MayDB Blog

Rating: 3.5/10 (Bad)
This review contains spoilers.

I went into this show with a modest but optimistic outlook but unfortunately I found myself leaving gravely disappointed. Fate/Zero is a prequel of sorts that takes place during the Holy Grail war preceding the one covered in the Fate/Stay Night visual novel. The light novel was written by the fairly high profile Gen Urobuchi and the anime adaptation was produced by a highly regarded studio in ufotable. Sounds promising, what could go wrong? Turns out that the answer to that question is "a lot!"

The first season of this show is downright bad. The Holy Grail war here largely follows the exact same pattern as the one that we are all familiar with. There are no interesting twists or turns to be found here, just action sequences which aren't even particularly well choreographed or directed. The servants are even largely taken out in the same order as the preceding war making it aall very predictable.

The story also has a habit of omitting key details in favour of "epic" set pieces; this show at times gives off the feeling as if it's trying to be a highlight reel rather than an actual story. It's aura and hype moments all the way down. For an example of what I mean, there's a portion where one of the masters, Kenneth (wow I forgot this guy even existed till I looked back on my notes for this review), is in a skyscraper. While he's inside, the entire thing gets blown up by Kiritsugu and Kirei later emerges from the ashes saying that he "can't believe a mage would actually do that" (paraphrasing).

So he must be dead right? Nope! He appears again 2 episodes later raring and ready to fight Kiritsugu. Uhhh WTF? For yet another example of this, in episode 8 of S1 Lancer and Seiba have been backed into a corner by Caster's army of sorts. They've been pinned there for what felt like quite a long while in episode time due to some other POV interrupting it. So then they just go (paraphrasing) "Okay we're going to have to make a gamble/quick break, I (Lancer) will make a break through the enemies while you go for the book he's holding." And then it barely even shows them cutting through and they just win instantly. Wasn't this supposed to be a dangerous gamble? Lmao way to kill the tension.

The new cast of characters is also incredibly forgettable. Most of them all neatly fit into generic anime archetypes and tropes and receive almost nothing in the way of development. The only character that seems to consistently grow over the course of the story is Waver, who is a side character and doesn't even receive that much screen time. I will give the show credit in that I find his arc well-done and endearing but it's like picking a cherry out of a mountain of shit. All of the new introductions are for the most part very flat characters, save for Kiritsugu who is insufferable for most of the story and is only fleshed out at the VERY end.

I have a somewhat mixed opinion on Kiritsugu, but I lean more towards the negative side. I like where they go with his character at the very, VERY end. But for most of the show he is just.. such a stupid manchild. His back story feels very undercooked, unsure if this is a source material issue or an adaptation issue since this is a case where both seem to be rather lacklustre. We never learn why exactly his father was experimenting with that zombie spell or using Shirley like he did to begin with. Or what the point of the spell even was, it's like he just turned the island into Dead Rising to get a kick out of it.

For as traumatic as his upbringing may have been, I don't think it's an excuse for him to have adopted the utterly foolish ideals that he did. The notion of humankind existing in a world without conflict is utterly laughable. Conflict is intrinsic to human nature. For as long as we as a species exist and possess free will there will always be conflict.

Whether it's over scarcity or ideology, we will never be able to see eye to eye on all issues. It is this which makes us all human, our diversity as a species. An end to conflict between us would require you to strip humans of their independent thought, the end result of which would be a bug-like hivemind. In essence, to strip humans of the feelings which propel them towards conflict is to strip them of their very humanity.

That Kiritsugu could not see this from the get go makes him a fool. That he so willingly threw away everything he cherished in his life to pursue such an idiotic ideal is even more embarrassing. It's hard to watch as he resorts to the most dishonourable tactics possible to eliminate his enemies (particularly the incident with Lancer and Kenneth) while simultaneously knowing that he is doing so in the name of utter lunacy.

I do however like what they do with his character in the late stages. Upon being confronted with quite frankly the depths of his own stupidity he begins to renege on his ideals and orders the Grail destroyed. I see his character as essentially a critique of hardcore consequentialism, which I like as a concept.

I believe that a lot of people especially in this polarised political climate use such a stance in order to obscure their own lack of an ethical code, it tends to be the go-to when justifying the unjustifiable. I do not think it's handled very well at times though. I find it rather difficult to believe that any adult especially one who's as stoic as Kiritsugu is would buy so handily into the moronic worldview that he does; the unbelievability and foolishness of his ideal betrays the magnificent premise.

