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Why does it seem like anime studios don't put in any effort into their shows? This is actually an anime that I've read the manga for first and really enjoyed. I loved the characters and they actually have great chemistry for once. I don't know why but for some reason in anime romcoms, the writers are so hellbent on focusing on how to force circumstances onto their characters to progress their love, that they forget to make them actually have an interesting relationship. Like these two characters are a really fun duo. You believe their romance because you see their friendship first. They play off ... of each other well and have a trusting relationship that is fun to watch, and it's because we see how much fun they have together that we root for their romance. It may just be my ideals from the American culture in which I grew up, but I prefer relationships built on enjoying the others presence more than emotional residence. Anyways, I love the characters and I really loved the premise of acting out a harem. It's cute, charming wholesome and just a good time.

So, why the 3/10? You see, I was talking about the manga. Now, what I'm about to talk about is not one of those "the manga was better" spiels (even though it was). The biggest issue I have with the anime is the fact that the 10-page chapters that the manga had, where it was just focused on one sort of gag a chapter (kind of akin to American comics like Calvin and Hobbes) does not translate well to the cinematic format. These are not episodes of a show. They are five unrelated circumstances that have the same characters, mushed together jarringly into 20 minutes. It is a series of gags, not a story. This worked for the manga because of how manga is formatted. Where it takes like 2 minutes maybe to read a chapter in the manga, it takes 5 for it to play out in the anime. It does not work for anime. Why is Japan so insistent on just copying the manga verbatim?

Now that kind of series of gag show can work. Nichijou is amazing and it does the same thing. So does Saiki K. But those work because their gags are short and there is enough variety that it remains interesting. This show only has two actual characters and each segment of the episode is 5-6 minutes. As much as I love these characters, these unrelated string of 'things that happen' is not engaging enough for a 20 minute episode.

Why can't they make an original story, with the same characters, the same premise, the same humor? Just add a story. That's all you need to do to make this show great. Deviate from the manga and make a story that fits into the 12 episode run-time. The whole manga is based around the Drama Club, right? Why not make a story about them going through a troubled production, or just give us a sense of time progressing like Horimiya? Add new characters, add emotional depth, as long as you keep what made the manga so great (the chemistry and the humor), we won't complain. I am asking as a fan of the manga, to not just copy and paste, but do something with the source material so it can fit the anime medium. But they would never do that. Because making an original story takes effort and risk.

This is a show that I feel bad for not liking that much, because the biggest issue I have with it, really isn’t this show’s fault. And that is the animation. Now I’m not going to bash a show for a poor budget, nor am I going to praise a show just because the animation is good. But with this show in particular, the jokes just fall completely flat due to the lack of energy the animation has. All of the jokes are told so simply and directly that, even though they are hilarious and the cast of characters are amazing, they just are presented ... in a way that feels like they didn’t care about the jokes. Which I know isn’t the truth. The jokes lack energy. The build-ups aren’t built up enough and the reveals and payoff aren’t shocking enough. Just take a look at their jokes and imagine if it was told with the same animation of something like Mob Psycho or Nichijou. Kineshi’s enthusiasm and pumped-up fiery spirit would be so much more dramatic and pronounced, making his failings be that much more impactful when the punchlines come in. Saiki’s crazy powers would finally feel overpowered and amazing, which would clash wonderfully with his actors deadpan deliveries. As it is, it feels like a powerpoint presentation of a bunch of jokes the writer thought of. It is funny, but not nearly as funny as it could have been if it were given the proper budget. Presentation is just as important as the content itself.

