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Jan 10, 2024
I've heard so many good things about this anime, that this was the best adaptation of a ridiculously good manga, that it's a 10/10 show... After watching it I'm unfortunately quite disappointed because In my opinion it is terribly overrated.
For a show produced in 1997, it feels extremely dated, like it was made 10 years prior. Actually, I've seen better produced shows that were released decades before. There are particularly notable issues with the animation, or often lack thereof. The art style itself was fine, though at times detail did feel a bit sparse depending on the scene.
The music was extremely lazy. There
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are only 11 tracks in total for this OST which is way too small for a 24 episode series. As a result each theme is ridiculously overused. Not to mention that the music itself very much relies on bland copy/paste work. It's not that it was merely attempting to be minimalistic, it was that, it completely failed to properly use even basic techniques that make minimalism remotely interesting. Other tracks which are playing during dance scenes that are trying to 'imitate' baroque style completely fail to follow the rules of baroque music, making numerous mistakes throughout the track. It screams to me amateurish. This was made further apparent by the fact that the composer, Susumu Hirasawa attended a Designer college which does not offer a music program from my research. This is not to say that I'm against non-classically trained musicians... quiet the opposite until I attended music school myself I was originally self taught at composition. However, that doesn't mean that his music can't be critiqued. And unfortunately in Berserk it just does not work in my opinion. That is not to say I have a problem with his music entirely, I did enjoy the soundtrack he wrote for Paprika.
When it comes to writing, the macro plot was fairly decent, though somewhat standard. I understand and forgive the ending cutting off the way it does because I'm aware of the history of the manga's production. However I do have some fairly significant issues with smaller details of the plot. I didn't particularly enjoy the writer's compulsive obsession with having all of his female characters raped every other episode. Nor did I enjoy the somewhat blatant homophobic writing that focused on the 'disgustingness' of an act of homosexuality that happens in the show, not because that act wasn't done out of mutual love but for political reasons. Additionally, although the show does have a strong female lead, we frequently see her saved by her male companions, and raped on multiple occasions. Though she has her moment where she can stand up for herself at least. The same cannot be said for every other woman in the series... who are either simply portrayed as gawking after men, or are simply not treated as equals. While there is no issue with writing a society that has an issue with sexism, it must be carefully balanced with the broader message that the writer is trying to say to the audience, and berserk (at least in this adaptation) does not clearly nor articulately present any meaningful message that this society which treats women disgustingly badly is wrong for doing so.
Perhaps the manga is better, but that does not excuse a poor adaptation, and also given the chronic nature of some of my issues with this show, I doubt I would find the manga any different to be completely honest.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 15, 2023
While I am always very critical of shows released by Netflix, especially anime, I am also fair especially in regards to shows it produces that do work well, and I am the first to admit this is one of them. Little Witch Academia creates a very compelling world that can provide for a very interesting and enjoyable watching experience. That combined with interesting and unique visuals (which can be a hit or miss whether or not a Netflix anime will receive the "copy/paste" style or something unique), and a very competently made soundtrack provides a show with what I consider to be a slightly above
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average quality.
However, beyond it's pretty visuals and animation quality sadly lies a rather generic and shallow story, filled with plot contrivances, a weak protagonist, and a weak antagonist. And while I still enjoyed the show regardless and I think other people can too, it's important to understand before watching this show that you will not be experiencing anything deep. The motivations of the show tend to follow a "Believe in yourself" motto similar to the likes of other studio trigger shows such as Gurren Lagann. This is not necessarily bad... however it is something that Studio Trigger is unable to really develop past. It feels to me like their shows are refusing to innovate, perhaps because they know that this kind of story is one that will do well in the general public.
And similarly the characters are also quite off. Kagari, our main protagonist, does not actually go through any significant development through the series, and her progression with the story is often contrived in a way that makes her not actually learn anything substantial. For instance, the plot passes off mistakes that were her fault and assigs blame to other characters, and as a result she tends to not receive any direct repercussions of her actions on herself. And in fact, her actions sometimes directly result in the detriment of other characters. But the plot does not make light of this, it does not hold her accountable, she doesn't actually learn from her mistakes. Instead it makes excuses for her. It wasn't her fault, it was someone elses, she was being manipulated, she had good intentions. The show even at one point does a meta analysis of her entire character and literal calls her out for being self centered but this isn't something that she really works on developing. Another issue is that one of the things she was supposed to learn in the series was patience, and this was deeply tied with the plot progression, but she never actually learned patience. After the point where she was supposed to learn that lesson she was still as impulsive and impatient as ever. While not a Mary Sue, at times her lack of character development really damages her credibility to me as a viewer.
