Tag: anime

Mid-Season Check-In Fall 2024

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Monthly Summaries, State of the Season

Wooper: Happy November, everyone! With schools across the country having recently concluded their first quarters, it seemed appropriate for us to issue our own report card, as it were, for the fall anime season. You won’t find any letter grades in this post, however – just Lenlo and I giving our thoughts on a bunch of currently airing shows. We’ve got surprise hits, mediocre manga adaptations, sequels of varying strength, and a potential AOTY candidate lined up for you here, so read on to see which is which!

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II – 2-5

Lenlo: Little girls with guns go pew pew. Seriously though, much like Shangri-La Frontier, Gun Gale Online actually communicates a lot of the fun of playing these sorts of MMOs. Hanging out with your friends, doing stupid stuff with stupid builds, competing, random insane PKers and people making stupid calls. It’s everything that Sword Art Online wishes it could be. And the fact that there’s no world-saving, life-ending threat, means there’s always some tension because our leads are actually allowed to lose. Again, much like Shangri-La, defeat doesn’t mean the end in Gun Gale Online. What I’m trying to say is, Gun Gale Online is a fun, chill action series about a bunch of people running around shooting each other and having fun, knowing that no one is in any actual danger and the only thing at stake is pride inside of a video game. The battle-royale scenario, the closing ring, the CoD style maps, it’s all just… fun. And for me, that makes it worth continuing.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 Anime Review – 63/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Reviews by Lenlo

Lets not beat around the bush, Kimetsu no Yaiba had a tough time last year. From lackluster and hard to follow fights to a nonsensical narrative and mediocre villains, Season 3 is Yaiba’s lowest point yet. So going into Season 4, seeing the title, knowing it was a training arc and setup for the coming finale, my expectations were rock bottom. And yet, as the episodes went on… I found myself enjoying it. Some how, some way, Ufotable and director Haruo Sotozaki have managed to breathe new life into this series, reviving some of my interest. It’s not perfect, Yaiba still has a long ways to go before it’s great. But the fact that it’s on an upward trajectory at all, after last season, feels like a miracle. So lets dive into Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 4: Hashira Training Arc and find out how a seeming filler arc, improved so much.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba Seasons 1-4. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 Anime Review – 63/100” →

Wind Breaker Anime Review – 69/100

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Wind Breaker

Delinquents are a pretty common sight in anime. From classic Shounen like Yu Yu Hakusho to more modern series like Tokyo Revengers, we get plenty of them every year. So standing out amongst the crowd can be pretty difficult for a show like this. Do you get weird with it like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Season 4? Or more heartfelt and personal, like Great Teacher Onizuka? Regrettably, most shows never really figure that out. Whatever they try, most fall short and aren’t able to separate themselves from the pack. Well today I’m here to talk about one that manages to do just that, though only barely. A delinquent battle shounen that tries its best to fly and, by the end, is able to fly on its own. Originally created by Satoru Nii, animated and adapted by Cloverworks, directed by Toshifumi Akai, and with music by Ryou Takahashi and produced by Shinji Yamauchi, I give you… Wind Breaker.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Wind Breaker. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Wind Breaker Anime Review – 69/100” →

Viral Hit Anime Review – 51/100

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Viral Hit

How familiar are you with the Creator Clash? That boxing event hosted by iDubbbz where various content creators box each other. Ever heard of that? Well remove the rules and the stage, remove the big names and huge payouts, move the entire thing to Seoul, South Korea and suddenly you have Kenka Dokugaku aka Viral Hit. Originally created by Tae-Jun Park, animated by studio Okuruto Noboru, directed by Masakazu Hishida and with music by Yutaka Yamada, Viral Hit is about Ho-Bin Yoo’s quest to make money by fighting random punks in his community and livestreaming it on YouTube I mean NewTube, pulling himself up the social ladder along the way. Does that sound interesting? Do you want to watch knock-off LeafyIsHere get into a fist fight with Korean Logan Paul and slowly fall in love with fighting? Then read on, because that description is about the best sell Viral Hit gets.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Viral Hit. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Viral Hit Anime Review – 51/100” →

State of the Blog – We need to talk

by Lenlo, posted in Special Articles

Hello everyone, Lenlo here. Lets talks, about the state of the blog, the state of my life, and where things are going. Or well, I’m going to talk, y’all are going to read.

