Jeoffrey

So what is the deal with Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear? There are some lovely and differing opinions on FilmBooster from which I am getting completely conflicting information, which is a great reason to check out this anime series yourself and make up your mind. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty much sure. The truth is once again somewhere in the middle for me, though. Andrew_Deer wrote in his review on FilmBooster about how funny it is; unfortunately, the truth is that I, for one, did not find it that amusing. The first episode was pretty funny, and the line from the one boy who asked if Machi had "been with the bear" was quite amusing, although that was probably the last time I felt entertained by it. Since then, I only laughed at the occasional joke, even though they were more or less always about the same thing. This anime series is based on a girl from the mountains and her issues with the modern world. However, that conflict does not turn out to be that interesting or imaginative, in my opinion. Honestly, such a conflict between the young samurai Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma, the deuteragonist featured in Kuromukuro, and the modern world are much better and more amusing, which is only a side issue in that anime series. So in terms of humor, Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear? does not score too highly with me. Then there are the individual characters and the supposed pedophile subtext. In my opinion, the bear is more of a caretaker, father, and friend, and I did not feel any other type of relationship was going on. I certainly did not think there were any sexual overtones, except maybe the scene where Miko (Machi Amayadori) is picking out a new dress, and the bear is gushing over one of the chosen outfits. The bear, Natsu Kumai, does not strike me as much of a Pedobear, and it is not the community's fault that others have created a lot of rather perverted images of him and Machi (though that is to be expected). So if anyone is expecting a zoophilia anime series, they are more or less out of luck and should focus their attention more on shows like "Monster Musume". Another prominent character is Yoshio Amayadori, who is usually the creator of all the nonsensical and supposedly crazy situations Miko gets into. Speaking for myself, I can say that I find Yoshio an extremely unpleasant character, and I would be hard-pressed to find a bigger c*ck in this anime series. Somehow I could not understand why they take him seriously, and I would almost go so far as to say that there are many more moments where I wondered if his interest in little Machi was purely platonic than the whole bear thing. I did not mind the soundtrack, and the animation is below-average, even though that was probably OK for this show. In the end, this show is pretty boring, and there is only a slight whiff of "pedo" but mostly not from the bear. 3.5/10.

Three Leaves, Three Colors is so good, indeed, and after a lot of head-scratching, I have decided to award this show four stars. It does not lack cuteness, and it is also witty, although the characters are what I liked most and are probably the main reason I gave it a better rating. I liked the main three protagonists in particular. Futaba Odagiri was properly bonkers, Youko Nishikawa was very cute, and the contradiction between the way she behaves with the demeanor of a noble girl and the fact that she could not even afford a proper breakfast was slightly touching sometimes. Even Teru Hayama had her good moments. I also liked the supporting characters, so they were all good. I think they portrayed the relationships well, although some scenes and interactions were a bit too repetitive, even though I have more or less gotten used to that with modern anime series. The animation was nice and colorful, the soundtrack was not exceptionally impressive, and there was even one motif that slightly bothered me. However, my rating reflects the positive effect the anime had on me. On the other hand, within its genre, it does not come across as more than an average show. It has been awarded four stars because three stars were not enough after Youko’s cute smile which she gave me as she said goodbye. 6.7/10.

Code Geass: Akito the Exiled Final - To Beloved Ones is quite a respectable and well-executed conclusion to the whole movie series. Sure, it still could have been a lot more epic, but even so, I liked it quite a lot. 7/10.

Pan de Peace! is cute, even though it feels like a shorter rip off anime series called Is the Order a Rabbit? except that in this show, the girls enjoy pastries instead of coffee. It has also got that slight yuri tension, plus it is cute, occasionally funny, and enjoyable. In addition, the new girl with pink hair immediately started reminding me of Chino. Still, it is too short, much less cute and funny, and in other words, I can see myself preferring to watch another series with coffee instead of pastries. Still, I cannot say I did not like it; it is just that it was not up to more than being slightly better than average. 5.5/10.

