What anime do you watch?

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iwansquall
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Superpower student + Murder Mystery, what can go wrong?
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As usual, im on purpose picking a series that not perfect (around 7 - 7.5 on MAL) just to find any anime that can intrigued me, to find a hidden gems. Just take note that I will spoil MAJOR PLOT POINT in the series. Watch first episode first, then come back here to read the review.

Anime is standard cliche underdog story. I mean, it started with someone who have no talent among an elite school full of student with talents (super ability) just to prepare themselves to fight enemy of humanity when they grew up. Then there is rumor that the enemy already infiltrate the school in order to take all students out. As the body count raise up, how will our protagonist discover the true killer among the school mates? Will all truths finally revealed?

► Show Spoiler


As i mentioned in the picture, the anime have potential. But it is inconsistent with tone shifting between serious & playful school story. The anime production arent great, no other memorable things to say except unique concept.

Alternative :
Danganronpa - Class with murder mysteries that have much better animation
Yakusoku no Neverland- A intriguing story about escaping from evil orphanage
Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - A dark story about magical girl
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu - An superpower who teach a class full of assassin.
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UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT

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I will be honest that Madoka Magica Franchise is one of my favourite anime of all times that I wished I can watch it again for first time. I know about that this anime would be a spinoff, so i set my expectation properly.

And yet, it still made me disappointed in many levels. I dont mind if the series started with a different protagonist. I also researched that this anime was based on a mobile games, which usually will resulting terrible adaptation. In the beginning, the series seem start with a simple monster of the week formula where they move from one to another area, solving a problem for a magical girls. The series only really picked up the pace about 1/4 of the series. All those plottwist are meaningless to me, as I said, it already explored in previous franchise.

Despite of all that, thankfully the studio Shaft tried to do their best job. Artstyle managed to keep old cute girls with grim atmosphere. While I would prefer to have a more lavish / cheerful town view, they managed to keep it consistent. Thankfully the battle scene doesnt disappoint, with its fluid animation, nice 3D background once a while, and variety of camera angles. The best though, is definitely the soundtrack which made me chill & remind me of feeling of watching previous entry.

My recommendation is to wait for 2nd season to conclude first. It left with bitter cliffhanger, which made me much more salty than usual. This anime actually BETTER if you dont watch previous franchise so that you wont get disappointed like me.

Alternative :
The Original Madoka - The masterpiece original of this franchise, there is movie alternative if you dont have free time (3rd movie is original plot)
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru - Another magical girl desconstructor, with brutal plot
Selector Infected WIXOSS - Same brutal concept, but this is a trading card instead
Gakkougurashi! - I wont spoil, but just watch it for "cheerful time"
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These are my fav animes:
Your name
Jojo's bizzare adventure part 1 & 2
A place further then the universe
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iwansquall
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Pew pew pew? Have a spear railgun instead.
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Ok, for wth im wanting to watch a gundam series that conclude nicely in season at 2016. Leaving about 4 years gap, which was supposed to watch back to back. Thus, pardon me from missing out couple of key details.

The IBO is very opposite from standard gundam series fare. While the story usually revolved around politic and massive powerful mecha called Gundam, this story used both elements merely as background setting, at least for majority of the first season. This band of young soldier have a simple goals to survive and lead mars to liberation. Getting opposed by different faction, they brought to bloody wars that surely will cost some of their lives. Sometimes it felt weird as most of them are teenager that only have small amount of adult in their mercenaries group.

The problems in 2nd season is that it felt it wanted to tell many of different concept in this world. Some of political story is pretty good, but some of arc in the middle felt abit off to me. Especially when a story that usually revolved around combat between human & human, was sidelined to grand battle with alien-like ancient war machine. However I would say that final 7 episodes alone carried this season around with huge battles and several of strong moments. However I still felt disappointed as it didnt focus much on Gundam.

Should you watch first and 2nd back to back? Probably yes, although you have to give 1st season a try first. Considering there are 50 episodes, this is a standard gundam series amount of episodes, yet it feel lacking this time around.
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Goverment Lizardmen Conspiracy~~
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This anime have been on my radar after seeing on several top 10 anime for 2020. Since Im open for abit more mature (seinen tag) anime, i thought i would give this story a go. Im not disappointed.

