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Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III: FAMILIA MYTH & MWZ: MAGATSU WAHRHEIT ZUERST

Posted on January 17, 2021 7:54 am by Offkorn Comment

After the massive disappointment of the previous DanMachi season, my expectations going into this third season were rock-bottom. So the fact that it actually manages to advance the shadowy background Guild plotline and recapture some of its earlier momentum came as quite a surprise. Unfortunately… that plotline turned out to be incredibly dumb, executed in the most hamfisted manner possible, and arguably wasn’t even properly resolved.

So I would say the end result is watchable, but only just.

Magatsu Wahrheit Zuerst on the other hand has a well thought-out story with remarkably nuanced characters. Attributes which are particularly impressive considering it’s based on a smartphone game. The problem here, aside from a slow start (a notable contrast to DanMachi III‘s rushed start), is that the end is really the beginning of a story that will almost certainly never be told.

So whether or not its worth watching will depend upon how much you’re willing to weigh the journey over the destination.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comic Relief Crunchyroll DanMachi Drama Fantasy Finished Funimation Harem Hulu Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Series Televised
Sundry Anime Movies

Posted on October 11, 2020 3:19 am by Offkorn 1 Comment
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This entry was posted in 2017 - Spring 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fairy Tail Fantasy Funimation Goblin Slayer Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Movie Music Romance Saekano Science Fiction Urban Fantasy
NO GUNS LIFE & Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T.

Posted on October 7, 2020 2:08 pm by Offkorn Comment

The action-drama No Guns Life has a visual similarity to Zetman, an atmospheric similarly to detective noir, and a small ill-fitting streak of often ecchi-related comic relief. Personally I just strongly disliked Tetsurou and Olivier’s character design and wasn’t interested enough in the plot developments to stick with it beyond the first half.

Yet another entry in the Index franchise, Railgun T takes place sometime between the Accelerator spinoff and Index III. It’s strange. Ideally you would want consistent visual quality, right? Yet here the end result comes off as unnaturally natural. Like, there are fully drawn people walking around with detailed background destruction down to individual glass shards… the world actually looks real.

And that’s the problem: Anime, in my opinion, shouldn’t look real. It’s disconcerting. Almost as disconcerting as the large amount of fanservice (e.g. there’s an entire episode dedicated to two characters’ quest to enlarge their bust size).

Oh yeah, I also watched some of Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! recently; if you really like the mechanics of making Anime (and don’t mind children’s drawings) give it a shot. I’m not all that fond of creator mythmaking myself and didn’t like the character design much either.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Dramatic Support Dropped Ecchi Finished Funimation Incomplete Source School Life Science Fiction Series Televised Toaru
Sword Art Online: Alicization & War of Underworld

Posted on September 23, 2020 5:37 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

There are a great many problems with the three part sequel to the SAO Ordinal Scale movie.

The central one is the ill-conceived fusion of the sci-fi modern day plotline and Underworld’s essentially stand-alone fantasy plotline. The two never had any reason to mix. Assassin’s Creed does something similar, and the criticisms about the way that franchise mixes its past/present settings hold doubly true here since Underworld is effectively self-contained as opposed to being a reflection. The author could have easily wrote Alice and Eugeo’s story as its own thing with no association whatsoever to Kirito’s group and ended up with a far more consistent and immersive product.

Pretty much all of the remaining issues can be tied back to Kirito’s involvement with the story; spontaneous power-ups, random cameo appearances, last minute saves, questionable character motivation, harem elements, and bizarre plot twists all. Really, the only flaw that can truly be called its own is the re-occurring theme of using psychosexual megalomaniacs as main villains.

Vaguely related to all of that in a ‘you can probably watch this if you’re a fan of the genre’ sense are the series Runway de Warrette and Princess Connect! ReDive. The first of which is a fashion industry-focused Cinderella story overloaded with assholes who magically become nice while the latter is a conventional fantasy action-comedy whose protagonist has the personality of a particularly dull puppy.

