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Maomao would put Detective Conan to shame for how swiftly she solves cases with little to no information. Imagine being an armchair detective that can solve cases with only two or three pieces of fragmentary information and always being right. She's straight up a Mary Sue through and through.

This show is basically Koukyuu no Karasu but executed at a much higher level. Not that it matters that much. It still suffers from the same host of problems in which the main character is constantly being led around in mystery-of-the-week cases where it consequently gets neatly wrapped up after effortlessly "investigating" for a few moments ... before coming to a conclusion that is always correct.

There's definitely a lot going for it. For one, I think Maomao is a charming character. The whole "bland looking" definitely doesn't really come through as she's essentially depicted as beautiful as everyone else, and that's apparently when she's wearing makeup that masks her beauty. Cringe. Whatever, she's a fun main character, but having her be perfect in essentially everything just ruins her character.

Side characters, honestly haven't even watched enough to care but they seem to have as much effort put into them as screen time allows, which is not much at all.

Art and animation are quite nice too. Backgrounds, colors, facial expressions, they're all obviously a few notches above an average production. Even the voice acting for Maomao is done brilliantly by my favorite VA, Aoi Yuuki, so it's all a bit of a shame that the entire show gets dragged down by such preventable problems.

Is this what a random Japanese author thinks kingdom politics to be? I'm surprised that the show goes all out for romance while also attempting to put its hand in pretend politics.

It's just utter cringe. It's just mockery. What's even the point of the male lead being a king? Of course there's no moral decisions to be made, executions done, or any sort of administrative work or any factions at all. It's literally just a random king/palace melodrama sometimes but nothing serious. This setting is just so asinine. The theme is romance, so the atmosphere is always lighthearted. People get forgiven for their crimes, nothing ... seriously bad happens, and it's all shoujo pink-vision goggles the entire way throughout the show. There's no tension! There's no decision to be made. It's just random fun kingdom melodrama with Sari and Leonheart or whatever.
I won't even talk about the romance or characters. They're all two-bit mediocre garbage, but what really gets me is the absolutely trashy setting and worldbuilding that it tries to establish. It truly is playing house in the royal palace.

Like Jesus Christ, a random love interest comes in for a love triangle just so it can insert drama into the story. Was there a point to this? I hate this so much.

I didn't even get to the part where there's discrimination against humans or whatever but I'm sure there's an entire boring arc about beast people that don't want to go to war vs humans and beast people that want to instigate war. God I hate this show.

If you like a turn your brain off show about the middling romance with some random beast furry theme for no reason and a girl that "has no common sense," "is pitiably cute," and "kind and empathetic," this is surely the show for you.

Is there anything good about this show? Other than good animation, what can be said positively about it? It's just straight up garbage. First off is the whole flashback and pilot episode that we get. Yes, I understand that the show is kind of just going through the motions, but that doesn't make it any more bearable how predictably garbage and boring everything is. What's the point of fabricating a backstory for a main character when it's the most soulless and generic backstory ever? Shocking I know, but I kind of figured what was going to happen for the next 15 minutes in the first ... minute. How crazy, right?

Of course, this is permissible if the show delivers on what it tries to create: comedy. Is this show funny? Absolutely not. Our main character Akira Tendou "lacking common sense" isn't funny. Just because someone does some random crap doesn't make it funny. It's just cringe. Him confessing to his crush when she's zombified as a bucket list isn't cute, funny, or relatable. It just...happened. Why? What was the purpose? To show him that he's unhinged?
But...we just had a flashback arc that completely contradicts his character. He doesn't quit the company because he doesn't want his coworkers to pick up his work when he's gone. He doesn't want to become homeless so he keeps his job. And he's too weak-willed to just quit and look for another. In fact, he needs a damn zombie apocalypse for him to "become free." You know you could basically just walk out the damn door and quit your job if you wanted that to happen. It just doesn't make sense. Not only is his backstory boring, generic, and garbage, it also just doesn't fit with his character profile later on. But somehow, we're supposed to believe that Akira Tendou is a cool guy that is unhinged, lacks common sense, and "funny." Yeah....no.

