What anime do you watch?

EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!!!

Title : Youjo Senki Movie
The Saga of Tanya the Evil Movie

I took a long break from watching anime as I was focused a lot on destiny 2. Since watching anime while not doing open world stuff (anything required more attention) will make me less focused on the anime. So this one I waited for the time when Im just chilling around so that I can pay more attention. Im glad that I did.

This movie is a continuation from first season. As usual, our protagonist is a OP little girl who can cast powerful magic which lead several mages battalions on the battle. Despite being almost realistic war setting, this is alternative history where magic are the key of a country and they are valueable asset to conquer other country. Story wise, this is pretty straight forward anime with simple build up, tension and awesome climax. If you enjoyed first season, definitely this is more light awesomeness.

The focus of the movie definitely to introduce the powerful antagonist for our characters. As someone who super OP in first season, usually we watch the series because we want to see how she handle situation any big problematic issue related to war tactic. This time around she met someone who pretty powerful which will be someone important in 2nd season. The strength of this movie is definitely the climax battle where you able to see crazy air maneuver as well as tons of explosions.

Despite powerful anime, this is not something i can recommend you watch as standalone. There is zero setup in the movie but definitely enjoyable watch for first season viewer.

Alternative : Quite hard to recommend anything similar unless you willing to watch any old anime. The feeling I got when I was watching this are : Strike Witches, Hisone to Maso-tan, Gate series & Steamboy (seem like there arent many traditional modern military anime that I watched recently).
EDITED : I just found the title, it was Alderamin on the Sky which is one of the recent one that I enjoyed.

ANOTHER EXPLOSION!!!!!!

Title : Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!: Kurenai Densetsu
KONOSUBA -God's blessing on this wonderful world!- Legend of Crimson

I will be honest to say that I wasnt fan of konosuba. The main reason was the quality of animation from Studio Deen, then the comedy isnt exactly my cup of the tea, and lastly I feel like the plot wasnt going anywhere. That said, Im kinda surprised to see that this movie was animated by JC Staff instead, which Im confident that it can maintain the quality, assuming they focus their staff properly.

As usual, there is zero setup in anime movie for first time watcher. We straight start the usual failure of the party to complete any quest. Based on title alone, this movie focused more on the favourite character of this anime (you know who if you watch the series). This time around, there are more setup in background story about the character, the hometown, some backstory about the villain as well as proper story progression.

Comedy wise, I think it is much better. I guess this kind of joke need to be done with proper execution and studio nailed it. Animation are super beautiful especially the final battle, and the quality are definitely improved multiple fold. That said, dont expect any plot heavy story aside from usual laugh moments. One of the good thing I can say about the movie is it got "heart".

This kinda redeem the series for me. I couldnt enjoy both season of the TV series but really like the movie alot. Great animation and entertaining. Would be great if they keep same studio to animate next season.

Alternative : Hard to suggest any other magic spectacle anime movie unless i go further back to old anime. 2 anime came to my mind are Magical Lyrical Nanoha Movie series (pretty good) and Puella MAgica Magi Madoka (excellent).

New post as I will review whole 3 season + OVA (part by part)

Stylish and cool.

Title : Bungou Stray Dogs
Bungo Stray Dogs

This will be a super long post as I will update once I finish each season back to back. I dunno much about this series aside from seeing several screenshots of them. After some researching, it is apparently made by Studio Bones so at least the quality will be there. I will enter the series blind and see if it is a series that worth binge or not.

Lets just say that series started with loud bang. At least for first couple of episodes. We got introduced to all main characters in such a fancy way that to almost I feel like pacing are super fast (not really), the world established well at least for first season of the series. Juggling many characters usually is very hard thus there are some episodes dedicated for side characters. As for our protagonist, you will able to see his growth by the end of 1st season. So this series are definitely have a lot of flavorful characters.

As for story and plots itself, this is setup in a port city that have been terrorized by Mafia. Our protagonist team which is a team armed detectives, always tasked to solved several crimes cases that happened around the city. Every several episodes, there will be sure big bang fight between two party that quite intense and beautiful animated. Only downside I think is that 12 episodes probably not enough yet to develop many aspects of the series.

