Arifureta Review

Overall rating 6.8 out of 10 - Alright with some flaws.

I can recommend middle episodes at least.

Just like with Unbreakable Machine Doll, its best if you skip a first few episodes and possibly a couple of final ones as well. First few episodes are filled with nothing but misery and pain, I considered dropping it then. Here you should start from episode 5, Yui introduction is not that great, but she is mostly alright from episode 5 on.

Bunny girl Shea and especially masochistic dragon girl Tio are the best characters here. Tio likes all the abuse you can inflict on her, even negligence. She is great. Shea is a stupid bimbo in a good way. Yui drinks Hajime's blood and use him for her benefit rather than serve him. However, that does not happen too often to ruin the show, most of the time she has calm kudere vibes.

Hajime himself is relatable 50% of the time, he is much more willing to help all sorts of people, I would not have done that. On the other hand, I do share his disillusionment with the world and people. I will find a way to own a private island, superyacht, private jet, mansion and army of maid servants and will kill everyone who stands in the way.

Enemies done in bad CGI. Supporting cast is not that great. Opponents as well. Average flawed anime of the era. However, it's not as bad as say Hundred or Demon Slayer. Without Tio I would have likely dropped it, without Tio and Shea at the same time I would most certainly dropped it. However, these two and especially Tio do somewhat carry it for me.

Overall, it's OK experience. Watch it from episode 5 to avoid bad episodes.

Nobunaga the Fool Review

Overall Rating 7.3 out of 10 - Better than good overall

I recommend watching.

This is chaotic but fun experience. It manages to seamlessly switch from downright silly to deep and insightful, psychological even, as well as everything in between. It does make sense most of the time and does not make you scream WTF. Neither does it try to preach some stupid ideology in your face or drown you in guilt and self-hating.

Story is disjoint at times and somewhat overloaded with details that never fully explained anywhere: Dragon Veins, Sacred Treasures, and so on. Show references them all the time, but it's never clear what Dragon Veins even do. However, for the most part story works, there are just few moments that cringe. Nature of different powers and abilities are never fully clarified, random power spikes mostly serve the to make plot more unpredictable.

Characters are colorful and charismatic. Nobunaga himself reminds me of one of my friends. So are Hideyoshi and possibly Leonardo and Akechi as well. It's like crew got together again. They show managed to have three rather different females in the cast with none of them annoying me. Relatively rare achievement for modern feminazism infested era, that shovels Asuka like characters everywhere.

Art is awesome, both stylistically and quality wise. Finally, they put that quality to good use, instead of making another Demon Slayer. Music fits the overall theme as well.

Overall, it's a very good show and I can recommend it to everyone.

To Heart 2 Review

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Old and simple, but very on point show.

I can recommend watching.

This show will tell you everything you need to know about waifus. It is suitable for people who cannot understand why people take anime waifus and what they find in these 2D characters as well as for those who want to find out what kind of girl is their type.

Here we have at least one girl of pretty much every -dere type out there. Each of them is written in a very pure way, that showcases what this type is about. To make it easier each gets her own dedicated episode.

First is deredere imuoto, Konomi. (episode 01, New Uniform) She is sweet cudly and adorable. I watched this show because of her.

Second is oneesan Tamaki (episode 02, Childhood Friend), you might call her yandere, but that term grown to mean only psychos amoung the anglophone otakus. She is clearly not psycho.

Third is dandere Manaka (episode 03, A Small Tea Party). She is timid and not talkative, but well organised and can take care of you. I like her as well.

Forth is genki tsundere Yuma (episode 04, Bicycle). I skipped her episode as I do not like tsunderes who yell at guys for any reason at all.

Fifth is Karin (episode 05, Invitation) who did not get her dere type because she probably proved unpopular. She is dishonest and exploitative. I avoid girls like Karin.

Six is antisocial kudere Misora (episode 06, A Charcoal Brazer and A Girl). She is strange and unconventional, but smart in her own way. Her only friends are cats. I liked her as well.

Finally, we get clueless deredere Sango and her jealous yangire twin, Ruri. (episode 8, Mismatched Feelings and partly episodes 9 and 10)

Sango is likable most of the time, but her cluelessness sometimes causes problems.

