Anime Watching Log

.hack//SIGN

I feel like this is the perfect start to this anilog to really get a sense of what I like anime wise. This series is nothing more than an introspective on what it's like to log onto a game and witness someone going through one hell of a depression. Like yeah sure, there's a lot of anomalies present in the game, and the fact that the main character is unable to log out and is in a coma in real life and there's an entire mystery present related to how Tsukasa needs to one day return to the real world unless their player ends up trapped forever or possibly dead. And how a group of random people keep trying to extend their hands to Tsukasa. But also like... IDK I just like series like this. It's honestly perfect. I love .hack// as a franchise, and I love MMOs, and I love what could be seen as "introspective anime." And I feel like this right here really established a lot of my taste over the years. You should watch it, especially if you've never delved into .hack// as a whole. Don't worry about the entire thing, just pick this up. Even if it's the only piece you pick up.

.hack//Liminality

This is the OVA that goes with the IMOQ games. Each volume comes with a single episode that shows what's going on in the real world while Kite & the others try to save the Lost Ones. It's... interesting, but it's just a lore dump. Not bad, but not spectacular.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight

So there's an anime version of this and a manga version of this. And personally, I prefer the manga version much more. I can barely remember the anime, but I know I watched it. Probably a sign to revisit it, but I remember this adaptation was less than stellar.

.hack//Roots

My first exposure to .hack//Roots was shortly after finishing vol 1 of .hack//G.U. and deciding I was beyond enamored with Haseo as a character, despite the fact that in G.U. he's just... like that. Well, I suppose that's irrelevant to a degree here. Because this is a form of origin story, it taking place literally after the beginning tutorial and the entire rest of the game. Anyways, when I first watched it, I wasn't... super into it truth be told. Outside of Haseo being there because my 16 year old self had a major crush on him. However, I recently revisited it and I won't lie, I love this. It's a peak 7/10 anime in a way, but it doesn't even deserve that type of raiting. It's like a 3 or 4/10 at best. And for good reason. A whole lot doesn't happen. It's a bunch of melodramatic shenanigans going on between players and the absolute melodrama of playing MMOs. As a kid who had really next to no MMO experience past a year at best of playing Maplestory, I was like "Yeah no there's no way." Years later? This is what it's like to play an MMO. This is exactly what it's like every day I log onto FFXIV. I've seen people say that Log Horizon is the ultimate MMO anime, and how you can tell it was made by someone who loves these kinds of games. And yeah, I suppose from a playing and interacting with a game aspect, sure it's that. But .hack// at it's core has always managed to encapsulate the stupid shit people do in MMOs so perfectly, and Roots & G.U. are almost the cumulation of that. I always used to think "there's no way people would be traumatized by getting killed by another player in a video game. Or having a rough time in a dungeon." But hell, in my years of playing MMOs I've had so many crashouts over raiding that yeah, I believe it. Try doing ultimate in a casual static with people who don't want to study, you'll fucking burn to cinders if you're not careful. As for the PK thing, I once witnessed a guy have a live meltdown in discord because he died in frontlines and someone used /sweep on him so yeah idk I believe it this is what MMOs do to people. Should you watch Roots on its own? Nah. For an understanding of .hack//G.U.? Maybe. How about for just watching general MMO shenanigans? ABSOLUTELY. Watch this the next time you hear a second hand account of a group ragequitting at M11s. Or maybe when your own group disbands due to it. Have fun.

.hack//G.U. Trilogy

I've heard this being called a summary movie before and oh boy uh you couldn't be more wrong. This movie is like... A compilation of concepts within .hack//G.U. that they decided to explore. And just more further proof that Haseo x Atoli is the canon ship. Which makes me get even angrier at some of the choices they made in Last Recode. I don't usually care about canon vs non-canon ships but sometimes this series makes me scratch my head.

Akatsuki no Yona

Started this on a whim. 2/24 so far. Not sure how I feel from the first 2 episodes though. I'll pick it up later though.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.

It's been a long time since I've seen Anohana and it's at the top of my rewatch list. However the thing that keeps me from doing it is remembering the sheer amount of crying done in about 13 or so episodes, and then muttering to myself that I'm weak. Very enjoyable series, despite how depressing it is seeing a group of teenagers and dealing with one of their friends struggle to come to terms with a traumatizing childhood event for everyone. Before I accidentally spoil it further going off of memory, please go and watch it for yourself. I won't lie and say that part of me plans to see how it holds up, or if me having an emotional rollercoaster of a time was due to my own depression back then.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

This is another one of those silly shitposty series that is good for a laugh or two. Or Twelve. Twentytwo. Two hundred. Either way, I watched all of season 1, a few episodes of season 2, and couldn't find anymore episodes at the time of watching. It's enjoyable, even if it's a bit weird. Plus quite a few big seiyuu are here. Like Sugita. And some other guys. Anyways if you like seiyuu and weird humor and quite absurd situations, this one's pretty good.

Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

I kind of left this where it is, with 2/13 watched for several years now. Mostly because the 2nd season didn't have a seed and whatever site I was watching on just stopped working. Oops.

Arisa☆Good Luck

I watched this because a youtuber put it up for everyone to watch. It's ecchi. It has a perverted magical girl transformation for whatever reason and a girl roped into doing god knows what. Don't really know, because it wasn't subtitled and I can't recall specifics. I'm not going to tell you to watch it, but I'm not going to tell you not to watch it.

Artiswitch

I wont lie, I watched this as it released and while I had a decent time watching it, I can't help but feel it was moreso because I was enjoying the music more than anything. I've seen the criticism that while it's a unique series, it's all very same format and doesn't go much deeper. And to be honest, at least for the original stuff, that's kind of true. Basically, if you want a short story with a bunch of neat fashion designs and some interesting music to listen to, it's not a bad watch. It's just not great.

Attack on Titan

I won't lie, I only watched the initial first season of AoT, and I don't think I care to watch any more than that. I know a while ago there was a bunch of stuff on whether or not the artist was antisemetic or not, but despite them being possibly problematic, I just have never been that into it. The music is good though. And the animation is pretty decent. But it's just big guys eating little guys for season 1. And like, the amount of melodrama that comes along with that. I like Mikasa though, and that's what really matters. I've seen spoilers for how things end and I'm just whatever about it. If I feel like picking it up again, then you'll see me note it further down. It's okay for what it is, but considering I'm still unsure what's up with the author and the antisemetic accusations because well, the internet is the internet, I'm just leaving it there for right now.

Azumanga Daioh

So, Azumanga Daioh is one of those series where not a whole lot happens, but it manages to be really good despite that. It's in that category of slice of life comedy that follows the antics of highschool girls during their 3 years at school up until their graduation, as well as two of their teachers. This series has made a bit of a comeback online recently, with the amount of memes circulating from it, so rewatching it recently with friends was fun and rather enjoyable. Osaka is an easy favorite simply for her antics, but pretty much all of the girls here are great. Chiyodad is really powerful as well and I've never seen someone with as much aura as him.

If you like silly stuff, then definitely check it out. If you don't, well... Probably still watch it.

Baccano

I haven't seen Baccano in so long that all I could tell you is that the OST is a banger and it's worth the 13 episode watch. I remember really liking it and it's story telling. It's also a case for "You should watch the dub over the sub" for some reason that I don't really remember. Still, it has a really cool visual style and an even cooler method of storytelling, so like, check it out. Trust the failing remnants of my memory.

Also, jazz.

Bakemonogatari

I only watched the first season of this. I liked the animation being as smooth as it is, a fair share of the character designs, and Hitagi, but the rest of it wasn't really my thing. I don't think I'm going to continue it, even out of curiosity. I've already known about the infamous toothbrush scene and in all honesty, I have no interest in watching stuff like that, so I'm just not going to. No shade to people who like it. It's just not for me.

Berserk

I can't believe I let my sister beat me to watching this. Anyways, I suppose at some point I'll finally pick it up.

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

So, I had every intention to watch the retro anime after having seen the movies, but I just never got around to it. I did see the movies. And while there's some rather awkward animation, I don't think the animation part is all that bad. People say it's like, the worst thing ever. And yeah sure, there's bad parts. But I think people are also just way too weird about what's 3D and what's hand drawn which like, to each their own opinion. I won't say I haven't seen a movie where I went "God, this CGI looks awful," and I'm not about to fault anyone for thinking that. But I don't think I blame anyone who thinks that this series kind of got butchered by the movies. Like, I've never read Berserk either. But I can tell you that despite watching all of them with my old Maplestory guild, I couldn't tell you what was going on after a certain point. It's all a blur. Dunno if I'll rewatch, but considering I separated them all into different sections, I might as well at some point. Well, on the list you go.

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey

If you asked me what I remember about this movie, I could tell you that I remembered thinking "Wow that Griffith guy is pretty neat." And that's about it. That's probably a sign to go review literally everything, including my life choices in the eyes of some people. But like, the backlog is long and neverending. So, it will have to wait.

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent

What the fuck.

Berserk (2016)

Yeah, I might as well do this while I'm here.

THE Big O

This is quite honestly Batman but with robots. Jokes aside, it's really cool, and it's been a very long time since I've watched it. But I liked it despite really only watching it on Adult Swim whenever I was able to catch it. If you like BTAS and don't mind mecha elements, I definitely recommend watching it.

THE Big O (2003)

So, I always remembered this series as 26 episodes, and I was amazed to realize that not only was it originally 13, and then another 13 in a 2nd season, but that 2nd season was much later and only due to its huge popularity overseas. I suppose that makes it like FLCL where it has a huge popularity out here in the western community but is relatively forgotten within Japan. Neat, I suppose. But I still don't think I've ever seen this in complete order due to it being aired on adult swim and having to catch what you could when you were a young teen with a bedtime of 10 PM.

Black Butler

People still get into fights about this like 15+ years later. Honestly, it's something I keep meaning to read the entirety of the original manga for, but I hate to see the fans fighting. I honestly really like Grell though, so I still pay attention to this series despite really only caring for her. Sebastian isn't bad, but I'm also not fond of SebCiel, and for some reason people assume that if you like this, you have to like that pairing. Like I get it, it definitely has the overall vibe, but I mean, it's a story about a kid making a contract with a demon. You have some like... IDK how to word it so I'll quote what I saw some person on the internet that I don't know at all say once, which is "Yaoi vibes" but honestly I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. People forget this is a shonen though and like I guess I can kind of see why they tend to forget it. Either way, not bad at all, but there's just so much controversy surrounding it online, especially lately. So I just don't tend to talk about it. It's decent though. Admittedly, I don't keep up on it as much as I used to, but it's because there was too much side content that was just made as a gag so I fell off it.

I suppose I haven't really critiqued this or have much of anything to say regarding the original series, yet alone the tons of other parts I know I definitely watched, so I guess that means it'll get a rewatch at some point. Definitely considering the fact that I started just yapping about whatever.

Black Butler II

If I decide to rewatch Black Buttler as a whole and puzzle together everything I've missed, I suppose that means I'll be rewatching this. Which I'll be honest, so this media log wouldn't scroll into oblivion, I cut out a lot of OVAs or specials or whatever other side content. That means a lot of OVAs, specials, or whatever other miscellaneous category of "side content" was just not listed unless I remember it being notable enough to list. That means most of the extra stuff I watched for Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji I just... didn't list here because I didn't remember most of it's importance.

Not that any of that matters because if there's something I definitely remember about this part of the story, it's that Alois is a little shit.

Black★Rock Shooter

I watched only the OVA and not the full story. So I can tell you that the OVA is just okay. I'm not judging the whole thing, and while I'd like to watch that one day, I'mma be real here: I know I wont. I just don't care enough to seek it out. I never have, and I probably never will. And that's not to say that I don't like BRS, but this stuff has existed for so long and I've never thought to go seek it out past looking at Huke's art for it. Which is why I'm just like "No big deal, why pick it up now?"

That's not me saying that it's bad or good, I just have no desire to go forward with it. And I think some of the redesigns for the anime just aren't as good as the original designs, but I doubt that matters all that much. "Thing looked like this back when I liked it vs it looking like something else" now isn't an uncommon complaint, but I always tend to find it to be a weak one when it comes to not engaging with a piece of media. But also I guess it's not just that, and it's more of "IDK, I feel like there's not much here that interests me."

I think the fact that I have that much to say about it and I haven't even touched on the fact that it's a story about 2 girls essentially getting into a fight and then having fight in some sort of IDK virtual world of some sort while this happens IRL is probably a sign that this isn't for me.

BlazBlue: Alter Memory

Have you ever watched an anime adaptation so bad you legitimately drop the anime mid episode? Because this was it for me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Blazblue fan. I love this mess of a series. But the anime was so haphazardly translated upon release with no care for double checking it against actual translations done by Aksys or even checking out alternative translations for terms within the series, as well as just seemingly being really... machine translated for the time, that I just watched them fumble on Hakumen's speech and I turned it off. I know fan translations vs official game localization were obviously going to differ. But the way that the original groups subbing this would just kind of glaze over terms that were clearly of importance being used and not really address them felt weird. For example, "Nox Nyctores" is the name given to the powers that were originally named the "Arch Enemy" in Japanese. And using either of these in the subtitles would have been fine. But it's weird when you hear people bringing up these terms in the audio and there's just no acknowledgement at all in the subs. And then you're given a really literal translation of a speech that's meant to denote an encounter... and I just bowed out. I know there was a sub group much later that decided to properly attempt to subtitle this anime, but I never watched it. Dunno if I will. Maybe if it's seeded I'll bother when I feel like it, but who knows when that will be.

BLEACH

So I'm going to be completely honest. I'm going to make it through Bleach one day. I have to. I actually love Bleach but hate my attention span continuing to fizzle out in long burns like this where I don't watch with a purpose. So at some point I'll probably get some people together and go through this at whatever pace. I just have to make it over the hump that is Turn Back the Pendulum arc because for whatever reason, that's where all my attempts to finish Bleach--for both the anime and manga--have ended dead in their tracks. For Orihime, I will get further.

Blue Exorcist

I saw the original anime for this, and while I know there's quite a bit more, like 2nd season or something like that, all I could tell you is that it's demon boy goes to school and exorcises more demons. It's not a bad show, but it's very stereotypical shonen. I like the main character group well enough, and Mephisto is pretty decent as well, but like... that's all I can say. I wouldn't mind rewatching this at some point and continuing it though.

Bocchi the Rock

Originally I wanted to do an entire article on Bocchi the Rock, because I honestly enjoyed it a lot, but I don't actually have much to say here. Bocchi and her anxiety are incredibly relatable. I know she's shown to be over the top dysfunctional and "That's not average relatable anxiety," but I mean, I'm not neurotypical, and I also tend to make up these insane elaborate scenarios in my head that constantly end up becoming some sort of weird mental block in my head, so yeah uh, unfortunately she's pretty relatable. I hate going "She's just like me FR" or "Oh, Kin?" because people tend to be like "Are you nuts?" or alternatively "Why is it always the super mentally ill characters?" But also like, hear me out? I don't care. Dunno the technicals on kinning and all that, but Bocchi Just Like Me FR.

B Project

This is the case of "If I could find this online somewhere to watch, I'd continue. But I only ever was able to see an episode because it tends to be nowhere." And thus I kind of had to drop it, rather than having any real opinion on it. I'm sure it's fine. I was recommended it by idol fans who said "If you like IDOLiSH7, you'll like this." So hopefully I'll like it.

Also the rating isn't because it's "so bad I put it at 0" but moreso that I'm treating it as blank. I figured I'd note that somewhere here. But it wasn't dropped out of a disdain for the content, so I figured I'd blank it.

BROTHERHOOD FINAL FANTASY XV

Not sure why I felt I needed to include this, but I decided to put it here anyways. Most of these episodes are just whatever. Essentially, considering there's supposed to be some sort of fight going on and then they just all start reminiscing about previous time with Noctis mid battle (or at leastthat's how it seems,) it just feels like each member of the group is having an ADHD filled haze mid fight. The episodes aren't bad, but like most things in FF15, it's just okay. The character development is always appreciated and I have basically eaten every scrap of material they've given us for this series.

Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV

This movie at least looks really good in terms of rendering. I also think the way that they explain Nyx's sacrifice is pretty neat. I wont lie though, this entire movie should have not only been information available in the game in some form or another, but I feel like it's hard to really care about Nyx's sacrifice outside of "oh that's another thing done so Noctis could complete his duty." It also feels like having this information really helped Episode Ignis be as good as it is, because that DLC of all things was really really well done. Oh well.

Cardcaptor Sakura

So, I've watched this both in English & Japanese. I've seen people argue that the Japanese is always superior to the dub no matter what, because dubs usually butcher the source to adapt it, but just hear me out: I prefer the dub. Not for the voice acting, not for the replacement of music (but the fact that Cardcaptors has it's own equally large insert song and randomly associated song list is pretty cool, so no matter what version you watch, you're getting a lot of music,) and definitely not for the fact that the dub weirdly tries to put Syaoran as the main character when he's clearly not. It's because the dub cuts out all the weird fucking student teacher relationships. Teacher/student is definitely not my favorite thing, far from it to be honest. However, if these were something other than gradeschoolers and idk, closer to like final year of highschool, I wouldn't be idk, so baffled. Yes, I know CLAMP GONNA BE CLAMP and like, CLAMP was on the label, so I only have myself to blame for watching it considering some of the other kind of unsavory stuff here. But if you can set aside all the bad issues, the core story and designs are pretty good. Anyways shoutout to the dub for editing all that shit out.

Cardcaptor Sakura Movie

One of 2 forgettable Cardcaptor Sakura Movies

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card

The other, quite frankly, even more forgettable of the Cardcaptor Sakura movies.

Chainsaw Man

So, I heard from people that the adaptation for this series was really botched and that the "animation is rough and looks like shit" and I'm just like, "IDK, I enjoyed what I saw." Sure, I could probably go through and read it. In fact, I should actually add it to my plan to read list. But like. idk, I feel like it actually had my attention and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

CITY THE ANIMATION

Nichijou again. A bit more sporadic and slapsticky than Nichijou and I felt like at times it just jumped all over the place, but it was enjoyable for what it was.

CLANNAD

My feelings on Clannad are admittedly a bit mixed. I don't dislike it. I just dislike what they chose to adapt in comparison to the routes that exist in the game. Both the Kyou route & Tomoyo route are shoved off to the side in specials, which understandable, I'd rather they concentrate on the main girl Nagisa and what not. But they just choose to go off in every direction before going to Nagisa and kind of neglect my favorite characters, which kind of sucks. But when they decide to buckle down and focus on Nagisa, it's pretty good. First season's still pretty good, but I think After Story's adaptation is where it kind of shines--If you can call repeated punches to the gut "shining." The end of this had me bawling. One day, I'd like to rewatch it. Then I remember, even if we bought one of those big boxes of Costco tissues not that long ago, I don't think that's enough tissues to get me through it again.

CLANNAD: Afterstory

I realize as I went through this log that I had written some parts of it with the entire series grouped into one entry. And I honestly am unsure how to rewrite parts. Anyways, as I stated above, this is the better part of CLANNAD. Even if it hurts. But it hurts so good. IDK if you don't mind watching 47 episodes and a bit of side material, this series is generally worth it.

