What anime do you watch?

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iwansquall
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I feel like i got trapped into exact target demographic
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Another anime that I know have pretty good score & probably one of the best girl in 2022. I already watched many good series from 2022, why not just i continue watching great show instead struggling mediocre series.

The series started with a brooding MC which have been told weird for being so passionate about hina doll (ceremonial / decoration dolls) made by his grandfather. As he reached high school, he have been alone pretty much whole life and having issue even to communicate with any friend. One day, he met by diva from her class, which lead the story of making costume together. With his sewing skill from making clothes hina doll, both of them get together in many more playful activities.

Ok, I will be honest to say that this anime exact target audiences are people like me. You know, having a dream unobtainable cute girlfriend while personally being social awkward person. The interaction between this 2 characters can look cute but super awkward / weird at same time, making it feel like cartoonish or unrealistic. Story wise, it began with super interesting intricate stuff about making costume then move toward part that i feel boring when it is more about side activities like photoshoot.

Personally I enjoy this, but i mentioned above it might totally not something fun for you. If you are ok with otaku male fantasy romance, then overall the story is quite good in many aspect. Oh, expect some ecchi scene as well.
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iwansquall
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86? Why not 69?
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Link to Part 2 myanimelist

After high recommendation from people on median discord, i think i finally can find time to watch this series. To be honest, I think I should make 2 different reviews after finishing watching the series. Thus this review will be slightly different where i will talk about good / bad in each individual part before im writing conclusion at the end.

Part 1
The series started with a female protagonist which is called princess who lived in sheltered Republic city. Everyone are living their fullest lives safe while actually there are huge war for humanity happening at the city border. She then became a handler for a squad of mech pilots, designated 86 which have been badly treated unlike proper military soldier. Wanting to change system, our idealist princess then oversee the battlefield while trying to get closer to each of members in the mech squad.

I made huge mistake at beginning to think that this anime will be "combat focused" anime, instead most of the time at are focused on character buildings. As watch more episode, there are many shifting perspective between the handler & leader of squad that kinda sometimes hard to follow. Combine with several time jump (usually with date & time written) as well as several flashback to tell background story. Additionally, seem like feel like there are many plot convenient / armor the main male got that make him survived many wars before.



Part 2
After what happened in end of season 1, the story now revolved heavily on main male protagonist perspective. Without spoilering much of the story, lets just say that there are new battlefield where everyone have to participate with new groups & mechs. The story are still revolved around fighting mindless drone except there are another important main plot / tones than 1st season which solely focus more surviving the war. We also see more out-of-combat story among the characters showing different aspect of main characters.

Hard to say what bad about part 2 without spoiling much. One thing i notice is that there will be introduction of new loli character that is annoying but integral to the storyline. While there are many combat scenes this time around, for me there are just too many moment that being cut to battle aftermath abruptly despite many battle i considered as super important plots wise. Despite world now larger, there are many unanswered questions even at the end of part 2.

Overall I enjoyed all characters stories, especially showing their inner struggle in / out of battlefield. I made mistake a beginning with wrong expectation (especially when you design the story expecting people dying one by one). Eventually part 2 really bring everything together for better story. If you are planned to watch this, go watch both season by to back (anime got production issue / delayed when airing).

Part 1 is good albeit character focused, Part 2 is super excellent in many aspects.
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iwansquall
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What re-main important is.... sexy abs!
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This time around, I on purpose pick a sports tag this time around only to realize there havent any interesting new sports anime. So i just pick random one and saw this one. I didnt put much expectation to be honest.

As I wrote description above, the story revolved around protagonist trying to remember back his former self. Only issue is that after amnesia for many days he now joining new school with apparently weak water polo team. With bunch of random guys, they need to find 7 players to form a team so that they can compete in prefectural tournament. As episodes goes, there are many drama happened with every each character which they need to overcome to become a better person.

As for the bad part, the series feel like a bunch of friends doing water polo activities rather than usual sports anime. The drama focused story take too much time that important matches only happened in last 2 episodes. Without spoilering much of the story, lets just say there are couple of plot twist in middle of the story that i think feel off considering this anime just be easily straight good-feeling sports anime. Aside from couple of characters, i think like side characters arent developed much.

Personally i think the anime arent that average like MAL score do, there are legit many feel good moments like seeing good of friends hanging together. Regardless, just beware that it is character driven anime.
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Prime_Evil
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Ascendance of a Bookworm.

