NOT: bu elestiriyi yazarken sadece 1. Sezonu izledim.

12 bolumluk asiri cocuksu romance animesi. Instagramda habire karsima waguri ciktigi icin bakiyim demistim ve tek olay da waguriymis cidden. Asiri sade ve hicbir problem yasanmayan bir yapim bu. Cogu yapimda senaryo ilerlerken bir sorun yasanir, ana karakter de onu cozmeye cabalar. Surekli asagi yukari ilerleyen bir akis olur. Bunda o kadar az sorun var ki ya hikayenin 'dandik' kismini izliyosun ya da pozitif yerleri izleyip dopamin aliyosun.

HIkayesi hem asiri cocuksu hem de hicbir derinligi yok. Bi kere biz niye 10 yasinda gibi sorunlari olan 15 yasindaki adamlari izliyoruz? Dizideki herkes peri masali gibi bir hayat yasiyo, kucucuk seyleri buyukttukce buyutuyo. Basta acaba izlemesem mi diye dusundum. Kendimi kandirip karakterleri 10 yasindaymis gibi dusunmeye calistim ve keyif de almaya basladim. Hikayede biraz daha buyuk problem olsa daha da keyif alinabilirdi. 12 bolumde yasanan en sorunlu şey wagurinin kankasinin erkeklerden tiksinişiydi. Hic "eyvah senaryo nereye gidicek acaba" diye dusundurtemediler. Bu yazarin bilincli yaptigi bisey muhtemelen ama hikayeyi de sığ yapmis. Tek guzel buldugum yer akicilik olabilir. Waguri ve jintaronun iliskisini tam miktarinca ilerletmisler. 5 bolumde bitse cok hizli olurdu 20 bolume uzasa sıkardi. Hikayeye 5 veririm.

Karakterler baya boş. Jintaro ana karakter olmasina ragmen hic icine cekemiyor kendisini. Tek guzel kismi waguriyle iliskisi, onu da waguri tasiyor zaten. Arkadaslari jintaro'dan da kotu yazilmis. Hepsi asiri tekduze ve klise karakterler. Jintaro ve arkadaslarina 6.25 veririm. Wagurinin kankasi guzel yazilmis anlari var. Son bolumlere dogru miyminti modunu acmis da olsa 7.25 veririm. Waguri ise tek iyi yazilmis diyebilcegim karakter. Kafa yapisi cok tekduze: iyi insan olayim bide mutlu olayim. Buna ragmen kendisini izlettiriyor karakter. Belki animasyonlari, belki de diger karakterlerin sığ olusundan surekli waguri ekrana gelsin istiyorsun. Son bolumdeki itiraf da klise de olsa keyifliydi. Waguriye 7.75 veririm. Genel karakterlere 6.75 veririm.

Muzikleri gayet begendim. Duyunca cok etkilendigin muzikler olmasa bile arkadan duyguyu almana yardimci oldugunu hissediyorsun. 7.5 veririm.

Animasyonlar biraz garip. Waguri ve kankasinin animasyonlari cok akici. Saclari da gozleri de cok guzel cizilmis. Erkeklerdeyse hic oyle bir ozen yok. Izleyici kitlesi erkek oldugundan kizlarin animasyonlarina tum parayi harcamislar heralde. Erkeklerin kafi animasyonlari da olsa waguri tek basina sirtlar bu animeyi. Animasyonlara waguriden dolayi 8.25 veririm.

NOT: Bu animedeki cocuksuluklar insanı izlemekten sogutabilir. 3 bolum izleyip birakan birine laf edemem. Beni ise cocuksuluklar rahatsiz etse de sonradan alistim. Alisinca gozumdeki puani yukselmeye basladi. Bundan dolayi 6.5 yerine 6,75 verdim.

Review: Girls' Last Tour – Finding Warmth in the Ruins

When I read manga, I’m not just looking to escape. I read to find real lessons—things I can actually use in my everyday life. This review isn't just about the plot; it's about the honest truths hidden in the story.

The Canvas

Girls' Last Tour drops us into a world where the worst has already happened. Society is gone, leaving behind a massive, empty wasteland of metal and concrete. The art does something really cool: the main characters are drawn soft and simple, which makes them stand out against the harsh, detailed backgrounds of the ruined city.

The story takes its time. It’s a "slice-of-life" manga, but life is happening in a graveyard. There’s no big bad guy, no ticking clock, and no grand mission to save the world. It’s quiet. It asks you to be patient, and instead of giving you action, it gives you a deeply peaceful atmosphere.

The Duo

The heart of the story is the relationship between the two survivors, Chito and Yuuri, as they travel in their little motorbike. Chito is the thinker—she worries about the future, reads books, and keeps track of things. Yuuri is the doer—she acts on impulse, focuses on the physical world, and is always looking for her next meal. They are total opposites, but they wouldn't survive without each other. The thinker needs muscle, and the doer needs direction. It’s a great example of how different types of people need each other to get through tough times without driving each other crazy.

The Lessons

Letting Go of the Panic Habit: Most survival stories rely on constant danger to keep things interesting. Girls' Last Tour does the opposite. Survival here means doing simple, everyday chores: finding a little bit of fuel, melting snow for water, washing clothes. It shows that getting through hard times doesn't always require panic or adrenaline. Sometimes, it just takes calm, steady discipline when nothing else is happening.

Finding Joy in the Small Things: When the big things in life—careers, society, leaving a legacy—are gone, where do you find meaning? Since the world offers them nothing, the girls have to create their own value. A warm bowl of soup, the sound of rain, or finding an old camera become huge events. It’s a reminder that meaning isn't a prize you win from the world; it's the value you choose to give to the present moment.

Accepting Reality Without Giving Up: The story never pretends the world isn't dead. But it shows a clear difference between having no hope for the future and falling into despair. The girls look at their bleak situation with total honesty. They don't fake being happy, but they don't break down and give up, either. They just accept things exactly as they are and keep moving forward.

The Takeaway

Girls' Last Tour is a great piece of quiet storytelling. But more than that, it’s a guide for dealing with burnout. It strips away all the noise of what life "should" be and shows that you don't need a massive, life-changing purpose to keep going. By simply accepting the reality of your situation—no matter how messy it is—you take away its power to scare you. Sometimes, just doing the work right in front of you is enough.

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Attention this review may contain spoilers and I recommend reading the manga first, making this clear I hope you like it and enjoy it. My intention is not to criticize or offend the creators of this work, it's just a review based on what I read.

I Made Friends with the BEST Girl in My Class..

Well, after watching the first three episodes of the anime I came running to read the manga and I didn't expect it to be so good. The story looks like the ones in every season, that is, cliché..

However, here it is different from the others the protagonist shows that he will be another character of romance but as he goes on he improves a lot in terms of development and charisma, something that a certain anime with its incredible FIVE SEASONS can't develop ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! And not to mention the manga that has more than three hundred chapters.

It's rare, but it happens infrequently. Maki saying he loves Umi was something totally different since insecurity and shyness are his biggest problems, but this (I love you) came out in such a natural way that it made things even better.

It was already a matter of time for this to happen and one time or another it would reach this point.

Ah.. I received some spoilers about the Light Novel in which the author went back on leaving it as a love triangle, but ended up not continuing. Yuu ends up falling in love with Maki and this idea didn't go very far! From what I understand it was in volume 7! It's fear that this would happen, Yuu is very dull and doesn't match the protagonist at all.

So, let's be honest and we have to agree that Maki suits Umi much more than Yuu and this is a fact that cannot be discussed. From the beginning it was kind of obvious that the two would be together.

THIRTY-NINE CHAPTERS SO FAR and we've had confession, kiss and more kisses, something that takes a long time to happen in any other of the same genre (romance).

These two were made for each other.

Making it clear that this is my opinion about what I've read so far about the manga, maybe I'll add something more as the story progresses. For me, the manga should end with the two getting married in the next chapters or a time skip.. I'm joking

I just hope the anime doesn't change absolutely anything I read here in the manga.

It's been a while since I stopped to read a manga as good as this one and I'll definitely buy both the LN and the manga. And speaking of LN I didn't see as much difference in the art of LN as the art of the manga. I think both versions are great

Note: When I originally wrote this review in 2014, I had friends at work who refused to watch Free because it came off as homoerotic. In my analysis, I spent an inordinate amount of time debunking this claim, and while my original intent was to reassure my friends that they could watch it without compromising their manhoods, it does unfortunately come off as accidentally homophobic. I'd like to think I've come a long way from this in the last twelve years... I've definitely found yaoi anime I liked and developed some more informed opinions on that kind of subject matter, so I've hesitated to post this, but here it is, unchanged, in it's original context.

Now the review will start.

About two weeks ago, I went into Gaia’s AMC forum to post a poll, asking the community what 2013 anime I should watch next. I expected Silver Spoon or Gatchaman Crowds to win, and they received 7 and 10 votes, respectively placing in second and third place. The winner, with 24 votes, was Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club, the notorious #SwimmingAnime that came into existence thanks to a viral animation sample, and an almost revolutionary ‘give us this show’ petition.

So, with almost half of that poll’s 60 voters daring me to dive head first into manservice oblivion, what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to turn my head, and avoid making eye contact with that glistening banana-hammock of a show? Or was I supposed to test my mettle as a critic against one of the most manhood threatening shows to be aired last year? Well, let’s think about that. I love Princess Tutu and Ouran High School Host Club, and I was a motherf(yay)ing brony for two years. So bring it on, you rabid hords of Fujoshi! I watched your #Swimminganime, and now, I’m going to review the crap out of it!

The story of Free! begins with four ten year old boys. They consist of Haruka, a quiet boy who only feels at home in the water; Makoto, a laid back best friend character who’s afraid of the ocean; Nagisa, an excitable little moppet who should, by all conceivable logic, be voiced in English by Greg Ayres; And Rin, an outgoing boy whose connection to his friends can only be trumped by his much much larger ambitions. They were brought together by their love of swimming, although they quickly adopt an inside joke that ‘fate threw them together for having girly names.’ In any case, after their first big relay tournament triumph, Rin leaves the group to go to a middle school in Australia to train so he can become an olympic swimmer. Nagisa also winds up going to a different school, and the fellowship is disbanded.

That is, until the first year of high school, when Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa are finally reunited, and Nagisa convinces them to start the long-defunct Iwatobi Swim club back up again! Because, as we all know, “High school club” has been it’s own ubiquitous genre ever since Haruhi Suzumiya started grabbing up all the money in the world. With Rin’s little sister as their manager, a shy teacher for their faculty adviser, and a brand new team mate in the meticulous beauty-obsessed Rei, and the sudden reappearance of Rin as their new rival from another school, their swim club has only just begun to tread water!

Before we go any further, I should probably address the pink elephant in the room... People refuse to watch this show because it looks gay. Now, I don’t feel like turning this review into a gay rights rant, nor do I want to make any statements about whether or not I consider homosexuality(or lack thereof) an indicator of quality. Maybe there are some good yaoi shows out there... I don’t know. The ones I’ve seen so far sucked. So instead, I’m only going to address whether or not Free is, in a literal sense, gay. Like Hakkenden was.

About a year ago, I was dared by a friend to rent and watch Magic Mike. At the end of it, I said the exact same thing that I said in regards to Free. “Wait a second... That wasn’t that gay at all.” Yes, both shows feature plenty of scantily clad men to thrill and chill the straight women and gay men of the audience, but both stories take place in a setting where wearing next to nothing makes perfect sense in context... Stripping in one, swimming in the other. I can understand some guys not wanting to watch a show about male strippers, but if the sight of guys taking their shirts off to swim makes you uncomfortable, then buddy, you’ve got issues.

And the show isn’t even a yaoi. There’s barely any romantic content in the first place, save for one side character’s crush on Kou, but when you really pay attention, Free! is nothing more than a gender swap of Kyoto Animation’s many female-centric slife-of-life shows. Yes, the guys use cutesy honorifics and nicknames, and they seem to have an uncommonly close relationship, but nobody throws around the word “Gay” while watching Lucky Star, K-ON! or Tamako Market... Well, maybe in the pejorative sense... But in any case, while there may be some shounen-ai elements floating around in this pool, they’re subtle, and too subtextual to really effect the story in any way.

And speaking of the story... Okay, a few paragraphs ago, I briefly compared this show to Magic Mike, but unfortunately, the comparison shall go no further. Magic Mike was an awesome movie, and Free! is just kind of... Okay. I hate to be mean to it, because the characters are likeable, and I was constantly clicking the next episode button, so it was able to hold my attention pretty well... Free! is Kyoto Animation’s first ever sports based anime, which automatically means it has more plot than half of the work they’ve put out thus far, but even with that to boast about, Free! is still just a little too passive for it’s own good. They go to a few swimming competitions, but the stakes of these events are never more than just “We wanna swim together and get a higher budget for our club.” The only time this story has any gravity to it is when our heroes are stuck in the ocean during a storm, and they never seen to desire anything other than “Let’s be friends and strengthen our bond.” That makes for a very pleasant tone, but it doesn’t make for a very engaging series.

