Sora no Woto Review

Overall Rating 7.3 out of 10 - For the most part a really good show, not very consistent with quality.

I recommend watching.

This is rare and unusual show. In some ways its prototype of K-On! that I reviewed a while ago. Parallels between Mio and Rio as well as Sawa-chan and Felicia are really glaring. Sad that they did not add Noel to K-On!

However, if K-On! is well polished show with lethal doses of moe, then Sora no Woto is more of rough-cut version. That means that some episodes are hit, and others miss. However, it also means that here you can see a lot of never before (or after) tried things. 

The better episodes include the one about Fiesta de Lumieres for example. In general town in which the story is set is full of various legends and mysteries, including the one about Maidens of the Fort. Episodes dedicated to festivals or legends look spectacular and have an unparallel fairytale mystery feel to it. After watching more than 250 anime titles, I have never met show that is as good at fairy tale mystery as this one.

Episodes about more mundane stuff however are average at best. They are not bad, but hardly worth it on their own. I tended to skip every other episode when I rewatched it, however it probably worth watching even them at least once. Because of them I somewhat lowered the average score of this show, it could easily reach 8.0 without few of nastier episodes.

Both introduction and conclusion are solid. Intro focuses on Kanata and her introduction to 1121th Platoon of Helvetian Army. Conclusion mostly focuses on Noel and her guilt for creating weapon of mass destruction. Last few episodes are very solid, and I will not spoil any more of the plot.

Technically this show is about military, but most of it is about daily life of a platoon and routine duties of military in peacetime. 1121th platoon man one walking tank (that does not work), looks after border fort, they are quartered in, and trumpet time once a day for the town next to a fort. That latter part is the reason why locals call it singing fort.

Art direction is good. While it does look noticeably more dated than K-On! however, things they depict are very imaginative and pleasant to watch. Once again festival episodes are the ones that let art direction shines best. 

Music is great, it has few tracks, but what it has is unlike anything else. I can recommend OST on its own.

Occasionally show even gets philosophical and tries to elaborate about existentialism and other such themes.

I definitely recommend this show, especially for those who saw many other shows and want to try something different.

Hinamatsuri Review

Overall Rating 3.5 out of 10 - Near complete waste of time

I do not recommend watching.

I was somewhat hesitant to review a show after just two episodes, but eventually I read synopsis for future episodes and decided to write.

While first episode did leave a benefit of a doubt as to what course this story will take, the second one near decisively extinguished it.

If Hina was somewhat alright because she is calm, then Anzu is completely annoying. If in first episode Hina did something useful, then in second she was nothing more than a burden. 

Second episode was purely about women taking advantage of men and using their money to have fun. Not something I want to watch.

The whole show seems to revolve around themes of mafia, night clubs and homelessness. They are contrasting glamorous life of some with misery of others. Not something I want to watch.

The only redeeming qualities of this show is good looking art and somewhat OK character of Hina. At least I do not hate her like I hate Alexia for example.

That however is far from enough to recommend watching it.

Darling in the Franxx Review

Overall Rating 4.5 of 10 - Was somewhat promising, but ultimately failed to deliver.

I do no recommend watching. I dropped after episode 9.

This show is not without its redeeming qualities. However fundamentally it is an unpleasant experience that borders on propaganda and affirms everything that is wrong with society.

I had cautiously high expectations at first. Authoritarian and oppressive system, a rebel that does not fit it and fights against it. That almost Code Geass start. Even her name is like a homage to the Lelouch's alter ago, Zero.

Zero Two however is but a weak woman far from Lelouch. The best she can do is to occasionally stick a middle finger to the system and its myrmidons and help herself and her Darling to escape them and do whatever they want. Early episodes did occasionally show just that. Even by episode 9 I would still claim that she is the most sane and sensible character of the entire cast.

The rest of the cast consist of adult supervisors who treat children as expendable cannon fodder, while also calling them parasites. Abuse, exploitation and hypocrisy all in one. Just like Holy Britannia Empire treated The Numbers. Actually no, unlike plantation managers, HBE was not hypocritical.

Unlike the Elevens, most kids here not only content with status quo, but even actively seeking the approval of the exploitative "adults". Suzaku's mentality is most prevailing here, even Suzaku is less of martyr bootlicker that some most of these kids. That is of course painful to watch.

