Posts from Anime

I understand that the taboo against incest is 99% due to the unviable offspring, but for me, it's still very, very, very wrong in any context (even in a homosexual relationship where offspring is impossible by definition). With one exception - shipping Lucifer and Azazel is okay, their parentage is very murky, so it's not a problem.

Kimetsu no Yaiba
Turned out to be better than I initially thought; the last episode left a pleasant aftertaste. Overall, it's in the spirit of old shonen anime, but it's not drawn out. The art style isn't to my taste.

Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki Desu ka?
The idea is excellent. The heroine is even better. The execution is not very good.
They rely too often and too much on a single gimmick; the "message" that the author was trying (or not trying) to convey to the viewer was clear from the first episode and becomes tiresome with repetition; as the plot develops, the protagonist starts to slightly annoy with his inability to learn; the conflicts between other parent-child pairs are boring, the battles have no value, and they steal screen time. I personally would have preferred a different implementation of this concept. Perhaps something in the style of Konosuba, or, on the contrary, a full-fledged isekai. As an alternative, something in the style of Senko-san, but with a mixed healing/ecchi focus, or perhaps something short like Iya na Kao sare nagara Opantsu Misete Moraitai or Miru Tights, but with an emphasis on a caring heroine. Or maybe even a good rom-com could have come out of it.

Isekai Cheat Magician
Boring. I watched it solely for my favorite voice actress, but otherwise, this title doesn't have any other positive qualities.

Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka?
The enjoyment of the harem largely depends on how interesting (or uninteresting) the heroines are. In my case, I liked the masochist, but all the others didn't register, so it wasn't as good as it could have been.

Tejina-senpai
Short, but very good.

The first episode turned out to be better than I expected. The pros: decent animation, cool action, fanservice in various forms. The cons: from the very first seconds until the end, there's a constant attempt to make the worst character seem likeable.

Carole & Tuesday
It's best described by the single good song from it. I can't say I had very high expectations for this title, although it looked quite interesting and was created by the creator of Bebop, but I was still disappointed. In short, it's just 25 episodes about nothing, where nothing particularly important happens. It's supposedly about music, but there are no good songs, and the protagonists' compositions are so bland, depressing, and forgettable that they blend into one. This is bad for a series dedicated to music in itself, but against the backdrop of the premise "AI writes music, and these are live performers with songs from the heart," it looks especially unsuccessful, because the typical works of its genre, generated by a bot, are the songs of the main duo. The heroines do not progress either as performers or as individuals, remaining in the last episode the same as they were at the very beginning. The difficulties they face do not seem to be any serious problems or obstacles. There is no path that they have traveled. They simply drifted along, while the secondary characters echoed, one after another, how their songs "inspire" and "bring back the love of singing." But in reality, these very songs did not resolve anything, even the main conflict of the series, related to the second storyline. Which is just as vague and unimpressive as the first. The side plots, however, are no better, either not being particularly developed, as if resolving in one or two episodes, or simply existing in the form of hints that lead nowhere. The same can be said about most of the characters, who simply exist. One of the few more or less complete storylines can only be called the storyline of Ertegan, which is also one of the best characters in the series. Not too deep, though, but quite funny and not irritating. However, the series does not have any problems with funny characters. But there are problems with interesting ones, because there are none at all. And the protagonists are boring to the extreme – well, like a tomboy and Xenomia on minimum settings (aka without any development or fun). It felt like the screenwriters simply didn't know what they wanted to write. For a musical anime, the repertoire is too depressing and meager. For drama and tragedy, all the hardships are too superficial and, often, too quickly or easily resolved. And for a comedy, there are few comedic scenes, although there is a lot of quirky characters. And, here's the catch, that intentionally strange personalities, and more serious characters, are often easily described by one character trait. In order for the concept to work, the creators needed to decide where to go and remove all unnecessary elements. And if they wanted to make something about "creative creators from the bottom, playing unusual music," then they should have focused on creating unusual music. Ideally, music that would fit well with the second storyline of the show, because it looked very separate from the problems of the main characters, except for their acquaintance or kinship with some of the characters. And also, the rotoscoping here is very strange. In general, if you decide to watch it, don't expect too much. At most, you'll get a series of funny scenes and, if you're lucky, one or two songs that you'll like. That's all there is to it.

