Jeoffrey

Well, I quite liked this. So I can therefore forgive the poor and sometimes choppy animation (really bad FPS) and sometimes the jokes were too puerile. After all, the pretty decent narrative of the show has an interesting setting, and there are some good characters. I thought that the female characters were especially very likable (and it does not matter if there was Rayla, Claudia, or maybe aunt Amaya on screen - they were all charming in their own way). I am curious to see where they will take the narrative next (if it will be something as epic and brilliant as Avatar: The Last Airbender) and after the first season, the prevailing feeling is one of satisfaction, 7.8/10.

For me personally, this is an absolutely brilliant show! Just the fact that the main male protagonist chose the Necromancer as his avatar and started a guild with only non-human-looking characters is enough to indicate he is an interesting character, and the fact that he almost immediately decided to conquer the entire world here and the methods he used to do so indicate to me that he has got his head screwed on straight. In other words, having a seven-foot-tall skeleton as the main male protagonist is a really great idea! Plus, I just skimmed the first seven chapters of the manga and even that was really really good. It is also quite dark, which contrasts nicely against all the cheerful and colorful fun shows like Sword Art Online and Log Horizon. Granted, some clichés and tropes crop up, like the "Boobie Grab" in the very first episode even though they at least justified it well... Also, despite the fact it is a harem anime series, this show looks really original and Albedo especially is just awesome, plus Shalltear and Nabe are also very interesting characters. In addition, there are also various little things and interesting twists that have managed to entertain me so far (the user with the nickname "Touch Me", Hamsuke - The Wise King of the Forest, etc...). I found the manga and the anime series were really appealing, and so if I have time I am probably going to pick up the LNs somewhere. In other words, I was completely satisfied, even the fight scenes looked really good and the CGI "Skeletal Dragon" was probably one of the best CGI creatures I have seen in an anime series so far. All in all, maybe if I tried hard I could find a few minor shortcomings, however, I do not want to spoil my enjoyment of something that managed to appeal to me and entertain me so well. Along with Gangsta, Overlord is the best anime series of the anime season Summer 2015 for me. 9.7/10.

This review contains SPOILERS, which is why no one should read it (that is if they want to take a serious look at this anime series)... It is hard enough to watch one supposedly "ordinary" main protagonist in an isekai turn into an exaggerated version of themselves and defeat everything even if seemingly impossible thanks to incredible coincidence (often a deus ex machina plot device). They also usually have extraordinary abilities that they acquired somewhere, somehow (and usually not in a very believable way). However, in this anime series, you are going to find there are seven such main protagonists. Sure, these are not ordinary people, this is the "elite" - but still, more than half of the situations leave me feeling I just cannot "buy it" as I have to watch how a power station, rockets, handguns, or a working cellular phone network can be made in a few minutes just from some random stuff... After all, I can barely handle all that logic behind the scientific advancements in the Dr. Stone anime series, and they serves it up to me piece by piece with an emphasis on how complicated the process is. But in this show, everything all just suddenly happens by itself. Are they gonna kidnap your girl? In a few minutes, you are gonna have some hardcore shields (which nothing can penetrate) and weapons ready for the whole village! Where did they come from? Come on, you really do not need to think about that! There is even a character who can fly! Sure, he is a magician and uses tricks - even though it does not look like a trick really. There is a girl who can run alongside a moving rocket that has just been launched and do weird shenanigans like that. In other words, compared to all this, Princess Leia's journey through space from Star Wars: The Last Jedi actually seems like a quite normal, natural, and logical thing... If the main protagonists were "excused" for having supernatural abilities like, say, superheroes have, then I guess I would not have a problem with it (just like if the origin of it was traditional and all-powerful magic like in many anime series), however, these are supposed to be just geniuses in certain fields, in other words, people who just simply excel at something, even though that still has its limits (because of "people"). I just did not find that anything really made any sense in this show, because I could not get rid of my own logical thinking and the main protagonists’ plot armor with the "every good politician wears a bulletproof vest and carries a handgun for self-defense" trope left me with my eyes just rolling and a facepalm... Sure, it has its positive aspects, it is like watching someone play Civilization and just jump from the medieval era to the present day just easily dealing with the different cultures, military, science, politics (and massacring their overdue opponents)... It is also quite interesting to watch the battle between technology and magic, even if the results of this battle do not make much sense in most cases... Once again, I think it might not be so bad if it did not take itself so seriously, but alas... Add to that the fact that I am not really interested in any of the seven protagonists, and even the fan service could not keep me interested in this anime series anymore, then the logical consequence (after tonight's rocket episode) is to just give up on it and go play a game about the evolution of society in, say, the aforementioned computer game... Drop after the eighth episode and 3.4/10.

OK, that is quite enough! It is so sad when someone takes the original subject matter, shortens and condenses it, and then just flies through several chapters of the manga at an insane pace, only to offer us an episode devoted to the "pajama party" as compensation. Even so, it is not a gem of a show, the characters are flat (and no, that is not related to the fact that they are mostly ten-year-old girls), and when the biggest plot twist of the first few episodes is the discovery that Kufa Vampir is actually a vampire, you give up and realize you are really too old for this kind of shit… The fight scenes are really poor, I could not feel any real tension in them. There might be some mystery hidden away somewhere, however, the erratic and confusing pace, interspersed with strange attempts at a romantic subplot and fan service, makes it sink like a stone in a swamp. Plus, when the most pleasant (and original) surprise is just the depiction of the world it is set in (the cities look like a pretty flashy chandelier, it is a shame you only see them maybe twice), the most gripping thing here is the opening, and the only thing you are left wondering is if the school tournament arc is ripping off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire too much, then it is obvious that there is no point in wasting any more time on it... Drop after the sixth episode and 3.3/10.