The only thing in this story that really develops is the relationship between the five leading males. Their growth as individuals is negligible, aside from Rin, although I can’t really complain, because they’re all really likeable characters. Their occasional coach is only ever used when he’s convenient, and their faculty adviser makes little to no effort to distinguish herself as anything other than a recycled K-ON! trope. Kou, the group’s manager, is not used nearly enough, considering how much potential she has. If she actually had some character arc, even for a single episode, we could have learned something about her as a person... We could have learned why she cares so much about the swim club, and hey, we could have learned why she never swims a single stroke despite being an official member. Seriously, I get that she’s non-athletic and is too female to compete alongside her team mates, but they visit a beach for crying out loud! She brings a swimsuit, and then just hangs around with the teacher! Why?!

As I said before, it’s a decent, pleasant show, and while I didn’t find the plot particularly engaging, I still enjoyed watching it. The chemistry of the characters more than made up for their lack of depth. I’m monolingual, but the japanese dub sounded really good, and I had no problems at all with the actual dialogue. I didn’t find all of the humor effective, but it had enough good jokes to not be boring at any point. In a lot of ways, it’s a happy little distraction, just like K-ON!. Normally, I’d give this kind of show a 7/10, but there’s one more aspect of this show that I forgot to mention. And that aspect is...

The artwork and animation. Dear God in heaven, this is one of the top ten best looking animes I’ve ever seen. Kyoto Animation may not be known for having stellar stories... Haruhi, Clannad and Chuunbiyoh being the exceptions... but it always brings great animation to the table, and from that perspective alone, this is the best looking show they’ve ever released. The backgrounds and character designs are outstanding, the attention to detail is mind blowing, the characters are capable of a full range of graceful, fluid motion, and the water... Oh my God.

From what I understand, the animation demo that this show was originally based on was released so Kyoto Animation could boast about how well it could animate water. But in the words of Kid Rock, it ain’t bragging if you back it up. If you’re not taking a simplistic approach, water can be one of the most notoriously difficult things to animate. There are some CGI movies where they have to treat every drop of it like a blue grain of sand just to realistically portray the movement of a wave. While there are a few notable exceptions, like the stellar art design of The Little Mermaid, most examples of animated water range from ‘adequate animation that you’re not supposed to pay any attention to’ to ‘horribly awkward CGI texture that you can’t help paying attention to.’ I’m looking at you, Gantz.

But I have never seen animated water that looks as good as it does in Free. They used a seamless blend of 2D and 3D techniques to make the water look not only natural, but alive. Every reflection, every ripple, every bubble and every distortion is captured with the power of a force of nature, and yet with the subtlety of a facial expression. And that’s saying nothing about the water as a character. Yes, I just called the water a character, and maybe even my favorite one in the show. I find the relationship between Makoto and the water to be fascinating, and I actually want to see the show again somewhere down the road just to see if I understand it a little better!

All in all, Free! Iwatobi Swim club may not have very good writing behind it, but what it does have is a charismatic energy that will grab you right from episode one and not let you go until long after it’s finished. The amount of love and enthusiasm that went into this show is like night and day when compared to some of Kyoto Animation’s more phoned in projects, and if that’s not enough, it’s a visual feast for the eyes of both yaoi fans and normal people alike. It hasn’t been licensed for an English release just yet, but with free fansubs available in all the usual places, I can definitely recommend this for streaming. It’s a solid 8/10, and the water’s great, so leave all doubts in your locker and dive right in!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8

Huge spoilers for this film and The End of Evangelion.

When I first watched Space Runaway Ideon nearly six years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. Looking back on it now, I'm happy no one warned me about the absolute horror that is Be Invoked, because the memory of watching it for the first time will stick with me forever. That said, while my initial reaction was one of shock and awe and praying that Tomino would leave me a single shred of happiness by the end of this film (HAHA!), coming back to it for a second time gave me a new appreciation of everything it does so well.

First off, the movie looks and sounds amazing. The soundtrack is really strong and the orchestral music really adds to grandiosity of the film. The animation also takes a significant step up in quality from the tv series. not only in the details and the cinematography of the direction (some shots like Cosmo looking out of the Ideon window and Kasha's death are legit breathtaking), but especially in the fluidity of the movement. The entire film is incredibly smooth and easy on the eyes. The battle scenes aboard the Solo Ship in particular, with characters and mechas running and jumping and firing lasers at each other, are so clean.

Narratively, Be Invoked is a fucking rollercoaster, but instead of the twisting and turning part of the ride, it's just the initial drop for 90 minutes, and you don't hit the ground until the final credits start to roll. The levels of despair that the characters go through in this film are almost unbelievable. Even for depression-era "Kill 'Em All" Tomino, this is another level of relentless. Every single character is dead by the end of this film, and what might actually be even worse is how the characters slowly come to the realization that the they are all completely helpless to stop the Ide as it forces them into a battle that destroys themselves and, ultimately, the entire universe.

I like most of the characters in this series, but Cosmo is really one of the best mecha protagonists I have come across, a hot-blooded super robot pilot pushed to the absolute limits of suffering because of an all-powerful cosmic force and a war that kills everyone he loves. The despair for him and the rest of the characters is amped up tenfold in Be Invoked precisely because we see them as human. The short respite from battle in the middle of the film really allows us to feel for the characters, and I found it all the more crushing this time around because I knew what was waiting for them. Despite this suffering, though, Cosmo and the rest continue to fight the Buff Clan. Likewise, the Buff Clan continues to fight for what they believe in. What I love about how the Ide as a concept interacts with the characters is that its push for annihilation never feels contrived--it might exacerbate the concept, but the human issues of greed, fear, and racism would exist and create conflict whether the Ide existed or not.

It goes without saying that there is on here with these high concepts like Christian death and rebirth and Freud's idea of the id as a subconscious manifestation of humanity. The film allows us to consider these questions on free will and the purpose of human existence and our relationship with a God made in the image of man (or, as the Ide is described, a collection of millions of consciousnesses), but it never really offers any answers. Instead, it leaves it all out there for the viewers to interpret, and as you are distracted by the spectacle of death and destruction on screen, the film works these themes into the background to let you sit with them.

Much has been made about how Anno was hugely inspired by Be Invoked when creating The End of Evangelion and the similarities are obvious. I still prefer the End of Evangelion on the whole, but Ideon offers an incredibly unique take on these broader ideas of human destiny and the possibility of renewal as a collective and as an individual. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that despite the horror of the film, the final scene and the rebirth of the universe at the hands of Messiah seems almost hopeful. I really think Shinji's refusal of instrumentality is an alternate take on the ending to this film: what if Cosmo never woke up? What if he chose to remain in the world that was destroyed by the Ideon? We'll never know the answer to these questions, but it's hard not to make these sorts of connections. The same can obviously be said about the Ideon itself as this strangely sentient mecha that seems to influence not its pilot but the world around it.

But if the influence of Be Invoked isn't enough, I think it's also so impressive how this film changed the game completely for the mecha genre. Ideon was the series Tomino created directly after the original Mobile Suit Gundam, but it came out before the Gundam film trilogy turned the franchise into a smash hit. As a result, Ideon sits sort of on the edge of the "super robot" and "real robot" subgenres. The political drama between humanity and the Buff Clan, as well as the high death count and more serious plot, clearly follows in the footsteps of Gundam, but the more mythical origins of the Ideon seem more like Yuusha Raideen than anything that could exist in the Universal Century. Regardless, I really like how the movie follows through on Ideon's mystical side to create this unique blend of realism and fantasy, and I think it marks a really big development for mecha, especially in how it portrays the Ideon as both a robot and a beast or a force of nature. More than anything that came before it, in my opinion, it capitalizes on the dichotomy that Mazinger Z first set out a decade earlier of the giant robot being capable of becoming either a god or a demon.

All in all, I really love this film. I wanted to write a review of it six years ago and couldn't find the words, and I'm still not sure if I have found the right ones. Still, I can't help but gush over it and hope that you watch it, too.

Konu ve Güç Sistemi

Jagasaki normal bir kasabada polislik yapan, sevgisiyle yaşayan normal bir genç. Polislik işini sevse de bir o kadar da nefret ediyor. Çünkü Jagasaki'ye göre vurulması gereken kişiler var ve bu onun en büyük isteği/dileği. Bir gün metroda bir tane adam anomoliye dönüşüyor, bunun da sebebi o kişinin en çok istediği şeye dönüşmesinden kaynaklı. Bu güç de uzaydan gelen(sanırım) kurbağa ve baykuşlardan geliyor. Jagasaki orada iken içinde çok fazla vurma arzusu birikiyor ve ona gelen kurbağa ile birlikte isteği/dileği gerçeğe dönüşüyor ve bu güce sahip olupta kontrol edebilen kişiler Fractured Human oluyor, edemeyenler kontrolü kaybediyor ve bir daha insan olamıyor. Manga böyle başlıyor. Konusu gerçekten ilginç ve merak uyandırı. Manga, genellikle toplum, bencillik ve arzular, adalet ve eşitlilik, sevgi ve ilgi üzrine duruyor ve bunları işliyor. Her tema yeri geldiğinde güzelce işleniyor.

Karakterler

Shintarou Jagasaki

Bence manga'nın en iyi karkateri ve gerçekten çok sevdim bu karakteri. Jagasaki ilk başlarda hayattan fazla zevk alamayan biri. Mesela çevresindeki kişiler ona hep sahte gülümseme yapma, kendini zorla gülümsetme diyor. Evet gerçekten kendini zorla gülümseten birisi ve birlikte yaşadığı sevgilisi de hep ona bunu diyor. Birlikte yaşadığı sevgilisi ona hep evlenelim diyor ama Jagasaki kabul etmiyor çünkü Jagasaki gerçekten ne istiyor onu bilmiyor. Bu yüzden Jagasaki hiç bir zaman "Evlenelim" demiyor, hep geçiştiriyor. Bir gün Jagasaki metro da bir "Fractured Human" ile karşılaşıyor bu insan kendini kaybetmiş. Kendi isteği/dileği ile kendini yok etmiş. Jagasaki de "Shoot Them up" diyip onu yok ediyor. Jagasaki'nin bunca zaman istediği şey buydu; Shoot them up. Ama gerçekten bunu istiyor muydu? Veya bu güçü ona ne sağlıyordu? Yaşama isteği mi? Evlenmek mi? Veya sadece vurmak için mi? Hikaye de buna değiniyor, Jagasaki'nin gerçek isteği/dileği ne? Karakter üzerinden bu konuyu çok iyi işliyorlar. Gerçekten bu temaya ve işleniş şekline bayıldım. Jagasaki'nin gidiş yolu bir yerden sonra kendini kaybetmiş Fractured Human'ları öldürmeye çıkıyor. Peki bunu Jagasaki niye yapıyor veya insanlar bunu niye yapıyor, insanlar birbini niye seviyor, insanlar birbiri ile niye vakit geçiriyor? Manga'nın ana temalarından biri bu. İnsanlar gerçekten her şeyi kendi isteği için mi yapıyor, kendi bencilliği için? Jagasai üzerinde buna verilen cevap ise; Evet, Jagasaki tüm bunları kendi için yapıyor veya Clarabelle için. Jagasaki sonunda ne dünya da kıyamet koparken, ne dünyayı, ne insanları, ne kendisini kurtarmak istiyor. Bu yüzden boşluğa düşüyor ama sonradan olan olaylarla yapmak istediği şeyin sadece Clarabelle ile birlikte bir baharı geçirmek olduğuna karar veriyor. Gerçekten Manga'nın ana teması Jagasaki karakteri üzerine çok iyi uyuyor ve bu çok iyi işleniyor. Manga'yı bu konuda çok tebrik ediyorum. Karakterin sorgulamaları veya gelişimleri çok iyi şekilde işleniyor. Çok fazla mükemmel sahneye sahip bir karakter değil veye sahiptir gözümden kaçmıştır ama bildiğim tek bir şey var bu karakter güzel işleniyor ve sonda çok iyi bir gelişim gösteriyor. Bu dünyadaki anlamı arama açısından, bir insanın ne istediğin bulması açısından, bencillik ve yalnızlık açısından çok güzel işleniyor bu karakter. Bu yüzden bu karakteri gerçekten çok sevdim ve favori karakterlerime girdi.Unutmadan şunu da belirteyim; Jagasaki bunu ilk başalarda, Fractured Humans'ları öldürmeyi ilk başlarda eski sevgilisini geri getirtmek için yapıyor. Baykuşun dediğine göre, eğer Bütün kurbağaları öldürürse ve en sonda kendisi ölümüyle birlikte isteğini yerine getirebilecek, öldürdüğü sevgilisini geri canlandırmak ama bunu niye yapacak? Manga burada da bu soruyu sordurtuyor ve buna cevabı ise kendini iyi hissetmek için, onu sevdiğinden veya önemsediğinden değil, ona düzgün davranamadığı için, istediği ilgiyi veremediği için kendini pişman hissediyor ve sırf bu bencil istek için onu canlandırmayı umuyor ama sonra bu istekten vazgeçip bulundurduğu kafasını yakıyor, bu da onun için mükemmel gelişimlerden biri.

