Jeoffrey

Although most people I have talked to on this subject consider the first season to be the worst, I personally do not count myself among them. Getting to know this anime series at all was something quite unexpected for me. Somehow I did not have much faith in combining an insane ecchi comedy with an interesting modern fantasy narrative, and that the result could be this good. I really enjoyed this show, the main male protagonist in particular, who does not care about the fact that he is a perverted high school student... As has already been said in other reviews, even though the ending of this show is a clichéd "save the princess" type of ending, it really is perfect, it is executed really well and gets quite emotional. I think High School DXD is the best ecchi anime series at the moment, although I still somehow cannot bring myself to award it five stars, because unlike Issei, I am ashamed of being a perverted creep... 8/10.

Whether you are Czech, or African, or even Japanese, there are still some things you should simply never do together with your mother... This is a completely weird anime series, which, at times, I found almost painful to watch because of how stupid it is. It is simply an example of how a good "fantasy adventure with my mom" style concept has the potential to go completely down the toilet. Sure, this show is a "cringe-fest" of immeasurable proportions, and that was to be expected, however, this is really totally unbearable, and with all the extra fan service and some scenes which I found tasteless, I regret to say I am not going to be watching more than these three episodes. Unfortunately, the message of this show regarding how we should respect our parents even if they are plain "embarrassing" at times just really sucks for me, because it gets completely lost in all the ecchi and sheer awkwardness of the show. Moreover, even individual scenes about deepening relationships, building trust, etc. get lost in a load of extreme rubbish or appear completely unexpectedly and are wildly out of place. In other words (watch out as this is an example from the show, so is probably a SPOILER ALERT), are you being horrible to your mother? Come over here because she is going to clean your ears out, as that is a well-known ritual in Japan that signifies she believes in you. Plus, she is going to do that right here and now in front of everyone, even if it does completely go against the mood of the moment! (END OF SPOILERS). On the other hand, you could never accuse this "MAMARPG" of being just another cookie-cutter ecchi isekai, because there are some never-seen-before unique things about this show. The very idea of going on an adventure with your mother is quite original, the way the characters got to the world the show is set in is again original (no death, falling asleep at the computer, or unexplained teleport - no this was a well-planned government project!!!). There are even some typical ecchi scenes which end in an unconventional way, where the characters are capable of appropriately commenting on them (see episode three). Partial originality is fine, however, unfortunately, it ultimately does not redeem the final rating, because when something is so cringe-worthy that at times it hurts, then I simply am not going to watch it. My time is too valuable these days, and this anime series is not going to steal more than seventy minutes of it from me, and already I dare say it deserved no more than a 3/10 from me. Dropped after the third episode.

When I watched the first episode, I saw a single review on the discussion forum that said it was "hilarious". After the first episode, I still did not really believe it was that funny, although I have to admit that it has really picked up a lot of momentum since that. The two main couple of protagonists are quite interesting, and their interaction and dialogues seemed entertaining, although it was only after another two members were added to the gang that it really got going. It is almost as if Terry Pratchett decided to make a fantasy anime series based on the world of RPG. I mean, even just the witch who can only cast one super devastating spell perfectly is Pratchett-esque and is almost like his character Rincewind. Plus there is the flying cabbage? Are they being serious? The combination of ideas, originality, the wacky humor, the interesting world of RPG, and some classic Japanese tropes (it was to be kind of expected that the “steal” ability would turn out the way it did, although I thought Kazuma would use it to get some bras...). Anyway, it is a combination that works! Very much looking forward to the second season... 9/10.

Once again, this is a conversational anime series full of strange storylines and insane associations between certain characters. However, it won me over, and this is mainly because even though it is a crazy madhouse of a show, I could understand most of the girls' thought processes, and I often found them amusing. I feel like this whole show has incredible energy. The five main protagonists of the show are a nicely balanced group, and so the show features each character taking their turn, every dog has his day. The show does not contain too many Japanese cultural references which a "western audience" would probably not get either, or perhaps that is because I have seen so many anime series that I now get some of them without thinking so I do not notice them?!? The soundtrack also makes the show more pleasant to watch, including the opening, which I did not skip over even once, and the ending, which (as daGGos writes in his review) is truly unforgettable. 7/10.

