Introduction

Since the dawn of time, the name of sequels (mostly) have always been determined a simple convention: number go up to bigger number. We can see this everywhere, from cinema with spiderman 1 to spiderman 2, with conflicts from World War One to World War Two, and with anime from Persona 3 to Persona Trinity So- wait what.

Persona Trinity Soul is the ORIGINAL (not current) sequel to the popular 2006 JRPG Persona 3; it was released in 2008 following the massive surge of popularity Persona 3 gave to the series. Trinity Soul, being what was supposed to be the sequel to Persona 3, is know by the persona community by such loving titles, like the forgotten one, 50% opacity and i'm in the house like carpet.

How could a piece Persona media (when most of the community don't explore the great outdoors) be so unknown even to their own fanbase, and is it really worth watching at all? Short answer, no. Long answer, this review, and trust me its long so lets get into it.

Warning: spoilers for Persona 3 (Akihiko's plot) and Trinity Soul's main plot

What Is a Persona Trinity Soul

Persona Trinity Soul is an anime about 3 brothers, Jun, Shin and Ryou and revolves around the values of family, being close nit and how group se- i mean dru- i mean drunk drivi- i mean 'shadow extraction' is bad.

I will talk about shadow extraction later on, but lets focus on the main story for now. It tries to portray how families are supposed to stick together, and in the beginning shows Ryou, the oldest brother, not to be close to his two brothers as he used to be after an earthquake killed there parents and sister, so you'd expect it to be a story about Ryou, Shin and Jun uniting together to defeat evil?

While there is like one or two occasions I can name where he shows some sort of character development which involved his brothers (giving Shin a balloon while dressed as a teddy bear and saying he'll go to Jun's parent teacher meeting before killing the love of his life), but it is irrelevant until the very end where he decides to actually do something useful with his persona and kill big bad baddy called Ayane to save everyone, also dying in the process.

I'd say the story revolves more around individuals overcoming their trauma or personal issues, which to give it credit it does a somewhat good job at. I don't think this can apply to Jun and Shin all that much, but the three characters that help Shin and Jun: Takerou, Magumi and Kanaru all have individual episodes where they overcome the past truama or in the case of Kanaru makes sure she doesnt die with any regrets which is basically saying 'i love you shin beep boop' (which yes she dies after its revealed she was a robot because she runs out of charge something and she seemingly cant be charged just because).

Theres also the Marebito, which has twins that say basically nothing before dying, a tracksuit maniac, a singular woman, sunglasses and beanie man, mad scientist dad who used children, including his daughter Ayane who is the only villain worth naming and who they are cloning because shes dead but not really?, and a bozo who lost his persona in episode 1 haha what an idiot. Their roles is to just do forced shadow extraction to 'reach a new level of consciousness' or something. However all they're there for is to keep the ayane clone and eventually release it and all die whoopsie daisy.

To make this section not any longer, Trinity Soul's plot kinda just blows but there is some good individual episodes for individual characters like once in a blue moon I guess.

Character, Music and 50% Opacity

To put it simply, there's only a handful of characters who are likeable and the rest I actually despise. Heres a tierlist I made in 5 minutes:

Characters like Megumi and Takerou (and by extension Kanaru) are only really good because of the individual episodes they got and Itou is just chill imo, the rest of the cast stinks like the average street in Wolverhampton or Birmingham. Jun is annoying, Ryou is absent and a terrible, terrible brother, the Marebito have the personality of a Taylor Swift fan aka none, Ayane and her clone kill everyone just because we can only assume it was the child experimentation and Shin is such an insignificant MC its laughable. He never uses an sort of element or status condition and cant even switch Personas he just has one. Basically he swings persona sword and thats it.

The one that hurts the most by far is what they did to Akihiko. This man had one of my favourite character arc in Persona, being an orphan, losing his sister, having to overcome grief after he best friend dies think he could've prevented it and starting to live for himself just before having to confront Nyx and the destruction of the world, he went through tragedy... and got turned into a detective NPC questgiver like what you doing to him Atlus this ain't him its a copy.

The music and art also worth discussing somewhat. The music beside burning mans soul aka im in the house like carpet song funny is pretty good, and the way they use burning mans soul actually makes it sound like an alright OST song, but the OP and ED are very lacking to say the least and makes it obvious it was made in the 2000's. The art isn't anything special honestly, the style barely looks like Persona and more like a cheap knock-off from TEMU, but i just find it funny that they made the Personas 50% opacity so when you're watching the show, you can barely make out what they look like. Also theres a concept that adults lose the power to summon their Persona, which is why Akihiko doesn't have his a Ryou only has this due to drugs, but this is made obsolete by Persona 4.

The final thing to take from this anime is how confusing it makes stuff for no reason. Remember shadow extraction? well it becomes an analogy for nono stuff like I hinted out earlier and is supposed to be a craze among the population like drugs, but this craze is non-existant by like episode 10 or something and is only mentioned a handful of times afterwards. This goes for many things, including the child story A Whales Feather written by the brother's parents, which is extremely significant as the main story is an analogy for it, but its just a described as a story about 'finding hapiness'. Seriously, that is it, trying to find information about it is impossible because there's no to begin with, and the confusing nature of this and the anime is its biggest downfall, as you just don't really know what's even going on half the time.

Why did it Fail

I believe the main reasons why it failed was in general its low budget an Persona 4.

The low budget shine through in the quality of the animation, it feels very static with little drops of action which is quite detrimental for a Persona anime, and how all the concepts Atlus wanted to include were only half developed before being seemingly canned or just left vague to continue the story. This also lines up with the fact that Atlus were developing Persona 4 at this time, the game that not only made Persona popular globally but made Persona Trinity Soul no longer canon because it shows adults being able to use their personas, which contradicts the laws of personas in Trinity Soul making it obsolete as a sequel, forcing Atlus to no longer make it canon and remove all traces of it. This also explains why most persona fans don't even know about it, because its now treated like it didn't even exist, which honestly isn't all that tragic.