This is strong entry for an anime, detective vs mafia style is pretty cool especially with the characters design and and combat animation. Though sometimes comedy part of are questionable.

Alternative : Kekkai Sensen, K, Durarara, Baccano, Noragami, Tokyo Ghoul. This just show that this series not exactly new but more polish and entertaining of similar template anime.

Took a while to finish this.
Title : Bungo Stray Dogs Season 2

Not need to introduce much in this part aside the story is a bit weird in term of plot progression. At the beginning it straight cut toward one of the character backstory immediately that made me wonder if I watched different story. I think at least it should start the current time event story first THEN start with flashback scene. Granted this is useful part to expand the series.

Quality wise, this season focused more on character development for many characters. Villain in first season are now considered rivals which basically kinda like 2 side of same coin. The threat in season is a bit jumbled up as it have several big arc and some side story. It does end the season with a bang although Im not exactly happy with progression.

This season supposed to be much stronger in many aspect but I felt like I liked 1st season more as it is more individual (protagonist) venture into the series as well as it is more stylish. Granted 2nd season is still very entertaining.

I already got bored with this.
Title : Bungo Stray Dogs Season 3

Again the series started with some flashback about one of the important character in the anime. While it good thing to learn about them as their relationship didnt explained well in season 2, I still have issue because this anime feel like hap hazardly switching arc. This is not bad for long running shounen, but definitely not for 12 episodes anime.

My biggest gripe is I cant sense the plot progression of this anime. Yes every new season introduce new bad guys with new deadly skills, but that it really undermined the whole concept that I feel in 1st season. This pretty much typical shounen formula that IMO failed for me. The complex intricate relationship between good guys, the bad guys, the third parties, the forth parties etc, was so complex that i feel I really need to read extra guide book just understand everything.

This is why I love first season. The plot is simple, it is about a weak guy who transformed and improved to become main characters. But as season go forward the focused changed way too much that I think that it is not good for 12 episodes per season format. Mainly I still dunno where direction of story going to. Not to mention end of every season is just became superpower throwing fest with anti-climatic result. I thought i would get attached to this series, but I didnt.

Grandfather of complex visual novel.

Title : Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO
YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world.

No, this is not a light novel adaptation anime. In fact this is an adaptation of super old visual novel (1996) that apparently was planned to aired around same time as remastered version of this games. That said, it is still need to be treated as modern anime as this was released in 2019. Granted that this visual novel was among the first one trying to very complex that carving the path for other many visual novel title.

Ok, from the straight get go I have to say that subject matter of this anime is time loop / time travel / parallel world sci fi mystery series. So as the normal formula go, this is revolving around using a tool to "reverse time" in order to save a particular girls. The plot is very mysterious as the device was left by our protagonist father, so he is kinda need to search for answer for all the things happened around him. The premise is intriguing but, kinda like many other similar anime concept.

Except this anime executed pretty badly, while I cant blame the storyline for trying to be unique / different for that era, it feel flawed if you watched anime in continuously. Manly because our protagonist need to save girls in each of their own route, thus you will feel weird when suddenly those character are out of the picture. But biggest crime I think with anime (and probably the VN as well) is our protagonist is got FREAKING ISEKAI-ED around episode 18. This pretty much throw away all the previous setup and completely feel like another anime.

This anime is mediocre in many aspect. I was interested in the beginning part because of mystery + slow burning / built up of the anime that unravel the story layer by layer. Btw, I already feel anime will be mediocre from the 1st Opening! Again, probably it is issue with source material, but quality of anime production arent there either. Probably better to read synopsis of this anime / visual novel instead.

Alternative : ReZero and Steins Gate are probably 2 closest anime to this. As for other anime that did similar stuff but setback by horrendous pacing issue, I suggest Angel Beats & Charlotte.

