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※ Contains light spoilers, as well as mentions of heavy topics such as sexual assault and eating disorders.
※ I have not read the manga, so this review covers only the anime.

Being a young girl is tempestuous and complicated. This is something that Kageki Shoujo!! (or Opera Girl!!) understands fairly well; almost as well, though, as it only barely understands entertainment value and emotional payoffs.

Don't get me wrong, Kageki Shoujo is not a bad anime. I honestly understand why most of the scores are on the higher side. Seeing a show that treats the traumatic issues young girls go through in a sensible and reasonable manner ... instead of applied for shock value, especially after the Wonder Egg Priority fiasco, already makes this a holy grail. They tackle things like eating disorders, bullying, child sexual abuse, the unreasonable demands of show business and family complications with a reasonable amount of poise. The girls in this show aren't treated as simply vessels for suffering and trauma - they are treated as people who are trying to navigate life and heal the wounds inevitably inflicted onto them by the world and the societal pressure they are under. Each of them have their own personal struggles that shape the way they experience the world, affecting also how they deal with the demands at Kouka. Not to mention the setting involving girls in training to become Kouka (modeled after Takarazuka) actresses is pretty interesting.

That's a good amount of positives in the show, yes? But now allow me to get into the negatives.

The most glaringly obvious problem with Kageki Shoujo to me is that, in its genuine efforts to do well with difficult subjects, it forgets about something very important: making their characters not be absolute snooze-fests. And that is what they are: those girls were written with the utmost care put into the portrayal of their trauma and backstories, but not an ounce of this same care was spared for making them charismatic, lively, interesting people. Their personalities are just a timid blow into each of their school girl selves; one of them is strict. Another is stoic. Another is shy. Another is cheerful. And little is done to make them memorable or fun to watch - we only get the amount necessary to make sense within their backstories and to make them barely distinguishable from each other. I wouldn't even say there is effort put into making their personalities realistic either, considering that some of them are bordering on being anime trope caricatures. Even Sarasa, the biggest stand-out of the group, gets boring to watch after a while when the "I'm super tall but also super merry" gimmick wears off. It's very hard to see the 1st years as a natural group for a good while; you can only really start to believe in their alleged friendsip towards the end of the show, and even so it's still nothing that will make you truly feel like you're watching a good group dynamic. Watching those girls was mostly dull when the anime wasn't talking about their heavy and darkest issues. Caring for and connecting with those girls was hard; sure I could empathize with them and their trauma, but I was left cold most of the time, unable to give an emotional response and feel anything other than a simple "she's nice, I guess" towards them. This actually made all of the well written bits about the societal hardships that they face go almost completely down the drain, because it doesn't matter how respectful you are with them if you make your subjects about as interesting as unseasoned pasta. Not to mention that their character development felt contrived as a result - the biggest example of this being Narata Ai, who downgrades from being an interesting exploration of how heavy trauma can make you aloof and close-hearted to being the centerpiece of mediocre kuudere moe moments for the rest of the show.

Another point of contrivance was how the show seemed to suffer from a double identity. I heard that the manga itself was actually split in two parts, and the anime adapts both - the first part up to episode 5, and from episode 6 onwards the second one. I don't think this was a good decision, because it's honestly glaring and plain as day that the first and second half have different feelings to them. The first few episodes' main focus were on the aforementioned heavy subjects and character backstories. The second half focuses on the actual theatre aspect of it, showcasing various Kouka personalities and traditions, and finally having the girls engage in some proper acting. And I have to say, the second half is definitely better - not by a huge margin, mind you, but it felt more like the anime I wanted to watch, since for an excruciatingly long while the Kouka setting felt more like adornment than something relevant and woven into the fabric of the series. Kageki Shoujo does still lack a lot of things I'd expect to see in an anime of the sort: theatrics, bright colors, big personalities, nuanced conflict, explorations of gender, even a more interesting visual identity (the muted colors and safe directing did it no favors). But that's not to say the show was entirely unenjoyable, with moments such as the Romeo and Juliet audition in the final episodes being decently entertaining. I feel as though it was cut too short. If I got to spend a longer time with the energy it was building in the second half, I could see myself liking it more, and perhaps even becoming attached to some of the characters.

And speaking of the first half of the show, that's where lies another huge issue I had with it. I've praised Kageki Shoujo for doing the bare minimum and giving us serious and sensible treatment to topics pertaining the suffering young girls go through in society... however, I don't know if I can say the same about nuance. To be more specific, those subjects are dealt with with respect - but not with nuance.

To be fair you can blame some of this on the fact that the first and second half were adapted from technically "separate" manga, and I won't say it's so bad that it's offensive, but there is a certain shallow quality, a stillness to the way Kageki Shoujo seems to resolve its character arcs, that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Every single time it feels like they're about to say something of great value, they pull back and decide to go with something safer instead. Ai's arc begins with a smoky bang, viscerally examining her PTSD and fear of men caused by abuse infused with a critique towards japanese idol culture... only to fall flat on its behind when the culmination of the conflict ends up being all about "her stalker/fan wasn't actually a bad person!" Shouldn't her arc's resolution have been about her own self? I'd like to have seen Ai heal and grow from her relationships with her newfound friends at Kouka, not from a "not all men are bad" moment - especially when we and Ai already know that via her relationship with Taichi. In the end, Ai's fan's good intentions don't matter, not because he's a bad person, but because this is derailing the direction Ai's arc was taking. The same can be said for Yamada's clash with an eating disorder. She started purging after hearing from a teacher that she's fat, but not only does that teacher receive no consequences for her reckless statement, she doubles down on it. And the resolution of Yamada spiraling into self-destructive behavior is just... another teacher telling her not to give up, and then she is magically recovered and this is never touched upon again. So her self-esteem issues were fixed just from that? I'm supposed to believe that the teacher who showed no remorse for saying "fatties have no place at Kouka" won't do it again - and, if she does, that Yamada will be ok upon hearing it? It makes no sense to me. The show is empathetic towards the issues these girls face, but it also seems coldly disinterested in challenging the systems that are the root cause of them. The takeaway from these arcs seems to be "Just work hard, do your best and adapt and then it will be ok! Sure, the rules are unfair, but we can meet them halfway!" which is a little uncomfortable to say the least when applied to the harrowing realities these characters are going through. The way that those issues are nearly nonexistent in the second half of the show compared to the first is truly baffling, and I honestly wish they weren't included at all if it was never the author's intention to give them continuity. Those aren't things that go away and no longer need to be talked about after they happen. You can't make use of such serious subjects to make small and/or episodic arcs with an immediate resolution without making it look like you're taking them lightly - this isn't Pretty Cure, bulimia is not a monster of the week. In the end, was Kageki Shoujo even actually trying to say something about those subjects, or was it trying to be a more lighthearted slice of life drama with mini arcs that don't tie into each other? Pick one. I think you can't do both at once.

Like I said, Kageki Shoujo really doesn't do a lot besides but the bare minimum. When it comes to its complicated subjects, it lacks the explosive emotional catharsis of the likes of Madoka Magica, it lacks the biting and nuanced critique to harmful systems of Revolutionary Girl Utena. When it comes to its entertainment from the dramatic theatre setting and slice of life moments, it lacks the likeable personalities of Revue Starlight, it lacks the emotional punch of Love Live. Hell, even the known-to-be-awful Wonder Egg Priority had a little more guts than this does. Kageki Shoujo just doesn't bother to work with what it has. And I'm a little sick of dubbing bare minimum as acceptable. I'm yawning.

Call me back when those girls are ready for a revolution.

Warning: This review might not be very well articulated, as a side effect of this anime itself not being very well articulated.

Through the course of Majo no Tabitabi's airing time, I saw horrendous fighting and arguing in this community over whether it was a masterpiece or a shitshow. People were arguing left and right about Elaina's moral compass and I've been here from day one to see it. I'm of the opinion that Tabitabi is, indeed, a shitshow; but not quite for the reasons most people seem to think it is.