How many horror anime are even out there? Rarely is there any actual horror anime that gets released, and when they do, it's not particularly executed on a high level. Higurashi? Both adaptations are pretty mid and the source material...meh. Corpse party? Just edgy shock value. I'm basically out of any other ideas.

And no, "horror" anime doesn't count. Horror evokes fear. Dread. Stuff like Mieroku-chan, Tokyo Ghoul, etc doesn't even count. They might be good shows, but it's more supernatural than horror.

After all, horror is the fear of the unknown and being unable to fight back. The aforementioned shows do feature supernatural anomalies, but ... there are defined methods of fighting back and the show is the clash between humans and the supernatural. Think of stuff like xxxHolic, Ghost Hunt, or even Toire no Hanako-san. Sure, there might be ghosts and supernatural involved, but when the characters have abilities to easily kill them, it's not horror, is it?

So it's safe to say that while Dark Gathering features some of that supernatural flair where characters are fighting and killing ghosts and spirits, it also embraces the horror aspect and tries to evoke fear in the readers and viewers. And it's clever about it too, expressing the contrasting themes of horror and a bit of shounen through characters.

Yayoi embodies the battle-shounen aspect of the show. She has methods of restraining, controlling, and killing spirits and ghosts. While she faces fear and ghosts with unbelievable abilities, she doesn't falter despite life-threatening circumstances. She makes use of ghosts she previously captured to challenge higher-level ones.

It's because this show still embraces that horror, fear, and helplessness against the unknown that the show stands out and in fact, tries something new. Keitaro and Eiko embody the theme of fear. While Yayoi is out there fighting the enemy, Keitaro and Eiko are for the most part, completely helpless against the supernatural, They have to confront enemies that can kill or permanently cripple them in mere moments while having to devise a way to deal with them or get out alive. Rather than capturing or killing, surviving seems to be the most compelling objective. And it's definitely what makes the show that good. Yayoi is a character that isn't supposed to feel too much fear or have too much weakness, but by introducing characters that are quite helpless, you can certainly experience the horror they experience firsthand through their perspectives.

Speaking of the horror encounters, it is reminiscent of something like Jojo's Bizzare Adventure when it comes to abilities. Each ghost has abilities, a unique nature, and different strengths similar to what a Stand would have. Only by dealing with strong enemy abilities with knowledge, wits, and speed will you be victorious. It is possible to overthrow or beat opponents with seemingly invincible abilities with the right strategy.

Combined with the horror aspect in the form of Eiko and Keitaro freaking out with every encounter, it does pay homage to the horror genre while still maintaining that battle-shounen vibe that it tries to hone in on.

And it's a damn good thing that it did. While this show is a bit spooky at points and there are creepy things that happen, the animation just isn't there. The soundtrack is nice at times, but the choreography and storyboarding are just not meant to evoke too much horror. The problem with horror in animation is how much time it takes to perfect. You need tons of detail, pacing, storyboarding, the right ambiance, and sound quality to achieve an effective horror show. This takes a lot of money, time, and creativity. With something like Demon Slayer, you can kind of just throw money and the product will be good since it's just hyper-detailed fights. What about animating horror? It's pretty damn hard. Games like Ao Oni which have animated graphics have you control the character so it evokes a sense of horror much more easily than just a show. And live-action shows are even easier. You just hyper-realistically CGI scary things and put it in the dark chasing someone and you're already halfway done. So, Dark Gathering makes do with what it can and I applaud for it.

I usually don't give reviews out to series I have already reviewed earlier, especially since my opinion hasn't changed too much. But, for this anime, I certainly think it's time to make an overall impression.

I'd say that the anime starts out relatively strong with season 1. Even then, the time travel mechanic was super suspect. It's never abused the way it should be by people that have any actual semblance of a brain, and things that should have been caught onto with time traveling to the future does not get explained until the event happens in the present.