Chrno Crusade

I won't lie, I've seen episodes of this here and there, and it's been such a long time since I've seen it that I couldn't tell you much about it. I really just remember a nun girl and a demon guy, and like... the ending of the series, where the main girl dies. Like that's it. Maybe that's a sign to watch it in full, but in all honesty, I only remembered to put it on my list when I saw other people bring it up and remembered I watched it. It used to be a ex-friend's favorite series, so maybe that's why I haven't really bothered with it.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

So, I've seen some side material for Code Geass, but as of right now, everything I've seen is related to Lelouch of the Rebellion. And I have mixed feelings on it. It's very complicated. On one hand, I do like a lot of what's going on here. A lot of the political plot points tend to be very interesting. But the school stuff is where I tend to kind of zone out. Like, I get it. He's school boy by day, revelutionary leader by night so you can't just ignore all that. But I wish the school stuff was either more interesting or if there was just less of it.

A lot of my issues come from the 2nd season in particular and the treatment of women. Some of the twists and turns in S2 were a bit batshit. Particularly how Charles or whatever his name is dies. And how the mom is brought back and is just like "Oh yeah I was all for this oh by the way my death wasn't what it seemed that was Geass." It felt like there was no foreshadowing to all of that and it was an absolute asspull. Like, I know it feels stupid to go "Oh but they brought in a supernatural resolution for an actual problem" when the entirety of how the Geass works is supernatural, but it just felt so "We have to wrap this up now."

My other big issue here is the treatment of Kallen Kozuki. I feel like they made her such a flat character in comparison to anyone else, and that really sucks. Like yes, we know about her family situation, but it felt like her brother got far more development and hers just ended after the episode about her mom and her conflicted feelings. And it really fucking sucks. Because after that she gets reduced to her being mad about racism as if that's all a person's personality has to be. Like, yes she has every right to be mad. But at the same time, it feels like we don't get much other than that, her unwavering loyalty to Zero, and just ass and tits shots. Like, I'm sorry, when you give fucking Nina of all characters more depth than Kallen, one of two main girls in the cast, it kind of makes me mad. Like, you're telling me Sunrise didn't want to write the Japanese girl having to hide half of her ethnicity because of the colonizers that took over her homeland and they instead decided to focus on the girl who had such a parasocial relationship to literal royalty that she was just blatantly racist. Like, Nina got tons of people killed from what I remember, with some experiment. And they tried to fucking redeem her. They put the effort into writing her character as nuanced and yet they couldn't bother to put the same effort into Kallen? Like it sucks. I want to like Kallen. I want there to be more there. I want them to give us more with her other than absolute scraps and crumbs. Please I'm begging you, god. Like yes I can understand that a character like Nina probably needs to be complex, but so does fucking Kallen's character.

Also Lelouch suddenly only caring about Shirley when she's about to spill his secret and when she dies is shit. He wasn't nice to her at all. That girl also didn't deserve to be treated the way she was and used as a fucking plot device.

Yeah, Geass makes me angry. I still kind of like it but sometimes it just makes me mad. Great memories of watching it with people while it was airing though.

Geass probably could have been a longer entry on it's own, but in all honesty, writing this and remembering all my issues with it, even though it's been some months now, has made me pretty exhausted. So it's probably for the best that this is tucked away here.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

I aint rewriting all that. Though I hate this ending. Fuck this ending. I don't even dislike it in a "it made me feel sad oh my god Lelouch's sacrifice" way. I just feel like it's a non solution and Lelouch didn't bother to live with any of the shit he did. Like yes, I understand the reason why he had to die, but sometimes I feel like suicide for the sake of the people had the fandom martyr him and idk, it's never sat right in my mind.

Anyways I love the first part but the 2nd part has some choices that make me frustrated. IDK, at some point I'll probably come back and rewrite most of my thoughts. I hate to say that I already need to rewatch Geass, but hell, I might actually need to rewatch Geass. Again. For the 50 millionth time.

Cowboy Bebop

I'm ironically not going to spoil this at all. It's about 26 episodes of peak and you should sit down and watch it at some point. I absolutely love Bebop and all the times I've seen it in parts while it aired on Adult Swim over the years. It's just... the best. Anyways ignore the god awful Netflix Adaptation (which admittedly from the first episode, had pretty decent set pieces & overall designs? Even if that's all it had.) Watch the anime. Take it all in. Kick back and just vibe and enjoy this one.

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door

I don't know when in the series this movie takes place, but it's generally fun enough. It's another adventure with the Bebop crew. Also, this scene is in it and hell if that isn't relatable

Daily Lives of Highschool Boys

Y'know, I won't lie. I started this, had to go to bed one night, then got distracted and never finished it. It's pretty funny, and it's also fairly short. But I'll probably get to it a bit later. I don't know what prevents me mentally from seeking it out and watching it, but I suppose being in the mood to finish it hasn't really struck yet.

Also Sugita's in it.

Danganronpa: The Animation

Y'know, I don't know why I'm bothering to tell you all not to watch this considering most people who are seeking out stuff for Dangan Ronpa could just watch a lets play of it, or simply just experience it the way that got it popularity in the west originally--by reading the Something Awful playthrough. But like, obviously don't watch a visual novel crammed into a 13 episode anime unless you're like... Really here for the DR content. Not if you're new to the series. But yeah, it falls into the same issues that most adapted anime do, and that's not even it's fault really. That's just how adaptations go.

IDK why I wrote all that and didn't just tell people to seek out the original games if they can instead but like that too. I believe they're on steam these days.

Darling in the Franxx

Considering the fact that this was supposed to be a collaborative effort between Studio Trigger and another stuido, I was initially very excited for this. Especially since the main girl was a pink girl. However, what we got was Trigger backing out due to death threats and some of the most low tier anime storytelling that I've seen in a while. Like I get it, expecting anything from a mecha anime where the main gimmick is that the pilots are fucking is completely on me. I should not expect anything like that. But it'd be a bit better if everything was better written. Part of me wants to point solely at Zero Two and say that everything around her is super incosistent, but the Kokoro pregnancy arc was also not expected. Also it doesn't help that Ichigo's character was blatantly rewritten mid series because people were sending the creators death threats because god forbid someone stood up to the stuck up pink girl who kind of deserved it. And quite honestly? I liked Ichigo. Everything aside, Goro is the only sane one here, Hiro is kinda ehh because he goes back and forth on anything he says and he folds like a chair to anything Zero Two asks of him. Also there's that one kid in the group that having sex magically cures, the random lesbian, and another guy who is just so unmemorable that I couldn't even describe him past his appearance and the fact that Kokoro didn't want to be partners with him. I get that it's an adolescence story and what not, and some concepts here were completely interesting. Like, for example, the way their society functions being generally kind of interesting, especially with how they treat the child pilots and what not, and the reasoning behind that. But the world building being there in spurts was really the last thing that got me to complete it. I barely remember it. I don't want to rewatch it though. Some people are like "it's bad because it's not like EVA and it's an EVA ripoff" but in all honesty I don't think that's why it's bad. If they remade this with their initial vision, I'd watch a new version of it probably. As long as there's less teenagers having sex metaphors all over the place, but I don't think you're going to get away with that here.

Death Note

Honestly, it's a pretty decent watch. I know people prefer the manga version, and I barely remember the differences these days, but it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. It's up to you on which version to seek out though.

Detroit Metal City

WARNING: NSFW

Generally really enjoyable. Check it out. It's funny as all hell. If you like stuff like PSG you will probably like this. It's pretty easy to finish in a day and worth the laughs.

Devil is a Part Timer

I think there's supposed to be more of this, but I only watched the 1st season. I won't be watching the 2nd. It's just not my thing. To put it bluntly, it's that type of anime I just never vibe with. Like yeah sure, I'm fine with slice of life, but I felt like the characters got far too tropey and the random insertion of a random girl in it and the supposed devil guy constantly trying to protect her was just weird. IDK. It's just not my thing. I could barely tell you anything I remember about it past not liking it, and in favor of not bashing it, I'm just going to end it there.

Digimon Adventure

Toei film festivals honestly seem to produce a lot of neat projects. Anyways, the style for the original first movie for Digimon is really neat, and I love the way Hikari communicates through her whistle and Taichi just kind of understands it.

Digimon Adventure

So, I have a lot of opinions about this series, but like, the general consensus of this one is that at the very least, you should watch Adventure. Saban eng dub or original JP, either work. But like, the JP songs here are really good, meanwhile the dub has some decently funny moments. But I'm going to lean towards saying you should seek it out in Japanese if possible. Anyways, this is a lovely little proxy monster series that so many people tend to overlook due to Pokemon. And I get it, but also this just has so much heart, and the way that they explore the lives of these kids is so actually interesting. I love it. I love this group. Everyone here is good. I watched it when I was 9 and originally didn't want to give it a chance because of Pokemon but I'm so glad I got curious and did. I love it. I also got really excited to see Angewomon and she's so important to me. She's probably my first Yume fantasy and honestly as a 9 year old girl, I should have known something was up when I wanted hot lady angel to scoop me up princess style in her arms and carry me as she flew and I also got way too excited when I saw the bitchfight between her and lady devimon where they were pulling at eachothers hair and smacking each other around.

Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game!

Yes, this is required viewing unlike all the other movies. Yes it's short, but also it's really cool, it's really good, and also it's probably canon in this universe that Diabolomon orchestrated 9/11.

Digimon Adventure 02

So, I admittedly have been looking at this series with some extreme nostalgia goggles over the years, because I always remembered this part so fondly. In reality, it starts out decently, and everything with Ken is really fucking strong. However it all collapses into a mess as it's pulled in every fucking direction and doesn't decide to keep with a core concept it wants to explore. And that's a shame because there's good bones here. In reality, it's due to direction being fought over, and what we get is a disjointed mess. Where everything is just kinda funneled to the end and then it's a happily ever after moment for all the kids.

Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Jouriku!! / Chouzetsu Shinka!! Ougon no Digimental

I wont lie, this is one of those parts that felt so forgetable to me. Like it's not bad, but I'm just drawing a blank here. It's like 2 movies mashed into 1 and I think it has something to do with the film festival again, but who knows. I don't remember off the top of my head. I just remember I didn't hate it but I didn't super care for it either.

Digimon Adventure 02: Diablomon no Gyakushuu

It's an interesting enough movie, but it feels flat in comparison to Bokura no War Game

Digimon Tamers

Tamers is an interesting enough concept. Where it starts and where it ends just feel like the polar opposite of the spectrum, and I could have never imagined where this series would have taken us at first. I don't know how to summarize it without spoiling it entirely, but it's another piece of Digimon that I actually really recommend watching, as I stumble for words. I just don't think I could do talking about it justice.

Digimon Tamers: Boukensha-tachi no Tatakai

It's like as if bonzi buddy breached containment.

Digimon Tamers: Bousou Digimon Tokkyuu

Happy birthday Rika. We're throwing your surprise party on Sigmascape Savage Floor 1: The Phantom Train.

Digimon Frontier

I will admit: I want to give this and the rest of the newer Digimon series a chance. But this is the part where I start hearing a lot more overwhelming negativity more than anything. I hear this series get shit on a lot in particular, and it also feels like the last time Digimon actually idk... Looks like Digimon? Honestly the reason I didn't watch this as a kid was because there was no place to really catch it. I remember it was aparently all over the place and at weird times. A shame. Well, at some point I'll hopefully go through it. But my first attempt got 4 episodes in. Oops.

Digimon Adventure tri. 1: Saikai

So, I won't lie, this doesn't start off bad. But by the time we get to the end we're gonna be exhausted. Anyways this introduces Meiko, a transfer student and chosen child/digidestined and her digimon, Meicoomon. And it's just... IDK, not bad? I know people hate Meiko because they see her as a Mary Sue but in all honesty, she really doesn't feel like one, at least in the beginning. Plus this isn't the first time that random chosen children pop in and out of the plot. We had the entirety of World Tour happen in 02, and that's easily the most fun part of that series. Meiko stuff aside, idk, the first 2 movies had her naturally integrate with the group and made her feel like she belonged. It's just that later movies undo this and have nobody interact with her at all and it's mainly her and Taichi that interact so it's just... awkward? Really disliked that choice.

Digimon Adventure tri. 2: Ketsui

Mimi focus movie is honestly okay by me because I am a huge Mimi fan.

Digimon Adventure tri. 3: Kokuhaku

This entire movie can be described as "Patamon gets worms."

Digimon Adventure tri. 4: Shoushitsu

This is the episode where they reboot the Digital World and like, you'd think with all that on the line, they'd do something a bit more with it but uh... no. No they really don't. Like there's a whole big "oh my god we're restoring our partner digimon to their factory setting and they'll forget us all," but they act exactly the same aside from Piyomon who hates Sora for whatever. This entire movie is legitimately about shafting Sora because that always seems to fucking happen. First, her digimon hates her, and then she gets fucking grabbed and licked by Freaky Gennai, different from regular Gennai--Or at least I think that's the part of the series where this happens. Who fucking knows. Either way uhhhh... awkward movie.

Digimon Adventure tri. 5: Kyousei

I think this one can be summarized as "Taichi Dies" and that's about it. You know these movies are bad when I can't even remember them despite remembering other parts of digimon with full clarity. If Freaky Gennai isn't in the last one, he's in here. And uh, that's it.

Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai

Honestly once this was over I was just relieved that I had finally made it through. I won't lie and say I don't feel a bit bad for Meiko and the grief of losing Meicoomon or whatever it's called, but like, despite feeling awful for this poor girl... I just wanted it all to end. Lmao. That's my way of saying you could probably skip most of these movies.

Digimon Adventure: LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna

After Digimon Tri you would think that they'd like... have killed any desire for anyone to want to return to Adventure. Especially when they're essentially telling the same story here that they were there (Not that I could tell the point of Tri's story because it's piled of layers of obfuscating bullshit.) But this time they really landed the message, and it was the best it could be. What they failed to do in nearly 10 hours worth of time in Tri, they managed to do here in 94 minutes, and honestly so beautifully. The movie focuses solely on Taichi and Yamato, but that doesn't detract from everything that happens. Anyways, it's literally soul crushing and I don't think I've ever cried that hard over a bunch of Digital Monsters before. So uh, give it a watch. It's well worth it.

Digimon Adventure (2020)

I made it 1/3 of the way through before I had to pause this for my own sanity. A lot of people say "Don't watch this and aimlessly compare it to the previous season" but it's kind of hard to do so. Especially when you know so much about the main cast and everything they went through in the original timeline. Anyways, this reboot is uh... Not good. Just do yourself and watch the original Adventure because it excels at what it does. This is just invoking nostalgia for the sake of it at times it feels. It focuses almost solely on Taichi at times and it's just... IDK, frustrating. Or at least that's how it came off in 24 or so episodes. Also Gabumon was crucified.

Dragon Ball

Maybe one day I'll watch Dragonball & Dragonball Z in full. But for now I can say I've watched enough scattered episodes here and there as a child to appreciate this series. It'll always be one of those things that is close to my heart, even if I don't really talk about it or think on the characters anymore. But, it was something I watched a lot as a kid, and with my family as well. So it's like, weirdly special to me. Maybe not the exact same way that Pokemon is to me, but still special nonetheless.

Dragon Ball Z

I remember not being allowed to stay up late enough to watch this as a child, and then proceeding to try to watch it through the crack of my door due to the layout of our living room and watching most of it like that. Also uh one day I"ll sit down and attempt to watch it all in order. I used to think it was impossibly long, but learning it's under 300 episodes and knowing I've done longer series (One Piece, Pokemon), I feel like I can take on DBZ one day.

Dragon Ball GT

This is another series I mostly remember seeing through it being on in the background because my sister was watching it. I have residual memories of it, but that's about it. I remember people dislike this one though? But whatever I'll give anything a try.

Durarara

So, when this show came out, I was obsessed with it. I watched it every week it aired and then like, halfway through? My computer died and I wasn't able to touch it for ages. So naturally, it drifted out of my conscious mind for years and just faded into one of the many "I liked that but I never completed it" anime memories I have from my late teens and early 20's. I should absolutely seek it out again at some point. I love Celty. She rewired my brain or something. Peak wife material.

Anyways leaving it blank for raiting cos I'm going to probably rewatch it instead of continuing off where I left off. Who knows, maybe opinions will change.

Eden of the East

I should probably rewatch this at some point. I remember liking it quite a bit, but the fact that all I could tell you about it was the fact that some naked man showed up at the White House and that's what starts off the story is well... A bit telling. I also remember something about a naked woman, angel wings, and god knows what in a hotel and that's about it. Oh, and I have a selecao sticker that just kinda hangs out on my whiteboard with all the other stickers I've never really stuck. That's all. I just remember it exists. Will I revisit it one day? Maybe. It wasn't bad. It's just another case of "It's really not all that memorable."

Elfen Lied

WARNING: NSFW

So this is the most dogshit garbage I've watched in a while. When I used to hear people talk about this anime, they really always talked it up. Like it was supposedly one of the greats. And I'm here to tell you that it's not. Like yeah sure, it's supposed to be about "the darkest parts of humanity." But it really doesn't... do much other than point and go "LOOK HUMANS ARE SCUM. HERE'S A GUY WHO IS SUPER EVIL BECAUSE HE BEATS WOMEN AT RANDOM. AND HERE'S A GIRL WHO MURDERS BECAUSE BULLIES KILLED HER DOG." And like, that's it. It's excessive gore, excessive nudity, and has this weird ass random incest plot inserted in the middle of it. Nothing here is good. It's all just some gore anime trying to be pretentious and acting as if it has anything to say past "Yeah, humans are pretty bad." Like yeah thanks I already knew that.

If literally anyone else handled this anime and tried to give it idk, any other message past "humans are bad" or idk, went into exploring anything related to that instead of letting the pink girl psycho squad murder whatever they saw fit then I dunno, it could maybe have been saved. But y'know what fuck this shit. So bad I almost want to give it a flat 0/5.

IDK do yourself a favor and go pick up Chobits instead. It also has cute weird girl who makes anime girl noises but does it a lot better.

Excel Saga

Honestly, this is another case of "You should watch this" because it's just shitposting. Shitposting that was on a completely different level. I love Excel Saga. It's a mess. I don't think a whole lot of people these days know about it, but I saw a clip of it circulating again and I'm so glad it did because more people should go watch Excel Saga. I'm not spoiling anything for you. If you liked Azumanga Daioh, you'll probably like this, even though it's a bit more intense than Azumanga.

FLCL

FLCL feels like a really weird show to talk about. These days, I only ever see it brought up in a very negative light. And the weirdest part is that the negative stuff they bring up isn't about how like blatantly inappropriate the show is when you sit down and think about it. No, most times everyone is basically saying how it's overrated, how they don't understand the hype surrounding this work, how it's such a pretentious thing to like, and how people who like it are just saying they like it to be edgy. Which is something I find incredibly weird, but also very interesting. These days, everything gets called out or straight up "cancelled" for the content contained within it being anything but the purest of intentions at all times (and even then, people still find a way to find issues with content.) Meanwhile you don't see too many people pointing out how actually uncomfortable that some of the subject matter of FLCL can be when you stop and think about it. Everyone's so much more interested in tearing it down from an art perspective. I can't help but feel it's a bit weird that people would focus on the art when there's some legitimately problematic scenarios in FLCL, but I feel like it tells me that people who have an issue with it from the artistic point of view might not even be watching it, but parroting some youtuber.