You see, the problem with Majo no Tabitabi is that it thinks it's so smart. ... It thinks it's making such a big statement about the reality of the world and being so deep about the characterization of its main character. It will literally do the stupidiest shit you've ever seen while wearing unshakeable smugness. It will literally point-blank copy Kino no Tabi without the things that make Kino no Tabi valuable.

It's a show that fluctuates all over the place with absolutely no sense of continuity. This is not a criticism towards its episodic format, but rather one towards the way it's applied - Tabitabi is indecisive on whether it wants to be a lighthearted slice of life about traveling or a grimdark edgy gorefest that only a 14 year old could possibly think is making a statement. You get out of an episode about Elaina befriending a witch her age in a peaceful country directly to one about her meeting a child slave who commits suicide. Then you get out of an episode about a 5 year old sociopath who's been abused by her parents murdering them in a blood-shower montage where Elaina has an absolute breakdown about being unable to help people... to a completely unrelated little slice of life adventure episode involving her mentor. Oh, might I add that the whole child serial killer-induced meltdown Elaina has is never brought up again? That is the issue. I understand what the show is trying to do: the world isn't perfect, and you are bound to run into misery and witness the darkest parts of human nature if you set off to know it, hence their decision of not making this a purely optmistic slice of life. But the extremes that they take simply do not work. You dip into the worst of the worst only to come out on top of the best of the best in the next episode. The worst of the worst is never acknowledged again. There is no evidence of it weighing in Elaina's conscience, seeing as she cries once and then forgets about it. There is absolutely no evidence of this 18 year old becoming wiser or hardened by the things that she sees. If there is absolutely no nuance, then what really is even the point of including it? We already know that the world sucks, thank you very much; address this fact only if you have something of value to add to it, because just being like "Look, this child, who is by the way a character you have no attachment to, killed her parents. Isn't it fucked up that this happened?" did not do much. This is NOT an statement about human nature and the injustices of the world. This is just depravity for the sake of depravity, because apparently depravity sells, and apparently depravity is enough to convince people that something is actually very deep and layered.

The wild atmosphere shifts make the slice of life bits harder to enjoy, but to be honest, a lot of it is already corny and really stupid. The staff stated that they didn't want to include panty shots in the anime to "keep it wholesome", and yet add in jokes so sleazy that at this point I'd much prefer to be seeing panties. The comedy is unfunny; I know comedy is subjective, so I should be saying that it didn't personally work for me, but I have a hard time picturing anyone but a teenager who's new to anime actually laughing at the comedic beats in Tabitabi. It has huge amounts of yuri bait as well, and I'm always up for yuri, but in this anime it's just very shallow and cheap and I did not care about the characters involved. Most of the valuable slice of life bits involved Fran, Elaina's mentor; the first episode is by far the best one of the anime, as were the ones where Elaina ran into her during her travels, because their relationship actually seemed to hold emotional weight (unlike Elaina's relationship with Saya, where Elaina honestly doesn't even seem to like the girl at all).

The worldbuilding in Tabitabi is bafflingly piss-poor: there's very little told and even shown about the actual workings of the world and the way that magic and class hierarchy works, which is a criminal offense in an anime about traveling, where the world around Elaina should behave like its own character. Sometimes you have no clue how powerful witches are even supposed to be, you have no clue what level of magic Elaina is supposed to be able to use. You just get vague nods like "oh yeah, child slaves are legal in this country", which makes the whole thing that much stupidier; they waste time making entire episodes about old men having a fetish for women stepping on grapes to make wine instead of expanding on any of this. I feel like I know absolutely nothing about the magic association or about the countries she visited, but I sure know a lot about a random character's act of vengeance.

When we get to the characters, it's... difficult.

Obviously the anime leans heavily on its titular character, Elaina. She's a travelling observer type of character. Elaina is not a bad character; in fact, I think she's very well constructed personality-wise, and I'd like to see more characters like her in anime. Her arrogance and overflowing self-confidence, her condescending manner and polite demeanor make for a good combo. They make sense within the type of character that she is. But the thing is, Tabitabi is not well-written. Elaina being an interesting character is an accident of good writing that does not last for long, because the situations she is put through make her act extremely inconsistently. Elaina will see a child slave being physically abused and do nothing about it; this is not because she is a terrible person, seeing as in other episodes Elaina is shown to care for and help people, even if begrundingly. This is because the author wants this show to be Kino no Tabi or Mushishi really badly but has no idea how to write a travelling observer character. In the same episode Elaina suggests that the boy who has a crush on the slave girl does something that is so obviously a terrible idea that it made me livid, which goes against the idea that she's smart. But then she will solve problems in a way that is supposedly very advanced, which goes against the notion that she is inexperienced and naive. Sometimes Elaina will act jaded, indifferent to the horrors that she witnesses, which makes absolutely no sense considering that she is a sheltered 18 year old girl who grew up in a perfectly normal, reasonaly well-off family. Sometimes, as I've mentioned before, she will cry and feel helpless in the face of them, but this will be forgotten and she will aquire no semblance of trauma, so there was no point. Elaina undergoes no character development. In the last episode she is literally still the same person that she was in the first one. Unless you'd like to count the last episode's attempt on psychoanalyzing her as successful, in which case, pardon me for my rudeness, but I will laugh at you. Elaina did not need to learn self-love, she did not need to make peace with herself, because again, she shows absolutely no sign of ever secretly hating herself or feeling bad about being unable to help the vulnerable except for one single scene. Once again, maybe if the anime reserved more time to study Elaina's character instead of wasting time giving us dumbass comedy segments, this might not have happened. I feel like a lot of this really stems from pacing issues as well; we get many timeskips all the time, so it's hard to keep up, and it really affects Elaina's characterization as well, seeing as every time we see her again, months are supposed to have passed. My point is that I don't think Elaina is a horrible person like it's been asserted by many. I just think that this anime sucks, and it unfortunately drags her down with it.

The supporting cast is pretty weak aside of the aforementioned Fran. Saya is Elaina's friend-slash-romantic-interest who's honestly kind of annoying. Sheila is Saya's mentor and she's fine when she is paired with Fran, but I have no strong feelings about her because she'd kind of just there. The elusive figure of Niké exists in the distance as the motivator of Elaina's travels, but not much if known about her besides who her pupils are. Some of the other characters who only last for one episode are seriously, and I mean it, not worth mentioning.

All that's left is the art and sound aspects, which are both pretty good. I do like most of the character designs and the BGM, and the animation is very easy on the eyes, I have no complaints on that front. The opening theme is absolutely perfect and it gives off a peaceful sense of wonder, which I REALLY wish was reflected in the anime itself. Everywhere Elaina visits looks the same, but that's not really the art's fault, it's more the author's fault for being really bad at constructing worldbuilding.

Majo no Tabitabi is a clusterfuck. I honestly feel like I should be giving it a lower rating now that I've accessed it and realized I only enjoyed one or two episodes out of twelve, but I won't, because at the same time I feel like I've seen worse. What can I even say to conclude this? Don't watch it, I suppose, unless you are in fact a 14 year old who's new to anime and who thinks that the character arcs in Elfen Lied rule. Maybe in this case you'll find this anime to be profound.

Chainsaw Man seems to be somewhat divisive. While some people tout it as a masterpiece, others will absolutely loathe it and call it unsubstantial garbage. I can see why: it's stylish and strange and definitely not focused in being a crowd pleaser. I, personally, stand more in-between, and think that while it's most definitely flawled, what Fujimoto has to offer is a fun and bold ride that you can get a lot of enjoyment out of.