To make matters worse it also has loud assertive women. Dumb cunts do get worked up over stupid things such as guys enjoying seeing them naked and go bananas over it.

Women making any rules is bad by itself. However insane women making rules are even worse.

Unlike Code Geass, where wise and great Lelouch managed to change the world, here the worst people take the lead and force their idiotism on others. The ugly world they create is painful to watch. Even by episode 9, where I dropped, there are no sign that anyone will fight against the system. In fact, there are even less signs of any opposition then there was in episode 5 or 7.

As a final note I would like to mention that art and design is relatively good. Show does occasionally show interesting breathtaking views over the cutting edge technogenic facilities. Mech and Klaxosaurs design are also interesting and creative. So are piloting arrangements. First ending song is somewhat good as well, however it was replaced with some shit on episode 8.

Overall, it is ugly story about ugly world, that could only satisfy abusive parents who hate their children. Do not watch.

Moekan The Animation Review

Overall Rating 6.5 out of 10 - Flawed story and art, but it has maids.

I recommend watching because of maids.

Maids do make everything better and this show is not an exception. Without maids I would have given it 4 out of 10 maximum. However, it has maids in it, so the score is higher.

Maids are not only cute, but they also represent primary purpose of female existence. Women meant serve men as their servants, waiters, cleaners, cooks and so on. This show shows just that. That is why it's very important show in this feminism infested age. It's a simple but important idea all women should learn.

Art style somewhat resembles Unlimited Fafnir, but it is much less polished. Clearly idea of the show is much better than its execution.

Story is borderline implausible. Its hastily stitched together form rather disparate parts. First episode about Rinia, second about Kazusa and then third about Rinia again. At times they tried to build a proper tragedy but failed. Other times they went with comedy and that also did not work out.

However maids are nice, they clean, make green tea and protect their master.

Overall, I recommend it for the maids.

To Heart 2 Dungeon Travelers Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - A lot of good, some really bad. Good outweighs the bad.

I recommend watching while skipping a few scenes.

The overall premise of this two episodes OVA is really good. Take these mostly likable characters into fantasy setting, dress them into sexy fantasy clothes and you will get 8.0 success. It could have been a Bikini Warriors, but with better heroines. 

Unfortunately, a few script decisions do ruin the overall perception. That is why I gave this show only 6.8. 

First episode has Takaaki kidnapping as main plot element. Scenes with kidnapped Takaaki are best skipped.

Second episode on the other hand makes Tamaki's, Kusakabe's and a number of other girls' outfits much less revealing and sexy.

Overall, it's a shame really. They get it really close to right. It's like a dart that land just half an inch short of the ring that triples the score.

Despite that however there are more good things in these two episodes than bad ones. Outfits are good and sexy. Some girls do change them half-way into show. Some scenes are deliberately designed to showcase girls from sexy angles.

Overall, I would recommend watching it. Just skipped scenes with kidnapped Tamaki. There are just few of them.

Arifureta 2nd Season Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Overall, a solid sequel, with the same good and bad points as the original.

I recommend watching.

Second season of Arifuretra did not make any major breakthroughs, but it also has not failed in any major way either. 

There is somewhat less contrast between episodes. Nothing made me want to drop it, but at the same time nothing really gets me too exited either.

Unfortunately, they do little to exploit Tio's masochistic tendencies, or make fun of Shea's naivete. I wanted to see a lot of Tio's torture, but alas. 

On the other hand, Yue does not drink much of Hajime's blood, and he does not suffer too much from enemy attacks either. Some improvement here.

Hajime is still only partly relatable.

Miyu and her mom are too impinging in their attempts to be a family with Hajime, but they are left behind mid-season. On the other hand, their village looks cute, reminds me of Maldives.

The strongest point of the season was a fight with god's puppet angel. Suddenly main cause of war came into focus and moved closer to an ultimate resolution, where Hajime party will kill God and Hajime will rule the world as new God. Unfortunately, afterwards the party took another detour to something else.

Overall, it is a good show that I can recommend watching. It can develop towards an interesting conclusion in future seasons.

To Heart 2: ad, adplus and adnext Review

Overall Ratings: 6.2, 6.4 and 7.3 out of 10

I can clearly recommend adnext. ad and adplus are also alright.