Likewise, the motivations behind our main antagonist, which mind you is not even introduced until halfway through the series, are not well baked and also ignored until the very end with a cookie cutter "I want power" jealous motivation type, which also establishes some rather major plot holes when it comes to their relationships with other characters in the series. Not to mention their ultimate plan was rather obviously a bad one at least in my opinion and I find it hard to believe that they, considering that they are supposed to be an intelligent character, would not have understood the severe problems with what they were trying to do.
Little Witch Academia is a good show for mindless entertainment and it is definitely worth the watch if you want something fairly generic and not too deep, but competently made when it comes to visuals, animation, and sound design. However I would not recommend watching if you are looking for anything with a large amount of substance.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 19, 2023
Jojo is an anime which is known for its eccentric art style, it's over the top characters, and overall bizzareness. Sadly, Stone Ocean experienced what I call getting "Netflixed". What do I mean by this? Well, in essence, getting Netflixed means getting watered down to a diluted version of its former self. Like many Netflix shows, Stone Ocean relies on an overabundance of poor CGI in addition to bad animation. It is hard to believe, given the extremely slow release date and batch release of this show when compared to previous Jojo parts, that it somehow was released at a lower animation quality than perhaps
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even part 1 had. Compared to the absolutely stunning visual style and animation of part 4, and the extremely detailed art of part 5, part 6 is a shell of its former self. The abundance of cut corners when it comes to production even results in creating several minor plotholes during the first 12 episodes. In the first few episodes, there is a minor scene of Jolyne who is exiting a vent. Later in that scene she gets in a fight. This fight is resolved because Jolyne breaks a pipe that was coming out of the vent, which is shown to us in the form of a 'flashback'. The main issue is, that if you look back to the origional scene there is nothing showing the audience that she broke a pipe (intentionally or not), and it was not until that flashback that we see any evidence of a pipe being broken, or the fumes that ended up coming from that pipe. While this is only a minor plothole, it could have been easily avoided had the animation team just animated her breaking that pipe instead of resorting to a flashback that contradicted earlier events. The reason why I only include one example here is mainly so that the length of this review does not get too long.
Ultimately, while the anime does have a few good things about it, especially the voice acting, it is dragged down by the visual quality to the point where I just was unable to relate to the characters and the plotpoint. Except for Part 4, Jojo has never been strong on plot, so the visual hit shows much more than it would in other shows. It's a real shame, and hopefully we don't see this issue in the adaption of part 7.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 13, 2022
I do not ever have high hopes for Netflix adaptations, because a lot of their shows tend to be watered down content. Likewise, I did not have high hopes considered the game it is based on really had a poor release. However I was pleasantly surprised when I found in this show, not only the pristine visuals/animation of studio trigger, but also a fairly competent plotline. At least for me, not only does this series question the idea of humanity itself, but it also really has a successful utilization of the tragic hero. The worldbuilding is quite realistic in my opinion - you'll see a
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lot of small details if you pay attention which really adds to the life of the world they live in. The plot was fairly well written in regards to pacing, you can finish this in an afternoon if you have time, and it doesn't feel like the story was rushed either. The music, while not really aligning with my personal tastes, does accentuate the atmosphere the show is trying to describe and I respect it for that, although it suffers from lack of variety. Overall it's definitely worth watching when compared to other netflix shows.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 10, 2022
I to be honest, was not expecting to write a review of Shiki, but having not been able to stop watching it and binging it to completion within a day, I could not stop myself.
Shiki is a very intriguing take on vampirism that ignores the most common trope in the genre which assumes vampires as simply bloodthirsty monsters. The undead characters distinctly retain much of their humanity and values from before death. Each vampire, is faced with a moral and philosophical question: "Should I kill to survive". And most answer, yes. After all, who would not take a second chance at life?
Shiki, is both
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a horror, but also a tragedy. In my opinion, the best part about this anime is how the decisions made by both the humans and shiki lead to tragedy - one that could have been avoided had the two decided to attempt to cooperate. However, as is the case with people, with human nature, such a thing tends to be vastly difficult, especially when each side has their own goals.
There are some plot-holes however. The somewhat short-sides goals of the shikis to begin with. It should have been a consideration that was explored, at how the rate at which shikis were born would lead to a population problem, as is caused with any unbalance in the food chain. Nevertheless, this is not so much a plot hole since this end problem did not matter given the decisions each side made anyway. So it's more that I wish it was a possibility that was considered.
Nevertheless, the show brings a convincing story. The horror is brought not by shallow fear and jumpscares (which is way to often used in today's horror), but by philosophical contemplation of the grim actions taken by the townspeople. And that is where it shines.