Conclusion

Watching this show was not worth it, even out of curiosity. While it has glimmers of hope in certain episodes, it mostly misses the mark and is plainly a confusing watch. I 100% would only recommend this to someone who can put up with a snoozefest just to make sure they've consumed all the Persona content possible. 3.5/10, will never watch again.

ok this is the first review ive done in 8 months and wow its long whoopsie, i tried to be more light hearted this time but it still felt too serious while writing and a bit boring lol

ill do another review soon, hopefully one that is 1. positive and 2. not as long and boring so the next one will be more basic now im getting back into the swing of reviews

thanks for reading, love you mwah

Introduction

Before we be begin, I would love to show you mine and my friend's, Craig, reaction after finishing Kiss x Sis.

The Kiss x Sis OVA is one of the most degenerate things I have ever had to lay my eyes on. Adapted from a manga series by the original creator Bou Ditama who I am afraid to say has created other degenerate works such as Juudan-Chan, Kibun and Super Love Potion with the last two unfortunately being ero-manga. This series somehow spans 154 chapters which makes me ask why does humanity have to be so down bad that a manga called Kiss x Sis can get 154 chapters.

Because of the title of the OVA I'm fairly sure I don't need to explain what its about. Its 2 sisters competing to get into their brothers pants, and just saying if you have siblings, children or are just a normal human being this show is sickening, so with that warning lets get into Kiss x Sis and why suggesting for me and my friend to watch this was a big mistake.

(also yes I will say when there is spoilers, my brain doesn't want to spoil people on accident even if it is for a show like this)

Characters

One of the most important parts of Kiss x Sis is its characters who seem to have absolutely no shame. Now I did watch the OVA and not the anime so I don't know much about the characters outside the main 3. However I know that:

• one of them is weird asf and wants the MC Keita to rape her
• one is a teacher at her school and wants to rape Keita
• one is a literal 14 year old child

Anyway, the main 3 characters are what make this anime want to rip my eyeballs out my sockets. Keita is the brother and I felt sorry for him in episode one where he actually tries not to get fucked by his sisters or 'step-sisters' (we'll get back to that later). But all of that sympathy was shattered when he says that he doesn't mind his sisters trying to fuck him and allows them to engage in sexual acts with him. Hes your typical anime MC with no balls and just lets shit happen to him.

The sisters Ako and Riko compete with each other and are completely off the rails. Ako is the older one who acts more like a sister. She is more polite, considerate, reliable and a massive closeted pervert. The shit she wants to do to her brother is fucked but at least she keeps it to herself (at times).

If Ako is a closeted pervert, then Riko has blown up the closet with a Tsar Bomb and sprinted naked to a adult section of a manga store. She is very upfront about being perverted, the shit she does is very perverted, and she is possibly one of my least favourite characters ever. Like she is on Makoto from School Days levels of bad there is not one redeeming quality from her. Seriously she belongs in my personal dustbin of 'people who if I could I would throw to the bottom of a lake'.

Safe to say that the characters of this OVA are either weirdos, sweet home Alabama weirdos, pedos and children.

Its Funny, Until You Really Think About It

this segment contains some spoilers and I also have a little rant whoopsie daisy

Many people will call this show funny to watch, one where you sit down with the boys and watch on as this guy lets his sisters chase his dick. However thinking back this show is really fucking disturbing.

Before I say anything else, I'm not saying if you found this funny and still find it funny you're a disturbed individual. Me and my friend were cracking up watching this every episode because of how outlandish it is and also questioning if we were mentally stable for watching this. but when I sit down and think about what actually happens, personally I can't help but feel uneasy.

In this OVA alone, nevermind the anime, there is one episode where the MC engages in sexual acts with the child character and another where she is depicted sexually in a bathhouse which is something I and my friend couldn't bring ourselves to watch. Seriously that is not only extremely disturbing but quite literally is a crime in most countries. Yes at the time this was made Japan's age of consent was '13 or over' but that doesn't take away how fucking weird it is for a show to present a 14 year old girl as a sexual object.

Thats my main problem with this show, it shows sisters, pedo teachers, children and generally women as sexual objects. This is an issue that is generally a problem in the anime industry (in my opinion) however when an anime shows sisters as being things that are fine to bang that is a problem. I'm not kidding when I say shit like this leads to people developing weird fetishes like being siscons or lolicons (aka paedophiles). As someone with a sister himself this type of stuff is sickening and personally if I had the option to shit like this wouldn't exist. This is the type of shit I expect from the porn industry, not the anime industry, and the fact things like this still exist is something that should be tackled and not tolerated by anyone.

Anyway, moving on from that rant...

When You Think It Can't Get Worse, It Gets Worse

This segment contains spoilers for this show a little bit outside of it

Now one of the main things Kiss x Sis relies on is shock factor, its makes you think it can't get any worse then proceeds to show you worse.

The sisters are taking off his pants, then boom one of them are showing themself pee to Keita, then boom they're using whiteboard pens and teddies to simulate riding Keita together, then boom they introduce a child.

The shock factor is basically what makes Kiss x Sis what it is, the entertainment and therefore the funniness of it comes from the fact you don't expect what they do next. You're so taken so off guard that basically all you can do is laugh or want to sink into your chair and die.

While it sounds like it cant get worse going from anime to manga, I'm sorry to tell you that this is unfortunately not the case. This was my reaction finding out the other shit Bou Ditama published relating to Kiss x Sis:

Without trying to get into it too much because this is basically hentai were talking about, this guy made two doujins based off Kiss x Sis, with the first depicting Keita fucking all the girls including the child I wish I was joking and the other is basically Riko sucking him off while Ako gets her thing licked...

Yes I did search these up in an incognito tab. Yes I did search these up for research purposes. Yes I do regret making the decision to search this and no I am not ok at this current moment in time. This relates to my last point about how shows and manga like this turn women into sexual objects, and goes further to show that Kiss x Sis is actually really disturbing. Not only does Bou Ditama sexualise the child, he drew the child having sex.

Anyway the only credit I'll give this OVA is that is good at shock factor. However, everything else is either mid like the animation which is just bog standard and inoffensive or just bad like the story, or just the lack of it. The fact this 'story' which hardly exists like To Love Ru and is also split up in ordering that is like only half as bad as Magical Index and Scientific Railgun ngl, makes Kiss x Sis basically shit.

Conclusion

If I could turn back time, this would be one of the first things I'd try to unsee. It is the Boku no Pico of anime and is very much the worse anime I have ever seen.

