Scalpelexis

It's bittersweet that the show gets better when the main character dies, but that's exactly what we want and what this has always been about. It seems cruel, but the implication of this regularity means Subaru needs to start using his brain and get creative. You can't ask for much more from this subject matter. For me, finally the first good episode.

Thank you, thank you for the gift! I was beginning to think this summer wasn't looking so stellar, until I realized I had inexcusably overlooked out this thanklessly hidden (only because of a stupid Netflix cut) anime. Studio WIT never ceases to amaze me beyond belief with every piece that has come out of their studios lately. WIT aren't just titans anymore; I'm awfully pleased that they have the luxury of choosing excellent scripts and don't have to reach for some cheap ecchi or isekai for the masses to pay the bills. Great Pretender is a hodgepodge from the one parallel dimension where they absolutely nailed it. I can't think of a single anime that could compete with this one in style and, more importantly, charm: they're such a Japanified Ocean’s Eleven with the same kinda cool characters from Black Lagoon, just replace the guns with cunning heists with endless twists that always leave a smile on your lips. Every now and then the (already highly intelligently scripted) plot entertains endlessly, only to switch to a more dramatic track with obvious grace. Each bit of mischief gradually paints the ultra-appealing main players in the richest colors, taking us lushly through the entire world. The Western feel oozes out of this in a palpable way; WIT are the absolute top of the line when it comes to art, and here they just prove it with every background. Likewise I have to praise the excellently chosen music with a PERFECT ending song that had me rewinding and rewinding and rewinding. I am in 7th heaven! Definitely don't miss this treasure. Ooooh yes!

After the very wide open ending of season 3, I didn’t have much hope that it could be put together in a satisfying way – and lo and behold, it did! First Inspector wisely no longer packs in almost any new info or branches and offers a full-blooded action-packed race to the finish without forgetting to answer the volatile questions raised. There are more than enough characters on set, and the direction navigates them all decently without any of them suffering from an annoyingly shrunken presence. Some minor disappointments can be found: a) The fights are short for my taste (the mechanical cool-fighting of the electrobugs makes up for it) and oddly random here and there (suddenly the action music starts playing, boom boom, after 10 seconds it's quiet again), b) I missed more nostalgia in the form of Sibyl System or Akane. It doesn't have a powerful philosophical ending by any means, the main villain is relatively ordinary at that, but in a sexy way it left the door open for more sequels, which I wouldn't be averse to in this style. A very good 4 stars.

I’m actually watching something from Trigger? An exceptional event, remember it well! And from the first few seconds, everything points to Trigger’s work as if it was made to order: round outlines with faded colors and a main character identical to all the previous ones from this studio. Michiru is exactly the same (only thankfully with less yelling) as Akko from LWA, i.e. a jigsaw puzzle put together from radioactively naive good-heartedness, incorrigible repetition of mistakes, and when you've got friends coming out of your ears it really takes more than one Tom to fail. BNA is a passable whodunit, wrapped in a very animalistic outfit with anti-racist undertones, tactfully pointing out that the physical exterior (as is characteristic of animal stories) is just a shell. The plot and script don't mess around: it's clear very early on who's on what side (slight doubts with the mayor; the "Croix-esque" minor villain is as subtle as a lighthouse), and this is where the strong two-dimensional treatment of almost all the characters hurts, throwing any attempt at a more complex story into the trash. I was bothered by the mithril-powered fence armor several of them had and the crutch of overcoming any obstacles is already more of a tank than a wheelchair in terms of imagery. This is by no means an exception with Trigger, though, because after all they specialize in straightforward anime with explosively over-the-top finales. By the time we get down to it, Michiru has to annoyingly hit his nose about 6 times and go through an unnecessary baseball digression that somehow didn't amuse me much. The final resolution in the last episodes is worth it though, and action buffs will enjoy the elaborate Trigger eradication craft, except that the punchline remained sort of lifeless. Why would anyone go back halfway when they currently have all the options? Artistically it's beautiful, the quality of the animation is almost always guaranteed with this studio, and I wouldn't have minded the more modern street-tuned soundtrack if the ED hadn't kept repeating in the middle of the episode. 3 stars