The story started with our protagonist which have a simple goal, want to find his old identity. In order to do so, he was forced to kills several rough thugs send by the sorcerors (people who can use spell by smoke power). He partner up with a girl who help throughout his journey, as well as source of his freeloader food. On the opposite side, our villains with his henchmen are pretty several vicious tactics to capture this lizardman. As the world is complex & quite hostile, we will be able to see how weird & absurd.

Despite the anime using 3D CGI for several of our main characters, it doesnt detrimental to our eyes as the artstyle with tons of details, managed to make this anime look gorgeous despite not exactly "pretty". All of the characters in this anime are pretty unique with some of them have very unique power. As intriguing the storytelling are, it just feel like story doesnt reveal itself like whole story about the whole or about our main protagonist background. Nevertheless this anime is truly of unique experience despite it is might not for everyone.

I highly recommend this. Intriguing story & artstyle alone is truly unique and cant be found in any other anime. However this kind of story might required you to research a bit more if you want to know more about the world.

Alternative :
Kekkai Sensen- Another weird human story with strange power
Dororo - Bloody adventure tale of revenge
Devilman Crybaby - Weird story about how ugly our world are
No Guns Life - A cop who is part of weird inhuman society.

BONUS MATERIAL! : I cant feel to skip this intro
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Bloom yuri into you.
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Shoujo Ai or Yuri is something is abit tricky to balance in anime. Some merely explore surface level of being more than a friends, some went to raunchy porn level while some explore the emotional & feeling of the couples. This is one of the example anime for that.

Again, as usuall i went through for good anime for last 5 years. This was on my radar for a while as I do wanted to have variety of genre while binge anime. This anime explore about 2 girls who having hard times to settle their inner feeling. While the beginning of the story revolved around a junior who searching of 'what is love", the senior girl is one of popular / perfect girl is always have issue of not being "turned on" after countless confessed. This anime is kinda like tricky balancing act once you watch until mid parts.

The main reason is because each of the person have a deep feeling of being imperfect. They wanted to bring the relationship forward, but at the same time they wanted to keep the status quo, because hating each other is last thing they wanted to happens. As for pacing for the series, since majority of story is revolved around feeling struggle or brooding, it is do feel lack of tension / drama. Nevertheless, the series do have a variety of school events through the season. The build up to a stage play however.... reserved for next season.

Should you watch this? It is depend. As slow burner romance that more about discovering their innerself, the shoujo-ai might turn some people off. Just dont expect any lovey-dovey romcom or drama from this.

Alternative : (Would be hard to recommend since i dont watch many shoujo-ai anime, unless i want to recommend super old anime)
Kuzu no Honkai - Inner struggle of loving people by being scummy
Hibike! Euphonium - Not a romance, but a mutual feeling of friends to work hard together
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru - Love triangle that just wanted to keep status quo
Sasameki Koto- Slow pace & realistic yuri anime
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IM GONNA CURSE YOU!
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Japan folk always have fascinating idea about ghost stories. This series tackle several of several of it like a story about a crying Hanako in toilet of school which generally related to dying with regrets and want to curse people around her.

This series start with playful concept where there are 7 rumors among the schools where one of the is said able to grant any of your wish for a severe payment. Our protagonist girl met the ghost in order to able to confess her love to her senior. Because of certain conditions, she was forced to work under the ghost, in order to tackle of several problems related with ghosts that inhabit the 7 wonders of the school. Being a person who just want to feel loved, she agree and thus begin her cursed daily life in the school.

The animation of this anime is unique with heavy lines usage & many of super deformed art that feel like cute. Despite all of that, this series have no problem switching to serious mode as this series tackle heavy subject like feeling regret while alive like being bullied, unable to do their best and feeling of losing a friend. Anime production & direction is pretty good, especially the usage of quick cut to deliver joke punch. Nevertheless, the comedy / serious balance can be an issue as it can ruin each other.

If you find the artstyle is intriguing, then go watch the series. I would say that the series strength only rely on its quick comedy gag and cute / weird artstyle. The story arent heavy or serious as I wanted though.

