Jeoffrey

So ended the second season of one of the biggest anime hits of our time. Sword Art Online is simply a cult show and while it has quite a few weaknesses, discussing them with die-hard fans is like teasing a snake with your bare feet. Was the second season better than the first? When I look at it as a whole, I have to answer, unfortunately, no. The first season is set in the world of Gun Gale Online and did not excite me. The setting does not speak to me. There was too much focus on the emotions and feelings of the main male protagonist. At one point, I had to hold my head and wonder about the mental breakdown of Kirito. On the other hand, when it came to the action (which was usually preceded by a thirty-minute strategy meeting and analysis of Kirito and Shinon's feelings), my heart leaped because it was clear that the anime's creators are indeed good at this. Kirito and his lightsaber were once again on an epic level, and he came across as an individual with a lot of Power. Another positive aspect (in my view) was the villain, Death Gun, who was scary and interesting to a degree, and while I could not hate him with the same passion as, say, King Oberon, he still basically did not disappoint. Summing up and comparing it to the first season - I enjoyed GGO a lot less than SAO, even though still more than ALO (the second part of the first season). The second part of the second season brought us two arcs, and I must say that I was much more satisfied with this. Kirito and his friends' journey to finding Excalibur and Asuna in Mother's Rosario was refreshing and more action-packed for me than the previous GGO. However, the show once again lacked a darker atmosphere, and Mother's Rosario also eventually felt quite forced. However, my cynical heart could easily withstand it. Still, I found these two stories much more connected to the original anime series, and their action scenes and interesting fight scenes were quite entertaining. As far as the rating is concerned, it keeps the status of an above-average show for me; just like the first season, it still has weaknesses and parts that prevent me from giving it a full score. Yet despite the second season being weaker than the first one; I still rated it four stars. Plus, I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, and I have hopes for the third season (does anyone doubt what it will be about?). It is supposed to be very dark, action-packed, and interesting, and I will hopefully get to experience the SAO phenomenon in full force and finally fully understand why there is such hype about it, although who knows. 6.5/10.

Yes, it is true; whoever came up with this must have been a brilliant fool with an imagination that knows no bounds. It is incredibly wacky, crazy, and insane as far as the visuals are concerned. I understand why others here often mention various narcotics and compare this TV series to a hallucinatory experience. When I look at the characters, I would have been hard-pressed to find a crazier collection of characters, and I have seen quite a lot. On the musical side of things, the opening alone, consisting of about four verses, is strange on the one hand, even though when you hear it for the third time, you cannot get it out of your head. And even if it were just that, it would be enough to rate the show as something interesting and unique. However, the moment you get into it and see all the little hints, you realize there is something more. Starting with the episode where certain tapes are revealed and the backstory of the world and individual characters gradually begin to unfold, this really good and entertaining show takes on a whole new dimension and that - to quote the author - "sweet candy on the outside, darkness on the inside" begins to take on a realistic slant. A mystery and sometimes an aftertaste emerge in the merry kingdom of sweets, adding depth to this crazy ride that we would not expect in something intended for children. Another positive aspect is that some of the main characters slowly but surely evolve (get older) and thus help develop further the plot of the story, which itself also develops slowly. Some questions are answered, although it brings up an awful lot of others and thus keeps the viewer constantly on their toes and keeps their interest growing to continue to explore this world and all the crazy and mysterious stuff there. When I first saw it, I did not get it, and the first glimpse into the realm of Ooo was one of the more embarrassing ones. However, it got under my skin very quickly, and I am probably in the addiction stage. I am curious what it will do to me and if it will leave any negative effects on me, although it is great for my imagination, so "What time is it? It is adventure time." 10/10.

Although there was no singing, I thought the characters, narrative, and atmosphere were all good and better than Disney's Frozen, which I saw recently. Certainly, as far as animation goes, it is not up to Disney's standard, although it was still pretty good. The main female protagonist Gerda was very charming and cute, and the elf (snow troll) Orm was very cool. 6.2/10.

At first, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace had the potential to be an interesting fantasy adventure: a bunch of students got supernatural powers and I was waiting to see what they would do with them. However, it turned out to be something like a poor man's Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions. I adored Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions and found it incredibly cute, funny, and interesting, and I could not help but love Rikka, so I know very well what I think of that show. However, I have no such boundless love and enthusiasm for this show. Sure, some cute characters like Chifuyu and the main male protagonist with his "superpower" can make me laugh. However, there are also a lot of episodes that just went by and did nothing, so although this anime series was interesting in part, I was often not entertained, and that is why I am only awarding it 5/10.