Monster
The first title left a very positive initial impression: pleasant visuals, even with somewhat "wooden" animation, an appealing setting, and an interesting concept created all the conditions to get hooked. But after the second dozen episodes, I started to doubt the point of continuing. It's not easy for someone who has never dealt with serials before to come to terms with the overall length, but "Monster" is not just long in terms of runtime; it is also overloaded with useless scenes and characters. Out of a dozen side stories, at best, three or four are interesting. Among the other flaws of the title are clichés and a sense of déjà vu, and a seeming reluctance to "kill" people on a large scale, although the series doesn't spare individual characters.
The main characters turned out quite well. I wouldn't say they are particularly appealing or original, but it was interesting to watch Tenma's personal growth and Anna's search for herself. The secondary characters are also good. Eva and Runge are very likable; they are completely realistic types, and they evoke understanding and sympathy. Roberto is also portrayed very well. Unfortunately, alongside them, there are also various questionable characters like the Grimmers, the unpleasant Carla, and, oh horror, the utterly repulsive Dieter. I felt intense cringe from the moment he appeared until the finale. Maybe my hatred for children is much stronger than I thought. And from these characters, a huge problem for any work of art ultimately emerged – the viewer, that is, me, stopped believing in him. A feeling of wrongness, the impossibility of what was happening, began to haunt me from the first quarter of the title. The enjoyment of watching varied greatly from episode to episode. In the end, there were more good moments, but, unfortunately, not by much.
The last twenty episodes were quite good and significantly improved in terms of pacing, but, unfortunately, everything was ruined by the terrible ending, where the worst clichés were mixed with general incoherence. "I don't believe it!" – that's what I decided, and I came to a rather sad conclusion – 5/10. A successful ending could have raised it to an 8, but, as usual, poor execution buried a good idea.
And yet, it was a good idea. There was a successful image of Johan, which they failed to develop, and very good individual sketches, such as the book about the monster and the House of Roses, which turned out to be insufficient, and excellent ideas, such as the landscape of the end of the world and the concept of perfect suicide, which did not receive enough development. It's a pity, very much so.
In addition, the mediocre detective element often overshadows the dramatic element.
In general, you can watch all this, but only if you have a particular fondness for the overall aesthetic and an abundance of free time.

Well, now Alex is with us too, hooray!

all sorts of Grimms with questionable value

For some reason, which I still haven't been able to figure out, this is one of the most beloved characters among viewers, possibly only Western ones, but that's not certain.
Overall, my general impression after watching was similar, but even a good ending wouldn't have helped much, as the middle part was too tedious and stood in stark contrast to the engaging beginning.

Kosh, you should write it like this: "Welcome to our humble abode!"

Alex, when did you find the time to watch anime while serving in the army? o_O

A soldier is watching anime while on duty.

And I'll add my thoughts on this topic.
Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki
It's a cute, slice-of-life anime about a heroic young mother with a touch of fantasy. The downside is that it's not very eventful. Still, it's enjoyable.
7/10

Kosh, you should write it like this: "Welcome to our humble abode!"

And I thought, "Good evening."

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest
In terms of plot and world-building, it's quite mediocre, which wasn't helped by the terrible CGI. In the first few episodes, I thought about dropping it, but it gradually got much better, and overall, I actually enjoyed it. The title was saved by the abundance of cool girls and the fact that the protagonist turned out to be quite good by isekai standards. It's a shame, though, that the best girl was instantly friend-zoned.

Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin
Dropped it, and that was after the twentieth episode out of 26. Actually, it didn't start off very well, but I stopped watching only when I realized that when I started an episode, I ended up looking out the window instead of at the screen, and the pitch-black darkness outside became a more appealing and interesting sight than this anime. What's wrong with it? Almost everything.
It seems like the ideas are close to me; it's an anime about prisoners, what could be better for a Russian person, but no. The underlying theme is completely alien to me personally. The characters range from unlikable to downright repulsive. In the name of tolerance, we are shown a complete circus of freaks: a fat idiot, a dwarf with a disgusting voice, a pathological altruist, etc., and I am supposedly supposed to sympathize with these individuals. No, it doesn't work that way. I don't believe it! To close this topic, I'll say that I actually liked the warden, and his storyline was the only believable one. As a person who, throughout his life, has occasionally (and in the last year, constantly) found himself in situations where he needed to establish order among immature idiots, who are always many and always act against you as a united front, I can understand the full weight of his position and the full truth of his emotions. It's a very thankless task to go against the crowd. I could even imagine that he is actually the protagonist of this anime, but the fact that the title doesn't end with the end of his storyline puts an end to this already fragile theory.
In addition to the unlikable characters, the distortion of the truth of life, and the questionable morality, there is a love for adding disgusting still frames into the video, with or without reason (no, I'm not talking about the drawn inserts with the author's text). The openings and endings are just as cringeworthy, but you can skip them.
I could probably rant a lot more, but since I'm starting to not only get annoyed but also experience physical discomfort from this pent-up anger, I'll give a brief summary: it's not for me, not at all. Maybe it's a matter of mentality; in our country, we have our own criminal culture, which is just as repulsive, but in a different way. I continued watching the first ten episodes for the sake of the entertaining darkness, overcoming my disgust for the language, appearance, and mindset of the characters, but then the darkness began to fade, and the title lost its only merit. Even staring at a wall is more interesting than watching the mundane pseudo-problems of drawn pseudo-people. Overall, it's all bad. Although, there is one more plus – the events develop very dynamically, especially in contrast to "Monster."
3/10

Alex, I think "The Legend of Galactic Heroes" might be something you'd enjoy, unlike some other things. It's a pseudo-historical, pseudo-documentary about humans in the future. It's not tied to Japan, and most of the characters are of European descent. It features wars, revolutions, conspiracies, cunning plans, epic battles, trash, humor, and debauchery, but with a focus on realism and historical accuracy. I didn't like it because of its wannabe-documentary style, and I generally expect different things from space fantasy, but it might be a plus for you. Moreover, the plot is genuinely interesting, the setting is reasonably decent (again, I don't usually like that, but it might be a good thing for you), and the characters are decent.