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This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Battle Shounen Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fantasy Finished Hulu LN Adaptation Romance SAO Science Fiction Series Televised Virtual World
The Huntsman Movies & GRIMM

Posted on September 6, 2020 2:55 am by Offkorn Comment

The first Huntsman movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, is as the title would imply more focused on Snow White than the huntsman. The movie features a particularly martial variation on the tale, going pretty heavy on action and gritty medieval atmosphere. It’s a solid enough adaptation visually speaking with the main flaws being the anticlimactic final confrontation and pretty much everything about the evil queen.

Unfortunately, that queen plays a role in The Huntsman: Winter’s War as well… along with a second queen who’s no better. Not helping matters is that with Snow White gone and her replacement being even more aggressive than the huntsman, the work as a whole becomes overly action-focused. There’s pretty much nothing recommendable about it; if you want to watch Hemsworth in an action role Thor: Ragnarok would likely be a better choice.

Also fairytale related, the TV series Grimm takes the trappings of a generic police procedural and crosses it with some Buffy-like fantasy elements themed on classic folklore. The ‘adapting ancient stories to modern crimes’ aspect works well enough, the problem is the whole metaplot with the inexplicable werewolf sidekick and transforming the protagonist from relatively normal detective into a supernatural warrior. Maybe the integration works better in later seasons, but after the shakiness of the first I don’t care enough to find out.

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This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Relief Drama Fantasy Literary Adaptation Movie Series Televised Urban Fantasy Workplace
Joshikousei no Mudazukai & Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai

Posted on September 4, 2020 11:59 pm by Offkorn Comment

A schoolgirl comedy in the vein of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (with a main character transplant from Nichijou), Joshikousei no Mudazukai‘s main problem is that a good chunk of its cast end up more annoying than entertaining when they go to extremes (there effectively being only half of a straight man to bounce the insanity off of contributes to that issue). So it’s basically as hit/miss as a random comedy would be and your mileage will definitely vary.

The school life comedy Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai meanwhile takes its cues from Bakemonogatari and Haruhi, mixing Bake‘s structure with Haruhi‘s sci-fi theme along with character traits from both. What it lacks in action and flashy visuals it makes up for with consistency and an avoidance of potentially offputting extreme behavior. The movie continuation unfortunately doesn’t share those positives, going deep into heavy drama territory as it does, and honestly I suggest skipping it since Shouko remaining a mystery will likely a produce better result than finding out what’s actually going on.

Oh, and there’s also Ore o Suki Nano wa Omae Dake ka yo (another school life comedy), which sadly doesn’t have anything at all going for it beyond creepy character design and nakedly artificial character behavior.

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This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Drama Dramatic Support Finished HiDive Hulu Incomplete Source Movie Novel Adaptation Romance School Life Science Fiction Series Televised
Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken & Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II: FAMILIA MYTH

Posted on August 31, 2020 8:53 am by Offkorn Comment

A fairly standard overpowered protagonist show, Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken’s defining feature is that almost everyone’s either extremely nice/reasonable or becomes so after being defeated in some manner (whether it be through force, conversation, or trickery). It’s very much a ‘sit back and enjoy yourself’ kind of production without much in the way of nuance or depth to get bogged down on; even the ecchi elements are practically wholesome when compared to what you normally find in harem series.

DanMachi’s second season on the other hand is very much not a ‘sit back and enjoy’ type of show, infested as it is with manufactured drama and asshole antagonists. A large number of storytellers get stuck between crafting the start of their story and concluding it, generally either because they get lost/sidetracked along the way or get greedy with early success and want to drag things out as long as possible. This appears to be a case of the latter.

None of these three arcs advance the various plot threads introduced by the prequel, and each features new antagonists whose only apparent purpose is to be defeated in random ways (likely to never be seen again). Not helping matters is that the action scenes are notably lacking… something. I’m not sure what exactly, just that they don’t match up favorably to earlier ones. Much like this season as a whole.

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This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Summer 2019 - Winter 2021 - Summer 2021 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll DanMachi Drama Dramatic Support Ecchi Fantasy Funimation Harem Hulu Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Series Televised TenSura
Carole & Tuesday & Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator

Posted on August 30, 2020 7:29 pm by Offkorn Comment

For the most part, Carole & Tuesday is a variation on the classic A Star is Born sort of story; you have two amateur musicians from vastly different backgrounds connecting to overcome early adversity and make music that moves the masses. The characters are mostly fun, but the core problem here is that much of the music the show features is pretty generic (particularly the songs in the first half or so) and doesn’t match the characters who are supposed to be singing them. Listened to on their own without the visuals some of the songs are surprisingly good, but almost none of them work within the context of the show.