But of course, a negative review of Fate/Zero would not be complete without discussion of what they did to Saber. I won't even go into the allegations of her being out of character or misconstrued, you've probably heard much about that already. Rather I'd like to hone in on just how baseless and tone deaf the critique of her character actually is.

The show during the scene with her, Alexander and Gilgamesh seems to make a point of distinction between the three kings. That the latter two seemed to believe firmly in the Divine Right and that the people should swear fealty to their king unquestionably. Yet history shows us that this view is a considerable part of what caused monarchy to go out of style as a political system to begin with. Despite this, Saber is chastised incessantly for her devotion to her nation and her people by the other two monarchs at this time.

During the early stages I could write this off as a believable source of tension between the rulers, as a mere clash of philosophies. I had my opinions, Gilly had his, all is well in the world. Until the ending bit happens where Berserker is revealed to be Lancelot, and we see Saber monologue about how she was wrong and failed as a king and all this other shit. I've seen F/Z fans try to say they were making her a "flawed character", but to portray virtue as a flaw just for the sake of it and then on top of that attempt to make it look as though her stance is objectively wrong is like... ???

I don't even get what we're trying to do here. A head of state being loyal to and primarily serving the interests of their people and nation rather than their own self-satisfaction or ego is... LE BAD actually? What? This seems rather particularly tone deaf, as I said earlier, in this modern day and age where most of our "public servants" (lol) are all spineless cowards who sell themselves out to the highest bidder.

What is the show trying to say here? That we should go back to the good ole days of the Mandate of Heaven and never hold kings responsible for anything because they're the offspring of God and are therefore entitled to all pleasures in the world? Laughable. This brings me to another point; much of this series just seems needlessly pessimistic while simultaneously saying next to nothing of worth. Nothing better or more readily shows this than the way Saber is treated throughout the story.

Most of the good in this show is merely coasting off of the writing of the visual novel. Kirei is of course likeable as is Gilgamesh. The hit rate on the new characters tends to range from shallow but likeable (Alexander) to downright bad sidepieces who add almost nothing to the story. Tokiomi, Kariya, Assassin(s), the serial killer guy and Caster, Berserker fit the latter portion of that descriptor quite well.

I started watching Fate/Zero in Feburary and just now finished it in April. I think that really speaks volumes about how utterly boring and tiresome I found it to watch. Should have dropped it early on but eventually when I realised that I wanted to drop it I was already in too deep, so instead you all get a comprehensive account of me shitting on it. Enjoy, I guess.

Also, Shirou was correct about everything and you missed the point if you resent him for reneging on Kiritsugu's ideal.

I saw a post like this on another blog in this smaller internet space we all inhabit and figured I'd make my own version of it. I don't usually like to talk about my personal life online (especially not publicly), but this is a topic where a few people I've told about it would often seem rather interested in how I did it so I figured it might make a good blogpost.

From the time I was a very young child up until about 2 years ago (AKA basically my entire life) I was considered morbidly obese. To be honest, I'd say it was about equal parts my own failings and equal parts environmental. I certainly did not help matters as I'd often eat whenever I was in a bad mood or just to pass the time, but my parents were also obese and when you're a child you won't really have any sense of temperance or restraint, you just eat whatever food you're given usually. In many other areas I do possess such a temperate inclination (I have never drunk or smoked in my entire life for instance, and I'm pretty thrifty as well), which is why I do not think that I'm "naturally" so to speak someone who'd get that big.

Nonetheless it does not change the fact that I was fat. Really fat. Around July of 2023 I checked the scale and realised I'd reached the 2nd highest point I'd ever reached in my life in pound count; a whopping 280 lbs. I'd been above 300 pounds at one point but had actually tried losing weight at several points before. I lost about 20 pounds after I reached the big 300, and did not gain that back. In 2022 or so I tried losing weight again and lost about 40 pounds, this coming by the more normal methods that you'd find were you to search for weight loss pointers online. But I relapsed and gained all of it back not long after to get me back up to 280.

Once I saw that on the scale I became quite depressed. It felt awful to have all of that hard work undone and to be right back where I started again. It's just sooo easy to eat and eat and not think anything of it. Ironically enough it was an anime of all things that encouraged me to try losing weight. I was watching School Rumble and for some reason just developed these strong feelings of inadequacy, realising that nobody would ever find me attractive like the characters do to each other in the show because of my weight. It fed strongly into my general sense of insecurity, sort of manifested into an intense self-hatred I guess. Like I felt truly inferior to skinny people, because my size was a living visual reminder of the fact that I could not control my impulses like an average person could; this thought process made me feel like absolute shit.