OP hero not so OP anymore

Title : Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Movie: Hoshi wo Yobu Shoujo
The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie - The Girl Who Summons The Stars

This is another movie adaptation from one of the old anime that I think I forgot most of the stuff in the series (OP hero, magic school, sports etc) so I will be blind while watching this movie. Apparently this is real adaptation from the source material, so I think this can be considered more like extension of the series than doing stand alone.

The anime started by introducing a "token girl" which was a result from science experimentation. As the plot required, our protagonist team somehow stumbled with her. She requested for our protagonist help to save her other "lab friends" thus the plot of the movie begin. Just take note that since this anime movie, there is bound to be 0 character introduction as usual, so I just kinda vaguely remembered what each character power / ability.

As for animation goes, this is pretty much standard for anime industry. I dont feel like watching a movie aside from maybe some battle scene toward the end. Just take note aside from some slice of life stuff, there arent much of the "magic school" that this series known for. Granted we able to see our protagonist in his usual dark combat armor (Darth Vader lul) solving the issue for the movie.

I can only recommend you to watch this immediately after watching the tv series. It wasnt that good for standalone anime movie and the most interesting battle scenes are just couple of minutes.

Alternative : Not movie alternative, but tv series.....just watch all those long light novel title anime magic school adaptation around 2010s, it was common trope before Isekai took over.

WHAT DA FAK DID I JUST WATCH?

Title : Kyochuu Rettou Movie
The Island of Giant Insects Movie

I went to this series blind. I think i heard about this series before, it was kinda like infamous but oh boy my mental wasnt prepare when I started to watch this anime movie. I wont bother to research the source material because Im pretty sure it will be the same.

Be warned that this anime will disgust you. It started with series of people on airplane who crash landed into an island (somehow miraculously survived). The catch here is that there are many types of insects that suddenly become huge. This insect are violent and seem will hunt anything for their food. There isnt much air time to resolve this series, thus just treat it as a starting for misadventure. Oh I forgot to mention that somehow our protagonist group are just bunch of school kids because of .... reasons.

If the plot intrigued you, dont make mistake like I did. This anime are full of bugs, slime, insect, and the worse parts of this anime movie are gore & gross porn-like picture of humans who get caught by the insect. The huge amount of fan service of bare boobs, suggestive pose doesnt help it either. As for the animation go, this is bad, to a point that first 5 minute alone shown the quality of it. All those 3D CGI bugs made it look much more worse. Despite that, it still managed to make you feel disgusted by them.

I dont recommend you to watch this unless you really curious to know how bad anime can be. This is probably one of recent anime that watch that went down so fast that I have to give much less score because of "negative enjoyment" I got from watching this.

Alternative : I felt sick as I was just finish eating before I watched this. Just go watch anime survival / horror / mystery anime than this. UGH!

hello I started to see Boruto which is the continuation of naruto shippudden so far I do not like it very much but we will see how

Death Notes is my fav anime

I just watched this in cinema.

Title : Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 2: Heroes:Rising
My Hero Academia the Movie 2: Heroes:Rising

This is my first cinema movie after post Covid19 outbreak in my country. The movie theater have opened and I went there with a friend who never watched this series at all. So how well the series to a new viewer that have 0 knowledge of the main series?

The series started simple with all class members (20 of them) are required to do some hero community service in some remote small island. As usual, this is just a perfect candidate situation for our villain to attack and those students have fend off powerful villains without the help of their teacher or other adult hero. The series started strong with introduction of people on the island, as well as several scenes where we able to see the students in action to help the community. There is 2 children that revolved around main plot which is the key reason of villains coming to that island.

As usual, because the villain are such powerful enemy that causing massive destruction to the island, the students have to come out the plan on how to beat the villain and at the same time saving all those island people. This the biggest challenges as they have to come up with strategy without having anyone killed. That said, my biggest gripe with this movie is the bombastic fight scene at the end. It supposed to have emotional impact as well as giving reason for someone to be a hero, but alas it was stupidly ended so it have proper continuation to next main series season.

