Anime Tab

Funny that I think nobody ever did this kind of thread.

Record of Ragnarok (2021-2023)


I watched the two seasons that have been released of this show. Its pretty good; I think its like a Dragonball for grownups. Its really entertaining to watch the concept of mythological figures like Adam and Zeus beating the cr*p out of each other in a fight to the death in a collosseum.

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Hajime no Ippo (2000-2003)



Been watching this boxing show over the past couple of weeks. I am reaching episode 40, its quite a long show (compared to most other anime shows). Its excellent, with all the classic sports manga cliches: starting with a modest hero's journey who is initially just an average high school kid but discovers he has a superhuman talent for boxing. Despite its adherence to cliches (its a shounen afterall) it is supremely well executed. A gold standard for its genre indeed.

Uncle from Another World (2022)



The "Isekai" genre has been the most common genre for anime shows made over the last decade since the massive popularity of Sword of Art Online. These are shows involving a main character (so, they follow the cliche of the hero's journey) who finds himself/herself in another world typically because they died, often hit by a truck or train in present-day Japan).

However, I find the vast majority of such shows pretty boring. This one is different: it's a satire of the genre and satires usually work much better. A very show about a guy who was in a coma for 17 years but while in coma he was a mage in a high fantasy world and when he wakes up from the coma, his niece picks him up in the hospital and thinks he went crazy, but in reality, he can use his magical powers on earth, which he uses to show his memories of his time in the fantasy world to his niece and his girlfriend.

Bofuri 2nd season (2023)



I really enjoyed the 1st season of Bofuri, but the second season was boring. That is so because this show is a comedy based on a premise that was already exhausted by the 1st season.

Bofuri reminds me of One Punch Man: the 1st season of One Punch Man exhausted the premise: in One Punch Man, as it is described by the title, as a superhero character so overpowered that no villain is an interesting challenge to him as he defeats all enemies with only one punch.

In Bofuri, the show is about a VR videogame where the main character is a player who doesn't want to get hurt (despite it being virtual hurt lol) so she puts all points on defense of her character and breaks the game. The first season explored the implications of that but the second season was just very repetitive after the show already covered its own premise and nothing very interesting happened.

Do you still think Ghibli movies are peak art?

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Depends on the director, Miyazaki, and Takahata, of course. Miyazaki is a genius, like Plato, Michelangelo, and Beethoven; Takahata is also very special—the others who worked with the studio, not so much.

I rewatched Kiki's Delivery Service not long ago, and its perfection was awe-inspiring. It is not only perfect but also unique: there is nothing else like it, as well.

Legend of Galatic Heroes: Die Neue These (2018-2022)



The original 110-episode long direct-to-video animation produced over ten years from 1988 to 1998 remains a classic in several aspects. It is also the longest direct-to-video animation ever made (which is likely to never be surpassed since we have direct-to-streaming now instead )

Legend of Galactic Heroes is science fiction that feels like a Tolstoy novel mixed with a biography of Alexander the Great or Napoleon. It has a very deep story and characters that span many episodes without ever losing the momentum of the plot (unlike American serialized TV shows which suffer from having to change across different writers and directors for one episode to the next). So in terms of overall story-telling in the video, the 110-episode-long original OVA (original video animation) remains a pinnacle in depth: no movie or TV show I watched has a comparable degree of harmony plus breadth.

Die Neue These is a remake of the OVA made with modern animation technology; it looks miles better than the old OVA, although I liked the older character designs more (the new one suffers from having too pretty/cute character designs for the serious tone of the story compared to other anime). The new adaption also lost a bit of the depth of the original over the first two-seasons, but after season 3 it has been picking up.

Right now they remade about 60% of the original OVA and the story is approaching the climax. We will have to wait 3-4 more years to check this new adaptation executes the finale as well as its precursor. So far it is certainly is one of the best anime titles of the last decade: the show has half a hundred major characters, and they are all very memorable with distinct personalities.

Aggretsuko 5th season (2023)



I think that Aggretsuko is one of the best anime shows for people who are not into anime. It is very accessible and does not demand a long attention span.

The 5th season was very well executed, and I loved the feeling of issues of "young adulthood" that it exhales (such as issues typical of people in their 20s such as starting a career and working to support oneself), although in my case, I am not a young adult anymore, so it reminds me of myself around 9–10 years ago.

The animation and art are pretty nice, the style is distinct from any other anime I know, and it chooses to represent the characters as animals instead of humans is a nice touch as well.

Exception (2022)



This horror anime animated in 100% CGI is one of those anime shows that were made possible by Netflix, who injected money into the industry: it is anime coming from a global demand instead of local Japanese demand. As Japan's population is shrinking, specially among young people who consume the most anime (the number of Japanese people between 12 and 30 declined by 40% since the 1990s), it makes sense the industry is more and more focusing on a global audience rather than their local market.