As many of you have noticed, posts have been slowing down for a while now. I’m months late on things like the 2023 Anime of the Year, as well as the Dr. STONE S4 and Undead Girl Murder Farce reviews. Some of you also probably figured out those were never happening. Well I’m here to talk about why, as well as the future of the blog. Simply put, I’m tired. So very tired. I’ve been doing this for almost 7 years at this point, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot! I remember every single series I’ve covered, and I valued every comment. But… I just don’t have the energy for it anymore. Not only can I not handle 3-5 posts a week on top of my  regular life, watching anime in this way, looking for things to praise or criticize, taking notes as I watch it… it’s ruining my enjoyment of them. I can’t do it anymore. So… I’ve decided to follow the rest of the writers and retire, from weekly posts at least.

What does this mean for the site? Well for starters, it’s not necessarily the end. I’ll still write the occasional review or post that interests me, I do still enjoy writing the larger reviews, but I’m going to do it on my time, as I naturally finish a series, without any weekly posts or other deadline considerations to worry about. I’ll also continue to post any guest reviews, such as Firechick’s, for as long as I am able. But basically this means all weekly, almost daily, content is coming to an end for the site. Everything else, we’ll see. As for how long this will go on for, the server is paid for until 2025, so at the very least it will remain up for another 18 months. All the old reviews, all the posts, the comments, those will all stay up until the end of next year. Once that time runs out I’m going to evaluate where we’re at and decide whether or not to pay for the server for another year.

So yeah… That’s the news. I talked it over with the other writers in the discord, and they support my decision. They understand that some day, all things must end. That every dreamer must wake. And while I tried to put it off, I held on to this place as best I could, it’s my time. Effective immediately, for the sake of my own mental health as I finish this last busy summer semester of my Master’s degree, I am retiring. I apologize for the series left half-finished, for the incomplete weekly roundups. I might, hell I probably will, write a review for a couple of them. But those will come out on my own time. So until then, chat with you in discord whenever I can, and I’ll see you around space cowboy.

Ranger Reject – 7 [The Zigzag Road to the Final Exam!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to another episode of Ranger Reject! This week continues the exam, revealing the true secret behind it and driving our cast to conflict, meanwhile in the background a greater threat is beginning to arise. Pretty ominous right? Well lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting with the test itself, the reveal that this wasn’t actually designed to test pairs of two but full teams of five was really interesting. Suddenly a seemingly impossible test designed to fail everyone instead becomes a measure of leadership, team work, and judgement on who you team up with. I still wouldn’t call it perfect, the way Ranger Reject presented it last episode was still very flawed, but this episode was a valiant recovery and may end up saving the arc for me. Shion’s betrayal despite everything Fighter D did for him yesterday, the way Fighter D is slowly building up his team of rejects to steal back the keys they need, as well as everything else going on in the background, was all around pretty good. It still suffers a bit from pacing, but not nearly as badly as the previous episode.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 – 3 [Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! For how simple the premise is, how little promise the arc seems to have, I’m enjoying myself a shocking amount. It’s nice coming back and seeing these characters again, spending time understanding who they are and what they think of the current situation. It’s what the series needed! I just can’t believe we actually got it. What do I mean? Well lets dive into the episode and find out.