Could this be a strange fantasy version of Journey to the Centre of a …. hollow Earth !?! It stars two boys who tiptoe around, with swords coming out of their chests, and eventually team up against a common enemy. So it does not look completely stupid; they are joined by a very unpleasant, insufferable girl with a strange dragon. She not only acts as a pretty awful mascot for this crap but is also her ultimate weapon, and you do not even want to know what else is going on. Next comes the scientist, who is also "awfully cute" and who, like most characters, will survive just about anything, just like a cockroach does. Along the way, we meet the show's version of Robin Hood, who is probably the only one who is not a total and insufferable retard, and his "merry band" of strange beings. We learn how to pull off a political coup in a completely boring and moronic way and experience twists that would work surprisingly well anywhere else and yet seem incredibly boring when in this particular show. It does not have a brilliant narrative by any stretch of the imagination, so you can fairly accurately predict where the show is heading from the start. In addition, even the most surprising plot twists do nothing to make it interesting because, as I mentioned before, the execution is terrible. The emotional aspect is incomprehensible, and the "sorry, I stabbed your father..." conversations are inexecrable. "It is okay, he was an asshole anyway, however, you are an even bigger asshole" comes up far too often. The two main protagonists' dialogue made me feel like I was watching something like Dumb and Dumber (or, speaking of Jim Carrey movies, perhaps "Dumb and Dumber and Cow"), even though, unfortunately, this version is not in the least bit funny. Add to that a terrible opening and ending, and animation needlessly over-colored, and you have something unwatchable. I think there was almost nothing was very good about this except for one character and the original, interesting idea of a hollow Earth, and I surprised myself that I survived this ride to the end. Well, because I managed to finish watching it, I am going to give it one point, which will save it from being BOO!, because once again I am going to remind you that Pupa was worse, though not by much... 1/10.

If I could have a conversation with the people who came up with this, I think it would go like this; "Let us put a load of sexy schoolgirls on a warship!" "Why?" "Because it has never been done before! Sexy schoolgirls are already everywhere and can do almost anything, so why they could not operate a warship I do not know!" "Well, they cannot carry torpedoes because it would look a bit weird and shady, and how the hell do you justify that?" "Well, magical school! There are plenty of high schools in anime series, so why not start one for training a special crew for a warship?" "It sounds clichéd as hell!" "It is not going to be. Yeah, we are going to put schoolgirls in short uniforms, as I am sure there are going to be fans of that!" "So what about the narrative? This seems like total crap." "Well, we set them up as rookies, and they start a fight with the other ships because there is a misunderstanding, and the battle and suspense are taken care of!" “Aw man, nobody is going to buy that.". So I guess that is it. I like cuteness and cute anime girls; however, this whole thing did not make much sense, and the entire premise of schoolgirls on a warship did not sit right with me somehow. I found the first episode weird, although not in an interesting way. The characters were just cute little girls, so no surprise for me, nothing to write home about. The animation was pretty nice overall, and someone probably did a pretty good job with the ships, even though none of that impressed me all that much. The soundtrack was not great. So my initial feelings regarding this show are rather meh. The FilmBooster reviewer DaweForeman partially compares it to Kantai Collection and points out that this show is much more realistic. He is right about that, although it had the opposite effect on me. Kantai Collection was a bunch of weirdness that I found interesting, though, and the fact that the little girls represent individual ships and the fact that it gets funny, like with the "repair bucket", I found amusing. High School Fleet makes the girls the crew of warships, and I did not find them believable; I doubted they could really do it (same as let's say driving a tank - wait a minute...). On the other hand, when you stop dwelling on this and stop using logic, your impression of the show can start to shift. Over time, I got used to it, and I stopped worrying that sexy schoolgirls and warships do not go together very well and let myself ride the waves of cuteness and pleasant interactions between the girls. In that respect, it was quite an enjoyable anime series because, as I mentioned, cute sexy schoolgirls were aplenty, and almost everyone was charming. So in the end, once again, I got a show where there were things I liked (Lolis! Lolis Everywhere...) and things that did not convince me, and thus, the overall feeling I had regarding this show ended up somewhere in the middle. 5/10.

