Jeoffrey

As a loose sequel to The Tatami Galaxy, Tatami Time Machine Blues certainly doesn't fall behind. The good old cast of characters is there again, the series has quite an interesting idea that it develops very well (instead of playing with different possibilities, it’s about time travel this time as the title suggests). The main idea, presented in the fifth episode, is also great and makes you think. It has those strange and original visuals which I like a lot, and the score (especially the opening and ending) is excellent. It's still quite heavy on dialogue, which is very fast, and you have to concentrate not to miss any important details, but that's what I was counting on, and it gives the series a nice kick of energy. Admittedly, I had mixed feelings about the fourth episode and the way it resolved the problem with a certain object which was at the center of the action and played a much more important role than the time machine itself. Even though I was told that everything was okay, I suspected that it wasn't and that things didn't work that way. Obviously, the authors knew that. They saw everything through until the end, closed the rest of the logical holes that I found, and revealed all the punchlines. The finale itself is a bit redundant in the story, but it ties it all back to the original concept of The Tatami Galaxy, so I was glad it was there. It's a good show, a bit shorter, so some of the characters don't get as much space, but it's still handled very well. 8/10

It’s a weird series. On one hand, it is a story about a young girl who comes to take care of an abandoned boy and a strange relationship starts to develop between them that is somewhere between building a family and a mediocre romance. On the other hand, it's basically a sort of The Duke of Death and His Maid shouta edition, without any of the supernatural stuff, where the most suspicious thing is the fact that an eighteen-year-old girl is flirting with a boy who's around twelve, and I wonder if anyone other than just the FBI should be interested. Even the jokes are built around the girl occasionally saying something ambiguous, to which she gets an honest response of an innocent child, which is at the same time worthy of an above-average Casanova who can make any girl blush. Then there’s the main character's strange friend, who at twelve has obviously read her mother's entire collection of romance novels, and sees what the viewer can also figure out, but what the boy is clueless about. In short, the whole thing is much more complicated and ambiguous, the characters themselves realize this and come to a fairly logical conclusion - let's see what actually happens in the end. Fortunately, it works quite well as a comedy, and emotionally it is also quite endearing when the relationship between the main couple is forming and developing. In the end, I consider it a passable comedy full of various double entendres, but one that I didn’t enjoy as much as the already mentioned Duke of Death. What didn’t help it much was the not-so-funny opening, in which the main character thinks everything is suspicious, including total bullshit. It made me want to drink a shot each time I heard him say "Ayashii". What kept me watching was the question "Why did the maid come to the mansion?" to which I eventually got a logical and agreeable answer which improved my final impression to 5.5/10.

The beginning of the second season was an unpleasant surprise for me. If people were complaining that the first season pushed the importance of buddies a little too hard, the second season went completely overboard in that regard. It's all about buddies, everyone has a partner, and everyone has some supposedly terrible problem at the beginning. This makes the first half feel like relationship counseling and a never-ending build-up of each pair of characters. What kept me watching were the hints that something big was about to happen and also the brothers Fugan and Mugan. With each new episode, I was secretly hoping for these two to finally get to the city so that things could really get going. I understand the importance of building up the characters’ relationships. It does pay off in the finale as it makes their chemistry more convincing, but there were too many build-up episodes in a row and they mostly felt the same (someone has a problem and goes to the main characters who try to help, but the character in question and his buddy manage to work it out themselves in the end). Fortunately, the final confrontation with the brothers was truly epic, the fights were nice, and all that building up of the individual superhero pairs eventually didn't go to waste. The first half of the second season seemed like a slightly above-average series, which I quite enjoyed. The second half, however, really stepped up the game, benefiting from everything that the first half had built up, tying up some loose ends, and starting the biggest adventure and most complex threat the heroes have had to face. And it worked, although it was constantly repeated how important trust is and that you can achieve anything with a partner, and those who don’t have friends end up as tragic antagonists. There were also moments of gloomy atmosphere, drama, and sometimes almost hopelessness, and great moments when the heroes get back on their feet and try to beat the odds. It’s full of heroic clichés, but they are well delivered and serve their purpose. The ending was satisfying in most respects. It was suspenseful, sometimes quite surprising (like what Mission A is). The only thing that didn't sit well with me was Lunatic’s storyline, I expected more from it. The animation was decent, even the use of CGI on the superhero costumes looked pretty cool. Despite a few reservations and an unimpressive beginning, I actually ended up enjoying the second season and I’m giving it a 7/10.