Ruri on the other hand is very horrible person. She combines malicious intent with dishonesty of Karin

Final few episodes have all the girls together. Episode 13 is mostly about Konomi, but it's not the reason she is likable. It's the very first episode, New Uniform, that showcases Konomi in best light.

All in total, this is the fullest rundown of stereotypes in any anime I have watched. Hand Maid May for example also has good selection of girls, but it focuses on the girls I can like, so there are no tsundere or yangire types in there. Girls Bravo has many girls as well, but the only clear type is deredere Miharu.

This this is a very useful anime to watch. Episodes about girls I liked are written well enough to showcase the girl in question and the reasons she is likable. This is like color or flavor selector in store. Pretty much every type of girl is in this show. Because of that I can recommend it to everyone.

Fate/Stay Night Review

Overall Rating 6.2 out of 10 - Flawed show with few good points here and there.

You will hardly lose anything if you start from episode 18.

"A worthy effort, but futile."

This show has occasional bright moments and occasional good characters. Sakura, Medusa, Medea, Shinji Matou and Gilgamesh are the most deserving of the cast. It has occasional great moments in story as well as attempts at philosophy and existentialism. However, all these efforts drown in a sea of mediocracy that is Shiro and Rin.

Ostensively this show is about Saber and sometimes they do remember about this fact. In fact, closer to the end they even attempt at building the romance between her and Shiro. However, it eventually gets to nowhere. I will come back to this later. 

However endless Rin's lecturing, that take around 50% of the show, turns the show into annoying slog. Every time she is on screen makes the show Evangelion level trash. Theoretically she is knowledgeable mage who can think of solution to any problem. However, all her solutions are like ham-fisted piano in the grass. The whole show is like never-ending Rin ad or Rin development problem (a reference to Katsura development week in Gintama). All these efforts are futile. Nothing better summarizes Rin then what Kirei told her in Fate/Zero.

Saber is the most confusing character of the show and the only one I could make a concrete opinion of even by the end of the show. At times she is likable with her self-sacrificing and devoted ways. The other times she is obstinately stubborn. She wanted to stay with Shirou yet refused that out of sense of duty.

Shiro himself had all he needed to take Saber for himself, but just denied himself the pleasure. Shiro is one of the most illogical characters of anime, together with Shinji Ikari, even Shue from Guilty Crown has an inch more logic in that empty head of his. This show wants to draw parallels with Kiritsugi's decision to destroy the Grail in Fate/Zero. However, Kiritsugi only made Saber destroy the Grail after he has seen the kind of miracle, Grail was willing to offer him and rejected it because it's too far from what he wished for. For Shiro it's just a pure self-denial.

In the last few episodes Kirei talked about how hardships and privation make people better in his opinion. Again, a false parallel with Fate/Zero. In Fate/Zero Kirei merely wished to see people suffer, he knew full well it will not make them better, it would only make them worse. He oversaw Karia Matou killing Aoi Tohsaka out of jealously after he realized that she does not appreciate what he is doing for Sakura. Yet here in Fate/Stay, extensively more mature and experience Kirei sprouts this nonsense about people getting better through suffering. How did he manage to degenerate so much over the last 10 years. That is a rhetorical question. Fate/Zero had a better writing stuff, directed by Gen Urobuchi, so of course it turned out better.

If you want to know what hardships and privation produce you should watch Jigoku Shougo as well as Pain's and Garra's Arks in Naruto. Suffering produces Jigoku Tsushin clients as well as people like Pain and Garra who will make world know pain through massive exterminations. All that suffering in my life did so to me, so I know what I am talking about. If you want a real-life example, then take Adolf Hitler. All the suffering and privation in his life made him plan Holocaust and other Nazi crimes. Once in power he put these ideas into reality. He thought Jews were responsible for bad things tha happened to him and he made them pay for that.

"World shall know pain."

I guess as epilogue I will write some about characters I did not mention above.

Shinji Matou is the character that makes most sense in the cast. He reminds me of myself.

Sakura is nice domestic girl who is soft and gentle. She can clean and cook. And MVP girlfriend material.

Medusa/Rider is the kind of self-sacrificing character I can like. Unlike Saber she is loyal to her master and sacrifices for him rather than some abstract notions of duty.

