Jeoffrey

So once again, after a long time, I made it through a shoujo featuring a reverse harem. However, to be honest, it was not a great experience this time around. I did not mind the naive main female protagonist, and it did not really bother me that none of the male characters were very remarkable. I actually had no idea who would be the most compelling character from their harem, or perhaps which gentlemen would be the most charming. Would the girls pick their favorite guy? I guess so; there are a lot of classic archetypes in the show. Some of them will probably be in some way interesting, even though I did not find any of them fascinating at all. However, I guess that is understandable since I am a heterosexual guy. The show was killed by the dramatic twists, as there were just too many. I was left wondering if they had attempted to cram as many as possible into it. Things like "I am your father" or "He is my brother" or even "I am your fiancé" were all shoved into only a mere twelve episodes. This sort of thing would generally take hours with the average soap operas. Do girls seriously like melodramas like that? Well, the reactions of women and girls will probably give me a clue. Anyway, this is not very watchable for a guy. At times, I even had to laugh, which is not appropriate in such serious situations. In other words, the show's narrative is not that great, in my opinion, and the constant "huge twists'' somewhat spoiled it for me. It is good that the show Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits was released at the same time. It is a reminder that there are decent and exciting shoujo shows even for guys. I am only awarding this 3.5/10.

Yes, Caligula is a tedious lesson about people learning to face their problems alone, even though everyone is different. The show is wrapped up in a supposedly complicated environment that tells us about as much as we have already learned in the previously mentioned The Matrix. It goes something like this - "The first Matrix was a perfect paradise, it was a disaster, humanity could not accept it." Unfortunately, the show was like a twelve-part lecture, and I again could not accept how it was presented. I did not get to build up a relationship with anyone because there were so many characters. Also, how was I supposed to be somehow shaken up when I learned their real-world secrets? Furthermore, the tediously presented narratives were just bullshit. Some scenes were filled with dry stilted lines that fell flat ("I am a bad mother because I never hugged my son..."). Others had supposedly dramatic and completely unnecessary fight scenes. Still, they made it even more bullshit than it needed to be. As a colleague rightly wrote in their review - they simply symbolize defiance. All in all, it is very tedious and I was just waiting to see what the ending would bring. Then there was the final lecture about humans in a way that even artificial intelligence would understand. So, my view is this: ideas: mediocre, action: useless, suspense: none, emotions: weak = my overall impression is about 3/10 because even the soundtrack was not my cup of tea.

Remember The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio? I was thinking about him a few times while I was watching this anime series. If only because Golden Kamuy, like The Revenant, contained a memorable bear scene! However, be warned, while the bear in The Revenant is the best CGI bear I have ever seen, and it is hard to tell that it is not a real bear, the bear in Golden Kamuy is the most hideous of animated creatures that have ever seen the light of day. In general, watching any fight scene involving a bear is sheer agony and is going to make you look like someone put what Ainu refers to as "osoma" in your food or just laugh in despair. You will hang your head or laugh because you cannot take this too seriously. The bear does not do very well, and the wolf does not come out well in some scenes. In other words, in terms of the animation, there is room for improvement. Fortunately, this is probably the only thing that went wrong because Golden Kamuy has a lot to offer otherwise! It is a narrative about an adventure set in a beautiful environment, the harsh but charming Japanese wilderness. Golden Kamuy knows how to draw you into it. You can get to find out something about the animals, or even something about the customs of the local natives, hunters, and everyday people. On the one hand, everything is a bit rough, even though at the same time it is fascinating and visually attractive. Golden Kamuy is also a thrilling treasure hunt with an atmosphere, primarily due to the solid and distinct characters. Indeed, one very quickly remembers who is who; each character is unique in their charming way. The chemistry between the two main protagonists, which is spiced up with witty interactions, definitely puts them ahead of the rest. Even the actual hunt for the tattoos that lead to the treasure is decently dramatic at times, featuring various surprises and amusing situations. In conclusion, you are definitely not going to find this show boring because it is gritty, suspenseful, and entertaining. It even manages to be cute, and most importantly, it is interesting + I liked the opening a lot. 7.8/10.

