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Aug 15, 2024
I watched the subtitled version in 2024, over the course of maybe 4 days.
Nothing about this anime was bad. I think the worst any of its elements got were "pretty good," as opposed to "very good" or "outstanding." There was a lot going on in 12 episodes, and the last two or three felt kinda rushed. Overall the pacing was only "pretty good" as a result. I thought the characters were good to very good overall, and the important ones had enough time devoted to them to get enough backstory to get a feel for who they are and their motivations.
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But here too, with a bit more time there could have been more to explore. I haven't read the manga so I don't know if there was more source material to draw from (no pun intended).
The music was really good. It's set in the 1920s, so expect roughly time-appropriate music. But the music and singing was used to really good effect.
The animation was good. I have no idea how accurate it was, but I felt immersed in a different, realistic world than modern day or feudal Japan (or a random forest or walled fantasy city), which is where most anime seem to be set.
The key relationship is of course the romance between the two MCs. And while Yuzu is a bit too "perfect" in a lot of ways, Tamahiko also isn't particularly flawed, personality-wise. Depressed, sure. But still good. They seemed to relate to each other the way two people in their circumstances might, with some obvious (and necessary) exaggeration. You definitely cheer for both of them.
But you kinda want to cheer for almost everyone. I think in the end that's part of what makes this anime "very good" and not "great" for me.
There's really only one "villain" and he's more of an instigating force than anything else, and while he absolutely sucks on some level, he could have been way worse. And by the time you're roughly 5 episodes in, you get a real feeling for the tone, and the tone is "things will work out." It's a "fairy tale" after all, and clearly not a Grimm one. So when bad things happen, you expect them to get resolved for the best. It kinda undercuts any dramatic tension. So when the last couple of episodes happen, you don't really expect "The Bad Ending." In a lot of other anime you might, but this one would have felt like too much of a sucker punch. They needed to at least tease the risk of a tragedy a bit more so we'd feel the relief a bit more.
I'm glad I watched it, and I'd recommend it. It was nice to see a romance where neither person denied liking the other, or was mean to the other.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 4, 2024
This review is through episode 5.
Here's the thing. My review is mixed because thus far this anime is the embodiment of "ambivalence" for me. The stuff I like I really like, the stuff I dislike almost made me bail an episode in. But the bad for me is almost entirely in animation and art quality and consistency, and that seems to have been confined to the earlier episodes. The story and characters are great so far. And I think that's more important. Or at least it outweighs the distracting art.
Let's start with the good. Girl/woman grows up as what's basically an
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inventor/engineer who uses magic items/stones to make things work. She was really close to her dad, who was a top notch version of that profession, and she has the potential to be on the same level. She's basically a nicer, more humble, and less geeky version of Lucca Ashtear from Chrono Trigger. She gets engaged to the heir to a trading company who is working as a senior apprentice to her father, which is business marriage proposed by her father and his father, though at least at first the guy seems ok enough. I won't spoil the rest.
She's a good character thus far. A bit of a mix between Snow White with the Red Hair and Myne/Main from Ascendance of a Bookworm, and some unique elements as well. The side characters are good as well, including the fiance, and her father. I'm getting the feeling her father is going to be this show's version of the grandfather from Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, or Reiko from Natsume's Book of Friends. If you know what I mean, then you know what I mean.
The writing seems pretty solid, in that people seem to behave like people. Arranged marriages for business preservation instead of love were a thing, and I'm glad it was treated as "normal." People don't seem to under- or over-react. Nobody is comically evil or overly dumb or way too smart. Yeah some things may play out a bit too conveniently, but the story does need to happen, so that's fine.
After 5 episodes, I'm looking forward to more story. I want to see where it's going.
The music/sound was barely noticeable (it was there, just nothing outstanding or bad), so that's neither a plus nor a minus.
So what's my issue?
The art and animation in the first couple of episodes were just bad. Noticeably. I'm not expecting everything to be Demon Slayer, but some of the contrast between the background and the characters in the foreground was so stark that it was distracting. Some basic scenes of someone drinking from a cup or mug (I forget which) lasted a few seconds and was just a still image. Like they didn't even move the line a bit that was the mouth during any of the frames, so it felt like eternity. And some of the images just felt very low-detail. I mean I get if you're saving it up for huge battle scenes or something, but that's not really this kind of show. It did seem to get better as the episodes went on, so I'm starting to wonder there was an actual reason the first couple weren't as good as the later ones.
This isn't to say that all the art is bad, however. The character designs are good. And overall I like the backgrounds and the designs of the buildings and the city. The main character's home especially. It's a small cylindrical tower, which just looks nice. But strangely this serves to contrast even more when things aren't working. Like if you take two nice images and layer them on top of each other but don't do a good enough job at integrating them together, the fact that both images are nice by themselves almost makes the fact that they're artificially stuck together all the more jarring.