After having that epiphany I basically just stopped eating for a week. I mean I still ate some stuff otherwise I'd starve, but it felt like I was starving myself because my stomach would grumble almost all day due to how little I was intaking compared to how much it took to sustain my bloated weight. At that size it'd take 3000 calories daily to maintain that weight, and I was generally staying around 1500 if not even lower than that. The reason I mentioned the self-hatred from earlier is because it was what fueled me to keep going through this even though it was honestly quite torturous. Hey, I didn't say this would be the healthiest method in the world, lol. I lost like 20+ pounds in the first 2 weeks to my memory.

This also did a number on my appetite, after some time the hunger started to wane and my stomach adjusted to my new intake levels somewhat. After about a week I started to eat more "normally" again, though I was still trying not to go above 2000. What I would do was basically just eat absolutely nothing all day until dinner, whereupon I'd have a very big meal and give myself the satisfaction of feeling full. I kept this process going for about an entire calendar year.

A key is not to ingest empty calories I would say. If you must eat snacks (and believe me, snacks are really what will get you in excess calories) try to keep it exclusive to healthy items like fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed sweets especially, they are just so bad for you it'll make your head spin; MASSIVE calorie counts and they barely fill you at all.

Probably the absolute worst kind of empty calories though are sodas. Not only are they chemically addictive due to the caffeine in them, but you gain literally nothing from drinking them. Your stomach does not fill whatsoever from it. One soda is "just" an extra 200 calories, but then if you drink 2 that becomes 400. Drink 5 a day like I did and all of a sudden that's 1000 calories wasted on stuff that doesn't fill your belly at all. That's nearly half of your daily intake!

By far the hardest part of my weight loss was breaking the intense caffeine and MTN dew addiction that I had. I tried and failed twice before I was finally able to snap it. I recall one time I went a week without drinking one and then woke up in the middle of the night at around 4 AM and just chugged 3 of them and then somehow went back to sleep despite all of the caffeine, almost like I was a zombie or sleepwalking.

If you're addicted to soda I'd highly recommend trying to cut it out, even if you just drink 2 in a day that's a solid sized snack or frozen Chicken Alfredo meal that you could eat instead. Oh did I mention that my eating habits aren't actually very healthy at all? You don't really need to eat well to lose weight, it's pretty much all portions and serving sizes. You could eat McDonalds every day and lose a lot of weight, even if I wouldn't recommend it since their food is nowhere near as filling as a proper home-cooked meal.

Another struggle I had was with the dreaded "plateau". See, during my 2022 attempt to lose weight, this is actually what foiled me. I had started at around 283 pounds and got down to about 240, but then my weight just stopped going down for months; it plateaued. This can get really discouraging, and you'll have no idea what's causing it. All I can say is that you have to stick it out.

My issue in 2022 is that I approached my weight loss as a numbers game; I was getting a dopamine rush out of seeing the number go down, out of some vague sense of "self-improvement". But I had no real plan for the future, I had failed to actually fundamentally change my lifestyle in the way that maintaining a healthy weight long-term requires, I was just exercising and counting calorie numbers to just technically stay under the daily limit. It's why I relapsed and got right back as big as I had been beforehand the second I stopped actively paying attention to it.

Weight isn't something that you should be actively trying to lose or treating almost as a hobby. You need to fundamentally change yourself, your lifestyle and your mindset. It's hard to say what a good trigger for this can be; for me it was something as innocuous as a romcom anime show that did it. One thing that worked me was to stop obsessing over the scale and calorie count. If you've TRULY changed yourself in this regard, you should be able to just eat normally without needing to incessantly count every little thing.

Past a certain point, if you stick with the fasting, it'll get to where your stomach essentially becomes the same as if you were skinny. I'd still recommend keeping an eye on your portions until you reach a stage that you are happy with but you should eventually know how much to eat and how much not to. I'd like to really re-emphasise the point about empty calories, if you take nothing else away from this blog post please let it be this. Everything you eat should be filling that stomach a little bit. If you follow this advice you'll probably end up pretty surprised at just how much food you can fit into the daily intake limit.

