Some Quick First Impressions – Island, Hanebado! and Senjuushi

by SuperMario, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Island

Short Synopsis: A man stranded on an island full of cute girls claims to be from the future.

Lenlo’s Review:

Well I can see how ISLAND might appeal to some people. After all the first two scenes are A) Erotic wordplay about “breaking” and B) The classic trip and fall into your main love interest, but this time it’s directly into his crotch. Face first. Truly, ISLAND is a bastion of culture. Yeah, there are small hints about some kind of murder storyline. Some kind of detective drama. But let’s be real here, this is a fanservice delivery system. If Studio feel learned how to weaponise the genre, this would be their Tsar bomb. If your into fan-service and B-plots designed to deliver that fan-service, ISLAND may be for you. For everyone else, I give it a 1-in-a-million shot at being anything resembling decent. It’s a shame to, because we have irrefutable proof that Studio feel knows how to make good anime. They just choose not to sometimes.

Potential: 0.00001%

Mario’s review:

Let’s me just recap the story just so we have an idea how half-baked it is. We have a guy who literally a blank page, who both suffers amnesia (!), but “remembers” enough key events to advance the plot at will (!!). He meets various girls (!!!) and the first thing he remember about them is boob and kiss (!!!!). This is obviously a VN type of story where the main guy has no personality whatsoever and the girls are loud and cliche. It doesn’t help that the fanservice is off-putting and the conversations are generic. There’s some hints of a darker storyline which all the mysteries and killing stuff, but so far it’s hard to invest to any of that because the pacing is all over the place. That insert song in the end might pull some viewers in but for me it’s just a generic J-pop song. Uninteresting characters with too much fan-servicey and not enough plot would sum this one up nicely.

Potential: 10%

 

Hanebado!

Short Synopsis: The remaining members of a badminton club struggle to keep their group together.

Mario’s review:

How appropriate that we have a sport anime that kick off the season in a middle of football frenzy and Wimbledon, and it’s a competent one to boost. Conventional plot aside, Hanebado has all the ingredients of a solid sport drama, from adequate character developments to outright impressive badminton choreography. These two main girls have clear motivations and struggles, but what I enjoy the most is the way the show display characters’ feeling through subtle expressions (this reminds me a lot of KyoAni works). Yeah, that main girl can be unbearable sometimes but she comes from a place I can totally understand. As a person who used to practice tennis day and night, I come up with that question a lot: Why do I keep playing the sport. As noted, the animation is impressive. It’s one of the few shows where I can say it resembles the sport in real life, but I’m not sure if they can keep up that impressive visual for the rest of its run. Other concern is that I’m not certain if it can finish the story in one cour, because I just don’t want to invest in a story that just stop when everything just gets interesting.

Potential: 60%

Wooper’s review:

This is one of the anime that most interested me based on promotional footage, because the badminton matches looked great. Now that I’ve seen the first episode, though, I realize that the rest of the production doesn’t have that level of polish. That goes for story, characters, visual direction, and most disappointingly of all, music. Hanebado’s soundtrack sounds like the result of putting every Joe Hisaishi score into a blender, taking two sips, and throwing the rest away. And that’s honestly a shame, because with good visuals for the competitive scenes and a distinctive sound for the rest of the show, we might have had a contender on our hands. Instead, the average character writing (featuring transparent stand-ins for the concepts of “talent” and “hard work”) shines through at every possible opportunity, making their relationships and arguments feel artificial. The idea that two rivals will have to become friends and work to improve their club isn’t wowing me, either. Hanebado still gets a light recommendation from me for the athletic animation and the fun OP, but don’t expect the world from this series.

Potential: 40%

 

Senjuushi

Short Synopsis: Rifles are Boys.

