Jeoffrey

So, I have managed to finish the first extended (forty-five minute) episode, and this action-packed installment hurtled past at such a frantic pace that perhaps only new fans of the new Star Wars movie would enjoy it. The main male protagonist just jumps straight into it with both feet at once, and insane things just happen at an insane pace. So, I felt like I was not really given any time to get to know the main male protagonist even a little bit in any kind of normal setting, which is why I could not relate to him. There was also no time to learn much about the rules of the game, although just the fact that it is awfully easy to get into tells me that there probably is not going to be an endgame anytime soon. In other words, there are probably going to be a lot of other players (they are going to be collecting points) and I somehow naively thought that it would have been better for the atmosphere if the number was somehow limited, so that there could be only one winner. I mean, I was not that impressed with the mysterious and supernatural atmosphere, it lacked suspense which did not help, and I was left feeling it was rather unsatisfactory. In all honesty, the action scenes and animation did not look very good either. It has a decent narrative, perhaps? Well, it does not seem to contain anything too complex, surprising, or even groundbreaking, in fact, it seems to me that even the new Mortal Kombat 11 videogame, released a few weeks ago, has more to offer in it's single player campaign... Now, how long will it be until the main male protagonist kills someone, when he is trapped in a game and makes vain attempts not to get into a fight between life and death, when survival is all that matters? If he can figure it out quickly, then it would be just another cheesy killing spree. However, in an ideal world, it could feature a lot of decent fight scenes (= better animation, no censorship and on the whole, more interesting, or at least smarter...). However, if he takes a really long time about it, then it is going to be just another long-winded ordeal with a naive male protagonist, and the only interesting thing is going to be how he can defeat his opponents without killing them (which could be interesting, and at the same time also pretty stupid). In just a nutshell, Jeoffrey did not find anything in the first episode to keep his interest and make him continue watching this show. Still, I know some of you will enjoy this one a lot because it is gory and there is violence and lots of action scenes... If I were only fifteen, or if I had wanted to passively enjoy some of the animated cartoon carnage instead of the aforementioned MK, then I might have continued, although a jaded gentleman like me no longer has time for that in 2020. I dropped it after the first episode and of course, it remains unrated.

What is it about? Rage of Bahamut: Genesis features a dragon, and a very fearsome one at that, and, who, in the show’s fantasy world, is sealed and guarded by members of the celestial race, the Angels. The problem, however, is that Amira who has the powers of a demon (she is a half-god, and half-demon) holds the key to unlocking the seal restraining the dragon and escapes with it. She then runs into Favaro, the main male protagonist, and then enlists his aid and so he helps her because he is sort of forced to. Favaro is a bounty hunter and have a rival Kaisar, who is also a bounty hunter. They are connected and divided by a past feud. Favaro and Amira try to escape the pursuit of the heavenly faction (Gods taken from Greek mythology + Angels) and their allies in the human world (e.g. the Orleans Knights under Jeanne D'arc), as well as the demons themselves and, of course, the aforementioned Kaisar, who is joined by the zombie Lolita-like character called Rita, but this is just the beginning... What do I think about it? As I have already written elsewhere, it is really chaotic, although it is also very interesting and I enjoyed watching it. The main male protagonist is quite unique in both his appearance and character traits, as are the other characters. The animation is really well-done, and I really enjoyed the soundtrack, whether the superb opening theme by SiM, or the music soundtracking the narrative all the way through, which is really epic in places and superbly complements the atmosphere of the show. I thought the narrative developed into a very interesting epic-heroic adventure, and even though I am not familiar with the original online card game from Cygames that the anime is inspired by, I had no problem keeping up with the plot and following the main narrative. In addition to that, in my opinion even the ending was also very well-executed… It certainly has its shortcomings, which I completelly turned a blind eye to, which may have been due to a certain subjective enthusiasm. For me is this show 9.5/10.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan is more or less exactly what I expected. Compared to the original 1991 adaptation, it has been dressed up in some fine new clothes and given more sophisticated characters. So, Daryun really is an incredible dude, and prince Arslan himself starts off as quite a wimp, which gives him more room to develop and grow as a person as the narrative develops. Narsus is even more of a bishounen, and Elam does not look quite as girlie anymore. Lord Silvermask appears to be much more frightening and is much more powerful, and then Gieve is a bit more of a pervert (although what do you expect from a bard but a propensity towards wine, women and songs?). Farangis is portrayed as a very curvaceous sexy individual... In other words, I like this adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan much better than the original, and even though I knew where the narrative was heading I still really enjoyed it. 8/10.