Needless to say, I find this all highly amusing. Like it's just legitimately funny to me that that's what the people of the internet choose to fight about with this series. The right to be called "art" or not, or if it's that deep or anything. As if you, the viewer, can't sit there and choose if you find something to be art on your own. Like you need someone else to tell you it is, or you need someone else to strike out and agree with you and point out to you that it isn't. Of course, these are all assumptions, and nothing concrete, but it's just an odd judgement I constantly see with FLCL lately. People are so focused on having a reason to tear it down and claim that people wrongly put it on a pedestal because they're trying to be different. And thus these same people want to force others into regurgitating this opinion that the best anime these days is the modern SJ Big 3, and that there's no space for little forgotten oddities like FLCL, which is almost a time capsule of sorts. I feel like there's a huge social commentary there, but I honestly don't want to go into it. I just want to enjoy my weird anime about the kid living a mundane life in a mundane town with mundane occurences. And if people want to say it's pretentious to favor an anime that says everything all at once and simultaneously nothing at all because it's almost "all gibberish," then whatever. It really isn't all that pretentious, but I doubt I'm changing the minds of anyone who thinks this way.

I think people often forget the context in which FLCL became popular, and how it's just a forgotten project within Japan unlike it's status in America where it's seen as this cult classic, as well as a lot of people's introduction to J-Rock via its soundtrack.

Quite honestly though, it's really simple. I think people just tend to really forget what certain programming blocks did for anime back then, or that most of us had to watch our anime via tv and pray we had that channel. FLCL, along with a lot of other shows that blew up in popularity, were all on Adult Swim. And the amount of kids watching a ton of stuff aimed at far more mature audiences really lured them in. And thus, you have kids getting into something like FLCL which was hard to understand, had the spectacle, and had music that would definitely lure them in, as well as being at a similar stage of life to the protagonist Naota.

Enough of that though, I'm not really here to talk about how or why it became popular with a certain set of people (aka the early 00s anime fan) or how these days people just forget about all that. I'm here to kind of talk about FLCL proper. Or make an attempt. Maybe. I'm not sure what you can really call this because it's an attempt but at the same time, it's also barely one. I don't talk about anything in depth as to not spoil it, because I do feel that you should just go watch FLCL rather than read about someone talk about it. Things are kinda vague, but I suppose that's just how I am. Maybe I'm not cut out for anime blogging? I suppose. But at the same time, I don't really care.

So, this is kind of a weird anime to unpack. Things get thrown at you in such a rapidfire succession that it's hard to keep up. If you want to understand this show, it's almost like you have to watch it repeatedly to kind of get it, and even then, as someone who's seen it so many times that they've just lost track over the years, it's still a bit hard to get.

The amount of pop culture references crammed into this is pretty high, and the fact that the localization of it is just as smooth as the original Japanese ones is pretty amazing. It kind of adds a sense of layers to it, especially when you take that into account. I know some people have said "well, packing in a ton of references doesn't make something good," and yeah, you're right. But the way that FLCL weaves them in is natural. Considering the entire show has the vibe of peering in on Naota's life in some sort of way you're not supposed to be, the references just seem like people talking about their interests in a day to day manner rather than this really awkward way that I've seen other shows go about their references. Sorry to constantly drag this show under the bus but I'd much take references the way FLCL does it vs something like NGNL does it which manages to feel jarring and take you out of the moment to make said reference, shine a spotlight on the fact that they're making the reference, and then pat themselves on the back for making said reference. FLCL just makes the reference, and sometimes, before you even catch onto what they're talking about, they're already moving on. I know some people have said that makes it dense and overwhelming because you're sitting here deciphering references while a smattering of other things are going on, such as a very hard to decipher story and a ton of music as well, but I think that just adds to the chaotic vibe.

I'm going to be quite honest. I never know how to talk about story with this anime. I've seen it a million times and all I can say about it is that Naota is an ordinary kid in an ordinary town where nothing out of the ordinary happens. And then he meets a woman who is all kinds of extraordinary.

That'd be grossly oversimplifying it though, I suppose.

At this point, everyone on the internet knows that it's a series of metaphors for adolescence, but I will admit that a lot of people (including myself) have taken the answer given to us by directors and what not and have just accepted it, rather than really try to think about how it's adolescence and in which ways. I guess the sloppiness of adolescence and how sloppy FLCL feels at times definitely checks out. But also it always leaves me pondering how I would put into words how it definitely feels like adolescence, and not just because it was also something I watched in my adolescent years as well as many others.

It's weird, and almost frustrating to have the answer be laid out in front of you, all while struggling to map out the perfect way to show you the steps to which you got there. It reminds me of how you would sometimes be given math problems and be told to "show your work," and yet all you have is an answer in the box that you copied from the back of some book but no idea on how to get there. At the very least, I suppose it's thought provoking because of that. But I'm also sure some people would be like "What do you mean you understand how it's about adolescence yet you can't put it into words? Doesn't that mean you don't actually understand?" So for now I just sit here, scratching my head as I try to communicate it all through a blog. And then failing to communicate.

As I keep repeating, it's a very "I don't know, just go watch it for yourself!" type of show. Though, maybe read a list of content warnings before you do. And uh, definitely watch it with headphones on. I don't think I could recommend that enough because some scenes are very awkward. Though go in with the understanding that this will be uncomfortable. There's a lot of shit that is straight up creepy, and the adults get really fucking weird. I feel like the point was to be uncomfortable, but I haven't read every bit of commentary from the directors, so I'm not going to say that that's definitely the intention here as a way to give them a pass. It is uncomfortable. But it's hard because it's also worth the watch.

The only other thing I can really say is that the music here is great, but I'm sure you don't need me telling you that. If you've ever heard your fair share of stuff by the Pillows, then you've probably run into a track used in this anime's soundtrack. There's quite a bit. And it's all pretty good.

I don't think there's much more to say on that. Originally I wanted to group this with a few other series that aired on Adult Swim, but I ended up talking about this a lot more than I thought I would, while feeling that I didn't really say all that much. Oh well, this show evokes some interesting feelings in me, and most of them are just screaming to me that it's more about the experience of allowing life to happen in the moment rather than stepping back and carefully taking in the details. But at the same time, that doesn't feel like great commentary either. So I'm just going to say that I'm probably one of the millions who had the wrinkles on their brain ironed out due to Medical Mechanica.

Basically, FLCL is a mess, and it should just be enjoyed as a mess. Don't think too hard about it.

FLCL Progressive

Y'know, I was trying to aim to write something a bit more in depth when it came to talking about this series, but looking back on it, I just don't really desire to. It tried to capture the same feeling as the original FLCL, and while I admire the fact that it tried, it just wasn't the same. As in, it felt like it was trying too hard to retread the same ground but in a cash grabby way that just went "HEY, REMEMBER FLCL? WE DO. ANYWAYS. THIS IS FLCL." I see people argue that it's better than Alternative, because its "Just like the old one," but IMO it's far worse. Didn't like it much at all past the music.

FLCL Alternative

Unlike everyone who hates this one, I think it's pretty good for what it is. It does it's own thing, and takes place in the same universe (or at least it seems like it does.) It just focuses on a group of Highschool girls dealing with their highschool lives and highschool problems, and while Haruko is there, it plays out much different. The relationship between the new characters feels so much more fleshed out. Some say "yeah but it doesn't have all the silly funny FOOLY COOLY in it," but sometimes a story doesn't have to be overly fooly or cooly to be FLCL. Sometimes a story is just about the lives of small town teens coming to terms with the woes of turning into adults.

I don't think I'll be watching FLCL Grunge or Shoegaze though.

Free!

Watched the first 2 seasons and not much other than that. Honestly, it's not bad. A lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be, but it's one of those other things that I've put off repeatedly because I don't tend to be a huge anime watcher these days. Rin Matsuoka lives rent free in my head though.

Free!: Eternal Summer

Honestly, despite watching this completely somewhat recently, I can barely remember the specifics of what happen. I honestly have continued for HaruRin admittedly. "That pairing is basic" yeah I don't care. If I had the money I'd buy that 1/8 Rin scale. This man has ruined me.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren was probably the most recent show that I've watched that I've really really liked in a while. As in, I kind of instantly loved it. There's just something about how it kind of takes its time with everything going on to tell a story about an elf just living her life, knowing how the humans around her will inevitably die one day way before she ever will. That, and it's nice to have a fantasy story lately that isn't an isekai because every time someone recommends a fantasy these days, it's like, typical shonen or isekai. And I'm really just tired of isekai. Like hell, isekai is so ingrained in anime fan's minds these days when it comes to fantasy that I saw people describe Frieren as being an isekai without the person who doesn't belong, and it's honestly bizarre that we've come to that point.

Fruits Basket

I watched the original Fruits Basket anime and not the remake. Will I watch the remake? Who knows. Maybe some day. But for now? I don't plan on it unless I decide to finish other things first. Either way, the original anime is not good. The slapstick humor is okayish and the concept is cute, but that's really it. It's just the early chapters of the manga. I have nothing past that to say about it. It's just okay. I know it's a beloved favorite, but I'm just like "eh, I'm neutral on it." I like Yuki though.

Fullmetal Alchemist

So, this is the FMA that everyone refers to as "03" and I'm just going to keep refering to it that way. But yeah, 03 is the GOAT of anime. I know some people will come and decry me for not thinking that Brotherhood is nearly as goated as 03, but like, idk, I watched 03 tons of times over the years (due to having some old bootleg DVDs) and I had my Brotherhood watch interrupted by dying computers, so uh, that definitely colors my bias. Anyways, I consider this to be essential watching. Lot of people skip it due to Brotherhood existing and you just... shouldn't. It's actually really good even if most of it is considered to be "filler." Also I think the themes & OST for this one are a bit stronger than Brotherhood. But yeah I had a lot of fun with this, and that beginning section of filler where Ed is like 12 years old is really well done. Please give this a watch if you've never tried it but liked Brotherhood. Yes it's different, it's even weird at times, and the filler characters might come off as odd, but I still think it has plenty of charm despite how different it is. Besides, from what I understand, Arakawa asked it to be different due to the manga being ongoing when it came out, and I think it being it's own thing at the behest of the author is really neat.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Conqueror of Shamballa

Okay movie that really didn't answer any of 03's questions from what I remember. But the music related to it is pretty nice.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

So, despite me saying that I prefer 03 and think everyone should watch that along side Brotherhood, Brotherhood is still really damn good for what it is. I think they complement eachother perfectly and go hand in hand. Some stuff was portrayed way better here, but really couldn't have succeeded if you didn't spend time growing used to it in 03 (I'm thinking of a certain phonebooth scene with Markiplier, of course). Watch them both. Love them. Adore them. This is anime at it's finest.

Fushigi Yuugi

Honestly another thing that has been etched into my mind, despite never technically finishing it. It's similar to Inuyasha. Historical Isekai Romance revolving around women written in the 90s. Honestly, the only kind of isekai I tend to ever want.

I decided to start this over finally, since I had tossed it on my Anilist New Years Resolution list. And boy I don't regret that. It's so good. I'm only 17 episodes in so far but I remember why I enjoyed this so much. I'll come back and rate it after I'm done.

Ghost in the Shell

I originally wanted to tackle this by talking about the movie and SAC but in all honesty, I barely remember the movie, and I think it has a sequel movie at some point, and I mostly just remember SAC/2nd Gig from watching it a lot on TV. Going back to double check lead me down the rabbit hole and made me realize that wow, GITS has had a lot of stuff over the years I just didn't pay attention to. Which sucks because I generally enjoyed what I watched but now I'm like "Huh, maybe this is another one of those series I should go on a deep dive for."

Also, I used to own this movie on VHS at some point.

Ghost in the Shell: STAND ALONE COMPLEX

The amount of this I've seen in fragments due to Adult Swim is so high. Going to rewatch it in full though.

Ghost in the Shell: STAND ALONE COMPLEX 2nd GIG

Another repeat of above. Also, banger themes for both of them, but this one especially.

But yeah this entire franchise is getting rewatched at some point so I'll come back and add in anything missing or what not when I do all of that.

Gintama

As funny as it may be, we group watched like 7 episodes and lost our ability to concentrate, and ended up doing something else. I'll come back to this later, I suppose. Like, didn't even drop it because it was bad or I dislike it, but there's just so many victims of ADHD on this list that I feel I need to note when it's my lack of concentration creating victims vs me actually disliking something.

GRANBLUE FANTASY The Animation

Considering this is an anime adaptation of a mobage gacha, I'm giving it a lot of grace here when I say it's a decent summary of a tiny part of the story. But also I'm watching it because one of my beloved meowmeows is here.

GRANBLUE FANTASY The Animation Season 2

Repeat of before. Also I own a bluray for this that I got for 4 dollars all because I wanted it for the cover.

Guraburu!

They're just okay. They picked the most popular parts of the Guraburu comic in the app and animated them, specifically so they could anime super popular characters I feel. It's... Whatever.

Grave of the Fireflies

So, I have a very polarizing view of this film. I just find it straight up hard to watch, and not because it's not good or anything like that. It's just one of those things that everyone takes seriously due to the subject matter, and I dunno, for someone like me with ADHD, I just cannot pay attention to it. I can tell you that most of the times I've been shown it, I can pretty much remember watching it, where I was watching it, but nothing about the movie. Maybe that makes me cruel, considering the topic at hand with this movie. However, I just think it's ADHD making my own concentration span my enemy. Like, I had to write an essay on this movie for my Japanese class in highschool and I remember getting a passing grade on it, so I definitely saw it. But I couldn't tell you much about it past the fact that its about WWII and the dropping of the bombs. And there's plenty of other stuff about WWII that I generally find... is interesting the right word? I feel like that's a bad word to use in this situation considering the monstrosities commited by mankind and what not, but IDK, most fictional accounts of WWII tend to just lose me. I'd rather watch a 6 hour video essay or a documentary on something that's related to history than watch a movie about it. Generally a sad movie though, from what I remember.

At some point I want to rewrite this, but like I cannot put into words my own frustration with myself and my lack of care for these kinds of movies for whatever reason without sounding like a monster probably.

HELLSING

13 episodes of the poorest adaptation of a manga I could ever think of. It's almost laughable. It has a banger soundtrack and it's totally worth listening to said OST. But if you're actually interested in Hellsing, go seek out Hellsing Ultimate (or at least that's what I keep hearing). Not sure if I should classify this version of Hellsing as NSFW, but Ultimate is definitely NSFW for the violence.

HELLSING ULTIMATE

Yeah so even I need to watch this one. Been aiming for it for a while, but I'll finally bite the bullet soon.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

While generally, I would recommend just playing the VNs for these, this was my introduction to When They Cry in general, so I have a bit of a soft spot for these anime adaptations. They're just okay, but I don't hate them.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

The answer arcs hit a little harder than the question arcs, I won't lie.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

It's okay if you stop after this I'll forgive you!!!!!

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou

So, this was originally marketed as a new adaptation, but then we got the ol' bait & switch that confirmed it was a new project on episode 2 and it's just... I wanted to like this but I just don't. I'll give this first arc more of a pass than the later one (because that's an even bigger mess) but it feels like the issue here wasn't even Ryukishi attempting to tell us a message that we needed, but more of Passione failing at every step of the way to adapt this story into something other than a cheap gorefest. It's Higurashi distilled to a sheer parody of itself. And it makes me sad because this series deserves better. Do yourself a favor and either seek out the corresponding manga for this part or just skip it entirely. I could probably put something a bit more concrete here but I'll get around to that when I finish up working through Higurashi as a whole again so, idk expect that 8 years from now at my rate.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu

Satoko will not be absolved of her crimes.

Also yes this is so bad that I intentionally put it at 0/5 instead of 1/5. I don't even want to go into a rant about it other than it's just torture porn for the sake of it. This should probably have an NSFL warning, to be honest. Like yeah, WTC is no stranger to gore but sometimes it was just... over the top. Anyways this entire series disrespects Higurashi at it's very core. I could give Gou a pass to a degree, but this is like... an insult to the reader's intelligence as a whole at times. IDK how else to word it really. Literally one of the worst things I've watched. Sucks because I love WTC as a whole. It's just sad seeing everyone get so watered down. Like yes, part of it is there in Gou but like... idk considering they're so deeply connected, it's hard not evaluating them as a whole. I just kinda hate Passione.

At the very least, the music is done nicely.

Honey & Clover

I don't think the anime adaptation necessarily does this manga justice, but I love it either way. People might find this one a bit uncomfortable due to the portrayal of Hagu though, so keep that in mind.

Honey & Clover II

I hate to say it, but the content between season 1 & 2 kinda blur together oops.

Howl's Moving Castle

I saw this movie once and I honestly decided that I have to rob Howl of his gender.

IDOLiSH7

I won't lie, I have a lot of feelings about IDOLiSH7. Not all of them good, but for the most part, I do like this series. Part 1 is kind of whatever, but it does a really good job at establishing the group and fleshing them out. Yes, a few amount of scenes were kind of paraphrased in this adaptation and some things were flat out removed, but it doesn't take away from the adaptation as a whole. I know some people in the community would say otherwise, but like, idk it's a 17 episode adaptation. I think the only thing that really takes away from this series is the fact that they really do not let performances of songs shine the way they do in other series. I remember most songs having some sort of cut away to do drama bits and narration and it's just... what really takes this series down a notch as a whole. I'm sure someone will come in and say "but it's that way in the story for the game as well" and like, yes I know that. But an adaptation does not need to be 1:1 to be good. And this was an instance they should have done their own thing instead of following the app so rigidly. Because I think it would have let i7 shine a lot more.

IDOLiSH 7 Vibrato

So, this was a series of youtube shorts split up into 2 halves per short. It included some of the side stories, like a manga adaptation, the sidestory about Natsu Shiyoze that was pretty crucial to the first plot but just never came up again, and I think one was a straight up new story? I also don't remember if the terrorism plot was in here or not but I think it was. Either way a little bit of a "best of" when it comes to side material. Worth watching if you like i7, but nothing so noteworthy that I'm like "yeah, you gotta go pick this up." I think if I were to say any of it should have been required viewing, it's specifically the Natsu Shiyoze story, for obvious reasons.

RabbiTube

Youtube birthday specials that were made to go along with the mobage. They're cute enough. Go see your favorite boy talk about stuff.

IDOLiSH 7: Second Beat!

Yuki Re:vale the goat. Anyways, this is kind of a whatever season. If you like Re:vale, it's a pretty good season. If you don't, you're probably gonna go "ehh, whatever" to this part? Like outside of their very focused plot, it's kind of... forgettable. There's that one scene between Mitsuki & Nagi during this season as well and in reality that's... the only other notable thing in this season.

IDOLiSH 7: Third Beat!

So, this season starts off pretty strong, and in all honesty despite it being split into 2 parts, it's probably my favorite of what's out so far. The introduction of Tsukumo Ryou as part 3 & 4's main antagonist was honestly really good. It's just unfortunate that he gets shoved out of the series, because what he brings to the table is pretty powerful in terms of his antics and the general performance (Powerful enough that during the virtual FF14 Fanfest that they listed Tsukumo as one of his major roles during the VA panel). Anyways this half of the story is Yamato's long needed backstory and some of the build up until ZOOL finally debuts.

Also, Umineko Jumpscare.

IDOLiSH 7: Third Beat! Part 2

The other half of part 3. In all honesty, this is probably the best part of what's been animated so far. And also has the strongest themes of of the series. I am not lying when I tell you that Imperial Chain is probably my most listened i7 song out there and is just so damn good. I'm really excited to finally see Antagonistic Quarter animated finally... Hopefully... I pray. I imagine it's soon because the summary movies were at the end of the year. I suppose I could check those out finally but in reality, I'm waiting for the story to continue.

Also I'm pretty sure the bat scene is in this part.