The art was professionally produced, which checks all the marks in my books (I'm not a stickler for art which is subjective anyway). The soundtrack was also well done - I enjoyed the variety of styles. There were some parts, where I felt like the genre of music chosen for some scenes did not fit (An upbeat electric drum beat is not fitting for a scene with large amounts of gore and serves as a disconnect from the visuals the scene shows).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 25, 2021
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a tale told on on a scale unparalleled compared to that of many other plots. It displays an intellectualism not seen by many other shows in its complex use of strategy and analysis of political ideologies.
That being said, it's not an anime for everyone. For those of you who do not enjoy the Omniscient Third person perspective, and slow but deliberate pacings, this show is not for you.
There are three mediums of persuasion according to Aristotle: Pathos (appeal to emotion), Ethos (Ethics), and Logos (Logic). All to often, the main persuasion methods used in shows tend to be emotional.
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We 'relate' to a character, or we are brought into emotionally gut-wrenching scenes. And of course, this isn't a bad thing at all! However, in today's day in age we seem to be forgetting that the other two exist.
Unlike most shows, LotG main focus is this appeal to Logic and Ethics. The main concept of this show is an analysis of political structures, mainly, authoritarianism versus democraticism. And throughout the show it evaluates the strengths and flaws in each. Secondly, it sociologically studies society as a whole, and the people within the society. Therefore, it looks how Political, Economic, and Religious structures intertwine to influence the general public. And it goes into quite a lot of detail on each of these points.
It's characters are quite memorable and mostly consistent of 3-Dimesnsional personalities. Yang Wen-Li wishes to avoid war if possible, but he is willing to do it in order to preserve the maintain Democratic-Republicanism as a whole - to maintain the freedom of the individual. He also undergoes rather major character development. He often is presented with many compromising situations to which he adapts, and sometimes changes his earlier stances on his viewpoints.
But of course, something I'd like to focus on for the remainder of the review (since most people tend to not cover this) is the masterpiece that is the soundtrack for this anime.
Not often does one see the sound designer choose classical music for the predominant soundtrack of a series, but as a classical musician myself, I was delighted. The soundrack features works from Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninoff. Hayden, Mozart, and more. I enjoyed seeing if I recognized any of the pieces, and a couple which I did are:
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonaata mvt. 1
Beethoven - Pathetique Sonata mvt. 2
Ravel - Bolero
And more
Particularly I found it exciting that even with the use of classical music, the sound designer put the music well with the emotions of a given scene. Things are not overdone, but are placed in just the right context.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 25, 2021
It's not particularly common for an artform to completely overturn the generally used portrayals and accepted principles of it's form in order to innovate. However when it does happen, the results are always polarizing. Either it becomes a resounding success, or a complete failure. Serial Experiments Lain is an example of *why* innovation is a good thing. And its critical success ought to make that clear.
Unlike most plots, while Serial Experiments Lain maintains a form of chronological linearity to its pace, the viewer's understanding is not by any means linear, nor even guaranteed. And that is because it takes one of the largest gambles
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possible in a story. It leaves the entire understanding of the message and plot structure to the viewer. There is no explanation, at least, direct explanation of the world Lain lives in, only more questions. It forces you to think, to come to your own conclusions about the world. And because understanding and realization of a message is not guaranteed, replay value is extraordinarily high.
And after you finish watching the series for your first time, and are left with a distinct void of emotions filled with only a slight existential dread although you do not understand quite why, you are left with three distinct choices. To rewatch the series again and try to figure out things on your own, to research the answers of the plot, or to leave yourself forever ignorant. Yet regardless of which you choose, it has already made a lasting impact on you, which was its goal.
Serial Experiments Lain is a masterpiece of psychological horror, from the plot, to the visuals, to the sound. And the fundamental device it uses to create such a horror is twofold: philosophical existentialism and confusion. And it is these things that cause that sense of dread and emptiness you get while watching, and which lingers even after the ending.
There is a single large pitiful that many shows tend to make when attempting to exhibit psychologically fear in their audience. And that is to rely exclusively on fear of the unknown. For when the unknown becomes that which is known, we shall have fear of it no longer (e.g. Higurashi). SEL is the antithesis of this pitfall. Instead of relying on fear of the unknown, our ignorance makes us fear the very aspect *of* knowing, and when we do finally come to know the message, its impact is heightened, not lessened.
