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Oct 7, 2017
The funniest thing I have read all week was about a woman thinking of getting a lobotomy after her dog calming down after getting one. Before that, it was reading through our local nazi party's political ideas and before that it was someone laughing way too much at a picture of a dromedary (it was actually a gazelle, but that's beside the point).
The point is that I'm not much for manga comedy. They almost never makes me react more than a giggle so it's possible that my distaste for Cheerful Amnesia is purely due to a disconnect between my brand of humor and the
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one found in Cheerful Amnesia.
It is also possible that Cheerful Amnesia simply is not a comedy. While looking through the pages, I cannot state without a doubt why most of them are supposed to be funny (the punchline ususally being Arisa doing something flimsy or Arisa being embarrased or silly amnesia gimmicks). I can make educated guesses on the matter, but the main reason why I believe Cheerful Amnesia is a comedy is that it has no other qualities. There is a story, but it has no suspense, excitement or a relaxing atmosphere. It has characters, but they are as basic as comedy characters usually are as they have no greater purpose than serving as walking punchlines.
So yeah, i would not recommend reading this manga. It has the flimsy presentation of a comedy but forgot to include any good jokes to come along with it. It's a very dull read that contradicts the flimsy presentation, and it never does anything you would not expect it to do after reading a few chapters. I would give alternate recommendations, but it might suffice to skip this, go to bato.to and press random until you get something that has chapters. You might get an awful mess, but it should at least be a more interesting mess than what you would get spending the same time reading Cheerful Amnesia.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 24, 2017
Steins ; Gate is the anime equivalent of most mainstream action movies, watered-down content-less drivel completely devoid of artistic value aimed at mass consumption. It checks every box that people use in order judge anime in order to avoid criticism, which in turn makes its massive fanbase gang up on anyone with a dissenting opinion feeling as if they defend the theory of relativity when someone complains about Einstein based on his hairstyle. That being said, I don't restrain myself by only giving low scores to teenage power fantasies where the screentime is equally divided between pantyshots, infodumping and incohohrent yelling, instead I will judge
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an anime equally harsh for being devoid of what makes one want to watch anime, namely artistic value or even some good old plain fun.
With that metric, Steins ; Gate is complete garbage. It's as bad as commonly ranted upon works like "There's no way my little sister can be this cute" or studio Deen's seemingly inexistant Fate/Stay Night adaption. It's arguably even worse than the latter, because in the midst of Shirou's cringeworthy attempts at philosophy and out-of-place romance development it at least presents a concept that has the potential of being fun as well as moving with a pace where I still feel like things are happening, even if it's nowhere near a Ron Paul level. And hey, I like the soundtrack and the magic school setting still evokes chuunibyou feelings in me even if I should be way too old for that.
Steins ; Gate on the flipside moves at the pace of a sludge metal album, except the heavy atmosphere ir replaced by the soullessness of prog. This would be fine if it at least were an atmospheric experience akin to something like Texhnolyze or had the character development of .hack//Sign resulting in great payoffs near the end but instead we have a plot that challenges Wonderwall for the prize of the most mundane piece of media ever created, only coated with sci-fi elements as a lazy way of attempting to emulate flavor. It suffers the same flaw as almost all visual media (thank Yuasa for Tatami Galaxy) where you can't go in your own pace, thus having to wait from the time your brain registers what's happening onscreen and something new happens, except in Steins ; Gate the process lasts several episodes rather than just a few seconds.
This is of course, after the well-defended first half of the show which supposedly exists so the audience can get attached to the characters. The fatal problem with the first half is that Steins ; Gate never manages to make the characters shine more brightly than the cast of Die Hard & co, (at least here the main character isn't Mamoru Miyamo portrayed by Mamoru Miyamo) with the only bright spot being everyone's favorite mad scientist who breathes a much needed bit of life into what otherwise would be as monotone as waiting for the dentist (instead becomes as monotone as waiting for the doctor, but hey, you take what you get). The rest of the characters are the anime are the personifications of white bread and fail to make an impression further than the stereotype they are presented as. It's fine to have stereotypical characters, but in order for me to feel empathy towards them they need to feel like characters and Steins ; Gate never manages this. Sure, Okabe is Okabe but Daru for example is the fat nerd, and the nerd isn't a character until he is further developed or presented in an original way, of which neither is true here.