Medea/Caster is very polite and accommodating person. She gives me TrueHellDei vibes. She is paired with subservient man and has too little screen time to show her submissive qualities enough. However I think she can make for a good submissive woman, if Gilgamesh was her master for example.

Finally, Gilgamesh is somewhat ruined here. He has no opportunity to showcase his brilliance and wisdom like in Fate/Zero. So, he only showcases his arrogance and pride. Other than his final words to Saber he does not say anything stupid though. 

Revenger Review

Overall Rating 7.3 out of 10 - Slow and questionable start, but a really great conclusion

I can recommend watching.

I somewhat fluctuated between giving it 6.0 to 6.8 until the final two episodes. However, the conclusion here truly ties all the ends together into a very compelling and cohesive story. 

Show begins as over the top crazy, but borderline silly action. Then progresses into questionable middle episodes, some of these are nice, but others do delve with rather ugly topics far too deep. Finally close to the end it not only gets back the original conspiracy, that started the show, but also wraps Raizo's personal story. 

Raizo's story is very unique, well written and even personal, the one that you only clearly see close to final credits. It does take a truly great scriptwriter to make a story such as that of Raizo. It does feel like its somehow very personal for Gen Urobutchi.

Just like Phantom, Requiem for the Phantom, there is a lot of talk about guild and redemption. However here it feels less like preaching and more of issue of dealing with own past. Raizo's own lord unwittingly used Raizo to kill his father-in-law and then wanted to use him as scapegoat. His future wife killed herself when she learned of that. 

While it's mostly not his fault, Raizo still feels responsible and tries to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that cost him his status, family and future wife. Guilt in this kind of story makes more sense than in Phantom, Requiem for the Phantom, where everything is Scythe and Inferno's fault, yet Reiji and Elen blame themself. The still go overboard with guilt: conversation between Yuen and Chapel are sometimes overbearing.

Added bonus here is that Revenji-ya opponents for the most part reprehensible people, so it's only making sense when Yuen tells them to repent, even if he often sounds preposterous in that role with his references to Saint Mary. It's not as well done as in first season of Jigoku Shoujo, but on good level.

However, show deals not just with Raizo's and other's revenge, but also with him as a person. A someone who is trying to get into grips with what happened to him and perhaps find a way to live his life in future. He finds talent in art and eventually becomes acclaimed artist, even if he questions if that is what he should be doing.

Art is great. Not just its quality but also artistic direction. They manage to recreate the traditional Japan aesthetics, at least as I understand them. They are as good at it as games like Shogun 2 Total War. Its splendid. Japan exoticism done right. Night scenes with lights are particularly well made.

As for some of the flaws, then there is couple. Some of the assassination methods they employ are of questionable utility. That is why I called action borderline silly. In this department it falls behind Phantom. For some reason, crossdressing and such is fashionable topic in modern fiction, yet it's not a topic I enjoy.

Overall, however I can recommend it. It's much better than an average show out there. 

More on Different Girls in Code Geass

I guess I will write about other girls in Code Geass as well. A continuation of my previous article.

Sayako - She is for the most part a background character. However, I can actually appreciate women in background roles. Sayako fulfills her duty perfectly. She is good at both domestic serving and being a clandestine assassin. Finally, she is utterly loyal to Lelouch, a rare quality in a world where people would betray you without much hesitation.

Anya Alstreim - She is my kind of aloof, quiet antisocial character. I do not like loud or noisy women. I want a quiet woman who will just stay around without talking or moving much. I do not socialize much, and she has to be able to cope well with that. Her lack of common sense does not bother me much.

Monica Kruschewski - She feels like CC 2.0 to me. Sure, she did not get enough screen time to confirm that, but she clearly has CC's vibe. She has the same calm, competent assistant demeanor, that CC and Cecile have.

Viletta Nu - As her normal self, she is too selfish. She will kill anyone without hesitation if she can get promotion for it. She was good when she lost her memories and became Chigusa. Chigusa indeed was good and likable woman. Alas that did not last.

Nina Einstein - Cute, quiet and shy girl with interest in science, who likes to be alone. That is as good as Anya Alstreim. However later her fear turned into hatred, and she became psycho. Somewhat alas. Still, I am sympathetic to her somewhat.