"CSI: Twilight - Have a Vampire for a Friend!" Speaking for myself, I did not have high hopes for this show; far too often it brought back all the negative feelings I had while watching Twilight. However, thanks to the criminal and societal crossover, I made it to the end, which I would perhaps not have believed initially. Actually, the characters were not that bad, so I did not mind watching them, and therefore it was not outside of my comfort zone in the end either. Granted, pale-faced "sexy" vampires appeared again. They were not bothered by the sun or other classic anti-vampire tropes. Yet, the poor guys had circles under their eyes and teeth coming out of their mouths when they transformed themselves in a way that would make any Warcraft orc jealous. However, I thought this was still better than Twilight... Well, the same could be said about the romantic storyline, although I could not feel anything intensely, they could have had much better chemistry, electricity - or, in other words, be much more romantic, although once again - it is still better than... No, I am going to stop now; repetitive jokes are not funny. I could go on and on about the narrative, it is not the best, and they already made up a similar story about robots (Beatless). In addition, the entire plotline about the group that wanted to exterminate vampires seemed too unfinished to me. Also, you can see that the anime's writers themselves probably did not believe they would get another season. So they wrapped up the main event after the credits. I found the show watchable, even though I did not feel it was anything new. I did not enjoy it, even though I did not find it very offensive either, so I am going to be moderate. Even though this show is not an anime series aimed at me, I am going to give it 4/10 because it is better than...

"Aria the scuba diver" is back, and that includes the crazy Pikari and her face (cursed by some), which I found irritating at first during the first season. However, I then got used to it, and it is so goofy that I smile every time I see it - so I laugh pretty often. In other words, I got used to it all during the first season and I liked it, especially the atmosphere, the soundtrack, and the amicable relationships between everyone in the show, which I missed. So I was happy this season came along when it did. Well, what is going on? A few new characters have expanded the range of those weird expressions (faces) again. I long for a scene where all the characters with those strange facial expressions are all together on screen so I can take a screenshot. I would then set it on my FilmBooster profile under that (similar) picture from Aria to feel like a Pokémon master - in other words, to "gotta catch em all." Furthermore, I learned that what works in one anime may not necessarily work as well in another. Indeed, Kozue Amano added certain supernatural elements to the show to provide a magical feel to this anime series. It gives it an extra broader dimension.  But the supernatural, magic, and Caith Sith elements do not work half as well as in the already mentioned stories of the young gondolier Aria. I mean, the whole part focuses on Peter and the dreams which is probably the weakest thing I have seen in this anime series so far. Otherwise, the rest was the same, i.e., beautiful music, an enjoyable atmosphere, nicely portrayed, and believable relationships. This time there was one thing that surprised me, and I am only going to say - Boy?! One slight criticism is that there is much less diving and maybe even information about diving compared to the first season. The lack of diving stuff is a real shame because I am fascinated by diving and would like to have known more about it. I found being immersed underwater seems magical to me, and is very nicely portrayed in this show. In other words, it is way more magical than some dreams and Peter. Despite all that, I did enjoy the show. For example, the relationships were more interesting and more sophisticated than in the first season, which I think is a step up. As a result, I found the second season of Amanchu! was again a friendly and likable show. The only negative thing was that my pleasant impressions of the show were marred and a little bit weaker than the first season. However, I would still welcome another season because I think there is still a lot to discover in this world and even underwater. 7.5/10.