Lenlo’s Review:

Sigh Why do I do this to myself? Why does Japan do this to me? To anyone? Welcome to “Ancient-guns-as-cute-boys-doing-cute-things” the anime. I swear if this becomes a genre, i’m just done. There are so many things wrong here. I would need this entire post to explain my problems with Senjuushi. That’s not going to happen. I already made that mistake with Touken Ranbu. And at least Touken Ranbu had the decency to look as flashy as Fate/Zero or Fate/Unlimited Blade Works. At least from it I got some visual stimulus! From Senjuushi all I get is a dozen of the exact same male face with different hair colors, scaled to different sizes. Nope. I’m out. Bye.

Potential: 0%

Mario’s review:
Just after last year with Touken Ranbu where hot boys are the incarnations of famous swords, Senjuushi basically borrows the idea with them boys as an embodiment of famous matchlock firearms, in a musketeer fashion. The mashup of all the different setting periods is actually the most amusing factor this show provides. Throughout this episode, more than dozen of male characters introduced and I’ll be damned if I remember any of those faces. Make no mistake, this show is an advertisement for those boys and I suppose this show will make several missions as an excuse for those boys teaming up and squeeze out every drop of charisma out of them. Avoid this show at all costs.

Potential: 0%

Hisone to Masotan – 12 [We Are Unstoppable]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

And we come to a close of this Dragon Pilot show and I’m still indifferent on how this anime wraps up. It’s not a bad ending per se, it has a good emotional payoff and it does somewhat wrap up the story. The more it gets into the conclusion, however,  the more I see inconsistencies in its world building that just throw me off even more. Hisone, as we suspected last week, after learning about the sacrifice, decides to defy the ritual and save the girl instead. She then, in her Hisone mood, sacrifices herself to put the dragon to sleep. But Masotan saves her at the end. It’s all fine and mighty, although I would be much more appreciate if HisoMaso explains me about the “stabbing” beforehand. It just feels as if they create that step to raise the conflict. Indeed a lot of “conflicts” in HisoMaso is designed that way. I know I’m mainly disappointed by the inconsistencies of its world building but it’s the first and foremost factor to sell me on the story as a whole. Failing that and it pampers my personal investment to the show and it makes me question the credibility of every plot’s progression.

At the end though, it saddens me to say that I don’t learn that much from the cast. Except for Hoshino and Sada who have a bit of development, all the side characters are under-written in general. The dragons are cute but again they are just that, cute. I do like the way they’re all confident that Hisone and Masotan will come back somehow in the end. The visual is still a wonder, which pains me even more that it can’t save the show from going downhill because of the weak writing.

Full review will come later but here’s some dot points of what get on my nerve in this finale:

-Grandma pilot Sada with her back story: if she feels that devastated how the hell she didn’t cause anastomosis to Masotan then?

-How comes all the back-and-forth exchanges between a girl who wants to save another girl is all about some other guy? It’s a under-representation of women role. Even with Bechdel test it fails fails fails miserably.

-Okonogi doesn’t fare any better. His childhood friend is on a verge of death and all he thinks of is Hisone

-At the end, even Natsume is more fleshed out than Kinutsugai and Hitomi, and I hardly regard her character as flesh out.

This show just disappoints me to no end.

Summer Season 2018 Preview

by AidanAK47, posted in Seasonal Previews

Like a backup singer coming on to do an encore, the summer season rolls in to leave us rather underwhelmed. Not to say there isn’t anything here as there are certainly two or three that I consider quite important, but after that Spring season any follow up is bound to disappoint. Some shows may have tripped along the finish line but it was a season bound to be remembered with quite a few shows that stood out. The summer season has some potential but I feel like it will be good R&R for those of us that fell behind on shows from the last season.

Usual rules still apply, I check out whatever source material I can and see what we might be in for. Poll is below where you can vote for the shows you would like to get covered this season, though take note that even if you vote Attack on Titan season 3 to the top, I am still not covering it. Maybe someone else will but I sure am not going to.

This poll is no longer accepting votes

What will you be watching this fall?
VoteResults

Thanks to Wooper and Mario for contributing to the blurbs and for gathering the images. You know what you are here for so let’s get things started.