Rakshata - She is too arrogant, condescending and full of herself. On the positive side she is somewhat more approachable, relaxed and easier going that some worse examples. She is not as bad as Cornelia or Leila. Personality wise she is an inversion of Nina. Nina makes good first impression, but then goes sour. Rakshata makes poor first impression, but probably not as bad as she seems. However not too good either.

Finally, a response to this:

Cecile More of through method of elimination though. Cecile has her flaws, mostly personality wise, she is too cold and unkind. However she has her good points as well, she is witty and well organized. She can make for a good assistant.

Leila is second place I guess. I guess they tried to please everyone with her design. That is why it does not communicate much what kind of person she is. Other people just do pretty much everything for her, she hardly stands for anything on her own.

Cornelia ... as I said before I do not like women like her. She is not my type. Unapologetic dominatrix. Even with loyal simp (Gilford), who stays loyal despite his love will never win her affection. There is hardly any other way of interpreting it. 

On Personalities of Different Code Geass Girls

CC, she understands what it takes to be a woman and support a man. Yes, she has dark past with some heavy baggage that sometimes haunts her down (Mao, Marianne, Charles). Yes, she sometimes does things that would not be appealing by themselves, but they do make sense in the context of issues she is facing. 

She begins the opposite of all the other girls. They all like him but do not know how to win him over and even fucking up the obvious chances they get. In contrast CC does not want to get attached to Lelouch. She wants to stay business like with him, because of her bad past experience with people like Mao and Charles. 

However, her natural abilities to be caring wife still lets her be a better companion for him than what the other girls could do. Overtime she grows to like Lelouch as well, different things he does over the course the show made her change her mind about him. She grows to like him.

That said, Lelouch himself is someone who is good and likable. He has a lot going for him in being a desirable man. These qualities do make all other girls fall for him as well. Without it he would not be able to warm CC up and win her over.

Over the course of the show, Lelouch's abilities warmed CC over and made her first attached and the loyal and devoted to him.

Kaguya might one day grow into someone like CC, Kaguya at least understands the idea of what a good wife supposed to be. She has the basics right. What she says about being a wife is all correct. However, she is still too immature and mostly plays role of supportive wife in her head.

Shirley is moralistic and often confused. Daddy's girl. She tries to be a proper gf as she understands it, but her understanding is poor; its mostly based on stereotypes or perhaps parents teaching or example. That is not what men want. Because of her poor understanding she is more of a nuisance than useful wife. However, she has devotion for Lelouch. That one thing going for her. She grows wiser by the end of the show, hard to tell if she could become like CC one day.

The rest are just doing whatever they want.

Euphy as moralistic as Shirley, but also willful. She is driven by emotions. She runs away, plays around. If she does not like something she interferes without thinking of consequences. She is vaguely aware of her flaws but does nothing to mitigate them.

Kallen is like: "Yes I do whatever I want, got a problem with it." Personality wise she is female Cartman from South Park. Just watch South Park and you will get it. She will have to fake her school persona to stay in relationship.

Hand Maid Mai Review

Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - Worse than Hand Maid May. Shows why people want sexbots and waifus.

I recommend watching.

This is a standalone spinoff of similarly named, Hand Maid May. I wrote a review for it a while ago, but I probably need to expand it a little bit.

Unlike the original, that was a clear wish fulfilling style harem, this touches a little bit on why even bother with cyberdolls to begin with.

I watched it without subtitles, but I partly figured out the plot from what I saw. Girlfirend of the main character decided to dump him for some fat ass rich producer. The guy was sad and got himself drunk, but when he returned home to find that his good for nothing greedy gold-digging cunt of a girlfriend was replaced with three cyberdolls.

Unlike his useless selfish x-gf, these cyberdolls are actually nice and likable, especially Mai herself. Now male MC could finally find happiness with a woman. Cybernetic may be, but enjoyable one. Someone you will want to actually have in your life.

However, this show is here to make a point, rather than showcase the cyberdolls themselves. In the original, selection of dolls was better, and they were more likable too. In general Hand Maid May is much better at wish fulfillment aspect. It goes into more detail into how good these cyberdolls can be. However, as one follows misadventures of Saotome, one might fail to notice the main point of the show.

