Anime reviews

See also: anime to be watched

Vampire Knight

Rating: 3/10

I'm not quite sure why I tried watching this: I hate vampires in romance. In fact, I can't stand romance 90% of the time, with a few exceptions. But, for some reason I gave this a chance and watched a few episodes, and I can say that Vampire Knight isn't good.

The best way to describe it is anime Twilight (though the manga was made before Twilight, oddly enough). It has the standard teen romance tropes: boring girl MC for the viewer to self insert onto, mysterious vampire guy and the childhood friend.

Honestly I can't dunk too much on this, it's intended for teenage girls and I'm a (mostly) straight guy, so it wasn't made for me.

Azumanga Daioh

Rating: 9/10

OH MY GAHHH

My only complaint with this anime is Mr Kimura, I hated him.

Lucky Star

Rating: 4/10

Dropping after a few episodes. I usually give story-based anime more episodes before dropping, but Lucky Star is a slice-of-life, so I feel confident with my decision. My problem with this anime? It's just not that funny. The conversations were mundane and I felt bored watching it. The animation was decent and the opening was good.

Chainsaw Man

Rating: 6/10

I can't rate Chainsaw Man that high as there's only one season at the moment, so it hasn't really kicked off yet, but the series is very promising and I can't wait for another season. It feels fresh in comparison to other shonen series at the moment. It does fall into some character archetypes, but it feels different.

Power and Denji are fun characters. I didn't know how I felt about Denji at first, but he really grew on me.

Makima is also interesting. It seems like she's manipulating Denji and I've heard that there's themes of grooming in CSM, so I'd like to see where that plot thread is going.

Watamote

Rating: 8/10

This is one of the most realistic slice-of-life comedies I've watched. I hate the fact that I can see a bit of myself in Tomoko (besides the perverted things, of course). She's not a great person, but I think everyone has a bit of Tomoko in them. That's why it works so well as a cringe comedy -- I can feel the embarrassment because I've been there.

Overall, Watamote is a hilarious slice-of-life with the most accurate depiction of teenage otakus. I can see why it wouldn't be for some people, but if you think it might be your thingI'd definitely check it out.

Deadman Wonderland

Rating: NR

Dropping after two episodes. The first episode was ridiculously fast-paced and the second episode didn't want me to watch anymore. The girl who looks like she's naked (but isn't ha) was annoying and so was Ganta. I've heard the anime is terrible and the manga is good, so I may check the manga out.

My Hero Academia

Rating: 3/10

I give up. I had to drop this after being a few episodes away from finishing the fourth season, let me explain why MHA sucks.

The story

The story is crap. You know the basics: Izuku Midoriya is born with no quirk in a world where almost everyone has a power. His idol, All Might gives him his power. Throughout the anime, there's the oh so creatively named "League of Villains" which is, of course, a villain group. They continue to mess stuff up for UA, the hero school, bla bla bla you know the drill.

Well, the story of MHA goes downnhill and fast. The show's peak, the sports festival arc is already heavily flawed but from there it gets worse and worse. The hero license arc? LITERALLY JUST THE CHUNIN EXAM FROM NARUTO. That Overhaul arc? Boring. Don't get me started on the School Festival arc, complete shit, you get the point: it gets bad and boring FAST.

The "characters"

The characters are bland and undeveloped, being more of charactures of an existing anime archetype or just anything in general. For the first two seasons, my favourite was Ida, but as it went on he was just left behind. It was if they thought "Okay gave him some time in the Stain arc, no need for him to be in it again."

The villains were stupid and had the worst motives and the pro heroes were somehow worse. So, to put in short, the characters are trash.

Why do people like it?

People like MHA because it had potential, rather than because it's actually good. There's so many better anime, don't waste your time on this.

Romantic Killer

Rating: 8.5/10

I enjoyed this a lot! It was pretty entertaining and I really liked Anzu as a character. I was definitely not expecting it to get that dark at the end though- it actually creeped me out a bit. Overall, Romantic Killer was funny, entertaining and had good characters.

Death Parade

Rating: 7/10

I binged all of Death Parade in a day. The visuals are amazing, and it has an interesting concept. But I think it could have been better if it had more episodes, I would have liked to see more of the other characters. The ending was also somewhat anticlimatic, not bad at all, but still a bit underwhelming. The ending was still good though. Don't watch the opening thinking it'd be a fun comedy slice-of-life about a bar, it's the opposite.

Assassination Classroom

Rating: 7.5/10

Assassination Classroom has a unique and insane premise and pulls it off well. The plot of the anime is nothing special, but doesn't need to be: the characters and humour make up for it. Originally I was going to give it a 7, but I liked the ending a lot. I was worried that it would be anti-climatic but the last two episodes were good. If you like comedy anime, then definitely check this out.

Ghost Stories (English dub)

Rating: 9/10

Ghost Stories is amazing, because it's so awful. The dub (never seen the very different sub) was hilarious. The pure shock and also bad-ness of it is why it's so funny.

Serial Experiments Lain

Rating: 10/10

It feels like SEL was made for me. I loved all the themes in it, it's pure genius. It didn't feel like it dragged on. If you like existential and psychological themes you should definitely watch it.

Bungo Stray Dogs

Rating: 9.5/10

I loved BSD! All the characters were well written, and I liked most of them. Only a 9.5/10 because I wasn't a fan of one of the villain's death (it was a bit anti-climatic).

Inferno Cop

Rating: 9/10

What is this? What have I watched? This was fricking hilarious, it takes effort to make something so stupid intentionally. No masterpiece, but one of the funniest things I've seen in ages.

Parasyte -The Maxim-

Rating: 9/10

I really enjoyed this. Parasyte is about what it means to be human, and I'm a fan of this theme, so Parasyte was a great watch for me. My only problem is very nitpicky, and that's how the humans simply referred to the parasites as a parasite instead of coming up with a name for them. That bothered me a bit, but not much. I'd recommend this to Tokyo Ghoul fans.

Tokyo Ghoul

Rating: 6/10

I love the Tokyo Ghoul manga, but the anime is lacking. It does have beautiful animation, and the first season does follow the manga quite well but after season 1 it goes downhill. Season 2 makes a big change from the manga which makes no sense what-so-ever and don't get me started on season 3, the anime's version of :re. Just read the manga.