However, and I said this in season ... 1, but if you frame the show in a way that just has Takemitchy be a normal shounen protagonist without powers, the show becomes a braindead, but fun show about high school hoodlums fighting it out against each other. In a way, I appreciate this over shows with superpowers, because the fact that there is nonstop fighting makes a lot of sense when you put it in the context of aggressive gangs fighting over each other.

I'd also like to point out how even an average adaptation like this one can really make the show shine. I read the manga, and I have to say that it was extremely boring. Despite being the same material, the anime brings out something that the manga did not. And it's not like I'm going to be gushing over the animation. In fact, most fights are really short, unsatisfactory, or slideshows. Even so, it's average. Maybe below average. The voice acting is good, no complaints there. Storyboarding, choreography are very standard and mimic the manga, and yet the drama that unfolds on the screen is much better than the manga. I mean, the manga was so boring I actually forgot what happened, so watching it in the anime again felt like watching it for the first time.

Overall, this shows the power of even just having a mediocre adaptation can make a series watchable.

Reading the synopsis, I thought this show would be a misunderstanding comedy.

I got scammed. You'd think that appointing a weak vampire who can't drink blood as a general that has to fight in war, deal with rebels who want to overthrow her, and command armies would be fun to watch. Terakomari, the protagonist would have to jump through hoops and manage her troops stringently in order to survive. In many cases, she will have to pretend she's smarter than she is, stronger than she is, and more ruthless than anybody else. All while being a hikikomori that wants nothing more than to lounge in bed.

But ... no, that's not how it works. And it boils down to the premise itself. Terakomari was born in a noble family, where her father's in a powerful position in the Mulnite Empire. Through a simple misunderstanding, her father beseeches the Queen to grant her the title of general. The problem is the lack of desperation in this story. I get that it's a comedy, but isn't it comical that Terakomari's in a pretty good spot? She's rich, her family is in power, and her back's not really against the wall. She even gets a convenient, loyal, and somewhat powerful maid that does her bidding.

To top off the dumb premise, you have the fact that nobody can die, as they revive under the magical powers of a "dark core" that each kingdom possesses. So, what's the point of war? It's answered by the story itself: it's for entertainment purposes. You're basically just given the easiest circumstances in the world. Suddenly, fighting as a commander is more like playing a real time strategy game rather than actual war. Again, Terakomari is in a contract because she doesn't want to die, and she has to fight in order to survive. Yet...she can't fucking die. You get why this story sucks? There's some discourse and an "evil organization" that wants to kill people for good, but honestly, trying to inject some cringe boring edgy organization into a failing comedic plot just won't cut it for me.

Finally, and the most cringe thing in the story (SPOILER WARNING EP 4). Unfortunately, the spoiler is truly a dealbreaker, so I had to include it.


she's just an OP vampire that can kill anything anyways, she's not even weak. What's the point of this show? It's just a generic power fantasy story at that point. It doesn't help that all the jokes are extremely unfunny, and most of them hinge on Terakomari being teased, acting cute, embarrassed, or otherwise being sexualized like crazy.

Compared to something like Tearmoon Kingdom, where it's also a young, cute princess that needs to do things for her survival, the directions both shows go are completely divergent. Tearmoon Kingdom sticks with the misunderstanding premise, the protagonist is weak, and there are some real stakes at hand.

Overall, don't come into this show with comedy in mind, nevermind comedic misunderstandings. It's a typical power fantasy type show with some melodrama and politics mixed in.