 

 

The sequels/Shorts I don’t care about

Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai! 2 (short)

Aru Zombie Shoujo no Sainan (ONA)

Baki (ONA)

Gintama.: Shirogane no Tamashii-hen 2 (sequel)

Free! Dive to the Future (sequel)

Joshiochi! 2-kai kara Onna no Ko ga… Kudattekita (short)

Marvel Future Avengers 2nd Season (sequel)

One Room 2nd Season (sequel)

Overlord III (sequel)

The iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls Theater 3rd Season (sequel)

Hataraku Onii-san! No 2! (short)

Neko Kikaku (ONA)

Oshiete Mahou no Pendulum: Rilu Rilu Fairilu (sequel)

Yakusoku no Nanaya Matsuri (ONA)
Yama no Susume: Third Season (sequel)

Yami Shibai 6 (sequel)

 

 

Series I don’t care about

 

Aguu: Tensai Ningyou

Studio: Studio DEEN

Director: Bob Shirohata

Script/Series composer: N/A

Source: Web Manhua

Ai is an ordinary girl, and a dancer. Her friend Machi is also a dancer, but Machi is a genius. Watching Machi’s talent often makes Ai feel down. But one day, Ai finds out Machi’s secret: the existence of the Aguu, palm-size entities who grant genius talent upon those who hold them. In order to save Machi, who has become a “Seamstress” who makes Aguu, Ai becomes a “Savior.” The Saviors are a group of people who have fought the Seamstresses for generations.

 

I can’t say I have encountered that many memorable Web Manhua. I think maybe Dice, The Gamer and Tower of God were ones I followed for quite a while but they all basically got worse as they continued. Funnily enough there was an awful lot of what we called pornhua where it was web manga which has a focus of a lot of sex scenes. Obviously this doesn’t fall into that category but I am just stating that I haven’t really encountered a manhua that made me wish for an anime adaption. Got no source for this one but I just get the feeling this won’t be on anyone’s radar. Director did Gravitation and Hetalia so indeed this doesn’t quite make me think this will defy expectations. Props to Deen for picking something unconventional but I think they went a bit too far off base for this one. We shall see how this turns out.

 

Back Street Girls

Studio: J.C. Staff

Director: Chiaki Kon

Script/Series composer: Susumu Yamakawa

Source: Manga

A group of 3 yakuza failed their boss for the last time. After messing up an important job, the boss gave them 2 choices: honorably commit suicide, or go to Thailand to get a sex reassignment surgery in order to become “female” idols. After a gruesome year training to become idols, they successfully debut, with overwhelming popularity, much to their dismay. This is where their tragedy truly begins.

 

I would applaud anything that takes pot shots at the idol industry, and an anime about Yakuza going transvestite to sell themselves as idols certainly has novel factor. Sadly that’s about all it’s got as the one joke can’t carry a story. I am reminded of Mahou Shoujo Ore where the show was less about using an absurd situation to pull off jokes and more about pointing out the absurdity of a situation and telling us to laugh. Comedy requires change and one the reasons KonaSuba works so well is that it changes up things all the time and has a whole continuity to use as comedy fodder. Telling the same joke over and over again just results in the joke getting more stale with each telling and while this may interest people at first, I feel that after one or two episodes most viewers will have moved on.

Continue reading “Summer Season 2018 Preview” →

Darling in the Franxx – 23[DARLING in the FRANXX]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

The longer this series goes on, the faster my goodwill disappears as this episode was terrible on many fronts. At this point I think we can admit that this series has been on a downward spiral since episode 19 and has only worsened with each subsequent episode. Part of the problem was 19 spilling all the beans on the world which it had kept relatively close to heart and the thing which truly sunk the ship was the introduction of VIRM. As I have thought over the events of the last few episodes, i have found that VIRM don’t really make much sense and as antagonists there goals and actions are just too vague and indistinct. Let us examine things by looking at their objective which is to pull all races into some sort of collective being and the question I have to that effect is…what is stopping them exactly? I mean I believe they just absorbed all the adults no bother and it doesn’t really seem like consent is an issue considering that the upper brass were not willing yet were absorbed regardless. So then, why can’t they absorb the children, nay why couldn’t they absorb the Klax when they first landed instead of asking for permission first and then going to war with them? What would winning a war even accomplish?