After you've forced yourself through the first half, the plot finally thickens and for a while Steins ; Gate suddenly seems promising again. The progression is very natural and for once I could feel excited about what I was watching. I felt like the show was going somewhere, that I would finally see the light every Steins ; Gate enthusiast had seen, but alas, I would soon be very disappointed as the show soon would readjust itself into its old pacing the way an alcohol junkie somehow finds his way to another bottle after a few white days, and shrinks back into the darkness with even lesser hope of a bright future.
So Steins ; Gate ends, in the same darkness it belonged to during the first half, after spending its second half dragging out a plot that should've been the length of a feature film. Heck, if it was only that long maybe I would've liked it the same way I like something like Back to the Future, while the knowledge in the back of my head that it's not really that good, but the charm of it makes me look past that as I shut down my brain for an hour and half and just enjoy the ride.
Let me just clarify one last thing, Steins ; Gate is very polished. While it's profoundly uninteresting due to being thinned out like homeopathic medicine, there's not that many glaring issues with it unlike something like Sword Art Online where there are countless of hour-long videos dedicated to point out issues in it (that somehow ends up being more boring than the show itself, damn you Digibro for green lightning this as the gold standard of anime reviewing). This extends to the audiovisuals as well. They're not particularly artistic, but they certainly both look and sound good throughout Steins ; Gate with nothing to take issue to, like any decent feature film.
If you're new to storytelling regardless of medium, you might find Steins ; Gate fascinating the same way the indigenous people of the Amazon would find vanilla ice cream fascinating, but I fail to see why the rest of this site hold Steins ; Gate in such high regard. It's a monotone and predictable experience with a dull character cast and the pacing of a sloth trying to cross the highway. Maybe if I enjoyed mainstream movies more I could see the appeal, but to be honest, the only value something like 2012 has over this is that it's shorter in duration, and while it doesn't make it any better, it certainly makes it more tolerable.
Now if you excuse me I'm going to go watch some Nascar for a while. I need some excitement in my life after this snorefest. Or darts. Darts works too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 3, 2017
The morale of the story for this one is that it's okay to rape people who write erotic fiction because they're just writing out their own desires they otherwise can't express. There's no redeemable qualities here, it's just a disgusting piece of smut with Nasu-tier sex scenes. The story is beyond retarded and I shouldn't have to mention it's not fleshed out at all. The characters are extremely flat and the art is mediocre at best. So yeah, it has no redeeming qualities and all we get is an edgy, poorly written smutfest that somehow thinks rape is okay (and very romantic).
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Feb 25, 2017
I understand short manga doesn't have much time to flesh out it's content, but you should at least put some thought into it. I don't mind simple works but this feels like the author just wrote a manga about their favorite daydreams without bothering to make the necessary changes. As it stands, Bokutachi no Tabi isn't terrible at its core, but the shell is impressively messy with a ton of plot devices and ridiculous conveniences. If the core was more impressive I could forgive its shortcomings but as it stands, it's just a couple bland characters running away from home for minor reasons and after
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some chance encounters realize they shouldn't give up on their dreams.
In the end, it's hard to find any value in a mediocre story with poor execution. The fact that it lacks redeeming qualities outside of aspects that could've been worse solidifies it's place among manga I wouldn't recommend to anyone ever. It doesn't even fail in any interesting ways.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 5, 2017
Do you like seeing the same joke repeated over and over again with little to no variation? If so, then you'll like the first part of this manga. It wasn't funny the first time, and repeating it six more times while adding nothing of value certainly didn't make it better.
The second part is a bit better, but it's still just bland characters being gay to each other with a little bit of comedy thrown in. It's mediocre at best.
The only thing of value in this manga is the bonus panels, which are the only funny things about Love/Death. It's not enough to make it worth
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reading, but enough to save it from being terrible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 2, 2017
This is the epitome of a timepasser manga. It's a non-progressing comedy manga that's consistently funny throughout, but never hilarious. While there's not a single thing about it that stands out, everything works well together. While the occasional side character is stupidly one-dimensional, it's not much of an issue for a manga that has no higher aspirations than making you laugh.
The only real issue I have with it is that it's way too hard to keep track of all the side characters (especially Haruka's friends, some of which I still can't tell apart after 305 chapters). I could take issue with things like weak character-building,
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lack of a story, generic art (okay, I have issue with the triangular mouths, they look stupid and add nothing, but that's just a nitpick), but they never get in the way of my enjoyment so I don't really care. The lack of progression makes it tedious to try and marathon it, but if you only read a couple chapters once in a while, it should be fine.
