Maou-sama, Retry! Review

Overall Rating 5.5 out of 10 - Flawed experience with unrealized comedic potential.

Has limited watchability. 

This one is a curious but ultimately half-baked show. I watched it over blonde Rem character (Aku). Aku is cute but hardly gets enough screen time. Most other characters are hardly likable at all. At one point I considered dropping it and give it low review.

Then I noticed something interesting, Demon Lord does occasionally satirize and criticize the flaws in many of the characters he encounters. That sound almost the same as what Shinpachi or Gintoki would say in Gintama when some of their companions doing something stupid. 

Looking at this show from this angle suddenly turns it into a parody or satire show. They even have some of the popular stereotypes in there, such as Chunibyo, spoiled unfeminine women or ultra brave male of shoujo genre stereotypes. All these characters could be heavily grilled by Demon Lord for their stupidity. 

Unfortunately, the show does not fully embrace this path either. Instead of going full Gintama they instead move on to interact with these characters as normal after just few comments on how a fat woman with a fried shrimp for a name does not make sense.

Because of the above, this shows rather slow experience that gives too much screen time to its unlikable characters and not enough to likable ones.

Art is rather plain and boring. It looks like a low budget production.

Overall, there is limited value in watching it. 

Chunibyo Parody

Inspired by Gintama and Maou-sama Retry! in addition to Chunibyo series. In these shows critical common-sense comments by Shinpachi, Gintoki or Kunato helped to expose the absurdity of things that were going on screen. Gintama even had an episode explaining how it works, that covers it partly. Here this role will be played by Observer character.

Chunibyo in Bar

Barmaid goes to a girl with an eyepatch who stands on the table and asks politely:

Barmaid: Excuse me customer, please do not stand on our furniture in such an intimidating posture. You are scaring other customers. If you do not stop, we will be forced...

Chunibyo: You will not stop me, priestess.

Barmaid looks intimidated and confused.

Observer: How is that looks priestess to you, no matter how you look at her 

Chunibyo: I am prepared to fight anyone.

Barmaid stepped back and covered in fear.

Chunibyo: This new attack will not stop me.

Observer: How is that even an attack, can't you see she is scared of you.

Chunibyo hits barmaid with umbrella. Barmaid flees. 

Chunibyo: Forces of Twilight Horizon will not stop me.

Observer: How Twilight series have anything to do with Chunibyo?

Chunibyo: If only Dark Fries Master could see me now.

Observer: What with this title, did he forgot to switch off the frier and burned his fries?

Chunibyo dreamingly recalls the events that led to him adopting this title.

Flashback with Dark Fries Master

Dark Fries Master: No, no, no. I want to forget; this is so painful.

Observer: At least this guy has common sense, unlike his gf.

Dark Fries Master: That started such a big fire that destroyed all my Hatsune Miku figurines. Even ones where she is in fur-suit.

Observer: Never mind what I said earlier. What is wrong with him, who the hell faps to Miku in fur suit.

Flashback with Dark Fries Master ends.

Chunibyo: Ah, Yuut-ward

Observer: What is it, you cannot even decide on his name. At least make your mind if he is Edward or Yuuta

Barmaid returns with the bar security.

Chunibyo: Your familiars cannot defeat me, priestess. My Black Eye sees everything.

Observer: What name for a special ability is that? Does that mean your abusive boyfriends beats you and you have black eye.

Chunibyo gestures towards her eye covered with an eyepatch, touches it but then pulls her hand away in pain.

Chunibyo: Aww.

Observer: I did not even expect to be right on that one.

Security guard rises his ice-cream scoop and hits Chunibyo on her head.

Observer: Why security guard has ice-cream scoop? Is he a part-times as gelato vender. Why there is even a gelato vender in a bar. What kind of bar is it?

Chunibyo: Your Funnel of Jericho will not break my Grau Schuld

Ice-cream scoop hits Chunibyo on her head and breaks.

Chunibyo: ha ha ha

Observer: How dense she can be that even objects made of iron break when they hit her head.

Security Guard takes meat tenderizer and hits Chunibyo again. 

Observer: Why security guard has meat tenderizer is he a chief here as well?

Meat tenderizer hits Chunibyo head and breaks.

Observer: is your head made of rocks? Is that being why you are so stupid?

Security Guard takes crowbar and hits Chunibyo again. Crobar breaks.

Observer: is her head denser than even Nokia 3310. Is it made of Nokias?

Chunibyo: Twilight Horizon will not prevent me from becoming vampires together with Yuut-ward.

Observer: I knew that she reads Twilight too much.

Suddenly a Nokia 3310 falls down from under the Chunibyo's hat. It lands on the table, breaks it and the floor underneath it. Chunibyo and the security guard fall into the resulting abyss.

Chunibyo: Nooo, my Grau Schuld.

Observer: Ok, now it all makes sense.

Dark Fries Master Drinks Chunibyo's Blood

Frame Arms Girl Review

Overall Rating 8.2 out of 10 - Explementary waifu show and simply great anime.

This is the best new anime I have seen since Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji back in 2016. I recommend watching.

Back in 2020 I saw an hour and a half movie version that horribly butchered 12 episodes to the point that you had to guess the plot. Even then the potential was visible enough for me to rate it above 60.

I am very glad that I finally got my hands on the TV version. This one really shines. Now you can get the plot and its actually very nice warm and cozy, even if simple.

Girls are cute, adorable and sexy, both personality and appearance wise. These little skirts and panties are awesome, they are better than Strike Witches. The overall concept however closer to KanColle, but they represent not ships but tanks or jets instead. Girls are self-moving miniature figurines, that are covered with armaments. 