The show is just garbage even on the foundations it stands upon. First of all is just the premise itself. Charlotte gets framed for her crimes and she lives as a live-in maid in return for Allen sheltering her from arrest. This is just such a cringe wish-fulfillment story from the get-go, but the most embarrassing thing is that there isn't even a semblance of Charlotte wanting revenge, wanting to clear her crimes up, and to be honest, Charlotte doesn't even have a personality in the first place. In fact, you could have removed everything about Charlotte being framed as a criminal and just have ... her start off as Allen hiring her and the show would have remained a carbon copy. When Charlotte gets imprisoned and taken away by guards, she doesn't even sound indignant. It's like she was caught eating someone else's dessert and was trying to defend herself rather than being framed for heinous crimes. She sounds and looked barely concerned. This summarizes Charlotte perfectly, as she possesses no shred of emotion or personality and is only a device for Allen to enact the rom-com scenarios with.

For Allen himself, he's "good" but "bad guy." He's called a demon lord, but he's actually nice, doesn't kill, and it makes you wonder why he's even called a demon lord. I didn't get far enough to know and I don't really care for that matter. He has chuunibyou haircut that would get him bullied at school and similarly has a cringe personality only meant for shitty rom-com scenarios to be acted out easier.

I can see how people enjoy Migi to Dali. It's a nice take on surreal comedy surrounding a pair of twins trying to integrate themselves into a village to avenge their mother. However, despite the heavy premise, the story is lighthearted at many points, being more comedic and coming of age rather than focusing on the plot at hand. You'll see Migi and Dali have surprising cunningnes, empathy, and yet also lack common sense due to being orphans fixated on revenge. The jump in logic in certain actions such as trying to make friends or doing well in school is definitely comedic.

However, I didn't find ... it too engaging. Migi and Dali has a lot of setup, but since it's seperated into both comedy and thriller, it feels like it isn't trying to commit to both genres and that hurts it by a lot. I'm neither infatuated with the ongoing story or the comedic strife that happens in between.

That said, I can see how people would enjoy this. It's a bit cringe, but it's a different type of cringe. It's a welcoming sight and it's not the type of cringe where you see the male protagonist salivate over some girl in an embarrassing scenario in some generic ass rom-com, and instead, it fully embraces its strengths and weaknesses, for better or worse. Soundtrack is nice, characters are kind of whatever, but Migi and Dali are a strong duo, their weaknesses and strengths forming a strong personality that isn't easily replicated.

If the Tearmoon Kingdom novel series is a 10/10, then I'd give the anime adaption a 5/10, thus the score.

Seriously, I haven't seen such a bad adaptation that tries to adapt faithfully to the novels. Indeed, the anime only covers two volumes, and it covers every single story point. However--and I am absolutely shocked--the anime still just sucks so much.

If I had to describe one thing about this show, it'd be cheap. It's not just the obvious telltale signs too, but down to the roots of the show. First of all, is the art. The art is extremely generic. I won't really go into Silver ... Link, the studio that animated this, but damn does this show's art style look like the most generic and boring isekai anime ever. But it's not just generic, it's also terrible. Each character looks the same, aside from Mia of course. Every person's facial structure and expression are so similar that the only thing separating them from each other is their hairstyle and clothing. Of course, this is just because each character is copy-pasted with minimal facial expressions being animated. This really takes away from the show. A great example of this is Dion, a battle-weary captain in the novel, but in the anime, he just looks like a generic salaryman. His tone and inflection are supposed to be more rough, a bit rugged, like a commoner's. Because he obviously is one. He's supposed to be more wary of Mia at the beginning, trusting, and finally loyal. In this show, none of those stages are expressed in either character development, art, or facial expressions.

In contrast, look at Mia's facial expressions in comedic moments. It feels vibrant because Mia is constantly changing her expression to match her mood and feelings. When she's put in the spotlight, the anime highlights that in her face. Now look at other characters. Even when they're fighting to the death, they have the most generic stoic facial expressions like they're talking about the weather. Their voice acting, again, is just absolutely terrible. Only Mia's is fine, but all of the other characters have such lacking ranges of emotion in their voices it's pathetic. It's like they were instructed to talk in a monotone or something.