I have been quite pleasantly surprised so far with Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld, because since the first season was released, this fourth season is probably the first time I have been so incredibly close to awarding Sword Art Online a five-star rating. Maybe I am crazy, however, I really liked the first half (like twelve episodes) of the season a lot. For the most part, this is an incredibly frivolous and enchanting show, because of all the great and, in my view, interesting and spectacular battles and fight scenes, which I sometimes enjoyed almost as much as, say, the Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, although I suppose that is sometimes all right and enough to enjoy such an intense experience... SPOILERS... In addition, I have grown quite fond of Alice, who is doing fine and is OK without Kirito, although I wonder when he is going to recover from being comatose and finally wake up, and when to expect his "epic comeback". It was clear that Asuna would play a more important role, just as it was only a matter of time when the rest would show up...  Anyway, I am (not) curious what will happen when Kirito's old harem meets the new harem, and if it will turn out to be some half-assed ending again with the building of the ultimate harem (as one of the episodes here suggests), and I am going to finally snap out of being under the spell of all the cool battles and just shake my head at where we have ended up... I mean, perhaps not, there might be a load more cool battles and fight scenes, some emotional stuff, and maybe the harem will turn out to be good (because so far in the first half it felt quite weird...). I also like the villains, once again they are two strong psychopaths, with one being an amateur philosopher, searching for a human soul since his youth (with a screwdriver!) and the other obviously being another one of his “Laughing Coffin” friends and this time I did not find them much of a nuisance, embarrassing, peculiar or pathetic, which was good enough for me. Other characters I liked were Bercouli and Scheta and her strange relationship with the Pugilist commander... In other words, I find it entertaining, interesting and I am looking forward to the second half. However, something tells me that there is a pretty good chance that they are going to screw it up somehow, so I guess I shall remain cautious and not award it five stars yet. After the first half of season four 8.2/10. EDIT 27.9.2020 - I finally finished watching the second half of the season and this was pure torture! When you have more tentacles in the first four episodes than in an anime series about fishing, you think the anime’s creator must have really huge issues and wonder what the hell kind of crap you are watching. Then there are the last-minute rescues made by some really minor characters, which make you ask the same question as the vilain - “who the hell is this?”, in the fifth episode. Then the inevitable happened and the vegetable Kirito came to life, however, it could somehow not have happened without his new virtual love interest Eugeo - what the hell am I watching again? The motivations of the bad guys are also peculiar, the worst thing was when one secondary vilain really fell in love with a virtual character - What a SIMP! So, after watching this whole mess and the strange crap going on - I am done with this shit! After enjoying the first half, the second half came along that made me want to abandon Sword Art Online completely. It is so nice that the anime’s creator wants to give more depth to the female characters in his works in the future. However, damn it man, stop watching so much hentai! Putting an attempted rape in every SAO series and now tentacles everywhere! Wake up! Perhaps I am going to try and watch this part of the season again someday, however right now the rating is slipping from an above-average rating to a severely below-average one, and in all honesty, I have no desire or mood to watch any more Sword Art Online for at least a couple of years. This did it, Kirito may have come back to life, however, the irony is that for me Sword Art Online died! For the second half 2/10, and in total 5.1/10.