Everyone who unironically likes Kiss x Sis, the people who thought adapting this would be a good idea, the people who own physical copies of the manga and especially Bou Ditama for creating this clusterfuck and other degenerate works, God has one place for you all.

Introduction

Danganronpa has to be one one of my favourite game series of all time, up there with the likes of Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 and FIFA (yes I know its bad now but the old games were amazing). It has great characters, good plot and its not only engaging but fun too.

You might now be wondering "Satonee, why are you talking about a game when this is a anime review?". Well the Danganronpa anime is an adaptation of this series I love so much, and to say it doesn't live up to the game is an understatement. Its missing some of the biggest elements that make the game so endearing, mainly because it just can't be done in a anime. I want to explore why exactly why this adaptation is kinda shit and if it was just doomed to fail, so lets jump into it.

Also I'm going to be writing this under the assumption you have some basic knowledge on at least the first game and what happens, so if you don't you're welcomed to leave if you want to watch this anime spoiler free.

It Feels Rushed

The anime generally feels too rushed especially compared to the pace of the actual game. We have one episode of no killing or class trials and thats about it, no chances to really get to know the characters especially after the second class trial where we literally just focus on either alter ego (for 2 arcs) or class trials for basically the rest of the show. It just feels rushed and the unlike the game you never have a chance to get attached to characters, so if one dies you feel nothing. Theres this certain execution in the third game that had me bawling my eyes out but here I doubt anyone felt even sad for any execution or death or anything. It lacks that X-factor that Danganronpa has, which I put down to 13 episodes not being enough. Maybe 3 more would of probably given us time to develop some attachment to characters, although I can see how that could also just be boring I think it would of given it more emotional impact if it did.

Major Elements Are Missing From The Games

This is to no fault of the anime honestly, but some of the key elements from the games are just not here. The biggest of these (and my favourite part of the game) is free time events which honestly makes Danganronpa, well, Danganronpa. This is where you can choose which characters you want to hang out with and if you give them a gift they like you can learn even more about them, progressing your bond with them.

The great characters the game have are made great because we learn about their past, it not only is character development but makes us more emotional invested in the game as a whole. Its like we are actually there and know these people, so when they die it hits different. This anime lacks the emotional impact of the game and major things like the free time events not existing or the lack of choice you get shows a lot while watching and when it tries to throw these curveballs at you it ends up just falling flat every time. This basically shows me that this adaptation was doomed to fail, if you can't put in some of the most important elements of the source material without anything to compensate for it then how can you expect it to be a success?

Feels Incredibly Low Budget

Everything about Danganronpa: The Adaptation screams low budget to me. I don't know if they were trying to make this with the same budget Spike Chunsoft had with the first game (apparently at the time the director Seiji Kishi and his team could relate to the games low budget at the time) but oh my it makes this anime a lot worse. You aren't going to find this in a quality higher than 480p which for todays standards is like (for example) spy family being 720p at best. The animation is awful, it feels extremely hazy and is on the same level of quality as 2004 anime. The plot being more drawn out, interrupted by free time events so you can actually engage yourself in it is completely thrown out the window and is rushed as fuck. The writing is boring to say the least and by the end you just feel like you've wasted your time honestly.

It At Least Makes Sure It Isn't As Edgy As It Could Be

I think one of the parts this anime actually gets right is that it prevents "edgyness" where it can. The concept of a game in a school where 15 people kill each other to leave seems like it mainly appeals to the 14 year old emo edgelords that listen to MCR like its the bible (which honestly it does a good job of doing that). However for people who aren't like that it doesn't really feel like its purpose made for people 12-14 in the way it actually plays out. I think the pink blood really helps with this:

I think if Danganronpa used real blood then it would tip it over the edge of being edgy. You can see how the red blood makes it more gory and horrific which is a theme in most edgy anime. Shows like Another and Tokyo Ghoul are hindered because of their excessive use of gore, and Danganronpa being a game about people literally killing each other means minimising how horrific the gore is (by making gore pink) makes it a lot more palatable to a wider audience. I think more generally the game feeling a lot more bubbly with its iconic soundtrack and character design also helps with this.

Conclusion

After all we've talked about can we actually say Danganronpa: The Animation was doomed from the start? Yes. With important content from the game missing, how constricted they had to make the story to fit it into 13 episodes and the low budget it was seemingly given, this adaptation clearly stood no chance from the start. Honestly though, it still could of been a lot better.

Introduction

The meaning to life is something that we constantly pursue, as humans. Trying to justify our reason for being here to find fulfilment in it by the end, ending our lives accomplishing our dreams and living a life we can happily say we are proud of.

What if we aren't. What if we die before we can reach our dreams and become fulfilled. What if we are unable to find our true purpose or if it is taken away from us. What if we die with regret in our souls and are unable to move on until we reach our lives goal, until we cross that finish line. What if we can't accept death and even life for what it is, unfair.

Angel Beats! is an original anime series created by the legendary Jun Maeda that tackles this very issue. It shows us how life is unfair, how life is cruel but how life is also beautiful, a gift from God that is more valuable than anything. It shows what life carries, all the hardship it has and how we can reach a stage where we feel our lives were meaningful after all, even if it doesn't have any at all. There is a lot to talk about so lets jump right in!

Per usual, I'll section off where we get to spoiler territory so you can read some part of this spoiler free.

Top Quality World-Building

One of the main ways Angel Beats! gets across it's message of life is through its insanely good world building. We see into the lives of others and get a insight into who they were and want to be through them. We see all the tragedy they went through while living, each individual life painting half of a bigger picture of life as a whole, unfair. While the world that we come to gradually understand, the afterlife, paints the second half of the picture, the beauty of life. Through incredible world building we are forcibly shown the bigger picture of not just ours but everyone's life, the unfairness of it and how precious it truly is. It goes to show its value and how we shouldn't waste it but treasure it, and that's what this anime ultimately does best, all through world-building.