This device of confusion is heightened in several ways: As mentioned before the foundational source of confusion is not resolving or explaining anything about the world to the viewer, all that one will know is what one has inferred with their own mind. Secondly, this confusion is amplified through the use of the visuals, which often times are strung together to highlight mundane things such as shirts or faces. Scenes are changed at illogical intervals. Scenes are connected in ways that sometimes are non-linear, but also sometimes don't have any direct link in meaning to the previous scene, but will mean something perhaps later, or are referencing an earlier event.
This confusion primes the viewer and amplifies the dread that forms that there is something drastically wrong with the world that is lived in. That there is something amiss. Even though we are not sure what.
This is amplified through the art, sound design, and animation. Characters move and are drawn in unnatural ways, When an arm is closing a door, it appears that it is bent unnaturally backwards. Shadows appear to be alive. The sound design intentionally loudens natural sounds which are normally much quieter (such as the buzzing of electricity on the street) which puts us on edge.
And then it asks us questions about the characters: "Am I real", "Am I the real Me". We soon realize that even these supposed basic principles are things that can be questioned in this world. And then, to what extent might the same argument apply in the world we live in too? One particular reasoning which stood out to me is that, for all intents and purposes, our existence as a person is dependent on the memories of other. If no one remembers we exist, or existed, than for all intents and purposes, we have, not existed at all. Questions like these and more are explored through the show.
But of course, the use of confusion is a gamble, because since we are so used to being spoonfed the message of the plot. So often it is just directly stated to us. We might either fail to be able to understand at all, or we might take it on face value, and thus not appreciate it for the masterpiece it truly is.
But the innovation found in this series is something to applaud, although I feel as if I haven't done it enough justice in my review, because I feel like I have a hard time completely understanding all the complex philosophical messages portrayed in the show.
If a show does not accept the axiom that "I think therefore I am", at face value, than you know it has the potential to be great, and Serial Experiments Lain delivers.
Worldbuilding: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Art: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Sound Design: 9/10 (voice acting was deficient when compared to everything else)
Total: 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 11, 2021
In my opinion, Black Clover is a fairly overrated anime which has major issues in many different aspects of its production. Having watched it until it's completion it was a huge disappointment for me, considering that the original idea sounded intriguing. I've also heard the manga is much better (though at the time of writing I've not read it), so I'm rather miffed that they studio put this low a quality into what probably was a fairly decent series.
Worldbuilding: 2/10
While the writers of Black Clover did create a somewhat extensive world to work with especially when it comes to the magic system, the application
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was overall underwhelming.
The entire universe only consists of four countries, and the relations between them tend to be very basic. We know the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom are at war, and we know that the spade kingdom is struggling for resources, but we've never really gotten to see enough to completely understand why they would be willing to literally abuse and mutilate children in order to gain more military power. Blatant terrifying acts like that only hold weight if we are able to really spend time with some exposition about the country as a whole. That being said, we only learn about the Heart kingdom extremely late in the series, and we know perhaps even less about it than the Diamond kingdom. Why would the Heart Kingdom isolate itself if it objectively had more military might than probably the Heart and Clover kingdom combined. Granted that it seems to be run over an absolute monarchical rule, It doesn't make sense that all of the ruler's have been benevolent for some reason. That goes against the most blatant weakness of authoritarianism, which is that it is extremely prone to corruption. And the spade kingdom is barely mentioned at all until the very end of the season when it becomes the capitol of the dark triad.
As for the magic system, although it might appear to be extensive at a first glance, it's only complex at face value. Yes, there are different types which can counter each other (which in and of itself is a rather basic concept of a magic system which includes types), but the overall adaptability and application of each power is limited heavily on a person's grimoire. The extent to which they can use their powers and their special abilities are specifically limited to spells written in the grimoire. And their powers are only ever used at face value, no one is stretching exactly how far they can take their powers and using that to develop new ones. And although we see people 'train' or try to develop emotionally, the correlation to them getting a new spell is non-dependent. The character isn't developing their powers themselves, the new spell just appears out of thin air, and the character had no say whatsoever in what the power does. It's extremely uncreative and really does a magic system injustice, especially considering the potential it had to be good. Imagine if through training you could write your own spells in your book. Or if we saw powers being adapted in uncanny ways like Finral's portals being used to easily accelerate objects.
Plot: 1/10
The plot in the anime is rather generic and cliched especially for shonen which is already oversaturated as is. We've seen it so many times, a character doesn't have any powers, but then it turns out he either has some huge innate power, or inherits the power from something. Examples of this are Fire Force, My Hero Academia, I could go on. Some of the arcs were interesting, personally I enjoyed the fairy arc with Licht the most out of all of them. Honestly if it had ended there my score might have been higher. However with the introduction of the demons as antagonists the quality just went down. The demons became an escape from proper pacing and power scaling.