On the one hand, I thought this was the grand finále to everything I have been waiting for since my initial encounter with the Totsuki elite culinary school and the appearance of Azami. However, on the other hand, I am once again looking back and reviewing whether it was really as awesome and impressive as I was thinking it was. It was certainly a big cooking tournament, that was supposed to deliver the best dishes and the ultimate gastronomic experience. Oh, and there were a lot of dishes I had never heard of and will probably never taste (even though there was a special quattro formaggi pizza, for example, which made me immediately get the urge to order something similar - so in terms of whetting my appetite, it worked). After saying all that, was it that impressive, or was it just a pretty ordinary single elimination tournament narrative arc that I liked because there were characters I had been looking forward to seeing again? That is a tough question... In all honesty, I was not even as pumped as I imagined, and just watching how big of a gastronomic orgasm the jury members would have this time around did gradually get less and less interesting. And at the end, Azami's ability which was just pure pure fan service was probably just about at the limit of what I am still willing to accept as funny and not as just stupid. However, it was an intense shokugeki competition and it was pretty much an adequate execution of what I was looking forward to, so I am going to award it another five stars, with the caveat that I am worried about what is going to happen next, because here and now would be a good and, for me, logical ending, even though I am told it is to continue further... We shall see... After the twelfth episode, 8.5/10

Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit is sort of a weaker, more predictable, boring rip-off of anime series like Bungo Stray Dogs or more like Blood Blockade Battlefront. The narrative in this show is much more generic and simplistic, and the characters are not half as interesting as I would have liked them to have been in a mystical fantasy crime series (they lack any depth and their character could usually be described in just a few words). The atmosphere is humdrum rather than thrilling, lacking any strong or unexpected twists. The fight scenes lack dynamics and are not very impressive, and even the whole finále was incredibly lackluster and full of supposedly profound pearls of wisdom about the human condition, however, it all just went completely over my head. It was nothing offensive, however ... 4.4/10.

I have no doubt that shooting a rifle could possibly be quite a wonderful experience, however, no matter how hard the girls in this show tried, they still somehow failed to convince and reel me in. This is a show that features a hybrid of "cute girls doing cute things" with classic sports anime series. Well, in the end it actually balances those two elements so equally that neither stands out at all, and at the same time both are so tenuous and ineffective that it is quite likely that after some time I am not even going to remember this show at all. Perhaps this is a real shame because as far as cuteness is concerned, this show features the two classic formulas for characters which are my personal favorites - the private and peculiar Yukio (= enigmatic and taciturn with a certain detached aura and reserved, haughty personality), and then the awkward, slightly goofy, albeit hard-working Hikari who is not too bright (= classic cute and clumsy anime girl). I like these types of anime characters and they work well together in this show. However, despite all the training and competitions, I felt like I did not have much of an opportunity to really get to know both of these girls and enjoy the way they interacted with others that much. There are some quite charming moments, however, still not enough to maintain a pleasant mood and keep me satisfied. In all honesty, they do not manage to even pull off the sporting element of the show very well either. First of all, with everyone going on and on about how great shooting is, and perhaps every supporting character immediately having something to contribute, whether it is an internal monologue or some backstory, I felt no real obligation to get behind and be a big fan of the main four protagonists. All of them have motivation and are more or less quite physically and mentally strong, so there is really nowhere for them to go concerning character development… Secondly, the show sorely lacked some kind of rivalry between the girls, something that would create some tension - some kind of strong competitiveness between them because they all simply try to become friends, and then support and motivate each other so there’s no drama. Also, because one of them is so good at what she does, she ends up motivating others and spurring them on, so there is no real rivalry, as they are just congratulating each other instead... Thirdly, the main protagonists do not have to do anything special in order to succeed. Sure it is a typical sports anime cliché (and especially a shonen trope) that if you want to achieve something you need to train harder than all the others, however, that underdog element certainly does end up giving the audience more of a sense of gratification when they get there in the end. When you see someone working like a dog, you are more likely (logically) to wish them well, and want them to succeed. For example, there is Hikari, well she loves to shoot, however, the fact she goes shooting all the time is only implied, and not much is shown on screen, especially during regular training and so we are just supposed to believe that she is good at competitions because she gets so pumped up - really very good in fact! OK, so say I buy that, however, once again - why should I be rooting for her if it is so automatic? You can see her incredible enthusiasm, yet no one sees her "blood, sweat, and tears". Enthusiasm and talent can sometimes be enough to win, however, in reality, from the perspective of someone who has always had to work hard for most things, that is not enough in itself to admire (and cheer for) someone... Anyway, that is not the end of it! Another one of this anime series’ shortcomings is there is no really interesting information for viewers about shooting besides some basic facts and rules. I mean, I can safely say that this is not the type of sports anime that is supposed to get us excited about a particular sport by telling and showing us as much as possible so that we could know what we might need to get, how to stand properly when shooting, if there is any special way of choosing the right rifle, etc. The educational cross over here is simply negligible - superficial... If you add to that the rather mediocre animation, then it is no wonder that this anime series is way down in terms of ratings on most anime databases... Despite all that, I for one just cannot bring myself to award this show any extra low ratings. Sometimes it caused me to smile, and I cannot say that I found any of the episodes boring.  As I said before, I like some of the characters, plus the soundtrack is pretty good too. There are a boat-load of shortcomings, and this anime series fails on both of the main aspects it tries to work towards, however, it was not actually such a terrible experience for me personally... Well, I have been going on for ages, what more is there to say? For me, this is an average show. 5/10.