Writing separate reviews for every OVA for to Heart 2 is rather tedious. They are grouped in strange way too. First OVA had 3 episodes in total and the remaining three are two episodes each. To make matter worse, episodes are grouped in a completely random fashion and do not make cohesive pairs at all. 

Because of that pirates of torrent sites simply number all OVA and ad-series episodes from 14 to 23 and you need a list of episodes with description to make sense of what is what. You can find one on wikipedia.

I already covered 3-episode OVA in a separate article. There is also one for the original to Heart 2. Now this is a joint review for the three two episodes OVAs, ad-series.

Overall ad-series are gradual improvement over the 3-episode OVA. OVA messed up the original concept without offering much in the way of redeeming qualities. First two ad-series offered different but interesting and somewhat likable in its own way content. Ad-next even managed to outshine the original.

Ad and Adplus had episodes about unlikable Yuma and Karin. I criticized these two in my review of the original to Heart 2 ad-series tried to redeem them, they managed to do it halfway only.

Other than that ad had episode with Takaaki amnesia where most of the girls tried to take advantage of that. It was somewhat funny but not likable.

Adplus had another robot maid episode. It was not as much of a disaster as Yuuji abuse episode from OVA, but it's not what it was supposed to be either. Theme and reasons why men want robot maids was not covered properly.

On the other hand, adnext first went with Manaka episode and showcased her shy insecure and vulnerable side really well, that is in a likable, dateable way. Manaka's beach episode was somewhat confused (it was still the best of three in OVA), but adnext one is showing her character in mostly good way.

It followed with Kusakabe and robot maid's episode, where they actually doing chores properly. Finally, I got something very close to what I wanted. If they would not destroy things as they compete at being better wife/maid/gf and stay gentle and well-mannered at all times, that would be perfect.

There are still issues, for example Konomi's character is still messed up and there is nothing left of what made her so endearing in the very first episode of the original. Some minor messed up scenes here and there are somewhat annoying, but such scenes are minority. 

Also, Sasara is now dresses in cute clothes in intro sequence. Somehow OVA and ad creators like her for some reason.

Overall, I can surely recommend adnext. Ad and adplus are passable too. If you skip Yuuji abuse episode in OVA (the first one), then its watchable too.

Example of How Failing to Uphold Meritocracy Ruined WoW

World of Warcraft for example had this principle ironed out in the first few expansions. Even an average player could reach final level and see most of the game. However, if you wanted more, then you had to do dungeons and then raids. Best item rewards were reserved to those who could beat raids. Desire to obtain these best-in-game items is what motivated people to do raids in the first place. They looked the best and had best stats. Wielding them showed yourself and everyone that you are the best. A just reward for great effort. They looked best in the league, otherwise why grind some tough raid boss for an item that looks like shit.

However eventually Blizzard began to experiment with dodgy looks for items. That eventually created demand for trans-mog so that one can have actually powerfully looking items on them. Then they implemented stats and level squishing, which felt like taking away the progress, people put a lot of effort to get. Finally, they decided to make levels of monsters' scale with your own. Now no matter how much you level, you cannot start smashing old monsters like flies. Sure, few people spent a lot of their time in low level zones to stroke their ego by killing grey mobs, but the very fact that you could always do that was one of the reasons people were leveling their characters.

People hate "modern WoW" precisely because it fell into Mario Wonder logic. You no longer get to stand on top of the world with godlike powers after you killed the strongest people in the universe.

Arthas and Illidan were the strongest out there. Other characters, unable to beat them themselves, humbly asked you to save them from these two. Once you achieved that, you can feel that you are the strongest person in WoW. Also, you get to wield Twin Blades of Azzinouth too. Finally, you can feel that you did a good thing and once again saved your fraction and race from being utterly exterminated by Illidari or the Scourge. The only reason Stormwind does not look like Strathholme is because you did the Ice Crown Citadel Raid and killed Arthas. You were the savior, most NPCs worshiped. 

That changed since Mists of Pandaria. Now game treats you as nothing more than a scrub to run errands for some big shots. There are still raids but beating them no longer gives you the same power feel as before. Raid bosses are no longer threat to Azeroth existence, they are just some outcasts your bosses want you to get rid of since they cannot be bothered themselves.