The second objective seems to be destroying Strelizia prime but again the only reason Prime exists is because they went to war with the Klax! I guess we could reason that in order to be absorbed they first need to get the race to enter those happiness machines they made but again if that was the case then why didn’t they take the same approach as they did humanity and infiltrate society to introduce the machines. I highly doubt that the Klax were the first to rebel against their intent. We spent the majority of the series with APE acting as the antagonists and they too were not great due to being faceless with vague motivations. However they still have a presence and mean something to the characters of the story. VIRM on the other hand is an unknown, faceless entity with a boring motivation that means nothing to the characters. As a villain they are literally nothing more than a plot device and they seem to hold no real threat having being beaten by the Klax and now being obliterated again with little effort. I just can’t see these guys as a legitimate threat, I mean they had Strelizia at their mercy for months and at best they only managed to scratch it. Our villains ladies and gentlemen, couldn’t even hurt an unarmed enemy for months on end.

But enough of that, what actually happened in this episode? Well this felt like three episodes all crushed into one as we had many a climatic development with none of it felt earned. We start the episode with the squad all playing around in Franxx in space..wait a minute.. how did they modify Franxx to fight in space without doctor Franxx? Oh I see Nana and Hachi (Wait a second, why the hell are you guys here? Aren’t you supposed to be on earth guiding all the children?) confirm that the Klax made it for them..wait…why would the Klax make space equipment for their enemies? No I don’t buy that bull about them somehow thinking that humanity would rise up and preparing equipment for that time. The Klax were fully committed to sorting this stuff themselves, the Klax queen made that very damn clear. Also they prepared a ship which is set to autopilot to Strezla prime(Then again, why are you here Nana and Hachi? If you aren’t driving the ship then what’s the point of being there? Moral support? To exposit that poor piece of justification for the space suits?)

Anyway the leader of the nines is acting as Hiro’s partner now to get him to Zero Two and oh no he sacrifices himself talking about how Hiro and the gang teaching them how to live…um sorry, when did that happen? Last I remember you were all throwing a hissy fit in the medical bay before you decide to go on this mission. Are you talking about those points you berated them for living like that? Wait Kokoro and Mitsuri suddenly love each other again? Zero Two pushed away Hiro and went off on her own despite being completely unable to move prime? Wait Zero Two’s body turned to stone? Wait Prime now is literally a giant Zero Two? Alright the mech science hasn’t being realistic for the whole series but at least it was consistent but this is just pure magic and makes no sense whatsoever. Wait you are planning a suicide attack on the alien homeworld by going through some gateway out of nowhere while using the Klax ship as a bomb? Can’t you launch it through the gate? Considering VIRM couldn’t make a dent in Prime I figure this won’t be much of a final battle. Oh no Hiro and Zero Two may never return and…again sorry I feel like I skipped to an emotional climax without any of the buildup.

Sigh. This episode was a mess. It feels unplanned and unjustified with all these nonsense story developments and sudden changes in tone to try and pull at your heartstrings. It’s feels like the writer wrote himself into a corner by introducing VIRM and now must work to resolve something that would take more than the last few episodes to resolve. Truthfully I question just how much of this story is planned for the episodes of the full series do play out haphazard and without strong continuity with an inconsistent level of quality. This last arc is mainly like a satire or homage to many other famous Mecha shows with none of the finality and with characters replaced with the Franxx cast. I just wonder what the point of it really was for I previously mentioned that Franxx could end in one of two ways, with the gang raising a new humanity or a final confrontation with VIRM. It was though they were going for a mixture but looks like they are going to cut out the final confrontation with VIRM after all and go right back to the setting up of new humanity. Franxx would need to pull out something real special to make all this worth it but considering the tend of these episodes, my expectations are certainly low.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory – 10[Onward, Onward]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory

Oh no. Well I suppose this was coming with all the news of this series troubles but it is disheartening to see it come to worst case scenario with the quality of this episode. This is the episode that announces without a doubt that this team is at the breaking point. Characters go off model several times, the animation get to levels of absurd with Sousuke running an obstacle course and his animation missing frames, audio errors like Sousuke kicking away a canister for it to make no noise whatsoever from the sound of the sergeants pockets being patted despite his hand currently lighting a cigar. Tessa eating a sandwich without even opening her mouth. Boy of boy, I don’t know if this episode was outsourced or what but you can just see the tremendous drop in quality. I don’t blame the animation team as it does feel like they were going above and beyond for this series and that finally broke them. I previously wished for a second cour but at this rate I should consider it lucky if we get to the end of this cour with respectable quality. Well after this episode there will be a three week break until the next one so I hope that would remedy some of the problems with production.

Despite this the story still holds up as we have Sousuke manage to fend off an attacker, Tessa dealing with insomnia and guilt of over the the stress and guilt of the situation and Chidori finding out Sousuke is still searching for her and finding herself wishing to disappear due to the trouble she’s causing others. Not to mention Kalinin revealing that he was a traitor to Mythril and a Amalgam spy. If this last revela felt a bit out of nowhere that would be because it was supposed to be revealed at the end of the Dancing very Merry Christmas volume which was skipped over by this adaption. So indeed the reveal here feels rather abrupt due to the fact that the audience should already know about it at this point but I kinda wish they gave the reveal a bit more gravitas. He wasn’t a major character but he did play an important role in the series, not to mention being a mentor for Sousuke so him being a traitor is sort of a big deal. Still they set him up well as a villain here what with him shooting a man and telling him that he will die in 30 minutes if not given first aid. Remarkably cold that upon being refused he just left him there to bleed out, not even asking him to reconsider.

It is rather funny that the fanservice moments of this episode were downplayed by the situation what with Tessa stripping down to rest only to be unable to eat, sleep and being racked with guilt all the while lying to her officers and pretending she’s fine. She’s still a teenager after all so no doubt this hits her hard and when Kalinin’s betrayal is revealed to her that’s gonna be devastating. Chidoris situation by contrast isn’t quite as dire and her scene felt a little more gratuitous with her jumping into a pool and swimming lengths in her underwear. Which gave her motivation because…hmm…I don’t quite remember her being on the swim team. I guess cause it reminded her of swimming class at school or that she just felt she needed to do something? Truth be told I don’t quite grasp the logic but whatever it was got her pumped to do something at least. I just hope her little angst moments are few and far between. Other than that we got some good comedy with Sousuke’s old sergeant who was drilling in a personal philosophy of being a soldier into him only fr Sousuke to literally get knocked out and the sergeant goes “Well I guess that happens” Also saying shit in Japanese is fine yet saying fucking in English needs to be beeped out? These censors need some fucking guts. Well we won’t be getting the next episodes for another three weeks so it will be quite the wait till I can close this one off. I am still waiting on SHaft to get those final Fate/Extra episodes out as well come to think of it. Hopefully they don’t all hit during a bad time.

Megalo Box – 70/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Megalo Box, Reviews by Lenlo

Ah boxing, the quintessential manly man sport of beating each other unconscious. In anime, the sport was first forged in the fires of Ashita no Joe, and some would say later perfected by Hajime no Ippo. Both fantastic series in their own right. Both filled to the brim with epic clashes of wills, phenomenal characters and some of the best fight scenes in anime. Some would probably count Megalo Box among them, near the top of sports anime. I am not one of them. For you see, Megalo Box is not a boxing manly mans sports anime. Megalo Box is a character drama. With boxing.

Lets jump in!

Continue reading “Megalo Box – 70/100” →

Megalo Box – 13 [Born to Die]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Its finally here, the finale of Megalo Box. And what a finale it was. Lets just get right into it.

