2018 Spring Anime Review

***DISCLAIMER*** These are SPOILER FILLED reviews

3D Kanojo Real Girl

Review: I just...gave up on the last episode. Yeah, this isn't going to be a pleasant review. I mean, it's good for slice of life fans but for those who enjoy a good romance story? No. The main female lead is jealous and acts incredibly childish with her jealousy. There's another girl who comes in midway through and starts taking a liking to the main male figure. He tries to act more like a friend talking to her, reacting to her kindness and...yeah, for those insecure I could see that as a problem. Keep in mind I'm writing this in a relationship where if I see Dani talking to someone outside myself I wanna see her do more. I wanna lock the door on her and say “Not 'til you make a friend!”

*Ahem* There are two major points that really ticked me off about the main female lead where her jealousy was too much. At a point where everyone is camping (all the main characters) the second girl accidentally burns her finger and because the guy is helping her his girlfriend goes running off and proceeds to give him the cold shoulder. Another case was where the boyfriends friend tells her that he looks at her as a friend and she's all “Really?” with her reaction. Like through everything they've done as a group, the interest he's taken in his own relationship he just meant nothing to her. Sure, you could say she never thought he'd say what she already felt but given her jealousy and demanding nature of the boyfriends time...I think it's clear to say that she thought of him as more an obstacle for the main character.

The final problem I had with the series was at the beginning, or around there, they set up for the series main antagonist. That being, quite simply, that the girl was going to be moving in the end during the summer. Okay. So, in traditional anime fashion, it's mentioned once and then never brought up again until a brief mention at the end because they gotta make room for a new antagonist in the girls younger brother. Someone who says “Don't date my sis” and that's...all it took to keep the guy away for a while. SERIOUSLY??? Like I said, I could barely get through the last episode because I just gave up on that relationship, which is bad because in a romance series...you kinda should have to at least care. Right?

Would I Buy: No. Just simply put...no.

Basilisk Ouka Ninpouchou

Review: Ouka Ninpouchou must roughly translate as “Bad Guys Who Don't Die” because that's exactly what happens in this one. The heroes kill the villains so many times in this series and then it's like “Shock! They're ALIVE!!!” It happened with such frequency that it stopped being a shock and became...annoying. Incredibly, incredibly annoying. I get why the main villain kept living, cause he had Tenzen as a part of him (somehow) but when the Tenzen piece was finally killed the villain still comes back! How? Why? By that point I just threw up my hands.

The main plot for the villains was also kinda dumb. It's a ninja story...with Nobunaga again. They're attempting to resurrect Nobunaga by killing this guy and having the two main characters (who are related) have sex. My inner Dr. Evil would like to chime in with the “...right” part here. Why Nobunaga? Why not keep it in the lore of the story and have them try and revive Yakushiji Tenzen? The guy who could not die. Until he did. FYI; it wasn't annoying with him. Reviving was his ability cause his “brother” was eating up his wounds. Would've been far more interesting especially since Nobunaga didn't do anything. He killed one of the bad guys...sort of, then got in a sword fight and died all over again. Horah.

On the flip side the heroes were just dropping like flies! One died, though you never saw it you were just left to assume, and then others died as well rather abruptly. No bringing them back. One died and they didn't even give her a final words moment. Just...”Bleh, I'm dead.”Some of them were even killed by villains they had already killed themselves but...well, you know by now that death doesn't stop evil cause it's gotta be “super cool surprising to have a villain show up again!” Seriously, if you thought Frieza was bad...you aren't gonna like this.

So this was a series about ninjas so obviously there'd be some techniques. Explained techniques. Techniques where you go “You know, this would be a good time for so-and-so”. Unfortunately I went through the entire series not even knowing what three peoples techniques were and one of them was a major character. Two of them their techniques were just their skill and the final three were easy to understand. In one case though it was easier if you watched the original series. 'cause, yeah, he just basically has Gennosuke's powers of turning a persons lust for violence against themselves. On the villain side? Two of them were objects. One had a mirror that made people think they were worthless and committed suicide and the other just had a time thing. Yeah, that one kept coming up because, say it with me, villains can't die. Die. There's always someone coming up the rear...