Ne için savaşmalısın/hayata devam etmelisin? Tabi ki kendin için, kendi dileğin için

Takemitsu Mikazuchi

Jagasaki'ye çok benzeyen bir karakter. İkisi de hayatta kaybettikleri/öldürdükleri kişiyi geri canlandırmak istiyor çünkü geçmişte yaptıkları şeyden pişmanlık duyuyor. Tamamen kendi bencillikleri için canlandırmak istiyorlar. Mikazuchi de geçmişte ailesine yeteri kadar vakit ayıramamış biri. Çocuğuna ve eşine yeteri kadar ilgi verememiş biri. Bir gün eşi kalp krizi geçiriyor ve ölüyor bu yüzden çocuğu ile yaşamak zorunda kalıyor. Çocuğu ise onu hep bir kahraman olarak görüyor, eğer onun gibi insanları kurtarırsa annesi tarafından iyi çocuk diye sayılarak sevileceğini sanıyor. Bu yüzden Çocuğu yanında bir Fractured Human vakası olunca kendisi de Fractured Human'a dönüşüp kendini kontrol edemiyor ve bilincini kaybediyor ve Mükazuchi onun kim olduğunu bilmeden onu öldürüyor.

Bu yüzden de hep pişmanlık duyuyor ve onu geri getirmek istiyor ama Jagasaki'nin geçtiği yerlerden o da geçiyor. Gerçekten ne iştiyorum? Bunları niye yapıyorum? Sonra ise kendisi için yaşaması gerektiğini anlıyor ve kendine yeni bir dilek ediniyor; Jagasaki'ye korumak. Onu korurken de ölüyor. Gerçekten çok çarpıcı bir conclusıon ile aramızda veda ediyor. gerçekten beni baya etkileyen bir karakter oldu. Bence Mikazuchi de Manga'nın en iyi karakterlerinden.

Motomu Robahata

Kendisi kısaca Kızlara taciz eden biri. Kendis manga da o kadar yer etmiyor ama bence konuşulması gereken bir karakter. Bu karakter Jagasaki'nin eski arkadaşlarından biri. Gerçekten çok ucube bir tip. Kızların evine kamera koyup onları izleyip masturbasyon yapıyor, aşağılık birisi. Bunları neden yapıyor? Kendini yalnız hissettiği için, kendini bu dünya da tamamen yalnız hissettiği için bunu yapıyor ve bir gün bir güç ediniyor; İstediği kişiyi dilleyerek onu kendine tapmasını sağlıyor. Gücü de kendisi gibi aşağılıkça. Bu karakteri sadece dilek/istek şeyini anlatmak için inceliyorum. Karakterin baştan aşağıya ucube olduğunu biliyorum. Baktığımızda manga da anlatılmak istene mesaja uyuşuyor. Herkes kendi istediği şeyi yapmak istiyor, doğru veya yanlış önemsiz herkes istediği şeyi yapmak istiyor ve bu yüzden diğer insanları kıskanıyor(Bu dediğim şeyi ele alan iki karakter var, onları da açıklayacam.) Bunun yaptığı şeyin sırf yaşamak için diğer insanları öldüren biriyle farklılığı ne? İkisi de sonuçta kendi isteğini gerçekleştiriyor. Burada tacizi meşrulaştırmak istemiyorum ama manganın anlatmak istediği şey bu. İnsanlık bencildir, ne isterlerse onu yapmak ister, hep diğer insanları kıskanır. Bu karakter de manganın anlatmak istediği şeyi çok güzelce ele alıyor, tabi bu ahlak dışı bir şey kesinlikle yaptığı şeyi doğru kılmıyor ama sonuçta yapıyor, yaşamak için yapıyor. Bu karakter de manganın asıl anlatmak istediği şeyi açıklamak için kullanılan karakterlerden biri.

Super Hero Team

Manga'nın ilk kısımlarında bir süper kahraman takımı vardı ve bu da Manga'nın ileride daha detaylı açıklayacak "Bencillik" kavramını/temasını açıklıyordu. İçinde bulunan kahramanlarımız ne kadar dünyayı Fractured Human'lardan ayırlasala da hepsi bu şeyi kendileri için yapıyordu. Birisi Fractured Human'larla savaşıp herkesin beğendiği bir idol oluyor(Arzulanmak), diğeri elde ettiği popülerliği kullanarak kızları kandırıp onlarla sevişiyor(Şehvet), diğerlerini hatırlamıyorum ama her biri kendi bencillileri için yapıyordu bunu. Ne dünya, ne insanlık, ne ahlak, hepsi kendisi için yapıyordu. Bu karakterler Manga'nın ana mesajını açıklamak için oldukça önemli yere sahipti ve bu yüzden oldukça beğendim bu karakterleri.

Airi(Kurye eleman)

Hayattan bıkmış, her zaman başkarılını kıskanarak hayatını yaşamış bir genç, bir gün kuryelik işini yapyığı sırada bir parti yapılan eve pizza siparişi götürüyor. Götürdüğü sırada içinde çok büyük bir kıskançlık kaplıyor, "Neden ben değilim" diye. Neden bu tarz hayatlar yaşayan, ilişkiler kuran kişi ben değilim. Neden mutlu olan kişi ben değilim. Ve bu kıskançlık arzusuyla bunu bir güce dönüştürerek "Airi" adından kızın bedenini ele geçiriyor ve artık onun bedeninde yaşıyor. Bu karakter baktığımızda gene kötü bir şey yapıyor ve ileride bundan pişman oluyor. Peki bu karakter niye bunları yaptı, tabikide kıskandığı için, sevilmek istediği için? Peki dünyada herkes eşit olsa ve kimse kimseyi kıskanmasa nasıl olurdu? Dünya da istek diye bir şey kalır mıydı? Dünya daha güzel bir yer olur muydu? Manga bunu da sorgulatıyor ve bu şeyleri sorgulatan bir villain de var manga da. Airi'ye dönecek olursak. Kurye adam Airi'nin bedeninde gerçek aşkı aramya başladı. Güzel,Popüler, bir bedene sahipt, peki şimdi gerçek aşkı bulabilecek miydi? İlerlediği bu yolda iki tane ilişki yaptı. İlk ilişkisini yaptığında onu seven kişi onu bir nevi kıskandıracak şeyler yaptı ve Airi de garip davrandı bu yüzden ve ayrıldılar, diğer ilişkisindeki kişi ise de bunu sadece "obje" olarak kullandı ve bu yüzden gene bir ilişki kuramadı, yine gerçekten sevilemedi. Ne kadar güzel ve popüler olsa dahi sevilemedi? Peki sevilmek için gerçekten bunlara ihtiyacın var mıydı? Manga bu soruyu da sorduruyor sana bu karakter üzerinden. Buna muhtemelen hayır cevabı uyuyordu. Airi sonlara doğru kendisi gibi davrandı ve gerçek aşkı buldu. Gerçekten sevidği biri ile birlikte oldu, dileğini gerçekleştirmiş oldu. Bence aşk, sevilmek, ilgi görmek, dış görünüş açısından güzel mesajlar veren bir yolcuğu olan bir karakterdi ve bu yüzden oldukça sevdiğim bir karakter oldu kendisi. Manga için de "İstek" ve "Kıskançlık" kavramını işliyordu.

Chiharu Matsuyamachi

Manga'nın ana temalarından biri olan bencillik kavramını bize sorgulatan bir karakterdi. İlk başlard savunduğu şey ve yaptığı şey yüzünden kötü gösterilen bir karakterdi, belki de kötüdür bilemem ama gerçekten işlediği/ele aldığı konular gerçekten çok derin ve güzeldi. Mesela Jagasaki sen niye Jagaaan'sın diye soruyordu? Jagasaki de buna cevap veremiyordu. Chiharu'nun isteği; İlginç bir dünya yaratmak ve bunu yaratmak içinde bencil insanlara sahip olması gerek. Bu yüzden gökyüzünden kurbağları herkese verdi. Ryou ve zaichi'ye, Nomen'e veya diğerlerine bunları verdi çünkü ilginç bir dünya istiyordu ve bunu yapmak neye bedel olsa dahi yapmak istiyordu. Chiharu'nun Nomen ile olan güzel bir konuşması var.

"Herkes kendi dünyasının tanrısdır" Herkes kendini haklı sanar, herkes kendi çıkarları için bir yerlere gelmeye çalışır. Herkes kendini ana karakter sanır. benim buradan anladığım şey bu oldu. Eğe herkes aynı olsaydı ilginç olan bir şey olmazdı, değil mi? Chiharu açısından, dünyada herkes farklı olduğu için, kendi istekleri/dilekleri olduğu için bu dünya eğlenceli ve ilginç oluyor. Eğer herkes aynı olsaydı nasıl eğlence olanilirdi bu dünya. Herkes farklı olması gerekiyor ki belirli sınıflandırmalar olsun. Mesela herkesin aynı işi yaptığı bir dünya işlemezdi çünkü diğer işler boşta kalırdı veya herkes aynı görünüşte olsaydı bir kişi bir kişinin içidenki güzelliği nasıl farkedebilirdi(Airi), peki herkes birlikte olsaydı, bir eşi veya sevgilisi olsaydı, yalnızlık nasıl var olabilirdi.(Motomu Robahata) Herkesin farklı bir işi,amacı veya farklı bir görünşü olması gerekli yoksa bu dünya eğlenceli olmazdı ve bizi özel kılan da bu farklılıklarımız. Mangaka bu konuda çok iyi bir fikir sunuyor ve biraz da belki "Ben dünayayı kurtaracam" "Ben iyi birisi olacam" "Arkadaşlık herşeydir" bu tarz ideolojilere sahip kurgusal karakterlerle dalga geçiyor. Şu soruyu sordurtuyor bir insanın gerçek amacı başka bir insanı mutlu etmek olabilir mi? Buna verilen cevap kışaca hayır oluyor. Kimse kimse için elini taşın altına koymaz.

Nomans Nomen

Manga'nın ana temalarından birini işleyen diğer bir karakter. Eğer herkes bir olursa, herkeş eşit olsa dünya daha güzel bir yer olur düşüncesine sahip. Peki bu düşünce bile gerçekten bencillik mi içeriyor? Kendisi gerçekten herkesin mutlu olmasını mı istiyor yoksa içindeki boşluğa bir anlam katmak mı istiyor. Chiharu ile zıt fikirlere sahip olan birisi ama her neticesinde ikisi de bencil biri. İkisi de her şeyi kendisi için yapıyor. Manga bu fikride okuyuculara sorgulatıyor; Herkes eşit olsa mutlu olabilir miydik? Gerçekten Noman haklı mıydı? Bence hayır ve buna maganın cevabı da hayır. Herkes eğer aynı olsaydı kimse farklı olmasaydı bir insanı özel kılan kendi arzusu/bencilliği nasıl var olacaktı. Bencil olmak da gerçekten sorun var mı? Bencillik kötü müdür? Bu soruyu da bize sorgulatıyor. Genel olara iyi bir karakterdi. Ele aldığı konu ile birlikte.

Ryou ve Zaichi

Ryou geçmişte okulda çok fazla zorbalanan bir karakter olmuş. Belirli bir grup tarafından hep bir şiddete maruz kalmış. Zaichi bir gün Ryou ile tanışıyor ve ona yardım ediyor ama bu yardımları kendisine zarar veriyor, çünkü zorba onu da hedef alıyor. Zaichi'nin babası derin bir zorba tarafından tacizci olarak suçlanıyor ve annesi de trafik kazası geçiriyor. Burada Ryou ve Zaichi'nin intikam isteği alevleniyor ve Fractured Human olduktan sonra teker teker bu zorbalardan intikam alıyorlar. Manga da benim için çok önemi olan iki karakter. Hem manganın ana temasını güzel bir şekilde ele alarak islerken hem de kendi yazılmışlıkları da gayet iyi oluyor. Onları haklı buluyorum, zorbalar gerçekten aşşağalık birileri. Ama insan öldürmek ne de olsa yanlış bir haraket.

Güzel bir conclusıon ile de kapatıyorlar. Baya iyi karakterlerdi.

Çizim ve Savaşlar

Çizim ve savaş konusunda gerçekten iyi bir manga. Özellikle çizimleri favorilerime girecek kadar iyiydi. Hem çok detaylı hem de özgün bir sanat tarzı var ve bu benim oldukça hoşuma gitti. Bu çizimler güzel savaşlar ile birleşince gerçekten savaş sahnelerini zevkle okutturuyor. Savaş sahneleri gayet anlaşılır çizmiş. Anlamadığım bir savaş sahnesi yok. Kesinlikle bu yönden oldukça puan alacak bir manga.

