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Feb 2, 2021
I've finally been reading manga long enough that I'm seeing stories I've been reading for years show up as anime. Mushoku Tensei is another one that made the list. And the adaptation is Excellent.
Rudeus Greyrat is a relatable character because there are so many sides to his personality due to his previous life as a NEET. His lives have been painted as showing the good and the bad in him, just like in any person. Here's a guy that skipped out on his parents funeral to wank to internet porn. He's slovenly, fat, and self centered. We're also told how he became that way: very
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important for character development. It all traces back to an incident in Jr Hi where he was bullied. He'd already had a slacker lifestyle going at that point, but this was the tipping point. This was the day that he became a NEET. He shut himself into his room and never left, immersing himself into computer games, the internet, and dating sims. When his siblings return back to the house and find that he skipped their parents funeral, the not only disown him, they beat the snot out of him (one brother is a black belt in Karate) and take a baseball bat to his beloved computer, then, with only the clothes on his back, not even his shoes, he's tossed from the house out onto the streets.
We see a picture of a pretty pathetic guy with absolutely no redeeming qualities. So how are we supposed to generate any affection for this pathetic human being? Truck-kun makes his appearance. Remember, he wasn't ALWAYS a shut in and had some moral upbringing until the bullying incident. Uncharacteristically, he attempts to save some teens in Truck-Kun's path and in doing so, ends up taking a one way trip on Isekai airways to a new world.
Upon arrival, he discovers that he's a baby that has just been born. It takes some time for him to realize that it's not modern day Japan, but an area more like medieval Europe. No computers, no internet, no video games. Surprised that he retains his memories of his previous life, he vows this time he won't screw it up. By the age of 3, he's not only learned to speak the language of the land, but has taught himself to read that language. at a time when books are rare, his parents have a library of 5 books: one containing magic. This is his first step towards his personal redemption and making a positive life for himself.
So far, the first 4 episodes have included all of the important foundations laid out in the first volume of the light novel. The art work is superb, the way they use limited animation to tell the story exceeds the quality of the western cartoons I watched in the 60s and 70s. It's a story of redemption of a young man given a second chance, and he grabs it by the balls and runs with it! It also shows that there are some things that don't change. Yes, he still has a bit of perversion to him, but now it doesn't run his life (at least not yet) but it shows that he has the libido of his father in this world, but he's kept it in check. This makes Rudeus more relatable to the average young man that is watching the anime or reading the manga or light novel.
Possibly one of the best isekai stories out there. The MC isn't born over-powered: his only advantage is his memories of his previous life, where he builds on that to make himself powerful. Rudeus uses this to make himself a perfect child for a young couple. He uses his sense of justice from the beginning. He uses his new life to make something of himself, which we should strive for, and this anime, so far, is bringing that message across from the Light Novel, loud and clear. I like the fact that, at least the males in the story, aren't always paragons of virtue. Paul, Rudy's dad, is a womanizer. Even at young age, Rudy has his own fetishes, ergo Roxy's panties, but he will never assault a lady to get his way. He truly regrets his actions on Sylphy when he discovers that she's not a boy as he exposes her girl bits to his eyes. (Personal note: I was about the same age when I saw the difference and I had the same look on my face, although she showed it to me, willingly)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 7, 2020
A good standard of an anime is: Does it make you want to go out a read the source material. I've been reading the manga for a while, including some of the side stories (and even a Doujin) and the story keeps getting better but it takes to long to get to the next manga (much less a short season) so I went to the LN.
Konasuba takes the isekai genre and slowly roasts it over an open blast furnace.
Start with the MC, Satou Kazuma: Teen hikikomori. Technically not a NEET, because he is enrolled in school but stays home and plays video games. While
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he's on a short trip to get a limited edition of a video game, he dies thinking he was saving a cute classmate. He ends up in front of a goddess that offers to isekai him to a fantasy world where he will defeat the demon king. Pretty standard. She even gives him a catalog of the various items he can take with him, and his decision is based on petty revenge. Why. You have to meet the goddess to understand.