If I compare this special to the other episodes of the first season, then this would be one of the weaker episodes. Basically I thought that the only two stronger scenes were the previously mentioned scene from the shop and then Renge saying goodbye to the whole village...7.5/10.

The movie prequel to the ONA series delivers some nice action scenes, very good animation, however, it also has an otherwise pretty obvious and ordinary narrative that rarely surprises. 6/10.

This is such a poor, predictable fantasy movie about how a blind boy saves the world when no one but him actually believes it... If you like fantasy, demons, and colorful fight scenes, then this is a decent way to spend an hour and three quarters, however, I do not think I am going to remember it after a month... 4.5/10.

"I am the Batman'' is not going to catch on in Japan, "Okay, I am a sixteen-year-old Batwoman" is already taken, "Okay, so I am the Black Fox"... It is not a bad movie, though the hero's origin is kind of clichéd, a lot of the twists (Mia, 000) including most of the narrative are pretty obvious, and I did not think the moral dilemma about killing was very convincing either. However, on the other hand, the characters are quite likable, and even the atmosphere of hero (or if you want superhero) movies is present now and then. Surprisingly, I did not mind the CGI used in some scenes (like with the killer robot). It is not something I would be too into, as it was a bit predictable, yet it kept my attention. The pacing is too rushed for my taste, however, it does not detract from the final impression I got from the movie due to its straightforwardness. I would rate the villains as rather weak, although I did not see that much of the main villain, and the other villain was just a crazy jealous scientist... In other words, it is not as good as it could have been, even though at the same time I do not think it is that bad - average I think it is called... Also, given the fact that I found it intriguing and would like to see how it continues, I am going to give it 5.5/10 in the end.

Let us start on a positive note. Carole & Tuesday has at least one good new song per episode, sometimes two and they are quite varied, as are the singers who appear. Let us just say that the Mars of the future is much more progressive than we are in 2019 in terms of diversity and openness to certain subject matter. Thanks to the way this show is, there is a good chance that everyone is going to enjoy some of the music and characters in this anime series. Unfortunately, it is quite likely no-one is going to like the main two female protagonists.  While it is interesting that the two main female protagonists are socially polarized and each have their own problems, they still come across as very uninteresting in my opinion, so it is quite possible that no one is going to really care about their different predicaments. Moreover, thanks to such a strong focus on the music, there is not much significant character development for the main female protagonists, their predicaments are simply dealt with rather at the very end, and to be honest, by that point I really was not able to care less about how their problems were solved. I was also not able to care less about any of their petty melodramas. In addition to all that, I was not able to build a relationship with the central couple, I could not relate to their problems, in other words, it left me cold most of the time. In all honesty, it did not help that the first half of the anime series could be summed up in one sentence "One hundred and one ways to (not)make it in the music industry". In the end, instead of the main female protagonists it was Angela and her subplot narrative that I found much more interesting. I thought the most likable character was Tao - and I thought even DJ Ertegun was much more funny and better than the main double act, even if he reminded me a lot of DJ Paul Bulva most of the time. The ending itself, which has a quite endearing message, was the thing that really saved this show for me, although it did make me feel like sparking up a joint, putting on my John Lennon sunglasses and going to a campfire so I could sing Kumbaya My Lord. Well OK, sure, singing is not going to solve the world's problems (maybe not even with flowers), however, singers and other personalities are able to point us in the right direction.... So, one last time - I liked the soundtrack, some of the supporting characters, the animation and a message which is perhaps better than Greta Thunberg's. I could not enjoy the narrative’s pace, I did not really get to know or relate to the main double act, in other words, I did not enjoy this anime series in any significant way, so I am simply awarding it 6.3/10.

One of my work colleagues loves Sword Art Online and is counting down the days and hours until they release the follow-up to Sword Art Online: Alicization. I took a leisurely look at the last few episodes of this season again today, and figured that since I had already written a few throwaway sentences about the previous seasons, I was not able to leave Alicization without a review from myself. I really liked the beginning, it was almost a bit of a return to its roots, and the whole thing feels more mysterious and interesting than anything in the second season. Kirito got into a new "bromance" which I did not find as exciting as some yaoists did, who were inspired to create a lot of different fan fiction and fan art, however, surprisingly I did not find Eugio irritating at all and I actually got quite used to him. I liked the setting and the blending of the two realities, and I liked the fact that it is again something a little different, if only because Kirito has to cope without all his friends and his harem this time (though it is clear that "Asuna is coming"...). The fight scenes were really good, and as someone who likes good action series (and yes, I prefer sword fighting action series) I quite enjoyed that aspect of it, unlike others. So for me, this was a pretty cool third season and a pretty decent show worth 7.5/10, and in a few days the War of Underworld will start, where hopefully there will be more of our Alice.