Music Is Golden

The music that has come from this anime is legendary, iconic and will leave an everlasting impact on you. With tracks composed by Jun Maeda himself, with songs also performed by Marina and LiSA, the music is one of the key aspects that carry the message this anime has. Its either pushes forward emotion and life in scenes or even fully portrays life just through the median of it. Also its just really good music to listen to in general, I find myself having two songs from Angel Beats! on my playlist (My Song and Crow Song) because they're just good songs. I'll leave some links below to them because I love them and you should listen to them too honestly. The only negative thing about them is that they aren't on spotify which is a bummer but what can you ;(.

i swear these are different songs

Characters Aren't Who They Seem

Characters in this anime all have a secret they are hiding from you. They all have personalities that make the anime endearing, like some laid back slice of life that makes you relax. Behind their outgoing selves lies a dark side, their past. Who they were and what the experienced, the tragedy that befell them and how fucked up their life is. It presents to us how people are different on the outside, how you never really know who they are inside and the emotions they battle with day by day. Even the anime doesn't allow you to fully understand their lives, only showing little parts of it which are described by the characters themselves, showing we can never understand what someone else is going through, but we can support them to get past it. I guess you could say it shows us first hand the feeling of sonder, the realisation that the people around you are living a life as vivid and complex as yours, one you'll ultimately never understand.

From this point onwards we have spoilers so if you want to skip to my conclusion that is fine!

Contrast Of Life And Death

I think one of the best ways to sum up this anime is the contrast of life and death. It emanates both of them in their full glory and how both a ultimately intertwine with each other. They are both what holds together the afterlife and what also ultimately 'obliterates' or fulfils the characters, coming together to create a beautiful emotional scene that pulls on the heart strings of the viewer. There's multiple examples throughout the anime like Yui and Iwasawa's oblitartion and the final scene that made everyone cry, however this is best shown in Otonashi's death in episode 9. It combines both death and life into one, as in his final moments he decides to give up his organs for donation to make sure part of him lives on even if the rest of him dies.

The Meaning Of Life

Angel Beats! has probably one of the harshest views on the meaning of life. While some anime present the meaning of life as to revolve around relationships like family or friends or around emotions such as love and anger or even a primal meaning as simple as survival, Angel Beats! is unique in the sense that it not remotely close to any of these. It shows us life truly has no meaning at all, we have either have a good life or a bad one. We can die whenever even before reaching any percieved meaning showing life doesn't really have one carved out for us. Instead, Angel Beats! tells us that we create meaning in our lives and even if it doesn't work out, then we should be happy that we at least tried our best to.

I think it also focuses on the human obessession on wanting to leave something behind, to have a meaning in our lives. Otonashi gaining his memories back in episode 7 perfectly, he believes he dies without meaning and clearly is shattered by it even telling Naoi and Yuri to leave the room before breaking down over his dead sister who he believes at the time he didn't do anything for, dying before he found true meaning in his life for her. It wants us to ultimately not obsess over the 'meaning of life' because they isn't one, instead we should seek to carve out our own and follow our own path that we craft ourselves, thats how we find true meaning.

Minor Complaints

Look, I'm a firm believer that everything has its posistives and negatives, from my favourite animes such as Clannad and Anohana to the likes on School Days and even To Love Ru (barely). With this being a review and not just my personal analysis on what I love about this series, I'm going to point out my admitly small problems with it.

The fact Otonashi comes before Kanade makes 0 sense when you think about it. Otonashi dies first because Kanade has his heart so why is the girl who died later there long before Otonashi is? Doesn't matter but it is lack on consistantcy that shows not al shows are perfect.

Animation is just fine. It doesn't really do anything but its not really awful anywhere (apart from faces at a distance they look quite goofy). It could be so much more but doesn't really make it stand out.

Finally, its just too short. I'd love like maybe 6-8 more episodes for us to explore the life of more characters like Matsushita, TK and Shiina like we did with Yui and Iwasawa. Not to the point of obliteration but I think it'll build the world up even more and push home the message of this anime even more, the unfairness and beauty of life.

While these are negatives, they're so minor that it doesn't really take away anything from how great this anime truly is. Maybe if you're a huge fan of animation in your anime, then maybe the just 'fine' animation would detract from the experience a bit, but for me not really.

Conclusion

Angel Beats! is beautiful story about life itself that teaches us and its cast harsh truths, but these truths gives the cast meaning, guides them towards fulfilment so they can rest in peace and shows us the interconnectivity of life an death. While not entirely perfect, Angel Beats! is one of the best anime I've watched and deserves all the praise its got.

Introduction

Out of every anime that has come for Key visual novels, Air seems to be a complete outlier to me. Clannad, Kanon, Angel Beats and Little Busters! follow a similar path of man goes to high school and finds out who he really is. Charlotte and Rewrite both revolve around high school students with special powers which are used to lead the cast towards a certain ending. Even Planetarian and Prima Dolls (which I haven't watched) both revolve around robot girls being, well robots.

Air fits into literally none of the categories. It isn't set anywhere near a high school for the most part, there's no 'special powers' the characters hold and obviously no robots (sorry to disappoint). Its by a country mile the most unique Key work, and the fact its genuinely cast aside by most is, to me, a complete injustice. I want to give it the justice it deserves, so if you want to see me describe this wild ride, keep reading.

Of course, I'll leave topics where I get into more spoiler territory at the end, so if you haven't watched it and get to that point you can stop reading.

It Makes Me Feel Uneasy...

If I had one word to describe my experience watching Air, it would 100% be 'uneasy'. From character design to what people do to the events that take place and even the fucking background, I felt a uneasiness throughout watching Air. I honestly think some part of this are unintentional like the backgrounds, I think that mainly comes down to it being a 2005 anime with a lower budget, so of course the art would be off. However, one thing I'm 100% sure of is that most of it is intentional.

I think its best shown in the character design. Most have their weird quirks that show that something is off, its subtle but it honestly works. For example, just look at Kano. The design is mostly normal apart from one single ribbon that's just there on her arm. Along with its striking yellow colouring that seems very out of place compared to the rest of the outfit, it succeeds in turning this design from bland and uninspiring to one that pops out and makes you uneasy with how weird it is. Its a prime example of what this anime is trying to achieve.

Also this is the best image I found, sorry!

Raw Emotion

Much like every Key anime after it, this anime is a showcase of pure human emotion that spews out on the screen. It showcases a multitude of emotions through the weird events that transpire. It includes the usual suspects for Key anime like love, tragedy, regret, but I think the fact these occur in not only a unique way but during all this weird shit that happens is the best part of this anime. It displays how emotion transcends any barriers or obstacles it throws our way. How even during events that the characters couldn't possibly comprehend, their emotions always shine through all the way, which makes this anime great.