Inuyasha

So, as a kid I used to love Inuyasha. But one year I rewatched all of the anime for it during Guild Wars, and I'm just here kinda astounded as to why I even really liked it. It's not bad. But I don't know if I could call it good either. I think if there's anything truly wrong with it, is that the anime doesn't really do some of the themes of the series justice and just goes for this really awkward love triangle. Like, everything here is pretty good in theory. We have a female lead isekai. We have historical drama. We have really interesting Japanese mythology with the various Yokai that show up. And we have, for the most part, pretty decent characters. But just... the way it's executed in the anime just wants me to point people towards the manga. At the very least, the aesthetics of the show are pretty good, and the OST is strong. But do yourself a favor and check out the manga for it.

Oh, and the themesongs are all generally really good.

Either way, I will proceed to complain despite everything I said with how Inuyasha himself treats the women in his life in the anime because he's legitimately so frustrating. I understand that the issue here is complex. Being in love with a girl who you thought betrayed you, sealed you for years, and died doing so, only for her reincarnation to show up and you having to get used to the idea that despite her being your ex's reincarnation is a completely different woman? Yeah, that's rough buddy. But the fact that the anime treats it more like a generic love triangle, especially once Kikyo is ressurected and given a body of clay against her will, rather than dealing with the fact that it's more about coming to terms with the death of someone you once loved and seeing how they suffer once brought back, as well as posing questions such as "Am I betraying her by moving on?" "Am I betraying her by dating her reincarnation?" Like, there's absolutely interesting stuff posed here, but it just sucks that the anime well... sucks. I think a lot of it is just the director not understanding the questions that are being posed here.

Despite all that, the filler here can be a bit fun. None of the movies were all that memorable, but they're not bad watches. The actual tv fillers can be pretty funny as well, as they tend to have Inuyasha interacting with the modern world, and they can be kind of silly.

Inuyasha: Toki wo Koeru Omoi

So, here's my attempts to rewrite everything for the movies which I just... didn't go into detail about when I first put this in my watching log. Uh... The movies are kind of ehh. Like, this one's okay. The animation's a little different in terms of it's style, but it generally looks good. But outside of Kagome getting possessed and not being able to make it back until her heart like.. connects with Inuyasha or something like that, it's not really memorable. There's a giant T posing moth guy they gotta defeat at some point. And that's it.

Inuyasha: Kagami no Naka no Mugenjo

I generally think this movie is a bit better than the previous one, but for being an alternate telling of the Kaguyahime myth. Either way it has a kiss scene that is not canon that everyone used to lose their minds over back in the day online and used that as the "InuKag Truth Nuke" essentially but like, idk the rest of the story is pretty decent from what I remember of it? I could probably use a rewatch of these movies.

Inuyasha: Tenka Hadou no Ken

Another decent movie. This time about the brothers & the bond they share with their father and something or other like that. I remember it being really good and also we got a picture of baby brat Inuyasha and I always wondered how he was born with hair and not bald.

Inuyasha: Guren no Houraijima

So, for the longest while, after the cliffhanger the anime left us on, all we had was like... this movie. And uh. It's not that good. Like cool we're talking about Hourai but uh we just got left on a massive cliffhanger and this doesn't add anything so it just felt unsatisfying. But the theme was a banger.

Inuyasha: Kanketsu Hen

So, I have a lot to say about Kanketsu hen, but I'm trying to condense it as so this doesn't become an essay that I'm writing for 3 days for the sake of getting this anilog actually properly posted with raitings.

Anyways, this isn't bad in terms of content. Like all the important stuff is here. But it has no room to breathe. And the issues present here even in 2009-2010 would continue on to plague the anime industry as a whole. Like, this isn't the only time this has happened, but it's the most notable in my eyes due to the familiarity of this franchise as a whole. And I really really wish that this series latter half was able to take its time the way the first one did. Because I think even doubling it to 52 episodes would have helped. Like the final fight against Naraku is good and it's a cool way to see all the characters come together. And Kagura's death is heartbreaking considering the fact that her entire thing was how she wanted to be free. But just the rush to tell all these storybeats when the original had you locked in for the long burn really hurts it.

Anyways once again this is Inuyasha manga propaganda. Go read that.

Hanyou no Yashahime

Yeah I won't lie, I dropped this in about 8 episodes. I really could not be bothered to care. And my main issue honestly came from Moroha herself. Now. I won't pretend like I was expecting anything all that great with Yashahime. But when I heard about a story about Sesshomaru's daughters, I was definitely interested. After all, Setsuna isn't bad (not that she's good either, but she wasn't so irritating I wanted to turn off the episode). Towa, despite the internet hating the fact that Sesshomaru ended up having a daughter that was gender non-conforming and a bit of a pacifist, who lived in the modern age rather than the sengoku period, is honestly... an interesting choice if there ever was one, and I actually kind of liked her. But Moroha is where I was just... God. I dropped after 8 episodes because of her. And it's primarily because she feels like she was written to be Inuyasha again, but a shallow attempt to understand him as a character. I know the series itself was already pretty short in comparison to the original Inuyasha's episode count, but I couldn't do it. I had to drop because of her.

If I pick it up again, it'll be to finally figure out what the hell happened here. Banger ending theme though.

Also I will never forget when the entirety of twitter waas trying to cancel Sesshomaru because that shit was so fucking funny. Guys, he's a fucking Yokai.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I always found it weird that these OVAs start with the latter half of Stardust Crusaders rather than the beginning. Also the line delivery on "He Killed Kakyoin" lives rent free in my head.

Also Dio Looking At 7up.gif

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (2000)

Honestly, since they're so old, you may as well start here and go back to the ones released in '93. They're a very brief exploration of Stardust Crusaders as a part, and the style is definitely very reminiscent of 90s anime. But I suppose that makes it charming. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you should go for this in place of the DaviPro version of Stardust Crusaders at all. If you actually want the story, go for that. However, I think it's neat that these exist, and if you wish to seek them out, it doesn't hurt to do so.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (TV)

So, I've seen some people complain that Part 1 & 2 shouldn't have been crammed into a single season, but as someone who's read most of the manga, I don't see that as a problem. This is a very thorough adaptation of the series, and it's so well done and very charming. Love the choices of opening & endings here. Especially Roundabout. Honestly classic. Either way, if you've ever wanted to hop on Jojo but were too intimdated by the length of the manga, this adaptation is not a bad place to start.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

This is one of the fan favorite Jojo parts, and for good reason. It's a story that's moreso about it's journey than it's destination. The former half is in these 24 episodes, and the latter is in the next season. I know a lot of people will call quite a bit of this "monster of the week" and formulaic, and I suppose you could argue that? But it's a fun watch regardless. As stated before, these are really thorough adaptations of the manga, and that especially shines through here. Most major battles are split into 2 episode parts. Some say that this can detract from the series, but I dunno if I agree.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc

Easily one of the most hyped series of anime to watch as it was airing--I think the only other thing that comes to mind that was as hype as this was TTGL back in '07. Either way, this easily has one of my favorite openings within the series, and the final edit of it is amazing. It was so fun seeing Jotaro vs DIO realized properly.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

I've seen people claim that you can hop off Jojo at this part but I honestly disagree. Diamond is Unbreakable is one of my favorite parts and for good reason. The character building and the way that the location of Morioh as a whole is realized is just so good in my eyes. Araki did so good with this one. The way the mystery builds up and the conclusion is also just great. Yoshikage Kira is such a great villain, and I personally love Killer Queen. What a cool stand. If you quit before, consider going back and giving this a shot.

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan

I cannot STAND this guy.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo

Vento Aureo is another fan favorite--Though maybe less so in some places considering how long the translations for the manga were just botched. This is probably the first part of the series where everything was a surprise to me due to the bad translations. Like, they were just that bad to read through. I couldn't even make sense of the damn thing. Thank god that's fixed not only by having this anime, but the proper love and care being put into Jojo translations--Both online and official finally coming out at some point. That being said, I would say this part is just okay. It's not a bad part at all, but there's points I definitely feel the series kinda drags on. The final fight is really good though, and Buccellati is a good character.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean

For the crime of pirating anime you are going to Green Dolphin St. Where you will be adapted by Netflix and watch the budget for this series drain into the fucking gutter. Yeah, I won't lie, I didn't like these adaptations much at all. The color palette turns into bland gray, the pacing goes absolutely whack, and the point where episodes are cut off is beyond awkward. If you try to save your brain by making your own Jojo fridays and not watching it in a giant block, well... Sorry, not even that could save it.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part 2

Echo what I said up there down here. The only saving grace was the fact that the last part, with the Pucci confrontation and everything, is done fairly well. The absolute gutpunch in the final episode though was the ending credits. Have fun getting to that part though.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run

WHERE IS EPISODE 2 NETFLIX?

Jujutsu Kaisen

Yes, I am copypasting my original review here with some uh, minor edits. I still generally feel the same way about JJK but I do think that maybe the final season will change my opinion? Dunno. I'll probably watch it as a batch with a friend when it finishes airing, because they requested to watch it together, so I'm planning on that. So that may be the first actual update you see to this log that isn't just me filling in pieces as I go along.

I want to start out by saying that I don't think Jujutsu Kaisen is bad. I don't think it's as great as people hype it up to be, but as I said initially, this anime is serviceable. The thing I feel the most though? It suffers from not having time to breathe and develop it's characters. I know some people will argue "well that just means adding filler into the series and nobody wants that" and "Oh this is a really good manga adaptation because it follows the manga," and they'll use series like One Piece and Bleach as an example of people not wanting filler and I'm just here like... While I don't have any say on how good it is in comparison to the manga, I do understand not wanting literal blocks of filler. But I also still feel like just a bit of fleshing out further than what we got would have been nice. Because in the initial review of half of season 1 of this, my major complaint was that the school kids were really flat. And I still feel that. Some people say that during the Shibuya Arc, everyone gets major development and I'm just here like "I dunno, we just get some flashbacks and they die." Which like, I guess I'll talk about that in a bit.

For the most part, the initial episode introducing everything was really solid. It's a shame that the rest of the series kinda doesn't stay as interesting as that. We go from that initial eating of the Sukuna finger and becoming the Sukuna vessel to "Congratulations you're going to sorcerer school!" And that gets followed up by a School vs School tournament thing which gets interrupted by Gojo's Ex Wife, Geto. And... that's all I could tell you about part 1. It's not bad, but I really dislike school tournament things. Most tournament arcs can be kinda mid as is, but it also never helps having a tournament arc in a place that tournaments don't make sense. The Tournament arc thing gave us Todo and that's the only pass I'm giving it.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0

This movie actually managed to be pretty good. It was engaging, didn't overstay it's welcome, and gave a bit of fleshing out to Maki as a character as well as introducing a movie protagonist that was pretty interesting. The entire concept of accidentally cursing the girl you liked as a mistake instead of her turning into a curse upon death was pretty interesting. The work done on the two managed to be more interesting than the main character of the series in just like 2 hours though and I feel like... Well, while it's not a problem of the movie's, it's still a problem. Like, I don't know how you create a character that's more interesting than your main character and develop them more with less time. Kinda made me even more frustrated at this series though.

Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season

So season 2 starts with Hidden Inventory which is a flashback sequence related to Gojo and Geto. Honestly, it's probably the best this series has been because it's really allowed to just flourish for those few initial episodess. The animation manages to lend a lot to the visual storytelling. That and it shows that Geto is actually a really interesting character and the way it shows his motives and why he came to that conclusion may have been short, but it got the point across in a pretty powerful way. It made me understand why people were so invested in him & Gojo within 5 episodes. We also get to learn quite a bit about Gojo and his power and it's all pretty interesting.

Too bad it stops at 5 or so episodes and just returns to what they were doing before heading into the Shibuya arc.

So, I've seen 2 sides of the argument for the Shibuya arc. The first is that Gojo being cast aside gives the rest of the characters a lot of development that was needed and that it made the series better to just seal him away. The other argument is that the show is just boring without him and you can see a giant Gojo shaped hole that casts a shadow over everything that happens. I'm unfortunately inclined to agree with the latter. I can't help but feel like without Gojo this show is just lacking. Like, there's a reason he's a fan favorite. Taking him out and banishing him to Suguru Geto's Ultimate Divorce Chamber is just not fun. Like yes, the cast needed to develop and pushing Gojo out of the picture would have been great if they did develop. But all that feels that happened was that they got some flashbacks before dropping like flies, as Itadori sits there convinced that he's some sort of monster for trying to fight Mahito. Literally, all that happened was a slew of deaths that just left the kid traumatized and that was seen as "development" in some people's eyes. Everything here just has me scratching my head.

Speaking of heads and choices that really confused me, let's talk about the revelation with Geto. Like, when they had the scene with Gojo yelling at Geto, I could tell from a mile away where they were going with what Gojo was going to say it (The line where he talks about him looking like Geto but lacking the heart or something like that) but the follow up was... I don't know how to say this other than it's just insulting. There could have been a ton of other choices made there but "Actually, I'm an evil brain that hijacked Geto's body and his memories and feelings remain to an extent but I'm evil SEE?" as he pops off the top of his skull like a coconut sliced in half was just... What the fuck. That's just poor writing. They could have done anything else. Have him double down on his choices as to why he became so cold and unfeeling. Have him explain everything that radicalized him. Don't make him so generically evil and partially forgive his choice to slaughter an entire village because of how they treated two sorcerers by just going "Oh, his choices weren't even his it's an evil little brain piloting him." It's just so bad.

The rest of the season from there on out is just ok. Most of this show is like okay. It's passable. I don't like the 1 dimensional characters at times but there's other times where the ridiculousness of whatever's going on really makes things shine. The guy who's power was essentially animation frames was kind of funny with how meta it got for a second there. Nanami is generally really enjoyable even if he is a typical business man who isn't paid enough. Sukuna is very entertaining even though he's the most overpowered character in the show outside of Gojo. I wouldn't say it's better or worse than the 1st season or that it's particularly a bad show. It's just way more fun if you turn your brain off for the majority of it.

Honestly, I'd finish off this "review" if you can even still call it that (it still feels like a bit of a rant) with my thoughts on Itadori as a whole but I honestly make it seem like I 100% despise the kid most of the time to be honest. He's mostly fine, I just hate his incredibly weak character motivation for an action series. I think if he was in like, idk, ANYTHING ELSE, he'd be an interesting character. But considering this is a show where we're shown monsters constantly eating people and stuff like that, his motivation feels so weak (I mean just turn on a TV you'll see that nobody's dying a good death when there's so many damn shootings in US lately.) Like, yeah, his contract or whatever with Sukuna makes it more interesting because they're complete opposites or whatever, but Sukuna just feels like something for the author to fall back on rather than actually develop Itadori. Which I think kind of sucks because I think a character like him could shine if he was given proper development.

In my original version of this entry, or maybe it's in the OP one that summarizes other anime as well, I talked about how I found out that Akutami's vision for this series was way different than what we got (Told from me by a friend, rather than read from a direct source, so keep that in mind.) I also know he hates Gojo apparently. Which I feel like explains some of the choices he made in this series. It's just unfortunate how things played out because if it wasn't for stuff like that, I think this could have been way stronger. For now, I'll have to hope that whatever we're given with the rest of this series is a bit better. But knowing where things go due to spoilers doesn't make me super hopeful. I'm just here to kind of have a laugh at this point.

For now, I'll just say that where I started with this series is ultimately where I ended up. I really enjoy Gojo quite a bit, but the rest of everything going on here leaves me frustrated and wishing the development & fleshing out of other characters was a priority. For now though, I'm definitely committing to watching Season 3 when it airs because I have to know how the GojoGeto Divorce Court plays out.

Anyways welcome to my TED talk on why JJK should have just been GojoGeto Yaoi.

K-ON!

So I will admit that K-ON is a huge victim of circumstances is in my eyes. When the series came out, I had friends pressuring me that this is the thing that I should be watching, talking about, and obsessing over (which never goes well for people--If there's anything that is going to piss me off and make me dislike something, it's telling me what I should like especially when it comes to anime.) There was also another side to this though, that another friend group was telling me (actually, straight up weirdly pressuring--if not threatening me) that I should watch it just to see how dogshit it is and how bad the entire series is.

I will not lie. I was originally inclined to agree with the latter, but moreso because I was tired of having it shoved down my throat. These days though? I feel a lot differently towards K-ON.

It's a series that I've been longing to give a second chance, at my own pace, for my own reasons. I think over the years, it's just managed to kind of cement itself in my mind. Like, something I never wanted to admit to enjoying because of all the weird pressure I had gotten surrounding this series while it aired. And like... I think if I never had that, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot.

I mostly say that because despite my dislike for this series, several of the songs for it stayed on my old ass iPod that I boot up once every century or so, it feels. Like, if I hated K-ON that much, then why is it when I see Mio, I still get kind of excited and overjoyed to see her. Or I remember some of the songs so fondly, especially her image songs.

A while ago, I just kind of came to terms that I probably actually liked K-ON, and being how I was back then, was way too stubborn to actually ever admit it to myself. And having seen Bocchi the Rock, which I honestly loved so much, it made me want to revisit that, if for myself.

That and like I realized how much I hated men intervening in my opinions and trying to guilt me into how I saw things. Because the person who was telling me how I should hate it and why its bad and how liking anything like that was so bad and awful and cringe was someone I used to be really close to. And how they started hurting my feelings anytime I liked something that was just... A cute girl that was being a cute girl, and not someone who had some Greater Purpose within any given series. Idk, I've come to hate that line of thinking over the years. And thus, I felt like I owed it to myself to actually watch this series in whole and just enjoy myself. Sometimes women can be women and don't owe it to anyone to be "useful" or the best wittiest smartest actioniest useful girl ever. Girls can just be girls, and that's what K-ON feels like it's about. Girls being girls.

Kakumeiki Valvrave

All I can remember about this is that there's vampires and robots and it's kinda fun to watch.

Kakumeiki Valvrave 2

Another victim of PC crashes and losing places to either download or watch episodes. I remember getting to 2/12 but it's been so long, I may as well rewatch it as a whole.

Kannagi

Honestly just typical slice of life stuff. A girl who's a tree does some cute girl things. Kinda forgettable though. Truth be told, I forgot I had even watched all of it until someone posted a picture of some nendoroids and the memories came back to me. A bit fuzzy, but still.

Kannon (2006)

Another VN adaptation that gave me a great love of Key Visual, KyoAni, and terminal depression. People don't tend to remember this one as well as Clannad, and I guess it's probably because it's much slower, but I had a decent enough time with it. Personally, I really like it, but I'm sure anyone who comes here will probably say, "Yeah this person's tastes are just weird." If anything, if you liked Clannad, I suppose give this a watch as well. It's more of the same.

Kara no Kyoukai: Fukan Fuukei

Out of all the top series I regret bingewatching over the course of a night or so, in a group call, distracted and playing some MMO on the side, this series is my #1. No seriously. There's something about these movies that should be enjoyed as a slowburn that you make your way through and just meditateon after you finish. And I didn't give myself that opportunity. Watch with a group of friends who understand the value of darkening the room and piling onto a couch with popcorn & other various snacks, perhaps some of those chewy soft redvines, and just sitting in silence every few weeks to tick one of these off the list. Much better than a friend who kept repeatedly saying "Oh my god, are you okay" every time anything at all happened.

Since I know I watched these because of old screencaps of said chat and finding random notes on my Anilist about watching them, I know I saw them all. The issue I have is not remembering anything and thus meaning that everything will be blanked until I decide to rewatch them all. Guess I'm committing to that at some point this year.

Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen)

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Kara no Kyoukai: Tsuukaku Zanryuu

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Kara no Kyoukai: Garan no Dou

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Kara no Kyoukai: Mujun Rasen

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Kara no Kyoukai: Boukyaku Rokuon

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Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Kou)

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Kara no Kyoukai: Shuushou

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Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

God I love Hideaki Anno.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu

An alternative Touken Ranbu but this time we're focusing on Kanesan. This guy trolled my nodes so hard that he decided to show up in an anime to taunt me. It's not a bad watch, and is completely different in tone than Hanamaru. It's a pick your poison type of ordeal. I personally like Hanamaru more, but I think as an experience as a whole, Katsugeki is probably a better watch. You need no real knowledge of TKRB to enjoy this, vs Hanamaru expects you to be familiar.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

Something I bingewatched with friends one day. Has a very deep love for animation and the process of making anime, and all very informative. Definitely worth checking out if you're into that, and even if you're not. I couldn't tell you much aside from that though, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to deter you from watching it.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Honestly, a classic. An all time favorite from when I was a child. Still generally good. If you somehow haven't seen it, it's very cute. Go watch it. Now.

Kill la Kill

Honestly, this entire thing is a wild fucking ride from start to finish. It also has some of the best OST I've heard in a while. I say that like I didn't only watch it as it aired and only then and haven't rewatched it since, but like the fact that the OST has been stuck in my head since that day should tell you something.

Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover

I'd say "this is for those of us who refused to play a few mobile games" but it's really not covering everything you missed. Sucks that these games are now shut down, but thankfully there are people on Youtube who archived every single bit of this part of KH, so I suppose if you care for the deep lore, you'd better get watching.

Land of the Lustrous

GOD I WISH STUDIO ORANGE WOULD CONTINUE ADAPTING THE MANGA FOR THIS IT WAS GORGEOUS AND I LOVED IT. Legit think I'll pick up the manga at some point. It's one of the few series where I was immediately tempted to go pick up a manga. Watch it if you haven't.

Little Witch Academia

So, I won't lie, I really don't remember the movie version of this even though I know I've watched it, and I mainly remember the anime version, but it's generally pretty cute. Yes it's very magic school. Yes, you might unfortunately be reminded of Wizard Book because people act like "Magic School" belings to She Who Must Not Be Named is treated like she's the only person who has ever made a magic school, but I can guarantee you this one is better. Why? Because this magic school is only girls. And there's lesbians. Sorry, I can't interpret that ending as anything other than gay.

Log Horizon

So, season 1 of Log Horizon is honestly pretty strong. I think it's a great example of great worldbuilding and how MMOs work and trying to actually put thought into the concept of "How would people trapped inside of a game actually live their lives and deal with the residents of that world." Everything is focused on things like people adjusting to their day to day lives and making peace with people and forming real life factions, and that's honestly pretty cool.

My issue starts however, with the start of 2nd season, which is where I honestly tabbed out. I got 4 episodes in and it's literally just girls fighting over Shiro and some weird love triangle stuff that I honestly just did not care for. I'm not against romance in anime, but I don't enjoy the sudden tone shift. Like, I know you could say "Oh this kind of stuff was definitely there from the getgo with Log Horizon" and yes, it was definitely kind of there. But it was much more subtle. When it takes center stage is when I'm just turned off. Especially because the entire topic was essentially "Romance has intersected with Raiding" and it was just exhausting. Then again, it's exhausting because it's a very "Been there, done that" situation for me. Dunno. Hope it gets better. I'd like to pick it up again soon because I don't think this series is all that bad.

Log Horizon 2

I had to step back from this due to the really annoying melodrama girl vs girl bullshit about fighting over who gets to be in a raid team. Considering I had just crashed out over UCoB at the time, I think that was the right decision. I'll pick it up again, eventually.

Love Hina

Maybe it's because I just don't really watch too many harem things these days that I can't help but look at stuff like Love Hina and compare it to what I know is considered to be popular harem anime now, and just go "Man, I guess they just don't make them like Love Hina anymore." Which is weird to think when you don't really enjoy it. But yeah, these days, harem feels like it goes above and beyond into ecchi or into the isekai male power fantasy harem (or at least that's the types I always see brought up now.) Love Hina isn't either of those. It's a simple story about a guy trying to get into Tokyo University and crashing at a relative's dorm that is intended to be solely for women. Honestly, it feels a lot more relaxed, even if the episodes can get pretty nonsensical in what's going on in them. Still, it's generally a pretty fun story and had tons of character music to boot. It's worth checking out, even if you're not super into harem stuff, but I remember it getting a bit inappropriate at times.

Love Live! School Idol Project

Ohhh this is one of the greats. I thought when I got into it "Oh big deal its cute girls dancing and singing" and then by the time I was done I felt emotionally run over by a truck. Part 1 is pretty tame, I feel. But it's still good.

Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season

The second half of the series. I remember getting to the end and being like "oh god there's no way Love Live can hurt me more" And then it managed to hurt me more.

Love Live! The School Idol Movie

This movie is okay and you think you're safe until you hear the end song that's related to how they were ending this LL project and moving onto a new group and it coincided with the end of the real lives and everything fucking hurt.

Love Live! Sunshine!!

Aquors not too bad, but I will say that I vastly prefer the previous set of girls to the newer girls.

Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season

I think this is where they covered some of the other characters backstories finally and talked about some of the ordeals related to their group, and it was much needed character development. Or I could be mixing things up. I do remember the ending being kind of "huh," but also like... A lot more realistic. IDK. It's been a while. I just know that these girls also eventually grew on me as much as the original group did.

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow

Kind of an ehhh movie, to be honest. Like it's just not memorable.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club

I remember falling off this halfway through the season, probably because ADHD has the biggest victim count on this entire list. It wasn't bad at all, but I won't lie and tell you that most of it wasn't forgettable. What I did like in this series was seeing the amount of girls that were legitimately token items for leveling up your other cards actually being realized as characters. Not that it matters anymore because both of the Love Live games died such dishonorable deaths.

Lucky Star

Honestly a '00s staple. It's simple slice of life fun in a simple 24 episode package.

Made in Abyss

Not touching this rating until I rewatch it but boy do I have some thoughts on Made in Abyss...

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Gaiden

So, I'm just going to summarize my opinions on all 3 parts here. This is some nothingburger adaptation of a gacha game meant to milk Madoka Magica's success that really wasn't needed. The gacha was fine enough--Or at least, that's how I'm looking at it as an outsider who didn't bother with the gacha. I acknowledge it's importance to the universe but lets be real here: It's a gacha. Lore shouldn't be gated behind a fucking gacha of all things but like... Let's be real here it's not the first time we've seen this happen.

Gacha rant aside, I feel like this really didn't need to happen and the effort could have been focused on the final Madoka Magica movie but OH WELL I SUPPOSE.

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Gaiden 2nd SEASON -Kakusei Zenya-

More nothingburger.

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Gaiden Final SEASON - Asaki Yume no Akatsuki

Truth be told, I don't know why these are even split up aside from some sort of time crunch failure that is typical of Shaft. That aside, these last 12 episodes (meaning 2nd & final together) didn't really add anything to this series. I suppose if I gave this entire thing any credit is that certain concepts & witch designs were neat, as well as the differing motivations of different girls. But that's whatever. As a whole, I feel like nothing was really gained from watching this.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

I watched an episode of this once. I honestly want to go through and watch it all the way through, just for the sake of finally finding out what it's all about. It's another GAiNAX work, so I'm expecting it to be decent.

Mahou Sensei Negima

Not to be confused with "Negima!?" which is like... a sequel? I don't know what to call it because I didn't watch that one. However, I do enjoy a fine Ken Akamatsu work. I know people are like "Uh this is just Wizard Book but with a Harem" and like yes unfortunately it is that. But also there's something so endearing about the class of girls, even if they are being wholy inappropriate to a 10 year old boy. Still, if you can get past the problematic parts of this work, it's pretty charming despite all it's obvious woes. I used to be obsessed with all the music that came out of this and it's sequel, to the point I didn't even watch the sequel. I just downloaded the music.

I'm still mad they put a second man in the fucking NEGIMA COLLAB UNITS in Granblue Fantasy. It's a fucking harem. KMR JR A SHIT.

Maria†Holic

Not gonna lie, kind of a very forgettable anime. I only remember it due to it's ending theme, Kimi ni Mune Kyun. It's not bad, it just doesn't stand out.

MASHLE

I originally wrote an entire rant about this. I don't really feel up to repeating it but all you have to know is that despite the 12 episode length, I don't think I'll be finishing it, even if I got to 10/12. Watched it with a friend and honestly, the entire thing is that it's a Wizard Book parody but it's more of the type that's like "Remember when Wizard Book did this?" and that's all. There's just nothing there. It's not good. Don't seek it out. Even in comparison to the Wizard Book it's bad. You could watch literally anything else.

According to Anilist wrapped, dropping this was my "Hottest Take." IDK, I'm so tired of Rowlingslop and even things made to poke fun of it exhaust me.

Mawaru Penguindrum

There's not a lot of series that I bingewatch in a matter of literal hours, gripping the edge of my seat to figure out where it goes next, only to get blindsided by literally everything going on. This is that kind of series. Could I tell you what this all means? Could I tell you how this philosophically ties back into the Sarin Subway Attack of 95? Could I even tell you the truth of what's going on here? Or how it all happened? Or how it all played out? Why it played out. I'm continuously left scratching my head at this one, unable to really crack the full mystery of the message I was given, and yet it drew so many emotions out of me.

Anyways, YOU SHOULD WATCH IT.

Mekakucity Actors

You will get more out of watching Jin's MVs with no supplementary information whatsoevesr then you will out of watching this anime adaptation.

Michiko e Hatchin

I remember next to nothing about this, but I remember watching like 3/4ths of it. But the designs are banger. Definitely plan to finish in the future. Either way, it's something I'd like to finish, so for now I'm leaving it blank.

Mob Psycho 100

Started watching the teachings of Reigen but got distracted by ADHD as usual. I can't wait to see his boyfriend Sans show up.

My Neighbor Totoro

A classic. Very cute movie. I feel like everyone knows this one, so I'm not going to go in detail with it. Reminds me of childhood, for sure.

Naruto

Naruto is a series I want to say that I like and that I also want to say that I completed. But let's be real, I neither completed it nor do I like it all that much these days. The main issue I have and my reason for dropping it lays somewhere between the large bulk of filler that was put into that first anime before Shippuden and the focus on Sasuke and not much else than him for a while. I feel like Naruto's strength really lays in its ensemble cast because I don't feel like the main group really sticks out to me much at all. Everyone else is so much more interesting in comparison. So when it got to the end of the first part and everything is so lazer focused on Naruto and Sasuke from what I remember (as it's been years now since I've watched it) I just... got burnt out and put it down. And never dseired to pick it back up. Truth be told, unless the new remake is much easier to palette, I don't think I will.

Edit: So I found out the new remake isn't even a remake, it's just a series of animation shorts to celebrate the anniversary. Boo.

Another edit, at a later point: So I want to say that all the parts leading up to the chuunin exam & that Gaara vs Rock Lee fight are incredibly peak but that's whwere it just nosedives.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Y'know, I was going to attempt to adapt my thoughts for all of these from a previous blog entry and stick it all here. But I think it's best that I just rewrite this. Anyways. I love this series. You should watch it. I'm not even going to describe it or go in depth with any gripes and issues. Just watch it. Watch the TV air of the ending. Enjoy it. Do not care about what everyone says about how you should skip episodes 25 & 26. Ignore them. They are stupid. Watch Eva. Enjoy it. Take in what Anno is trying to tell you. Dwell on it for decades. Welcome whatever Yoko Taro will do with this franchise into your heart.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion

I really love the giant "Fuck You" moment Anno was handing us. Go off, king.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth

Probably one of the most unique ways to make a summary movie, I won't lie.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

Evangelion rebuild has always given me mixed feelings, but I will not lie, it looks pretty.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

This is where we start diverging from the original TV air, but god it still looks pretty.

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

I have so many mixed feelings on this fucking movie in particular. But the placement of being in Shinji's shoes on being absolutely befuddled as to what the fuck is going on was a really good choice. You can really get in his mind the first time you watch it. Overall, it's an okay movie.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Honestly, after the feelings I had towards the 3rd one, I thought I was going to hate it. Instead, it hit just right. I know some people don't like it, and that's fine, but I still think it's pretty solid. I won't lie, Shinji and Mari running off at the end as everyone else departs on the train at the end was like an emotional brick over the head.

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?

I don't remember what got me to try this, but I'll tell you it's typical MMO player male power fantasy harem junk that I couldn't even bare to finish despite it being 12 episodes. It's just not good, and the main girl is wayyy too clingy.

Nichijou

More of the sames type of humor that you will expect out of stuff like Azumanga. Worth the watch to be honest. It's light hearted and easy to turn on when your brain needs a bit of a cooldown.

Ninja Batman vs. Yakuza League

Kinda watched this after raid one day with no knowledge of the prior movie. Miss Diana, you may have my number.

Ninja Scroll

WARNING: NSFW

Things I shouldn't have been allowed to watch as a child.

No Game No Life

I was recommended this under the guise that it's good but I'mma be real: This show is everything I hate in anime. It has that weird incest vibe even though apparently they're not technically related (which makes it weirder that they try to go with it.) The entire thing is also littered with references to other media as its humor, and while I don't mind a reference here and there, I really hate it when theyre just randomly placed with no connection to what's going on. Honestly, this is pretty skippable. Everyone who argues that it's "Peak Otaku" or "The Otaku's Journey" or whatever, like okay, you do you, but I don't desire to touch it. The only thing I'll give it is that the colors of the original art are kind of nice, but it feels wrong to say that considering there's been several tracing allegations with the artist over years so... Yeah probably don't support this.

Anyways, I'll repeat my commentary that I had on my MAL all those years ago, before I deleted it: Why watch poorly inserted no-context Jojo references when you can just watch Jojo?

ONE PIECE

It'd be an understatement to say that One Piece is a big series when it comes to anime and manga. Perhaps the word "monumental" is a bit more fitting? After all, during the big late 90s to early 00s anime boom, it was positioned as one of the "Big Three" alongside series like Naruto and Bleach, both of which have ended their serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump and have been successfully adapted into anime as well--Naruto having finished airing and Bleach being in it's final arc's adaptation (or something like that, considering it seems like it keeps getting drawn out.)

One Piece however, continues on. The anime continues to adapt despite it's hiatuses from time to time. The manga continues to run as well, it's serialization outliving several new hits like JJK, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, to name a few.

You'd think with that much material to talk about that actually talking about One Piece would be easy. Hell, I took the easy route when it came to watching the anime. I watched through the One Pace edits and found myself caught up to the current air in a matter of months, so I'm just behind by today's episode and that's it. After all, we all know the anime community's divisive thoughts on the mere topic of filler.

And yet, it's not the episodes I skipped over, or happened to miss while a friend streamed them to chat that makes it hard to talk about One Piece. It's something else. Like how does one tackle One Piece past "Well, it's the Pirate anime"? The mere question evaded me the first time I attempted to talk about it, and once again it evades me now.

It's insane to be sitting here puzzled on how to approach the topic considering "Yapping about things I like tends to come easily most times." And yet for One Piece... I dunno. It's harder. I definitely enjoy watching it. At times. But other times, the series just manages to evoke such a raw emotional reaction from me. There's been times where simply joking about something that isn't that sad in hindsight just doesn't happen. Because you just get caught up in what's getting shown to you. It's like the emotions of the characters and their experiences are so tangible at times, you can't help but feel them.

When I first started this series, I didn't like the character Sanji admittedly, because I'm not really crazy about womanizer characters, and I was already familiar with the main crew to a degree. And yet, seeing the scene where he's there thanking the chef that took him in, crying, I couldn't find it in me to make fun of him. You just get scenes like that where you set aside your bias for a character and you feel these raw emotions. And it's strange to be here like "So yeah, the silly pirate anime has fucked me up more times than I could count on my hands, and sometimes I don't even necessarily like the character it's happening to, but this series will have me bawling uncontrollably." And yet, that's exactly it. And that's what makes it hard to talk about One Piece at times.

"How can silly goofy pirate show make you cry until your head hurts? I thought that show was filled with multiple episode epic shonen fights and funny silly goofy pirate shenanigans?"

Yeah I thought that too and then suddenly Oda shows up and hands us shit like Enies Lobby, which was absolutely hard to watch and had me bawling at the mere act of rebellion shown by the straw hats, when they decided they wanted to take on the fucking government for one of their friends. And yeah sure, that's slight spoilers (as I didn't exactly go into detail), but there's something about One Piece arcs where like, you just get to that point where things are going batshit crazy, everything's emotional, you feel bad about what's going on, and then Luffy shows up and he's about to fucking deck whoever the hell is doing something stupid. And it's like some sort of cathartic release no matter what. Because almost always, whatever the World Government is doing Absolutely Fucking Sucks and the way it echoes real life almost always hits way too close to home. And I guess that's what just makes it so... good. Like, Oda wholly understood the assignment with the pirates. And the Straw Hats are all such good characters, with their silly little found family gang of misfits and ruffians that have eachothers backs no matter what.

I honestly think that maybe keeping things vague and ambiguous with One Piece is for the best. Because I can sit here and tell you all "Maybe you shouldn't listen to me drone on and describe each arc one by one and what I liked and disliked about each and every crew member." Maybe you should go experience it. Whether or not it's' through reading, or watching, or even using something like One Pace (considering the large episode count and what not). Like, go experience One Piece. It was a series I didn't want to start in the beginning as well due to the sheer length of it all, but I don't regret giving it a chance.

Also we're not going to talk about how Sanji grew on me or how I now own like 3 figures of him no we're just not talking about that. I definitely do not call him my "princess babygirl" at all and I definitely didn't join his fanlisting or anything nope. I totally do not just impulsively buy Sanji stuff when I see it, despite actively trying to curb impulse purchases. I also don't want to hold his hand or anything. Don't know where you got that from.

Edit: I've decided we're married he's now my wife.

ONE PIECE FILM: Z

I won't lie, while I remember watching this movie and I remember some of the outfits associated with it, I barely actually remember it. I know it's one of the original stories and there's a bit of filler leading up to it but like... that's really it. That's not me bashing on it, but telling it as it is. Oh well, most of 1P is pretty decent, so I imagine if this movie was noteable enough for a friend to seek it out and say "we should watch it," then it was probably pretty good.

ONE PIECE FILM: RED

I wont lie, this one's kind of good. You get a bunch of new songs and a pretty decent story about the daughter of Shanks. I remember the ending being a little uh... soul crushing though. But y'know that's kind of the norm for 1P.

Also there's like 7 insert songs and they're all by Ado.

Orenchi no Furo Jijou

I think we groupwatched this on twitter a long time ago. It's really short and it's some sort of Yaoi Mermaid Shorts. I think I made it halfway through before just giving up because it's just not my vibe. It was just about some guy having a mermaid boyfriend who lives in his bath tub or something and there's a bunch of jokes or something. That's all.

Ouran High School Host Club

Kiss Kiss Read The Manga because I'm absolutely in love with said manga, and not the anime. Well, I'll get to the anime as a whole at some point, I suppose.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

WARNING: NSFW

Honestly, I'm not sure what to say here to begin describing this series. You get horny angels exorcising demons, along with just general antics. There's a lot of parodies here, as well as a general really fun cartoony style and full transformation scenes. And a lot of swearing. It's been so long since I've watched that I don't really know what else to say, but it's super fun. If you haven't watched it, watch it.

Season 2 is pretty good so far as well.

New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

WARNING: NSFW

I was going to hold off on watching this until it had all aired, but I showed up to episode 2 because I was told that there were Childrens Card Games. I'll catch up at a later point because I just don't feel like it right now.

