan service of the show. Doing actions such as kissing, groping, bathing together, or just spending time together which also usually devolves into more fan service.
I'm not sure if there's a word to describe the kind of person that characters like the protagonist are. He's such a heavily flawed in so many ways that it comes off more artificial rather than believable. He has a somewhat scary looking physique but is mostly a wimp who is scared of human interaction. The fact that he has to have intimate contact with the Valkyries exacerbates it. The only thing he is noticeably good at is studying, and even then the slightest bit of pressure can make him panic and fail exams. It’s all done so purposeful to the point of contrivance for the purpose of having easy character development. But that’s the thing, it’s so easy that it’s down right predictable from the very first episodes. Not to mention that if they weren’t to do that, all that would be left is a rather irritating character.
The antagonists aren’t really that note worthy aside that they are also taken from parts of Norse mythology as well. I guess it's because the conflicts are more centered around the main protagonist sucking it up and kissing one of his harem in order for them to fight. Of course from the last paragraph it’s less of a conflict and more of an inevitable amount of time.
There’s probably a lot I could say about the production value, but if you know what you’re getting into when it comes to the story and characters. You probably know what you are getting into when it comes to the visuals and audio. That is to say, it is serviceable for what it is. And that’s something that can also be said about the entirety of the show. It’s a serviceable bad show that isn’t a total joke, but enough that it can be seen in an ironically enjoyable light.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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