In all honestly this started off being the second show (after Irregular at Magic High School) that I was going to get through Episode 3 just to write a review, but this show really captured my interest so I'll be sticking with it for the rest of the season. Even if the art and animation regresses again, the writing is worth sticking around for.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 29, 2024
Watched the sub version in 2024.
I wanted to write a review after one episode. I wanted to drop it after one episode. It wouldn't let me. I needed to watch three. I watched two more episodes just to write this review.
"Bad" could be overstating it. "Not good" maybe? "Worse than average" perhaps? The voice acting is fine and the background art is also pretty good. The music was... there. It's not like the show made me regret ever watching anime in the first place.
But episode one especially, and three episodes in, there's nothing compelling at all about the world, the school,
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the characters, or the story. First, yeah, I know... anime is going to anime, it's not uncommon for there to be some weird sibling "thing" between some characters. But they straight out had the main guy say he'd consider being lovers with his sister to a room full of people in Episode 2, before going "lol just kidding." COME ON. And then later either that episode or in the third his sister gets jealous as hell and straight up physically assaults him at home (though it seems to have no lasting damage, so whatever I guess). But people tend to just ignore this as background anime noise at this point, so l'll put it aside.
The main character guy has nothing interesting about him 3 episodes in, and I have no interest in learning more about him. His sister, even less so. There's not one other character who has anything about them that makes me want to see more of them. And there are *a lot* of characters introduced in three episodes. Probably too many.
The school environment kinda has something going for it in terms of a plot, with the Bloom/elites - Weeds/commoners thing, but the differences are so stark and some of the elites are such jerks that it's cartoonish (yeah, I guess it's meta-irony?). Also, this is a minor thing, but I hate their uniforms. Some have this weird lace thing going to the floor, it's absurd.
The magic/tech system seems like it's all over the place. I've seen a decent amount of anime and played far too many video games over the years, and the system and its jargon just seems incomprehensible jibberish at least how they described it in the first three episodes. Multiple systems with items and guns and psions and downloading things, and there's also still ninjitsu. Maybe if they rolled it out over time it could have made more sense, but it was too much too fast.
The writing (and again, I don't speak Japanese, so I can only go by the sub) is often times the worst part. I understand setting the stage in episode 1, but there's a difference between that and characters blatantly stating their feelings and motivations while doing straight exposition dumps. Plus in episode 1, there's a scene where the MC is narrating his thoughts, and just outright says about another character "It would be dangerous if she could observe my secret." I mean, we could have assumed he had some kind of secret, but to just come out and say it? At that point I started laughing and knew this was unintentional satire. I creating "better" anime based on the "secret". He's actually an idol! Or, he's actually a VTuber! Or, he's actually the Demon Lord (nah, that's been done to death). He's actually a vending machine! God help us, he's actually Kirito and his sister is Leafa and this world is another SAO "seed"? That might actually explain some things.
Look, this show has a lot of good reviews and I may be the odd one out so maybe don't go by me. For all I know this show gets better. But I really got nothing good out of it. At least nothing that was intended.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 16, 2024
Saw it all in 2024, subtitled, upon reading advice a couple of episodes in I saw this series before the original (which I haven't watched yet) and I never read the series it's based on.
Since I haven't read the source material or seen the original series, I'm not comparing it to itself. Because of that, I'm probably not as critical about what it isn't or should be, or how it doesn't measure up. All I know is what it is.
And what it is, for the most part, is enjoyable. Most of the stories are very good. Not every story is self-contained, but
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most are. A lot don't have Kino in them, which is kinda disappointing. The series isn't really long enough to spend a significant amount of time with the other characters, since any episode with them is one fewer that you get to spend with Kino and Hermes, but there are a few in which you get these diversions in which Kino is absent entirely or only serves a bit part. I imagine it's tied to the source material, but still.
The stories, generally, were good, but varied wildly in tone. You had some that were almost slice-of-life in lightness, others that were insanely intense, and then you had the final episode with the sheep which really felt like we were being trolled. I mean, my wife and I laughed the whole time, but still... it was so abrupt a change in direction for the show that it felt like a parody.
I generally liked the animation style, but 1) I'm used to it by now, and 2) I haven't seen the original yet so I'm not comparing it to what almost everyone says is "better." Sound was fine. Voice acting was good. Pacing across the 12 episodes was almost non-existent. You'd have to watch them in order only because characters get introduced and then get seen later, but there's not much "development" to be had. But that's fine, as there really isn't a story that's "progressing."
It was good overall. I'm not disappointed I watched it. But as a show, some things were just... lacking. Not enough material for so many non Kino-focused episodes. Too many seemingly important characters introduced without enough development. Pacing within episodes seemed off at times as well.