Paranoia Agent

For some reason, when listing this one, I had written down "Psycho Pass" instead, and completely mixed the 2 names up. Needless to say, this is what I actually meant and not the other. Either way, another one I watched in fragments on Adult Swim late at night. Pretty good, and very haunting. I think I'll watch it in full soon.

Parasyte

I've been rewatching this one as of late and honestly, as much as it is kind of on the slower end, I still really enjoy it. Well written, intense, and Migi is quite the creature. It's been a while since I've seen it and I had honestly forgotten everything but the premise, so it's like watching it for the first time, but again. Also the dubstep in the OST really shows the age of when this anime was made lol.

Persona 4 the Animation

Honestly this is a really good adaptation of Persona 4. Don't get me wrong, it does not replace playing Persona 4 at all. You should still play it. But I think if you want to see Yu Narukami fleshed out, this is a great place for it.

PERSONA 3 THE MOVIE: #1 Spring of Birth

I have mixed feelings on all of these movies. They're just another product of "Why adapt thing when you can just play game?" but company wants money so they adapt thing. This first one's pretty whatever and the pacing is awful.

PERSONA 3 THE MOVIE: #2 Midsummer Knight's Dream

Aigis movie. Also banger theme.

PERSONA 3 THE MOVIE: #3 Falling Down

I won't lie, most of this movie is pretty forgettable, which says a lot because I've played the original PS2 version of Persona 3 (Not even FES, just the original, with all it's jank) & recently played P3R. And like, all I can tell you is that I think the Shinji scene is in here.

PERSONA 3 THE MOVIE: #4 Winter of Rebirth

Despite me hating the pacing of these movies and feeling generally pretty ehhh on their delivieries overall, this still hit like a fucking truck, because of course it did. It's Persona 3.

PERSONA5 the Animation

I won't lie, I do not have any attatchment to Persona 5. So I am definitely the outlier. And it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I didn't play it for myself, but instead I watched 3 different friends stream it. So believe me when I say, while I realize it's not a bad story at all, I just felt like, especially with the anime adaptation, everything fell so flat... I'd say just go play the game, because that's the obvious choice, but like IDK, I probably need to finally go play it for myself.

Pokemon

Oh boy how am I going to tackle all of this? Edit: Still undecided on the anime parts.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Whenever I bring up the fact that I got to see this movie in theaters and that it was a big ordeal back then, people assume that it being the first means it must be my favorite. To which I say: Absolutely not.

This movie doesn't really have anything all that special to it. It's a random plot that's intriguing at first, because of how it ties in with the game lore, as well as how strong Mewtwo is, and how we even saw him in the anime, and that's pretty neat. It means we even kind of have a canon placement in the timeline for when this is taking place to some degree. But also, it's just kind of lackluster. I can definitely get on board with the overall message of the movie being "The circumstances of your birth are irrelevant and what you do with your time on earth is what matters far more than that," but I feel like there's other media that kind of does this story better. But I suppose it's unfair to tell you to go seek out Tales of the Abyss instead of watching a 90 minute anime movie based on a children's battle monster anime. After all, TotA is a 60+ hour JRPG by the people who made Tales of Symphonia. Of course it's better. And yet, I still want to make that comparison, as unfair as it may be.

For the most part though, yeah I admittedly just don't care about the clone vs real pokemon plot because it just feels very nonsensical. Mewtwo is interesting but their choices of what to do with him past his escape are just... not interesting. Hell, I'd say the architecture of the movie might actually be more interesting than the actual plot here. Like, where did he get this giant villain lair? The architecture of this place certainly is something. I don't know how to even describe it. It's very unique, for sure.

One minor thing to note that I liked about this movie though was the Vikings joke from Ash. "They live in Minnesota" is truly an underrated joke.

Another great line is when they're in the cloning room and Team Rocket is guessing the Pokemon and they assumed a Scyther silhouette was an Alakazam. Apparently this is a dub exclusive thing, but it's so very in character. It just works.

Edit: So after writing a bit of this, I found myself thinking back about how the entire first bit with the clone was added in later and definitely not part of the original release and it made me a bit bummed out to realize that the most interesting part of this movie wasn't even originally a part of it. Oh well.

Pokemon: The Power of One

So, am I a hater if I say that out of all the original series movies, this is literally the most forgettable one? Because it is. I won't lie, as someone who really likes the Johto legendary birds, it was a bummer to see that this movie only had 1 of said legendaries. Ontop of that, the entire movie is about a guy collecting legendaries and I'm just here like "Man, I know he's supposed to be the villain, but considering how the Pokemon franchise drilled 'Gotta Catch 'em All" into people early (even if they abandoned that slogan just as early on), and then also hands out legendaries as trophies, it's really hard to get into the idea that he's a villain." Like, I'm sorry, yes I get that the way he goes about it is wrong, but I also just... I don't know, maybe this movie is just lost on me. Neat birds though, I guess.

Pokemon: Spell of the Unown

First, I want to start with the fact that if you were to translate the Japanese title, it's "Emperor of the Crystal Tower." I know there's some wordplay and how they want Crystal to be read as Unown in Japanese or something like that, according to Bulbapedia, but I just want you to know that by this amazing word play, it means that G'raha Tia should be voiced by Dan Green. In this essay, I will--

Okay, jokes aside, let's move on. So this is the movie from my childhood that I really remember liking. After rewatching it, I can't really say that much about it, past the scenery and what not being neat. I don't know. Maybe the reason a lot of these movies just fall flat to me is because of the fact that so many of them have a heavy Legendary Pokemon focus and I'm just one of those people who doesn't super care that much about legendaries? Like yeah, they can be pretty neat, but even rewatching these movies, I'm just like "Yeah so that's a really neat place they're at, but man I don't care about the amount of trouble these Pokemon are making." I guess the other issue is the fact that each and every one of these movies tends to follow the same plot. And that only remains interesting for so long.

Side note for this one: For some reason, my commentary on my MAL for this one has been "ENTEI, DID YOU FUCK MY MOM?" for the longest time and while that's wholy inappropriate, I can't help but laugh considering how old my list is, and therefore the comments are from like 2009 or something. God.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns

It's a special that's a sequel to the first movie. It's... Okay. It's not really memorable.

Pokemon Celebi: The voice of the Forest

So, this is another movie that I cannot take seriously, mostly because of an ancient meme.

Yeah, I'm probably a bad person for this one, considering it's generally a heartfelt movie. But the part where Ash and the others are torn up because Celebi nearly died is so hard for me to take seriously due to this meme. It's etched into my brain.

Other than that, the real "gotcha" of the movie about Sam being Professor Oak in the end and saying how he and Ash have always been friends is really cute. Nothing more from me to say on this one though, I'm sorry. It's literally just "Ash makes a friend," and while that's not a bad thing, it's just hard to write any real commentary on. Team Rocket shows up and is Team Rocket. There are legendaries. Ash probably nearly dies, but I don't rememebr any specifics at the moment, so maybe not. Basically, not much to really say.

Pokemon: The Legend of Thunder!

Another kind of forgettable special, but this time Ethan and Kris are here. They have different names though. Pretty sure he's named Jimmy. Sad that Silver doesn't show up. Silver just gets shafted all the time. What gives PokeAni?

Pokemon Heroes: Latios and Latias

So, unlike the previous movies, I really really like this one. The vibes are excellent. There's something really good about it. I don't know if it's just the fact that the palette here looks so good, or if it's the general vibes of the city, or the fact that the main villains are a pair of lesbians working for Team Rocket, but I feel like it is just all around good. I'm pretty sure this is the point where the Pokemon movies start taking locations from real existing places and base it off that, which is really cool. This one's based off Venice, Italy, which is just a really neat looking place that I'd love to be able to go one day.

Honestly, the plot in here is just as forgettable though lol. I think it's very funny that we have a random scientific ancient gizmo to slot the precious mcguffin into that Latias & Latios are protecting. Still, neat movie either way. Also normally I'd make the "Ash gets his first kiss from a Pokemon" comment here but like idk, the entire internet has managed to be weird about it for decades and I'm just here like "idk Pokemon are like pets, have none of you ever gotten like, licked by a dog or anything?" But also, don't forget, it could also be Bianca or whatever her name is doing it as well. And honestly considering the fact that he was kissed on the cheek rather than anything super awkward that feels like a Pokemon would be doing, I get the feeling that it was just her pretending to be the Pokemon to save face. IDK. Internet is weird, as always.

Pokemon: Advanced Generation

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Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker

Here's the next movie on this list, and I'm just going to say that I generally find the Gen 3 movies a little bit better than the Gen 1 & 2 movies. Dunno what it is, but they definitely feel a bit like they've improved, even if the plot is still just as interchangeable. Anyways, this one's primarily focused on Max rather than Ash, and I think that really helps its case. Too bad they chose to emotionally scar him for life by teaching him about death after giving him a super cute Pokemon. Also the Groudon in this was kind of interesting, solely because of the fact it has some weird gummy tentacle stuff just absorbing everything. I'm sorry, it reminds me of both Princess Mononoke and forbidden gummy candy at the same time.

But yeah, this movie's really cute. Probably one of the best.

Also really huge fan of of "Jirachi, get rid of the problem" where Jirachi's solution is to just delete May.

Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys

So like, there's something weirdly funny about this movie to me. And it's probably the fact that my brain is corroded with memes that makes the movie as funny as it is in my eyes, but just hear me out. First off, the Simpsons has ruined the northern lights for me permanently. I can only think of that one clip and now every time I see an aurora, I just hear Superintendent Chalmers in my head. I am so so sorry.

Also, the fact that this entire movie is just Rayquaza picking a fight for the sake of it is just as funny to me. Like this guy just went up and said "Get your stupid avocado out of my arctic" to Deoxys and chucked it in the river. Like this guy is just here to square up. It's great. Favorite legendary featured in one of these movies thus far, solely for the fact that he just has a chip on his shoulder. Go off, king.

Other than that, the movie focuses around a boy who looks suspiciously like Tamaki Yotsuba of IDOLiSH7 who is afraid of Pokemon but has secretly made friends with Holographic Ramiel from Evangelion--Which just happens to be a Deoxys that isn't really assembled or something. Also, there is a glizzy machine that gets attacked at several points in this movie which makes me think that someone on the staff really fucking hated hot dogs. I have no idea what hot dogs did to the staff of Destiny Deoxys but god it must have been bad for the cart to be bullied like 4 different times.

Ending this off with the fact that Deoxys really shows up, attacks a city, and is basically forced to fuck off back to space is kind of funny. And there's a neat little munchlax there that pops up quite a bit iirc? I don't remember if he's movie exclusive or if he shows up in the anime as well, but he's neat.

Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

This is another one of those movies that I don't really have a lot to say on. Like, the Lucario & Sir Aaron plot is okay, but I wish it wasn't just background noise, to be quite honest. I'd much rather have the entire movie be about them rather than shoehorning Ash into it in some way. In all honesty, the need to put Ash in every situation that ultimately ends up the same is what kind of makes these movies a bit dull. Because they'll have an interesting idea, but they work it into the same formula. And the movie, as a whole, just tends to suffer.

Like seriously, I think this movie would improve far more if they legitimately made the entire thing between Sir Aaron and Lucario. Or hell, even switch out Ash for Riley or something. Just anything else would have made it better. And that's not me hating on Ash, but rather hating on the formula that they provided. Like I wholly believe that telling the story of Sir Aaron and Lucario being "betrayed" (or ideally not being betrayed, to be honest) as Sir Aaron sacrifices himself for the sake of the kingdom or whatever being the end of the story and having the credits roll on Lucario finally being found by Riley would have just made for a better time, and wouldn't make the movie's plot interchangeable. Cos my biggest issue with the Pokemon movies is that they'll cook up these incredibly interesting ideas, but force it into a "One Size Fits All" formula that just makes them not live up to their potential. And that really sucks, because I want to like these movies more than I do. It's just hard when they follow a formula.

Also, this is the last movie that 4kids dubbed. I don't know why I decided to note that, but it just is. The next one will have the new voice actors taking over.

Another minor thing to note, the scene of Mew with the party poppers or whatever just blowing them at Pikachu who's getting sad was really cute but kind of funny. He's trying his best here.

Pokemon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon

Most of these specials really aint that special. Or memorable. Something about some random professor trying to control the birds. I think we did that plot before tbh...

Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea

I'm sorry I just do not like this one at all. First off, it's a giant advertisement for the Pokemon Ranger games (Not that I have a problem with Pokemon Ranger. I've admittedly never played them. But I hate things that feel like blatant advertisements at times.) Second, the fact that the movies a giant advertisement for those games yet still tries to force Ash into it is where I'm just so... Ehhh on it. I'm not going to turn this into another "Take Ash Out Of The Movie" rant though. Either way, maybe it's just another that isn't super interesting. Like, it feels weird to be going by the name "Water" and then turn around and go "Yeah well this is the Water Level of Pokemon movies," knowing that water levels aren't really cared for by most people. But also, it is kind of that. I don't think I've ever met anyone who had anything to say about this movie past the fact that the relationship between May & Manaphy is kind of cute. Though, on the topic of that, what the hell is with Jack telling off a literal child for having a bond with a Pokemon in the way he does. Like, yes I get it, he's speaking the truth, but she's like 10 years old. Have some tact.

I will say though, the Ash Parkour Game goes fucking crazy here, and the design of the Water Temple itself is really nice. Was interesting to have a pirate bad guy, but I won't lie, the entire time the One Piece brainrot was kicking in.

Also Sinnoh, why do you get two Pokemon preview movies? (The answer is that Sinnoh is pretty goated)

Pokemon: Diamond & Pearl

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Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai

Honestly, this one's a pretty neat movie. I really like the location they chose, with the giant cathedral looking thing and the theme that music plays in it all. It's really neat. Also, I won't lie, I'm incredibly biased towards the Sinnoh Legendaries/Mythicals (Honestly I know there's a distinction, but being someone who started with Gen 1 and only started hearing this distinction during that era I stopped playing, aka mid gen 5 - gen 7, they're all just "legendaries" in my eyes still. Sorry.) Basically, they definitely give this movie some bias and had me engaged enough to actually watch it and kind of enjoy it. Which I feel is a lot better than some of the previous movies that I just felt very whatever towards.

Though I couldn't tell you much past the people fearing Darkrai and Dialga & Palkia fighting for whatever reason. Also the man who gets turned into a lickilicky is kinda funny.

Pokemon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior

This movie is another case of "Woah, that sure is a neat location," and just feeling whatever. This time, it's the distortion world though. Other than that, Shaymin is probably one of my least favorite of the Gen4 Legendaries. Mostly because aesthetically, I don't really care for the sky form. Outside of that, movie is alright. Shaymin also a bit of a brat, but considering it's literally a Pokemon, it doesn't bother me too bad. Giratina is here though, and looks pretty cool, so all is forgiven.

Honestly, maybe its the Sinnoh bias that makes me vibe with these movies even if there's not a lot going on in this one in particular that interested me (Or the next one really) but the locations generally make them pretty neat, and therefore I just give them a generic thumbs up and a solid "They're alright."

Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

How many of these movies is Dan Green in?

Anyways, Dan Green jumpscare aside, this is literally just Arceus's joker arc. His crash out. His villain backstory. Whatever you want to call it. It's for good reason. Like, they dumped a shitton of what looked like mercury on him? Whoever the villain guy was, man legitimately was trying to kill god through mercury poisoning. What the actual hell. Honestly I think Arceus should have had a gun and he should have taken that guy out. Yes I know Arceus doesn't exactly have hands but he's literally God so he could do it. I believe in him. Anyways I kind of don't blame Arceus for being upset after all that, but at the same time he does sound like a comic book villain when he talks sooooo... Yeah. Joker arc.

Pokemon: Zoroark - Master of Illusions

I'm going to just be that guy and say this movie doesn't do it for me. I don't know why, I just can't get into it. It's literally about an evil sports arena owner or something trying to manipulate the future or whatever? I couldn't tell you. It failed to capture my attention long enough for me to pay attention. It legit feels like Chairman Rose before Chairman Rose. You did not need a movie to tell me about rich people and the mismanagement of sports teams, Pokemon Company. I am well aware of the crimes committed by Wayne Gretzky.

At the very least, the little Zorua is pretty cute.

Pokemon: Best Wishes!

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Pokemon the Movie: White - Victini and Zekrom

The bit here LEGIT GOES INSANE. TWO WHOLE MOVIES THAT ARE EXACTLY THE SAME WITH MINOR DIFFERENCES. MAD LADS. Both a friend and myself decided to stream both of these movies to each other at the same time, synced up. And uh... they desync pretty quick due to minor differences. And never sync back up. It's weird.

Also there's another Dan Green jumpscare. He's seriously everywhere.

Honestly the movie itself is pretty okay. I'm not really sure what to say. I'm beginning to realize that as I talk about all of these, the plots have just become a blur, but the fact that they become a blur so quickly probably says a lot about them. Like I get it, the details are supposed to do the heavy lifting here, but they just really don't. I won't lie, the thing I found the most fun about this movie was seeing the differences between the two films.

Side note: I'm convinced this movie takes place in Utah. I didn't look it up, but Utah vibes. Not that I've been to Utah.

Actually I just looked it up and it's France.

Pokemon the Movie: Black - Victini and Reshiram

The bit here LEGIT GOES INSANE. TWO WHOLE ANILOG ENTRIES THAT ARE EXACTLY THE SAME WITH MINOR DIFFERENCES. MAD LADS. Both a friend and myself decided to stream both of these movies to each other at the same time, synced up. And uh... they desync pretty quick due to minor differences. And never sync back up. It's weird.

Also there's another Dan Green jumpscare. He's seriously everywhere.

Honestly the movie itself is pretty okay. I'm not really sure what to say. I'm beginning to realize that as I talk about all of these, the plots have just become a blur, but the fact that they become a blur so quickly probably says a lot about them. Like I get it, the details are supposed to do the heavy lifting here, but they just really don't. I won't lie, the thing I found the most fun about this movie was seeing the differences between the two films.

Side note: I'm convinced this movie takes place in Utah. I didn't look it up, but Utah vibes. Not that I've been to Utah.

Actually I just looked it up and it's France.

Pokemon: Best Wishes! Season 2

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Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice

Getting the Vic jumpscare isn't like getting the Dan Green jumpscare. The Dan Green jumpscare is just there like "Oh, that's him! That's the Pharaoh! Neat guy, that Pharaoh!" Getting the Vic jumpscare is like needing to pull out the pure silver crosses and grab the holy water. And when people ask why you're overreacting, you have to remind them that he's lost a court case when he tried to sue people for speaking up about his sexual assaults.

"This has nothing to do with the movie." I don't care.

"Surely you have more to say about this movie than just that?" No.

Okay, I'll say more.

Honestly this is just a nothing burger plot. I already am not crazy about the legendaries featured in this movie. They're very ehhh in my opinion. Very weak designs, and the personalities are kind of generic and don't really do much to endure me to them at all. The entire movie is about Keldeo trying to prove itself and idk, it's just not exciting. They fight Kyurem. Not sure why. Also Kyurem's voice acting is very awkward as well, ontop of the reasoning just feeling really weak. As in, "It's so weak that despite watching this movie mere hours ago, I couldn't tell you shit about it." Sorry if this is anyone's favorite Pokemon movie, but this one's so incredibly weak that even I wanted to skip at some point. But I didn't. And now you get this review of it, if you can even call it that.

Pokemon: Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N

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Pokemon: Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure

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Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened

Very glad that the movies temporarily pick up again for this one. Honestly, I think the main Genesect that befriends the party is pretty cute. Though I won't lie, the entire time I was watching this movie, I was there like "Haven't I read this plot before?"

