HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 11/10
HIGH RECOMMEND (KONOSUBA NEEDED) - 10/10
HIGH RECOMMEND - 8.75/10
HIGH RECOMMEND - 9/10 (LOSES A POINT FOR UFOTABLE DISAPPOINTMENT)
RECOMMENDED - 7/10
RECOMMENDED - 6.5/10
As we do every season, we're here to see what the heck I watched, maybe some of my thoughts and obviously a little or maybe a lot of explanation about the show. You all know how it rolls so let's kick things off with my first and my favourite anime of the season: OSHI NO KO I heard a lot of great things about this manga from Joey "The Anime Man" quite awhile ago and heard it was getting an anime adaptation, so I was expecting big things with his high praise. I was NOT disappointed. It hit hard from Episode 1 onwards, the first episode was even an hour long to flesh things out for the rest of the show. I DON'T want to spoil too much about that particular episode so that's all I shall say. So the premise is that a doctor in a remote clinic is charged with taking care of an big time pregnant idol named Ai Hoshino. He's an idol he knew because a girl that was a terminal cancer patient of his named Sarina was a massive fan and was so infectious that he became a fan as well. After Sarina passed away he took it upon himself to make sure to take EXTRA good care of Ai, it's all going amazing until a crazed fan of Ai's shows up at the hospital and when chasing him down he kills our doc. Surprise, surprise, he is reincarnated as the son of Ai named Aquamarine Hoshino (Aqua) and he is born with a paternal twin sister Ruby Hoshino. Aqua has kept all his previous memories as well as his ability to speak fluently from toddler onwards, basically an adult being a child, and he comes to find out that Ruby is EXACTLY the same as him a reincarnated girl that remembers everything about her past and can talk off the hop. WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW about each other is, well I can't spoil it but you all are smart and might figure it out on your own. Anyways, both Aqua and Ruby are introduced to the entertainment industry as children and growing up in it causes each to fall into a path like Ai with Aqua being an incredibly reluctant actor and Ruby wanting to be an idol like mom. Some of the other main players we see are a girl name Kana who was in a movie with Aqua as a child and doesn't meet him again until high school then on set of a REALLY BAD show the two have together and she eventually moves onto idol business with Ruby. Then via a reality dating show we meet the other two main protagonists: Akane and Mem. Mem is a streamer girl who after the show ends tells Aqua that she always dreamed of becoming an idol and he invites her to join Ruby and Kana (a huge funny moment happens with this too). Akane is one of the top actors in the country and part of a major acting company who has something happen on the reality show and is bullied online relentlessly for it to the point she attempts to commit suicide until Aqua rescues her, then they become romantically linked "sort of". One thing off-topic (sort of) from the show is about Akane's voice actor being bullied relentlessly herself in real life for her portrayal of Akane now whether it was Manaka Iwami, Kristen McGuire, or both IT DOESN'T MATTER. Bullying is bullying, harassment is harassment, but the biggest kicker is that shows that these "fans" (I don't consider them that hence the quotes) CLEARLY didn't get the message behind those three episodes of the show, bullying people just because they entertain and are public figures is disgusting and it hurts them, even if you think it doesn't, or if your review is great but you diss and spit on the VA's portrayal with vitriol it's not necessary. I can only speak to Manaka Iwami's portrayal myself because I'm not a dub person but I thought that Akane was a great character, with her plain jane girl being portrayed so well, and also when she has this one neat moment on the show it's just perfect we also find out she has a nice rivalry with Kana. Okay, tangent over, don't bully, and don't call yourself an Oshi No Ko fan if you do. That being said there's not a lot I want to add because I feel like I already let more slip then I wanted to and I just want people to watch it. It's definitely one of those shows I'm so thankful I subscribe to HIDIVE now. This sounds like a plug honestly but between Call of the Night, Emminence In Shadow, and Oshi No Ko that HIDIVE has been an abolute gem for anime lately. Last thing I want to add before our next show of the season is that the main theme of the show Idol by YOASOBI is an absolute BANGER like one of the best anime themes ever, and I'm not joking. Everytime I watch the opening, listen to the song with it, it gives the gooseybumps. Biggest thing is the song reached #1 on the Worldwide Billboard charts and is the first song made for an anime to ever do that, think about it that it was the #1 song in the WORLD for awhile. Basically watch Oshi No Ko, it's great, any anime that can get me to buy the manga right away is worth it. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 11/10 KONOSUBA: AN EXPLOSION ON THIS WONDERFUL WORLD When I heard that there was a new season of Konosuba I was excited, that was before I found out it was going to be a Konosuba side story staring my favourite character Megumin. Exploring her life before joining Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness in the first season of Konosuba. We get to find out just WHY Megumin was just absolutely persistent in learning and putting all her skill points into Explosion magic because using it in the previous series left her one shot drained from lack of mana. We get to see more of her school and family, all of which we are introduced to in the Konosuba movie where the gang goes to the Crimson Demon village Megumin and Yunyun are from. Which also another thing we get to learn, we see why Yunyun calls herself Megumin's "rival" in Konosuba and just what exactly between those two before they became adventurers. We also the start of Megumin's adventurer career and just what pushed her to Kazuma's group as many said she was a "useless" Arch-Wizard. What I have to say about it first off is you need to watch Konosuba and the movie first even though it is just a side story, which I mean you already should have anyways because it is an amazing anime but just in case, it's necessary. Why do I say that, well there are so many references to things that happened in those seasons and movie that you won't understand what is happening or why it's funny, like it's still funny but lacking context takes a lot away from it. An Explosion On This Wonderful World was just such a great and funny show to watch, like I said it is my favourite character in the Konosuba series getting her backstory flushed out even more and that's awesome. We also got some more funny Komekko moments who became a hilarious gem of a character starting in the movie the moment we meet her. One crazy thing is we also find out just how important Chomusuke is, she was only randomly introduced as "this is Chomusuke we're keeping her" in the second season which I was like okay cool but now it's DANG that's cool. It's incredibly animated, like the colour and detail are spectacular, the way comedic poses are drawn to be deliberately over/under animated to get the level of absurdity to the situation across is fantastic. The voice acting is also great, each voice actor brings such a unique flare to them, it makes every Crimson Demon actually seem different and unique from another, and Rie Takahashi pulled out another AWESOME performance as Megumin making her just as ridiculous but serious as usual. HIGH RECOMMEND (KONOSUBA NEEDED) - 10/10 I GOT A CHEAT SKILL IN ANOTHER WORLD AND BECAME UNRIVALED IN THE REAL WORLD TOO This was a show that I didn't start watching at the beginning of the season, it actually happened to be something I saw in an anime clips on YouTube and one of them seemed super cool so I decided to give one episode a shot. I loved it. It's the story of a sad, lonely fat kid whose only friend is his grandfather, after dying he receives his grandfathers house, which is argued over with his family who despise him and he vows to treat others nicely unlike he's treated. When our main protag, Yuuya Tenjo, puts his belief into practice by saving a girl from guys trying to pick her up he gets mercilessly beaten by them. That night after going home, punching his mirror, he finds something weird about his house. There a hidden room where he thought was just trinkets, but there was a door to another world in it, which has a beautiful house, with a beautiful garden in this other world that is surrounded by an evil forest. There is a magic barrier that saves Yuuya from an attack from a massive Ogre, he stabs it with a large weapon he finds in his "status menu" and kills it, receiving XP and items from it Yuuya realizes it's basically an RPG. A weird thing happens that night when he goes home, his body is absolutely changed in the real world to match the skills he has learned in the other world, so he wakes up a very handsome and jacked dude. At school he is being bullied by his brother and sister and their delinquent friends until that same girl he saved, Kaori Houjou, shows up and offers to let him into the elite school she goes to. He decides to attend a "test day" after telling the head of the academy, Kaori's father, how worried he was at not