I guess the easiest thing there is for me to compare to Chainsaw Man, as many do, would be Tokyo Ghoul; both are manga about suit-clad members of an organization ... that aims to exterminate devils, and both are extremely violent and miserable (It's shocking to me that something as gory as Chainsaw Man landed a Shounen Jump serialization). While they do share some themes, such as questionings about what makes one human and whether fiends and humans can live in harmony, I feel like most of the similarities are surface-level. To be more specific, Chainsaw Man exists less apologetically than Tokyo Ghoul does - it's brashly committed to what it is to the very end, to the point that it certainly pissed a lot of people off, but I respect that.

Not only does it exist in more freedom, it also takes itself much less seriously. Chainsaw Man is a wild mixture of horrifying, bloody action with messed up cynical comedy. It relishes in putting the characters through the worst and then flauting irony in a punchline. It doesn't always hit - for example, the ongoing gag about Denji being desperate to have sex gets old and annoying real fast - but when it does, it's glorious. The feeling of reading this manga comes very closely to that of watching an extremely fun, campy B movie classic. Moreover, Fujimoto is very skilled at paneling, so that makes for a really easy, fast read. I went through all 90-something chapters in only two days, and if not for having to work, I'm sure I could've managed it in one sitting.

The cast of characters is surprisingly fun and likeable as well. They may be getting put through hell, but you can't not warm up to Power, Aki and Denji's familial antics. Makima's questionable and mysterious behavior is quite charismatic. The manga also counts on a pretty strong cast of supporting characters - notable mentions being Kobeni, Reze and Angel Devil, who enrich the chapters with the way they stir the story and add in new layers of development and comedic relief.

It all comes at a price, though. I did compare Chainsaw Man to a B movie before; it goes without saying that it has shortcomings in its writing. More specifically, it has great ideas and great action, but it suffers from dreadful pacing issues. The final arc and biggest reveal of the series was pretty much thrust upon us with no warning, making what could have been excellent seem a little disappointing for happening so fast. Characters die left and right - not an issue in itself considering the nature of the story, but it becomes one when even major character deaths happen way too fast and in an anticlimatic fashion. Chainsaw Man is simply a manga that gives you little time to connect, feel and mourn. To be fair, I feel like there is an attempt, but I don't think this is Fujimoto's forte. The story's structure is a little broken.

And it's with a heavy heart that I say that a broken structure and pacing end up limiting his interesting cast of characters. No doubt that you will get good moments with them and enjoy their presence to the end; but you'll leave feeling like they were all severely underutilized. If Fujimoto was better at pacing his story, Chainsaw Man would probably be a tad longer, and we'd probably get a more competent balance between gorey twists/battles and character bonding moments. I ultimately feel like I'm more attached to these characters because I recognize how incredible they'd be if used to their full potential rather than because they ARE textually excellent.

One last praise I will hand is for the art. I'm personally very fond of its sketchy quality. Fujimoto is without a doubt really good at character design and monster/creature design, as he is at depicting gore and drawing expressions. It looks very original and distinctive, and details such as the difference between the characters' pupils and inventive playfulness with the devilmen's characteristics makes for a visually memorable experience.

tl;dr Chainsaw Man is a competent manga. It's an easy read that delivers its promise of craziness, gore and fun while also dwelving into themes tied closely to the human condition. It is, however, dragged down by pacing and minor writing issues, and it feels like a version of itself that is not the best it could be. Maybe in another world, in an universe parallel to ours, Chainsaw Man is the properly fleshed out 10/10 manga that we deserve. But for now, let's be content with what we've got, because it's also pretty good.

Contains spoilers, if you care.

I will be blunt: there is absolutely no value to be found in this.

Discussing Metamosphosis is complicated. People will claim it's a deep, thought-provoking, innovative, subversive manga, but when you try to criticize it based on these claims, suddenly it's only porn and you shouldn't be taking it so seriously. So I will separate this review based on these two point of views.

1. Reviewing Metamorphosis as porn:

If you believe that Metamorphosis is exempt from criticism because it's only porn and it's not that deep, I have news that you might not like to hear: nothing is exempt from criticism, especially not ... porn. And to me, Metamorphosis utterly fails as porn.

I mean, unless you are a sick fuck, there's really nothing about this manga that is stimulating or hot or sexy. Here's what this manga is: seven chapters about a 15 year old girl being repeatedly raped and abused.

Sure, the art is nice (and this is literally the only good thing I can say about this manga), Saki looks very cute and I can't deny that the author is skilled at drawing sex scenes, but then there's this. It's seven chapters where this girl gets fucked by old men, playboys, prostitutes herself, is molested by bullies, raped by homeless men, by her own father, by her pimp. That's it. None of the sex in Metamorphosis is sexy. Nothing about it is satisfying. I don't know what else to say here besides that there's no value in this as porn, because it's a disgust and shock value fest that no one in their sane mind could possibly find to be good masturbation material. Unless, of course, you are into seeing young teenage girls being brutalized and raped by the most disgusting looking old men ever conceived for 30 pages, in which case I advise you to go to therapy and stay the fuck away from me, because what the fuck is wrong with you?

Some people will also say that this is a great hentai masterpiece because it has something resembling a plot, to which I respond, trust me dude, go read an eroge instead. I promise you it'll be more worth your time. Some also say that it hits different as porn because Saki gets characterization and character evolution besides being cute, which makes me go back to point one - in this case, WHY are you getting off on seeing this shy and naive 15 year old that you allegedly care about as a character getting gang molested? Seriously get help.

2. Reviewing Metamorphosis as something more:

Now here is where things start to get complicated.

The loudest claims in defense of Metamorphosis is that the manga is MEANT to be shocking and disgusting. It's meant to disturb you into paying attention to what you're sexualizing and masturbating to. It's meant to get so fucked up that you'll stop yourself and think "dude, what the fuck am I doing?" Well, let's assume that this really is the author's intent. Let's assume that Shindo L wanted to write something that would criticize the way people mindlessly interact with porn and are desensitized to the brutalization of women in it. But then this raises another question.

Why did he choose this means to do it?

Here's something about satire/parody/critique that people don't often understand: when you're attempting to do this, it's easy to fall into the trap of the very thing you're trying to criticize or make fun of. It's easy to try to make a horror movie parody that ends up becoming the very thing it's trying to make fun of, for example. And that's exactly what happens with Metamorphosis here: it's trying to set itself apart from other manga by provoking us to think about what we are consuming, but, ultimately, it's still what it is criticizing. It's still hentai. People will consume Metamorphosis as hentai. People will get off on those scenes of Saki being raped. At most, people will realize halfway through that what they're reading to get a sexual kick out off is fucked up and be like "damn..." and then carry on, forget about it in a week, read yet another prostitution rape manga in a month. This makes Metamorphosis completely ineffective garbage. How can you possibly try to criticize the disgusting traps in which porn falls into by showing us these exact things? Can you really say that Metamorphosis made you think critically about the way you are consuming porn, or did you just masturbate to it, get a little sad, then went right back to some garbage doujin that has virtually the same content as this? The thought that people even masturbate to this at all makes me sick - and that's what is happening, that's what is gonna happen. Even if Metamorphosis tries to wear a social/industry critique mask, it is no different from the very thing it tries not to be.

Now let's forget this assumption for a bit, and analyze Metamorphosis simply as a story, or as a more content/emotionally charged hentai.

Still a failure.

All you get, as I previously mentioned, is seven chapters of this girl being so miserable that at some point you just want this shit to end. Let's go over what happens again with some more detail. First she gets played and raped by an older guy when she's fresh out of middle school. Then by disgusting old men, which makes her fall into prostitution. Then gets bullied. Then gets raped by her father. Then called a vile seductress by her mother and kicked out of home. Then she goes on to prostitute herself even more and get even more humiliated and addicted to drugs. Then pregnant. Then homeless. Then beaten up and treated like subhuman. Then death. You see where I'm going with this? Well, if you don't, here you go: it relies ENTIRELY on shock value. Everything you feel here comes from graphic violence and sex. "Ohhh but I cried, it made me feel sad" Well NO SHIT! Who wouldn't feel sad after sitting through all of this? There are much better ways to go on emotional rollercoasters than watching Saki suffering the most vomit-inducing and vile shit in the world.