I have, and it's Yatima's plot in Home Sweet Moon.

Sorry to anyone who gets that, but it's the truth. Either way, really inoffensive Pokemon movie. Scenery pretty cool. Very neat that the Pokemon movie for the region of Pokemon that is based in New York has its location based off New York & Central Park. What a plot twist. New York real.

But yeah not much to say other than I really liked the little Genesect in this movie. This Mewtwo being a fairly decent person instead of whatever the original 1st movie Mewtwo had going for him was pretty neat. Honestly, I think the focus on the relationship between Mewtwo & the Genesect is what made this movie as enjoyable as it was. Like yeah sure, Ash, Iris, and Cilan are all there. But thats it, until the later half of the movie where they feel more involved, the focus is primarily between Mewtwo and the Red Genesect that she finally manages to befriend. The plot between Ash and the much smaller Genesect is also very cute and everything works out, as they finally find a home for the Genesect despite the fact that they came back to this planet after thousands of years.

Now that I think about it, this is also Jurrasic Park...

Pokemon X&Y

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Pokemon THE ORIGIN

Honestly, if you haven't seen this particular special yet, you should. It's just really good. Voice acting in both the original JP audio and the ENG dub are solid. It cuts out a lot of what happens in the games but the beats that it decides to hit are pretty good. Really enjoyable, and I'd honestly love it if we got this treatment for more than just Generation 1. It's absolutely a delight to sit through, even if it inserts Mega Evolution into Gen1 when it definitely wasn't there lol. The credits being a Gameboy is also really cute.

Pokemon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Diancie movie isn't too bad either. It's a step down from the Genesect movie, but it's not bad. Diancie is kinda cute. Not just in design, but she's a real spoiled princess type. However it's super endearing. And her design reminds me of Ultimate Madoka so I'm pretty biased there, because I like Ultimate Madoka. I mean, I've been kinseated Homura far more than once. Pink girls are just my thing. And for a Pokemon, she's absolutely a pink girl. I don't apoligize. Let's Go Pink Girls.

Still not sure why Yveltal shows up and throws a tantrum though past muddying up his lake or something.

Before I finish talking about this though, can we focus on the fact that Dedenne was legitimately trying to steal diamonds? Pretty fucked up of you, Dedenne. Don't let this little guy on your minecraft server unsupervised because he will be taking your diamonds.

Pokemon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages

This was the last movie I watched for this particular day while reviewing, and honestly, it's another where I couldn't tell you much about it. I think Hoopa essentially went to super jail and had his powers taken away until he learned the meaning of friendship and not inconveniencing people around you with no concern for others. Hoopa gives me starbucks order with 20+ addons vibes because of that very fact. I feel bad for any barrista that has to take Hoopa's order. Other than that, a bunch of legendaries showed up and fought, and at some point Ash got posessed. Also, some random people have something to do with Arceus due to their necklaces but I'm not really sure what. It felt like they just randomly namedropped him all the time. Like "Hey, we know Cool Guy Arceus" but that's all I remember being done in relation to him. So, not sure why he's constantly brought up. Oh well, whatever.

Pokemon XY&Z

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Pokemon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

This movie isn't as bad as I remember it. The bit between Ash & Volcanion is kinda funny at first, but once the plot starts picking up it becomes a bit more annoying. Honestly, I'm just here to see Ash clash with an old man Pokemon. Volcanion has some real "Get off my lawn you damn kids" vibes and that made him entertaining enough for the begnning. Rest of the plot is evil guy doing evil thing to unsuspecting legendary Pokemon. So nothing remotely special at this point.

Pokemon Sun & Moon

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Pokemon Generations

These are on youtube and just have little random animation snipets of events in the games, but they're cool to watch.

Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You!

So, here's where things get a bit interesting. Sun & Moon didn't get a typical set of anime movies. It got a completely different universe opened up. This time, we're returning to the start of Ash's journey and going on a completely different tangent here. After the events of the first episode, Ash is given the Rainbow Wing from Ho-oh. Which is cool because Ho-oh just never really got used by either the anime or the movies at all. But it kind of quickly gets a bit awkward. The plot changes to Ash traveling with a pair of trainers from Sinnoh, and at some point Ash also rescues the abandoned Charmander from who would originally be Damien but then it swaps to some random guy with a Lycanrock. Okay, no biggie.

Not long after, Ash & this guy get into a battle where Ash loses. Ash then starts developing this weird complex over losing a battle and takes it out on Pikachu and it fades into this weird dream world where he lives without Pokemon for him to realize how important Pikachu is. It's weird because Professor Oak is a random teacher, and Ash goes to a regular ass school and has a poster with cars that just happen to be the same colors as Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur that has a weird emphasis on it because it's so randomly out of place. Like as if cars don't exist in the Pokemon world. At some point Ash starts talking to his friends about wanting to journey and how it'd be him and his buddy and then that makes him remember Pikachu and makes him stop being a jackass.

At some point after all of this they meet a random old man who wants to research Ho-oh and they just make their way to Ho-oh and they go to battle it. But instead of Ash battling Ho-oh, the jackass who abandoned Charmander takes his Rainbow Wing and since he's a bad person Marshadow comes out and the wing gets tainted and then everyones fighting. Like random Pokemon show up to help throwdown or something like that. Somewhere in there Ash dies or something, and is brought back by Ho-oh and then Pikachu starts talking and Ash is saved or something. No really. Pikachu speaks.

So this is the part of this article where I go on a full ass tangent about Pokemon speaking in the movies.

Honestly, I really don't like the random Pokemon speaking bits. Not as in a one time thing like Pikachu (though, admittedly that's pretty weird and I disliked it too.) But like just in general. Like, in the earlier movies we really only start off with Mewtwo speaking, which makes sense that a Psychic type with as much power as Mewtwo can communicate with humans. And Mew cannot, as Mew is just a fetus. But it quickly turns into several movies before a Pokemon talks again. And then Sinnoh Pokemon start showing up in the movies and they just decide "Yeah, these Pokemon do be yapping." And it just... stays that way. And honestly, it's so weird. I know it's like "Oh but Meowth can talk." He's different. He's talented. There's an entire backstory to why he can talk and that's just part of his lore. But halfway through these movies, it just became an overused gimmick that overstayed its welcome far before this point. I don't like Pikachu talking. It's not cute. It doesn't add anything. It's not even oh my god how shocking a Pikachu talked. It's just weird and out of place. Him being like "Ash oh my god we're besties I love you" or whatever he said was like the most predictable thing he could have said, and yet I don't want it. Make him untalk. Go back to pika pika.

To turn our attention back to the movie though, after all that, they just kind of like... IDK how else to put it other than Ho-oh and Marshadow kind of leave and everyone parts ways and that's like... the end. IDK. Awkward movie.

I wanted to like this movie. Not just because Ho-oh is probably my favorite legendary out there in the series, and I absolutely adore it and it had been so long since we had gotten a chance to see it. But also, because reimaginings have so much potential to be something neat. And this just... wasn't that neat. This plot needed 300% less Marshadow. Sorry.

Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us

Do you all remember earlier in the original article from which I copypasted all of my Pokemon movie reviews into this document from when I said I had a favorite movie in all of these? Yeah. This is my favorite movie. It's hard to put into words why it's my favorite movie, but I suppose the best way to say it is that it's a very interesting interwoven story where we slowly have bits and pieces revealed about each character that's focused on. We also get to see actual character growth for each of the characters in said movie and how the group of them kind of band together to save the city.

That's oversimplifying it, I know. But to put it honestly, in the short amount of time you're given with these characters, it manages to make things interesting with each and every single one of them, probably because the focus is more on the people rather than a legendary Pokemon. Like yeah, Zeraora is there and is a major part of the plot. And some things just kind of conveniently happen it feels like. But because the focus is on this group of random trainers that Ash is kind of grouped in with, it becomes a bit more excusable when conveniently random plot points just happen. You've got the wounded athlete that has given up on her passion and doesn't really know what to do. You have the daughter of the mayor who's secretly helping a Pokemon the town's people have deemed dangerous. You have the uncle that gets caught up way too many times in his lies to impress his niece and thus has to own up to them or confess that he lied to her. You have the grandma that just doesn't like being around Pokemon at all. And you have the researcher that is just not good with people but cares a lot about those around him and just wants to do his best despite being socially awkard. And that blend of characters makes for a really good character driven story.

Also straight up some of the character moments are just straight up legimately sad. Like you cannot help but feel for these people in their struggles.

Anyways, if you decide to watch any of these movies, I can't recommend this one enough. It's just character relations at their best. Also the Sudowoodo is so cute.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution

Honestly, I'm not sure why I'm bringing this movie up again. Outside of localization changes, nothing here has really changed. Like, I'm pretty sure it's all localization changes and the difference in the original cast. And like... the jarring animation. Like the animation on pokemon somewhat okay, if not a little uncanny for the most part, but the actual characters are just out of place. But yeah, that aside, same exact feelings. Not the best Pokemon movie out there or anything. I know some people have said "Oh well they're functionally the same movie so there's no point in treating them as different or acting like one is better than the other" but I honestly disagree. The original was made when movies were mostly handdrawn animation still, and while sure there's a little bit of 3D used here and there, the aesthetic choices of that movie are still really good. And while I'm one of the odd people who doesn't hate all 3D whatsoever in anime, I generally think this looks pretty bad. I know it's an aesthetic choice, but it's not a good one. Just watch the original, unless you're here to gawk.

Pokemon (2019)

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Twilight Wings

Another Youtube special. This one is completely focused on SwSh, but it was really neat, and very charming for what it is. I love you Leon Galar...

POKETOON

A mixed bag of animation shorts. They're all really neat as well. I'm sorry that it's all I say when it comes to random Pokemon side projects with animation, but this is where they're bringing the fire.

Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle

So, I've seen a few people sing the absolute praises of this movie, but I'm just kinda indifferent about it. Like, it's not a bad story whatsoever, but it's definitely a story I've seen somewhere before--Yeah this is just Tarzan. There's no way around it. It's Tarzan where Ash is substituted for Jane and has had the weird romance angle taken out of it. Team Rocket is also there and in all honesty, they're kinda funny this time around just because of their normal antics. Also Meowth's fit is beautiful. A friend put it best: "Necoarc vibes." Outside of that, standard Pokemon movie. It's not bad, but I'm just whatever about it. IDK, I'm sure at this point you've probably noticed that I don't like quite a few of these movies, and yeah. Honestly, it's the truth. I'm not a big anime movie watcher because most anime movies are just filler, and this one doesn't feel any different, despite being in the alternate universe. Sorry.

Pokemon Evolutions

Another neat youtube anime project that you have no excuse to not watch.

Hisuian Snow

3 shorts related to Legends Arceus. Very cute. Also Volo makes a cameo.

Pokemon: The Distant Blue Sky

This is another TV special, but I wont lie, this one kind of stung.

Pokemon: Mezase Pokemon Master

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Pokemon (2023)

I remember being like "yeah I'll stay on top of this" and I proceeded to keep up with about 4 episodes before I got distracted.

Paldean Winds

More specials that went on youtube. This one's related to ScarVio and doesn't feel as strong as some of the others, but I mean, they're short enough.

Pokemon Concierge

When I saw the animation for this, I was kind of taken aback at first, but it's fairly enjoyable despite that & I grew to really like the style choice. I also really love the little Psyduck.

Ponyo

Call me a hater, but this movie just didn't resonate with me nearly as much as most other Ghibli movies have. Dunno why.

Princess Jellyfish

I had a bad time with this one because whoever subbed it decided they wanted to use the T slur as much as possible, and my Japanese isn't good enough to tell you whether or not they were using the T slur. Sucks because it was an otherwise pretty decent show. It's something that I'd like to read the manga for at some point though. I'm just going to pray that the T slur isn't used constantly by the translators or I will cry and it will be awkward.

Princess Mononoke

I remember getting shown this movie as a child, and it really just kind of stuck with me. Everything here is gorgeous. The environments are some of my favorites in any movie. The score is amazing. And also, the little kodamas are neat. Anyways, don't take my word for it, just go watch it yourself. For some reason, it feels like when people mention Ghibli movies, they always go to Kiki, Totoro, Howl, and Spirited Away, but they always skip this. Stop skipping this. It's fucking great.

Promare

The only thing I could tell you about this movie that it's essentially "Yaoi On Fire."

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica

Honestly, I know a lot of people decry Madoka Magica and it's place among magical girl anime for being the "popular edgy magical girl show." Especially when everyone and their mother fights for the fact that "Yes, magical girl series have always kind of been like this. You're just paying attention to it now." But also like hear me out: This is still a pretty good series despite all that. I really love the way the witches are handled and I came to care for this cast of girls over the 12 episodes we're given with them. I love them. They're important to me. Homura has never done anything wrong in her life.

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica The Movie 1: Beginnings

I definitely do not care for summary movies.

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica The Movie 2: Eternal

Same as above. This does nothing for the series. And the original series is so short, you will get more out of rewatching the original series.

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica The Movie -Rebellion-

Homura's fall from grace. This is almost "Toxic Yuri the Movie" but like, Utena's movie definitely takes that title far more than this could. Still, I have mixed feelings about this movie. I respect the crashout though.

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica The Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-

BITCH WHERE ARE YOU??????

Queen's Blade

WARNING: NSFW

I watched this with Spanish subs at the behest of a friend despite being pretty bad at Spanish, which is y'know, spoken in my house. Then again it was several years ago and I think I've definitely improved at Spanish, so there's that. Either way, I have no idea what the story is, and if there even is a story. I was told that "the boobs tell the story," which looking back on it, is a pretty misogynist take. But considering I took this recommendation from a cishet man, I don't know what I expected. Well, I guess what I probably was expecting was to watch an anime and not hentai. I will admit that part of what I was sold on when going to watch this was the cute pink girl that is made out of goo. Huge fan of her and her seethrough clothing and her lack of a bra. Or well... dress top. Other than that, this is just porn. Ecchi. Hentai. Whatever. Also I kinda don't care how this makes me look for saying that I admitedly like the designs in this series (or at least most of them) but whatever. I'm a grown adult. I am allowed to like cute girls in lewd clothes that end up in lewd situations.

Ranma 1/2

It's been so long since I've watched this that I 1: didn't realize that there was actually a divide here. That's my fault because back then, watching anime meant getting either super expensive licensed products, or watching via bootlegs obtained for really cheap that just threw as much anime onto a disc. That's to say, the latter is definitely how I watched Ranma back in the day.

Ranma 1/2 Nettou-hen

I'll continue on with the last part to say that I have no idea where in this series I left off, but I know it was definitely pretty far in (Like 80-120ish I believe). However, since I watched this sometime between jr high & highschool, it's been a while. I definitely am thinking of picking it back up again and giving it a rewatch as I did with the entirety of Inuyasha. Urusei Yatsura might be on the table at some point as well. So uh, yeah I'll report back when I do that. I definitely enjoyed what I watched of this version though.

Ranma 1/2 (2024)

So, as someone who likes Ranma, I have some mixed feelings about this adaptation. For one I'm a bit glad that some of the more... awkward series openings & endings are gone (Seriously someone pointed out how some lyrics in one of them could be seen as a bit racist). However we're left with another situation where cutting out filler ends up with a lot of like... awkwardness in the pacing of the plot. Ranma '24 suffers in the same way that Kanketsu hen suffers back in '09. Rumiko Takahashi's work really shines when the adaptations are given time to breathe, and when we have one of the most important scenes for Akane (her hair accidentally getting cut off) is put so early in--Like episode 3 iirc?--It makes this entire moment fall a bit flat. I remember it being a while before that even happened in the original anime, and for good reason. It feels like a very pivotal character moment? And it's just pushed at the beginning for the sake of covering as much ground as possible. It's a shame that this happens, because I like Ranma as a series quite a bit. But it's disheartening when series that were allowed to breathe are now rushed for the sake of retaining audience attention for as long as possible in short amounts of time. You don't really get to feel the weight of what happens to Akane. It's terrible.

Ranma 1/2 (2024) 2nd Season

More pacing issues. I'm not going to repeat all of what I said earlier. But also heavy Shampoo focus so IDK pick your poison I suppose. I won't say that I hated these adaptations. They were certainly serviceable, and I'll go through and continue with them. But I'm not sure I like them more than the original.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

I rewatched this in order and remembered how much I love love love love love this. I know in recent years, people have decried it for being beyond problematic and "bad lesbian rep" because how actually toxic it is (Like seriously this is one of those series where the wall of trigger warnings is beyond warranted.) But also idk it's really really good. Like, it's fucked up beyond words and it's absolutely horrible to see how the chain of abuse continues and claims victim after victim if stuff isn't done about it. But at the same time, it's almost cathartic. It's a work of art. Give it a try, but maybe only if you're in the right mental headspace for it.

Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Adolescence of Utena

This is what movie reimagining should be like. Vroom vroom.

Re:Zero

So, I'm not going to lie, I watched this because someone on youtube pointed out how bad it actually is and how it sucks. I think it sucks that said person was also bullied off of youtube, but I will say that they're 100% right. This kind of sucks. On one hand, the designs for some of the girls are really cute. Once again, I've fallen victim to a cute pink girl like Ram, who just like me, hates Subaru. Really, I can't stand this guy. I don't understand why people think he's the goat when he's the worst kind of self insert there is, but y'know, I don't tend to like the cookie cutter ass light novel anime adaptations that have full on statements for names. Of course I wasn't going to like this. But I can enjoy the designs and say that some of the girls here aren't bad. It's just Subaru that's straight up insufferable. I gave it a chance. I got to 23/25 episodes watched, and the only reason I didn't properly finish season 1 was because of the fact that the CR trial ran out on me. I don't plan on ever giving CR money of my own though, so I'll never finish it without watching it at alternative sites. However, at that point, I might as well rewatch it from the start, which will just lead into another "I hate Subaru" rant. So I think I'll save that for a later date, if I ever do that.

If anything will get me to rewatch and finish this series, it's going to be for the sake of critiquing it. Just like I may do with SAO later down the line

RWBY: Ice Queendom

Started this with a friend, and they never streamed episodes any further. Dunno if I'll seek it out on my own. I want to like RWBY, the designs are really good, but there was just something about the execution of the original story that just never clicked with me. This might be slightly better, but I won't be surprised if I leave with the same feeling.

Saint★Onii-san

I wrote the previous entry before I wrote this one but uh yeah, worth the watch. It's short, it's simple, and I really hope that they both make you seek out the manga.

Saint★Onii-san

A funny little series about Jesus and Buddha as room mates. I don't want to go more into it. It's honestly something you should check out without more than the information on the premise. Honestly, go watch it now. Or read it. Either works. Hell, do both.

Samurai Champloo

Recently watched this one with a friend and quite honestly, I'm already game for another rewatch of it because it's just such a vibe. That and sometimes when you just have something on in the background and you're lowkey vibing to it and zoning out, it's hard to remember what you just watched. Maybe my attention span is more shit than I realize. Either way, I think this is worth the watch. Maybe even worth the purchase if you can get a hard copy of it.

3-gatsu no Lion

So, I won't lie, this one packs a punch. I didn't expect an anime about depression and Shogi to be one of the things I'm looking forward to seeing continue the most, but it is so good. First season is pretty great, but like... Well, I'll talk about it in the next entry instead.