All things considered, this was a pretty straight forward training episode. Tanjiro returned, we caught back up with Uzui and saw what he was putting the Demon Slayers through, had a motivational speech, then moved on to the next Hashira. Nothing big happened, no fights or major revelations, just Tanjiro getting to show off how far he’s come and how great the difference is between him and a regular Demon Slayer. So why am I so happy with it? Well that’s simple, Yaiba executed a basic premise very well. Rather than being about empowering our lead, making him stronger, it was about how our lead can empower and raise up those around him. It showed us the nameless, faceless mooks and made it clear that, even if we don’t see them at the final battle, they will be there. Doing their part.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 – 3 [Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!]” →

Ranger Reject – 6 [1 Plus 2 Equals… Threat!]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Ranger Reject

Welcome all, to the halfway point of Ranger Reject This week is another fast one, blazing through content in way I’d rather Ranger Reject didn’t. That’s right, this is another 4-5 chapter episode, meaning we have a lot to talk about and not all of it is good. Lets dive in!

As I said, this episode moved fast and covered a lot. Ranger Reject was running a mile a minute this week as it speeds its way through the Final Exam. And you know what? I can’t say I’m particularly happy about it. We went from just meeting these people, these other cadets, to immediately getting thrown into a big exam where most of them are probably going to fail. The exam itself also serving as our proper introduction to the 2nd-in-commands of the various squads as they act as the “obstacles”, letting us meet characters like Hisui properly. This kind of sucks, because I was hoping we would get more time training and getting to know this large cast of new characters. That the final exam would be the climax of the season rather than the mid-point. Maybe Ranger Reject can make it work? But I’m starting to worried.

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Kimetsu no Yaiba S4 – 2 [Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka’s Pain]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome all, to episode 2 of the new season of Kimetsu no Yaiba! I got some pushback last week to my disappointment with the series premier, and that’s understandable. Maybe I was expecting a bit much from a double-length premier. So it brings me great joy to report that this week, this episode? Yaiba gave me almost everything I wanted. I’m happy. Let’s dive into why.

So what is it that I like so much about this Yaiba episode? Well simply put, the entire thing is laser focused on a single character and his relationship with Tanjiro, Giyu Tomioka. We haven’t gotten a lot from Giyu until now, despite him being the first Demon Slayer we ever meet way back in episode 1. He’s not very emotional, doesn’t talk about himself, doesn’t really engage with anyone. So spending an entire episode letting us into his head, exploring his feelings of survivors guilt and relating them to Tanjiro’s own in regards to Rengoku, was great. The only misstep I would say would be the comedy. Yaiba likes to end most of it’s big emotional moments with silly faces and one liners, which I feel usually ruins the tension and emotion of a scene. This weeks weren’t terrible, the soba eating contest worked, but it definitely wasn’t needed.

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Nana – 5/6 [Ren’s Dream, Nana O.’s Feelings/Snowing in Tokyo! Nana and NANA] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Nana, Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to another week of Nana! This week we finish up our flashbacks, finally seeing why Ozaki came to Tokyo, as well as get a small reminder of where everyone is before the story kicks off in earnest. Or at least, I hope that’s what episode 6 was, because if not I’m going to have words for next week. Anyways, on with the episodes!

First up we have episode 5, “Ren’s Dream, Nana O.’s Feelings”. This one continues Ozaki’s flashback, ensuring she gets just as much time and attention as Nana, which I appreciate. We get to her struggle with whether or not to follow Ren to Tokyo, whether to settle for being a housewife and supporting him since she would just be following his career or to stay behind and make her own way, eventually meeting up again as equals. We also get to see how they get together in the first place, that this wasn’t just a fling for them but something more. And you know what? It was all really good! I think Nana absolutely nailed it, from Yasu and Nobu’s conversation around music, their careers and Ozaki’s decision to Ozaki and Ren’s relationship. It’s so similar, yet distinctly different, from Nana’s own story with Shouji and I love it.

Continue reading “Nana – 5/6 [Ren’s Dream, Nana O.’s Feelings/Snowing in Tokyo! Nana and NANA] – Throwback Thursday” →