Why is it that almost every show I tried to watch this season had the most abysmal pacing I've ever seen. Absolutely nothing happened in this season and the final episode was nowhere near earned. Each season seemed like it was increasing in threat, building tension and ramping up the stakes with a (somewhat) consistent momentum. Then this season happens and that momentum comes to a complete halt just so they can show off all the Hashira that they didn't have time to actually use I guess. Then after you've had an episode with everyone lets just skip to the finale. I once described this ... show as an impossible endless gauntlet where every threat feels impossible to beat, but then they get even more powerful. That's why I loved the show, despite its (very apparent) flaws. Last season took a notable step back in how threatening the demons were, but now this season, which had no actual battles and seemed more like a shitty comedy, all tension and investment I had in the series is gone. There was no build-up to the finale, they just said 'ok I don't want to write this anymore, lets just cut to the end'. If they don't want to write it then why should I want to watch it. Also by the look on his face in the last episode, it seems Zenitsu is over his problems or whatever which is complete bullshit and also unearned but maybe I'm wrong (I hope to God I am).

But to give credit where it's due, the animation is absolutely stellar and the mansion blowing up was fucking cool as hell. Last episode still sucked though.

Delicious in Dungeon really does just feel like a good game of Dnd. Not only in the wildly creative world and unique ways of fighting enemies, but in brilliant way that the show shifts between its widely different tones. On one hand, you have the advertised fun comedy of a ragtag group of colorful individuals bickering as they face off goofy adversaries and cook weird meals that we can only dream of. This is exactly what you’d expect. The monsters aren’t anything unique, there just the classic fantasy monsters straight out of Volo’s guide. However, the way they are portrayed and thought of as realistic ... creatures part of an ecosystem, it both fleshes out the Dungeon and the world they inhabit, as well as creates unique fights where they way to defeat them is more creative thinking than overpowering them, just like any good game of dnd would be like. I know I keep mentioning Dnd, but that’s what this show reminds me of. It’s the same kind of fun. Just rolling dice to beat the enemies is boring, so players will try to come up with fun ways to fight enemies or target weaknesses on enemies more powerful than themselves. This show is engaging because every episode is like that. A creature appears and they have to come up with a unique way to figure out its weakness and get the better of it, then come up with a equally unique recipe to match the creature, which is something I can see players just talking about for fun while the Dm just sits back and laughs with them. This just feels like a campaign with a really good Dm and it makes me want to get back into the game. And therein lies this shows greatest strength. Because they’ve developed that kind of routine, these kinds of fun characters that we actually learn to care about and a world fleshed out enough that we care about the mission and the outcome, when this show takes a dark turn and takes itself seriously, it doesn’t feel like emotional whiplash or two identities fighting over the same show (like Re:Zero), it feels like a natural progression of the story. Like you’ve had your fun, but now we’re in the actual mission. But even in those moments, the characters, while emotionally distressed and invested, they never lose their charm and still fight in unique ways, making it so the show can seamlessly transition between serious and goofy scenes without risking losing that investment and sense of urgency. Just like a good game of Dnd. Some sessions are funny but when shit goes down, good players will take it seriously, but still have fun with it. Just like the showrunners are doing. The drama and characters are strong, the world is fleshed out, it's fun it's investing, it's a great show and I can't wait to watch more. It's a lot better than I thought it would be.

Fable is the first anime I’ve seen where I have read the manga first (though not to completion) and couldn’t help but think to myself ‘people should just read the manga instead.’ And of course, I was appropriately disgusted in myself for thinking such a thing. But then it got me thinking about the nature of adaptations and the difference between western and Japanese approaches to adaptations of previously existing works. I’ve expressed my frustration about the predominant use of manga adaptations over original works that have taken over the medium before, but my frustrations have only grown in the handling of the adaptations. Japan ... (from what I’ve gathered) seems to hold the idea that adaptations should be a one-to-one exact replica of the original and fans get angry when this rule is not followed. However, I believe that adaptations should not strive to be a one-to-one match with the source material.