The pacing of the series itself is fairly decent up to the end of the first demon fight. I'm saying that purely in terms of new plot though. The amount of flashbacks and narration is an obvious attempt at trying to stretch the length of the series as much as possible. new plot doesn't start until 6 minutes in most episodes. If you count the outro as well that's about 8 minutes of the show doing absolutely nothing. considering 24 minutes episode times that's only a 16 minute actual episode length, which is ignoring that flashbacks in some episodes might take around half of that time (especially nearing the end of the anime).
Before the last arc of the anime (dark triad), the timeline skips an entire 6 months, during which time most of the characters have apparently become ridiculously overpowered. And then we're thrown suddenly into fights with a ton of new enemies which we had not seen before and have no emotional connection towards, and somehow they are just as powerful, or even more powerful than asta and the commanders. Not to mention, 3 episodes from the end a new mentor is introduced.
However my biggest gripe, is that the series ended.... WITHOUT THE FINAL FIGHT. Yes, I know it's getting a movie sequel. But still. A 170 episode buildup, and we get a corny ending about how they are going to get stronger and defeat the dark triad. Yes, I'm getting a little emotional here, but seeing the ending really upset me. It really upset me.
Characters: 1/10
I of course don't mean to say that all of the characters are bad, but unfortunately most of them are extremely 1 dimensional and based on cliches. Asta has one goal, and one goal alone. He's unrealistically optimistic, and he never goes through any substantial character development. Most of the time, the show portrays him as completely perfect. Maybe not in physique, but in character. People who throw any actually valid criticism at him about his mantra of 'never giving up', even when realistically he ought to have died several times over are generally thrown under the bus at some point. That's essentially the definition of a Mary Sue. Why would I like Asta when he essentially is constantly screaming, and believes that if he swings his sword faster, and rushes at his enemy in a slightly different way than before, and for some reason the writers say that it ought to work. There's no way people would enjoy Asta if he was a person in real life.
Yuno isn't that much better. He has the exact same goal as Asta, and the two are said to be in a rivalry over it, Yet we don't actually see much of a rivalry. Maybe this is a mistranslation of the original Japanese meaning, but rivalry generally implies conflict and a distaste towards the rival which we don't see. Another problem is Yuno's power scaling generally happens off screen, so we generally don't have any emotional connection with him. This is further amplified by the fact that he's portrayed as being stuck up and somewhat elitist. And I don't want to spoil the fine details of the plot but there are some very very cliche explanations for Yuno's past which is a letdown because it was hidden from us for most of the series.
As for the Dark Triad, their personalities are probably the most one dimensional out of all the villains in the series. They embrace evil for the sake of evil. One is a megalomaniac, one is a narcissist, and the last is a masochist. If you've seen it you probably already know which characters I'm referring to. Their underlings have the same one-dimensional personalities (often time relating extremely obviously to the actual power they have like the tongue dude being a pervert). But the largest problem is we only get to see them extremely late in the series. They don't have time for any character development at all, Especially when compared to Licht.
That being said, I'd say Licht was my favorite character because he at least seemed to have more than one motivation for his actions and ideals, and you couldn't just lump him in there with the notion that he was completely evil. Although, the same can't be said for his minions.
There are plenty of other side characters I could talk about as well, but the cast is so broad that it would be impossible to get into all the details in this already long review.
Art/Animation: 3/10
When the anime tries, it does well. Still scenes look pretty decent, the animation quality is nice. However, in the fight scenes, where arguably the most effort ought to be put in, the quality greatly diminishes. Lazy fails to describe it enough. Ground ceasing to have any texture whatsoever. Characters loosing some discernable features occasionally. It completely breaks the atmosphere of the fight scenes. This problem becomes much worse in the later arcs of the anime.
Sound: 5/10
Of all things, the sound gets rated the highest I'd say. Mainly because the music wasn't that bad. Sure it was somewhat generic in terms of compositional style, but for the most part the music matched the mood of the scenes, and the production quality was up to standard. It's forgettable, but it serves its purpose.
However the voice acting for asta in particular wasn't that great. I know a lot of other people have mentioned this but his screaming is just ear-grating and there is no real point to it at all.
Overall: 3/10
Unfortunately I just can't recommend this show to a new viewer. It has extensive flaws in many aspects of production that just ruins its potential. It relies heavily on cliches, and generic plot devices to drive the story forward, and the ending is extremely anti-climatic. If you decide to watch please keep these points in mind. Don't go into it expecting an innovative shonen or a great plot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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