Thus far I've been hating on this a lot, though one bit was personal judgment in wanting Tenzen more than Nobunaga. I mean the action was okay. You kinda knew the characters. Somewhat. Technology would certainly bounce around. Ending made no sense because the villain came back! ARGH! Ending this review.

Would I Buy: Original Basilisk is where you want to be. Read the novel, read the manga, watch the anime, watch the live action movie. Do that more than this.

Boku No Hero Academia Season Three

Review: For starters, the season isn't quite over yet. However, I feel that the first half of this season has left me with enough of an impression to leave certain thoughts on the table. Those...are mostly negative. If you've been following my twitter then you already know my feelings, these are the less condensed version of said feelings.

The problem with the series isn't the characters, it's primarily the story elements and the constant up and down style of writing synonymous with Jump style anime. The whole we have to train with a large influx of characters, give them something exciting, then go back to training, something of excitement, back to training and throw in a tournament at some point in there just because tournaments can cross multiple episodes. In this method it creates two major problems that I'll go over here.

The constant training. I get that the school is a school and therefore students need to learn. But the problem presents itself at the start of the third season where the teachers decide to take the students out to the wilderness to basically demonstrate that...they haven't improved any since the first day. That's not so much a glaring problem on the students as much as the faculty. If, for instance, children went from grades 1-3 never learning math then you wouldn't blame the student. This then, begs the question...why did they put them through a tournament against other unequally trained students? Students who still had yet to fully understand their powers. Yes, there were safety precautions but...seriously? Just doing something doesn't automatically instill upon a student the safety ramifications. Not to mention they later sent each student out into the general populace to further understand their powers. Before showing them that they hadn't excelled in anything! Why? Why would you get them riled up in combat and then kick them out into the world? Because training grants more episodes.

The second glaring problem is the Harry Potter effect. That a school known for problems still manages to function. Still has parents willing to send their own children into the halls of these establishments. In the Harry Potter world, ghost wardens were roaming the halls, animals were freaking out, and of course not to mention a student died. Oh, and...there might have been a tiny part of a very dangerous wizard roaming around. Yeah. Keep the school open. In the Boku no Hero scenario, students are attacked inside the school and during their separate studies students are again the target of an attack and then during the initial training phase, you got it, students are attacked for a third time with one of them getting kidnapped. Yes, there was a brief period where people were freaking out, but did it cause the school to close its doors? Even temporarily? No! Of course not! “Come on back”, says the principal, and all the parents who were uneasy about it said “Sure. Go on, little one, have fun with your friends in this dangerous but apparently not school”.

These are the flaws of rushing a story for the sense of keeping up with a rise of super hero popularity. The series has its moments but most of them...are horrendous and in the real world could not happen. I'll continue watching but only because I know that this series has had some solid moments before. None this season, but hopefully they're coming. Hopefully.

Comic Girls

Review: This one is a wee bit of difficult. It was good but not great. Bad but not the worst. It's passable, I guess. The characters were a bit one-dimensional but they still managed to excel in their set dimension. It wasn't like your typical four girl series with the set personalities. Since they were all manga artists they represented different facets in that realm...I guess. One was way into her work and would often cosplay as her own main character for inspiration. Another drew the adult themed manga but was shy about admitting to it in public. They really doll her up for her public meet and greet so I dunno if they really worked the problem away as much as allow it to hinder on just a little longer. Though they gotta do something, her dust cover image has herself with...ridiculously large gals. Then the other two were both trying to get into the field with one being the plucky gal and the other being the worried type. So still got some tropes but they're mixed in nicely with ones that are actually contributing to the setting.