One of the reasons to play video games is to feel having unlimited power. One does not want to be a gofer for others. One wants to stand above others like a boss or champion. A least I want to stand above others. That is why people hate games that treat them as errand boy.

Meritocracy in Games and in Real Life

 

Watching this video about difficulty level in Mario games got me thinking about principle of meritocracy. It is alright if you make variable difficulty in video games to make it engaging for different players. However, there is a fine line to cross into absurdity. One thing is when better players get to experience more of the game as well as get extra bonuses as a reward for their ability to beat harder parts. The other is if you start rewarding poor players with bonuses, while keep making game increasingly difficult for good players. The former will indeed work, however the latter will remove all motivation to do any hard things at all.

People are fundamentally selfish and greedy.

If being loser gives rewards and excelling at things only increases the challenges one has to face, then why excel at anything in the first place, in game or in real life. One reason communism fail is because it's failed to incentivize people with material rewards for excelling at things. 

As much as some might think that superyachts and all-inclusive 5-star resorts are wasteful, and people do not need them. Reality is that it is these things that encourage people to do better at things and excel. People will not work hard for community or any such abstract things, people will only work hard for something they want for themselves. If you fail to incentivize them with selfish material gains, they will not work.

s.CRY.ed Review

Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - Overall great show, with only a few flaws.

I recommend watching.

This show is from the same director, who also did Code Geass, Infinite Ryvius and Planetes. 

Just like Code Geass it has two contrasting main characters who often fight each other. They too eventually join forces to fight against common enemy. 

However, similarities end there: Ryuho is neither Lelouch, nor Suzaku. So is Kazuma. Lelouch and Suzaku had deep and profound ideological and worldview differences between them. Code Geass went to great length to outline them. 

In contrast Ryuho and Kazuma have a lot more in common with each other compared to Code Geass leads. Other than the fact that Kazuma is wild, and emotion driven while Ryuho is calm and collected, the two can agree on many other things. They both believe in autonomy for Lost Grounds and want people there to prosper. Their differences are mostly emotional and not conviction based.

Nonetheless both of them make for rather great leads. There are occasional cliches about strength and such, but overall, they are much better than many other protagonists. They are stars of the show, and most people around them admire them.

The rest of the cast is mostly likable as well. I made a separate article about girls of this show. However male cast is likable as well. Straight Cougar starts out as clueless show-off with obsession with speed but ends up being voice of wisdom who guides the rest of the cast to victory. Kimishima is a friendly sidekick. Martin Zigmarl wise in his own way. Mujo Kyoji makes for an interesting real antagonist. Tachibana, Urizane, Elian, Unkei and Kigetsuki are interesting in their own way.

A nice touch is to make episodic characters who seem long gone to suddenly return to the show. Ayame, Hammer guy and Tachibana's girlfriends are great examples of that.

Alter power is often random and more of a show than logic, but despite that many battles are interesting and creative.

The overreaching pollical drama around politics of the Lost Ground is not as detailed as in Code Geass or Infinite Ryvius, but well written. Its cohesive and logical enough to be believable and engaging.

The few flaws are somewhat excessive use of simple rustic wooden homes, ruins and scarcity. Show showcases struggling people too vividly. Rubs in the wrong way in these austerity times. I am not a fan of simple things or poverty. 

Another is shonen cliché about strength and 'conviction to fight and get stronger'. Here it is not as bad as in some AoT or Demon Slayer, where dumb protagonist will do anything. At times narrative even present a compelling message about reaching out greatness and excellence, just to get back to fighting for fighting sake. 

After all man indeed wants to stand above others and be admired by everyone. And its women role to admire, worship and serve man.

Overall, this is a good show that I can truly recommend for everyone to watch.

Aldnoah.Zero 2 Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Somewhat weaker sequel to original Aldnoah.Zero

I still recommend watching.

After rather dramatic end of the original where everyone is basically killed in a very dramatic way in the last episode, sequel would be hard to achieve. So, for plot convenience they all miraculously survived. 

However, that leaves too many inconsistencies with the role these characters. The story basically reached its conclusion too, plot with Seylum assassination is exposed and Count Saalzbaum is killed. Here Saalzbaum is alive, and Slane somehow became his loyal follower. 