What I liked most about the series was the whole concept of Hero TV. It was entertaining and well thought out, including the sponsor companies, commercials, scoring, etc. The writers turned superheroes into a functioning show business, and I found it creative, funny, yet believable. Plus, the central pair of characters, Tiger and Bunny, were likable and had great chemistry, like Riggs and Murtaugh, and they each had their own interesting problem to deal with. I enjoyed the resolution of Barnaby's past and Kaburagi's future as much as I enjoyed them gradually getting to know each other and becoming buddies. What I also liked was Lunatic, a very interesting and well-portrayed character whose motivations and approach to justice actually made sense to me, but I could also see what was wrong with it. The show's message was also quite appealing, although it was sometimes pushed too hard and I felt like the subtitle could have been "Friendship is Magic", but it didn’t bother me all that much. Tiger & Bunny was a great show which I have been reminded of a couple of times since (for example when watching The Boys, by which I mean the commercials and medialization of superheroes, there were no other similarities otherwise), and I was glad to see that the show got a second season after more than a decade. 7.8/10

I have mixed feelings about this movie. Some things in it were good, others not so great. First of all, the animation is really unique. The character models are largely done in CGI which sadly leaves a lot to be desired. The movement is choppy at times, it sometimes looks a bit artificial and there are moments (like the opening Halloween dance) where I just couldn’t believe what I was watching, and I generally didn’t like it very much. Fortunately, most of the backgrounds are classic 2D animation, so I quite enjoyed the setting of Chimney Town, which had an interesting vibe and a certain charm. The characters themselves weren't exactly likable. They felt like some weird 3D version of Rugrats most of the time. The cinematography doesn’t help much either, although it's clear that the cinematographer likes to experiment, offering shots from unexpected angles such as characters’ POVs or a scene as if straight out of a platformer. It often looks weird rather than interesting, though, and it’s disrupting the flow of the viewing experience. What was great was the music, which was powerful and did a good job of illustrating what was happening on screen. I also have mixed feelings about the overall story. On the one hand, it’s full of all kinds of clichés, and so many of the big surprises (like who Poupelle really is) are revealed too soon. On the other hand, there are some pretty powerful and emotional moments that work for the viewer. Overall, it was quite an unusual show. I feel like the creators wanted to experiment a lot in terms of expressive devices, but stuck to the tried and tested formulas story-wise, which they managed to handle quite well. 5.5/10

The Deer King had the potential to be a truly amazing film. The visuals are gorgeous, the music is amazing, the story is intriguing, and the setting has its undeniable charm. It's just that the whole thing seems sort of half-baked. The characters and their motivations and relationships are not fleshed out enough, you need to work out a lot of things on your own to make it all hold together and see the amazing overall picture and realize what it's supposed to be about. The film was aiming to be a grand spectacle in the style of Studio Ghibli's best works like Princess Mononoke. It tries to play out an intricate story with various different characters and their goals, but the characters’ motivations are only explained just enough to make you understand them, but you won't feel it and you will barely find it convincing. It's probably because the film format didn't offer enough space for this much material, and so a lot of the explanations, including even such basics as an effective exposition, were simply skimped on, and much of it feels incomplete. It negatively affects your overall impression as you have to concentrate a lot to make sense of everything, and there's something lacking to make you fully relate to the characters. There are a lot of important characters and not all of them get the space they deserve. You have to make a lot of assumptions about them to get the full picture and make sense of it all. The only relationship that is fleshed out is the one between Van and Yuna. I had no problem believing it and I enjoyed their journey together, but all the other important things around them weren’t that great. Dr. Hossar was fairly likable, as well as tracker Sae, but did I learn enough about them to make sense of their actions? Especially with Sae, it was pretty hard, and I had to guess her motivations from the subtle clues the series offered. These are two of the more important supporting characters, and they are already missing something, not to mention the rest. King Aquafa, his advisor, the administrator Yotaru, and the resistance leader Ofan – all these characters played a big role, and the entire conflict revolved around them, but their motivations and reasoning were explained in an extremely superficial way. The same goes for the message of the film. You really have to search for it and deduce it from certain scenes, or from what some of the characters say, instead of having it shown to you in a powerful and dramatic way. The film doesn’t really highlight what is important. It doesn't have enough power or depth. Even if you can sense that there is depth to it, and you can see how amazing and intense the story could have been, you actually end up quite disappointed. What could have been a 5-star experience only deserves a very weak 4*, and I’m being generous. It probably would have been better as a series with more space for everything... 6.5/10