In contrast this OVA is just to make a point, that we are sick with female bs and want none of it. We would rather have 2D waifus than tolerate an insufferable gf. If she does not know how to please we do not need her. Even worse, if she does not even try to behave in likable in my eyes way and instead demands things from me, then I double do not need her. 

Overall, I recommend watching this. In fact, it is better to watch this first and then watch the original Hand Maid May. That way you will not lose the perspective.

Aldnoah.Zero Review

Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - Great Show but with many noticeable flaws.

I recommend watching.

This is one of the most properly made shows I have watched in a while. Conclusion is so good, for it alone I could easily give it 8.5 or even 9. 

Unfortunately, it does suffer from usual insufferable trends of the 2010s: "strong women", feminism, extensive male abuse, swathes of unlikable characters. I do have to lower the score for these glaring issues.

Show starts rather slow. Martian prejudice against Earth rubbed in for way too long. Some designs are boring and others silly. Show poorly establishes characters, one can consider dropping it during first 2 episodes. 

On the good side it has a well written plot, another rare feature for modern anime. Story alone is engaging and interesting. It's not groundbreaking like Code Geass, SEL, Revolutionary Girl Utena or Kaiji. However, its clearly on the very high, well written, levels of Fate/Zero and Madoka Magica, slightly worse but closer to that than to Overlord for example.

Some characters are better than others. Main characters: Inaho, Slane and Seylum are good and likable. 

However, many of the support cast are not. Even if they were written to be hateable, creators clearly gave them too much screen time to expose their vile personalities. Their hateable nature ends up rubbing viewer in the wrong way instead of simply establishing villains as villains. 

Overall, however its first proper effort I saw in the long while. I sure excuse flaws of Overlord or Hand Maid May, because I identify with Ainz and Saotome, but these shows do lack plot wise. Here however it clearly is a good effort. I recommend watching.

On the side note, Vers and Count Saalzbaum do well to showcase how Russian government propaganda works. Those in Russia, who hate the West and the US, do so for exact the same reason, Saalzbaum hates Earthlings. Both claim that the other side is rolling in wealth and luxury to breed envy and hate. Putin and propagandists never cease to accuse West in Russophobia, just like Vers government accuses Earth of all sorts of crimes, they themselves are mostly complacent of. Both rather arrogant and proud of their stuff, though Vers have more good reasons for that compare to Russia.

Animatrix Review

Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - Mixed from very good to downright bad experience.

I can still recommend watching.

This is a show of very uneven quality. At its best it is as good as Serial Experiments Lain and even better. At worst however, it is as bad as Technolize. It has 9 episodes that are only loosely connected together.

I will begin with good. Good is our occasional existentialist observation. Just like Serial Experiments Lain it deals with questions of how technology, computers and robots will shape our world. Episodes 2 and 4 are especially good, but others have a few good parts here and there. 

However, if SEL was more impartial in its narrative. It offered a bird eye view on the world and fate of Lain herself, without trying to say who is right or wrong. SEL depicted actions and events without any clear one director who controls everything. No matter how much Masami Eiri believed he can control it all, the show proved him wrong. In world of SEL multitude of unconnected actors who act independently of each other and often in the name of conflicting objectives achieve patchwork world, the show so perfectly depicts. 

Animatrix however often shows overreaching power that rules this world and controls everything that happens there. Its Big Brother totalitarianism is suffocating at times. Unlike SEL that depicts unintentional consequences that computers and internet brought into the world, Animatrix depicts very intentional attempts to control and manipulate everything and everyone. Here many characters meet a truly sad end. The whole world is completely dystopian. Not everything of it was inherited from Matrix itself.

Now to the bad. Authors have rather bad taste in women, people, aesthetics and variety of other things. Often as bad as Technolize. Most anime crews did work out perfectly just what kind of women men want to see on screen. This one clearly ignores it.

Just as in Technolize authors seem enjoy trolling viewer and offer something unpleasant to see. That is partly subjective, but an issue, nonetheless. They seem to enjoy drawing ugly things and situations. It's not that art of poor quality, quality is rather decent here, especially for 2005. It's the artistic direction. For example, DearS, Hand Maid May and Kill Me Baby suffer from the opposite problem: what they want to depict is good, but their ability to do so is poor.