I can't help but give frequent nods to Jeoffrey's comments. My chin didn't find a single reason to drop in Series 1, yet the start of Season 2 made no such promises, as the central theme of elite non-confessional warfare (which was de facto the main driver of Season 1, especially as far as gags were concerned) was unpleasantly turned on its head. The anime stopped hiding behind the screen of a fairly ordinary romcom as soon as Kaguya loosened her knees and a batch of misunderstandings horrifyingly unoriginal for the anime genre came along. And yet! Despite the considerable gripe that new characters get minimal space, our favorite quartet made relative progress and always had something to offer, whether in terms of tickling the diaphragm or hints of bias towards their personal stories, namely Ishigami's. What I also have to appreciate are the damn apt allusions and excellent caricaturing or commenting on the funnier situations, artfully complemented by either the stylishly chosen music or the narrator's dry commentary. The freshness of the incorporated visual gags is unrivalled in the field of current anime, and the performance of Kaguya's dubber, the excellent Aoi Koga, must be singled out. Despite the fact that the storyline isn't very original and it drags substantially (and that's actually on purpose), I'm relatively satisfied with Season 2 of Love is War. A weak 4 stars

[Season 1] The world of Snowpiercer is itself a truly rewarding vehicle for discussing an immeasurable number of interesting topics. We might well discuss global warming or, conversely, freezing. The issues of the perpetual motion train technology project come to mind. Analyze the train as the last ark of humanity. Or go further, towards class struggles, government and social conflicts. It's all the more galling that this Netflix adaptation bites into everything except for that class struggle, and instead has to throw in the spice of our times: Racial nuances, something of LGBT cannot be lacking, and in general because of this, not only is this train running out of steam, but so is the entire script. The quality of the episodes is incredibly uneven and fluctuates greatly; sure, create a ton of digressions? We'd love to! But wrap them up? Uhhhh... And it always comes down to the fact that when a character is introduced and the cards of their conviction are laid out, they have to screw up in some marginally logical way in order to create new kindling. The acting (except by the artfully crafty and skilled Connelly) is lackluster, and the plot is thus driven not by the characters but by the cliffhangers. These grow stronger and more intense toward the end, which was certainly enjoyable if not for the last one, whose fraudulent (if spectacular) existence perhaps predated the first episode of the series. As one-and-done entertainment, Snowpiercer serves moderately well, but I can't shake the feeling that the potential (I could go on for hours about this) was much, much higher. The second season has a great chance to absolutely kill it, but conversely there's also room to learn quite a bit. 3 stars

Probably the best episode. The expected twist was thrilling and the resolution quite elegant. Those penultimate episodes have got something to them.

A decent cliffhanger that leaves your nerves on edge, but the build up to it was weak. Out of nowhere like that, a shortcut based on an absurd independent decision by one of the engineers to cover up the truth. Reversals by characters who play by the notes and then go and do something outside the realm of their classic decision-making in order to achieve a purpose does not make for good writing.

[Watched 2 episodes, drop] Anyone who has ever watched the profanity-laced The Irregular at Magic High School doesn't really need to waste their time watching this discount copy, which you can tell by its nearly identical title alone. This anime is about nothing more than the constant underestimation of a main character who could flatten the earth, make a statue laugh, or fly a fighter jet backwards with a blink of his shiny little eyes. On his way past our Maou-sama, all the ladies' underwear of his future harem get moist, there’s constant gorging of the mushroom sauce, and he is declared "nice" when minutes before he had X times executed the disrespectful atheists of his person. I'm not saying that I'm ever surprised by SILVER LINK studio, but I generally don't understand the adaptation of this tragic trash.

Ugh, it's been a long time since I finished watching S2 and for anyone else who suffers from a similar "affliction", I recommend watching the last 2 episodes of S2 as this one directly follows it. The unraveling of the relationships of otherwise reserved characters continues and everyone knows/fears the situation when things start openly veering towards love rather than friendship that some bridges will totally catch fire. Judging by the 2nd half of the episode, I'm expecting a bit lighter and less melancholy undertone than before.