Cutting right to the chase, I think Megalo Box was golden until the last 6 minutes. Everything was going great, I had no complaints, and then… Megalo Box anti-climaxed itself. The final 6 minutes simply didn’t fit with the rest of the series. It’s not a bad ending per-se, the status quo has changed and arcs have all been wrapped up. It’s simply an ill-fitting ending. I can understand why they went this way to. They didn’t want to copy Ashita no Joe, they wanted to set themselves apart from it. And I can appreciate that. However I think they went to far away in their quest to be different. Ashita no Joe’s ending is memorable even to those who only see a 5 minute clip and nothing else. Its so beloved for a reason. This? This feels less like an ending and more like groundwork for a second season.

Continue reading “Megalo Box – 13 [Born to Die]” →

Steins;Gate 0 – 12 [Mother Goose of Mutual Recursion -Recursive Mother Goose-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Hello everyone and welcome to the midpoint of the season! This week we have the weirdest game of anime telephone I have ever seen. Lets jump in!

So first off, the big thing, Steins;Gate 0 this week is a B-plot. A side-story almost irrelevant to the main story. Its cute, its fluffy, it gets a little dark at the end and it all wraps up in a single episode. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. Its pretty clear that Steins;Gate 0 is going for a time-skip, we already skipped 2 weeks. Instead of jumping straight there it looks like they are taking the chance to tell some side stories. Considering how “finale” episode 11 was, the timing works out. Its just… it wasn’t the best episode. The problem with B-plots like this is they don’t really push the story forward. We get context and moments of certain relationships which we really needed, we will talk about some of those later. But what really happened this week? A glorified game of telephone, that’s what.

Continue reading “Steins;Gate 0 – 12 [Mother Goose of Mutual Recursion -Recursive Mother Goose-]” →

Legends of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These Anime Review – 80/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These, Reviews by AidanAK47

This is a remake of a series made way back when which is one of the most highly acclaimed anime in the medium. It is of legendary status but you would be hard pressed to recommend it as to many the barrier of entry is too high to consider. A 110 episode OVA with dated animation and art is hardly an appealing show looking from the outside. Thus we have Die Neue These, a remake which takes the story of LOGH and sticks closer to the original source material of the novels. Acting as a small offering of what makes this series so highly regarded. LOGH is a story set in the future that plays out like actual history, for the stage is grand and the cast is huge. It is about a war between the Free Planets Alliance and the Goldenbaum Dynasty, one being a democracy while the other a autocracy. The series explores these two systems exposing the ideals and flaws of both as while there are large space battles, the true worth of this series is the great amount of politics that surround this war. Even though the story was made over thirty years ago, it’s messages still ring true today making it excellent food for thought.

The series mainly follows the two heroes representing each side, with Yang Wenli being the believer of democracy and a man who seeks a easier life but is pulled time and time again into historic battles due to his talent for strategic combat. Reinhard is the young upstart of the empire who wishes to rise through the ranks to reform the heavily corrupt society of the class system of the empire. The story can be a bit erratic as it jumps forward in time and it can be hard keeping track of the large cast of character which just seems to expand infinitely. The space battle remain the weaker aspect of the series and from word of mouth it appears the strategy employed is only base level tactics. There is also a common factor of highly incompetent people in high positions that gets reused time and time again as justification for the actions of the plot though not necessarily unrealistic. Also is the factor this is very much only a tenth of the full story of LOGH and when this show reaches its final minutes you may not even realize that it has concluded for the story just cuts off like someone slamming a book shut while you were in the middle of a chapter. There is plans for movies to continue the story but you will be left hanging quite a bit if you don’t intend to watch the original OVA.