This review contains SPOILERS that will reveal everything about this anime! Do not read on if you do not wish to know. Of course, this show is a fairy tale, from the beginning to the end, with the only non-fairy-tale moment being the end of the ninth episode. If only a pink unicorn had run under that rainbow at the very end, then it would have been "perfect". Well, what is this all about, dear children? This show is about good, honest, and righteous Theo who is wandering the world with his big plan and steely determination. However, alas, he has absolutely no idea how to achieve what he has set out to do. Oh, and this also is a tale about a beautiful, intelligent, and strong woman who is not happy with the fate that has been chosen for her. Therefore, there is the one who knows what he wants, although he does not know how to achieve it. He meets a woman who does not know what she wants; however, because of how intelligent she is, she can achieve anything. They are the perfect couple! And so the whole world is shaking at its foundations, and all the problems are being resolved until it is time to add a romantic subplot. Then their grand plans have to take a back seat for a while because what kind of prince would Theo be if he was not willing to give up everything for his princess? Which, if I remember correctly, pissed a lot of people off. It annoyed people because the love story just did not seem logical at the time and contradicted all the strategies going on in the plot. Plus, the main two protagonists were not the only ones with a plan; there were others, like the sad princess with big eyes and a long tragic backstory. She failed to marry Prince Charming, the wedding was a disaster, so everyone could understand that this sucks. She is furious and determined, and she would do anything for her vision of an ideal society. Anything! And so we have reached the end of the ninth episode... This moment annoyed another section of the audience because it was in incredible contrast with all the fairy tale stuff going on up to that point. It was perhaps too realistic, and surprisingly for me, it made perfect sense! However, even this princess eventually succumbs to the plot armor of Theo. He comes along with Prince Charming and forgives everyone, and even in a battle the prince shows what beautiful things he can paint in the "dust". There is also Holy Maiden Maria, a martyr who joins Theo along the way. We do not get to know her until almost the end. However, that is just to show us what a martyr she is and to martyr herself and fall in a "terribly unexpectedly" way for the greater good. In the end, Theo defeats the terrible secret conspiracy. These evil overlords ruined Prince Charming and the princess's wedding. He also defeats a demon (okay, it is actually a vampire) because demons are always behind everything, and the ideal antagonists, for the sole purpose of learning another unexpected piece of information about how it is all going to end badly and get a moralistic thumbs up. Of course, our hero Theo is not scared of that either. So it ends with a wedding and retirement to the vineyard, probably because even Geralt of Rivia thinks this is a good ending. And now the fairy tail about Little Red Riding Hood... So, this show is basically a fairy tale, or perhaps it is a very naive and not very good fantasy show. The main male protagonist is really irritating because of his incompetence. Also, apart from bullshitting about his ideals, he could not come up with anything himself, in my opinion. On the other hand, there are other characters like Lassic David, who actually has balls. He is a character who beats a one-eyed cyclops in one of the ugliest (animated) fight scenes I have seen this year. Luckily, there is still the bear from Golden Kamuy, which beats it. Poor old Theo seems more like the kind of cute yappy dog that Siluca keeps on a leash. This girl Siluca is adorable - she is also strong and capable, and you do not see that so often - I found her likable. The female characters in this show are generally much more active, stronger, and more engaging than their male counterparts. So, enough about what it was like, now to talk about what I liked about it - I mostly took it as a mediocre fantasy B-movie. However, after the sickeningly sweet ending with the totally unexpected morality tale packed into it, I feel kind of annoyed. So, that means I am pretty much saying in effect that I am probably too old for such fairy tales. If the whole world fell into the shadows, I would give it three stars, but since they lit the place up, tough luck. Record of Grancrest War is a below-average fantasy show, an average fairy tale, and a below-average anime series, 4/10.

Special academies and girls fighting mysterious creatures are my "favorite" subject matter! However, I have to say that this anime series is actually not bad; it is even relatively easy to watch, and it does not feature a lot of unnecessary fan service. The narrative, while not being precisely brilliant, is nevertheless relatively straightforward in the first half and because of the true identity of the villain, it is even quite entertaining. I clearly thought I would award the first half three stars, and I would even rate it good (like 6/10). Admittedly, I felt like I was in trouble during the first episode. As I mentioned in the first sentence, I do not enjoy this subject matter (the quotation marks there meant I was being ironic, in case you missed that). This particular show starts with a tournament (which can sometimes be a lengthy and tedious sequence for an anime series as well). However, everything is quickly and surprisingly resolved, and the storyline, which is then introduced, seems entirely original and even enjoyable. SPOILERS Then there is some chasing around, some characters trying to convince others what is actually happening, and then there is the final confrontation END OF SPOILERS. Well, if it ended there, I would have been relatively satisfied and would not even have to think about the rating. However, the second half came along, which strikes me as a kind of ham-fisted narrative setup. It practically just repeats the formula from the first half of the season in a much more complicated way, with a few tweaks and twists that are pretty predictable. In other words, I simply had the feeling that the second half of the season was rather pointless. I mean, I legitimately thought much less of the show (like 4/10), however... When I compare this anime series to other special academy shows, this show is clearly above-average. Concerning the characters, I cannot say any of the girls were particularly irritating, even though I did not fall in love with any of them either. So, the characters were basically OK. I enjoyed the fight scenes; the katana fights were good-looking and were decently choreographed. The fight scenes with the aradama were also OK, so overall the fight scenes were all good. I have probably talked enough about the narrative; however, to sum it up - it was not brilliant, even though it was interesting at times. Yes, it had a few (but really only a few) surprising moments. So giving a bad rating would be unfair on my part, however... If I were simply comparing it to how much I enjoyed all the other anime series I have watched, I would not award this show more than three stars. However, I am awarding the first half of the season 6/10 and the second half of the season 4/10. Putting the two together makes an average score of 5/10 for the whole season.