Mesajlar ve Temalar

Bencillik

"Her karakterin kendine ait amaçları ve istekleri var, bu onları kötü bir insan yapar mı yoksa sadece insan mı yapar?" Bu soruyu sordurtuyor. Jagasaki Clarabelle İle birlikte olmak istiyor, Airi sevilmek istiyor, Chiharu İlginç bir dünya istiyor, Nomen eşit bir dünya istiyor, Ryou ve Zaichiö intikam istiyor. Bu onları kötü yapıyor mu? Ahlaken demiyorum, bir insanın bir kişiyi sevmesinin sebebi ona geri sevmesi olması onu kötü yapar mı? Asıl sorulan şey bu çünkü manga da öldürmek kötüdür diye bir görüş var. Burada asıl sorulan şey kendi bencilliğimiz için insanları çıkarları için kullanmak kötü müdür? Aslında baktığımızda herkes bunu yapmıyor mu, mesela seni sevmeyen birisini sevmezsin değil mi? Veya seni övmeyen veya sevmeyen bir dünyayı kurtarmak istemezsin. Burada asıl sorulan şey bu oluyor Çıkar ilişkisi ve bencillik kötü müdür yoksa bu bizi insan yapan şey midir? Bu tema ile seni sorgulatmayı ve bu temayı çok güzel işlemeyi başarıyor bu manga.

Adalet

Manga bazı yerlerde adaleti de sorgulatıyor. Bu ana mesaj veya tema değil biliyorum ama gene konuşmak gere diye düşündüm. Ryou ve Zaichi tarafından sorgulatılıyor bu tema. Mesela Jagasaki bunları alt ediyor ama sonra Zaichi soruyor ki "Sen de kendi bencilliğin /Kendi sevgilini geri döndürmek için bunları yapıyorsun peki ya benim bana zorbalık eden insanları öldürmenin nesi yanlış" diye soruyor. Yani biz insanları ayıran şeyler ne? Hepimiz kendi isteklerimizi başarmak için bir şeyler yapıyoruz. Mesela fırından ekmek çalan bir hırsız aç kalmamak için çalıyor ve onu yakalayan poliste eve ekmek götürebilmek için yakalıyor. Bu ikisini ayıran şey ne? İkisi de aynı şeyi yapmıyor mu? İkisi de kendi dileklerini yerine getirmek için bir şeyler yapıyor. Manga bunu da bize sorgulatıyordu ama genel olarak bu tema işlenmiyor. Sadece belirli yerlerde işleniyor

Hayatın anlamı

Hayatın anlamı nedir? Sevdiğin bir kişini olması mı? Kendisi sevebilmek mi? Bir yuva kurabilmek mi? Pişmanlıklarını gidermek mi? Hayatın anlamı nedir? Manga bunu hem bize sorgulatıyor hem de karakterler de işliyor. Her karakter kendi hayatının anlamını yaratmak için bu dilekleri kullanıyor. Aslında dilek dilkemekte bir sorun yok. Dileğimizin olması bizi insan yapan şey. Peki dilediğin şeyi gerçekten istiyor musun? Mesela Jagasaki uzun bir süre istemediği bir dileyi yapmak için uğraştı ama sonrada farketti. Hem anlam arama ve sonunda anlam bulmayı işledi bu manga, hem de yolundan gittiğin istek gerçeken hayatının anlamı mıdır diye sorgulattı karakterlere. Bu konuda oldukça iyi bir temaydı

Diğer Temalar

Aşk, sevilme, kendini sevme gibi temalarda var biraz bunlar biraz yan tema. Ama bunlar da manga da oldukça işleniyor. Bunları anlattım baya tekrardan anlatmak istemiyorum, sadece bunlarında var olduğunu belirmek için dedim.

Hikaye

Hikaye açısından pek bir beklentim yoktu ama bu beklentimin üzerine çıktı. Bir kaç inceleme okudum/göz attım ve çoğunda hikaye ortalama ama çizimler ve savaşlar mükemmel veya bir yerden sonra tekrara düşüyor diyorlardı ama tekrar etme dışında hiçbiri beni rahatsız etmedi. Tekrar etmesi de beni o kadar rahatsız etmedi. Bence tekrar da etmedi. Tamam savaşlar ve karakterler tekrar etti biraz ama bunları güzel işledi veya build-up oluşturdu. O yüzden bunda bir sorun göremedim. Sonuç kısmı da oldukça iyiydi bence. O kadar detaylı işlemeden sonra güzel bir şey ile bizi karşıladı manga. Finalinden de memnunum. Jagasaki sonunda ne istediğini buldu, dileğini gerçekleştirdi ve hayatına bir anlam kattı. Bunu diğer karakterlde yaptı airi gibi veya chiharu gibi. Chiharu sonda dediği bir söz var. İstek/dilek verilen bir büyü de olabilir(Yani bunu düzgün kullanırsan hayatını mutlu yapabilirsin) veya bir lanet de olabilir(Hayatını zindan eden bir şey) Burada da Fractured Human ile de bir bağlantısı var. Dileğini düzgün kullananlar tamamen kontrolü kaybetmiyordu ama kullananalar kaybedip insan dışı bir şey oluyordu. Yani elindeki isteği güzel kullanırsan bu senin yararına olur. Ve son konuşması da şöyle oluyor "Desire for that is what makes human beautiful" Gerçekten çok hoş ve güzel bir söz. Bu manga bazı şeyleri sorgulattı; Bencillik, sevilmek ve sevmek, toplumsal sorunları, adalet, çıkar ilişkisi,Haytın anlamı ve bir isteğinin olması seni ne yapar sorusuna da güzel şeyler söylüyor. Beklentilerimi kıran ve geçen bir eser oldu. İçinde inanılmaz derin şeyler olmasa dahi(Derin ama o kadar değil) bunları güzel ele alan ve savaş ve mükemmel çizimler ile birleştiren bir eser oldu. Seni hep hikayaye odak tuttu. Seni hiç sıkmadı ve güzel mesajlar verdi ve güzel karakterler işledi. Son zamanlarda okuduğum en iyi eserlerden biri oldu

1- Shintarou Jagasaki
2- Chiharu Matsuyamachi_
3- Takemitsu Mikazuchi
4- Airi
5- Nomans Nomen

1- Become One Arc CH136-163 8.5/10
2- Mikazuchi Family Arc CH127-135 8.3/10
3- Deader Land Arc CH78-102 8.1/10
4- Hairless Caterpillar, Hairy Caterpillar Arc CH65-77 8/10
5- Buppa Hills Tower Arc CH115-126 8/10
6- Buppa City Emergency Bill Arc CH32-53 7.8/10
7- Frenzied Frog Incident Arc CH1-19 7.6/10
8-S.K.A.T Arc CH54-64 7.5/10
9- Deader Land Infıltration Arc CH103-114 7/10
10- Triple H Arc CH20-31 7/10

Creativity does not always result in a well-thought-out work. Originality does not guarantee that your work will stand out. The use of symbols is a popular stylistic approach for expressing an author’s thoughts indirectly. Nekojiru-sou is certainly creative, original and full of symbolism. I must have liked it then, right? Well… not really. Masaaki Yuasa, whose Tatami Galaxy I absolutely love, disappointed me immensely in one key aspect of this work. Unfortunately, it ruins the entire experience of Cat Soup for me.
The most notable aspect of this short movie is that its dialogue is reduced to an absolute minimum. It obviously complements the overall atmosphere, which is undeniably overwhelming. To some extent, symbolism replaces conversations between the characters and helps move the story forward. A first viewing of Cat Soup may bring forth the feeling of confusion in its audience. The ever-present symbolism only intensifies that impression. From there on, people describe it as a “thought provoking” film, which it most definitely is not. The entire experience lasts about thirty minutes, and given its runtime, it becomes clear how few of its ideas are explored in depth. We follow anthropomorphic cat siblings on a journey during which they encounter a series of strange phenomena. It is difficult to say more about this movie without moving into a full interpretation of it. Therein lies my main gripe.
The ideas behind Cat Soup didn’t motivate me enough to analyze its symbolism in depth. If we treat the film as an experiment in presenting as many ideas as possible without developing them in any meaningful way, then the viewers should watch the movie superficially and not analyze what they have seen. Either way, the viewers are unlikely to find anything worth mentioning. Unfortunately, I chose to search for a deeper meaning. What I encountered instead was a plunge into a paddling pool and a sense of complete disappointment.
I wouldn’t call Cat Soup a complete waste of time, as it still serves as an interesting exploration of surrealism. Nothing more, nothing less. However, there are far better surrealist experiences across various forms of media, including anime, that also manage to tell engaging stories. After watching Cat Soup, one is left with a sense of dissatisfaction and a lack of joy from deciphering “riddles” from the author, who himself doesn’t know what he tries to convey.
If you don’t feel a strong connection with the concept of “art for art's sake,” and the artistic vision from 2001 doesn’t impress you much anymore, then you can safely pass on Cat Soup without feeling like you’ve missed anything worthwhile. There were a couple of moments that personally resonated with me in some way, but they weren’t nearly enough for me to defend this film. I don’t believe that the use of symbolism alone makes an author a genius. They also need to actually convey something, not just attempt to. I can only imagine the kind of conversations that took place among the people working on the short film. “So we added a bunch of stuff that might mean something, but we’re not sure what. Can you tell us?” “Meaning? What meaning? I thought we were doing just whatever we wanted.” And that’s Cat Soup for you.

Dears, oh Dears. This anime is an incestuous marriage of fan service and stupidity. It’s also a true testament to being boring. So with a concoction like that, everybody just knows that this show is going to make a great review. but as someone who was on the frontlines watching this shit, let me tell you something. This was extremely painful for me.

By the way this review is brought to you by Paid internet legends. Paid internet legends is a dark satirical RPG where you play as a guy who has to shamble on through life, while writing anime reviews on the internet.

Oh wait, that's just my life.
Oh well, let’s get back to dears.

So Dears, is an anime that came out back in 2004 by a studio called Musashino Productions. I only know this because a friend of mine also did a review on this anime m. He was comparatively more kind to the show then I’m about to be, because I and many other people who like anime, consider Dear's the worst anime ever made. So strap in ladies and gentlemen.

So what makes dears so bad? Well let’s start with the plot, which my brain is probably going to melt a bit while i’m describing it to you.

So the story takes place one year after an alien race crash-lands on Earth. After finding out that this alien species doesn’t have a name, the human race gets together and decides to name their species Dears. Which side note was Dears really the best name humanity could come up with. Look, whether you love humans or are misanthropic, you've got to admit we’re usually pretty good at coming up with names for things. Hell, it doesn’t even matter if they are real and fictional. So calling them dears is stupid. But fine, we’ll go with it.

Our main character is a high school boy named Takeya Ikuhara, who is extremely bland. Honestly the most memorable thing about this guy is that he sells porn to his classmates like Micheal from rooster teeth. One day while Takeya is walking home from school when he finds one of the dears who he takes in. By the way she dresses like she’s from a 70s sci fi porno, which I guess it could be fitting. After he takes her in he gives her the name Ren, the rest of the plot is mostly just filler. Yes there are some other plot details that come much later. But they're pretty small and I’m not going to bother recounting it. Just go read a synopsis if you honestly give shit, and while you’re reading that synopsis asks yourself why you care.

Now I know some may say that it's a comedy anime, so it’s unfair to say it’s filler when it’s making you laugh, because some comedies are like that. My response to that is you might have had a point if it was funny, but this isn’t funny on any level. This isn’t even a situation where it’s a different type of humour, because I could understand that and just say it’s not my cup of tea. But this anime is not funny on any level and in all different cultures. We stand united as species to say that this shit is not humorous.

Now to further my point about why this show is so unfunny, I’m going to tell you about Takeya’s teacher. You may ask why I’m singling out a minor character. Well that’s because every scene with this character is weaponized cringe. Literally the first scene she’s in is her with her tits out and in her underwear, while she’s laughing in the middle of class. Ok, this is supposed to be funny how? I will literally pay anyone $100 (Note I won’t) If they explain to me why that’s supposed to be funny.

Basically, she has the personality of the most annoying skank. Just imagine that for every scene she’s in, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what she’s like.

Now this show is full of ecchi content, which normally I would be cool with. But unless this is a prono, tits and ass alone isn’t going to save you. Obviously I’m watching a TV show for the writing, So if I’m just watching super over-the-top ecchi scenes that are not funny, are just filler, are boring, and kind of make you feel uncomfortable, then why should I be watching your show.

So hopefully you now understand why Dears makes me want to punch something. The problem with this show is it’s not funny to an uncomfortable degree, and it mostly leads to nothing. So what you're left with is both cringe and boredom increased to the max. Seriously I’ve never seen a show max out both. You’d think they’d both cancel each other out to just being one of the two, but no this show manages to go above and beyond in being completely heinous.