I didnt tell much about anime production since you pretty much know the quality from Studio Bones with this series. But I can only recommend if you like excellent fight scenes and dont mind about that stupid ending.

Alternative : Movie with bombastic fights Nanoha movie 1 & 2, Saga of Evil Tanya the movie as well as Konosuba Movie (the one with crimson something something).

Either you love it or you hate it.

Title : Boku no Hero Academia 4th Season
My Hero Academia 4th Season

There is a rarely anime where I dropped everything I was doing and made me focused on the anime watching 100%. This anime is one of them, it kinda pull you to watch you after every ending wanting to know what happened in the next episode.

This season continue with usual hero vs villain pattern with several slice of life sprinkled in between. To be honest, that what made me enjoy anime, ability to learn more about characters and the world after each battles. This time around we are not exactly tackle our big enemy, but instead a yakuza criminal who have been doing bad things with a little girl. First half of season are pretty much about doing investigation about this girl and trying to save her. The battle are pretty intense especially now it focused more on side characters rather than our protagonist.

Again, studio Bones already well known for its consistent anime production so it is pretty well made. The payoff by the end of the big arc are awesome with beautiful animated explosion. There was some of episodes feel boring are empty, basically as small gap in between big arc. Story wise, it is pretty interesting even for the non battle arc (school festival). This probably a season that some people might felt very disappointing, but to me it is probably one of the most consistent entertaining the whole season.

Again, you probably should start with first season to decide if it worthy to watch this anime. For me, the anime remain consistent being good and entertaining.

Alternative : This time around, any battle school anime are fitting here.

Too many cook spoil the broth

Title : Shin Chuuka Ichiban
New Cooking Master Boy

This is not first time the manga got adaptation. In fact I remember vividly the first series that was released about 20 years ago (I watch early 2000) which was quite a pleasant & crazy cooking show. AFAIK it was kinda like the first one that focus specifically on cooking battle until several anime / manga was made.

So, first question would be how would you do a continuation of beloved series that already aired 20 years ago? The best solution would be to create a proper remake for modern audience like several anime with proper care. Another solution is to focus on more important storyline and build the character from the ground out. The series didnt complete last time despite having 52 episodes (Im aware there are a lot filler in first series). But that doesnt mean you can assume everyone already watch those and do a continuation.

Turned out the new series butchered a lot of parts. First, they assume you already know all characters from the series. There is FREAKING ZERO character introduction. 2nd is the series pacing haphazardly, suddenly it show our protagonist already got Super Chef title without watching the competition (which was quite crazy). I dunno if this following the manga flow, but definitely you can feel something wrong with the pacing. Lastly, the cook battle itself lasted way too short. At least the original series tend to focus on cooking process.

I cant recommend this, it spit + step on the legacy of the series. While I was interested with the continuation of the series, but this adaptation just feel poor. Better go watch first adaptation despite it might be slow & a lot of filler, but at least I feel it is more fulfilling adaptation.

Alternative : Not many cooking battle anime nowadays aside from Food Wars (Shogeki no Souma). Other similar cooking anime would be Yakitate Japan. Other 2 cooking + slice of life series would be Koufuku Grafitti & Amaama to Inazuma

THIS IS HOW YOU DO A REMAKE!

Title : Fruit Basket 2019 Season 1

A quick background info about this series. This was an old manga that concluded nicely and it was among the only few manga that I read from start to finish. I probably forgot most of the details already but I have to say something about first adaptation. Since it was made while the manga ongoing, like usual anime adaptation, it have to do its own anime-only ending. It did tried to include some from the manga, but i think it was only same on concept wise.

To appreciate this series, again you have to understand the circumstances. After so many romcom / love / drama story out there, which are mostly terrible quality because of poor Visual Novel adaptation (in early 2000s). So this anime have a big hurdle to bring old series toward modern viewer. Lets just first say that the studio MASTERFULLY able to craft interesting and a pleasant series to watch. While this isnt dramatic like other tear jerker drama anime, there are just many moments that made it shine.