All that said, I liked it enough to want to go back and see the original series, so that's on my list.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 13, 2024
I'm really not the right person to be reviewing this. While I watched all of it after watching the first season (subtitled), I'm not Japanese and my knowledge of the Sengoku period is moderate at best (a few documentaries, a couple of books, and too many hours playing the original Nobunaga's Ambition on the NES). So a lot of the historical references that I imagine most (if not all) Japanese people would easily get don't reach me enough for me to completely appreciate.
All that said, the episodes are cleverly written, and there are a couple of original songs which are really enjoyable (and unexpected given
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each episode is only 3 minutes). I really love the art style, it's worth watching for that alone. The idea of having these larger-than-life historical figures as animals works for some strange reason. And the voice acting is really good as well.
My recommendation is mixed because this definitely isn't for everybody. It's going to work really well for a niche audience, and likely fall completely flat for just about everyone else. You either want to watch short vignettes poking fun at historical figures and events of Sengoku Japan, or you don't. It's a very particular kind of comedy.
Also this is season 2. You should probably watch season 1 first, because it does go chronologically. The show does remind you which animal is which person in every episode, but you may need a refresher as to how the relationships have progressed up until this point (either historically or in the eyes of the show).
Overall I really enjoyed it. Weirdly you absolutely know what's going to happen in the last episode (It's called "The Honnoji Incident" and it was over 400 years ago... if you think that's a spoiler, I can't help you), but it was still kind of emotional, which was a bit tonally different than the rest of the series. Or it could just be me because I'm also watching Clannad right now? Who can say?
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 11, 2024
I watched all of it over about a week in 2024.
The animation is pretty good, opening song is ok and the ending theme can easily get stuck in your head and make your day a bit brighter. The voice acting was very good.
Each episode is subdivided into multiple segments that may or may not be related to each other. Some are recurring throughout the series, like ones that take place on a grassy area near a river. It's almost like sketch comedy, with some recurring sketches. Like anything, some sketches are better than others, but on the whole I found most to
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be very funny. There's usually a segment at the end with high school girls (instead of the boys) which is pretty good as well. Those got better as the season went on.
The characters themselves and the interplay between them was well done. It's comedy, so while there's warmth between the characters this isn't primarily a heartwarming show so it's not over-the-top. Episode 12 leans into the sappiness a bit more because the show itself is aware that it's the last episode (there's fourth-wall breaking from time to time). But it mostly sticks to being funny and succeeds much more often than not.
For me personally I don't think I'd put it quite as high as Saiki-K. Maybe a step under Asobi Asobase. But it's definitely worth giving one or two episodes a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 4, 2024
The animation is very pretty. I don't know if it would be considered "anime" in the traditional sense, but that's for more knowledgeable people than me to decide. The music is beautiful and used to great effect. There's no dialogue, but despite that you get a very good feel for the main character.
The plot, and with it, the world it exists in, can probably either be taken literally or metaphorically or both. The main character lives alone in a house in a water-world of sorts. The sea is always rising, and as it does, he has to keep building additional levels above as the
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lower levels flood. He, and previously his family, started on the ground level, and moved up as this happened. As the latest sea-level rise happens he drops his pipe down an opening, so he dons some scuba gear to go get it. While down there he opens the next portal down, and starts revisiting memories from that level. That continues as you see all the way to his earliest childhood memories where he's spending time with his wife-to-be as young kids.
Don't get caught up in the technicalities, like "how did the world get this way?" and "does his daughter have her own house, and does she visit him?". Keep the MST3K maxim in mind: "Just repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show, I should really just relax.' "
The point is, he's lived a long life, and made a lot of memories. Each floor was a chapter of his life that he started, then the sea rose (the sea being a metaphor for time) as it inevitably does in this world, and a new floor was built on top of it and they moved up. Literally in physical space, but also in chronological age. And revisiting those floors meant revisiting those memories, many of them mundane, everyday stuff. But when you get older, a lot of times it's the mundane, everyday stuff that you miss about the people you can't be with anymore. Either because they've passed away, or because times have changed, and they've changed, or you've changed.
The other thing is there are other houses but you really don't see other people in them. The houses also aren't all as tall as his. Some are very short, maybe one or two stories. The implication may be that other people in his town, or in his life, may have had their own stories similar to his, but they themselves have passed on. Everyone is building their house against the ever-rising tide of time.
This was a great film. I don't know if it'll resonate with everyone. This is one that's probably worth coming back to every 10 years or so, as it'll probably hit different as you get older.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 4, 2024
One of the biggest draws of this anime for me was that is was adults, in an adult world, not dealing with any supernatural stuff. It's a change of pace from so much of the rest of anime out there. They deal with real-life adult issues. And this anime delivered that. And as a gigantic departure from so many other anime (and media in general) they don't shy away from using actual brand names. When alcohol is shown, they use real brand names. Denny's isn't "Danny's" here, Smirnoff is Smirnoff. I really appreciate that fact. It keeps the immersion.