In this case, we have a very science fiction story made in western style (in terms of plot), and so I found it highly entertaining. I am also noticing that anime companies have been able to integrate computer animation better with manga-style character designs and settings. In this case, it is also refreshing that the characters don't look like kids/teenagers and cute but are adults who in fact are designed to be quite ugly IMO:



Overall, I found the show highly captivating and novel.

Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout (2022)



Another one of those now very numerous isekai shows where the main character is reincarnated into an RPG-style high fantasy world. In this case there are two characters who are reincarnated: two childhood friends in their mid-30s and the twist here is that one of the two characters is reincarnated as an extremely cute girl (because a goddess has decided to that with him when he said after getting drunk that being a cute girl would be much better) while the other maintains his original form. So yes, this is a comedy and the main plot point is that now his friend is sexually attracted to his new form, while he has also changed his sexual orientation after being reincarnated. But they are aware who they are, so they have to control themselves to not have gay sex.

Overall, I found this one very entertaining. Well, one thing I like about anime is that it tends to be "weird" and that means it is easier for it to be entertaining to me than most other kinds of media.

Kuma Kuma Bear (2020)



A very relaxing show that mixes isekai with slice of life CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things). I enjoyed it on a more sarcastic level: "how cute she is saving the kids' orphanage". I also really liked the art style of this show.

Pop Team Epic (2018)



A surrealistic comedy. It is just random stuff happening with nothing making much sense. I thought it was moderately entertaining but not really very good. Kudos for having the audacity to be very different from other stuff out there.

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (2019)



Pretty nice show. I was very engrossed in it, one of the best anime I recently watched: It's kinda silly, but it worked wonderfully. I was really surprised by how well the plot worked and elegantly shifted from mocking comedy to more serious drama as the story progressed.

Golden Kamui: 3rd Season (2020)



Set in early 20th century Japan and Russia. The plot follows veterans from the Russo-Japanese war who accompany a little ainu girl who has big blue eyes. The reason is that she is now the only person alive that knows how to decipher the coded map to a lost gold stash (that was hidden during the Russo-Japanese war). The Ainu are native people from Northern Japan and parts of Russia close to Japan, and this show teaches a lot about their culture.

However, the 3rd season, set in Russia, was a bit disappointing: lots of ice, lots of running in the Siberian snow, and not much interesting stuff going on besides seeing Japanese voice actors try to speak Russian.

Pretty Boy Detective Club (2021)



Akiyuki Shinbo's last directional work. Shinbo made history in anime when he directed PMMM in 2011. However, all his other works are not that good. This one is interesting that it's a show that has a mainly male cast (its what anime fans call an inverted haren: a female main character is surrounded by attractive males). It's a decent show and has the same style as Bakemonogatari franchise (since its based on a novel written by the same author) and so one is basically treated to a typical season or movie of this franchise but this time with a novel cast of characters (making it more accessible to someone who has never read/watched stuff by Bakemonogatari's author).

Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (2021)



This is one of the most mediocre anime shows I ever watched. Its a standard otaku isekai title.

A mercenary who works for a military company (kinda like PMC Wagner, but girls with big boobs are the ones who run it) is deploying into a fantasy world with a cute android girl as his sidekick. In the fantasy world, he fights alongside and against girls with big boobs.

It's kinda entertaining, but that's it. I watched it a month ago, but I forgot I had watched it, that's why I am only writing about it now. The animation is poor, the character designs are decent but also pretty standard. The plot mocks isekais: its a parody show. A comedy, like most mediocre stuff.

Vinland Saga Season 2 (2023)



I would rate this as the best anime of the last few years. It is just that good: everybody should watch it; even people not into anime should know it, since this is a masterpiece (combined with season 1).

It is for experiencing this kind of greatness that I watch anime for.

Watching Shaman King 2021, and I lost my shit at "Super No-Nonsense Mode."

The Rising of the Shield Hero, Season 2 (2022)



The interesting thing about anime shows is that each season is produced like a movie sequel: decision to produce it is like a sequel with a budget, it has a studio and one director assigned to it, and unlike Western TV shows, the director and writer typically doesn't change between episodes.

This also means that the quality of a show can change abruptly between seasons. For example, The Rising of the Shield Hero season 1 is already a kinda of cult classic, although not quite good, still remains a memorable show due to its shock factor. The second season is, however, plain mediocrity all over the place. Or maybe I am getting too old to enjoy this kinda of show.

Lucky Star (2007)



I decided to re-watch this classic of classics, Lucky Star is a show about homeschoolers who talk about video-games, anime, manga, and light novels. So its basically a self-aware commentary show about Japanese geek culture from the perspective of those inside this culture talking through the avatars of cute anime girls. Think of Seinfeld, but super focused on Japanese geek culture. And yes, I almost cried during the show's climax, a true classic indeed.

The animation is well done, and the art style is peak 2007, but with an ultra-cute filter.