The idea of sharing and feeling another person’s pain is quite interesting. If people could feel other people's pain, they perhaps would not feel the need to hurt them, and people would understand each other much more - I can get my head around that. Even so, this show lacked momentum, and the atmosphere only hinted at what it could have been, given it has an interesting topic. Still, this show is not bad. The main characters are, on the whole, an interesting mix of various extreme character types, and while I was not too impressed with them at first, the more I got to know them, the more I liked them. I was not too interested in the main male protagonist, although Hajime Tenga, Nico Niiyama, and Tsuguhito Yuta were quite entertaining. I am also going to mention that I liked the colorful and pleasant opening, even though electronic music is not exactly my cup of tea. In conclusion, even though initially I was not impressed, I gradually started to like this anime series. In the end, however, I still cannot say that it was all that great or that I became very enthusiastic about it. Sure I was curious to see how it would end and how the "very fragile relationships" would unravel. I did not feel disappointed (rather, everything turned out more or less as I expected), even though I think it could have all been much better. So, in my opinion, it is just OK and just OK is worth three stars. 5.5/10.

Tanaka-kun is always lazy, Tanaka-kun is always apathetic, and somehow I do not know why I should care about that. I have seen a good few anime series with a main male protagonist who tries to save energy and considers a lot of things unnecessary, however, Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless is pretty extreme. Plus, I wonder what they are going to do with this anime series; after all, even the first episode felt incredibly long and practically about nothing. Sure we have gotten to know Tanaka, and we have gotten to know Ohta, without whom Tanaka would probably be left to die under a tree somewhere. We have seen plenty of instances of stuff like Tanaka-kun is always dozing and Tanaka-kun is always acting exhausted, however, if this is all we are going to be watching throughout the anime series, I do not know. Of course, other characters are introduced eventually, even though I did not find their interactions with Tanaka extremely interesting. So I was also quite disinterested and bored while watching this show, and therefore did not enjoy it much. 4/10.

There is an invasion by mecha and robotic drones from another planet, swords that look like lightsabers (because they are very stupidly illuminated), and a mysterious cube. Well, it seems like another weird mecha no-brainer starring a certain naive albeit quite a cute girl and a tough, or rather "wild" samurai to protect her. Even so, this duo is quite likable, as are some of the other characters, although some characters are downright annoying (like the YouTuber). Mecha is not my favorite anime genre, although I have to say that this show was quite watchable. Plus, they do not wear extremely tight tacky jumpsuits. I thought the conflict between the ancient samurai and the modern world was hilarious, and some of the observations this show's samurai makes were quite funny. The narrative does not feel too complicated, there are some very good moments, so it is quite fascinating sometimes. I have to say that in the end, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this mecha fantasy epic. 6/10.

"WIT Studio presents... From the studio that brought us such well-known pieces as Attack on Titan, Seraph of the End, and the not-so-well-known The Empire of Corpses comes something you may have already seen before in their previous productions, even though it may well be combined in a way you have never dreamed of... Get ready for a world that is once again on the brink of the very end because - it is completely pointless to think of another reason for creating an oppressive atmosphere and suspense... Prepare for another main male protagonist who is so determined that his determination borders on becoming a mental illness... Meet a main female protagonist who seems to be much stronger at first glance than the main male protagonist, even though she is only playing second fiddle for some reason... Experience action scenes so surreal that you will forget that this anime series should also have a coherent and logical narrative... Coming to you this spring; ATTACK ON WALKING DEAD SERAPH!!! Believe the HYPE! Join the HYPE train! Recommended by eleven out of ten true anime connoisseurs!" This is an excerpt from Jeoffrey's Honest Trailers... Seriously! I have to say that the first episode was what I had expected and thus I was not surprised. If someone had not been reminded of Attack on Titan during the first episode, they were either blind or just have not seen AoT. Everything is only emphasized in the following episodes, and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is just another product of WIT Studio, which is made mainly for effect, full of action scenes, gore, and fights with very good animation. The characters are again very narrowly profiled, they have their own opinions, and there is no truth for them other than their own. The narrow profiling makes them act like total idiots on many occasions, and it makes me feel the need to bang my head against the wall a lot. Again, there are a lot of plot holes and things that anyone with common sense will find very difficult to accept. For example, the characters are not as unbearable to me as Eren Yeager and his crew were. There is even a little less screaming and overwrought hysterics; although you should not worry too much, it is still coming. The main male protagonist's emotional outburst that he is going to kill all the Kabane is still coming. The bottom line is that Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is a gorgeous spectacle, a very crazy and intense ride that I could enjoy, even though to expect anything other than a mediocre experience, you have to DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! Despite all the crazy stuff I saw, I will award this show four stars because the animation is stunning and action-packed. 7/10.