This genericness and cheapness extend to the focus on character development as well. While Mia gets adequate monologues in the anime, the other characters are sorely lacking. The novel does focus on Mia a large portion of the time and she IS the main character, but the novel also does a lot of character development and world-building from the perspective of other characters. This is cut out completely. The reason why the novel series is fun is because the misunderstanding is between a well-developed character and Mia, but in this show, it's basically like some generic archetypal character that you barely know about engaging with Mia. Even with Mia's love interests, like Sion and Abel, they are completely lacking any sort of actual character in the anime compared to the novel. The main charm point of the novel becomes completely neglected in the anime. I feel like I'm watching some generic Otome game reincarnation anime since I see characters that barely get introduced influencing the story.

Then comes the misunderstandings themselves. First and foremost, Tearmoon Kingdom is a comedic misunderstanding novel. This gets expanded upon of course, but misunderstandings are what the novel excels at creating. And this anime butchers it. You can see it even in the storyboarding itself. Comedic pacing is extremely important, and the show just does not have that level of finesse when adapting comedic scenes. Monologues are done lazily in frozen frames where the person talking has a spotlight on them and everyone is idle. Sometimes, the monologuing is cut completely. There doesn't seem to be any flow of conversation despite there being one because of these awkward freeze-frame cuts. There isn't any pacing. The characters just force their monologues into a conversation and that's about it. It doesn't feel like things are moving in real-time, and as a result, almost all of the comedy is just gotten rid of.

It's not just the comedic pacing and delivery that's awful, though, it's just the storyboarding themselves. Manga adaptations are so much easier to animate since they already have a storyboard readily made for animators. For novels, studios have to create their own from scratch. And it's painfully made aware here, where Silver Link decides to create the most cheap storyboards possible. First of all, there's a lack of spatial awareness. Each character stands still. Everyone stands still, or they're standing really far away and talking, or nothing is happening on screen. This is, of course, to reduce animation costs. People just "wait" on the screen for someone to make their move or talk. There's a lack of tension in scenes that have fighting. Scenes that should have much more impact are trivialized and made a mockery in the anime. Pride, rage, embarrassment, guilt, and spite are all shown in the anime, but rarely are these emotions actually transmitted to the viewer due to the extremely lacking pacing, scenes, and storyboard. Let's not even talk about fights. They might as well not exist for how poorly they are all animated.

If I had to make a closing remark, this show is the opposite of shows like Konosuba or to be the Power in the Shadows, where they completely elevate the novel by making full use of the animation medium. Konosuba has vibrant tsukkomi through their brilliant comedic pacing, simple but good animation, and large ranges of facial expressions and interactions. To be the Power in the Shadows makes full use of its storyboarding capabilities by adding atmostphere to serious scenes despite the novel being full of comedic monologue.

Under Ninja's time jumps and cuts are pretty indicative of the show as a whole: a collective --almost surreal-- jumble of nonsense and garbage that to have a cohesive story would seem nearly impossible. Yet, that's exactly what Under Ninja does.

Now, as you might have guessed, the time jumps are pretty worthless. It's (I'm like 80% sure, will do a read-through of the manga very soon), a complete anime original filler. Chapter 1 of the manga doesn't do a time jump, so that's about how much it contributes to the story. In reality, the clips that you get to see in the future ... don't matter at all, and it doesn't spoil or influence the story in any major way or form. It's like if you were spoiled that in a certain episode, the main character eats an apple for breakfast. It's essentially flavor text and nothing much more.

However, it does set a pretty consistent theme for the show: that it's damn inconsistent. Plot points just bounce off the walls and the author desperately, and successfully, might I add, piece them together.

No, you're not going to be looking at a realistic story. The author kind of just does what he wants and has world-building surrounding it. I could name so many plot holes because the author just doesn't care.

You're going to have such high levels of technology that full and complete invisibility suits exist, and people are still fighting each other with shurikens and blades like it's the 1500s. You have interstellar space lasers, but there's no way to tack a GPS tracker on someone for it to lock onto. There are going to be AI-controlled vehicles, robots, brain transplants, and so many more high-tech gadgets yet you're stuck with no guns and hand-to-hand combat.