And speaking of it, there's also no depth to the depravity which Saki is subjected to. None! She is simply mistreated by everyone because... because? Everyone who ever crosses her path is iredeemably evil scum AND a rapist somehow. Including but not limited to her own parents, a group of high school kids and random homeless people. So no commentary about morality here I guess, just depravity. Whenever there's an attempt to have commentary made too it just doesn't land. What it has to say about purity culture is just a two liner that turns into disgusting sex, nullifying what it was just trying to say.

Then there's Saki as a character, who is, well. A nice and shy girl who wants to become cuter and make friends or maybe even find a boyfriend in high school. She's way too naive for her own good, but ultimately a good girl that you cannot really hate unless you're a psychopath. And... that's it. What else is there, really? What is so special about Saki's downwards spiral into a life of sex and drugs addiction? While likeable, she's not nearly as interesting a character as people make her out to be. She only has things happening to her. The treatment of her becoming an addict, a bullying target and a prostitute is surface-level horseshit with zero layers to it, and, again, shock value. You may argue that it's meant to be this way because she's meant to represent a blank slate of purity and how the world around us can corrupt us easily, but see again my point about the absurdism of the unrealistic abuse she goes through AND of the failure of metamorphosis as social commentary.

Then finally there's the ending where she just... dies. Fantastic then, we have Life sucks and then you die: The Porn Manga. What else is it even trying to say here? Talk about "the weight of bad decisions in your life"? Bzzzzzt! Saki barely even gets to decide anything on her own, because she is abused by EVERY SINGLE PERSON she meets! The chain of shit happening in her life is unlocked by people raping and taking advantage of her innocence! What else do you got for me? "People in the world are bad"? No SHIT, Sherlock! Could've figured this one out without having to look at Saki getting her pregnant belly beaten by random cartoonishly evil people on the street. If this is really meant to be commentary on human nature, then damn, it is a bad one, devoid of any depth and sensible look into what drives people into evil, or why people who are simply evil exist.

No comment about the cheesy, "look at how sad this is please cry" dying dream sequence of her in the future with her daughter (I assume it's a dying dream since the author apparently stated that she dies in the end). No reason to show us that, it literally added nothing to the whole thing besides another layer of slime by evidencing how hard it's trying to shock.

Basically, all that Metamorphosis is is a disgusting fiasco that is touted as a masterpiece by people with no critical thinking skills. I've seen this manga being called many things. Hot, realistic, sad, deep, interesting, unique, well written. Well, it is none of these things. It's gross, it's unrealistic, it's shallow, it's uninteresting, it's the same old waltz you've danced before with porn.

I'm begging you to use your brains and think about what you're reading. I promise you it won't kill you.

Somehow, I'm not surprised to see that there are no reviews for Sore wa Tada no Senpai no Chinko. It's quite difficult to put such a bizarre experience into words; and when I saw bizarre I MEAN it. But I'll do my best to try anyway.

Senpai no Chinko is exactly what it says on the tin: a collection of short stories that take place in a world where dicks can safely grow back after being chopped off. Yes, you read that right. But what makes Senpai no Chinko so uniquely strange isn't its odd premise as much as it is its approach to it: this ... manga does not address it with gore and horror subtones, nor does it go straight to slapstick comedy, but instead establishes itself neatly as a slice of life. This is a stylistic choice from the author (also seen in the equally outlandish Daidai wa Hantoumei ni Nidone suru) that works wonders for me; he takes violent, fantastic and absurd situations and makes them absolutely mundane. It is no big deal that girls are walking around holding amputated dicks in this world. It's just commonplace; it's how it works, it's the rules. They talk about it with their friends. They go to stores specialized in dick-chopping. You sort of just accept it.

I suppose you're thinking that there is no way to make something so horrific-sounding look ordinary or even cute - but trust me, this is easily achieved through some very interesting means. Firstly, the dicks don't really look or "behave" like dicks. They're more like little sentient alien blobs than severed genitals. You might even find yourself thinking they're cute here and there. Moreover, there's an absence of gore, so you don't really see the act of chopping them off happening - the most you see is the tool used for it, a urinal with a guillotine blade. Yes, I am serious about this. The tone is also constructed around the fact that most of these stories ARE mundane: a high school girl in love with her upperclassman, a girl having relationship trouble with her boyfriend, conversations between the guillotine shop owner and his clients. The wacky setting is simply inserted in these slice of life bits, adding a delicious dose of absurdist comedy to the mix. Senpai no Chinko doesn't need to resort to slapstick and loud jokes precisely because it finds humor in its own existence - the situations are carried out naturally, and they simultaneously take themselves very seriously and not seriously at all. Another thing that helps is the art itself: the girls look cute, the dicks look innocuous and the backgrounds and scenery look appealing in an almost cartoonish way. It ties it all together perfectly.

The downside to a manga like Senpai no Chinko, though, is of course the fact that it's a short collection of stories. It's very short, so there isn't too much room to explore more of what's going on - although this might work in its favor, since too much of it could've made it tiresome rather than fresh. And since each chapter tells a different tale, so you're bound to find some chapters funnier and more entertaining than others. They're all good enough to make it a consistently fun read, but that's that. Its format is perfect for it, but at the same time slightly limiting. So Senpai no Chinko is a good, humorous and unique manga, but it's hard to say it's anything grand.

Ultimately, you might find yourself wondering if there's a deeper meaning to this manga, too. If the dicks and the dick chopping are a metaphor for something, and if you should be looking at it with a little more of insight. To me, personally? It's not worth wrecking your brains over it! Sit back, relax, and take it for what it is. You might find it to be surprisingly meaningful depending on your own view on it; but at the end of the day, I believe the true purpose of Sore wa Tada no Senpai no Chinko is to give us a good laugh and an enjoyable time. So if you have some time to kill and feel like dabbling into something a little different, this is just the thing for you!

I first wrote this review when I had read about 80 chapters of Gotoubun no Hanayome and during the height of its popularity. I believed it to be a solid, well-developed, decently-paced school setting romcom - a rare gem for me, considering that I'm usually not a fan of those. I went as far as to say that Gotoubun made other modern popular animanga of the same genre look pathetic in comparison.

But whew... Talk about things that did not age well.

It's not to say that Gotoubun lost all of its value for me. I treasure those first 70-something chapters and the attachment I felt to ... the characters. I still think that what Negi accomplished there is praise-worthy and I stand by what I said, that it was a fun and twisty romcom with good characters and a likeable protagonist. But in a few years from now, I'm afraid that Gotoubun will be remembered by me not as "That quintuplets romcom that I had some fun with", but rather as "That quintuplets romcom that went to shit towards the end".

It's hard to explain what went wrong with Gotoubun without stepping into spoiler territory, so from this point on, you'll be seeing spoilers for the last 30 or so chapters of the manga.

One of my previous minor complaints about Gotoubun was that, although its twisty nature was fun and clever, it was starting to drag on a little and in danger of becoming a bore. I said that as of chapter 86. And now, with the manga completed at chapter 122, what I feared the most has come true: it overstayed its welcome greatly. And it resulted in what I believe was its ultimate downfall: The School Festival arc.