Once you've lost a lot of weight and shrunk your appetite down you can kind of just trust your stomach. If you feel hungry, eat something, if not don't. If you don't feel hungry, don't eat something, it's that simple really. You don't have to lose it as fast or do it as strictly as I did. I lost over 100 pounds in like a year and a half to 2 years which is probably faster than you really "need" to.

During my recent weight loss attempt I plateaued in the exact same spot as I did in my 2022 attempt; the dreaded 239 barrier. But this time I was able to weather the storm. After that the number kept counting and counting down, before I eventually plateaued again in the early 200s. Stuck that one out too despite how much it sucked and for the first time since I was in probably elementary school I dipped to sub 200 pounds after a month or two of waiting again.

Once I got into the 180s or so I started eating in a more sustainable long-term fashion and started going at a much slower pace since I was pretty happy with that size as I have a bigger frame. I'd usually eat about 400-500 calories for a snack around lunchtime and then eat a dinner in the 1500 or so range, putting me at about 2000 calories per day or exactly one pound if not less per week. Slowly but surely it ticked down, until eventually I reached a point which is considered a normal BMI for my height. Happy with this, I largely stopped actively trying to lose weight (but funnily enough, lost an additional 5 pounds anyway because of how steely my eating habits had become)

Nowadays I'm in the mid 160s, marking an over 110 pound gap from the 276 lb figure I started at. I have some loose skin which sucks, and I want to try to get a punching bag and a weight set at some point in the future so that I can gain some muscle and shed that skin. I don't actually think I look all that good at such a small size because I have fairly broad shoulders and a big head, but I want my weight to be muscle and not fat. Maybe one day I'll have a followup post to this detailing my muscle gainage journey, but for now I am pretty happy with this arrangement.

I hope that this post taught you something if you're in a similar spot that I was of wanting to lose weight. If you are considering giving it a go; remember not to give yourself any breaks, none of that "Just one more [junk food] wouldn't hurt" business! Such thinking in anime land would get you teased you know. Thanks for helping me to not be fat, Eri Sawachika. Pfft, and they say that anime is an unproductive waste of time...

This is a re-write of my Mahoyo review, as I lost the old one as it was being posted to my blog software shitting itself. Like an hour 1/2 of work and 2,000 words gone, so that was lovely. But anyway, I had a great time with Mahoyo. It's a title that's very hard to criticise; while I do have issues with it, there's little you can point to that seems like a clear cut flaw. The game is sure to leave a very striking first impression on any prospective reader, in large part thanks to it's exorbitant use of pseudo-cinematography to enhance scenes.

There's some actually great directorship on display with this game. This isn't just animated scenes being thrown in haphazardly; it is seamlessly blinded into the environment and sprites themselves. It sort of reminds me of how Osamu Dezaki had to work around the limited frame rate by making incredibly memorable captures and scenes but also of Monogatari in it's regular use of silhouettes and general approach. It has a purpose beyond providing style to the game too. The usage of perspective shots and other such tools cut down on the verbosity of the script and also help portray the character's emotions to a greater degree than it's peers.

When you think of the advantages that visual novels as a medium have over print literature, what do you think of? For me it's their ability to construct an atmosphere; in every moment you can see exactly what the characters look like and their facial expressions. The added cinematography enhances this strength greatly, and coupled with fantastic art which fuses together the anime styles of the 2000s (hair vents) while also infusing in a more modern 2010s look and you have probably the most visually striking novel that I've yet seen in the medium. This title puts the "visual" in "visual novel", an absolute titan in this respect; an exemplary showcase for what the medium can offer when backed by a respectable budget and talented staffers.

The action sequences are TOP NOTCH and really add so much to this game for me. An issue I had with Fate was having to visualise all of the action, but with Mahoyo's presentation you get to see all of it from the game itself. Even if you have a great mental image, you're not going to be able to acutely remember the battles because you don't know what they truly looked like in Fate save for key CGs. With Mahoyo you can remember just about every bit of the combat almost like a DBZ fight, it's awesome.

The prose is probably the best I've seen in any visual novel, Nasu nails it. Compared to Fate, the writing here feels much more mature and refined. Every line brings to mind vivid imagery and would not appear out of place in an 18th century poem. The translation work is fantastic too, the text at times could pass as though it were originally written in English save for a few rare cases of stilted wording here and there.