Kingdom - Season 4 (2022) (série) Kingdom is a guarantee of great fun for me, although I wasn't as excited about Season 4 at first as I was about the previous one. I was expecting Qin Kingdom to finally go on the counter-offensive and begin the real journey to unify all of China. Instead, the season just dealt with internal conflicts. It does make sense, though. After the epic battles of the previous season that had brought Qin Kingdom to the brink of destruction, it was clear that someone would want to take advantage of this internal weakening. With a calculating and ambitious chancellor just waiting for his opportunity, there’s trouble ahead. And Lü Buwei is indeed a skilled schemer. His inner strength and cunning are impressive, and he quickly sets his plans in motion. This gradually leads to two dangerous attempts at revolution, each time using other powerful players from the emperor’s entourage. What I ended up enjoying more than all the revolutions and battles was the way the series portrayed most of the key characters in them. Both the brother and mother of the future emperor had a very interesting story arc, and their complicated relationships and past were explored in great depth. Especially the queen dowager had an incredibly strong and dramatic story that made me see her as a broken and tragic woman who believed that she had found happiness again, at least for a while. While she's definitely not supposed to be a positive character, I could definitely empathize with her. The confrontation between the emperor and his chancellor was also excellent and revealed their plans and visions, both of which were logical and powerful. Lü Buwei’s plan to unite the empire using money seemed just as acceptable as the emperor's plan to use force. Both visions are properly discussed and, given the context of the times and the situation, it eventually becomes clear which one is the right one. In the end, I wasn’t disappointed, even though the whole season was about the final resolution of internal strife and hopefully the final unification of the entire Qin kingdom into a stable entity that should be ready now to begin its own warfare. While it wasn't the strongest or most thrilling part of the entire story, it was clearly necessary, and so well-crafted that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kingdom never fails to entertain me, the author has everything well thought out, manages to sell me on all the drama and individual characters, and keeps on coming up with interesting battles between huge armies. The chessboard is set up now, the pieces are finally in place and the big game can begin... 8.5/10

Summer Time Render is a decent mystery drama that managed to hold my attention for the entire 25 episodes. It tells an interesting and meaningful story that incorporates some tricky themes, such as time travel (more specifically, traveling between different realities), without the story falling apart or coming across as silly. The ending was pretty satisfying, and the final episode was a nice touch. It may not have been as intense for me as, say, Erased, but it still had its powerful and thrilling moments and situations that seemed almost hopeless, yet the characters always managed to pull through in a fairly logical manner. I was decently entertained most of the time, looking forward to new episodes to see how it would all turn out. The very ending (everything about the "Haine dimension") seemed a bit far-fetched, and it was probably the only moment in the whole series where I wasn’t sure if the writers would manage to hold it all together, but they did. Admittedly, the ending was a bit too idealistic for my taste leaving no possibility for a sequel, but as I said, it didn't fall apart and at least it was a single coherent story. The characters were interesting enough for me to relate to, but not enough to actually make me fear for them and become more engrossed with the story. The animation was decent, the series managed to sell me on many of the locations, and the fights looked very good as well. The soundtrack was okay. It wasn’t striking enough to affect my overall impression, but it complemented the individual scenes quite well. All in all, satisfaction prevails, it was a pretty decent series. 7.5/10

It took almost ten years, but the sequel is finally here, and it’s far from disappointing. Its above-average quality still largely builds on the characters and their interactions. The chemistry between them still works after all these years. The atmosphere and vibe of the whole series are just as enjoyable as before, and the plot is still interesting enough. Some things start to unravel a bit in the last few episodes and others get slightly tangled up, which balances out the middle part (the beach and farm episodes) where I sometimes felt like nothing important was happening. New characters have appeared, and all I can say about them is that Alas Ramus is incredibly cute, Lyra is quite interesting, and I want to know more about her role in the story. She's obviously very important to both main characters. Gabriel is a witty yet dangerous and cunning enemy that I appreciate more than Sariel in Season 1. The show is still very enjoyable for me despite some of its weaker parts. What I didn't like, though, is the new animation style. I know Studio 3Hz very well, I've seen almost all of their work and I like it, but here it just feels off. I recognize most of the characters visually, but something about them feels different, and even the attention to detail and drawing just seems worse than in the first season. Plus, most of the fights that take place here feel worse overall, sort of bland and dull. Yes, you can get used to the style, and the fights aren't everything, but it still takes at least a point away from an otherwise great experience. When I subtract half a point for the weaker plot in places, I'm at 7.5/10 which corresponds to how much fun I had. It's still a decent and above-average series for me, driven by the characters, story, and atmosphere. I’m even looking forward to the third season which has been announced for 2023, but compared to the first (almost a decade older) season, it leaves a little to be desired (especially in terms of the visuals).

I must say I still like the first season of Hataraku Maou-sama! a lot. I like the concept of a conflict between fantasy creatures and their everyday life in the modern world with all the common everyday problems (work, housing, bills...) that every member of society has to deal with. What is especially great is how realistically these ordinary worries are depicted and how the Demon Lord deals with them. What made the entire series amazing were the characters. They were likable and their interactions and chemistry between them were the driving force behind the whole excellent experience. The supernatural issues made me want to know more about everything and everyone. It's funny, it's interesting, it's enjoyable. White Fox did a very good job in terms of animation, so the series still looks great today. It was nice to remember this enjoyable series after years. 9/10