Manga and anime are two very distinct genres and should be treated as such. The first and very prevalent example of this is pacing. I recently started watching Fate/stay night (2006) and it was incredibly difficult to get into because it was obvious that the first two episodes could have been easily condensed into one. I was just waiting for the story to start as I watched scenes that could have easily been cut without changing anything. Keeping all of the same character intros, all the same world building and character building; with slight tweaks to events (that don’t matter at all for the Ordinary World) and tighter writing, you could have easily cut that down to 20 minutes and it would have been so much more engaging. And that is just minor adjustments. You can do that at a large scale in the story as well. What people fail to realize is, although giving plot and characters time to grow is important, which is what manga excels at, a tighter script will ultimately help investment in those characters. If someone has a huge character moment but then it takes 6 episodes for their character to have another character moment, then by that time, I have already lost investment in that character. With manga, you don’t have to worry about this. Each chapter is created as its own thing so they can be dedicated to certain characters or story beats. With a cinematic medium however, where lines between chapters are blurred, all aspects of the story have to be moving at the same pace.

To give an example to what I mean, I believe Horimiya (2021) is the greatest manga adaptation when it comes to pacing. Although I’m glad it did happen, I really don’t believe Horimiya Piece was necessary at all. This is coming from someone who loves the manga to death and enjoys every chapter. I am so glad they decided to tell the whole story in one season, because with that time limit in mind, they could narrow the story down and cause a greater emotional impact. By picking and choosing which chapters were important: what they could cut and what needed to stay, they controlled the pacing. And it’s not like they only chose chapters that had emotional moments. There was plenty of filler in the show, but that filler was also especially chosen. By opting to choose filler chapters, they gave the characters time to breathe, and for us to both enjoy their shenanigans and let us see the fruits of their efforts. What’s the point of Miyamura growing closer with people if we don’t get to see their dynamics? It helps with pacing, with the themes of high school and with the overall emotion that is set later. By seeing their friendships, when Miyamura reflects on his life, we have seen first hand that he is in a better place and we get that emotional resonance.

Now Horimiya’s chapters are more episodic than most but you can take that principle and use it on more long narrative shows. By choosing which scenes are important, which can be condensed, which can be rearranged to match with other scenes and what can be dropped entirely, you create a more balanced, well paced, tighter and overall a lot more engaging story. You don’t need to match the manga one-to-one. You can add scenes, you can combine scenes, you can take out scenes entirely to make it more cinematic, and enhance the anime experience. That is what anime can offer that manga cannot. Manga can be planned out, but it is written chapter by chapter. Anime can be written with the whole picture in mind, and the whole story laid out for them. I don’t mind rewrites as long as they serve to enhance the story. The whole last episode of Horimiya, with the “what would life be like if that one coincidence didn’t happen”, was an anime original. And it was one of the best scenes in the show.

I’m not asking to ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ it and change the story entirely, I’m just saying that you can change the story to better fit the medium. A good example of this is fight scenes. You can’t show action that well in manga so when you have a medium that can, use it. Let me see better choreography instead of the still frames in manga. You can do that. That’s why I’m loving Wind Breaker (which is coming out by the time of writing this review). Because the fight scenes are shown to us. That was one of my biggest issues with Demon Slayer; we just didn’t get to see the fights all that much. What we saw were still frames of peoples faces and them explaining the fights instead of just showing us. I don’t need characters to tell me the enemy is too fast when you can just animate that and show me. I understand it’s necessary in manga, but you don’t need that shit in the adaptation. If you’re just going to tell not show, then why make it into an anime at all?

That is a good question: why are anime adaptations made at all? Pretending that it’s not because anime is run by talentless hacks who don’t have the balls to fund an original story, anime is the stories of manga with voice acting, movement, color and music. With these additions however, and the severe lack of proper funding, a lot of the detail that made manga so captivating is lost. I understand why people say the manga for One-Punch Man or Death Note was better. Because when you read the manga you see how much effort was put into every panel. The details of the drawings are incredible and by reading it, you have time to appreciate it, instead of with anime where those shots are gone in a flash. There are pros and cons to each medium. So a good adaptation will have a reason to be adapted. A reason where adding movement and music and voice acting will outweigh the loss of detail and make up for the difference in pacing. The adaptation has to add to the source material.