While most of the good parts for anime are came from the source material, I would say that the new series adapted properly and did the original manga justice. Characters interactions are pretty fun and there are many comedic moment that would make you laugh. Other feeling I got from watching this are how some characters are cute & adorable. I guess the best explanation is realistic & relatable. The only part that I havent touch is the plot & story, which I believe you better to experience it blind (DONT READ SYNOPSIS!)

This anime is pretty good. Probably I scored highly because of nostalgia factor, but I can guarantee you that even if you arent fan of shoujo manga, this anime will bring something fun & interesting for you. Im gonna assume those heavy drama part will be saved for later season (total 63 episodes planned)

Alternative : Kinda hard to suggest romcom + drama unless I go for pure tear jerker anime. Probably Nozaki-kun, Bunny Girl Senpai, Ouran Highschool & Ore Monogatari.

Phi Brain: Puzzle of God 2012

Similiar to "no game no life", solving dangerous puzzle and logic games
I disliked no game no life but enjoyed this one

This felt nostalgia.

Title : Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
We Never Learn
Genre : Romcom (Romance Comedy), Harem, Shounen

It have been awhile to watch this type of series that heavy emphasize on comedy rather than being serious / lovey dovey. This was a staple back in Visual Novel adaptation craze era (Mid 2000s), except now done with modern style.

As you can the genre, again this is not probably not for everyone. Im kinda expecting an average series because I accidentally saw the score, but Im truly entertained by the series. First of all, this not typical wussy / loser protagonist which usually became center for many harem anime. Our protagonist pretty much tasked to help with other girls to study (hence the title). As expected for romcom genre, there are a lot of comedy that hit my funny bones (hence why i mentioned this might not for everyone).

Strongest part is probably the characters interactions. You might say that a guy being chicks magnet seem like unreasonable, but Im just watching for the entertainment. As usual, there are typical simple episode where our male protagonist will go out with 1 of the girl and you can expect it will end with a lot of awkward moment. That said, as long as you appropriate expectation, this series is pretty ok. There are nothing to say about studio production or anime quality, just good enough for this style of anime.

Again, this is not the best romcom. It just kinda nostalgia for me. If you can enjoy some meaningless character interaction for the fun & awkward moment, this is quite good.

Alternative : Quite hard for me to suggest anything new, so I can randomly recall similar anime. Those are : Baka To Test series, Nisekoi, Ore no Monogatari & maybe Seto no Hanayome (really funny one!)

WHAT A FREAKING WEIRD ROLLER COASTER!

Title : Sarazanmai
Genres: Action, Supernatural, Fantasy

It is not wrong to say that Japan is weird. Much more weirder if you give certain director that full creativity to direct an anime series. That said, the series I want to review is from a director that quite famous for putting alot of wacky ideas & symbolism into the anime. This is an anime original, meaning it is not an adaptation from any source material.

First thing first, this anime is weird. I know from the get go that the production of anime is ultra-good, but Im afraid that the first episode might turned off some people. This is pattern from certain type anime where it went wacky/ episodic for several first episodes, then became powerful heart wrenching toward the end. It is anime focus about dark desire in your heart & personal feeling of creating connection with other people. While this is not grand scheme of anime where it shown the true nature of humanity, but more toward main characters interaction itself.

Ok, i will have to explain abit of plot because this anime is such an unorthodox style. It started with a friend of 3 boys where they were cursed and turned to kappa. In order to return to their human self, they will need to help defeating a embodiment of dark desires. Doing so, it will reveal dark secrets among themselves which lead towards many challenges & conflict in between characters. This is the strong point of the anime, although it was very weird from beginning (even to the end).

This is such an experimental anime that I recommend people to watch until the end, although I can say that it will feel repetitive for couple of several episodes. Oh, just take note that this series might turned off because it hinted a lot of queer / gay / yaoi stuff, although just a bit light.

Alternative : Mawarum Penguindrum & Yurikuma Arashi both are similar series from the director. If you more serious anime about human feelings & connection, then Kiznaiver & Kokoro Connect which both are quite good as well.