It also has a number of other things going on as subplots, such as anti-immigration politics and corrupt businessmen, an obsessive stalker, fame-based breakdowns, a conniving manager, parental abandonment, and advanced AI supplanting humanity. All of these end up more engaging than the main story… which is more damning than praiseworthy.

As for the Index Accelerator spinoff, it appears to take place sometime before Index III and mostly features a bunch of new characters who don’t really have much going for them. Accelerator himself is a pretty annoying/one-note character (albeit not as bad as Touma), so its weird anyone would make a series nominally centered around him to begin with. Another oddity is the rather large amount of situational ecchi; girls wandering around and/or fighting in their underwear is quite common.

Speaking of ecchi: Don’t watch Plunderer unless you’re fond of sexual-assault level harassment guised as cartoonish comedy.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Ecchi Finished Funimation Music Netflix Partial Adaptation Science Fiction Series Televised Toaru Urban Fantasy
Cannon busters & Arifureta SHOKUGYOU de SEKAISAIKYOU

Posted on August 29, 2020 1:57 pm by Offkorn Comment

Cannon Busters is a bit of an odd series (which I suppose should be expected since it’s an adaptation of a western comic); there’s a notable contrast between the cartoonish animation and often dark/violent event developments that doesn’t always work. The comedic interplay between the protagonist’s mercenary exasperation and the two robots’ more innocent personalities on the other hand remains consistently entertaining throughout. The action scenes are so-so.

Its greatest flaw in the end is that it’s unfinished, much like the source material, and the point where it ends does not engender much enthusiasm for a continuation.

The Arifur eta adaptation had a troubled production history, to the point that my expectations going in were rock bottom… which is a good place to be if you want to be pleasantly surprised. Which I was… to an extent. The setup and development here resembles Tate no Yuusha‘s, but the beginning is much too drawn out, the protagonist’s abilities don’t feel in any way natural, and the action scenes heavily feature some pretty awful CGI.

The reaction and harem-related comedy is intermittently amusing, but the action is so bad and drama so generic that it’s barely worth bothering with even if you don’t mind skipping through large swathes of runtime to seek out the good bits.

Also a quick note about two series I had a viscerally negative reaction to: Everything about Okaasan Online just screamed ‘turn it off!’ while the 2018 production of GeGeGe no Kitarou gave the impression it was made for elementary/middle schoolers.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Adventure Arifureta Comedy Comic Adaptation Drama Ecchi Fantasy Finished Funimation Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Netflix Paranormal Romance Science Fiction Series Televised
Assorted Non-Comedy Anime

Posted on August 27, 2020 9:43 am by Offkorn Comment

Fairy gone: I can’t think of a single good reason to keep watching this series beyond the pilot episode; the characters are awful and the fairies are Persona ripoffs.

Katsute KAMI Datta KEMONO-tachi e: This show does not make a good first impression. While it amazingly enough manages to overcome that handicap by focusing on the corruption of various characters’ personal desires, by the halfway point that effort turns out to be for naught when it goes all-in on the battle shounen angle. The (thankfully rare) bits of comedy are also uniformly terrible.

Assassins Pride: Questionable beginning aside, this briefly fooled me into thinking it was going to be a fairly standard ‘academy tournament’ or ‘rise of the underdog’ type of story… only to turn into a discordant mess of unrelated ideas instead.

Granbelm: A magical mecha battle royale series with Madoka-like characters and an early streak of comic relief centered on the protagonist’s airhead façade. The problem is that it starts when the battle has been raging for a year, so instead of exciting early eliminations you have an extended see-sawing stalemate that wears out its welcome before the series is even half over and big dramatic moments that come across as arbitrary. What’s really annoying though is that episodes 10 & 11 (which have an almost completely different theme) are pretty damn good.

How disappointing. An almost complete wash, I’m wondering if I should just stick to comedies.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Dropped Fantasy Finished Funimation HiDive Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Paranormal Romance Series Televised Urban Fantasy