"Are we back in the village?" - "Well, this is Okinawa...". The long-awaited trip from a picturesque village to a possibly even more beautiful seaside resort has finally happened! This is a beautiful movie full of enchanting landscapes, typical holiday experiences (kayaking, snorkeling, excursions...), and, most importantly, incredibly cool. It completely stole and won my heart. It is so beautiful, amusing, and has a pleasant atmosphere that puts a smile on my face for almost the whole hour (my face still hurts...). If you love the original anime series, then you will be on cloud nine watching this, and the whole movie will give you that peaceful feeling and its relaxing pace will feel like one short and pleasant dream. 9.5/10.

Like the other comedy isekai Kemono Michi: Rise Up from anime season Fall 2019  "Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious" got off to a pretty decent start. It was also insane and whacked-out fun, however, fortunately, it did not quite become cringey, the jokes were hilarious, the parody of the genre was really spot on and the characters had a lot to offer. Unfortunately, however, Scalpelexis’s review is right in that after a while there comes a point where the jokes alone are not enough to carry the plot, and the narrative increasingly starts to repeat certain tropes and becomes terribly clichéd. The interesting main male protagonist, who prides himself on his caution, increasingly becomes just another super-god in disguise, despite the fact he still emphasizes the need to always be perfectly prepared, and never trust anything or anyone. Some may be put off by this, however, a surprisingly large number of RPG and MMORPG players got caught up and lost in this. These are the kind of players who run around the woods for hours, killing pigs for five exp each, and after hours and hours of grinding go to the first boss who is a level seven with a hero who is level twenty, and sixty healing potions. Are you familiar with this style of gaming? Then this anime series is for you... The whole middle part of the season is just a series of repetitive storylines about fighting the main villain's generals and the main male protagonist’s frantic preparations - in other words, it does what it says on the tin and lives up to the title of the anime series “The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious”. Sure there are some hints of the main male protagonist’s character and plot development, however, not much. Fortunately, the anime’s creators had an imaginative finále to the first part worked out, and so the main male protagonist has a "ceiling", and then there is one very good twist in the eleventh episode, which is anything but a comedy. They put their cards on the table, and the whole backstory is revealed which is like a slap in the face, with exposition about why some things are the way they are, the surprise of this episode leaves you reeling, and also shocked at how it was so well-executed. It is as if the anime’s creator woke up at the last moment, decided enough was enough, and finally really tried to get the whole narrative thing going. Better late than never… The final episode is really quite satisfying in several ways. It gives a coherent ending to this phase, it is not just a stupid clumsy happy ending, and it also opens up the way for the next season. The ending was, in my opinion, good and partly convinced me that I would rather see another season of "Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious"  than, for example, the aforementioned Kemono Michi: Rise Up. 6/10.

I thought about what I could add to q66's review, however, I could not think of anything clever (just a few silly things). In other words, just because I like new and interesting shows, and this show has a guy (a brilliantly written badass character) with a revolver for a head, I found it extremely entertaining… So why am I not awarding it a five star rating? Well, that is because it still lacks something - a more solid narrative, some proper dramatic tension, something more profound going on in the background, or even better use of its atmosphere and setting perhaps? I honestly do not know... However, what I do know is that I somehow cannot imagine such a production like this with this sort of emphasis and setting without Keanu Reeves (long live the cheesy jokes at the end). After the first half of the season, I am rating it 7.5/10 and I am not going to miss the second half.