Presentation wise aside from some rather odd character designs this series is leaps and bounds over it’s older counterpart. Thus I can conclude that this series is the prefect means to recommend this series to a newer fan of anime to encourage them to check out some of the older greats the medium has to offer. Even after all this time this series remains a standout tale within animation and one anime fans should at least attempt to watch in their lifetime. It loses points for being only a part of a story which has barely begun but for those seeking something that’s away from high schools and teenagers with more mature themes then LOGH is right up your alley. Perhaps even sparking an interest in shows of a bygone era.

Legends of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 8-12

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These

Well this is rather embarrassing. Believe me when I say I fully intended to cover every episode of this series but life finds a way of ruining your plans. So rather than waste a post just talking about what happened in these past four episodes, I would think it better to just give my thoughts on the series as a whole and follow it with a review. Even then i don’t think it would take too long to summarize the bare bones of what happened here as it was basically the FPA deciding to invade the Empire despite literally not being able to sustain one all because the top brass wanted to scrape a win to improve their chances of reelection. An idea so dumb that even Truniht the snake that he is, saw it as doomed. The army gets dragged into this dumbass plan, the flaws in the plan become apparent immediately from the start and Reinhard shows up with his army to give the FPA a whooping they ain’t gonna forget. In some ways it’s painful just seeing this whole plan get pushed forward despite everyone and their mother seeing it as a terrible idea and when looking at the series it does seem that incompetent people in high positions is abundantly a common factor here. Aside from the main character it honestly seems like any side character is just a bumbling idiot which could be a flaw of this series…if it wasn’t a rather accurate portrayal. More than once in recent times we had top officials pushing for plans which everyone clearly saw as bad ideas, yet were pushed through regardless. It is funny seeing someone like Folk who is basically a high commander and main originator of this stupid plan be someone so ill suited to his position that he has a mental condition that literally means he will go into seizures if things don’t pander to his ego.

As far as adaption goes this is a very good adaption. Of course loyalists to the OVA will find flaws with it and even I feel the OVA had the time to focus on the small details like that one episode that showed things from the ground view of that whole revolt due to Reinhard’s scorched earth tactics. A particular moment that stands out to me is the FPA preaching to the people of the first planet they took from the empire of how in democracy they have freedom and the response being “Well that’s great and everything but we would prefer if we could have food and water.” Indeed it didn’t matter who was in charge or what platatues they offered as people will ultimately be concerned with their own survival over idealism. As well as pointing out that Rienard may be a genius tactician but his methods certainly are morally questionable as well as his ruthlessness in killing an army who are only following the orders of idiots. But back on adaption this is indeed a pretty version of LOGH that seems to be loyal to the books and in that regard makes for an excellent introduction of the series to a modern audience. The themes and messages of LOGH are just as relevant today as they were thirty years ago, maybe even more so. To the anime community LOGH is very much a white whale of a series for as acclaimed as it is, it is about as appealing to a newer anime fan as vegetables are to a lion. Not to slight newer anime fans as the artstyle of the OVA is rather outdated, the animation is bare and a 110 episode series is a huge time investment. In that regard the new LOGH of twelve episodes and a more polished presentation makes for a far more digestible offering, at least to the level that people could give it a chance.

But indeed, this is just a small portion of the story which brings me to what is undeniably the greatest flaw of this series. People give Re:Zero grief for being a “Prologue” of the story but I have always said that while it does set up things for future story arcs, the arcs in the anime itself do have conclusions. LOGH on the other hand is a story far too big for a twelve episode series and when this series reaches its final episode the story doesn’t end, it just stops. Now there is word that movies are going to be made to continue the story but that is also something I find concerning as this story was too big for a one cour series so having a continuation be in a even smaller format is unsuitable. Let me put it this way, the original OVA took nine years to reach its conclusion so how long will we have to wait to see the new series reach the same end? Wouldn’t it just be as inaccessible as before if the series is chopped up into movies and anime cours? The benefit of this is higher production values but the minus is a story that no matter how good, could lose people due to time between releases. Sure one could go to the OVA if they get impatient but I feel this series would only be worth getting into once the entirely of the story has been covered. But will the entire story be covered? Well who knows really.