Two things I kinda didn't like was how the main girl was always worrying. Every time worrying. Like everything that was done to help her out an episode or two earlier wasn't giving her the push anymore. I think it was the second to last episode, or maybe the one before, where she got an extreme push forward. Then, by the last episode, she's right back down to suffering again. Kinda reminds me why I despise the Lisa Simpson character. No matter what happens to build her self esteem her hopes are only dashed a few weeks later and something else has to happen. But...the main difference was this series was only 12 episodes and didn't always seem to focus on that.

The second thing was the sudden introduction of a potential yuri relationship between the one who cosplays and the plucky one. They hinted a little coming toward their date episode and then the date happened and it was right to the point where they could have gone on from there...but didn't. Then they never reacted to it ever again. So should I classify it as yuri bait? Because that generally only happens in the first episode of a series. Needless to say I was a bit upset cause I thought it'd be interesting to add in the dynamic. But, alas, it came to be that it's just another in a long line of carefully followed lines. No diverting. It's even rare for a guy and gal to say “Sure, let's start dating. I love you, you love me. It'll work!” by the second or third episode.

Would I Buy: Sale with a free series. It's not one I'd jump right back into, but it's not one I'd want to ignore further on down the road. For bait, the date episode was well done. You really felt this series was gonna be the one breaking the mold.

Dorei-ku

Review: To start, this was definitely one of the better series of this season, at least according to the ones I've watched. I'm sure there were better out there overall. It had a good psychological edge to it and characters with morals that changed, or at least were tested when it came to dealing with the whole situation of this series. Enslaving people. How do you react when you're given this opportunity even though knowing the tables could be turned against you and you find yourself the slave? I think we all know where I'd set myself up. But there were a few issues I've had with the series, which could have been explained away easily if the manga (or otherwise inspiration) were still going on. We could say they needed to rush a absolute ending. However, that's not the case.

The problem I have with the ending is the huge amount of conveniences that were put into effect. For something as underground and yet sold as a big deal as the SCM was, we're to believe that only 20-some people were ever using it and that those 20-some people were all intertwined in deals. One person owned the fair majority of them as slaves and the others were on to save them. The other problem was how they were saved. In earlier episodes we were led to believe that in order to obtain a master and slave, one had to defeat both the master and slave in a relationship. Instead it's the one duel to rule them all. Meaning at no time could a slave earn their freedom because there'd be no point in a master to duel them. So the whole thing becomes linear in that regard. Now I know the SCM's are new to the underground scene, but if no one knows one another before this then who's telling people about these?

The other problem is the amount of characters that are brought in. I'm sure it's handled much better in the manga, but in the anime characters are brought in, given their moment in the sun, and then banished into the background where they serve as fodder to breakup the scenery. Seriously. They bring in characters that have no standing with the finale. None. They even return characters from the start, which I assumed was to just showcase the world, and say “They're slaves now too!” And to learn that these were the only people involved?

The other problem is that this series goes full Wild Arms 3 with the villains. It's this person. No, no, mysterious notes says it's THIS person. Well now we have the person responsible for getting the devices out cheating on his own so it's him now. No, wait, he was quickly enslaved so now it's this other guy. By the end it was difficult to even care who the villain was anymore because I expected someone at the end to come in and become the new villain anyway.

Would I Buy: I would, yes, aside from the problems it was still a fun little romp. I like supporting these kinds of series cause you'd think they were sexual in nature but they aren't. The most sexual thing that happens is the main-main-main villain takes all the female characters, strips them to their unmentionables, and sticks them in a storage shed. I mean...instead of using them to live in a luxurious style. They're your slaves, bud, don't hide them away from...nothing.

Fumikiri Jikan

Review: This one is by far the most difficult to review for me this season. Because there's really no story, just a concept. No characters just scenarios. But...I'll definitely give it my best.

