Jeoffrey

This is a fairly mediocre sports anime series that is badly animated. There are quite a lot of visually irritating aspects, such as the character drawing style which makes the girls look a bit too "thicc" for my liking, the use of CGI for the characters' movements (such as throwing). The whole of the fourth episode in the Funimation version that aired was also quite bad. As far as the characters are concerned, there is a classic sports anime team and they are quite straightforward, although I found the coach (one of the twins) a bit irritating sometimes... It is therefore not any kind of a masterpiece when it comes to animation. The narrative is perfectly normal for a sports anime and which culminates in the team doing pretty well in a big game bringing a rather satisfying conclusion to the first (and, according to the reviews, probably the last) season. I mean, story-wise the narrative was easy to follow, however, because of the animation I am only going to award the show 4/10.

Kakushigoto is quite obviously another work from the pen of Japanese manga artist Kouji Kumeta, because you can tell immediately by the character design and art style, plus the classic madcap and often theatrical comedic approach. It is stuffed full of clever gags based on esoteric, black humor and has a narrative approach that bears the manga artist’s classic trademarks. Kakushigoto is probably closest to Kumeta's Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, although it is much more relaxed… Anyway, I think the last episode has a perfect conclusion: which is very emotional and provides a wonderful explanation for the mysterious and darker undertones at the end of each of the previous episodes. After finishing this anime series, I can say that I am actually quite happy and satisfied. Sure, Kumeta's gag mangaka is not always my cup of tea (I did not find Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei that funny, for example, although Joshiraku was great in that respect...) so I did not find this very funny either. However, the whole compelling father/daughter dynamic made up for it. I also have to say that the opening is one of the best of the entire anime season Spring 2020. In the end I can easily award it 7/10, and it comes highly recommended if you are a fan of any of Kumeta’s other works.

My feelings about the second season were very similar indeed to my feelings about the first one. I did not find the second season that interesting at the beginning; as it seemed to me that everything that had been established in the first season was done away with very quickly and in a strange way in the first episode, and then it just moved onto another complex road trip about more self-discovery and slowly growing as a person, with the journey being more important than the destination... Moreover, my impressions throughout the first half of season two were that there was nothing new or groundbreaking actually happening, and the many supposedly big surprises fell a bit flat. Fortunately, the second half features a brief and intriguing family drama (even though it is basically a variation of the Darth Vader narrative twist in multiple storylines...), and I even felt some "sympathy for the mandrill" because clearly - the greatest evil is never the most conspicuous. So, in the end I am going to award this show the same rating as the first season and wait for the third season even though I am starting to feel that I have an idea of what is in store for me... 6.5/10

I was not very impressed with this show at first, however, gradually that started to change. The show is set in a post-apocalyptic world which does not seem that interesting at the start. Perhaps the animal gangs (the Mod Frogs and the Timbercats, etc...) were quite entertaining, and this show came off a bit like a sort of bizarre zoo animal version of a Mad Max-style road trip. Fortunately, there are some interesting twists and everything gets strangely complicated, so in the end, I wanted to know exactly who Kipo is and what the hell is actually going on there. For now, I am intrigued as the implications of these discoveries could perhaps take it up a notch in the next season, or they could send it to the dogs, we shall see... A weak four stars, or 6.5/10.

The original review is from 01.06.2016 - Once again, my impressions were contradictory at first. This anime series has a decent narrative, the subject matter of immortality is quite intriguing, and the way society reacts to it is very realistic in my opinion. The atmosphere of the show is also quite good, there is quite a lot of action and it is soundtracked quite well too. Seeing things through the eyes of an immortal boy who is constantly on the run because he is being hunted, is also a good idea. When his legs were broken, he handled it in a way that seemed to show the character would probably grow and develop in interesting ways (at least I hope so). However, I personally find the animation really dreadful and hard to watch. Sometimes the CGI looked OK, and at other times the characters and movement looked really awful... If this was a classic anime series, I would perhaps be able to ignore that and be very satisfied due to the interesting narrative and consider awarding it a rating somewhere between four stars and five stars. However, the use of CGI means I have lowered the rating to between three stars and four stars, leaning more towards three stars at the moment. Meanwhile, I would be really happy if someone explained to me why they made an anime series and on the same day release a movie that basically has the same content and so watching the first six or so episodes is utterly pointless if you have seen the movie... 6.3/10.