Killing of an ugly CGI scorpion is definitely a worthy activity, at least it should never return to be seen on screen ever again... No matter how I look at it, the main thing this movie accomplished was helping me to realize that Ryuu Lion is the most interesting and compelling character in the entire Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? universe. She should probably get her own series, which would probably turn out better than Sword Oratoria spin-off. Anyway, back to the movie. Another realization that I had is that I must be getting really old because Hestia and Liliruca and their jealous outbursts were actually not entertaining at all... On the other hand, Werf was again alright, he had at least one really memorable moment where I remembered why I consider him to be the best male character. Bell is still Bell, he dreams big, he lives life to the full (like a proper shonen main male protagonist) and for some mysterious reason, women fall at his feet. If it were any other white-haired main male protagonist, I could have understood the legions of female fans, however, with Bell, I find it just does not feel right somehow, even though he keeps (not) trying so hard... Nevertheless, it was a pretty good fantasy movie, or rather one of the slightly better ones, although I swear to all the gods you are not going to get more than 6/10 from me.

Initially, I had only read the English synopsis, and so I had great expectations - I thought that this was going to be like an animated version of Monster Hunter: World! I was expecting some thrilling expeditions into the heart of an unexplored continent, capturing that amazing atmosphere where you discover something new and unexpected every other second. After all, a brand new continent with dangerous flora and fauna offers inexhaustible possibilities for a skillful screenwriter. Another one of my expectations was that it would have fight scenes with a variety of great monsters! I guess that makes it all the more disappointing that Magmel of the Sea Blue really contains the bare minimum of what I have described. It is largely made up of stand-alone episodes, there are fewer forays into the unknown than I would have expected, and it is certainly not half as original and surprising as I would have liked. The fight scenes are not really very dramatic, and for example, the last one with the character turning into something like pink bubblegum and throwing "tentacles'' everywhere was just laughable. The whole of the (three-part) final story arc was what definitely ruined any reasonable impact it could have had on me. There was no interesting focus on Magmell, which could have been the biggest draw of the whole anime series, and instead, the anime’s creators tried to appeal to the audience's emotions. SPOILERS. They did not, however, do a very good job, and I was once again incredibly disappointed and even quite irritated by the classic "plot armor" they had for all the characters END OF SPOILERS. It could have been better if it were at least delivered in some nice and colorful graphics, however, even in terms of the animation it is certainly not a showstopper... This was another big disappointment of the spring 2019 releases. 4.1/10.

The second season of One Punch Man is clearly worse than the first, even though the question is still how much worse?... Opinions vary, with die-hard aficionados of the show either not wanting to admit the show got much worse, or blaming it all on the J.C.Staff animation studio, who, according to them, did not put as much (finances, heart, effort...) into this second season as the gentlemen from Madhouse studio, responsible for the first season, did. Be that as it may, the quality of the action scenes deteriorated - this is a fact! Saitama, the main male protagonist, has considerably less screen time (this is also a fact), the show has a flat arc, where people grow around him whilst he is just seemingly floundering in search of bugger all (throughout the whole of the tournament), and attempts to deal with his existential crisis, even though even this is not as interesting as I would have expected. Then there is the narrative itself. There are a lot of other characters, although most of them are probably quite forgettable, so I wondered why they were necessary. There was a war brewing between the heroes and the monsters, and I was admittedly a bit on edge wondering how it would turn out, and waiting for the main male protagonist to start to figure it all out (and apart from a few brief scenes, like the end of the last episode, I was coming up pretty empty), I guess that is all. As for how epic of a conflict that was supposed to be, I just feel like, OK, although it was not nearly enough! In a nutshell, the second season is mostly a disappointment for me, although again - how big a disappointment was it? I certainly would not agree that this was a disaster of Jar Jar Binks proportions, and to give it, say, a “BOO!" or one-star seems grossly inadequate to me. Plus, in some of the scenes, Saitama's lines, and his behavior actually made it more enjoyable (unexpectedly). Personally speaking, although I always consider whether I am enjoying something as an important factor, I actually enjoyed this season considerably less than I would have liked. Despite that, I am not going to relegate this season to the "mediocre anime series" category (and I did not consider about bellow average rating even for a moment), because after all, it is still quite funny in places... So, in the end, I am going to award the weakest four stars - 6.5/10.