The
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animation itself is very solid. The voice acting is very good. Almost all of it is understated, which goes with the vibe of the show. The music, when you notice it, works. I generally like a lot of the characters. I'd love to be able to rate this show higher. This is the kind of show I want to rate a 9 or 10. Two things.
1) I said I generally like a lot of the characters. But, I like them at arm's length. Over 12 episodes (which with this show, each episode feels long) I couldn't feel any connection with any of them. It's like every character was kept at arm's length. I don't think that's what they were going for. Some were supposed to engender some level of empathy or connectedness, but for me none of them clicked. I know sometimes that's a goal for one or more characters but I don't think that's what they were going for here. Everyone just seemed so muted and detached. I don't know if it's because anime characters in general are over-the-top that everyone here was "normal" so they came off flat, or this was their idea of "sophisticated" or something, but I had a hard time cheering that hard for anyone, save a couple of the side character bartenders. The main character actually started to get on my nerves towards the end, and I really don't think that was the goal of the writers (and not the fault of the voice actor).
2) The show became unintentional comedy at certain points with how up its own ass it is about how amazing bartenders are. Look, this is no slight against bartenders at all, but even in a show called Bartender: Glass of God it was too much. If they have a season 2, I wouldn't be shocked if there's a line where they say, "Jesus Christ may have been a carpenter, but when he turned water into wine, that also made him a bartender." And play it totally serious.
Will I watch a Season 2? Probably. Mainly because there's such a lack of anime about adults in a realistic world, and I need a break from all the isekai, yokai, kaiju, demon lords, talking vending machines, and people with psychic abilities that make up the rest of my Crunchyroll watchlist. But damn, I wish these characters were a bit more engaging.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 2, 2024
You really have to watch this at least twice if you want to evaluate it. Once if you want to pay attention to the technical aspects, and once to react to the imagery.
I really enjoyed the technical aspects. I'm old, so if I see a drawing-style animation of a guy looking in mirror in something like a music video, I'm going to think of A-ha's Take On Me. But that's very much not what this is. There are a lot of transitions between styles, a lot of different kinds of imagery. Nothing stays so long as to become "stale" but nothing goes so
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fast as to not have an impact. I like how it was executed.
Imagery and feeling-wise, I also enjoyed this a lot. It starts and ends with a guy brushing his teeth in the mirror, kind of a mundane but still meditative task. But the middle is a combination of chaos and striving, a figure running. It felt more like striving towards something than running away from something. And in a way you can kind of feel both the external calm of the guy brushing his teeth, while inside there's something driving him. Maybe he's psyching himself up for something. It could be work or school, it could be facing life in general, it's different for everyone. But that calm exterior masking that inner drive, it's a very relatable feeling.
The music went really well with this. Any more "inspirational" and it probably would have been too cliche. So good choice there.
It's easy to tell that a lot of work went into this, but I think more than that, a lot of emotion went into it as well. I hope more people find it, because I think something about it can resonate with people.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 1, 2024
I think I watched the entire series over the course of four days.
The plot is pretty creative. Two high school girls in the same class are voice actresses with aliases/personas and (initially) don't know the other is a voice actress, and they really don't know each other because they're not social with each other. They get hired to do a radio show together. Things move on from there.
The animation is pretty good. The voice acting is, not surprisingly, very good. I have no idea what it must have been like recording for some of these scenes, which are set in a studio
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where they're recording for an anime in-show. So you're a voice actress in a studio recording for the part for an anime where you're a voice actress in a studio recording a part for an anime. And there's a scene in it where they have to do a re-shoot because a character didn't do the lines well enough. So if they had to re-shoot that in real-life, they had to re-shoot the re-shoot scene, possibly because it wasn't done well enough. Maybe because the lines were delivered too well to be "not good enough" for the scene. This isn't a show you need to smoke up for, I swear.
The music is fairly good, though if you're old enough the opening note to the ending theme might make you think it's the beginning of Tha Crossroads from Bone Thugs n Harmony. That might just be me though.
The show is mostly light on fan-service-y elements aside from a couple of points where almost out of nowhere the two main characters share a bath and the lesser-endowed one gets really grabby with the other's much larger breasts. It seems really out of context for her character and out of tone for the rest of the show.
Overall, if there was a season 2 I'd watch it. But if they decided to end it here, that would be fine too. It could be self-contained in a single season.
Assuming you're watching on Crunchyroll and you skip the intro and credits, a 12 episode run is going to be less than 4 hours. It has pretty good characters who have good development, storylines that move forward, plots that are sensible, and nothing that will break your brain. It's worth taking a chance on.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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