Animation Is At Best, Offputting

This is one of the times when I will say that: yes, the animation does bother me. Of course its 2005 animation, you can't expect much right? Compared to other anime from this era like Kanon (2006) for example, the animation is just bad. Characters look shiney and even simple. The backgrounds are so low res it makes me want to cave my skull in. It feels just choppy at times. It has its good moments, however I just can't reasonbly justify that the animation is just fine, its just bad. Compare it to other Key works, its only better than the first Kanon anime in 2000

This next sections get into more spoiler territory, so this is a warning to stop reading if you don't want to go into this anime spoiler free.

It Transcends Time

One of my favourite aspects of this anime is the fact it goes from the current point in time to 1000 years into the past into the Heian period (794-1185). I love this, it whats sets it apart from every other Key work. It goes back in time to show us how the our two main charcters Yukito and Misuzu end up getting to their fate at the end of the story, and how the two kids also will (presumably) end up sharing the same fate. It gives me the anime a overall message to me, and that is that love transcends time, past what we can comprehend and how truly love never breaks, even 1000 years on.

Mental Unstability

More on Misuzu, I think one of the most interesting aspect is how she is has mental breakdown when she gets close to people. It really intreguise me because its never explained why this even happens, but somehow it just fits? Like fair enough theres a bunch of weird shit that happens so it naturally fit even without explination with the rest of the weird shit, and you could make a arguement about how what happened 1000 years ago has made her become this way, but nothing from back in that time should of made her that way in the first place. I honestly have no analysis for this I just wanted to comment on it.

Lets Not Lie, Kano and Minagi Arent Mains And Haruko Isn't A Supporting Character

Watching this anime, you wouldn't think theres more than 3 main charaters, you'd assume that Yukito, Misuzu and Haruko are all mains. I mean they are in every episode apart from one where we go to Heian period. However theres 4 and Haruko isn't even one of them. Kano and Minagi get like 3 and 2 episodes each respectively, which is fine, but they aren't mains by a long shot. Kano basically doesn't exist after her episodes and the exact same can be said for Minagi. While they're good displays of mental health and the regret of losing a sibling (kind of) respectively, they don't deeply influence the story at all. Haruko does and especially at the end, she basically guides the anime to its conclusion, and is in a lot more episodes than Kano and Minagi.

Lets look at Little Busters! for example. That anime has 11 main characters. Literally 11, and they all deserve to be mains. Yes they all get their own episodes like Kano and Minagi, but the difference is they stick around and without even one of them the anime would feel immcomplete. Kano and Minagi could be removed and the anime could still end the same. I'd honestly argue that Kanna makes more of a impact to the anime than the two of them. In short, Haruko is a main and the other two mains aren't.

Conclusion

I think this anime is criminally underrated. Its a great 12 episode watch to just binge if you want something fresh and new, an experience unlike any anime you've seen. However, the drawbacks this anime have do hold it back a little bit from its full potential, but it still makes for a great watch.

Introduction

Music anime to me is a grey area for me, I've not watched much but I've gathered they either hit or miss. Sometimes you get Kids on the Slope, a story rich anime that uses music to drive home the themes of romance and friendship and their importance to life. Then you get something like Anonymous Noise which... Yea the less said the better.

BOCCHI THE ROCK! is probably the first music anime that has actually left me conflicted. I can't tell if I actually like it or if I feel like I've wasted my time, so if you want to join me in deciding how I feel about this anime, carry on reading.

Plot Summary

Honestly writing these is a massive pain and they're boring, so instead I decided to just make it on photoshop instead:

Thoughts

BOCCHI THE ROCK! has actually insane animation. For a slice of life music anime you wouldn't expect the animators to go so hands on with the animation. Lets take something like Kanon for example. Obviously comparing 2006 to 2022 is not fair, but Kanon has more methodical animation, characters don't often express themselves through animation but dialogue, with emotion shown subtlety most of the time with characters occasionally breaking down with emotion spewing out, it feels a lot more grounded in reality like most slice of life. BOCCHI THE ROCK! uses animation to convey not just emotion but just things almost all the time and in every single episode. Half the time it feels like a fever dream, switching between anime, old art, chibi animation, descending into the shadow realm and even using a 3D physics engine. Its abundance of different animation styles that it uses blew me away along with everyone else who has watched it.

The music is like okay. I don't hate it but I don't love it. I think good music generally in anime makes you associate it with something that occurs in that anime like Moanin in Kids on the Slope or the piano version of the dango dango song in Clannad After Story that still reminds me of the trauma the anime gave me. BOCCHI THE ROCK! doesn't really have anything but an opening that's better than average at least, it doesn't stand out at all to me or remain in my memory. In short kessoku band is 'mid'.

The show uses characters to create a fun and loving cast that bounce off each other to create light hearted humour. Hitori is the introvert that can't talk, Nijika who seems to be the only normal one of the group, Ryou who doesn't display emotion and tries to look cool at all times and finally you have Kita who is the token extrovert who seemingly can talk to anyone. While you won't be laughing out loud in hysterics over what happens, its still funny in the way of 'oh that's funny'. It didn't make me chuckle because I'm a miserable sod but its sure to get a few out of most people who watch it.

I've seen loads and loads of people say that BOCCHI THE ROCK! displays being a introvert in a great and sometimes even realistic way. While I doubt most people would go as far as to say its realistic, I hate the representation of being a introvert in this anime. While yes, it does show the difficulties of talking to others for introverts, its too over the top to say its a good interpretation of it. I get this is a comedy as well as a music slice of life anime, so having a characters traits exaggerated makes sense. However having Hitori unable to do everyday tasks and unable speak to her friends most of the time is in no way a good way of presenting being an introvert. I'm an introvert and I am more quiet and socially awkward than most people, however that doesn't mean I am incapable of having a good flowing conversations with my friends or not being able to speak to someone in a music shop to buy something I want. This is one of my major gripes with this anime and I hate when this is brung up. Being an introvert may be like that for some people, but for me it is no where near that bad.