This was an average fairy tale that was neither bad nor was it entertaining. As far as the animation is concerned, I was most surprised by the repetitive inclusion of the first-person point-of-view shots. For example, unlike the slow-motion animation mentioned by others, I have never seen this in an animated movie before. It was so strange, sometimes a bit rushed (especially the ending) with a narrative that could perhaps entertain a child. In contrast, a grown-up probably would not find it very interesting. 5/10.

The fundamental problem with this anime series, at least for some audiences, is that Hinamatsuri is quite different from what it first appears to be. In the first episode, a young girl appears out of nowhere, has superpowers, and acts like some sort of sophisticated combat organism sent into the past to change the future. In other words, it really is a parody (not only) of Terminator, confirmed by the final scene where the parody is quite obvious. However, it becomes very quickly apparent in the later episodes that this is no science fiction or action anime series, and there is not even going to be a complex narrative here. It is not even much of a comedy, though the opening episode with its parody would suggest that. Despite all of that, it is still quite entertaining. In fact, Hinamatsuri ends up being one of those enjoyable and likable anime series that focuses on its characters and their relationships and manages to make the viewer happy with the pleasant and fun interactions between them. The whole thing is simply delightful to watch and just so heart-warming. This is one of those anime series that one reviewer writes "smiling throughout the whole episode", it felt like that all the time - at least to me. I mean, some will be disappointed that they "only" get short atmospheric episodes instead of a complex narrative. Lyrical instead of epic. In other words, this show is not for everyone. However, I guess I am lucky that this anime series really hit the spot. Some viewers found only wasted potential, repetitive jokes, a boring slice of life anime series, and forgettable characters. On the other hand, I found something amusing, often human and incredibly pleasant, with excellent characters. It is hard to choose a favorite from the characters. It could be Hina, the little bartender Hitomi, or the anguished and conscientious Anzu. Even though I did not see much of her, it could even be even Mao, whom I found intriguing. All of their narratives indiscriminately caught my imagination; some with Anzu even moved me. In other words, I found this anime series really worked. Oh, and it is not just the child characters that I am going to remember; I really do not think I am going to forget Nitta or Utako in a year. I felt that the comedy worked too, and it worked from the very first episode. The ending of first episode and the Terminator parody put a big and sincere smile on my face, especially. However, I did not stop smiling even when it changed from being primarily a comedy. As for the criticism about repetitive jokes, I will just add that it does not matter how many times a joke is told, but rather how it is delivered. If I had a problem with repetitive jokes, I probably could not have fallen in love with Gintama. What I can relate to is the criticism that the soundtrack and even animation are sub-par. However, I did not notice this so much because it was suitable and still sufficient for the purpose of this anime series. The quality of the soundtrack and animation simply did not affect me = did not spoil the impression. Personally speaking, Hinamatsuri is a well-produced piece of work that I enjoyed a lot. I think it is one of the best anime series of Spring 2018 releases. It is quite possibly the winning show of this anime season, even with only four stars - 8.3/10.

Okay, so I found that the last two episodes managed to move me, so I cannot award an average rating. Otherwise, I am going to say right off the bat that Kaoruko Moeta, aka Kaos, is the cutest character I have seen from the entirety of this spring's releases. In addition, she improved my experience of watching this anime series. In other words, I had the exact opposite experience from what my colleague Hellierer described. Kaos is a case of a completely tragic and weepy cute character who evokes deep sympathies in me, and then when I see how hard she tries, I feel like I just have to root for her. Then, when she succeeds, I am really moved, proud and satisfied. I call it the Yurika effect because I first experienced this with the eponymous character in the anime Invaders of the Rokujouma!?. So, I really enjoyed the whole Kaos thing; I found her really entertaining, even though I understand that not everyone can tolerate that much cuteness, because people have different taste (for example, I cannot stand weeping, sobbing, effeminate boys, or "traps"...). As for the rest of it, it was interesting to watch the girls, who were practically living representations of the tropes that symbolize the style of manga they are devoted to. So, for example, there is the creepy horror writer, the mature-for-her-age erotica author, etc. I also liked the animation and the soundtrack. Sure, some of the jokes were not that funny; I did not always have fun or find it interesting. However, because of the above-mentioned fact that it moved me, in the end, I am awarding this show 6.8/10.