Change in Slane is most regrettable and hard to explain. In the original he mostly tried to survive the whole mess. he accidently stumbled upon the plot to kill Seylum and wanted to save her because she was kind of his protector from xenophobia of Vers. Here he Saalzbaum and Lemurina instead work together to carry on the conquest. 

I guess they chose this path in order to continue Inaho vs Slane rivalry. However, the two do not have much time to fight each other. In fact, here story focuses more on court intrigue and maneuvering then on battles.

Somewhere in the middle they decided to make Slane into ambitious rank climber, to knife his way to power as he wages war against the Earth. However, then they change their mind and instead made him surrender just because Seylum regain consciousness and called the war to an end. A truly pathetic ending that lowered the score.

I would have likely given it 7.4 if Slayne Saalzbaum Vers Allusia Troyaird choose to ignore real Seylum and instead continued his conquest to the end with fake Seylum, played by Lemurina. That would have been good ending.

I did not like Lemurina at first, but later started to see her devotion to the cause. She would work for Slane and continue to disguise herself as Seylum to make his plans succeed, despite he clearly prefers Seylum over her. She is hopelessly devoted to Slayne.

Overall, it is not as good as the original, but decent enough. It does have interesting psychologically deep scenes here and there. It has rather capable authors that might have managed something better under different circumstances.

Still this overreaching narrative of sacrificing everything for some women, that screenwriters here like does irks me.

To Heart 2 OVA Review

Overall Rating 5.3 out of 10 - It majorly betrays your expectations compare to original.

I can only somewhat recommend middle episode alone.

Unfortunately, this OVA is not faithful to the original at all. It has three episodes in total.

First is about robot maid. I had high hopes for it, it mostly was about Tamaki's violence against Yuuji

Second was relatively better. Finally, mostly the best of the original cast and on the beach with swimsuits. Here however it still feels that new studio got characters wrong. They all are much less modest and humble compared to the original.

Final episode is about new Mary Sue type addition to the cast. Girl by herself is not too bad, but it was rather unpleasant how they wanted to trump up her credentials at expense of Manaka and the others.

Overall, there is clearly a different vibe to this show compared to the original. Original was much cozier, kinder and warmer. In episodes with its better characters, it managed to create a good atmosphere in which one can feel comfortable to interact with a girl. Here things are too chaotic and harsh to enjoy it. 

Girls are supposed to be soft, cozy and comfortable if I am to like them. This OVA fails to realize this fact.

So, I cannot recommend it, with exception of possibly middle episode on the beach.

Hopelessly Devoted to You by Olivia Newton-John

 

I like this song. I like girls just like her who are hopelessly devoted to me. Narcissism or whatever, but I am selfish enough, so I want girls to be devoted to me. That was the relationship will be about me and what I want.

Olivia Newton-John is also Libra so she probably knows well what I like and can deliver it. I wonder is she is a typical Libra girl. I like her other songs, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's a folk song, but she sings it as well.

.hack//Liminality Review

Overall Rating 7.0 out of 10 - It has some good ideas, but overall narrative is lacking.

I can recommend watching for those who are familiar with symbolism and literary fiction.

By episode 3 I figured out what Ryukishi07 was doing before Higurashi and Umineko. The style of narrative with its riddles is very similar to Umineko. That is episode 3 in particular and not the whole show, so credit goes to Hiroshi Morioka - Wikipedia

First couple of episodes were somewhat lacking. 3rd episode reminded me of Umineko with its riddles and investigations. Unlike the others it was more about expositions of ideas, by characters of the story. However, by itself it can only be taken as a prototype of what later came in Umineko.

Show overall gives a very mixed impression. I later found out that is because each episode had a different director. That does show. First episode nothing more than typical drama with cliche for the series story about someone falling into coma after playing The World. Second is some survivalist chaos, it's not really stupid, but leaves bad aftertaste. Third is the best one overall, sure characters are merely used to expose various philosophical ideas, but it works. It's like Planetes anime in that regard, but heavily condensed. However, style of presentation is much closer to Umineko than to Planetes. Final episodes somewhat connect all 3 characters together for their final mission of saving Sieg.

Overall show touches existentialist topics. Characters do admit that they do it because they find it fun. Seeking risky adventures are not my thing, but here characters talk about it in the words, I can understand.

Overall, a complex show, that is best watch if you have some experience and interest in literary fiction. Otherwise you will miss the point.