Alternative :
Kimetsu no Yaiba - When anime focus on action of killing demon
Noragami - Playful and yet intriguing serious story
Fruits Basket (2019) - Story about girl living among cursed family
Kyoukou Suiri- Intriguing about solving mysteries with youkai (demon)
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Urararararararararararararara
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After several good anime streak, i thought i could just go to lower score to find any anime with interesting art. Sucker for moe-blob, you know this type of anime already.

Despite I put proper expectation for some average-scored anime, some of them can hit & miss. This anime is a miss. The story have in classical town where human, witches & animals live in harmony. Every girls who reached 15 years old can further pursuit to become the best fortune teller (basically who never make mistake). Story started simple with an outsider who venture to the city. As many other similar anime of moe-blob like this, they focus more on their daily life while teasing each other.

The story supposed to have some major plotlines from the beginning, but it seem to abandoned it aside from some of the episodes. The comedy is pretty much a miss for me. Despite it do try to have a specific comedy type that i liked, at the end i didnt laugh at any of them. To my surprised that this anime is made by JC Staff, which in the past have managed to create several better looking anime, but it went to average this time around. Actually i wonder why seinen (mature / adult) tag sometimes revolved around girls doing cute stuff though.

I say just skip this anime. This anime felt flat throughout the season, especially when Im not fan of the comedy. The important plot parts didnt bring anything interesting on the table either.

Alternative:
Konohana Kitan - Story about serving in guest house
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san - A boy who lived in haunted onsen (outside hotbath)
Joshiraku - A group of girls that do performance based on comedy
Anne-Happy - A group of who deem unhappy.
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The great bamboozler
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After seeing multiple award showing this as one the finalist in the top 2020, i thought i finally give a time to watch this unique anime just to see what so great about it.

Despite I put very high expectation, this anime still managed to surpassed it. At the beginning I wasnt entertained because it can get a bit playful (which some anime like to do to show how skill their casts) which didnt managed to grasp me until the revelation of the first case, which I was freaking mindblown. Without spoiling much of the story, just enjoy the ride and try to understand that them as con artist is just want to trick those people to get their money. Regardless the motivation, it is fun & entertaining ride.

Again, as I said the pro of this anime in the beginning, this anime is pretty unique is trying to reserve their international feeling by having cast speaking different language like english, chinese, japanese, france (although japanese for convenient of viewer for most of the time). The artstyle is specifically mentioned because some of them despite having 3d cgi, it still retained the water colour effect with very colourful palette. Every characters in this anime is pretty interesting despite technically they are the "bad guy".

No doubt, go watch it. This anime should be watchable for everyone even if they arent fan of anime. The story and great characters alone carried the story from start to finish.

Alternative :
Baccano!- Another mysterious multicast character about attaining a specific item
Cowboy Bebop - Inter galactic band of mercenaries with random type of team members
Higashi no Eden - Internation style of a mysterious games
Kakeguruis - Story of school that full of gambler

Bonus material (The ending in image referring of final 2 episodes of the series, not this ED which is good)
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From mediocre to good?!
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Ok, i will be honest to say that Im specifically searching for new ecchi entry for past 4 years, many of those i already watch. Then I found about a continuation of a series i feel like average / nothing good going with it.

And somehow this sequel managed to defy my expectation. Granted, it is not a good anime that everyone can enjoy (ecchi... you know what you expect) but there are some moments turned anime is quite good. At the beginning of the season, story revolved the silly episodes part of ecchi, then a recycle story of finding + defeating evil spirits which some have good drama tied to it. Then story revolved to a major plot where there are neighbouring team of protectors and their god want conquer our protagonist land.

Aside from adding development for current existing characters, some episodes do revolved around ecchi like funny 2nd episodes where they faking themselves to become a couple. As usual, there are several naked scene like baths or character getting their clothes getting ripped. One good points about this season is definitely the intense fights. While is several episodes the fight is pretty short, we got a powerful finale that we able to each goddess throwing their superpowers.

Should you watch this and 1st season? Only a certain conditions, if you can stand with ecchi stuff, and able to withstand many of the average moments in many episodes.