The School Festival arc was an absolutely dreadful experience to sit through, something akin to a modern Endless Eight. We are shown the exact same series of events in the school festival through the eyes of every quintuplet for a bunch of chapters. That doesn't sound too bad in theory, but weight in the fact that this happens directly after Fuutarou announces that he has finally come to a decision and will confess to the sister he loves after the festival is over, and there you go: all of those chapters are nothing but Negi trying to apply his twisty keep-you-guessing gimmick, only that this time he failed horribly. We as an audience at that point were tired and wanted a confession, a resolution, a BOOM moment. It was like listening to a song and waiting for the beat to drop, but then the beat never drops. What made those chapters extra nefarious wasn't even the fact that they were stalling the big reveal, but the way that they did it. To put it bluntly, they added nothing of value to the table - I mean, I guess they tried, but it was all written in such a lousy, confusing, superficial, strangely rushed fashion that I questioned if it was the same Negi that gave us the previous chapters. The girls' biological father shows up unceremoniously just to raise chaos and make Itsuki second-guess herself, all so that it ends with... Her not changing her mind about wanting to become a teacher after all, I guess? The fact that they lowkey tried to give their shitty adoptive father some sort of redemption also had me baffled. He didn't seem like he changed or regretted being absent from their lives at all, but we were just supposed to believe that he actually always cared because he left some flowers on their mother's grave? Don't make me laugh. And what about Fuutarou's former tutor showing up, doing absolutely nothing, then vanishing again? Geez, maybe the reason why Negi never gave a lot of attention to side characters is because he absolutely sucks at handling them in the first place. My point here is that this arc sealed a big, HUGE drop in the quality of the overall writing of the manga, something that is noticeable far back from Yotsuba's backstory arc.

I also regret saying that I felt like the manga was sensible and reasonable on the subject of love rivalry between the sisters, and that it even subverted some tropes that I usually hate. That was my reading back then, but towards the end it once again went all to shit: I had to see these characters I grew to care about becoming generic, incomprehensible shadows of their past selves and fall right headfirst into concepts deeply etched into the manga romcom genre that I so despise. Like, for example, the idea that romantic love between two people is something that you earn because you worked hard for it, rather than a connection and genuine bond being formed through quality time and affinity; romantic love isn't a job position, and while it requires effort and teamwork between the involved parties to work out, it isn't something you can simply get by being especially pushy or having a sadder backstory. Another one is the idea that once a girl is in love, she has to lose all of her self-respect AND her respect for other people because she has to "keep fighting for it and not give up", and thus continues to pursue the guy even after he's already settled for a girlfriend who he loves.

All of this contaminated Nino a lot specifically and it soured her character greatly for me, which was very upsetting considering that she was my favorite quintuplet. But I just couldn't be satisfied seeing her fall victim to this, saying that she would steal her sister's boyfriend away from her and that she didn't deserve him because his love "came ease even though she did nothing". It was also jarring to see the implication that she was still in love with Fuutarou even five years later on their wedding day. One of the main reasons why I'd be alright if Nino wasn't the bride even though I liked her the most was because I felt like she could bounce back easier than the others; she's headstrong, independent and values her sisters' happiness. And yet the Nino I saw towards the end seemed simply bitter and spiteful.

And although I was personally also rooting for Yotsuba because I thought she and Fuutarou made a good match, I couldn't be satisfied with the way it happened. She got reduced to the "I met you as a kid" trope for a brief while, and her backstory carried a wild tonal shift that made me not care for it. I waited patiently to see Yotsuba getting her time to shine, but the monkey's paw curled on me, I guess, because when she finally did, it was rushed and not nearly as satisfying as with the other sisters, and as a result people feed into the "it's unfair that it was Yotsuba!" mentality. It's not unfair that it was Yotsuba, it's unfair that Negi failed to give her resolution and proper depth the same care he gave the others! If Yotsuba was my favorite girl I would probably feel the most cheated of them all. I also didn't like seeing her throw away the symbol of her individuality at the end just because Fuutarou could tell her apart from her sisters. Individuality was so important to Yotsuba, it's hard to believe she would let go of it just because she got married.

Miku was also contagiated by the cliché love rivalry babbling, but to a lesser extent than Nino. At the very least, she seemed happy with herself and got a satisfying conclusion to her character development: we truly see her blossom into a more confident person without losing her essence, and that was fine by me. She grew from the experience of being in love.

What really caught me off guard, though, was the fact that Ichika and Itsuki, my least favorite girls, were the only ones who responded to the situation in a way that did not piss me off. Maybe it was because Ichika had been the target of the "I need to 'win' his love" mentality earlier in the manga and then had a change of heart, but by the time Fuutarou comes to a conclusion, she is accepting of it and maintains a healthy close friendship with him. Itsuki acknowledges that she is jealous and frustrated, but never lets this overpower her, and in the end finds her peace with Fuutarou being with Yotsuba instead, knowing that although she was not the one, nothing could break the bond she already had with him. They also had good conclusions to their personal arcs, with Itsuki becoming a teacher and honoring her mother, and Ichika realizing that there are bigger things in store for her than university and dedicating herself to her acting career.

Then there's Fuutarou, and it saddens me that I don't even quite know what to write in here, because he was so affected by the quality drop that I no longer felt his singular strength as a character towards the end. And that is TRAGIC, because Fuutarou being a solid, good character instead of a generic or unlikeable Joe was one of the driving forces of Gotoubun. I guess you can say that he never quite became a bad character, but... Proposing to Yotsuba out of nowhere? He seemed like a different person during their date segment, and I don't mean this in a good way. There was very little buildup to the reveal, and up until the end he didn't seem to show a preference towards any of them at all. And what about his dream of making it big? What about his relationship with Raiha? What about any of those things? Mere passing notes are all they're worth? Had the manga gone on for 2 chapters longer I'd nearly be able to say he had a full descent into a generic harem romcom protagonist; he dodged quite a bullet here.

And then the very ending, the thing that made so many people understandably froth at the mouth... Oh boy. You can say that it wasn't strictly a "it was all a dream"-type ending: you could easily see that as a narrative resource to make a parallel between their graduation and the future. But what it really felt like to me was Negi trying to find his easy way out of sticking to a definitive decision. He's definitely a crowd pleaser - he made sure we got to see all of the sisters individually confessing and kissing Fuutarou, as though he didn't want to see the fans of any of them feeling left out. And although he did settle on Fuutarou choosing Yotsuba, by presenting the notion that the wedding might have been just a dream, he can make people wonder "well, but maybe he will break up with her and marry another of them in the future". Which is, if you ask me, a coward's way out. I can't even properly complain about how shitty the writing of the whole "guess who's your fiance!" scene was because it might not even have happened at all. But let it be known that it was so, so shitty and childish, a far cry from the emotional depth and involvement I saw on the very same manga 50 chapters earlier.

Credit where it is due, the art remained amazing to the very end, with beautifully drawn expressions and extremely dynamic panels. Even though the characterization and writing completely fell apart on its seams, it offered a generous serving of eye candy, and the girls' designs were as cute as ever, which might have even make the whole thing feel less bad at some times. But this was really all that stayed consistent, and that's a crying shame.

Gotoubun rocked the animanga community. People got excited over it, and not for little reason: it was one of the best of its genre. It was a solid, well-developed, decently-paced school setting romcom. It was out there making other modern popular animanga of the same genre look pathetic in comparison. I don't feel happy editing this review and taking back the praise I had for it. In fact, I wonder why it went so wrong. Did Negi lose his passion for the project? Was he feeling pressured over its overwhelming popularity? Is he simply not skilled at writing conclusions? I guess we'll never know. All that's left is looking at all of these reviews graded 5 or less and contemplating the fall of this empire.

(Warning: contains spoilers)

Macross F (or Frontier) is extremely impressive, because I never thought an anime about idols singing teaming up with giant robots in space to save the world together could be THIS dull. It also puzzles me how people sing this so much praise, claiming it's the best Macross installment. Let me just make it clear that this is the first Macross I have watched; and yet, it was so bad it almost killed any desire I had of checking out the rest of the franchise.

I'll try my best to keep it short, but let me break down what I think are some of ... the most critical points that made F a bad anime.

