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I recently had the unfortunate idea that I should try out a harem anime and that it should be the most iconic one. School Days it is.

Turns out, my favorite thing about this anime is the background art. There are some really nice shots. However, I really dislike the character designs in this one. The art style looks so bland and palette was in dire need of some contrast. Everyone has dark hair, dark blazers, dark pants/leggings and it was legitimately starting to bug me how similar the characters looked to each other. I’m so used to looking at Bleach and Code Geass designs that ... this was a very frustrating experience visually.

In terms of the actual story, it’s even worse. The first few episodes were okayish in terms of drama but quite tedious to get through. Given School Days’ infamous reputation, I already could guess what was coming, but after seeing the absurdity play out on screen at the end of episode 5, I figured I had wasted enough hours of my life on this story and skipped to the last episode for closure.

The ending proved I made the right decision to spare myself. I am not going to pretend I know or care about what happened in between but the final episode was just shock factor for the sake of shock factor. None of the characters are remotely believable or make any psychological sense and I am honestly confused why people would dedicate hours of their life to this when there are so many other better shows out there.

On a scale of Ouran to Diabolik Lovers, this sits closer to the latter. It’s not quite Amnesia-level bland, but it’s not much better. The MC is, as expected, a shell of a character meant to be a self-insert. Her annoying pet squirrel actually has more of a personality than her, which legit bothers me. (I hate the squirrel.)

There are literally 13 guys in this show and I can only remember them vaguely as jerk singer, red head tsundere, dad with glasses, fake yaoi twins, loli, businessman, hairdresser, crossdresser, flirty monk, stoic jock, and…forgot the rest. (Also how in the world did the boys’ ... mother give birth to 13 kids??? Ouch.) Honestly, thirteen is way too many characters for even a reverse harem. They should cap it at 6 or 7 tops or else viewers are just going to forget everything. The “romantic” situations and shenanigans are also super cringey and over the top, but unlike Diabolik Lovers, this show isn’t even fun to talk smack about. It’s more reminiscent of...lukewarm milk. Plain, boring, and forgettable.

Reverse harems are fun when done right. This one just seemed to lack substance.

This one shot is a 10/10 masterpiece. I clicked on White Clouds by complete accident and I can’t describe how glad I am to have read it. I know others have said it, but I simply can't think of another word to describe it besides amazing. White Clouds was simple but so touching and beautiful. Very few mangas can capture the realistic and down-to-earth feeling so elegantly. There are a handful of admittedly great series, but still, nothing comes close to the amount of emotion White Clouds pulls from me.

In 16 pages, it is the only manga to ever make me cry.

The story is delicate ... but genuine and touches on the real aspects of life and death. It’s both sad and sweet, but with a hope that we will meet with our loved ones again some day. The simple, airy art style really contributes to the feeling it was aiming for and having the dog Shiro narrate makes for a rather unique perspective. I can see why this is an award-winning one shot. I’ve read it so many times and I can't make it past the third page without tearing up each time. I’ve never lost someone really close to me but I can just feel the emotion seep through the pages. It’s such a quick read, but the impact of the story is unforgettable and the fact that 16 extremely simple pages can do so much makes this a classic in my eyes.

2/10. A friend recommend this to me, so I feel like an @$$hole for hating it.

Tomodachi Game starts off suspiciously similar to Liar Game (2005), which is vastly superior in every respect except art. The first game is basically a 1:1 rip off of the minority rule game from Liar Game. I'm actually shocked at how blatant they were about it. Influence is one thing, but this is teetering on the edge of plagiarism.

There are differences in the execution though. Liar Game solves its games mathematically. Tomodachi Game solves them through petty high school drama. Liar Game uses human psychology far more scientifically. ... Tomodachi Game doesn’t have a grasp on it at all. Liar Game’s games are intricately constructed and explained. Tomodachi Game is like a fanfic ripoff of the original except the author doesn’t have the mental chops to construct something as intelligent. Honestly, this read like a bad sit com or petty high school drama. The characters are trash. The writing is trash. Female character are treated horrifically for shock value. There were some pretty disturbing sexual panels that just felt completely unnecessary and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Everything Tomodachi Game has done well, other series have done far better and more coherently. (See Death Note, Liar Game, One Outs, Kaiji, etc). The best thing about this manga is the art, which is pretty good. But the story and characters are next level bad. I'm sure there are worse series out there, but I haven't read them yet.