Honestly I could just end it here, but I watched the whole show. So I’m going to keep going so I can let it all out of my system. You might think it wouldn’t be so bad because it’s only 13 episodes, but I promise you’ll feel every minute of it.

So what else about this show is horrible Hmm. Well I hate how it uses slavery as a part of being a romantic comedy, yes I’m absolutely serious, this is not a joke. Not only that but it’s played like a serious romantic development. Look guys unless this is game of thrones or something you can’t do that, especially in a rom com kind of way. Where were the writers' brains when they decided this was totally normal? By the way I haven’t read the manga because I’m not subjecting myself to that torture again. That would be masochistic.

Oh and if anyone is defending the slavery elements of this show in the comments, because the dears are supposed to be created to be the perfect slaves. Then I just want you to look in the mirror, and come to grips with the fact that what you're defending to me is in fact slavery.

And yes I guess I just said a spoiler, but with this show does it really matter.

So as you can probably tell, the romance in this is really bad just by its very nature. But the funny thing is, this anime almost did something good. You see, by having the main character give the love interest her name, it could’ve allowed their bond to grow. But in a good show like Shakugan no Shana, it’s a really touching moment. In dears, it’s basically just I can’t pronounce your real name so I’m going to call you Ren. How romantic.

This actually leads to another problem I have with dears, that being that the romance doesn’t go anywhere. Like, seriously, romantic is in the word romantic comedy. So yeah, if you’re looking for romance to eventually bloom between these two, then I’m pretty sure you’re expecting way too much form this show. This also leads to more boredom, by the way.

Here is Another problem with Dears that is pretty bad. You see, one of the appeals of the Sci-fi genre is not just the technology and incredible phenomena, but also being able to explain how they work. Sure, you could probably say stuff like the spaceship design in something like Star Trek isn’t entirely realistic, but it’s set up in a way where you feel like it could happen.

Now why does this matter? Well, because the dears have the ability to magically defy the laws of physics by sprouting clothes from out of nowhere. Also, they can learn how to speak an entirely new language just by reading a few books. Sure, there’s a big flashing light that emanates from them when they're doing this, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is so god damn stupid.

Now I know a lot of people are going to say that there have been stories where sci-fi has been mixed with fantasy-like elements, such as Star Wars, Dune, and Code Geass. But the difference between those stories and something like dears, is that they either intentionally gave the mystical elements vague origins, or made sure that they would fit into the world they set up. Also they usually made sure to give a sort of gravitas to those mythical elements.

My point is when dears has these moments that are debatably what I’m talking about. It doesn’t come across as something mythical, it just comes across like really shitty and contrived writing.

The lack of brain power of this series is sickening if you take it seriously, and it’s just plain silly if you don’t.

Now some may say that the last two episodes of the show are comparatively more focused and have less filler, which to be fair is true. But who cares it’s near the end and it’s hell to get to it, so it’s not like those final two episodes are saving anything.

By the way, do you realize that this anime aired the same year as the original Full Metal Alchemist. Yeah fun little trivia for you.

One of the other problems with this anime is that most of the side characters have little to no personality, and since the main leads are mostly bland as well, it begs one big question, who am I supposed to get attached to. The answer is no one.

So let me be fair here, is there anything I actually liked about dears? Well the music is ok I guess, and again I suppose I can admit that the last two episodes are at least more focus and slightly better then the rest of the series.

Also I liked it when it was over.
That was a good moment.

So my final verdict on dears is it sucks, end of story. I mean seriously this show is 99.9 percent awful, with a tiny spec of ok. So don’t watch it. This review might have come across a bit jumbled. But trust me when you’re reviewing a show this bad, it’s kind of hard to know where to start.

I guess if you were looking for a show kind of like this, I might recommend chobits. It’s not really my thing Éthier, but I can acknowledge that it’s much better written.

All I can say is thank god I never have to watch this show ever again.

It's a 1 out of 10

Anyway, that’s my review, I’m going to go eat my processed chips now.

Don't toy with me Nagataro san is my favorite manga oat. Honestly, I'm tearing up as I'm writing this. At first I started reading it because of a Youtube fan edit I saw, and was kind of in an ecchi/romance phase. But as I kept reading, I truly got to see two people evolve and grow with each other to help them achieve their goals. This completely changed my view on what love is and should be honestly. Even though it started as just harmless teasing, Nagatoro truly began to be more aware of Senpai's presence past his cowardice. She saw his passion in his art, and pushed him to achieve the greater lengths he sought out, as kind of a reflection of herself. Naoto also did the same for her, reigniting her passion for a hobby she had once given up on out of a lack of her own self-worth. Everytime I read this crap I realize how wholesome it really is, especially with the asides in the beginning where Nagatoro wonders if she's being too harsh at times with the teasingThe exploitation of his weakness to her is both fun, and a kind of coping mechanism to distract herself from her own weakness within. But as he grows stronger, he helps her do so as well, which is why in the middle and end there is much less severe teasing and much more wholesome banter and connections. This manga shows how love isn't about having set roles in a relationship, or having a certain concrete dynamic, or sharing similar hobbies and/pr activities together. Love is about caring about someone, and having the ability to grow with them as life goes on. It's a great comedy too honestly, at times making me actually laugh genuinely at the antics the two get to (might just be my fat chud humor though idk).

Art:
The art is really good at times. I don't wanna get too in depth, since it's an ecchi and I don't wanna sound like a perv describing the panels, but you can feel the intimacy and emotions radiating off of each of the characters. For what it is 9/10.
Characters:
Since this is a slice of life, obviously the character cast carries the manga. The manga mainly focuses on Senpai and Nagataro, but they both have so much depth in their passions and weaknesses it's refreshing and exhilerating watching them get over them. 10/10
Story:
It's not really linear, and since it's a slice of life it's more just boundless antics until a certain arc happens. Before the end the author gets a tad bit too horny for his britches and it takes away from the main romance, albeit only for like a few scenes. 8/10
Enjoyment:
10/10. It's a wholesome hot ecchi, what's there not to enjoy?

I read this in the beginning of high school (and thank god I did or I'd feel like a weirdo perv reading it), and even now I've come to conclusion that this is one of the suggestive romances ever, and my favorite manga ever. 100/10, I don't think anything is ever topping this for me. (Especially not Chainsaw Man with that trashahh ending)

I haven't read the light novel that this story is adapted from, so I can only judge this work on the strengths and weaknesses of the anime, not the original text of the story.

Overall, this anime is an extremely lackluster political story with a sloppy harem, with an infuriating amount of plot holes, deus-ex machinas, incompetent villains, and shoddy writing. Don't come into this story with big expectations. That being said, the art is just passable enough to make it a barely enjoyable watch if you have a few hours to waste and just want to turn off your brain.

Plot - 3/10

The plot is probably the weakest part of this story. The whole story appears to be just one set of convoluted schemes after another, disguised as a political thriller, but in actuality just an amateur author's attempts at writing something barely legible as political machinations.

As an example, despite the title, The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt never actually mentions exactly what the debt that the country needs to resolve actually is. The anime starts with us being dropped in the middle of a battle between two countries, and then it's just one battle after another, without any real explanation about the economic straits that need to be resolved. The main character makes some offhand remarks about their country being poor because of a lack of agricultural land, and that's about it.

On top of that, the story only ever focuses on the battles and military aspects. At no point does the "genius prince" ever try to improve the economy or industry in his own country. Instead, the main character just muddles around with hare-brained schemes where he's gambling with the fate of the entire country at every single moment, and the only reason he ever even succeeds is because of the sheer mountain of plot armour the author gives him, such as :

• Kings and princes and other important political figures somehow never have any guards.
• Enemy politicians are so stupid that they end up killing themselves by accident, not once but twice.
• His retainer is the somehow the strongest undefeated warrior in the world despite being a tiny girl half his height.
• Enemy generals have no knowledge of military strategies and just send their troops and themselves into the most obvious traps and dead ends.
• Half of the most important scenes in the story are just skipped over with no explanation, such as how the main character escapes a kingdom right after killing their king in their capital.
• Even though his political opponents are supposed to be great leaders and smart men, they're always willing to believe even the most outlandish, easily verifiable bluffs. They will give up their own watertight strategies just on the slightest assumption that the main character's obvious lies might not be false.
• As an extension to the previous point, even when cornered by military force and political power, the main character can somehow weasel his way out of the situation through sheer, mind-numbing pedantry, like arguing about the precise dictionary definition of a word.
• Armies apparently teleport across the map according to his whims, allowing the protagonist's armies to always be in the right spot at the right time despite being somewhere completely different just seconds earlier. Concepts of distance, scale and geography are just whimsical notions to the author. Also, it's not just the armies, the protagonist himself also just appears without any warning in a completely different kingdom from where he was just moments earlier, surprising everyone involved.

Characters - 6/10

The characters are both the best and the worst parts of the story. I honestly get whiplash from how wildly the quality of the character writing changes at different points of time.

The main characters - Wein, Ninym, and LowellMina, are interesting people, with genuinely fun banter between them. Their internal dynamic is the fuel that keeps the anime fun and enjoyable, and I could honestly watch an entire slice-of-life that focuses only on these interactions between them.

On the other hand, in their interactions with the rest of the world, the main cast are portrayed as incredible geniuses, even though we never actually see much of that "genius" on screen. The author's idea of genius seems to be the ability to employ basic military strategies, as well as get involved in extremely convoluted mind games where they're somehow planning things 15 steps in advance with completely insufficient information and no good explanation at all.

However, anyone that isn't the main cast is basically portrayed as an incompetent half-wit. As I mentioned earlier, enemy generals barely know how to train and lead their armies, always just attempting brute force attacks instead of any real strategies. In fact, the enemy generals often go out of their way to intentionally choose the worst possible strategy given the battleground and their troop compositions. On the other hand, Wein's underlings are sycophantic yes-men that are incapable of any independent thought, who worship every single word that comes out of his mouth. As an example, one of the antagonistic characters actually ends up getting drunk and killing himself by accident in a situation where his life was never even in danger, so that's the level of quality we're dealing with here.

It's no surprise why the non-main cast are such imbeciles - the author has to make the entire world an idiocracy so that the average-intelligence main cast can stand out as geniuses in comparison.

Worldbuilding - 4/10

This is a touchy one for me. On the one hand, I can see that the author actually tried to create some decent worldbuilding, setting up a map of the continent and a basic history of the main countries on it. However, the author doesn't actually seem to know that much about actual history and politics, so all the details of this world are extremely shallow, and the entire worldbuilding of this world could probably be summed up in a single paragraph.

There's actually not much depth to any of the politics we see on-screen, even though the characters try to talk as if they're all involved in complex machiavellian plots. As mentioned earlier, the antagonists are all incredibly incompetent villains who fold under the slightest pressure. Their schemes are all ridiculously inefficient attempts at grabbing power, so they fall apart under even the slightest scrutiny.

Overall, it feels like this was a story aimed at elementary school or middle school kids who are just learning about politics for the first time. Maybe if it was clearly targeted towards such an audience, it might have worked better.

Art - 4/10

The art is okay. There's definitely no amazing animation or art anywhere, but there's nothing downright bad either. There are occasional cringe frames like the one below, where you see some truly ridiculous expressions on faces if you look close. Fights are also extremely basic, with lots of still frames. But other than that, the animation is fairly okay, though you definitely notice the quality dropping by the end of the season.

The opening credits are pretty decent, but then they apparently ran out of a budget, so the ending credits are just a recap reel of the episode.

The anime also attempts a moderate amount of fanservice, with suspiciously designed clothing and overt bath scenes, all in service of an extremely boring harem plotline. Personally, I'm not a fan.

Sound - 5/10

The soundtrack is also decent - both the opening and ending theme songs are fine, though neither really stand out. The voice acting is good in general, but it's at about the average level of quality for most animes.

Total - 4/10

Overall, I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this anime to anyone. It's an easy brain-dead watch, but you'll sorely regret it if you have any expectations of it. The character interactions are fun between the main cast, but the rest of the anime is forgettable nonsense. In fact, the ridiculous plot armour can genuinely make you want to punch the screen, watching how some half-assed scheme by the protagonist actually worked, all because the world itself warps in order to make the author's self-insert protagonist come out on top at the end.

ii thought it was overrated. AND I DIDN’T SAW IT COMING. they are peak as said. but i did got bit bored through the anime. but the last 2 episodes was masterpiece. i would recommend it to beginner because they might understand what true peak is throughout the anime. this was a great experience but made my April worst. i can't get it off from my head

At first, I genuinely didn’t understand the hype surrounding this anime. Everywhere I looked, people were calling it a masterpiece, saying it was “peak,” and hyping it up like it was one of the best things ever made. Naturally, that raised my expectations a lot. Maybe too much. Because when I finally started watching it, I didn’t immediately feel that same level of excitement. Instead, I found myself confused about why it was getting so much praise. It wasn’t bad at all, but it just didn’t instantly grab me the way I expected it to.