The story starts following Alto Saotome, a pilot trainee, as he crosses paths with Sheryl Nome, a famous idol, and Ranka Lee, a regular girl who dreams of becoming one; all while bug-like aliens known as the Vajra invade the Frontier. Alto is then scouted into the Military, getting caught up between his battle duty and his relationship with Sheryl and Ranka, who increasingly get more and more involved with the intergalactic battles as well. Sounds interesting, right? Well, keep yourself seated. From then on, things start to get complicated; characters are introduced left and right. Political conflict, cyborgs, biological diseases, tragic backstories and copious amounts of romance are thrown into the mix. Everything quickly becomes extremely convoluted: they are unable to properly develop and explain everything they want to show us. Thus, Macross F suffers with HUGE issues in pacing and tone, especially pacing - there were some occasions where I kept asking myself if I missed out on something, because things happened so quickly I couldn't keep up.

When your main plot (and 60 subplots branching from it) is going this fast, of course it will crash. Things happened extremely suddenly, and with no foreshadowing whatesoever; we're just supposed to take at face value that Grace is the main antagonist, in a sudden reveal that makes it hard to take it seriously when nothing in the episodes leading up to this hinted on it. You're just supposed to accept that Mikhail's sister is dead, and that Sheryl was found rummaging through garbage and parentless (a huge plot inconsistency), and that Luca has a crush on Nanase. The reveal of the motive for Grace and the Vajra is so stupid I couldn't contain my laughter. And with all that, the big, emotional moments such as character deaths and tearful goodbyes are extremely hard to care about. Why should I when you squashed your reasons into a single one minute long scene instead of developing the characters properly throughout the show? And there is also the big bad of the entire thing: the love triangle, and the other smaller romances. A love triangle between Alto, Sheryl and Ranka was EXTREMELY unnecessary. I cannot stress enough how unnecessary it was, and how much it empoverished the show. There's no need to measure words: it was garbage. Alto treated both girls really badly (I'll expand on this later) and the girls would often commit acts of love for him, and feel motivated to do things for him, when not a single reason is given for them to feel and act this way. Not to mention that, in the end, after all that kissing and crying and touching, Alto doesn't even end up with either one. If you're going to write in a shitty love triangle into your setting about giant robots, at least compromise and give it a proper resolution instead of this cowardly, open ending bullshit. There's also a lot of dumb ass things that made no sense I could point out (like Ranka becoming famous overnight on the same beat as Sheryl falls out of stardom to the point people wouldn't recognize her on the street), but if I were to list them all I'd be here all week - there were just too many. To finalize, the battle scenes, which should be the highest point of F, put me to sleep. They are messy, full of the characters spouting bullshit technical terms and plot exposition that often made little sense, and I found myself completely uninterested in anything going on, even visually.

But well, as if all of this wasn't enough, the characters were even worse. Yes, I am sorry to say, they were so poorly written it was horrifying. Starting with Alto, our protagonist: I don't know what went so wrong here. Maybe they were aiming to make him a tsundere or just broody, but what they came out with was an asshole. Don't be fooled by descriptions saying Alto is "a normal high schooler" or "just a little broody". Alto is unlikeable from the get-go: he's always disproportionately angry at any and everything for absolutely no reason. He is always yelling at his own friends. And he is always treating the two girls who are in love with him like hot garbage - ESPECIALLY Ranka. It was painful and infuriating to see him make disgusted faces at Ranka and ignore her texts and calls, acting like she was a hassle but still leading her on while she was clearly in love with him. He was also overly aggressive with Sheryl, going as far as screaming at her about her lack of professionalism because she got sick while the girl is bedridden, so ill that she can't get up or move. Then he had random moments of tenderness where he acted nice to them, even though minutes prior he was being the biggest prick in the world, only to return to his default asshole state later. That's because his personality is about as consistent as a pile of diarrhea. He undergoes no real character development, which, well, guess it's fair since his entire character is so intolerable and inconsistent to begin with that I don't see any salvation. He had an interesting background as a Kabuki actor, but they barely explored it - and when they did, it was in the dumbest ways you can imagine, namely jokes about him being a "princess" and his brother trying to convince him to quit battling and go back to acting AS THE PLANET WAS ON THE VERGE OF BEING DESTROYED. Oh yeah, they also tried to explain the fact that he acts like a wolf with rabies with him having a dead mom. When this is the main character of your story, you're already starting off on the wrong footing.

The other two main characters are Sheryl and Ranka, who, like beaming hope at the end of a tunnel, are surprisingly both likeable and reasonably consistent. Ranka gets more relevance and a bigger role in the story; she is a bright, cheerful and kind young girl with a love of singing and a dream of becoming an idol, who later uses her voice to help fighting off the Vajra. Her lighthearted optimism sometimes almost made me forget how annoying everything else was. But unfortunately, Ranka gets treated horribly by her own narrative; between her family trauma, Alto being an absolute bitch, both the heroes and the villains using her for her magic voice, and even brainwashing, she doesn't seem to catch a break. Most of her motivation centers around Alto as well, which is absolute bonkers when she has two older brothers and friends who both care for and encourage her more than Alto ever did in his entire sorry life; ultimately, Ranka also gets very little development, only becoming very slightly less childish by the end. Sheryl, on the other hand, is headstrong, confident and a little arrogant, if anything - not without reason - with a friendlier side to her. She's extremely fun to watch and she owns the show whenever she's on the screen. But, once again, unfortunately, her character development is poorly handled. Instead of teaching her how to be more humble and caring of others, the narrative punishes her for her confidence with a terminal illness. The idea is that she is at her best when she's depressed and dying, rather than thriving on her career and aware of her own talent and presence. And again, the love triangle butts in to make things worse, where Sheryl acts oddly ooc when she's around Alto. Sheryl and Ranka's friendship has so much lost potential, too. The very few scenes they have together are very sweet, but they all end with Alto showing up to ruin everything. Sometimes they were weirdly, vaguely hostile to each other, because I guess they absolutely have to since they like the same guy. Go figure.

The rest of the cast... I don't even know if I should expand on them and make this review even longer than it already is. Let me just say they are bad, cookie cutter archetypes, and that I wish writers knew that they don't HAVE to pair up every single character with each other in forced, nonsense, dogshit romances. Every time Mikhail and Klan were onscreen with their bullshit I felt like barfing. Desk Man, Sugita Man, whatever is his name because I quite frankly don't remember or care, was the most boring villain I've ever seen and so ugly he hurt my eyes. Brera and Ozma were alright, as they at least they were consistent and nice to Ranka unlike everyone else in this show. In short, all you need to know is that none of them are particularly remarkable. Or interesting. Or well written. Or even good looking (Mikhail is really ugly, sorry to note. Who designed this?). What is with mecha anime with school settings and adding dozens of uninteresting, underdeveloped, stereotyped characters and expecting us to care about them all? I've sat through this with Valvrave and Code Geass and it's disappointing to see the pattern repeated in Frontier.

At least I can say ONE nice thing about all this, which is: the music is certainly amazing. I'm listening to Diamond Cravasse while I write this review, and Sheryl's vocals are like velvet - whereas Ranka's silky voice works perfectly on their duets, so props for that. I really wish the music was more important than the strange science and spaceships in the plot itself, but it's more of a decoration/thematic background. As for its visuals, maybe they were impressive back in 2008, but it just didn't age too well. The art looks pretty off and there's a bunch of animation blunders. And like I mentioned before, save for a select few, the character designs were offensive to the eye; Klan literally looks like she walked out of porn (what was with her wide eyed blushing every other minute), Cathy and her friends look really boring, Luca has nothing of note besides looking 10 years old and Mikhail is just God's mistake.

Summarizing all of it, Macross F maybe even had potential. A lot of its ideas were interesting and could have been amazing if properly developed and expanded on. But instead they went on the bland romance, misplaced fanservice and trainwreck route. That's a crying shame. I'll just move on to Macross Plus now and try to forget I ever watched this.