All in all, Minami-kek is an average manga. Its only goal is to make the reader kek, and it's fairly successful at that. If you're only looking to read the best of the best, there is no reason to read it, but if you got 10 minutes to spare you're unsure what to do with, a couple chapters of this is a good way to spend them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 24, 2015
Dementia is one of the rarest genres when it comes to TV anime. There are currently only 3 of them listed on MAL: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom. Most anime watchers have probably heard of the first two countless of times while Boogiepop does not get the same amount of recognition. So why is Boogiepop not considered a classic as well?
Let's start with the story. Boogiepop has an episodic and non-linear structure that works surprisingly well. Each episode focuses on one character and a theme related to said character. Some episodes move the plot forward more than others, but each of
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them adds something to the main mystery. In the end, none of them serve as filler and all have some relevance to the plot.
The themes in Boogiepop are complex and mature, there are few shows that manage to be analytical of the human psyche in this way. There is however one big downside about Boogiepop's approach, and that is a lack of focus. Sure, it covers a fair amount of themes, and for the most part it does it well, but it never puts a lot of focus on the same one since we do not get to follow the characters for longer than one episode. It is enjoyable to watch for what it is but we do not spend enough time on a single theme for it to have that much of an impact, lowering the memorability of the series. Another thing that deserves mentioning is that it can feel a bit convoluted at times, but it never gets to the point where it becomes too overwhelming and loses its meaning.
The episodic nature of the show serves the mystery well, establishing it early on in its first episode. Throughout the entire show, it keeps adding tiny bits to the puzzle until we finally get to see the whole picture. Each episode raises its own questions about the story, that are answered in a later episode that showcases another perspective on the events. The way we got to see how the actions of one character made an impact on other people’s stories was interesting. The way this is handled is masterful, making every episode both intriguing and satisfying. On the flip side, there are two problems with this aspect of the show. For starters, not everything gets explained. There are plot threads that do not get a proper resolution. But to be fair, the main mystery does, so that problem ends up being merely something that could have been improved on. The second one is that a lot of characters look too similar, making it sometimes hard to identify them, adding some unneeded confusion.
Apart from that, the art on its own is nothing too special, the character design is pretty cookie-cutter and has a realistic look to it, but the dimmed down color palette is what makes the visuals stand out. Animation-wise, this show does not have much to offer. There is usually not much movement happening in each frame, sometimes none at all, and it even goes as far as to replace animation with footage of real people walking for no other discernible reasion than to save budget.
So why does it not fail in this department? Because it works well together with the sound to create a somber atmosphere. Boogiepop uses sound effects extremely well, it is arguably what the show does best. Most of them are electronic sounds, which not only fit the story, but also complement the scenes in which they are used to create the strongest possible atmosphere. The music tracks are solid, working well in favor of the anime whenever they play. Perhaps the reason it works so well is because it is a different approach to sound that is not frequently used in anime. Using silence to build tension is another trick that Boogiepop has up its sleeve.
All that being said, what factor about the show brings it down to "only" being a good anime? That would have to be the characters. While the cast is not bad, it is not exactly good either. The main problem of the cast is that it is not memorable at all. With the focus being shared between a lot of them, none serve to make an impact in the long run. They are enjoyable to watch for what they are, and work well in delivering the theme they are set out to deliver but none of the characters get enough time in the spotlight to be remembered. Add the fact that some of them are flawed in their execution and do not do much outside of filling a specific purpose, and in the end you get a cast that is nothing special.
On the flip side, some of the more enigmatic characters fill their niche quite well. The way they are presented contributes to making them interesting, and revelations about the mysteries surrounding them are handled in a satisfying manner.
Compared to the episodic characters, the main characters do not get explored much, if at all, though they still serve their purpose just fine. In fact, that would be the best way to sum up the entire cast of Boogiepop Phantom: they work for what they are, but they do not make a big difference to the series as a whole.
Despite its not so impressive cast, Boogiepop manages to be entertaining throughout, in quite a few different ways. Both as a psychological show, thanks to the thematic studies, but also as a mystery show because of the way the plot is presented. It even scratches the horror niche because of how atmospheric it is. Through clever use of audiovisuals and content it delivers on the tension well, and is sometimes straight up uncomfortable.
Perhaps because of the variety of genres Boogiepop Phantom combines, the show never got boring to watch. While not the most memorable anime in history, nor one that everyone will enjoy, it is definitely a good show. But it also could have been so much more if it just had a more memorable character cast. Still, a definite recommendation.
(Review by me and Fellener)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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