Two great examples of this is Love is War and Food Wars. Starting with Love is War, not including the dramatic music and superb voice acting, the amount of original visual gags that they added enhances the comedy so much that it improves the jokes of the manga. Like the cowboy standoff in the 20 questions game. The reason for making it into an anime was because by making it a more visual experience, you can add to the jokes. It’s not watered down, it’s enhanced. With Food Wars, I will admit, I have not read the manga. But I cannot imagine it working in any other way than cinematically. Food Wars works because it embraces how batshit insane it is. The operatic music, the over the top voice acting, the visual flares all create an experience so surreal that I cannot imagine just reading it. It would not have the same impact. To add to that, the presentation of food is very important to its taste. So to try to show off these insane meals without color just doesn’t work. Food Wars needed to be an anime because, although it might miss some detail on the food, the need to enhance the dramatic presentation is so much more important to the story and the aesthetic.

Not all manga needs an anime adaptation. Going back to Fable (yeah this is still a Fable review) the anime is just a watered down version of the manga. Sure the voice acting is good, but the details of the faces and the environment that made the manga feel so grounded is lost in the anime. And the voice acting just doesn’t make up for it. The music is forgettable, the fight scenes don’t play a huge role in the story and they weren’t even animated that well (due to budgeting). The addition of color doesn’t add much because it’s not important and there are animation errors. The movement is stilted and the lines of the face are so obviously drawn that we lose the realism of human interaction. There was no reason at all to make this adaptation. You have to look at the merits of the source material and decide what can be improved by adapting it. The merit of The Fable magna is how grounded it is. The characters are drawn realistically instead of stylistically. Nothing is fantastical and it is drawn and written in such a way to make you think this could happen in the real world (to an extent, it is pretty goofy at times). So if you were to adapt it, how would you do it? Well, I would drop some plot lines, choose to focus on certain characters, tweak the story and make a Live-Action movie. With a movie the themes and narrative have to be extremely focused. You lose the realism in the anime, but it would be enhanced through Live-Action. I don’t think it’s necessary, but that’s the only way an adaptation of Fable could work. What we got, and I see now that is what many manga fans have been getting, is a watered down version of the source material. I understand now what those people mean when they say ‘you should just read the manga.’ All because of the philosophy that adaptations should be one-to-one copies.
Though those people who say that shit could stop being petty assholes about it.