What makes Jojo's Bizarre Adventure so special?

That's a question I always had in my mind. One I had before reading it, one I really thought about while I was reading it, and one I'm still thinking about now. After binging all parts in about three weeks, I felt compelled to write a review about one of them; I picked Steel Ball Run because it's my favorite. I feel an urge to try and explain exactly what about Steel Ball Run, and maybe even Jojo in general, is so compelling. What about it that made me whip out a score of nine out of ten in ... a manga that has so many technical flaws - glaring ones, even. Now my personal reasoning aside, let's get into it.

Starting off with the plot, SBR is about a cross country race set in the 1800s. Our protagonist Johnny, a former horse racing star that became wheelchair bound after an incident, ends up joining the race after he spots Gyro - a mysterious man carrying with him steel balls he can rotate at will - and thinks that his technique might be able to make him walk again. But throughout the race, they end up involved in something bigger than what they initially signed up for.

It's quite simple: each Jojo part, for whatever unique plotline it has, is primarly about the power of stands, mysterious powers that manifest in some people that are a projection of their aura and soul. In this aspect you could call the Jojo series a battle shounen in a generalized way, but Steel Ball Run diverges from this notion a little; it feels more like an american comic, and it's more story driven. The scale of the mystery behind the stands gradually builds itself up until it becomes something bigger that goes far beyond Johnny and Gyro's control and intentions. Also Steel Ball Run can technically be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it; there is just too much buildup from the previous parts that, had you missed out on, would make it feel extremely incoherent and strange. And you'd even miss out on things such as all the callbacks to the previous parts, most notably part 2.

That said, there are several things I could criticize about the plot, or the flow, or the pacing of SBR. The climax is a little lacking, and there are many things, including character arcs, left without resolution (things like a major character being killed off without a completion to their arc). That would be my biggest complaint about it. The plot takes a couple of leaps and entangles itself, but nothing absurd. There are also a lot of inconsistencies that are borderline hilarious, most notably the main antagonist suddenly being drawn as a buff, handsome man when he was previously a greasy runt with no explanation given at all - although that's more of an art blunder than a plot one. These are all things I actively noticed and disapproved of as I read it. But I'll get into why they turned out to be irrelevant in the big picture for me later.

The cast of characters in SBR is big, but in the end it boils down to a couple of central characters we see a lot. You have Hot Pants, a mysterious rider who never makes his own intentions clear. Diego, a cheeky and egocentrical antagonist (or is he?), Johnny's sworn rival. Lucy Steel, a young teenage girl without the power of a stand who finds herself going to lengths she could never imagine to protect her husband. And our main villain - Funny Valentine, a terrifying man with little empathy, the personification of rotten patriotism. They are all very dynamic; Diego and Johnny's relationship in special has some sort of heat to it, and as they meet and unmeet throughout the race they all slowly reveal their true colors and backstories.

The backbone of it all, though, is definitely the protagonists Johnny and Gyro and their own relationship. Both of them are fleshed out through the entire story, and we get to know their ambitions, their intentions and their goals in a very honest and straightfoward way. Johnny is a boy driven by selfish determination, on the edge between adolescence and adulthood, with a huge need for approval. Under his guise of almost edgy coolness, he's a brash risktaker. Gyro is a fun-loving, kind-hearted italian man that joined the race to save the life of a child - knowledgeable but still harboring almost naive loyalty and gentleness underneath his personality. When both of them meet there is an instant sense of understanding that comes across as very natural, and it flows along the chapters, guiding you through the story, making you experience it from the perspective of the pair. Johnny and Gyro come from very different backgrounds, yet they overlap enough to make it possible that they recognize each other's struggles and bond deeply. The intimacy and love between them is so sincere and so innate, there isn't a single moment that makes you doubt it, and it's what breathes the most life into SBR. In a setting where you can never be too sure about anyone's intentions, you can find a strong trunk to hold onto in them, and that made the emotional payoff here greater than in parts 1-6.

Once again, that doesn't come at cheap: some of the characters - or most of the side characters not mentioned before - have an unclear role or very shallow motivation before getting killed off. Some look like they'll be relevant, then they are not; and among the main characters, there's problems with character arc conclusions and development, sometimes at the cost of their own characterization.

And then, the golden question: If it's so flawled, what about it is so special?

That's hard to explain, but I guess it's also part of the magic. I'm mostly talking about Jojo in general and not just SBR when I say this - there is something about the absolute confidence in which Araki writes that fully draws you in. Every single Jojo part has very clear faults, and plentiful. From inconsistent writing to wobbly characterization to pointless moments, even threading into things like a character's gender, appearance or personality literally being backpedaled into something entirely different, and even downright harmful tropes. But the way it's all written with the utmost certitude that it's doing only the right thing almost makes you believe so. You're thrown in a maze of creativity with no guide: you can't get enough of it, and you can't help but look foward to what other unbelievable stunt it'll pull on your next. Between all the insanity, music references, high fashion, exaggerated power-ups, caricatures of shounen tropes, incredibly entertaining battles, psychedelic delights, pop culture nods and whatever else is thrown in the mix, there is room for laughing, crying and having incredible fun.

Maybe Araki isn't concerned with who he's writing to, and thus he writes only for himself, changing things at his own will. This gives Jojo a sturdy sense of authority. It is what it is, it isn't interested in what pleases you, you either take it or leave it. But does it manage to draw you in and keep you there, with all things bizarre. Steel Ball Run is just a branch of this entire experience - one that pays homage to westerns and american comics. If you'd like, you could find yourself a part that is all about american pop culture, or the italian mafia, or shounen parodies in Egypt.

All in all, SBR is the best Jojo part in my eyes, with a coherent story and an endearing cast of characters that take us into the most emotionally charged journey of the series, carrying the spirit of its predecessors into a different kind of style. It's a beautiful addition to the universe that was constructed all the way from part 1. And yes, it is heavily flawled - but it makes itself worthy with the beaming confidence in which it honestly bares its missteps to us.

I started SAO II because hearing so many people saying it would adapt arcs that are vastly superior to the previous ones made me really curious about how far this franchise could go, and I bet wasn't the only one. As I bet that I'm not the only one who was left absolutely, utterly disappointed (but not surprised) upon seeing all of the same old bullshit that made the first season so terrible repeating itself.

This review may contain spoilers from now on.

Sword Art Online II adapts two arcs from the novels: GGO and Mother's Rosario. Oh no, wait, it's three arcs: there's also the ... Calibur arc - hard to remember it even existed considering it lasted for about three episodes and had no relevance to anything at all. But again, is there even a point to anything in this show other than showcasing how amazing & powerful Kirito is and adding new girls to his harem? I guess not. SAO remains what it is in its core: a self-insert show with childish writing scattered everywhere.

Let's talk about each arc individually. The first one, GGO, is the least weak of the bunch (not that this means anything when all of them are bad). It features Sinon, a new member of Kirito's harem - I mean, heroine, as well as a new setting. The fact that they cast aside an entirely underveloped cast of characters to introduce a new girl should already be stinky - but as if that's not enough, GGO is very sloppily written. They use the most ridiculous excuse to connect the current events to events that happened back in the first arc (I mean sure, the laughing coffin members murdered people 'n stuff, but it makes all sense that they're still out in the loose and not in jail!), as well as a MASSIVE amount of stupidity such as "People are getting murdered inside of a game again? Well geez, I guess our only solution is sending in this 17 year old all alone to investigate this!" The logic in this arc is piss-poor, and as anyone can guess, everything is resolved by Kirito finding out all by himself how the villain was working and who he was, with little to no base at all. I mean of course, Kirito is so awesome he figured everything out by himself! It made all the attempts made in the very same arc of giving him flaws and depth a complete joke. This arc's main antagonist is also a pathetic piece of turd with terrible characterization - you know something's wrong when a villain's entire backstory, motives and goals are explained by the protagonists while they're chatting and having coffee.