Worldbuilding is similarly done after the fact. Ninjas are just assigned random missions with no clear goal in mind while they go to points of interest. There's a ton of random bits of politicking and history that don't really matter.

But really, who cares? It's truly a type of story in which the author purposefully writes the most BS stuff in order to create a fun show for the viewers and readers.

Under Ninja jumps from random small talk, beating up bullies, to firing off and killing people at the drop of a hat. You'll be going from one scene where people are calmly talking about the history of some random event, and the other will be two people desperately fighting it out. There are people who are desperate to find ninjas and randomly believe a road sign to be a secret communication channel for ninjas. The weird thing is that they actually show up. There's just a lot of surreal humor that goes on. There will be random drops of worldbuilding regarding the TV shows that NIN sponsors, to near-useless high-tech gadgets that don't impact the story at all. Then you just have random civilian characters uninvolved with ninjas just talking to them on a daily basis. And they take any bad news real well. Did someone they knew die? Oh well. Students whose entire sphere of influence dies out? Just a bad day. There's a lack of brevity or seriousness to all of the side civilian characters despite the macabre and politicking that they are exposed to behind the scenes. And this extends to the main characters where there will be people waiting patiently in line to fight to the death with each other.

But that's what is so charming about this show. Nothing is compartmentalized. Shounen shows like Boku no Hero Academia where there are clear arcs and development are so cringe-filled with predictable tropes. You have the main character having dreams of becoming strong, going to school to hone his skills, making friends, fluffy slice of life, and fighting the bad guys. Oh no! My friend got kidnapped, gotta save him!!

Under Ninja just does everything at the same time. People make small talk, people kill each other, people have sex and make friends, and you're still on the same episode. Under Ninja is unpredictably funny despite the random hodgepodge of plot points that come together. The show isn't random for the sake of randomness. It's random because it heightens the core of the show: characters.

Each character is fun. They're fun to watch. Whether it be in conversation dragging on for minutes, talking about taking tests, fighting other people, backdoor scheming, or whatever is going on, the characters are interactive. Some are stuck in their situation. Some revel in it. Each has their own motivations which eventually get explored, but finding out parts of each character, even the side characters is fun. When seemingly filler conversations talking about alcohol with no real comedy mixed in still entices me, you're doing something right. What I love about the show is that you're not constrained to a certain narrative. The show goes in a round-robin order of showing off different characters in different situations that tie up to the actual overarching plot that's happening.

Finally, we get to the actual plot itself. It goes without saying that it's kind of BS, but there are some good things about the general directions. First of all, is the theme of corruption and greed. Kuro's organization is not the "good guys." Neither is their rival organization, the UN, "the baddies." They both are shit. Top brass is corrupt like hell. People defect from both sides to benefit their own interests. There are factions, withholding information in their own organization to gain personal advantages, and there doesn't seem to be much of any sort of cohesiveness on both sides. Kuro's just in the quagmire, "boots on the ground" where he follows orders or else he gets hunted down and dies. There's no "holier than thou" narrative where there are the good guys and bad guys. No one is out there to protect lives and save civilians.

In the end, the way the story is structured reminds me of Chainsaw Man, another show that breaks traditional tropes and introduces chaotic elements in order for characters to have fun.

And to be honest, I probably enjoyed this show more when it comes to core components. It's just that the show itself lacks too much budget. The voice acting kind of sucks. Kuro is good, but no...delivery of lines is just kind of garbage sometimes. The animation is beyond horrendous. Have fun watching bad CGI, single-frame animation slideshows, and overall uninspired storyboards, lacking facial expressions, and simple coloring. The only reason this show ranks a 7 out of 10 and nothing higher is due to this. Plus, the show adapts 70 chapters of the manga. The pacing could have been a lot better. Off to the manga I go.