Not including the filler episodes, there is like 3 hours of good story, stretched into 85 hours. It’s like a fucking Monopoly game that just will not end. There is so much wrong with this series that I honestly have no idea how it got popular in the first place. Maybe it was something like Psych where it only works with one episode a week and cannot be binged, but the difference is that Naruto is a narrative show with a linear plot, so any sympathy I had goes out the window. This easily has the worst pacing of any show ever. Half of every ... episode is just flashbacks. Whenever a character reminisces for motivation or a call back, they don’t play a line of dialogue or short exchange, they play the entire scene that the character is remembering, with no cuts. And usually they remember multiple instances so we get to sit through entire scenes that we saw like 2 episodes ago, one after the other. If a character reflects about their relationship with another character, we are about to see every single scene they had together up till that point. It’s like every episode is just a recap with 5 minutes of new (uninteresting) content. The characters talk way too much about nothing, repeating the same things over and over and stopping the fight or whatever they are doing just to verbally say what is happening. They focus on the most random shit that doesn’t have any plot relevance whatsoever and doesn’t lead to anything. There is some major shit going down like halfway though, but they keep cutting back to this dumbass kid who literally doesn’t do anything, but we had at least 30 minutes of just seeing what he was up to in the midpoint climax. In fight scenes you will have 2 minutes of them actually fighting and 20 minutes of them explaining how their moves work, what they are doing and what their plans are. And then the extra 30 minutes of internal dialogue explaining their motivations (not including flashbacks in this). Literally in the secondary climax, the two most powerful figures in the show are in a stalemate for like 5 episodes, not moving a single inch. It is a slog. You could watch the entirety of Attack on Titan twice in the time it takes you to finish this, and so much fucking happens in that show, and even that show has bad pacing. The themes are undercooked, the characters are so fucking bland and uninteresting and the plot is boring.
Naruto annoys the fuck out of me and always starts the fight in the same way and is always surprised when it doesn’t work, when literally the only time it did work was in the first episode. His ability really annoys me. His shadow cloning allows him to take any form and even disguise other objects. That is really fucking interesting and can lead to trippy and cool reveals throughout fights, like in the first fight scene which is easily the best. But he just never does it and every fight scene with him plays out the same. Sasuke really isn’t as interesting as everyone thinks and is just annoying. And don’t even get me started on Sakura. Everyone already shits on her but for good reason. The most useful thing she has done was get punched in the face for an entire episode (that was actually really funny though so I’ll let it slide). Her arc is realizing how useless she is and wanting to grow beyond that. Ok, you can do something with that. But then she just never does. She realizes this in like episode 30 or something but then never actually works towards her goal until the final episode that anything plot relevant actually happens in. The world building fucking sucks. I still don’t know why they call it the Hidden Village if everyone and their mom can send requests there. I’m still trying to figure out how the whole Hokage thing works and I have no idea how modern this world is. The magic system is so loose and stupid that they can literally do anything, and yet they don’t do anything cool or interesting. They have these characters move super fast but then get hit by the slowest moving attacks. The only good characters are Sasuke’s brother and the kid who just doesn’t give a fuck about anything that’s happening. The fake-out deaths are annoying, the character design is stupid, the humor gets on my nerves, everything is just lame. Why do people like this? I was determined to finish the series just so I can say that I have, but I just couldn’t do it. The filler episodes hit and the characters aren’t interesting enough to carry them. I still don’t understand why people like Hinata. I really wanted to like this show but the bad pacing, uninteresting characters, boring plot, unengaging fight scenes, poor world building, undercooked themes and unfocused narrative just made the whole thing feel like a major waste of my time. I should have just taken my friend's advice, quit and watched Better Call Saul instead.

I use the word melancholic a lot as it is one of the most interesting emotions to have, and one of the hardest to get right. This show is the walking definition of melancholic. Melancholy, technically, is sadness with no reason. But I always took it to be a bittersweet emotion. It’s happiness and sadness, hope and isolation, a personal feeling that lands a slight grin on your face and a light burden on your heart. Happy things are happening and you can enjoy it, but there are introspective elements that have this personal reflection and somberness to it. Like going separate ways with someone ... you once cared about (or still do) with no hard feelings, or knowing it’s the right thing to do. That is what this show is to me and why it is so personal. It is about these two innocent, naive and ignorant little girls forced to question heavy subjects concerning their own mortality. The plot of the show is these two girls travel a war torn city. Through this they question civilization and societies behaviors like religion, war, the desire to destroy, the importance of books and life and friendship. They reflect on time and monotony, on Darwinism, on memories and dreams, on the purpose of living and bodily necessities like hunger and baths, and fun, song, humor, art, hope, homes, death, companionship, society, survival and everything in between. These girls question the purpose of life and everything it has through the innocence and ignorance of children. They are in constant hunts for food and amusement, taking pleasure in simple things. They are absolutely adorable and their friendship is precious, as they are all they have in the world. Both characters are lovable and adorable and mostly hopeful, never thinking too seriously about their situation. This show, with all philosophical points I’ve described can be seen as a very serious and sad show, but because of the personality of these girls, who only focus on making the most of their situation, making for genuinely funny and heartwarming scenes, it makes for a melancholic tone. This is a very light hearted show for the most part, with the girls getting on each other's nerves and getting into many antics. The girls are content and even happy at times, leading to funny moments and wholesome interactions, all the while with weapons over their shoulders and a desolate war-torn infrastructure around them. Their philosophical conversations aren’t shown as existential (even though they absolutely are) but more like a neat idea they came up with. It’s simple conversations to pass the time with meanings they don’t fully understand. You smile at their antics, but feel sadness in your heart from their situation. “Getting along with the loneliness” is a repeated phrase that perfectly describes the show.