Aqua, the goddess of water and healing (including reincarnation and resurrection) starts harassing Kazuma about the stupid way he died. All of his family, according to Aqua, laughed at him and how he died. He slowly got pissed off and got angrier the more she said. He made his decision on what he wanted to take to this new world: The Goddess Aqua.
Aqua was, for the most part, good at her duties in the heavenly realm, but not so much when the person she was helping on to the next step didn't follow the script. She grants his wish, realizing too late what she did. So now her and Kazuma are in a medieval village and become adventures. Typical, but they had no money. Aqua does what a goddess seems good at: Panhandling, and raises the funds to register at the guild as adventurers: Kazuma, an average adventurer whose only real skill is his luck, so the bottom of the barrel. Aqua, aside from low intelligence, has a very high rating in magic (she IS a goddess, after all) and becomes a high level Arch Priest at the start. She is great with healing magic and sending the undead to their final rest. It's at these times Kazuma almost forgets that she's an airhead, but a real goddess. It doesn't take her long to remind him that she's a blue haired blond.
As time progresses and they get their first subjugation quest, they realize that they need a larger party. Enter a 13 year old arch wizard named Megumin. It turns out she only knows what spell: Explosion! Even then, it takes so much magic energy from her that she can only perform it once a day. She's cute, but her single spell ends up preventing her from joining other established parties. She hungry (literally) and desperate. Still, she helps the party finish their giant toad quest, although she does end up being a potential meal for a surviving toad.
So the party is a Arch Mage, and Arch Priest, and a noob adventurer. The only thing that really helps Kazuma is he can learn any skill because of his status, which he immediately starts adding new skills at every chance. The chance comes when a buxom crusader asks to join the party. Lady Lalatina Ford Dustiness, known as Darkness, is just the paladin they need... until they find out she put all of her skill points into defense, and none on offense. She couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with her broadsword, but she makes a great meat shield. She makes such a good shield because she has a special ability: she's a masochist!!! (yes, three exclamation points)
Once assembled, they become a dysfunctional party: they finish their quests, but too often, the collateral damage they inflict costs them more in restitution than the reward.
Kazuma rides herd on these women as they work their way to destroying the Demon King's generals. By the end of season 2, they've successfully removed 3 of those generals.
The story is a great satire of the isekai genre. What Ranma ½ was to the macho martial arts anime, Konosuba is to isekai. But it's not always parody.
The first thing you discover is, even in this parody, there is a lot of personal growth, especially with Kazuma. He constantly complains about his dysfunctional party, at one point, even trading places with another adventure that is jealous of the beautiful women that follow him, and discovering what a real party does. In that arc alone, as short as it is, he goes from being a luggage carrier to becoming the party's MVP for that quest. He does that by using the skills he's learned, and the experience of working with a dysfunctional party, to stand out and help the party complete the quest without any casualties. He's a low rank adventurer, so he learns all his skills from the bottom up. For example, the mages that he encounters skipped learning basic magic to jumping to intermediate magic. In dealing with the goblin quest, he saves them time and again using that basic magic he learned. He came into that world with nothing other than a slightly used goddess past her warranty date, and started adding new skills. While he mostly uses his steal skill to remove ladies panties, it comes in handy other times, like when he dueled with a hero and stole his magic sword. As mentioned, he also learned basic magic from the ground up, and coming from a non-magical world, is able to think outside the box and use it as his easy out. The only skill he came to this world with was his experience as a gamer, so he had a good idea what needed to be done. He treats everything as if it were an RPG, and grows because of that. Even at the end of the second season and into the movie, he is still less powerful that a reincarnated slime, some kid that was zapped into another world with just his smart phone, or a game developer that ended up in his own game and became an overlord. Kazuma is the prototype for isekai protagonists like Naofumi, the Shield Hero and or Hajime in Arifureta. They became overpowered (can't be a good isekai otherwise) but they started at the bottom and learned their powers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 24, 2019
Hitomi-chan wa Hitomishiri (Hitomi-chan Is Shy With Strangers) is a nice slice of life comedy about an extremely tall 1st year high school student that has been blessed/cursed with a set of honking hooters. But the manga isn't about Hooterville, but the subject does come up on occasion.