Also the story for me doesn't like exist. I love story in anime and a bad one or even a lack of one is a deal breaker for me. I love the likes of Clannad, Kanon and When They Cry because they all have rich story that interconnects together into a coherent piece, bringing events from the past, present and future all together to create a enhanced and satisfying viewing experience. I'd say BOCCHI THE ROCK! falls into the category of 'there is a lack of story' because there is a clear premise don't get me wrong but it really isn't a main focus in my opinion and doesn't affect anyone except for maybe some character development for Hitori which works for like a couple of minutes or maybe even for the rest of the episode before she goes back to her usual introverted self. Its somewhat saved by the humour the characters create and the animation being amazing but the lack of story holds it back from being a great anime.

Conclusion

Do I like this anime? Yes, its hard to argue that this anime is just bad. The animation that takes you aback in astonishment and a great cast of characters all unique from one another makes it impossible to hate this anime. However because of the lack of story, I cant justify giving it above a 70. If this anime had more story to it than 'do music thing' (which I know sort of defeats the point of a music anime but Kids on the Slope could do it) then it would break past a 70 easily, but because it doesn't so its a 65/100. Have a good day, stay safe and thanks for reading (please don't kill me for this review).

Introduction

Animosity - a strong hostility towards something. An emotion we can all relate to in one form or another, whether that is in the past or now, towards friends, family, work, school and even life.

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is a film that I believe embodies this emotion. It takes characters and showcases their discontent and alienation to the situation their in, how everything seems to be perfect for everyone else but not for you. How we feel a great anger towards our own existence and all our circumstances and how we can overcome it. If you want to learn more about how I believe this is presented, keep reading.

Also, there may be spoilers within this review which are light in my thoughts but not in the summary, so if you want to go in entirely blind, please do because this anime is great.

Summary

This part is just the basic premise of the story in case you wanted reminding.

A guy names Tsuneo on his way back from work has a girl called Josee fly towards him down a street in a wheelchair, flying into him with her grandma chasing. Tsuneo helps them out and eventually ends up eating at their place, accepting a job from the grandma to look after Josee. At first she is hostile to him but after he takes her to the sea she opens up more about her dreams and what she wants to do in life. After the death of her grandma, she decides to give up on her dreams and tells Tsuneo to take her to the sea one more time before they leave. While crossing the road her wheelchair gets stuck with a car approaching but is saved by Tsuneo, but his ankle is broken in the process.

Now in hospital, Tsuneo becomes docile and unable to come to terms to what has happened to him. He might of lost his chance to achieve his dream of going to Mexico to dive with his favourite fish, the angelfish. He loses all motivation and gives up on everything, meanwhile Josee decides to put her heart into illustrating and creates a story about her and Tsuneo's time together. She reads this at the library with Tsuneo present to a group of kids, recounting the events in a childish way and it ends with what Josee wants to happen for Tsuneo, which gives him the motivation to recover and eventually he leaves the hospital.

Of course there's more than that, its not just Tsuneo and Josee being together, but that's a basic summary of it.

Thoughts

The view on animosity is that it can envelope a person whole and take over them like a parasite. It halts a person being not only who they are but also who they want to be. At the beginning of the anime Josee is this closed off from everyone. It is clear she has a clear distaste for the world around her. Due to her past and disability, its clear she has a clear hatred for everyone. She closes away her dreams of the sea and of being a artist to her room where no one can see it. Her personality is rotten to show how this animosity has even taken over how she acts which makes her unlikable, further strengthening her animosity because the world pushes her further and further away, like its a endless cycle of hate. However after Tsuneo takes her to the sea and shows her the outside world for what it really is, she opens up. Her animosity towards the world and to people is washed away because of Tsuneo's kindness and forcing her into the world. Her real personality comes out, and she becomes the bright character who lies at a comedic level to make herself seem better. With the animosity gone she could enjoy life.

This anime's main take-away is that we need other people to feel joy. If you do not talk to people you will develop an animosity towards the world and become a version of you that is the entire opposite of who you are, and also leaving others alone will make them feel the same. If we are to overcome any animosity we have we need to be with others and also support others.

More generally, the anime is actually amazing. The VA performance of Josee by Kaya Kiyohara is nothing short of outstanding and is my favourite VA performance to date. The animation for this anime is also amazing, its so polished and smooth and is the type of animation i wish newer romance anime would stick to more. The character design is amazing as well, with no character feeling like it is just a copy and paste from another anime. Especially Josee her design is so simple yet unique that I've fallen in love with the design of her character

My main compliant about this anime that I need to tell you about is pacing. My lord for such a good anime movie the pacing kinda sucks. I understand that you have to fit all of this story into only an hour and 40 minutes, but still things move from one thing to the next extremely fast to me which makes me a little confused to what's going on for a minute. Obviously from what I've said the pacing didn't ruin it for me, but this aspect may be a deal breaker to you if that is extremely important to forming an enjoyable experience.

Conclusion

This anime movie is amazing. I believe it teaches us a lesson on how to get over our hatred of the world and how to truly enjoy our lives, by being around the ones we love most. Also this is fucking amazing, please watch it I beg. Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Afterword

Thanks for sticking around. I feel like I do this with every afterword I do but sorry this is long again and also I think I need more tips for making my points more concise and critical. I think I had a good thing going with my point on animosity but don't feel as I got it across in the best way possible, and honestly I cant be bothered re-writing that whole section. So some tips on how to make my views more concise and to the point would be appreciated. Also I'd like to know if this layout for a review works or if I should stick to a layout where I describe different sections of an anime like the animation or plot, because I feel that's more restricting but also more to the point. Anyway thanks for reading and have a good day!

Introduction

Boobs. Tits. Booba. Milkers. Badonkadonks. You may be wondering why I'm opening with a list of names for a specific female body part. Why? Mainly because there is absolutely nothing else to fucking talk about with To Love Ru apart from hanging melons that protrude from the female body.

I found this anime years ago, watched a little bit and then dropped it. Keep in mind that was me at 12, when I thought Trinity Seven was actually a serviceable anime. Now sometime last year I decided for some reason only God knows to actually watch the whole series. All of it. I wished I did what 12 year old me did and just dropped it 10 episodes in because HOLY SHIT IT IS AWFUL. If you want to see me splurge (not in that way) my thoughts on this anime and very quickly lose the will to live, carry on reading.