being smart or good enough to attend such a prestigious school; and when he does he realizes how people are nice to him and want to be friends with him for just his attitude. He decides to attend the school with Kaori and all the new (and first ever) friends he's had. Yuuya eventually lives a double life by killing monsters and training in the other world and being a student and friend in the other. One day while training in the other world, he saves a girl from monsters, after 90% of her guards are killed and this girl happens to be the princess of the kingdom where Yuuya's home seems to be. She clings to Yuuya as someone she is going to marry from the moment she wakes up safe in his home with her other knights there and safe, which drives her knight captain to the brink of insanity having their princess just randomly propose marriage. Now going forward Yuuya has fun school and other real world adventures with all the new friends he's made, which to him is an absolute thrill considering what a torture his life was before; on top of that, he meets new people and doesn't create a life but has his own unique adventures in the "other world" as well. I'm not going to say what happens each episode but they're all great. The show also has an animation style that seemed, maybe unique isn't the right word or maybe it is, it's different than normal anime in the way it's coloured and the characters seem to stand out more. The only thing I dislike is not all the fight scenes but I'd say around 85% of them are done in a really, really half-assed CGI; I don't mind CGI in anime if you've ever seen the Fate series you'll understand, but this show it having that. Overall though, I really liked it and hope more comes (now that I've said that it never will just like Grand Blue Dreaming). HIGH RECOMMEND - 8.75/10 DEMON SLAYER: THE SWORDSMITH VILLAGE ARC One of those highly anticipated shows of the season because of course it's the newest season of the "next gen big series" in Shonen Jump and that of course is Demon Slayer. Specifically this time around, the Swordsmith Village Arc. After the grueling fight against Gyutaro & Daki in the Entertainment District, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke are laid out and nearly dead for months. Upon finally waking up Tanjiro is greeted by Kanao who was deathly afraid for his health but seeing him active again makes her cry. Zenitsu has gone on a mission after recovering and despite showing up there Inosuke is also being sent on a mission, leaving a hurt Tanjiro without a mission and a sword.. Which means that he's sent to the Swordsmith Village to retrieve a sword for himself since he hasn't heard back from Mr. Kanoroji who makes his swords; he is escorted by a lower Demon Slayer to the Swordsmith Village blindfolded and nose plugged so that he is unable to find his way back as the village is kept a hidden secret to all people but a few. This is all in order to prevent demons from finding the place as making the nichirin swords is the only blade able to kill demons so it's vital to demon slayers. We see a really cool gathering of the Upper Moon demons and the tension between some of them and their cool designs finally made in anime form since they find out Gyutaro & Daki died, and after finding the location of the Swordsmith Village, Gyokko (Upper Moon 5) and Hantengu (Upper Moon 4) to take care of things. While in the village Tanjiro and Nezuko encounter: Tokito Muichiro (Mist Hashira), Mitsuri Kanroji (Love Hashira), and Genya Shinazugawa (graduated with Tanjiro and is the younger brother of the Wind Hashira). We don't see a whole lot of just "chill" episodes, everything is packed with action having these Demon Slayers and Nezuko face off against two Upper Moons, while trying to defend the village and each other. Like super action packed. We also learn a little about Muichiro's past and Tanjiro finds out a little bit more about past and the Sun Breathing he's able to wield. Fantastic season, looking forward to the next season which I don't remember what arc it is I believe there's one more arc before the Infinity Castle arc. The only problem I have with the season is the same problem everyone had with it, the CGI fish demons are atrociously done like, such blatantly half-assed work. The reason it's such a big problem considering so many CGI anime scenes are bad it's that ufotable is the studio that makes this show, they are the kings of CGI anime moments like I mentioned the Fate series and more, they just let people down, considering the rest of the CG in the entire anime including this arc still is so well done. Fun watch though. HIGH RECOMMEND - 9/10 (LOSES A POINT FOR UFOTABLE DISAPPOINTMENT) IN ANOTHER WORLD WITH MY