Anyhow I do get what they want to show their literary fiction cryptic language, but most of the time I do not like their message. I wonder if the same crew is also behind Technolize, Sidonia and Ergo Proxy?

Nonetheless I will recommend this one. It's both short and diverse enough to serve as taster show of sorts. At times its as insightful as Ikuhara works even if it's as much of a mixed experience as Mawaru Penguindrum.

How Ikuhara Predicted Future in Mawaru Penguindrum

 

Mawaru Penguindrum has many scenes that give metaphorical glance at reality we live in. In fact, the show itself is like an allegory to the reality we live in and it's a very nasty reality. That makes it the hardest show for me to grade. I am not sure if I should give it 9 for getting the reality so well, or 3 for depicting something so disgusting in the first place.

In one of such side-scenes Himari went to library to find a book she used to like. Pink Haired Doc wandered through countless sections and gave her two wrong books before he found the correct one.

That is just like what anime has become nowadays. Every relatively successful title gets plenty of sequels, spinoffs, offshots, OVAs, specials and remakes. Some of them have different creative cast and are rather far from the original theme and feel wise.

That also complicates finding what you look for as there are plenty of shows with similar titles. It's easy to confuse your show. In discussions people too sometimes talk about different versions of the same show as about the same one, that makes discussing anything difficult.

5 cm Per Second Detailed Review

Overall Rating 9.0 out of 10 - Great show about true love.

I recommend watching.

There are few romance anime that make any sense to me. Sure, there is deconstruction of love in Revolutionary Girl Utena or examples how far things can go wrong in School Days. There are also shows where romance is on sidelines, like in Code Geass or Darker then Black. That makes it hard to untangle from other events in the show. Finally, there are shows with likable dateable females (Gochiusa, Girls und Panzer), but no male characters for them to date.

However, there is one show where we have a nice likable and believable couple in likable if sad relationship. That is 5 cm per Second.

Akari is very likable girl. She is devoted to Takaki, will do anything for him, wait for him for as long as it takes. She is happy to just be with him. She does what she can to make him happy and comfortable. Perfect dating material.

Takaki is very relatable, he wants to be with her, but circumstances get in his way. Bad weather, parents moved places. Shit like this gets in the way of people's happiness all the time. This show means it metaphorically as well as literary.

Writing, animation and even soundtrack all add to the overreaching narrative. Small moments where Akari timidly clings to Takaki or follows him go miles to show us depth of her feelings for him. Every element of this show adds to the common whole. There are no extra scenes that serve no particular purpose. It all is there for reason.

Circumstances tore them apart narrative is very relatable for me. I feel many of my romances end like that. World just does not wait for me. 

Overall, it is one of the best romance show out there. You should watch it to know what true love it.

Kill Me Baby Review

Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - Simple, but decent comedy

I can recommend watching.

This sure is a simple show with just a few characters in total. Most of the time there are only two of them on screen. I guess it shows that you can make a good show out of two characters if you have brains and talent.

Kill Me Baby is a simple comedy that follows Manzai pattern. Gintama, Excel Saga and Nichijou also do that, but they are more complex and more variations to this simple formula. Shinpachi even explained Manzai in one of Gintama episodes, clearly linking this show to that traditional form of comedy.

Kill Me Baby does it the most straightforward way. Yasuna doing stupid things all the time and Sonya offers voice of logic and common sense. Sometimes common-sense ninja Agiri and "unused character" are added to mix things up a little bit.

Overall quality varies from episode to episode, some are really funny, especially episodes 4 and 5. Others more plain and less entertaining. If they could maintain episode 4 writing, I would have given it 8.

At times you can feel both intellectual loneliness and intelligence of the creator of this show. That felt most through Agiri's character that sits on the tower and watches into distance in the ending. However sometimes in the episodes as well.

Visual quality does leaves to be desired. It's very plain and simply made. Sad, that art budget is wasted on Demon Slayer or Guilty Crown instead of this very witty show. Talented people are not given support they need.

Overall, it is a good comedy. I can recommend it for everyone who likes to laugh.

Suzume no Tojimari Review

Overall Rating 6.0 out of 10 - Flawed Experience with Several Strong Point.

There are better Makoto Shinkai movies such as 5cm per Second, rather watch these.