This tone isn’t only carried by the astounding dialogue and charming, yet introspective characters. This show’s tone and themes are also expertly crafted through the unique world they inhabit. It’s not our world they are traveling through, but a towering, desolate infrastructure of machine and cement. So industrialized that a fish is the only other surviving animal in the entire show (other than human), and has great significance in its existence. Other characters are rare and a breath of fresh air and relief when you do meet them. The religion and stone figures, along with the indescribable, yet very industrialized artifacts leads to a world of unease and mystery. As you explore the world, through mazes of pipes and fields of cement, the more ominous it becomes, leading to one of the most existential endings to a show I have ever seen. There is no exposition, all adopting a show-don’t-tell story method, which is very much against the usual anime. It allows you to make your own conclusions about the world. It introduces heavy, yet subtle themes of over industrialization. The effort of ascending this multi-layered city is inspiring, yet dreadful. The mystery of the world is filled in by our understanding of the themes, and is explored by the ignorant children who were left behind.

To aid in this atmosphere, this show has some of the best sound design in all of anime. I haven’t hear foley this thematically rich and enticing since Wall-E (which actually has similar themes). The mechanical trotting of the vehicle, the subtle wind, the isolating echoes and the sound of emptiness make for a very lonely experience, only made hopeful through the voices of our protagonists. It’s not something that gets enough attention but the subtle sounds and lack thereof, leads to a much more isolating and thorough world. Just the different uses of water alone, from eerie drips, to beautiful rain drops, to relieving baths and and the somber tank of the fish, it all leads to different emotions from the sounds alone.

The cinematography is also astounding. The color is so devoid of life, so grey, that whenever color is in the shot, it’s so impactful and that much more dazzling. The wide shots of this lifeless world shows just how small our characters are. Every camera angle and shot size is intentional, there is not a wasted moment visually in this entire show. The soundtrack is equally as melancholic and matches perfectly with the sound design. It’s very simple and very effective, carrying the whimsy of a child dampened by the isolation of the world. This anime is a masterclass in every sense and is so underrated.

Just ignore the fact that they dab in the OP please.

I feel like most of these anime are written by teenagers. So many are catered around immature (or even toxic) depictions of love, power fantasies, shallow themes/characters and/or edgy ‘maturity’. Jinwoo has no depth and is just a teenager's image of what being badass is. The other characters have one character trait that they play off as being thematically deep like ‘she’s scared of dying’ or ‘he’s caring but knows it’s dangerous’. If you can describe an entire character’s conflict with one sentence then that character needs work. I feel like people only think this show is mature because there are government policies, business jargon, ... blood and killing, people being afraid to die (which should be a no brainer), no sexualization (it’s there but very subtle), the main character loses every once and a while and the screen is dark. Which is all very surface level shit. There’s no room for interpretation, no figuring anything out yourself, no speculation, everything from the world building to the characters thoughts to the themes is all just spelled out for you. It’s a temporary dopamine rush. (That’s not just a problem with this show (only) but anime in general. Even the animes I like have this problem, Attack on Titan especially.) The animation is amazing and the fight scenes are cool but the concepts are lazy and stupid. The whole video game aspect is so fucking lame and lazy and I can’t take it seriously. The characters are so one note I can’t remember any of them. There’s no clear statement on what the characters can and can’t do so the Jinwoo is free to do whatever the fuck he wants to deus ex machina himself out of any situation (there’s literally a point in the finally where they just say ‘fuck it, the game wants him alive). The pacing is shit because the story wasn’t thought out. They seem to just write it chapter by chapter with no direction in mind. Great stories should have the beginning, middle and end thought out to the goddamn story beats of every scene before the first scene is finalized (yes, I took screenwriting classes, I know that doesn’t make me an expert but at least I have an appreciation for hard work in storytelling). I know it’s different with shows but that should at least be the case for the season. So much of anime is just make it up as you go and it’s so obvious. The ending to this shit was so anticlimactic because you know that’s just where they had to stop in the manga. There is nothing for this show but the edgy teenage coolness factor and the stellar animation. I’m getting sick of this shit.