3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season

I didn't think this anime could get better than it already was. I was wrong. The portrayal and grace afforded to putting the emotions of people within Rei's life is insane. There were some moments in here that were an absolute masterwork when it came to encapsulating what certain emotions and expectations were like. It's really good. I really hope they finally continue this in the future. Please. I'm actually begging. I'll go buy every manga and every blu-ray just make it a reality. It's one of the greats. Go watch it, preferably alone, and just allow yourself to get swept up by the feelings.

Sailor Moon Crystal

So, I will admit that I didn't put the original 90s series up on my anilog yet because that's going to be the big thing that I watch entirely this year after having not touched it in ages (and mostly once again, touching it in fragments due to a variety of channels airing it whenever & renting tapes to watch it all.) I love Sailor Moon and when this was announced I was really hoping that this would be an amazing piece of work. But it is just Not It. I won't even harp on the style in which they chose to draw the characters, because I remember how people tore it up. But the way the anatomy looks, the way that animation is generally wonky, and the fact that everything is riddled with pacing issues, the transformations are ugly as sin and don't feel like Sailor Moon at all and how the OST just doesn't sound good whatsoever. I just... don't like this! It's awful. Like the transformations feel jarring and out of place as I brought up and it's just... so weird. I remember someone once said "they look like they belong in Precure." And like, IDK if me agreeing with that will look bad or not (because I'm pretty sure the person I know who was bitching about it was using that as an insult). Because on one hand I've seen some of the Precure transformations and it's not like they're bad within Precure. But sometimes taking what works in one place doesn't mean it works in another. And it makes it feel so jarring. I think the other thing that rises to mind is just how... not fleshed out every other girl feels in comparison to Usagi. They're like parodies of how the cast acted. And it's really sad to see this happen to them. It's really the Usagi show here and I kind of high key hate that. Another thing is just how the episodes are structured around transformations and quick resolutions just... I don't know it doesn't read as Sailor Moon to me. I'll forever be a bit distressed about this. I ignored this for ages and for good reason. I had initially dropped it after episode 2. I regret coming to pick it up. It's a waste of time. Please for the love of god, if they ever think about making a new Sailor Moon anime down the line, then please treat these girls better.

Sailor Moon Crystal - Death Busters-hen

A lot of the same issues persist here but things have gotten a bit better. For starters, they changed the transformation sequences and I'm so grateful for that. Pacing is a bit better. But it still feels a bit awkward. I can appreciate the effort to clean up a lot of the problems from the previous part, but I really wish they worked on their portrayals of the rest of the girls because it just makes me so sad. They still feel a bit awkward to me.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Zenpen

These movies are what crystal deserved to look like. The absolute glow up here was well deserved and made these movies shine far more than the previous two endeavors. Unsure how I feel about the pacing, but I don't have a lot of complaints, I'll admit.

Sailor Moon Eternal - Kouhen

Outside of the release information & alternative cover, I'm not really sure why I made 2 entries. But either way worth a watch. Oh, and the song for them were pretty nice.

Sailor Moon Cosmos - Zenpen

Pretty much a repeat of the previous thoughts. They look great, they're paced well enough, and everything here looks stunning. Also they brought back the old themes and that was pretty neat.

Sailor Moon Cosmos - Kouhen

This movie broke me.

Sanrio Danshi

Something I watched partially in a call. It feels more like an advertisement to me, as well as a bunch of guys just mistreating random people and their sanrio plushes and then eventually coming to terms with the fact that they like their sanrio stuff. Something something, toxic masculinity. Justice for the grandma who fixed the PomPom Purin doll though. I remember her getting pretty mistreated. I probably won't pick this up again though, it's just not for me.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Trying to remember what this anime is actually about has given me despair!

School Days

Scryed

I remember this being on Adult Swim. I remember watching a decent amount of it and going "This is the most boring shit ever" and allowing it to play in the background. Now I can say I can remember the name and nothing more than that. What a fun time.

Sengoku BASARA

Another victim of a computer crash that caused me to never finish it and forget all about it. That happened a few times, it feels. And I feel like because I was without said PC for so long, that I really just never found ways to watch shows again because most of them wouldn't be seeded anymore. Shame.

Serial Experiments Lain

This is another one of those series that gives you a lot to chew on and there's no real way for me to break it down. In fact, I urge you to go watch it instead of me talking about it. Become one with the Wired, and see the girl who ascended to godhood and yet, absolutely nothing at all.

Shirokuma Cafe

Another simple slice of life series with a lot of fun to be had. If you like stuff like Nichijou, and you love cute animals, this is for you.

SHOW BY ROCK!!

I only watched the original Show By Rock anime and it's a lot of fun if you like ShinganCrimsonZ. Unfortunately the anime suffers from the fact that they really only concentrate on 4 bands.

Space☆Dandy

Started watching this with a friend and they dropped it. So it's on the backlog. Shame though.

Spirited Away

I know people always rag on others for saying this is their favorite Ghibli movie when it's very overly idealized and a lot of people kinda miss the point and forget that this is easily some very traumatic shit that Chihiro goes through, but hear me out: Aesthetics wise, this is my favorite Ghibli movie. Maybe not the best story out there, but it sure does look good.

So Ra No Wo To

Y'know, I rewatched this recently, and it's pretty good, but it's honestly all a blur. I would say it is one of the KyoAnis of all time, and that's all. Worth seeking out? Maybe. It's 13 episodes and has military themes as well as girls living in a garrison going about their daily lives. But it's nothing to write home about.

Soul Eater

It's fun and a great time, but the ending is so bad. Perhaps look into the manga, but it's not an awful watch. Those openings slap though.

Spice & Wolf

Economics 101.

Sword Art Online

I could write you all the huge rant on what I was really hoping SAO would be--a worthy successor to MMO based anime such as the .hack// franchise was while providing something introspective to chew on. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to tell you that I had hopes for this, got 6 episodes in, and dropped this shit. I like the designs, I like the music, I like the set up, hell I even liked those very early episodes where Kirito was traveling with others and accidentally got his party killed and I was really really hoping that it would lead to some really interesting development within him, considering how traumatic of an event it is to live through something like that. Nope. We get his weird little sister fetish and I just stopped it right there and decided "I don't think I'll ever watch this." And thus, I didn't. If I ever pick it up, it's solely from the perspective of an absolute hater--Which I'm sure the internet already has enough of as is.

Just sucks because I love Asuna's design.

Tales of Symphonia THE ANIMATION: Sylvarant Arc

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Tales of the Abyss

Normally I would tell people to definitely play the source game of any anime adaptation, but this is actually a really decent stand in. It hits pretty much every main story plot and fills in a bunch of minor information that was either tucked away in sidequests or just never made it into the game, and puts it where it should be in the plot. Some scenes are also embellished quite a bit to be properly addressed (Looking at Arietta specifically.) It just cuts out pretty much anything not important to the main plot like all the silly and character building sidequests. It's a shame, but I suppose if you ever were curious about Tales of the Abyss which is, in my eyes, The Best Tales Game in terms of Story, then this isn't a bad way to get your fix. But I do think you should play the original game rather than watch this.

Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike

I love Tales of Vesperia dearly. But I'm not sure I love this movie. It definitely isn't the worst, but I don't think I could even justify giving it a 3/5. It's place in the story is a prequel more than anything, but all the movie itself brings up is contradictions within the story, shoehorned in cameos of party members that aren't really needed. The consequences of this movie really don't even get brought up in the original game past Yuri leaving the knights (As in, the 360 version and not the later PS3/Definitive versions that I'm sure people will go "but there's a sidequest or 2 that brings it up!"). I'm still trying to figure out why the hell Raven was placed in this movie at certain points and what span of time some of this takes place over, but y'know, I've long stopped caring. This movie is enjoyable if you want to see Yuri being Yuri. There's no other reason to watch it if not that.

Tales of Symphonia THE ANIMATION: Tethe'alla Arc

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Tales of Symphonia THE ANIMATION: United World Arc

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Tenchi Muyou!

Tenchi Muyo is a series that's so convoluted and confusing to me, and yet it's like, tucked deep down in my core memories when it comes to watching anime, especially anime that happened to air on Toonami back in the day. Like I remember it having other spinoffs like "Magical Girl Sammi," "Tenchi Universe," and "Tenchi in Love," but when I go to look it up on Anilist, it just all goes back to a slew of Tenchi Muyo names. I couldn't tell you which parts I did and didn't watch. I could tell you that I'd die for Ryoko and she was definitely someone I crushed on at the age of 10 or something like that. But I couldn't tell you what happens here other then like aliens or something come and live at some guys shrine and hijinks happen and 2 of them are fighting to make Tenchi their boyfriend. And outer space. Probably wasn't a good series for literal children but like idk, baby's first harem or something like that.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

I'm not even going to describe it, I'm just going to tell you that you should watch it. My DVDs for this series are probably one of the most cherished pieces of media I own (next to my Evangelion collection) and they've survived so many moves and purges over the years. Truly a great series. It's short, it's sweet, it's simple, it's bombastic, it's fun, and it'll leave you with a slew of emotions that are so hard to put into words, even nowadays. Someone once said that this is a great counterpiece to the nihilism that is Evangelion and I kind of agree with that. If Eva is what leaves you feeling down, then this is uplifting to the highest degree. It's well deserving of the 5 star rating and definitely contends for "series that everyone should watch at some point in their life."

Bro lives on in our chests and on our backs.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren-hen

I won't lie, the summary movie is mostly forgettable up until the end part where suddenly there's a way cooler confrontation, and that's about it.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works

Parallel works is a really interesting concept: Where they took soundtrack pieces and animated individual mini stories based on the music (at least for this volume, I think the sequel is completely original.) It's neat, but I won't lie, ages later, I could barely tell you what they were all about. Like I can only tell you that they exist. And that's cool and all but it really shows that years later it's just a thing you could say "Oh that's cool" and that's about it. IDK, worth the watch for both parts if you really want to delve into it. It's not like Gurren Lagann has a huge expanse of material or anything. So maybe check it out. I will say though, both sets of these aren't memorable at all and then there's StarS, which is just a little Yoko image song with a music video attatched, and that manages to be the thing that most people remember. Oof.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen

You thought the original last 4 episodes made you sad? Watch this to be emotionally pummeled into shreds.

Edit: I recently rewatched this and I literally cannot stop crying oh my fucking god.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works 2

Interesting sidestories. But let's be real, the most interesting of them is Kittan Zero and the rest are okay at best.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

I think I watched the original Haruhi anime and not the later one. That's unfortunately all I can remember about this. I remember more from the manga adaptation than anything. Enjoyable for the most part, but maybe that's nostalgia.

Toaru Majutsu no Index

Started it around the time my PC died. I remember for some reason people hated Index, but that's all I remember. Maybe one day I'll check it out again.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru

One of the 2 TKRB adaptations, but this one focuses on the slice of life doings at the citadel or whatever it is called that they live at (it's been far too long since I've touched TKRB). Either way, this is an enjoyable enough series for what it is. If you like TKRB, you won't be disappointed by this.

Zoku Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru

Honestly, everything I said above applies here as well.

TRIGUN

I used to be addicted to the old one back in the day in Adult Swim. Lowkey thrilled that it's back. Been meaning to watch Stampede. Sure it's just as fun as the original.

TRIGUN STAMPEDE

Another long overdue planned watch. I'll get to it sometime this year though.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

As someone who loves Umineko's original sound novel deeply, this anime is uh... A joke. At the very least, the voice casts are pretty good--Important because they went on to be the PS3 version voice actors. Past that, it's a weird adaptation. Clues aren't presented properly at all, a ton of information is just glossed over, and information is presented out of order. Not to mention some tracks get weirdly watered down. I think the only thing saving this is the fact that it seems like the voice actors had a decent amount of fun with the included dvd specials for Uraneko. I'm sure you will not be surprised to hear that you get far more out of reading the original VN or even the manga than this. This is something meant to gawk at once you've finished the game.

Undead Girl Murder Farce

I got about like 4 episodes in with this before I zoned out. The premise is interesting. Cute girl who is just a head solves murder mysteries with the assistance of a guy she lends power to who was about to die or something. However, I dunno, somewhere between all the fictional characters from European literature being her adversaries and just being there for the sake of it, I just ended up dropping it. I dunno why they ended up being as much of a turn off as they did, but they just did. I think I would have actually tolerated it if the series was longer and introduced concepts at a different pace. Overall, I think I'd like it if it was a VN that took it's time and not a very rushed feeling 13 episode anime. Like, it wasn't information overload, but it definitely felt like it lacked polish.

Urusei Yatsura (2022)

While this show is cute, it feels like there's a lot of yelling. I'm unsure if the original is like this, because I actually haven't watched it. Dunno if I'll continue. It's not bad. It's just not my cup of tea.

Violet Evergarden

This is another one of those series where I find myself in awe of KyoAni's works. Truly, this might be the best of their best, despite whatever other opinions haters may spout. Between the visuals, the storytelling, the voice work, and the OST, everything here is great. Some of these episodes are a true punch to the gut and I remember one in particular had me going through an entire box of tissues. Even if you don't like slice of life type stuff where you can tell "Oh boy, this is going to be depressing," I feel like this is absolutely a series worth giving a chance. I watched it to see if it was "as great as people claimed," and I came out in shambles. So at th every least, I think it deserves a chance.

Witch Hunter Robin

After rewatching this, I've got mixed feelings. On one hand, it's not bad. But on the other hand, I can see why I forgot the most of it. If I were to say anything about this anime, it's that it's a slow burn. Nothing too exciting happens here for well over the first half of the series. It's fairly episodic, and while things are interesting, it's very formulaic for it's set up. Mix that with the muddy tone, and it's easy to see this anime as something that kind of drags on for a little too long at times. However, once you push past all that, things really start picking up and getting interesting. And right as you expect some sort of payoff at the very end, you're left with this cliffhanger ending, and nothing changes. The fact that they spent this entire anime to build up to "Hey, maybe hunting witches is wrong! And our company is fucking beyond inhumane!" only to go back to just hunting witches feels a little... tone deaf.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh

I'll never forget you Miho. Anyways, this is filled with a lot of wacky stuff that doesn't get into the DM anime that everyone knows and is mostly based around those beginning chapters of the manga that people tend to forget about. For some reason Kaiba has an entire arc where he leads a group named the Shitennou which means we have another instance of a guy with 3 of the same dragon running around leading the Shitennou in a proxy battle series. Also this part of the series stops on Monster World meaning the first Bakura appearance is where they stop. It's kinda funny to think on how this & Death T get adapted in the later anime (aka the really wonky ass speedruns that are jammed in wherever) but like... To everyone who keeps begging for the original manga to be re-adapted into an anime: please stop you don't know what you're asking for!!!!!!!

Also Yugi being voiced by Ogata is kinda peak.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh

Pretty sure this was another Toei Film Festival piece, which means that it probably was in the same film festival as the initial Digimon Adventure piece. Which is neat trivia. But in actuality it's kind of a nothingburger plot. Some kid who has red eyes refuses to duel and then also obligatory Red Eyes vs Blue Eyes. Also they ditch Kaiba's green hair from the original series in here.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh Duel Monsters

This series is pretty fun in general. I'm not going to sit there and whine about things like the rushed and botched beginning nor am I going to complain about some of the filler (even though the Noah arc was beyond obnoxious in my opinion.) Like, this is a wild ride from beginning to end, but I enjoyed it so much. Please consider watching it if you haven't. There's some great stuff here.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh: Pyramid Of Light

A nothingburger movie once again but like let's be real here: The only reason to watch this is to see Anubis pick Seto Kaiba, a character who is 6'1", up by the head and throw him which apparently... wounds his arm.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh Duel Monsters GX

I remember when people were telling me a while back to watch Yugioh and this was the number 1 recommendation of "parts to skip" because it's "bad." Like... No. It's not bad at all. It's peak silliness, perhaps, but that doesn't make it bad. It's literally "What if Seto Kaiba opened up a school that is really similar to She Who Must Not Be Named's stupid Wizard School but instead of wizards, it was for duelists" and that literally happens. Some of the shit in here is wild, like the point where suddenly a cult is running rampant on campus and they're all claiming how they're White all of a sudden. Or the time everyone dressed up and Jun is just running around as a fucking tank. Or the fact that people constantly hallucinate their monsters and talk to them.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh 5D's

I've done at least 3 different attempts to watch this in full and yet I've failed every time due to my attention span. It's enjoyable, but I just put it down and forget about it.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh: Bonds Beyond Time

Yet another movie where little of importance happens aside from Grandpa being temporarily deleted.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh ZEXAL

Started groupwatching this with people, so I'm watching at the speed of slow, but real life came up and I have to go catch up. Oops.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh: THE DARKSIDE OF DIMENSIONS

So, I'm sure that you're seeing this, another movie in my listing, and are probably like "Oh there's probably complaints about this one too," and while I have some stuff I didn't necessarily like in here, this movie is really solid. Taking place in the manga timeline rather than the anime's, we get a look at Seto Kaiba and his lack of closure related to Atem passing into the afterlife and basically failing to come to terms that the two of them can't really ever duel again. Instead of being normal, he seeks out the Millenium Puzzle and tries to put it back together again only to realize that Diva, the film's antagonist who comes from a group that desperately doesn't want the pharaoh to come back, has stolen 2 pieces of it. At some point during all of this Kaiba holds a tournament that forces Yugi, who ends up with the other pieces, to put them back so that he can call forth Atem and so the 2 of them can duel, but Atem isn't summoned and the both of them have to contend with Diva.

I won't lie, the plot description is kind of boring and doesn't really do it justice, but I do think what's really neat about this movie is a kind of perspectiveon how Kaiba has been handling grief. It's also really neat that we have a kind of in universe reflection on the progression of technology 20 years after the manga has started and how it reflects on the position of millionaires within big-tech and how it affects the world around them. I feel like if I really sat down and took more time to comb through all of this, that there'd be like, more to critique here, but in an attempt to actually get this medialog done, I'm deciding against that. That and I think other people could pretty much say anything I have ever thought on this movie better than me.

But yeah real neat movie and even if you've only read the manga I really recommend watching just this. Part of me wants to say it gives closure to Kaiba as a character but with that cliffhanger ending and a post that Takahashi made about what a future would look like with Kaiba helping Yugi develop Spherium or whatever the game was called, it makes me think that this ending has no way in which it could end happily. And I feel like there's a lot to think about when it comes to that, especially when it comes to the character of Seto Kaiba. But I will leave others to their own interpretation rather than pushing my own thoughts on you (not that my thoughts are incredibly deep there.)

Watch this. Mostly because Seto Kaiba is undeniably THE GOAT and does some insane aura farming.

Yuru Camp△

So, I only watched the first season, but I'll gladly continue this when I have time. There's a lot here, but it was generally enjoyable. Enough so, that I bingewatched the entirety of it in a single day. Nadeshiko is a creature, but her antics made this generally a pretty fun time.

Yuru Camp△ SEASON 2

Season 2 is a lot of the same as season 1, but I don't mean that in a bad way. It's enjoyable, but unfortunately there's no a whole lot that's noteworthy. Just kind of a vibes show.

Yuru Camp△ SEASON 3

Honestly my only nitpick here is that I think I accidentally skipped over the movie which meant things felt a little disjointed, as well as things being split between 2 different groups most of the time. That made it feel a bit odd at parts.

Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho

I have a lot of fun watching a decent amount of it, and even reading the manga. It's very endearing, especially it's early part. My boy Yusuke Urameshii is the king of disrespect and I'd have it no other way. If there's an older work from Shonen Jump you should check out in some form or another, I don't think Yuyu Hakusho is a bad choice at all. Might drag my bestie into watching this with me because I definitely saw most of it on Toonami, but who knows how much of it I saw and if it was even in order.