What a torture it was to watch the whole first season. I don't get why everyone's so crazy about this anime. It's so boring. Probably the most boring isekai anime i've watched in years, and that's saying a lot since isekai is an oversaturated anime theme these days. Whole eps dedicated to the main character making paper? Making shampoo?... All because she wants to read books? The last ep had the only interesting part of the whole anime which is when the bishop starts going apeshit on her family and she deals with him appropriately. Everything else is so utterly boring. Also, having teenage boys as most of the main characters in isekai and anime in general gets annoying after a while as it is, let alone a 6 year old girl as main character. I cannot in my right mind recommend this anime unless you have no issues with all my gripes with it. Expect a really slow burn with a lot of nonsense, sparkled with moments of occasional geniousness (when the anime shifts 5 minutes out of 2 episodes to discuss her "sickness")

Worst part is there's an OVA and 2 more seasons of this shit, and i have to watch all of it because i hate my life and i promised someone i would. Sometimes i should just not make promises.

update : s2 and s3 were a lot better than s1 by a mile, finally something else than a snorefest. I still cannot recommend this anime despite how better the last 2 seasons were given that you still need to go through the pain of watching s1 to get your bearings.
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iwansquall
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just short review this time around.
in preparation to watch horror genre anime, i choose made in abyss 2nd season.
since 3rd movie is must watched before s2, i decided to it a watch before i go to sleep
lets just say that im scarred for tonight sleep
i remember how grosteque the series was but not this extreme

as a movie, i feel like it still lacked those "movie quality" aside from maybe couple of money shot
especially if you tried to watch this after not remembering what happened in first season
and it feel like another important arc on tv series. albeit with very fast pacing
regardless it is really was engaging to watch from start to finish
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Prime_Evil
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Mieruko-chan

I absolutely hate comedy filled animes with a passion almost just as much as anime who have their selling point cute girls doing cute things. Luckily this one hasnt got the latter, though it does have some comedy, but this comedy isnt overblown or slapstick for me to find it obnoxious. That is a good thing.
I enjoyed this one. It could however drop it's obvious fanservicey shots with the girls' boobs and ass and have more of the "horror" (i say horror very loosely hence the air quotes) . There are a few moments in the anime with plot twists that i honestly didnt see it coming, especially one linked to a certain member of Miko's family that gets explained right in the last 30 seconds of like the third ep. That was nice.

So yea. Solid anime. Maybe more of this or better instead of the insane garbage we mostly get lately?
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iwansquall
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Seriously, does this author have weird fetish or something?
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I wrote previously that I was watching a movie to prepare for this anime. My assumption is that I wanted to write review in both same time, but turned out there are many more to unpacked from this season alone.

Very hard for me to review this season without spoiler the majority of the story. Lets just say the group managed to go a lively city deep in the deep abyss which seem to have many creatures living inside it. Every episodes will greet you with more questions as you trying to figure their way of living as well as the real history of the city. There is small tied in between the main characters with several important characters in this season, giving you alot of feeling through of the series.

I will be honest to say that I got bored & clueless at beginning. It started with bunch of characters that seem not related with main story at all, which is kinda finally explained in final half of the season. The story much hardest to grasph at beginning especially with limited vocabulary / alien language used by creature. Especially when it kept throwing weird stuff after weird stuff in every episodes (which vaguely explained). If werent for those beautiful & story explanation in final half, I would really get bored.

Highly recommend you to watch this especially if you are fan of the series already. Only 1 note to take is that it will be very different tone from what i loved about first : adventuring into unknown with cute & dread feeling. This feel like a slowburn that rewarding if you stick until the end.
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iwansquall
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Probably one of the most hyped awaited adaptation.
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I will be honest that I didnt finish watching all series previously. I relied on series recap & analysis which give me vaguely synopsis what happened so far. Regardless, the series was one of my favourite many years ago thus this felt like a nostalgia trip.

Again, it very hard to explain the whole series without diving to the major plot points in this season. The series always showing the big clash of ideas between the Soul Reaper & Quincy method in disposing the evil spirits Hollow. This season is the climax where we will superpower from both sides clashing to destroy each others. Additional to the awesome fights, we also learnt important backstory for several characters especially about our main protagonist that lead to his journey in the first place.

Again, hard to mention anything bad about this series because it is excellent in many expect. There are several terrible unfunny gags and quiet moment that bored me, but most of the other hyped moment parts are just in its league on its own. The excessive recap at least cant be found here but i do kinda feel that pacing this time around is quite fast. There is also several usually "wow those fighter are throwing new power left & right", but i guess you cant blame because it is common shounen trope.

If you did ever watched Bleach series before, I would suggest you to watch couple of synopsis / recap and immediately watch this series. I thought i would unhappy because we only get 1/4 of the arc, but it left super satisfied with whole of this part
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Prime_Evil
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Tomodachi Game.

Another anime that begs for a S2, this was a pretty good one, though the guy they set up to be the main character kinda has this god mode permanently on throughout a huge chunk of it.

But its enjoyable to watch. Good. More of this please.
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Prime_Evil
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86, both parts.

Really good. I'm not usually the biggest military anime enjoyer, but when it's a good military themed anime it's almost always good, just like Gate. This one is no exception. It's not your happy-go-lucky anime, as it shows the horrors of war and death and losing your comrades in a blink of an eye during a battle, with heavy racism undertones and how you wont even be seen a human because of your hair color.

Yep yep yep. Good. Now moving on to Made in Abyss, which has sit on my backlog for a very long while now. I expect gore/depressing moments from both seasons given what little i have read about it.

edit : done with Made in Abyss, it was what i expected it to be except the amounts of gore i was expecting. I've been watching a lot of Gen Urobutchi stuff, so i always expect cutesy animes pulling the rug under me with something grotesque. Go figure. Anyways Made in Abyss is pretty good. That last ep on S1 (Nanachi and Mitty conclusion) hit right on the feels.