This show exemplifies a lot of things that have just been annoying me about anime, especially modern anime. First thing that is pretty inconsequential but actually pisses me off is the long and overly specific titles. It is a title, not a premise. Why couldn’t this just be called Villainess Level 99? That’s all we need. It tells us the main character and the premise of them being OP. If we want to know more we could read the synopsis or, I don’t know, watch the fucking show. This next complaint might just be a cultural difference but it is the utter unoriginality in anime. ... And what I mean by this is that there is an entire genre to “getting trapped in a otome video game as the villainess”. This is such an oddly specific concept and yet for some reason, there are countless anime and manga on it, each with just a tiny little caveat that makes it ‘unique’. That’s the extent of the creativity that goes into these shows. It’s the same thing except ‘she’s op in this one’ or, ‘she’s in love with the hero’. It’s the same damn thing. I have watched the first episode of every anime that came out this season and 90% of them were isekai or some fantasy world setting. I only finished 3 of those shows. Everything is just a tweaked version of the other. But the unoriginality doesn’t stop there. Because every anime is an adaptation of a manga. It’s a teaser saying to read the manga or for people who are just too lazy to read them. It’s a waste of an entire medium. Saying the show is unoriginal is not fair because actually, it’s the manga that’s unoriginal. On top of that, the premise of entering an otome game is unoriginal. It truly is just a self-insert. It’s looking at another person's work and saying “I would have done this if I was the character.” Every person thinks that and if you really want to see shit like that play out for whatever reason, go to Wattpad. Why are these actual studio productions? I feel like most manga now are just fanfictions. That’s why they are all power fantasies. It’s unoriginal and hinges on validating and playing out fantasies instead of actual compelling storytelling. This show is nothing. Every character is bland, it’s inoffensive, it’s predictable (it ended exactly as they said it would 3 episodes prior), it gave you the mindless rush of “yeah, show the people who doubt you!”, the cgi sucks dick and I’ll probably forget it exists by tomorrow. The only reason it’s so high is because it’s just inoffensive. I don’t hate it, I enjoyed parts of it. I don’t need to talk about specifics because of how unoriginal it is.

There’s something fundamentally cathartic about watching someone who was underestimated prove people wrong. It’s just in our nature. We love it when we know how powerful someone is and someone doubts them arrogantly. That’s why One-Punch Man becomes frustrating at times because you just want Saitama to prove them wrong already. This show (whose title really doesn’t need to be that long) survives only off of that catharsis. That thrill of outsmarting everyone and then seeing how impressed they are. The only reason I continued watching was because it was satisfying in a way; watching the heroine find a way to outsmart everyone. But that’s ... really all this show has going for it. The protagonist has no flaws because if she did, then the catharsis wouldn’t be there. It’s a type of power fantasy in, ‘if I knew what I did now back then’. I’m glad, even though technically an isekai, she doesn't have knowledge of modern technology. It makes it so any accomplishment she does is completely hers. But even with that, the power fantasy is still all this show has. The characters are one-note, despite how complex the show tries to convince you they are. Although she does outsmart everyone, the problems are never too complex to begin with. The challenges just come one at a time and never pile on top of each other and so you never doubt she can come up with a way out of it. You’re just sort of waiting for the moment to happen and then collect the dopamine when it does. The romance is bland and seems more like admiration than love. He gets in close and she blushes like once every 2 episodes just to remind you that this is in fact (technically) a romance, even though it really doesn’t feel like it, but that’s the extent of it. I enjoyed it when I was watching it because it succeeded with the power fantasy dynamic, and it actually felt like she earned the victories which was thrilling, but I can’t really call it ‘good’. I had fun with it. I enjoy things more when the MC outsmarts everyone over overpowering them. But once again, it’s really not as smart as it thinks it is and the story is nothing of note. Just cathartic fun.