It seems not even Makoto Shinkai movies could escape corruption of the accursed post Austerity Era. 

Many signature elements of Makot Shinkai movies are still there. Great, very detailed and lovingly crafted backgrounds and inanimate objects. Great quality of animation is also there. In scenes where there is little plot, Suzume no Tojimari is very enjoyable to watch. 

Supernatural elements also look rather well, swirling clomps of dust, called worms, and think golden strings are magical.

Finally. Serizawa played couple of songs from my playlist in his car. I was surprised to hear them in anime, nice touch. 

Now to the worst parts. The story leaves to be desired. It touches topics I do not like from points of view I disagree with. Adoptive parents' relationship, overbearing authoritarian parent, strong and/or unattractive women who are liked by men, guy who prioritizes duty and self-sacrifice over personal feelings, feminism - almost the complete bingo of all themes I do not like in modern anime.

I praised Akari from 5cm per Second. Unfortunately, Suzume has but few of Akari's qualities. She is not completely unappealing like what Hayao Miyazaki or One Piece crew often do with their female characters, but neither is she as gentle and girly as Akari.

Actually, show feels like Hayao and Makoto collaborated on this one.

Overall, it is mixed experience. It is not as bad as to drop it, but it could have been much better. Alas modern anime often makes me choose between rewatching pre-2012 titles that I liked and trying something new that lacking.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Review

Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - Somewhat overloaded show, that is somewhat saved by Horizon-chan.

I can still recommend watching.

Horizon-chan is very silent and hardly says anything for almost the entire duration of the show. However, I like silent and obedient girls and that is the main reason I like this show.

Another reason is that female uniform design here is rather nice, the kind I like. There are some nice female characters here beside Horizon-chan. Selection is somewhat worse than in Neptunia, but they are alright.

In general show tries to showcase all of their characters in one way or another.

Now to somewhat less interesting parts. Story is overloaded with some rather irrelevant and borderline confusing details. 

Premise is that some old guy in mortar board hat have started a war by almost blowing up his own ship for no particular reason other than being bored and wanted to test the students. A group of students had to sort things out. Then "thinly veiled west" wanted Horizon's life as a settlement for the mess the mortar board guy created, but students start another war to save her. There are more details to that, but that is the key idea. 

Dialogues to discuss it all sometime take more than half episode. This show possibly reflects Japanese cultural sentiments on social interaction, but simultaneously blatantly represents some foreigners as silly stereotypes. I later watched Nobunaga the Fool that has similar feel to it, I wonder if creators are the same.

Overall, it is not too bad even if Horizon-chan is not your type. I can recommend watching.

Choujigen Game Neptune, The Animation (Hyperdimension Neptunia) Review

Overall Rating 7.3 out of 10 - Good show with likable characters.

I recommend watching.

This is rather simple but likable waifu show. 

It double interesting for a video games fan as waifus here represent different gaming consoles, including even something like Atari or PC Graph Engine. However main heroines represent well known Nintendo, Sony Play Station, Microsoft XBox and fictional Sega Neptune.

Show is mostly episodic, but it has a somewhat overreaching plot that gets developed in the second half. Episodes are somewhat mixed bag, some better than the others.

For the most important part: how well these waifus fare in femininity department. To that I can say, they are different shades of likable: you can find one to your personal preferences. You can clearly see that creators did not try to troll you with choices, like in some Renai Flops, but rather carefully crafted girls, men can actually like. 

Four main heroines are quiet dandere Blanc, big titty mommy Vert, serious work-a-holic Noir and genki Neptune herself. 

My personal favorites are gentle fangirl NepGear and gentle airhead Compa. 

There are also action orientated Iffu, sister complex Uni, childish Rom and Ram, normally docile, but able to transform into a sadist, Plutia and dark villain Arfoire. Finally, I will mention a spoiled kid Peashy, who later transform into Yellow Heart, big titty, dumb blonde. And that is not all of them.

The show has a mixture of action and fan-service episodes. Usual things such as beach and swimsuits are there. Main heroines and their smaller sisters can transform into Goddess/Battle mode, that changes their looks and sometimes personality.

Story is not as well thought out as in Girls und Panzer for example, but still interesting enough to keep you engaged, especially in the later episodes. They sometimes even make clever jokes about their own traits.

