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 6.6 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.