Plot

There is none. Just a pink haired alien called Lala (not Ru, because in a anime called 'To Love Ru' no one thought to add a character called Ru) falls into Rito's (the MC) third leg and then from there its just this Rito guy pulling everyone while still being a pussy boy throughout. At the end he has to run up into a spaceship to save Lala, which yes is a spoiler but there is literally no plot development towards this end goal that it may aswell be another of the random things that happen which does not progress the story along because there is none. By the way this goes for the whole series, literally half of it is OVA's because fuck all happens.

Literally I can sum this whole section up with one image:

Thoughts

To just get this out the way, I hate this anime a lot.

However there is always one positive thing about every anime. The one good thing I can say is that the opening for this season in particular slaps. It is just mid-2000s punk rock which does sound kinda cringe like most of the 2000s but heeeeeeey its still better than literally anything else this anime offers.

The animation is as middle of the pack as you get. There is not one good thing or bad thing about it (apart from the fact it might have the best boob physics of any anime in the 2000s)

When this anime attempts a joke it never lands, unless you are 10 or under. Like every joke they make for some reason HAS TO be sexual with no build up and no actual punchline. Every episode in the series feels like either one long joke made by a 30 year old basement dweller that is never finished, or a bunch of jokes by horny 11 year olds strung together with no structure that are all still unfished.

The characters are fucking woeful. Lala is typical big boobed pink haired girl that for some reason lacks a brain, rito is a pussy bitch that can't talk to women, Haruna is a shy uwu girl that I've seen 100 times already, Yui who is a 'pure soul' that always gets her breasts touched, Yami who is just dull, Mikan as a little sister architype, a genderbender, a preppy rich girl somewhere.

Oh, and this before the cancer that is Momo (Lala's sister) comes in the next season and fucks up any structure the series had to this point and changing the narrative from 'who should Rito fuck' to 'LETS FUCK EVERYONE YAYAYAYAYAYAYA' destroying any plot it could of had. Literally Lala turns into a supporting character like why? We established that she is the main girl, and now we dump her for a short, pink haired girl that wants everyone to fuck Rito who is still a pussy bitch.

Like I already said there is no story, nothing happens, characters never progress and everything makes me want to curl up and die.

"Character development? Whats that." - the producer for To Love Ru probably. Characters are not only stale but never fucking change or progress or do anything.

I could say a lot more, but honestly I don't fancy a trip to the ICU for brain damage so lets just get to the conclusion.

Conclusion

Writing this review I realised that this is the worse anime I've watched. This is worse than school days. This is worse than Rent-A-Girlfriend. This is even worse than Masamune-kun's revenge. Everything about this anime is simply bad. You cannot actually rate animes a 0, so technically its a 0.5 on my profile. However for reviews you can, so it will have a 0. Have a good day, stay safe and never watch this shitshow.

Introduction

Normally I like to open these reviews by saying something about how I found the show or how something about it. For School Days I had a funny story of how I saw it on twitter and thought I saw a gun so I binged it. For Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai I asked a question directly relating to how fucking weird the characters are. For Anohana, I have no such story, I saw someone mention it off-handly in a video and grew curious, so I watched it.

People often say curiosity killed the cat, and it normally does. Fortunately this time it not only didnt kill me (thankfully), it gave me a new perspective on grief and growing past it. Obviously I'm being a bit dramatic, I'm not going to say that I 100% know how to grow past tragic events, but it offers a unique perspective that I really never considered. If you want to read the rest of my take on this one-of-a-kind anime, keep reading.

Also warning for spoilers, if you want to go in blind stop reading now thank you.

Plot

In case you wanted a reminder, the story revolves around our boy Jinta Yadomi who talks to this girl called Menma, however no one can see her for some reason. I doubt its for any serious reason though.

A little while later, we find out Menma is actually just dead. Yep, shes a ghost who can't move on because the group Jinta used to be apart of the with Menma, called Super Peace Busters disbanded when she died.

The rest of the anime revolves around all the people in the Super Peace Busters, Jinta, Anaru, Poppo, Yukiatsu ,Tsuruko and Menma as they confront this tragedy head on together, grow past their traumas and move on to a brighter future.

Thoughts

Normally I'd split this into different sections like music and animation, but honestly those are meaningless in this show. Yes the music is good, and the animation is clean, but it really doesn't matter in this anime in my very non-professional opinion.

This story is all about the characters. The main and maybe only take-away most people have is the characters, and I honestly do not blame anyone for this. The progression of Jinta from a anti-social prick with no outlook on life, no driving factor in living to someone with a clear purpose in his life, someone who wants to actually try and make himself a better person is nothing short of inspirational, even if its just a 2d person. The likes of Yukiatsu overcoming his narcissism to actually face his trauma head on, or Anaru growing from a popular girl who is a fake version of her to someone who can accept who they are for who they actually are, or even Poppo finally opening up about his guilty of seeing Menma die and being able to overcome it is something that can leave an impact on anyone.

I believe the view this anime has on grief is the most significant part for me.

Anohana is simply about grief. How to move on from our past experiences. The characters are a tool that is used specifically for this purpose. It presents the hardships of moving on for children who cant comprehend what has actually happened to them. Its important to understand that the characters are only around 15, still more mature than when they were kids but also still clinging onto the past. It shows how with time we can come to terms with what we have lost, how in life these things happen and all we can do is move on. Anohana also wants us to understand how grief truly works. That the 5 stages of grief don't really exist, according to this anime anyway, more that its a coping mechanism to distract ourselves from what has happened. We want to forget, we want to believe we have already grieved but actually we never have come to 'acceptance' because we can't. We are forced to come to terms with our true human nature and that is we never forget. We can only move on by taking this bad memory and keeping it close. Ignoring the problem, not accepting the fact we will forever stop grieving our loss and not keeping that close with us will bottle us up. It will turn us into unrecognisable, broken people who display only their worse self. It wants us to look at what we've lost and keep it close, never letting go because doing so will only lead to more pain and suffering.

In short, always keep what you've lost close so you can carry it with you and keep on living.

Conclusion

Anohana is a work of art that honestly utilises character development in the best way possible. Not just one or two, but the whole cast grows into likable people. It shows us how grief is overcome with time and what it really means, how we cant just accept but instead that we should just embrace it and move on.

This is one of my favourites of all time, and nothing will change that. Thanks for reading, stay safe and have a blessed day.

Afterword

Well thanks for sticking around and reading this part too. This review is again long (sorry) and I'm also still new to reviews. They've been fun so far and I'm still learning, so any feedback would be appreciated. Anyway thats all I wanted to say, stay safe and have a nice day!