The narrative itself is a bit smaller in scope and more slice-of-life than other Type Moon works are. Your time will mostly be spent with three characters; Soujyuro, Aoko and Alice. All three of them fit into traditional Type-Moon archetypes but certainly have enough individual flare to be compelling characters. Alice is a solid character, though it feels like the game cuts off before we get to see her character arc anywhere near concluded. If I were to criticise one thing about the title, I suppose it's that it didn't keep going; you can certainly tell that we were supposed to get more of this story and it will leave you wanting more.

Aoko fits much more into the brash tsundere archetype. Strongheaded and capable, she is most clearly characterised by an unbreakable will. This creates a great dynamic between her and Soujyuro. Soujyuro treads into very unfamiliar territory for the storytelling that I am yet familiar with. He is a boy who is wholly out of place in modern society, having been born and raised in an isolated mountain community which was devoid of basic necessities such as running water or electricity. His lack of identity and aimlessness in city life creates a pretty fascinating contrast with Aoko, and the two's personalities bounce off of each other very well. Soujyuro's ignorance igniting Aoko's quick temper is a constant source of comedic relief throughout the title, and it does not get old.

Based on the review up to this point, you may be wondering why exactly I only gave the title an 8/10. Well first of all, 8/10 for me is a genuinely "great" experience. But besides that, one thing that docks some points to me is that I actually feel Soujyuro's character is a bit unrealistic to how someone from those circumstances would act. I can speak from experience as someone from a more culturally distinct rural area that, when you spend time around people from other places or from the city, you become much more aware of your own cultural peculiarities. This ultimately manifests to form a part of your identity.

Yet with our main guy all of that is seemingly absent. He never really reflects, we hear next to nothing about his backstory or family save for vague anecdotes at the very end. In general his past life seems to be portrayed almost as universally negative, with Aoko outright saying this towards the end and him not biting back at all. Maybe he truly does thing that the city life is better, but it is possible for him to think that while not wholly condemning his old way of life. I think there are positives that come with this sort of highly rural lifestyle, namely in their tighter knit communities and self-sufficiency. I think that the game would have done better if it instead attempted to contrast the rural and urban life in a more nuanced and balanced manner. It's a really interesting theme that few things have ever touched on, and I found it saddening that the game sort of wasted this potential. Oh well, gives me an idea to use for my story that I'll never actually write.

It is worth mentioning that Japan is a much more urbanised society though, so this could well be a cultural difference. But yeah, I had a pretty great time with Mahoyo. Would highly recommend it if you're loking for a more moderate length (20~ or so hours) read.

Score: 2/10 (Awful)

Thorfinn is such a thoroughly unlikable character. I hesitate to even regard him as a character, he's more like a blank slate that the author uses to hamfist a message whenever he deems it necessary. First that revenge = bad! in season 1 (daring today, are we?) and then that violence = bad! (WOW) in season 2.

He barely even has a personality. His vengeful days as naught more than an expressionless killing machine naruto running all over the place in season 1 was quite lackluster and forgettable, bringing down an otherwise enjoyable story. But his pacifistic preaching in season 2 is far worse, having seemingly chose to emulate his father in the worst way imaginable.

See, I didn't have a (huge) problem with Thors' actions in season 1. If he hadn't sacrificed himself, they'd likely have come for his family or the village and blackmailed him. What Thors did was a respectable decision.

Thorfinn on the other hand allows himself to be degraded and mocked all for the pursuit of a childish and naive ideal, one that couldn't exist now much less in the Viking age. While "You have no enemies" is not a bad philosophy to live by in the way that Thors used it, taking it literally and allowing those who are hostile towards your ideas and beliefs to walk all over you instead of defending what you cherish and believe in is one of the most cuckolded mindsets I could dream of.

Were this just a smaller part of the narrative I could perhaps look past it, but it's not. That's basically all this season is, pacifistic preaching attempting to disguise itself as profound when it is anything but.

It's sad because this series had a lot of potential, season 1 was genuinely really good and only hampered by it's lacklustre protagonist. The author is clearly capable of writing good characters and intriguing stories, but instead he chose to force his ideology into the story in a very inelegant and contrived manner, accuracy to the time or fit with the narrative be damned. This isn't a series that causes the viewer to sit back and reflect on their beliefs; it instead tries to haphazardly force a belief system down the viewers throat.