Calibur may as well be summed up in a single phrase: What was the point? It features the "main cast", if they can even be called that, clearing a quest in ALO. And yeah. That's all. It feels like really, REALLY bad filler, and I have nothing else to say about it.

Moving on to the last arc, Mother's Rosario: it's an arc where Asuna is the protagonist, along with Yuuki, another newly introduced character. To put it shortly, this arc will do ANYTHING to make you cry. It's as if the writer was noticing that he didn't look "mature" enough with the whole in-game murder thing and thought to himself "I need to add some more drama to this". So cue Yuuki's storyline - no, cue Yuuki's entire character, who was designed to make you cry with the whole "My whole family is dead and I have a terminal disease" thing. Predictably, they deal with this in a very insensitive way - it's not organic, it's not presented naturally, it's 100% designed to make you pity her. Yuuki is more defined by the fact that she's terminally ill than by her bland personality, which makes the second time in SAO II where the writer uses an illness as an accessory to earn easy tears and seem mature (the first time being with Sinon's PTSD). But as you can guess, the way it's presented and dealt with isn't mature at all, it's borderline insulting. Mother's Rosario is also supposed to be an arc where Asuna gets developed as her own character, but considering that her biggest conflict was convincing her mother that she was ready to drop everything else in her life to be with Kirito, it only furthered her role as the lead waifu of his harem.

If I talk about the characters it will take me another 10 paragraphs, so let me try to keep it short. Kirito is still the same thing as in the first season: Amazing, cool, incredible, smart Kirito, who finds out the truth behind serial murders by himself, cures Sinon's trauma by himself and is apparently also a mechanics genius who can make video game characters see the real world. They try to give him depth in GGO by showing that he's truly traumatized by the events of Aincrad, but it backfires horribly when right after it's shown that he's a "strong person who keeps moving foward regardless", a.k.a. he can get over it quite easily if the plot calls for it. They also tried to give Kirito a goal in him striving to unite the virtual and real world as one, but it backfired again as it's clear that nobody gave it enough thought to realize how stupid, dangerous and almost villainous this sounds. His smug-ish attitude towards Sinon also remains unchanged from the previous arcs, so don't worry, he's still an annoying prick on top of being a terrible self-insert character.

Sinon had everything to be a good character, as she's the first heroine in this show with a palpable personality, but they sacrifice it to make her the tsundere that was missing in Kirito's harem. They use her being understandably wary of him as an excuse to make her act tsun-tsun. There's also her backstory, which could have been good if the writer had even a slight idea of how panick attacks and PTSD actually work instead of getting them triggered whenever's convenient to the plot. Her character development revolves 100% around Kirito. Sinon's role in the show is defined by the moment she says "Someone, please save me" in episode 3: she wasn't there to be a character who learns to save herself and grows in the first place, she was there to be saved by Kirito and later fall in love with him. She was there to be nothing more than another disposable harem member disguised as "strong female character". In the end, Sinon is no better than Asuna.

Speaking of Asuna, she succeeded on having the most bullshit "character development" I've ever seen. Introducing her family out of nowhere and sparkling conflict with her strict mother wouldn't have been that unacceptable, really, if at least she had something to fight for herself, but it doesn't count if said conflict is her mother not wanting to let her ruin her life getting married young (to Kirito, of course). Asuna's entire character arc isn't about her growing as a person, it's about strengthening her resolve to get married to Kirito - as IF she needed that, considering that her entire character is defined by her love and devotion for Kirito in the first place. Mother's Rosario did nothing for Asuna as a character as much as it did for her as a "waifu". She will probably be even more loved by otaku now that she fits the "perfect wife" stereotype better than ever, but it sure as hell doesn't make her well written. She, Kirito and their sappy romance remain as flat and unsavory as ever.

I could write about the other characters if there even was something noteworthy to say about them. Suguha was dropped into limbo after ALO and has no relevance in the second season, but that's to be expected - if you're a female character in SAO, you only have two jobs: Falling in love/getting rescued by Kirito in a certain arc and providing fanservice. After that, it's as if you never even existed in first place. The only thing I can say about Suguha, Rika and Silica (and Sinon after GGO) is that the way they get angry at Kirito for getting attention from Asuna is extremely immature, annoying and unfunny considering that they are, you know, engaged. But again all the comedic moments in SAO sound like they were written by a horny 13 year old boy, so I guess it's nothing new after all.

I don't have a lot to say about the animation except that in some scenes it looks pretty good and carefully done and in others it's literally slideshow bullshit (look at the first Calibur episode, for God's sake). Overall, it doesn't look bad. The sound is ok, too. None of it is bad, but also not good enough to even remotely come close of saving anything in this show, so I won't even bother talking about it any further.

Well, now you can downvote me to your heart's content.

It's very rare to see a series getting stripped of its excesses with its essence remaining intact. Hell, I don't even remember the last time I have read something that used simplicity rather than dramacity working on its favor - that is, before I got around to reading Horimiya.

What really makes Horimiya stand out among several other shoujo romance stories is the way they use the natural flow of events rather than misunderstandings and excessive drama to make the story move foward. It's slow paced, light-hearted and feels more slice-of-life focused, which gives off a very refreshing feeling. Even though the plot is nothing new ... (high school boy meets high school girl), it feels different since it's so natural.

"Natural" may be in fact the keyword as to why Horimiya works so well, along with something else that's really important: "Intimacy". It's very rare to see a shoujo where you can feel the characters growing closer and intimate and actually getting to know each other well instead of that sort of love/crush that blooms when the characters have barely interacted at all. Hori and Miyamura don't just see each other under a cherry blossom tree and fall in love because he was nice to her once, or because she seems different from the other girls in school; Seeing their friendship gradually growing into a different kind of relationship is rewarding and makes for an extremely heartwarming romance.

Speaking about the characters, the author really did hit the nail on the head with them. Our protagonist, Hori, for once isn't a clueless shoujo girl who acts like a lost sheep once she falls in love. She's kind-hearted and family-oriented, and also irritable and borderline violent at times (without falling victim to the tsundere trope, thank god), but overall very bright, outgoing and friendly. She's a good-natured girl with a palpable personality, and she's easy to relate to. Miyamura is almost her polar opposite: gloomy to the point his classmates suspect him of being a creepy otaku (or so he appears), reserved and timid. He's somewhat of a scatterbrain and a really easy-going person, and kind to a fault. They mash really well together in their interactions while still exist outside of their romance as unique characters with their own personalities, hobbies and goals.

The supporting cast is full of colorful and likeable characters. Hori's father is probably my favorite out all of them, seeing as he's always made me laugh whenever he appeared. The rival characters like Ishikawa and Sawa are also refreshing in their own ways, being sensible and easy to like, rather than causing over the top drama and fitting sexist tropes. The side cast is not as developed as the main two, but they make for a solid group of characters who stand well on their own.

The only thing that unfortunately falls a bit short are the subplots involving the side characters. That's not to say they're bad, but it's very clear how inferior they are to the main romance, and feel more shoujo-ish in comparison, almost like one-shot specials. There are also a couple of moments in the main story where there's a break of flow, but fortunately the manga picks itself back up fast enough so that these cracks won't interfere too much in the quality and enjoyment as a whole. There's a scene in particular in the latter chapters involving Miyamura and Hori's brother that felt a bit unnecessarily nerve-wracking. But thankfully it's not a long scene, and soon enough things are back to their tracks. The art is also something one could complain about since it doesn't really have anything to stand out, but it certainly doesn't look bad, and it fits the mood of the story well.

All in all, Horimiya is a shoujo romance that does a lot of things right, escaping the usual feeling of frustration that comes with the genre and giving off a light, natural and fluffy feeling instead. It's definitely worth checking out, whether or not you're a fan of shoujo manga.