This show gave me amnesia because I remember nothing from it. It wasn't offensive or anything, but I feel like I wasted my time and brain cells attempting to engage with it. The art/animation is decent and the opening is a banger but those are the only positive points. I just legitimately didn't realize it was possible to write such a bland heroine but here we are. The amnesia not only took away her memories but apparently it also denied her a personality. I had to watch the entire first episode on 2x speed because it was so annoying listening to her "eh? what?" sounds. ... 3/10 wouldn't recommend.

10/10. This one was short but it always gives me a gut punch every time I read it despite knowing the twist at the end. I think sometimes stories don't need to be complicated or lengthy to be masterpieces. The main character is not likable but I believe this is very much intentional. The story is about him coming to terms with his past behavior and the subsequent regret he must live with after his realization. The art and paneling lended themselves to creating a very immersive feeling. I thought the pacing was also beautifully done. Everything was high quality from beginning to end. This ... story has depth and very much embodies the "show, don't tell" philosophy. I would highly recommend this manhua to anyone.

7/10. It was pretty good. Beautiful art/animation, nice music, good voice acting. I remember enjoying it because it had a slight plot with the music competition and wasn't solely focused on romance. The romantic moments were definitely there but not too overdone. I feel like with almost every other reverse harem (except Ouran which is above its genre), it's painfully obvious "this is a harem". Characters usually have very little personality and are mostly just tropes for the viewer to project themselves onto, which makes for a weak story. La Corda D'Oro does better in this regard as characters feel a little more fleshed out, ... especially Len Tsukimori who is influenced to change his view of music over the course of the story. Kahoko herself is sort of annoying and mopey but not nearly as bad as some other reverse harem heroines. The other male protagonists also have their own backstories and relate to Kahoko in different ways. In short, it's (somewhat) believable why they would fall for her. Overall I felt the cast was pretty solid and the story felt very natural as it progressed. I would recommend it to any shoujo fans out there.

The storyline itself is 1/10 appalling, but I rated it 2/10 because the animation and sound are goddamn beautiful. Seriously, this show does not deserve such gorgeous art and music. It's literally stunning. They should have hired this team to animate Sailor Moon Crystal so it wouldn't look like trash.

But anyways, the storyline itself sucks. The characters suck (no pun intended) and are literally irredeemable. Episode 4 is especially appalling and straight out of some r*pe fantasy. Who wrote this and why did they put it out into the world?? Honestly the best way to consume this anime is to watch the Japanese version ... without subtitles, so you can pretend the storyline actually makes sense and isn't terrible (perhaps to a certain degree). I really don't know what else to say but MAL is making me fill up word count. SMH.

7.5/10 for me, due to nostalgia. When I was 16, this was the shit. Soul Society was easily 10/10. Kubo is very talented but his pacing is all over the place. This is one of those series that should have ended much earlier, either at the end of Soul Society, or at the Farewell Swords chapter when Ichigo and Rukia said goodbye to each other after he lost his powers. Everything after SS just kept getting progressively worse before the series got axed. The ending was terrible, though I've definitely seen worse. I've kind of gotten over it as the years have gone by, but ... I am no longer interested enough to watch the return of the anime. I guess this is what falling out of love with a story feels like.

6/10. It was fine, but I would never bother rewatching it. The pacing was too slow for my liking and the story was depressing but in a dragged out sort of way. Everything felt like it was at 0.5 speed. The characters are okay but I didn't particularly love any of them. It seemed a little odd that this group of friends would be SO invested in Kakeru when he's the newest member of the group. I would have preferred if he had been their friend from childhood. It also felt a little unrealistic that Suwa would be so selfless when he clearly also likes ... Naho. I just wish they would have developed the cast chemistry a little more before we got to the big reveal.