The beginning felt slower than I anticipated. The story was clearly trying to build something, but it didn’t hit me emotionally right away. I kept waiting for that moment where everything clicks and I go, “Okay, now I see why people love this,” but it took longer than expected. There were definitely interesting elements, but nothing that made me feel completely hooked in the early episodes. That’s probably why I started thinking it might actually be overrated.

At certain points, I even felt a bit bored. Not because the anime was poorly made, but because the pacing didn’t match what I personally enjoy. Some scenes felt stretched out, and I didn’t always feel fully invested in what was happening. It’s the kind of show that focuses a lot on atmosphere and gradual storytelling instead of constant action or fast progression. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re not in the right mindset, it can feel slow.

Despite that, I decided to keep watching. Part of it was curiosity, and part of it was the fact that so many people insisted it was worth it. I didn’t want to drop it halfway and miss out on something that could potentially become amazing later on. Looking back now, I’m really glad I didn’t quit, because the payoff at the end made a huge difference in how I see the entire anime.

As the story progressed, I started noticing more depth in the characters. At first, they seemed simple or not that interesting, but over time, their personalities, struggles, and motivations became clearer. The anime does a good job of slowly revealing who these characters really are. It doesn’t rush their development, which is probably why it feels slow at the beginning, but that same slow buildup is what makes everything hit harder later on.

Another thing I began to appreciate more was the emotional layer of the story. Even if I wasn’t fully engaged at first, there were moments where I could feel that the anime was trying to say something deeper. It wasn’t just about what was happening on the surface. There were themes about relationships, personal struggles, and emotions that take time to fully understand. These themes don’t always stand out immediately, but they become more meaningful as the story continues.

By the time I reached the later episodes, my perspective had already started to change. I wasn’t bored anymore. Instead, I was more curious and invested. I wanted to see how everything would come together. The story started to feel more focused, and the emotional weight of the characters’ experiences became stronger. It felt like all the slow buildup was finally leading somewhere important.

Then came the last two episodes.

That’s where everything completely changed for me.

Those final episodes were honestly a masterpiece. The way the story wrapped up, the emotional impact, and the execution were all on a completely different level compared to the earlier parts. It felt like everything that had been built up throughout the anime finally paid off in the best way possible. The emotions hit hard, and the storytelling felt very powerful and meaningful.

What surprised me the most was how those final episodes made me look back at the entire anime differently. Scenes that felt slow or unimportant before suddenly had more meaning. Character moments that didn’t stand out at first became more significant. It’s like the ending redefined the whole experience. That’s not something every anime can do.

Even now, I can’t stop thinking about it. The ending left a strong impression on me, and certain moments keep replaying in my head. That’s when I realized why people call it “peak.” It’s not just about being entertaining in every single episode. It’s about the overall journey and how everything comes together in the end.

I also think this anime is a great recommendation for beginners, even though it might seem a bit slow at first. The reason is that new viewers might not expect much from it and could end up being pleasantly surprised. At the same time, there’s a risk that they might drop it too early because they underestimate it. That’s why I’d say it’s important to be patient with this one.

If you go into it expecting constant excitement or fast pacing, you might end up disappointed in the beginning, just like I was. But if you give it time and let the story unfold at its own pace, the experience becomes much more rewarding. It’s one of those anime where patience really pays off.

Of course, I still don’t think it’s perfect. The pacing in the middle could have been better, and there were definitely moments where I struggled to stay fully engaged. Not every episode felt equally strong, and I can understand why some people might not enjoy it as much. But at the same time, the strengths of the anime, especially towards the end, are strong enough to make up for those flaws.

In the end, I went from thinking it was overrated to understanding why it’s so highly praised. That shift in perspective is part of what makes the experience so interesting. It’s not often that a show changes your opinion that much by the time you finish it.

Overall, this anime left a lasting impact on me. It’s not something I would call perfect from start to finish, but it’s definitely something I won’t forget anytime soon. The emotional weight, the character development, and especially the ending all come together to create something memorable.

Even though it made my April worse emotionally, I still consider it a great experience. Sometimes the best stories are the ones that affect you the most, even if they’re not always easy to watch. And this is definitely one of those stories.

It's been many years (probably) since I've bothered to sit down and write a formal review of an anime, not because I haven't had detailed thoughts on an anime in the intervening years but mostly because it feels like an exercise in futility, screaming into a void and only getting hate in return. But it's 4am, I'm a little drunk and I need to get "my thoughts on Mono" off my chest once and for all. An anime, regardless of what it is should be judged separately from others, regardless of how similar they be or who created them or what their subject matter is. And yet, every time I think about 'Mono' I am constantly comparing it to 'Laid Back Camp' for obvious reasons; cozy vibes, same genre, same mangaka and yet I'm also ~screaming internally~ about why this anime isn't rated higher than the aforementioned. If I had to take a guess, it's that people are too 'Laid Back' pilled to take anything similar as being anything other than a shallow imitator, even when the opposite is clearly the case. And before anybody decides to paint me as a "hater", here are my official scores for all the 'Laid Back Camp' seasons; Season 1 (89/100), Season 2 (86/100) and Season 3 (80/100). I'm no hater, I even have all four main characters from 'Laid Back Camp' as Nendoroids above my anime figure shelve in my living room. So why the need to write this review? Because 'Mono' is just (ever so slightly) the better anime and here's why.

Number 1; The Pacing. Cute Girls Doing Cute Things is probably my favorite genre, so both anime have the win on that front, but the unpredictability of 'Mono' makes it feel fresher, especially if we're comparing a show that's gone 3 full seasons without any meaningful change in time versus one with the urgency of time's inescapable passing. 'Laid Back Camp' is forever trapped in Winter (maybe Spring), but 'Mono' makes every episode feel like it's moving forward and as someone who is getting older can totally relate to.
Number 2; The Supporting Cast. 'Laid Back Camp' does what it says in the title, it's about laid back camping. 'Mono' is so much more and that's in no small part to its supporting cast, having an actual mangaka (several actually, but one specifically) as being parental like-figures adds so much more depth to the cast. It means we can have entire episodes that aren't even about a very specific subject like 'Laid Back Camp' and meander into the lives of grown-ups with their own set of foibles and problems and desires - it's very refreshing.
Number 3; Realism. Now before any of you burst out of your skins to criticize me on this point, I'm not saying either 'Laid Back Camp' or 'Mono' are masters of realism, they are idealized travelogues and they both do it precisely "great", if I were to give any anime the win on actual factual realimsm it would be 'Yama no Susume' a.k.a. 'Encouragement of Climb' but that's a topic for a different day. I'm just saying I prefer the stylized realism of 'Mono' over the mundane realism of 'Laid Back Camp'. Having two of our girls go on a daring downhill skateboard stunt down a steep hill was a lot more engaging than what the other show had ever done before.
Number 4; Fun. 'Mono' is just more fun, whether it's the spooky mangaka Torayo Kurokuma traumatizing everyone around her. The tomboyish Youtuber Kako Komada and her antics with her bike (which are Rin-like, only more grounded) or just the girls being girls, I couldn't help but have a smile on my face the whole time. Sometimes being entertaining is more important than being consistent and I feel like 'Momo' embraces unpredictability which in turn leads to more fun.

In conclusion; I take this moment to remind you I am not a 'Laid Back Camp' hater, as stated before I have all the main girls as Nendoroid figurines, plus some blankets, plus all the manga. I am a 'Laid Back Camp' fan. However, I am now officially a bigger fan of 'Mono', it just scratches more itches than the aforementioned ever could, its main cast of girls is funnier and more compelling, its setting is more dynamic and varied and its supporting cast is more interesting and variable. Hopefully 'Mono' gets the love it deserves and gets a second season but I think this is a one and done and that's a shame, either way I'll be watching this show every year which is not the same I can say for 'Laid Back Camp'.

This manga is a golden trashbag.
Gantz starts out as a gritty dark humor about being recruited to a gruesome difficult war after death, and then somehow starts to create branching storylines of the stupidest most random unexplained crap ever. This manga is just like advanced grade ecchi slop with few good arcs. The main storyline and premise is completely wasted on this trash.

Art: The art is perfect. In every panel, the characters are drawn perfectly, the weapons and suits have this sci-fi-esque aura about them, and the aliens are absolutely terrifying beasts. The alien designs and drawings invoked fear in me every time they were on screen. The gore is grotesque and brutal, and I'd rate the art as a solid 10/10 with one exception. The author is just like a rampaging pervert. Like, there's a period of reading where every chapter opens with a half naked, or fully naked, random girl that sometimes has nothing to do with the plot. There were moments where I was confused if I'd missed a few chapters or something because the random gooner bait beginning every chapter just started to become completely unrelated to the plot. Art was still good though. 8/10

Characters: Only the guy characters are given any depth or writing. The writing of them can be very superficial at times, but the more in depth themes involving some of the main cast is very compelling at times. On the other hand, there's a lot of fodder characters with no writing at all. In the beginning, the author at least tried to give the extra characters some depth and overall character and personality, but as soon as you go deeper a lot of the extras are just... perverts and rapists? You never really get attached to the extra cast as well, since the manga really makes sure to make it apparent that they are disposal. Also, all the girls are just like, nothingburgers. Besides Tae, no girls have there own arcs or personality or literally anything like actually genuine (there's one other person who does, but she sucks and I'm not bringing her up until spoilers). 5/10

Story: The story is super duper good, in a vacuum. The main premise of an after death war where your recruited to find and kill horrifying aliens is a golden premise, but for some reason the mangaka felt the need to add a whole lot of B.S. in between. No spoilers, but some of the plot lines are so fudging random it doesn't make any sense at all. Some just aren't explained and are all added for no reason. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but there are just random stuff that are pimpled ontop of the main plot. 6/10

Enjoyment: Missions arcs were very enjoyable, and some of the school conflicts were as well, but everything else is just kind of trash. Especially the side plot of the final arc, it's so fudging stupid. I still enjoyed it though. Besides the random half naked girls everywhere like what the hell. 5/10

Spoiler warning, these are the few things that really make this manga suck for me honestly.
I don't know what the mangaka was thinking when he made Reika, the random famous perfect model girl with everything she wanted in life, fall madly in love with the MINOR main character (after one mission together btw). I thought, "Hey, Kei (MC) is loyal to Tae (MC's girlfriend
), so I wonder where this plot line will go. Really hoping author doesn't make them break up or anything just so Kei can get with Reika!" Thank god that didn't happen. Instead, Reika cloned Kei against his will so the clone would be for her and her alone. Like genuienly. There's literally only 1 or 2 chapters actually talking about how she just cloned Kei, and when the Cloned Kei goes to vent to the normal Kei, normal Kei literally says "That's perfect! Now you can date Reika! Lucky guy." Like what!?!?! Cloned Kei is obviously still in love with Tae, his actual girlfriend, but Reika is pretty much just like "Well, you can't have her cause real Kei does." So now, pedophile Reika has her own personal relationship slave cloned Kei for the rest of the manga without any repercussions.
Also, the Gantz American team has a literal rapist on it. The line which introduces him is, "That guy will rape anything, human or alien." Like, what? The manga goes in detail how the aliens aren't monsters, but like genuine intelligent life. They are literally called immigrants by the Gantz ball. So, I genuinely don't know why this alien AND human rapists is just like alive. He doesn't even die. He just shows up and rapes aliens and walks away scott free. No like symbolism or commentary behind it either. Like what was the point?
Also, the author adds these random mysterious nanodroid vampires who are never explained and just die. They're there for multiple arcs, watching in the background and at times attacking the main cast as well, but their are no missions actually after them specifically. They just show up, have aura, cause chaos, then disappear. They aren't even explained to be aliens or anything.
Also, 2 of the main casts develop telekinesis? Also unexplained. It's completely unrelated to the aliens as well. Before they're even transported into Gantz and are just normal humans, they just learn and use telekinesis. Not explained either.
Final arc was actually really good, and in the final final part of the manga, Reika and Clone meet like, a literal god. Not even the real Kei gets to meet this higher being that caused all of the manga, no just Reika and the clone Kei. Higher being is telling them how this was all random, how their may or may not be an after life, and how nothing matters. Then, for some reason, Reika gets really mad and literally attacks god. For no reason. Surprise surprise, she gets exploded into mist. So, clone Kei is finally free! Right? Right?! Nope. Clone Kei gets mad as well and also attacks literal god, and gets turned into mist. Wow, how compelling! Then, after the main cast, (excluding Kei and Tae because their back on earth safe) has met literal god, their is another battle to save the world. With just a random alien who's been in two fights. This is the final fight. With random alien soldier man. What's the point? Like actually?
All of the girls have horrible writing and are used mainly as goon bait. I genuinely can't think of one girl who wasn't almost raped, raped, groped, or shown half naked in the whole manga. Tae is the only one with almost a semblance of character, and is actually a person with feelings and emotions. Everyone else is just, brainless extensions of the guys of the main cast. The second main girl introduced in one of the missions literally just has sex with Kei WHILE THE MISSION IS STARTING! WHEN THEY JUST MET. The first girl introduced in the manga is naked, and sexually harassed by a dog. In the first like 5 chapters. She's also threatened to be raped in the first 5 chapters as well. It's honestly just so disgusting how they're written I can't look past that. Multiple times I wanted to just drop the manga because I felt like I was reading a rape fantasy.
Lastly, the random naked women at the beginning of every chapter really really breaks immersion honestly. Like, I get it mangaka your a pervert. But why am I being flashed for almost every chapter for no reason? Go draw a hentai man.