Their outfits, both armed and unarmed are one of the sexiest in anime. Zettai Ryoiki works magic here just as everywhere. Its creatively integrated with the rest of the design. Base has Playboy bunny girl feel and Materia and Jinrai have thongs. 

Pretty much every character here is likable in their own way. Somehow, they made even sadistic Materia sisters pitiful and endearing. It's actually hard to pick the best girl here. Goirai, Sty-ko and even Base and Hres have their own charm. Maybe Architect is my favorite though, I like her analytical seriousness. 

Music is great too: it fits the theme of this show and further enhances the experience. Tiny Tiny because these girls are tiny and lovable. Puzzle Heart because too many fails to figure it out, I guess, or because these girls are assembled from pieces of armaments like puzzle.

Art is simple but cute. It uses similar technology to .hack//G.U. Trilogy and Sidonia.

Final little detail is that its episodes are fully self-contained, only penultimate episode ends on a cliff hanger. Because of that it is better to stretch the experience instead of binge watching it like with shows like Code Geass. I stretched it long to offset the experience from leftovers subpar shows on my chopping block.

Overall, this is one of the best anime out there. I watched most of the anime I rated 80 to 100 way before I watched Kaiji. This is somewhat better than Girls und Panzer and Bofuri that I watched after 2016.

So, I can fully recommend it.

Frame Arms Girl: Kyakkya Ufufu na Wonderland

Finally, a few words for movie version. Unfortunately, it's not a good one. It's structured as a recollection of the events so it's hard to understand anything without watching TV series first. Aside from that they added a few new shots and scenes, but they take this show in the wrong direction. 

I originally gave movie only 6.3 which I later could only revise to 6.6 mostly to place it more appropriately compared to other shows. TV series are that much better compared to the movie.

Rewatching Anime

 

Considering that tastes and fashion of the 2010s are total shit it's no surprise that I do rewatch anime from the 2000s and 1990s. Now that my to-watch list has dwindled again, I am picking more and more of the titles from my past. I recently rewatched Infinite Ryvius, sometime before I partly rewatched Claymore and Gunslinger Girl. I am trying to download Busou Shinki, please seed. 

They hold surprisingly well compared to the 2010s creations. I remember how much fun we used to make about Naruto's anime gimmicks, Sakura's uselessness and so on. Almost 20 years later it looks almost a masterpiece compare AoT or MHA. It's still only 7.5 out of 10 as 2000s era does have many more anime that are better than Naruto. For example .hack franchise I picked recently and Code Geass that I watched back when it was released.

I almost pity Zoomers for having to watch shit like MHA or Boruto, poor kids nowadays are forced to watch shit while we had access to awesome stuff, we used to take for granted. Sakura is hardly that bad compared to average modern anime heroine. I almost think that Kishimoto ninja-ed anime industry and sabotaging it from within to make Naruto shine in comparison to what came later.

I made reviews of some of the better anime I watched back then, including Naruto and its sequel Shippuden. Check them out. Some others are still to go.

I am not committing to rewatching it all, I will see how I feel. After all I already watched many of these many times and know all too well what is going to happen. However, anime of the 2000s are better than what one can find in 2010s.

Busou Shinki: Moon Angel Review

Overall Rating 7.7 out of 10 - Great, almost perfectly entertaining show with very few flaws.

I certainly recommend watching.

This is one of the better shows that I stumbled upon nearly accidently. This is like a proto–Frame Arms Girl. It's a little simple and basic but it somewhat compensates for that with niceness of its main heroine.

Main heroine, Kaguya, is very likable, gentle and caring person, real gf material. The was she cares for her master is an example for all girls to follow. There is some good anime where authors do know what they are doing. This one is one of them.

The show does have some flaws, but they are mostly due to its being somewhat of a pilot OVA for this series. Animation is somewhat dated. Design of final antagonist is somewhat lacking. 

Kaguya's outfit somewhat lacking compared to Frame Arms Girl designs, but she compensates for that by having awesome personality and being very caring and supportive of her master.

Thus is an excellent pilot OVA that surely encourages me to watch the series. I can recommend it for everyone, see for yourself what is a good girl, and a good anime is like.

Renai Flops Review

Overall Raing 4.2 out of 10 - Aoi is not enough to redeem this show.

I do not recommend watching.

I dropped this show after episode 7, partly skipping the ones in the middle. 

The Aoi is the only likable girl in this show, but she alone is not enough to go through all this chaos of girls' whims on steroids. It was supposed to be a waifu show with a selection of likable girls for male enjoyment. However, most girls here are more trouble than enjoyment.

Aoi is the best girl, but she sometimes has issues as well. In general, the number of problems male MC has to go through is unreasonable.

I thought of only watching episodes with mostly Aoi in them but there is too little information on this online to cherry pick just these.

Overall, it a poor excuse for a waifu show. I do not recommend watching. 

Dark Gathering Review

Overall Rating 2.5 out of 10 - Male MC torture and waste of time.

I do recommend keeping a cordon around it, like around Eva. Do not watch under any circumstances.

Dark and eerie art around it, that reminiscent of awesome Jigoku Shoujo is misleading. Most show is set in your daily world and has next to nothing mysterious about it. It however has a lot of ugly.

It's about male MC who does not want to deal with supernatural but gets dragged into it by orange head and her little relative who actually kills monsters here. 

If in first episode they at least pretended to have some story or idea, then by second, they just went straight torture and spooking.

This show is horrible and absolutely nothing going for it. Stay away.