The concept is two or so characters, mostly different in the episodes (any that one character interacts with is the only character they will react with from the series. So brother/sister react only to one another cause none of the other characters are there. Make sense? No? Alright) on themes mostly of love and art and stuff of that nature. Softcore stuff. My first reaction to this series was as a colossal failure. Yet another mistreatment of the yuri genre. That was me not knowing the full concept because those same two characters wouldn't return until the final episode. It took about a couple more episodes for me to fully grasp the nature of the show and when I did I was less hesitant toward looking forward to it. I was curious and while it was short, I felt this concept worked best in that avenue. Introduction, what are they talking about, finish. Boom. Some cases you didn't even get their names.

There were at least four sets of double episodes or repeat characters. The brother/sister who communicated via texts while standing next to each other, the cowardly perv and the girl of his dreams, middle aged man and the daughter of his one-time crush, and the two girls. So it's not exactly something you can get invested in, it's more something to watch as a side thing. And, in that, it succeeds. It's not always rapid fire style communication but when it is it makes sense in the context of the characters emotional state. They're frantic because they're at a train crossing and so could part at any moment.

Would I buy: I don't normally like buying such short series because they charge the same amount for a full length series but this is still one I'll keep on my radar for the good sales. You know the kind I look for by now. :P

Tachibanakan Triangle

Review: This one's...very hard to review because it was so short. 12 episodes but each one was three minutes long. 3:30 but they had an outro. It's a yuri series that's heavy on the fan service. Not quite ecchi, I think mainly because they didn't have the time, and a lot of series made things feel like they were being sped up quite rapidly. Like you're getting a lot in such a fast amount of time and when you're realizing that people don't talk the rapid back and forth way they do you find out that you've missed something potentially important. But it's not important because all that matters is the sex!

Most of the characters I don't even know their troupes. I don't know names, I just know the pink haired girl likes the main girl and the smaller redhead does as well. Only pinky moves in moreso faster than poor ol' reddy. There's a woman who, I guess, likes to get drunk and another who didn't really do anything aside from being introduced while the last one is just sort of in the background.I know it's due to its limitation in length but...I dunno. I tried at least looking into the manga but it's not done up in English. Boo. Was curious at least for more.

Would I Buy: Cheap with free series attached to it. ...gotta support that yuri.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

Review: With the ability to look back on the season as a whole (or at least from the ones I've seen) this is by far my favorite. It's a funny love story that's dramatic and a little coming of age. It is the standard “Princess hiding the fact she's a princess coming to another country and falls in love with a local” kinda thing but there's so much else that goes on during. Things that could have been taken for granted in a bad way but weren't.

For starters there's Rainbow Samurai. For those that have been asked to “Name one color of the rainbow” only to be told that “The color of rainbow is rainbow” this is where that all comes from. It's a show within a show that the princess really likes. It's basically how she sees Japan. Only thing is, the coffee shop where the main character works there's always a regular with a striking resemblance to the actor who portrays the samurai. Aside from him snorting a laugh to one of the episodes, he doesn't really react much to it. Kinda sucks, could've made for a sweet moment with him coming out as the actor. At least I think he is.

Another bit was Nyanko-big, the household cat. They give him the first portion of an episode to basically level out his own thoughts on everything and they give him a voice. Not that he speaks to people, he just talks about them. It's a fun little scenario and he reacts to everyone differently.

The last bit I was pleased with was Charles. The guy the princess is originally engaged to wed. He could've come in sweet to everyone during his trip and then become fiendish when he finds out about the budding relationship his betrothed is having. But he isn't. He's a class act right up to the end and you really get the sense he cares deeply for his new friends and most of all the princess. I was glad that it happened, I didn't want him to turn into the stereotypical antagonist who steals the princess away because of jealousy.

All in all, a fun episode. It was added in late to my lineup and I wasn't too certain about it at first. But I'm glad I watched it for those reasons and the reasons of characters. You got into their friendships, their fun and games, and most of all the romance.

Would I Buy: Yes, yes I would.