Category: Anime

A slice of life anime about a bunch of high school girls who get an idea to visit Antartica… that turns out surprisingly fun, though it kind of runs out of steam in the latter half.

For all its pretty visuals, Violet Evergarden barely does anything with them, telling a dull story in a dull world with little to nothing of interest happening.

There are a few highlights in its episodic story, my favorite being how she ends up guiding a playwright to make up with his past, but it never really achieves this cerebral high of the episodic greats like Kino no Tabi or Mushishi. Most of the time it’s just boring.

Note: this impression is based on the first season of the show.

A shogi anime that’s more about its realistic, profound characters and fancy SHAFT animation than the actual sport. It has some stuff going for it, but the lack of clear goal and extremely slow pace bored the hell out of me.

This caught my attention for the first few episodes as I think this was the first time I saw a MMORPG anime where ppl didn’t get stuck in it and were actually playing it as esports. Unfortunately, the rest of the story turned out to be mostly just random things happening that you can barely follow since you don’t know the rules of the game and it doesn’t even go anywhere since it’s unfinished.

Though I still appreciated the fact the main character was shown, not told (*cough* SAO *cough*) to be an actually super talented player.

I’d probably check out the sequel to this, but as stand alone, it just doesn’t feel like it offers much of value.

Welcome to the Ballroom would have definitely been better… or at least watchable if it was a shoujo show. The shounen hard work and teamwork approach just felt awkward in the context of dancing and most character interactions were so cringeworthy I couldn’t even finish the show.

This impression is based on the first season of the show.

An imaginative show with very well-written dialogue and characters that unfortunately doesn’t really go anywhere as it’s more about creating funny situations than telling a coherent story; but then the philosophy it introduces is about striving for chaos and excitement even if it endangers one’s life, so I suppose that’s just too be expected.

Youjo Senki has an interesting premise, but the plot fails to build on it.

The story stumbles around as the protagonist gets thrown into random military operations that have nothing to do with her personal quest, so naturally you are never invested in any of them either. The whole thing boils down to watching characters react to whatever is happening to them rather than following some sort of a plot. And given how it’s incomplete, I’m not even sure if we’re any further in the story in episode twelve than we were in episode one.

Oh, and the reason protagonist is a little girl is actually explained in a very interesting way. I almost skipped this show because I thought I wouldn’t be able to take it seriously, but, turns out, Tanya is not exactly what she seems on the surface.

This impression is based on the first season of the show.

An imaginative horror show that initially tricks you with its cute outward appearance, but since most of its content hinges on the mystery of the Abyss, it’s pretty much useless in its current incomplete state.

It’s way too early to tell whether it’ll turn out to be amazing or will be a disappointment, so I wouldn’t really recommend picking it up until it’s finished. It honestly reminds me of the Southern Reach trilogy, and I can totally see it fizzling out in the same way.

*Note: this impression is based on the first two seasons of the show.

Boku no Hero Academia comes off like something you’d get if you mixed Hunter x Hunter and One Punch Man, and took away most of what made those shows smart and original.

It’s a traditional shounen flare with a few nice ideas here and there, but it doesn’t offer anything that older shows haven’t done better already.

An interesting school drama that bases it concept on what it would be to return to being a highschooler after ten years. I somehow managed to accidentally watch this when I was the exact same age as the protagonist, lol.

*Update: And then I finally finished it when I was a year older (T_T). The four extra episodes that constitute the ending to the anime are worth watching if you liked what you’ve seen so far, but overall, they’re nothing special and only deliver a conclusion you were already expecting.

Darn, I thought I couldn’t go wrong with this even if its reception didn’t quite qualify for my watch-list since I liked Danganronpa so much, but…

All I wanted was to see how the Danganronpa’s main villain managed to corrupt her lieutenants and convince the world to embrace despair, but besides being simply bad in almost every possible category, this anime provides an answer that is the laziest copout ever, ruining everything the original games had set up in the worst way possible. I thought I’d enjoy this show regardless of its quality since I liked the original’s characters so much, but it only succeeded at pissing me off and made me wish I never watched it. I’ve seen better backstory ideas in random Danganronpa’s ero doujinshi.

Shingeki no Kyojin is one of my favorite currently ongoing anime series and the second season doesn’t disappoint with more gore, tense action, super creepy giants, and more mysteries to enrich the fascinating dark setting.

I just hope it doesn’t get stalled in the middle and it does know where it’s going with all those mysteries piling on top of each other as it’d would suck if this developed into another “Lost” situation.

Although it has a relatively unique premise, Mob Psycho soon throws most of its novel concepts away and adapts itself to the usual fighting shounen tropes.

A wacky representation of Ikebukuro with dozens of fascinating characters.

It’s just too bad that, despite being fun all the way through, the plot doesn’t feel like it has a clear direction and fizzles out rather than ending with a bang.

Hunter x Hunter is about the only shounen that doesn’t treat its audience like idiots with its fights being decided by cunning and strategy as opposed to nakama power.

The only reason I don’t give it a full score is that it’s unlikely to ever get finished as even when the mangaka decides to stop stalling, he just starts introducing new things instead of solving what he’s already set up (all episodes with Phantom Troupe are 5/5 though).

A fantastic shoujo show with one of the most endearing protagonists in anime that mixes show business and romance at just the right amounts. It might have even made it to my favorites if it didn’t leave you blueballed at the most interesting point.

…And if you’re planning to read the manga, I wouldn’t recommend going past volume 47 as the latest chapter ends on the cruelest cliffhanger ever only for it to get stalled for four goddamn years.

I guess baseball being innately a less active sport is party to blame, but after Haikyuu, this sports anime felt painfully dull.

A volleyball anime that while average on pretty much everything else offers some insanely tense and satisfying matches. If you’re into sports anime, you’ve got to watch this.

Despite the at the first sight original concept, Gate soon devolves into just another alternate world anime with poorly constructed setting, flimsy characters, and weak plot that panders to both otakus and this time… the Japan’s Self-Defense Force. Though… unlike most of isekai garbage it tries to concentrate more on armies than individual heroes, and I’ve got to admit, seeing a legion of medieval soldiers get overwhelmed and annihilated by mortars and other modern warfare tactics can be a very empowering and cathartic experience.

I just wish that instead of trying to make every single member of JSDF into a Jesus Christ figure, the anime depicted them in a more realistic gray-like fashion… and also gave them an actual threat to fight against.