Overall
Pros:
Amazing art designs for the aliens and sci-fi elements.
Some very compelling characters and story arcs
Mission arcs are always done really well.
Cons:
You're being flashed the first page of every chapter.
All the girls are goonbait for no reason, with no good writing.
There's so much needless rape-bait and rape with no commentary or symbolism besides just showing rape.

3/10 MAX. Can't recommend this to anyone honestly. Just go watch Gantz:0 and leave it at that.

Antes de começar a ler Spice & Wolf eu pensava que seria uma história mais suave de ler com um ritmo bom e um "Slice of Life" de viagem bem reconfortante, só que parte disso se concretizou e outra parte não, isso de ser uma história suave de ler foi um erro bem longe... a história enxuta muitas informações que faz com que a leitura seja mais travada, você realmente demora mais do que se espera lendo capítulo por capítulo, no caso também são mais longos só que fica variando bastante, entre capítulo de 17 a 25 páginas e outros para 25 até 32 páginas.

Eu gostei da história até que bem, a interação entre os personagens principais, as reviravoltas mais bem boladas para os acontecimentos com uma boa antecipação e também a parte de economia envolta das conversas são legais, só que não considero o máximo de nota possível por eu considerar que a história tende a ser mais extensa além da conta, entendo boa parte ter uma explicação só que daria para condensar melhor elas ou fazer com que soassem mais naturais conforme a leitura e por causa disso reduzo a nota e também pela arte ser meio capenga em alguns momentos.

Em resumo, para ter uma melhor experiência é bom já ficar extremamente focado e ler com calma para ir compilando as informações e entendendo de pouco em pouco se não tu ficará mais perdido, mesmo ainda tendo como entender os elementos base vai ter vários detalhes que irá deixar passar e esses pequenos detalhes podem ser mais relevantes do que você imagina, espere uma história de viagem que aborda bastante sobre economia e focado bastante na construção dos personagens principais.

Algo que eu gostei é da maneira que o autor atribuiu mais valor em relação as cidades envolta da parte de mercadoria e economia que a obra discute, dilemas e certos problemas que a cidade está passando vão sendo retratados conforme essa discussão na obra e é valorizada dessa maneira, de invés de abordar uma conexão de contemplação ao ambiente e a cultura do local como seria em One Piece o autor representa uma conexão a cidade de forma próxima em que foi feito em Magi, onde a gente aborda a estrutura da economia e dilemas que estão tendo para adquirir dinheiro, eu prefiro muito mais em outras obras pois eu ainda acho que em Spice & Wolf as informações da cidade que são transmitidas pela discussão de economia que está tendo não são feitas de maneira agradável e tão bem organizadas em informações, Magi faz isso sem ser tão enxuto de informações mesmo tendo envolvimento político no meio mas ela não se perde e acaba sendo deixando bem compreensível, agora em Spice & Wolf não é da maneira que mais elogiaria mas que funciona bem nessa temática, um bom Worldbuilding mas não tão luxuoso assim.
O que eu acho curioso é que não lembro de ver com muita frequência páginas duplas envolvendo a ambientação, e das que eu lembro é a do inicio com a apresentação da Horo e depois umas páginas duplas do ambiente da guerra no arco final, e mesmo assim essas páginas não foram lá tão marcantes por causa da arte do autor que eu não acho muito boa, e quando faz o cenário da montanha lá, parece meio simples e não tão boa, mas ainda sim foi legal o momento e eu apoiava totalmente o autor quando fazia páginas com menos informações pois eu estava ficando cansado de tanta informação em alguns momentos.
Se também o autor tivesse abordado uma conexão de maior exploração e compreensão cultural nas vilas e cidades que passavam eu acho que melhoraria na quantidade de informações, sairíamos de momentos em que tem muitos diálogos e passaríamos em locais da cidade só mostrando eles conhecendo a cidade e tentando ter menos diálogos pois mesmo quando tinha isso ainda sim tinha uma quantidade além do necessário com as informações, se abordassem isso de forma mais destacada como forma de aliviar a tensão, ter mais momentos entre os dois e ainda deixar a leitura menos extensa em informações valorizaria ainda mais esse aspecto de Worldbuilding por mim.

Algo que eu achei bem medíocre em alguns casos foi a forma que o autor transmitia as informações, vários diálogos já eram muito diretos ao ponto e não soavam com delicadeza de espaçamento de interações que valorizasse a naturalidade da conversa, a construção de um diálogo para o outro ás vezes era bem meh, a história em si já tem bastante corte brusco de momento para momento e os diálogos muitas vezes pareciam ser meio assim bruscos.
Os diálogos além de extensos com MUITAS informações, ele também certas vezes parecem existir muito mais para informar do que "agir", em uns momentos em específico tinham essas reações só que de forma meio metódicas, conforme a história se passa pelo menos vai soando mais naturais pois vamos entrando melhor na personalidade e perspectiva dos personagens e isso faz com que certos trejeitos e até o diálogo pareça ter melhorado, ainda tem uns momentos que parece meio Infodump meio estranho, mas conseguiu melhorar comparado com o inicio.
Diferente de outras obras que li que é adaptação de Light Novel, essa é a que mais me transmitiu a "essência" das informações que tem na original, não em questão de fidedignidade mas sim de parecer um texto vindo direto da light novel por causa da maneira que é transmitida, não parece algo totalmente "natural" e ornamentado tão bem com o estilo de mangá as informações e ficando mais extensas do que deveria pois pelo menos nas light novels tem essa maior liberdade de ser muito mais específicos e detalhistas, só que essa adaptação em relação as informações que tem da light novel para o mangá eu achei muito medíocres.
O que eu elogio é as informações transmitidas no 1° capítulo, começamos com um monólogo da Horo sobre sua percepção cultural e achei legal isso ao também transmitir uma paisagem graciosa por trás dela e complementando o monólogo de forma boa, tem uns momentos de interação do Kraft onde ele tem uns diálogos com o guarda que indiretamente reflete nesse diálogo o que ele faz e sua função, e algo que eu achei estranho é que tinham informações que ficavam a esmo sem explicação e isso mostrava que provavelmente quando fosse explicada fosse ter maior relevância, que é o que acontece quando a Horo aparece e temos a explicação e relevância por trás do que é um "Horo" que ficava em aberto durante a leitura e que só víamos as pessoas fazendo um "festival" envolta desse tema que não sabíamos, em si gostei dessa parte só que as informações transmitidas entre a Horo e o Kraft são feitas de forma muito monótona e ambíguo sem ter algo que agregue maior destaque na personalidade do Kraft até esse momento, eu achei MUITO estranho essas interações pois parecia muito mais por Infodump do que por ser algo natural pelas interações.
A partir daí as informações muitas vezes eram bem extensivas de formas que pareciam desnecessárias em algum ponto da história e que não soavam tanto naturais assim, somente a partir do arco da Elsa ou um pouco antes disso eu consegui ver uma grande melhora nas interações, eram bem diretas em alguns pontos só que existia uma lógica por trás que já tínhamos compreendido nesse momento e que facilitava muito para não parecerem só um Infodump, eram bem simples sem serem tão excessivos quanto eram antes, até o direcionamento dos acontecimentos ficou melhor ainda, esse arco foi o momento em que eu considerei ter dado um pulo de qualidade e que foi um dos melhores arcos de Spice & Wolf, só acho que a finalização dele foi meio apressada.
Agora outro defeito que eu queria comentar no final em relação aos diálogos é que os momentos de destaque sobre a mudança dos personagens em relação ao Timeskip que tivemos é muito medíocre e sendo colocados de forma muito simplória, tem até umas informações ali que realmente eu fiquei na dúvida do porquê serem tão específicos ou extensos de forma desnecessárias, isso me lembrou que em Undead Unluck também fez a mesma coisa em Spice & Wolf, só que comparado com Spice & Wolf as informações foram ainda mais extensas pois ele viu a necessidade muito maior de ter essa quantidade de informações para boa parte do elenco enquanto em Spice & Wolf foram só com alguns, daria para o autor ter feito isso também com a Elsa, Nora e Eva mas ele decidiu ser menos informativo de forma mais natural do que foi com o Col e uma random que nem lembro o nome.
É uma leitura pesada, só que pelo menos compensa em outros elementos e por ser interessante boa parte das informações, por isso entendo completamente quem achar chato.
Diferente de outras obras que li adaptadas de light novel, esta foi a que mais tentou preservar a “essência” das informações do original, não exatamente pela fidelidade, mas pela forma como elas são transmitidas — quase como se tivessem sido transportadas diretamente do texto. O problema é que isso compromete a naturalidade, já que a exposição soa pouco orgânica dentro da linguagem do mangá e não se integra bem ao formato visual. Como resultado, as informações acabam mais extensas do que deveriam, funcionando melhor no contexto mais detalhista de uma light novel do que em uma mídia que pede mais fluidez, o que faz com que essa adaptação, no geral, pareça fraca nesse aspecto.

Em geral, boa parte dos personagens tinham uma função clara e direta em relação a influência deles na trama daquele momento, mesmo muitos deles não sendo extremamente profundos eles conseguem fazer bem as suas funções na trama e trazer até momentos legais, além dos personagens principais os que considero terem se destacado mais foram o Col, Eva e Elsa.
Os momentos de interação e funções do Col foram muito bons, ele foi como uma maneira de variar ainda mais nas interações entre a Horo e o Kraft e ainda servindo como um aprendiz, ele também serviu como forma de tornar a exposição mais natural pelo fato de estar em aprendizado e o pequeno desenvolvimento dele foi legal.
A Eva acho legal a influência e a maneira que era direciona a trama por essa característica mais dúbia dela como mercadora, ela também acaba criando uma conexão mais especial com o Kraft que é legal, só fiquei bem ruim aquele momento dela dizendo que o seu objetivo é adquirir o máximo de dinheiro por ela ser extremamente arrogante e prepotente... eu achei tão pouco impactante e isso nem é levado muito a sério então fica só algo meio jogado a esmo na personagem.
A Elsa já é um caso dela ter seus dilemas a serem lidados e que são construídos durante o arco dela, ela tentando adquirir coragem para conseguir ser decidida com sua função é bem feito e tem bons momentos de interações com ela sem parecerem mais extensos do que precisava.
Em relação a Nora não considerei ela tão interessante pois teve uma trama e um dilema que tornava ela mais interessante como personagem, mas na maneira que foi trabalhada pareceu meio jogada e estranho.

A Horo em si eu achava meio conflitante no início, parecia ter uma personalidade mais contagiante e marcante do que o Kraft mas ao mesmo tempo tinha diálogos bem abruptos com ela dela mudando muito a direção da conversa de forma que fazia parecer que o autor estava tentando tornar ela mais carismática do que já estava, era uma louquinha que era meio desconexa em relação as interações de forma meio estranha e por isso no inicio eu não me simpatizei tanto.
Conforme a obra foi passando o autor foi fixando melhor seu carisma como personagem e foi retratando ótimos momentos entre ela e o Kraft, a cada vez tinha algum momento emocional que valorizava ainda mais a conexão entre os dois e foi ficando cada vez mais marcante conforme a leitura, ela acabou se tornando mais icônica na obra e eu até entendo pois ela realmente foi bem valorizada conforme a obra foi desenrolando.
E além disso tem bastante sexualização da personagem, pessoalmente não me incomodei mas para outros pode soar desnecessário e só ruim mesmo.
O que eu senti meio decepcionado foi que no inicio sempre era destacado o quanto que sua forma de lobo era aterrorizante ao ponto de até pessoas próximas dela sentirem extremamente amedrontados com ela e por isso que não usava essa forma desde o inicio, algo legal pois chegou em um momento da trama em que foi construído uma tensão enorme onde tudo poderia dar errado e a Horo finalmente se transforma no Lobo enorme para solucionar o problema, algo que sempre foi comentado e dito dentro da história sendo agora utilizado para solucionar um problema e trazer uma reviravolta bem feita, o momento eu gostei bastante já que o autor realmente desenha a forma de Lobo dela de forma mais marcante e todo esse momento tem um destaque de que o Kraft mesmo conhecendo ela ele ainda fica amedrontado enquanto todos os inimigos ficam apavorados e sem nem ter como reagir.
Então... qual seria o problema? o que me incomoda um pouco é que depois desse momento, boa parte das vezes essa transformação é representada de forma menos icônica e aterrorizante como foi no inicio, eu até entendo o Kraft deixar de sentir medo pois a gente já teve uma construção de laço entre os dois que faz eu achar de boas ter esses momentos mais de boas nessa forma entre ela e ele, só que o que eu não gosto tanto é da facilidade dos personagens secundários de se adaptar a essa forma, em específico a Nora, Elsa e Evan tiveram muita facilidade de aceitar essa forma e mal tiveram medo dela, a Nora foi só por algum período mas logo em seguida já estava de boas enquanto os outros 2 mal sentiram medo, além disso até a maneira mais brutal e pesada que ela era representado envolta dos seus inimigos ficou mais soft, deixou de ser tão marcante quanto era na 1° vez e se tornou uma transformação menos amedrontador em geral, se tivesse por exemplo momentos em que a Nora, Elsa e Evan tivessem que fechar os seus olhos para não sentir medo facilitaria para eu aceitar o fato deles não sentirem tão amedrontados com a personagem, agora em relação aos inimigos eu até entendo que o autor quer refletir alguma dificuldade então não tem como ser da mesma maneira que foi na 1° vez onde todos ficaram sem nem reagir de tanto medo que tiveram dela, e até certo ponto também entendo os colegas não sentirem mais medo, só que a representação dela como algo amedrontador na 1° vez foi tão marcante para mim que eu sinto meio decepcionado de ter se tornado "outra coisa" conforme a obra...
É tipo o Super Sayajin 1 virar só uma transformação random e básica do Goku, tem até sentido mas ainda é decepcionante em algum ponto.
E na finalização da história temos finalmente a relação entre os dois se consagrando em casamento, gosto da relação dos dois e com esse final foi bem agradável de se ver isso acontecendo, uma boa personagem e uma das que mais se destaca entre o elenco.