SMARTPHONE: S2 I loved the first season of In Another World With My Smartphone, I knew it was a light novel though so I even though I knew it wasn't done because the last scene of the first season was talking about Touya's 9 wives. Since it was a light novel I wasn't interested in reading, honestly, it takes a lot to get me to read the light novel of a series the only one I can think of is Bleach because it's my favourite. The first season came out in 2017 so I kind of figured it was never getting another season, to my surprise I was pleasantly incorrect. THAT BEING SAID. This season wasn't so much disappointing so much so that I don't feel like anything happened to progress the story. Touya basically meets and becomes engaged to the other wives in his harem, he becomes a king of his own country so he can marry two princesses, then finds the rest of the Babylon islands to build Gundams essentially to fight against the enemy they introduced in S1 "the Phrase". That's kind of it. If there's not another season for another 6 years then I feel like this one, though fun, was kinda pointless. That's just the thing though, even though it was not what I wanted after 6 years it was still FUN and that's the most important thing; if it's not fun it's not worth it. I liked some of the cool fights they had in the season, I like the setup for more, but most importantly and I think this is what saves this season, the characters/wives: Lucia, Hildegard, and Sakura. From the art design, to their personality, to everything about them they help make the show. Also, flushing out more on the characters like: Elze, Linze, Yumina, Yae, and Leen was very interesting as well. One thing I did also enjoy was that as they got more islands and started to construct better weapons for the girls, they became less of a "Touya is OP and does everything" to actually fighting and killing on their own; so much so that they even joke about it when Touya is about to kill stuff and the girls charge in and take everything out before he can get a shot off or a slash in. This season seemed to be more about building up characters then progressing the story really, I also don't want to say "harem building" either but you could see it that way, but there was so much more to HOW each one joined then it just HAPPENS. I'm gonna say if you watched the first then watch this, if not, watch both seasons that is if you like OP protagonists who've been isekai'd and get a harem (side note: it's not in a Kirito way). RECOMMENDED - 7/10 SUMMONED INTO ANOTHER WORLD FOR A SECOND TIME So you get summoned into a world different than yours as a hero to be savior of the realm sort of deal, after the war, your friend that also got summoned goes nuts and you defeat him sending you but not him back home but with different looks, then flash-forward 5 years and bam the same world summons you again to stop a war. Such is this story in a nutshell. Though our hero, Setsu, doesn't let any of his class know, except his childhood friend, about his past. All Setsu's former friends come to realize he's back despite his different appearance, whether it is former party from the Kingdom or the Demon Queen, Animal King, the Water Goddess, etc. probably due to his immense power and aura not having changed. Setsu slowly goes the continents to prevent a war between humans and demons who had a truce after the last time he was summoned. They come to discover it is neither humans or demons provoking each other it was Touma, a former hero summoned with Setsu, and his followers all of which have some crazy power. Some of the adventures Setsu has on each continent are so cool, like a fight he has on the Beastman continent for "love" (it's not actual love it's one-sided); there's also meeting Levia for the first time and she's like a Goddess of the Sea, huge dragon, but can also turn into this badass chick to fight on ground with Setsu. I think that the characters and the personalities that develop when you watch them are what really makes this show, like it could come across as just another bland isekai show (and some might see it that way) but I find things like this make it stand out. The design of these characters should also be included in that because there's so many of them that are maybe not "unique" but very good looking and I really like them; particularly the demon and beastmen. I think if you like isekai shows and want a new one then give this a shot it was a fun run, I am not sure if there's gonna be more but who knows right ?? RECOMMENDED - 6.5/10
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThere's not much to say about me other than I'm an avid gamer, comic reader, sports fan, etc. just passionate about things I love. Archives
October 2022
|