Initially, I did not want to get into this show because when I got familiar with the plot outline, I decided I had quite enough of the Mentalists, Sherlocks, and similar intellectuals lately. When I saw the new Scorpion TV series pilot, which is full of intellectuals and which I found almost unbearable at times, I was worried that this would be very similar. The main male protagonist was supposed to be immortal, which was suspicious (I thought: "Please, not another vampire!"). Furthermore, when I looked into it on FilmBooster, I found only some women admiringly singing their praises of the main male protagonist, whom I only knew from Fantastic Four, and I thought he was quite good in that, although I did not get what he had such a problem with. However, I did not get discouraged and started watching this show and I found that although my fears were realized and to some extent, it resembles Sherlock and even The Mentalist. I found it entertaining practically from the moment Henry uttered his first lines with that incredibly impressive accent. It got even better when the main villain spoke for the first time. I also have to join in with praising of Ioan Gruffudd, because his performance and portrayal of the main male protagonist make this TV series stand out (and which made me want to find out more about the actor, so I watched the whole Hornblower series, for example). On the plus side, I would add that this show also has an interesting storyline, sometimes very interesting cases, and an interesting relationship between the main male protagonist and his "son" Abraham, which sometimes even manages to gladden the viewer's heart. As far as the negative aspects are concerned, the main drawback here is Henry's "partner". The girl is completely nondescript that it is almost scary she is the main female protagonist. At times she even makes me wonder how someone like that could be a policewoman and whether she would be able to solve anything on her own. Of course, this is a TV series, and so it includes some episodes that are not so good, although that is to be expected. All in all, I am enjoying this TV series, and although I can see that it resembles some other TV shows, the important thing is that the execution is great, so the overall rating is above average.

Mär Heaven is a very nice and occasionally amusing shounen anime series that I found quite engaging when I saw it a few years ago; I remember liking Dorothy the witch a lot. 7.5/10.

Himegoto is a gender bender anime series and almost everyone who looks like a girl and has a skirt is actually a boy, and the only person who wears pants is a girl for a change, and then there is the student council, which are girls in girly clothes and are having a lot of fun. It is quite funny in places, although I found it a bit scary at times. Luckily, the running time was perfectly fine for me given the genre, and it was just something short and wacky to let off steam. 4/10.

If it were not for Rurumo, who I managed to grow very fond of within a few episodes, this show would have been awarded something between one and two stars. However, I am awarding it three stars because of the main female protagonist, whose cuteness, combined with her strange, emotionless nature, kept me entertained. I also rate it weak three stars because of Shibaki's mother, who managed to make me laugh at times. Normally I might award more. After all, when I enjoy something, I put the rating up quite a bit, perhaps beyond the average, because my viewing experience was above-average. However, the show itself may not be above average, and Shibaki and Chiro were unbearable at times. The girls, who kept chasing Shibaki and making it more of a farce than Shibaki himself, often managed to cross that line. All in all, I found it entertaining and gushed over the main female protagonist, and at times I felt like banging my head against the wall, so the result ended up somewhere in the middle. 4.8/10.

If Her Flag Breaks is a harem anime series with a strange storyline revolving around a slightly frustrated main male protagonist with a somewhat psycho edge and a peculiar ending. When you finish watching it, there is a sense of relief you made it through in one piece. Also, by the time you (or I) have a chance to figure it out, you are left in a daze and bored, even though you keep watching because you are waiting to see what comes out of it. I am awarding this one star for the nice animation and another star because it somehow managed to keep me watching until the end. 3.5/10.

Z/X: Ignition is another anime series based on a card game, even though it does not present the game, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!. It offers a narrative with some characters and cards from the original game. In the not-too-distant future, the story takes place when five black holes suddenly appear in Japan. Various monsters started pouring out of them because these holes are actually portals to different dimensions. The goal of each dimension has become the destruction of the other four, and to this end, they are aided by the local population and a device resembling a playing card. Well, as it happens, the nondescript main male protagonist, who has only the best intentions, becomes the owner of one such card and gets a pretty winged lady as his partner (he catches the card). With her help, he tries to intervene in the fight around him and makes friends out of enemies. It is a pretty good mash-up of angels, robots, various mythical creatures, and mythological characters. It is also full of all sorts of clichés and rather predictable twists. It was fun to watch, and while it was not very entertaining, it was not offensive. In other words, it is worth 3/10 because I finished it intact.