Com essa personagem não gostei mesmo da introdução por falta muito carisma nele logo de cara, ele vai melhorando conforme a leitura e no final consegue ainda ter maior valorização como personagem mas em específico com o inicio eu realmente não gostado dele, com uma introdução bem simples e com poucos elementos que se destacavam para ter interesse por ele.
Nos próximos ele tem isso de servir como Infodump mas ainda sim tentando transmitir algumas características dele em interação ou coisas do tipo, só que até o momento nada que fosse tão memorável, mas conforme progredi a relação entre ele e a Horo vai se destacando e tendo mais momentos interessantes do personagem além de uma personalidade que vai sendo cada vez mais fixada.
Um personagem que sofre de caracterização na introdução mas que vai se elevando na história ao ponto de ser genuinamente um bom personagem.
Na 1° interação entre ele e a Horo eu achei um desperdício, de inicio vemos até uns momentos dele estranhando ela e ficando confuso mas não parece ser nada carismático, ele vê alguém pelada na sua frente e a reação dele é o mais seca possível, normalmente trariam aquela representação do personagem cafajeste com alguém pelada na sua frente, alguma timidez provindo do personagem pela situação constrangedora e mesmo se não sentisse nada o autor iria ter uma construção rápida para caracterizar melhor esse aspecto do personagem mas praticamente não teve nada disso, sendo uma péssima abordagem de retratação do personagem pois de invés de utilizar esse momento para dar mais carisma ao personagem ele é mostrado como alguém seco e que tá pouco se lixando para isso que tá acontecendo.
Conforme a história se passa aí sim a gente vai vendo ele melhorando, o momento dele sendo salvo pela Horo na forma de Lobo é muito bom, essa característica dela ficar devendo para ele é internamente uma justificativa do personagem para "impor" que eles fiquem juntos de sua maneira, no arco final ele tem uns momentos independentes da Horo para solucionar os problemas envolta da Guerra criando ainda mais independência ao personagem, algo que poderia afetar ele é o fato da Horo ser alguém tão forte que poderia tirar o foco e os momentos de destaque do Kraft mas o autor sabia disso e por isso queria que ele tivesse essa característica de tentar ser independente para assim ter seus próprios momentos de destaque na trama, e por isso considero que ele vai sendo melhor caracterizado com o aspecto de alguém rígido, que busca ser independente além do necessário e que trás bons momentos de destaque com ele.

A arte acho nada demais, a quadrinização eu considero razoavelmente fora do convencional das que eu vejo mas que eu acho que o maior problema é a exposição e não no direcionamento, pois quando tem Infodump de coisas que forçam você a pensar muito mais do que algo simples isso trava mais a leitura de tal maneira que eu acho que mesmo uma quadrinização boa não poderia fazer passar de forma suave.
Dororo eu considero um exemplo, ele tem momentos de exposição estranha e conveniente para os momentos, mas sempre é algo simples e fácil de entender pois diferente de Spice & Wolf em que a exposição é extensa em texto e ainda tem conexão grandes de relevância, Dororo tem conexões de relevância mas a história reflete muito mais algo simples e direto e por isso a quadrinização complementa muito bem para passar por essa exposição de forma mais agradável enquanto em Spice & Wolf por terem informações muito mais específicas acaba que isso te faz se prender muito mais a cada explicação e balão de fala e acaba que a quadrinização não consegue compensar o suficiente na minha opinião, mas quando tem poucas falas eu acho até agradável a leitura, só não sei o que dizer dela de forma mais técnica.
A Arte visualmente eu acho bem medíocre, por ser uma obra que eu acho que é mensal pelo tamanho de capítulos isso me fez acreditar que poderia ter uma grande melhora de qualidade mas não é o que acontece, a arte fica melhor só que não é de uma forma memorável ou que se torna muito marcante a diferença, acho que melhorou em questão de Gestual que ficou mais diferente e melhor, o desenho do ambiente é bom só que tem alguns momentos que não é lá essas coisas mas em painéis de tamanho médio consegue compor bem o suficiente o ambiente e também a forma que desenhar os personagens achei que ficou mais bem desenhados, de inicio tinha muito disso dos olhos e do rosto dos personagens serem desenhados de forma muito genérica e também com uns erros e exageros além da conta, e depois foi melhorando e ficando mais fixo a qualidade dos desenhos, só que nada que fosse extremamente perceptível.
Boa parte das vezes a quadrinização não passa das 4 linhas que é até bom, se já tem muita informação em 4 linhas que é o recomendável num mangá imagina se tivesse com mais frequência 5 linhas ou até mais? com 4 é aquele linear entre ficar leve a leitura ou pesada.
E acho que o autor desenha bem os animais, Lobos, Coelhos etc eu vi que pareciam realmente bem desenhados, e ironicamente parece que quando ele faz as capas coloridas a arte parece ainda mais bonita do que dentro da história então eu acho que é mais o peso de se fazer página por página, pois as pinturas são até bonitas.
É isso que tenho a dizer, acho só um bonzinho para medíocre mas tá pro gasto.

O que posso dizer é que as informações e infodump é o que reduz a qualidade da obra junto com parte da arte que não consegue ajudar a elevar tanto ela, mas os diálogos melhoram, os personagens são bons, as discussões sobre economia são interessantes, boas reviravoltas criativas, o Worldbuilding consegue se destacar, gosto de uma obra de exploração e viagem e por isso ganha uns pontos extras comigo e as interações entre a Horo e o Kraft se destacam de maneira boa, diria que ficaria entre 8 e 8,5 então deixarei como 8,2.
Não tenho nenhuma nostalgia com essa obra então é totalmente pessoal e sem levar em conta tanto sentimentalismo por minha parte, espero que tenham gostado e tudo bem gostar dela, se eu tivesse tido mais releitura em relação as informações talvez eu aumentasse a nota mas quem sabe se irei rever ou não.

Spoilers a seguir.

Acho que para falar sobre This Monster Wants to Eat Me é importante mencionar o contexto em que ele estreou, e como isso pode ter mexido com as minhas expectativas ao assisti-lo. Eu estou tentando descobrir o quanto do meu "não aproveitamento" (sendo bem gentil) da obra veio de problemas que criei e do quanto veio pelo próprio anime, e acho que é por isso que estou escrevendo esse texto.

Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi veio na temporada final de 2025. Eu nunca havia ouvido falar do mangá, e descobri o anime pelo twitter, que estavam o chamando de "monster yuri" e "The Summer Hikaru Died só que yuri". Acho que é importante fazer essa correlação com Hikaru, que foi um anime da temporada anterior e que gostei bastante. Eu amo histórias de romance desvirtuosas, que tratam do proibido, o sujo, tóxico e que machuca. Hikaru trata de tudo isso de forma majestosa, com comentários queer misturados numa narrativa folclórica de lendas e espíritos. Mas isso não é uma review de Hikaru, então não vamos ficar falando sobre isso.
Eu só queria destacar que, meu pensamento ao entrar nesse anime é que seria "algo semelhante", só que com garotas. Claro, aqui o monstro é uma sereia e não... (assistam Hikaru). E aqui temos uma suicida e a sereia que promete comê-la. E claro, o "tabetai" de comer só tem implicâncias sexuais em português, não no inglês ou japonês (eu acho). Mas mesmo assim, por ser um "yuri" envolvendo uma humana e um monstro, eu esperava uma narrativa que explorasse esses temas.

E o que recebi... não foi isso. Não exatamente.

O grande ponto de Watatabe, e que o difere do que eu pensava na minha mente, é que ele acaba sendo uma história sobre trauma, luto e como viver após tudo ter sido tirado de ti. Mesmo que existam sim cenas que tentam buscar esse lado do "horror", ele nunca tenta levar para sei lá... um horror erótico? E isso ficou mais claro ainda para mim na cena do beijo, que nem sequer foi mostrada. Então eu não acho que seja justo julgar uma história pelo o que ela não tenta ser, só porque eu acho que seria legal se ela fosse assim.
Então como fica esse anime, julgando-o pelo o que ele realmente é?

E sinceramente, não é nada de mais.
Watatabe tem uma forma bem padrão dos animes, nada aqui foge do comum ou tenta ser inovador. É um arroz com feijão comum para quem já está acostumado a assistir vários animes: tem as cenas de comédia que as personagens ficam chibi, enquadramentos e iluminações em momentos dramáticos para tentar dar um enfoque, uma trilha sonora boa, etc. O que não é um problema, mas para alguém que já assistiu tantos animes com direção e storyboards extremamente criativos, não é nada de chamar atenção. E o que sobra que poderia ser interessante é o roteiro, certo? Pena que ele também não é nada de mais.
Eu vou confessar que essa ideia de "uma garota que quer morrer" e "o monstro que vai ajudar a matá-la" é extremamente interessante e eu vou ir atrás de outras histórias que fazem algo assim, mas o desenvolvimento aqui parece não se decidir no que quer fazer. Claro, existe a reviravolta de que a Shiori nunca teve a intenção de comer a Hinako, e a história acaba se tornando "como salvar a garota suicida". O problema nasce do ponto em que nunca sequer nos importamos com a Hinako, porque ela não é uma personagem.
A Hinako é uma ferramenta da narrativa para ser jogada por aí e acolá pelas outras personagens, e a única coisa que ela faz é encarar com uma expressão vazia e dizer que está triste e quer morrer. Para uma história cujo ponto inteiro é ver como será o desenvolvimento dessa protagonista, ela ser a pior personagem não ajuda. E acima disso, o próprio desenvolvimento do seu trauma é terrível.
Umineko é a minha obra de arte favorita, eu sei como é um desenvolvimento perfeito de uma pessoa que quer morrer após perder tudo. E o que Watatabe faz com isso? Temos cenas dela chorando (que não impactam de forma alguma pois o único traço de personalidade da Hinako é sentir falta dos pais e querer morrer), temos a Miko e Shiori discutindo sobre ela, e aí nos últimos episódios vemos UM POUCO de personalidade vinda da protagonista pois ela está com raiva da sereia, e ela cria um plano de fingir felicidade para que ela possa finalmente morrer.

Caramba, no último episódio e finalmente temos algo interessante, me pergunto como vão desenvolver isso agora?
Não vão, porque o anime só acaba sem nunca mudar o status quo e eu nem sei se sequer vai ter uma segunda temporada.
Então o anime não só é frustrante, mas ele piora a situação me mostrando pela primeira vez algo de interessante e depois acabando sem fazer nada com isso.
Vocês estão entendendo onde eu quero chegar?

Apesar de dizer tudo isso, não quero parecer injusta ou agressiva com esse anime. O problema é que criou-se uma expectativa muito boa do que viria, e eu acabei recebendo 13 episódios de nada, com alguns momentos legais que também resultam em nada. Assistir isso foi sofrível e eu sinceramente só terminei porque não gosto de deixar as coisas pela metade, mas não vejo alguém mais casual tendo paciência para terminar isso aqui. E no fundo eu posso só ser uma pessoa amarga, e tá tudo bem.
Não sei como o mangá é, mas tenho curiosidade de ler para saber se o problema foi realmente a execução do anime e talvez o mangá não passe por isso. Não sei.

De qualquer forma, assistam Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu, vai ser uma experiência melhor.