Girls themselves are as good as in Girls und Panzer, Bofuri or Gochiusa though. They do not have cringy types, such as Fu, Faye Valentine, Haruno Sakura, Tohsaka Rin, Asuna or Asuka, there are only quality girls here.

Overall, it is nice and likable show, mostly orientated on male audience. However, I can recommend watching it for both genders. Maybe IRL girls can learn-to-girl from these heroines.

Eminence in Shadow, Second Season Review

Overall Rating 6.5 out of 10 - Few improvements over the original, but mostly the same issues as before.

I can still recommend watching.

I wrote a section about Eminence in Shadow in separate article about Fixing Things Without Fixing Them. That conveys most of my ideas about the second season. However, I will write a little more here now that I have completed the whole second season.

Overall, second season is an improvement over the first. However, that is mostly because of greatly reduced role of Alexia in second season. Without first ark, I can give first season the same 6.8 and without Alexia at all even 7. I would have raised the score even higher, but couple of other issues, do drag it down. Namely Gamma was ruined, Diabolos-chan was somewhat worse than in the original. Delta was developed in an unlikable way.

Show still mixes things I like with things I hate. There were slightly less things I hate in this season.

Another good thing about the second season is rather climatic ending. Original ended rather anticlimactic. Shadow, fought with Iris and legendary swordswoman at the same time, but that was hardly relevant to the plot. 

In contrast here the finale was a true feast, especially last two episodes. Cunning conspiracy plot, bad guys almost doom the world to extermination. Shadows defeats them all and saves everyone.

Second ark and beginning of third ark had hard to explain moves, that were probably added to spice up the plot, but author clearly overplayed their hand. All the drama about Shadow abandoning Shadow Garden was painful to watch and there was no particular reason to keep it secret from the rest.

First ark was not so aesthetically pleasing either, but it had Mary in it.

Overall, it is still mostly good, if flawed, experience. 

Koufuku Graffiti Review

Overall Rating 8.0 out of 10 - Great show that has something others do not.

I recommend watching.

That looks like heavily exaggerated score, especially from someone like me, who is rather merciless with scoring. However, there is a reason I gave this show such a high grade. This show has actually likable characters, with whom you will want to interact IRL.

This is not the show that you binge to get to the end as fast as possible. You will suffer from overeating if you do that here. However, when you need something, you clearly know warm and cozy like a comfort food, then you can rely on Koufuku Graffiti. Ryo will not disappoint you. 

That is especially important nowadays where many shows are stuffed with rude and annoying characters, to the point of trolling. Bad characters are bane of most post 2012 anime. 

Here Ryo is not like that, she loves you.

That is the show you want to be in, characters, you want to interact with. Similar to Gochiusa, but more sober. That however makes it all the more believable. 

For the issues: this show is indeed boring and repetitive. However, it does not matter. What good it has, more than compensates for its flaws.

This I recommend watching it 1 episode at a time before sleep for sweet dreams. However, do not dream of Ryo, she is mine.

Futoku no Guild Review

Overall Rating 6.0 out of 10 - Flawed and Mixed Experience

I can still recommend watching, if there is nothing better.

This show tried to mix together Bikini Warriors with a conventional fantasy adventure. Per se that is not a bad idea, but they got in wrong with both, selection of characters and ecchi scenes as well.

Bikini Warriors may be a simple show with rudimental plot and short episodes, but it does their ecchi theme well. Girls are cute and things, monsters and plot do to them is fun and mildly arousing to watch.

Here however it feels that show wants to troll "horny" viewers more than entertain them with nice booty groping. Adding a girly boy to a cast surely did not help, but other heroines have their own flaws to spoil you the fun. Bikini Warriors clearly wanted them to be different kind of sexy. Here however, they 

Some scenes are better than others, however. At times you can feel the show actually trying to be enjoyable. Hitamuki carries the show most of the time, her design is somewhat flawed, but she has nice personality. Tokshikko and Maidena helf her carry the show half the time, being the issue the other half.

At other times, they do weird things, believing they can be next Gintama or Excel Saga, while flopping of their face.

Overall, it is watchable. Skip some of the episodes or parts of them and you can have fun. Most episodes are basically two 10-minute episodes put together.