The third season of Bungo Stray Dogs is like a carbon copy of the second. It once again starts with a flashback, and once again we have some "major conflict" in the second half. Although the first half of the season failed to engage me that much this time, thankfully, the second half was much more entertaining, more thrilling, and more imaginative. So it redeemed the overall impression I had of the third season (I wrote something similar about the movie, didn't I?), and I thought that the ending itself (the last part) could have deserved quite possibly five stars. So, it is safe to say that this time around I still did not find Bungo Stray Dogs disappointing, and when I worked it out in my head, I came up with something like 7/10.

So what do we have here? There is a scruffy, bespectacled kid with self-esteem issues who is supposed to be the club captain. There is a tough delinquent with a heart of gold and a tragic and complicated past. There is a likable and charming girl again with a complicated past. There is another girl with confidence and self-esteem issues. There is a professor (who supervises the club) who has a complicated relationship with music. There are the delinquent's friends, at least one of whom (a blond) also has self-esteem issues. In other words, what looks like a collection of case studies for a school psychologist is stuffed with a bunch of (way too many) clichés and tropes in the narrative typical for this genre, and yet, is surprisingly a relatively well-oiled machine and a likable anime series. In fact, most of the clichés and tropes work quite well, the dramatic scenes are suitably tense, the characters can be both cool and understanding at the right moments, and so Jeoffrey, as a viewer, found them believable most of the time, and they actually complemented each other perfectly in the most important moments. I, therefore, found a lot of the characters quite likable and I also found their fears believable. I was rooting for them as they struggled to get as good as possible at playing the Koto. Unfortunately, the further I got into the narrative, the number of clichés coming up were becoming more and more obvious to me. Even the handling of those key moments in the Koto Nationals competition itself (where everything was supposed to look as epic as possible) was a bit jarring for me. Plus, for example, the big performance at the end of the thirteenth episode, which was supposed to be, in some part, the best of what the group had played so far, did not really leave me feeling like it was anything spectacular, unlike the audience in the show, and the drama around Kudo and his hand (which is another great narrative cliché) was also not as dramatic as I was used to. In conclusion, at one point Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life was the BEST of anime season Spring 2019 releases, however, unfortunately, my interest is rather slightly waning, which may be a big problem when the second season drops in October 2019. The first one narrowly came away with 8/10 in the end.

It is a shame that the few glimpses of some interesting ideas in this show were only glimpses as almost every one of them was completely underdeveloped, and almost everything came across very badly. I have even read one review which said that this is kind of like an animated fantasy version of Avengers. I can somehow understand how the reviewer came up with this, although for me personally, it is a bit like comparing diamond and graphite, because although both are kinds of carbon... People wanted this to be a cool show, however, a lot of the scenes that should have been cool look ridiculous. The comic interludes that are supposed to relieve the cool tension are often embarrassing, and what am I supposed to think of a team that does not even believe in its own brand name? I thought the main villain and his girlfriend were the most interesting characters in this show (and they were the ones who changed my overall opinion after the last episode) and the whole emerging race of Demonoids was probably the only thing that interested me more. The main male protagonist is totally over-hyped, someone has to go on about him a minimum of two times every episode, and the fact that he “does not know when to stop” is supposed to be funny, even though it is not. The romantic subplot is going to be the main reason why harem fans will quit this show, and because of how dumbed-down it is, so will many others. Though then again, it is still better than Twilight... As for the rest of the good characters, I bet you are going to forget most of them within a week, or else - I am going to forget them within a week... Oh well, and yet with a little imagination, better protagonists, and a bit of quality workmanship, it could have been maybe even an overall decent average (because some of the fight scenes looked pretty good), however, according to my own evaluation I am awarding it 3.5/10.