Did Makoto Shinkai with his movie Your Name open the door for other studios who are now getting away with producing supernatural romance dramas? It looks this way... Anyway, out of the four anime movies I have stuffed into my imaginary gunny sack in 2019 of supernatural romance dramas, this one is definitely among the better ones even though it is not quite perfect. As a viewer, I thought it presented some pretty interesting ideas and subject matter pretty well. The character motivations and behavior are also quite believable. The storyline and the struggles depicted made sense to me most of the time, except perhaps for one moment near the end. I thought that it even worked on an emotional level too. However,! After saying that, I did not really like the main female character who I sometimes found irritating and the movie was also unnecessarily long-winded... Despite all this, I still found it appealing and I would also like to mention the animation which was, in my opinion, very good. After I had finished watching it, I was left wracking my brain wondering how a confrontation between me and my much younger version would turn out... In the end, I resolved this issue after reading a review of the movie that contained the quote: "Never regret your past, and never give up on your future'', which was enough to snap me out of that mental funk. 7/10.

I was browsing through the channels on Twitch because I was bored and came across this! In one word, "awesome." Bob Ross looks so comfortable and does everything so naturally... It is incredibly easy to watch, great to relax to, and most importantly you get the feeling that painting can actually be simple and fun - there are no mistakes, just little happy accidents. Bob's obsession with big trees and wooden log cabins is quite entertaining. Sure, a lot of the paintings look quite the same, although the creative process is wonderful to watch! 9.5/10.

It is nice to see that Jules Verne’s home country is not lacking in imagination even in modern times. This is very interesting, sophisticated, and charming even though it is perhaps quite naive for my taste... 8.2/10.

I have just finished watching a very interesting science fantasy series which is also the epitome of "political correctness", as it is probably the greatest animated commercial for LGBTQ+ ever produced, and surprisingly (for those who know me) I really enjoyed it. All the homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, and non-binary characters (plus others I may have missed because I was not really focused on that), did not impede the narrative’s flow or storyline’s strengths, and (not only) in a fantasy world with its own rules, I could not care a less if boys are dating each other, girls are dating each other or even if cats are going out with... In my opinion, as a viewer, the new She-Ra manages to be a show that does not have complicated and lengthy discussions addressing the nature of dating and who likes who (instead of the actual plot) in almost every episode, and the characters’ relationships and chemistry are believable. I think the original 1985 Filmation show went down a very different road because this 2018 Netflix series is a more unconventional and modern take on She-Ra (and this goes some way to explain some of the disgruntled reviews from the fans of the original He-Man and She-Ra shows that I have come across). So, does any of that matter at all? Not really! The show’s narrative is both interesting and complex, each season is always very watchable (because of the high-quality animation, humor, pace, and soundtrack) and the ending itself may have been "over-the-top" or "too rainbow" for some, although I found it satisfying in most respects. I especially found the third and fourth seasons really entertaining on the whole, and I managed to finish the whole Netflix series in less than two weekends. Obviously, we have come a long way in the world of animated TV shows since The Legend of Korra, but well written and well thought out narratives are still being produced, and that makes me a little less skeptical about the future, which will probably take everything even further under the tagline "Be whatever you want to be!"... All in all, 7.1/10.

The fifth season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is very emotionally charged, and I think delivers a rather satisfying conclusion, with most of the storylines being wrapped up, and all the relationship issues coming to a head. Everything is incredibly "rainbow" and although I am not particularly crazy about it, I thought most of the denouements felt quite natural and made sense, so I am actually quite satisfied. 7.5/10.