The Lead female is Hitomi, who becomes the male lead's Kouhai. Usami Yuu is the male lead in this series, and the story is about his relationship with Takano Hitomi from when they first meet on the train to school. Being about a head shorter than Hitomi, the only thing keeping her nipples from poking his eyes
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out is that they both are fully dressed. And he does notice her breasts, but tries to be a gentleman about it, even though he ends up with the occasional face plant.
Usami helps his new kouhai with everyday life, from going to and from school, to stopping at a crepe shop, and even having a study group consisting of him, Hitomi, and his younger sister, Kaoru, who is also Hitomi's classmate.
No dating or confessions have been made yet, but it will happen as the chemistry between the two main characters is very telling. The fact that little sister appears to be working in the background as a potential matchmaker makes this story so much better. It reminds me a little of the Archie Comic Books I read as a kid in the 60s, but...
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 12, 2019
I'm just now starting MAL scoring even though I've only been watching anime a few years. Hinamatusri was one of the early animes I watched and has held the position of#1 anime on my personal list.
What do I like about it. The comedy is never a throw-away one liner. If something is said or done in one episode, it can pop up again in later episodes, be it humorous or heart warming. We see which vase is Nitta's special vase nearly every episode after he receives it, if nothing else, as an important part of the background art.
A Yuppie Yakuza (best way I can describe
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Nitta) has a super-powered ESPer girl fall on his head while celebrating an auction win of a very expensive vase. The girl, of course, is the main character and linchpin of the series and story, Hina. While the first few episodes their relationship is a bit of a roller coaster ride, they finally settle into a father/daughter style relationship.
The story is more than just a bunch of laughs: it mixes pathos well with the humor, and there will be times that you have to grab your Kleenex because the scene is heartwarming or heart-wrenching. At one point, two side characters will pretty much tell you to do so.
Much of the humor and pathos are always laid in earlier episodes. Regardless, everythiing points in one direction: the ESPer girls you meet all show a lot of personal growth. HIna starts out as being totally self-centered, demanding clothes because, when she emerges from her transport shell, she's naked. (must be a design flaw. as it happens with all of the ESPers in the show, and even one non-ESPer) Being a self-centered kid, that expects grown ups to provide for her is interesting, because we learn in the first episode, that the grown-ups that "raised" her in the lab were greedy and she was created to only follow orders. This is how she forges her bond with Nitta, the Yakuza.
While occasionally, she uses her powers to threaten him, it turns out that they are helpful. The anime ended too soon, though, but then manga, now in volume 16, follows Hina and friends into high school. The personal growth level is amazing, although she does keep a bit of her selfishness, too.
One supporting character, Anzu, is an ESPer sent to eliminate Hina. Like Hina, she's also part of the experiment, but not as powerful. A successful failure is the best way she could be described. She "battles" Hina (episode 2: the best animation I've ever seen is this battle) She's stranded here because Nitta accidentally ran her transport ball through the washer. She now takes on the life of a homeless person. She starts by stealing her meals and eventually ends up in a hobo camp with homeless men who teach her how to survive without committing crimes. Her growth through this arc is amazing, and one where you'll need a hankie.
The last ESPer girl is summoned to bring another transport ball to send Hina back "home". Instead of arriving in Tokyo, though, she spends ½ a year on a desert island. We only see glimpses of her life after she leaves the island using her powers, ending up in China. She is the first of the ESPers to produce any super human powers, but is the weakest of the three. Even the lab pretty much wrote her off as being worthless. With that in mind, you're given a glimpse of what she becomes at the beginning of the series and again, at the end.
The show is excellent to watch with family members and loved ones. Violence? When you have a Yakuza as a main character, it's expected, but you'll laugh your ass off at such encounters. (as mentioned, although not Yakuza related, the battle between Hina and Anzu. Even hardened Yakuza, Nitta, Can't keep from laughing)
Feel Studios did a fantastic job on this series, and I hope that, should they do a second season, they do just as good. These are just some of the reasons why this anime is at the top spot on my list
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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