Introduction

Heres a question, do you like weird people? Maybe they're funny to you because of how stupid they seem. Maybe they're very vibrant and easy to bounce off. Maybe you're also just weird.

Love, Chunibyou and Other Delusions is a bunch of weird people who are quite literally deluded into thinking they are all powerful beings, and as stated in the title I've watched this anime 9 times for some fucking reason, with most coming back in 2020 where I was first getting into anime. It catapulted my love for romance and slice of life anime but I still wonder why.

Being basically an expert on this anime at this point I've decided to sum up my thoughts on this anime and find out what I truly think about it.

Overview

The basic premise is that a schoolboy named Yuuta Togashi, someone who had 8th grade syndrome or cunnibyou in middle school, is starting his first day of high school. He is approached by this girl with a eyepatch called Rikka Takanashi in class, who then proceeds to fall to the ground clenching her eye because chunibyou.

Yuuta is forced to take her to the nurses office where we find out this Rikka girl knows about his old chunibyou self. After school he is forced to go home with Rikka because she lost her wallet and, very conveniently, she lives right above him. From there they start being together consistently and the anime follows them as their relationship 'gradually' progress.

Thoughts

I think this anime is fine. Not great or a must watch, not mid or outright bad, just fine. There are plenty of things wrong with it and plenty of things i think it does well.

I love the artstyle and how it perfectly fits the vibe of the anime. It can flip flap between your average slice of life animation to these stupidly over the top action scenes.

I also love the characters. Rikka is this loud charismatic idiot that may seem annoying to others but I think her uniqueness rubs off on my slightly. Yuuta is just a normal guy who I can get behind (and I love him for the fact he isnt just this wimpy MC architype). Nibutani is this popular girl that also was a former chuni and will do anything to bury her past. Kumin is the definition of napping.

However, I have a lot to complain about aswell. The pacing is god awful in my opinion. I early said "their relationship 'gradually' progesses" because it doesn't. We go from friends who are close to each other to suddenly eachothers crush in one episode. When I watched it again recently thats what stood out, how fucking god awful this transition is. IT leaps us head first into romance with no real set-up which isn't how you do romance in my opinon.

The music is ass. I hate all of it. The opening for both seasons is ass. The endings for both seasons is ass. The OST for this anime is ASS. Music is not the be all end all, but I would much rather have mid/bad art and good music rather than good art and bad music.

Also Dekomori's character. I hate her. She is annoying swine that drags this anime down in my opinion.

This scene brought me a lot of joy.

Conclusion

With its slow pace overall, great animation, music you can't expect much from and mostly loveable characters, Love, Chunibyou and Other Delusions is a 6.5, fine and even good at times, but no where near amazing. It won't blow you away but wont leave you feeling as if you've wasted your time.

Also I wanted to say 2 things. I believe the second season to be about on par with the first and that is its fine, also sorry this review is long, this is only my second one and I wanted to try a different style of writing it, just turned out to be longer than last time. Anyway thats all, have a good day C:

On the 5th April 2023, I was casually scrolling twitter when I saw a tweet with the caption 'School Days had the craziest ending' with a video attached. After watching 5 seconds and thinking I saw a fucking gun I proceeded to drop everything I was doing and binge watch all 12 episodes right then and there.

My life went from blessed to a hellish nightmare within 4 hours, my brain melting try to comprehend what the fuck I've just watched. I could talk about this anime for literal days about how fundamentally braindead it is and made me, making me go watch Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai series for the 9th time for some fucking reason just so i could feel some comfort in my life.

I believe my notes for this anime is enough to sum up my experience.

Its been a month since then, and i think I need to write a analysis to finally get this pile of shit out of my head, so that's what I'm doing

Art

Standard for the 2000s, big eyes, a snub for a nose like always, most solid colour looking faces known to man and hair that looks like it hasn't been washed in a week. I'm not really a artist person to be honest (the only creative art I do is photography) but I can appreciate that they could not make the uniforms more iconic if they tried. Also despite what I said I do like the 2000s style of art for anime characters, some of my favourite anime like Clannad and When They Cry are done in that style. In short, I like the art.

Music

The music to this anime had no right to be this good. Its almost too perfect at times. The opening is iconic and the song at the end HOLY SHIT IT GAVE AND STILL GIVES ME CHILLS. I actually implore you to listen to the ending song, its actually really good and unforgettable when you've watched the anime. I'll leave it here:

Characters

Yell at me all you want Saionji is my favourite. Yes I know she is a prick that is the catalyst for all the shit that goes down but c'mon you have to admit the story would of been better if she just ended up with Makoto. Also I think I like her high energy personality a lot more than Kotonoha's timid one. Don't get me wrong I can like more timid characters like Sakura from Horimiya but

Kotonoha is fine, big boobed female mc that is shy which is typical for harem animes. Setsuna is questionable at best with her motives for helping Saionji becoming more and more unclear. Otome in the nicest way possible is a slag, and Makoto...

Story

Boy does shit go down. The whole premise is about a guy called Makoto taking a photo of a girl he doesn't know on the train and setting that photo as a 'love charm' where if no one sees it for 3 days they will fall in love with you. My boy gets busted a few minutes in by a girl call Saionji who sits next to him. From there she tries to hook them up and help them with their relationship. I think that's the most I can say without getting into spoiler territory but you would not expect it to go the way it does from that.

Extra Matrial

If you for some reason watch this anime and go 'oh man I want to see some more School Days' well you're in luck. The anime is based on one the most impressive visual novels I've seen (which is not saying much because I don't often look at them never mind play them). It has a lot more endings, some good, some bad and some extremely horny. Theres also a manga adaptation of the visual novel that I believe takes one ending from the visual novel but I've seen the visual novel endings already and I've seen enough school days for a lifetime. I'll leave links in the spoiler below if you really want to see them.

Walkthrough: Click Here
Endings: Click Here
Manga: Click Here

Overall

To conclude, watch it. I know everything I've said and my rating scream 'DONT WATCH' but honestly you should. It'll not only give you a benchmark for terrible, god awful anime, It'll also make you appreciate every good thing you have ever watched. I leave you with this nice boat, have a good a day and God bless if you watch this anime.