Yet ironically Canute's methods are a far more realistic and practical way of achieving a somewhat lasting peace for the time period. Vinland Saga S2 is essentially the narrative equivalent of portraying yourself as the chad and your opposition as the soyjak. It offers no real moral dilemma or quandry. Instead relying on cheap emotional bait and switch tactics while portraying the protagonist (himself just a self-insert for the author's ideology) as infallible. I'll try to erase this from my memory and regard Season 1 as the complete story from now on.

This review contains spoilers.

Rating: 2/10 (Awful)

Recently I've been getting into boxing more as a hobby. For a while I've also had a few friends encouraging me to give more Western media a shot. So I decided to break my decade-long streak of not watching any Western movies to watch Raging Bull. I picked it because it was the highest rated Boxing (and Sports as a whole) film currently on RYM and I feel that generally it's smart to start off a new medium with highly acclaimed things. But after my experience with it I think I may refrain from taking their ratings seriously in the future.

As the last sentence infers, I really was not a fan. This movie centers around Jake De La Motta, painting itself as a sort of biography of his life. To start off with the good, I will say that the setting felt pretty true to 1940s-1950s New York, I liked the touch of how the characters spoke in a distinctly Yankee accent and the black and white colouring. In general the acting seems pretty high quality.

As for the bad? Well, pretty much everything else about the movie. Moving at a glacial pace, it tries to present itself as a tragic narrative. But it is exceedingly hard to feel any remorse for the protagonist because all of the tragedy is brought upon himself. There is no real explanation for why he acts the way he does either, no mention of a rough upbringing or anything else that could perhaps render his actions a bit more understandable or sympathetic.

Unfortunately LaMotta does not change or grow over the course of the story. He does become desperate after he alienates everyone, but still shows the exact same violent temperament even at his lowest. There is simply no reason to feel any pity for him, which defeats the point of a tragic narrative.

We are just presented with a guy that beats all of his wives and even his friends and then expected for some reason to feel remorseful for him when they all ditch him. Now the REAL issue I have with this movie is how it tries to portray his style that brings him success in the ring as almost the sole reason that he acts this way. As a fighter he is shown to be very persistent and at times even dirty, resorting to any means to win. Hence the title "Raging Bull". He's the sort of fighter that a lot of young boys would definitely love stylistically, if you have a penchant for violence.

Now, I can certainly see why in the current social climate a movie with the message of essentially nothing more than "Masuclinity is.. LE BAD!" would be so popular. I won't even deny that there are a lot of womanbeating athletes out there who unfortunately get off very easily due to their position. But at the very least most of those athletes had some sort of underlying factor such as growing up in a bad neighbourhood or something for why they acted the way they did. Of course that doesn't justify it, but maybe it could make it somewhat possible to empathise with the protagonist in a movie then.

This just does not work as a story. It's one of those ideas you'd come up with while you're taking a shit and then quickly realise that while it sounds cool, it isn't something that would make for a compelling or gripping narrative. If you want a boxing story that showcases the upsides and downsides of extreme masculinity in a nuanced manner while also generally teaching a good life philosophy, watch Ashita no Joe instead of this. It is superior in just about every way, not least of all in how it's protagonist also starts off as an unlikable sack of shit but actually grows and develops over the course of the story.

Score: 7/10 (Very Good)

Wonderful Everyday is a title that I came away with fairly strong opinions on in both directions. Initially it was a massive disappointment for me. So much so in fact that I quit playing it 15-20 hours in for over a month. It has a few utterly maddening tendencies that prevent it from achieving greatness, but the bones are there for something special.

The hardest part of this novel is getting into it. The first chapter is yuri hentai that serves no purpose. The second chapter is completely nonsensical until you finish reading the entire thing. The third chapter is also mostly nonsensical until the very, very end.

Throughout the first 3 chapters (20+ hours easily) you will have no idea what is going on with the overarching narrative. And I don't mean that the game twists later in a way that diverts from the narrative in a rug pull-esque fashion, no no. I mean that the plot does not even attempt to develop.

Look, I know some hardcore mystery fans are going to go "BUT THAT'S APART OF THE APPEAL!". I get it, some people like that sort of thing. But I feel that there is a marked difference between a mystery narrative that leaves the reader in the dark but slowly unravels while giveing the reader something to chew on and theorise about. Versus a narrative that almost feels as though it is outright trolling the reader by feeding them as much overly verbose dialog as physically possible while somehow saying nothing at the same time.

This gets really insufferable in chapter 3 in particular. On top of that of the things in chapter 3 even managed to gross out my desensitised self, I can't imagine what this thing would do to the average reader that just saw it's vndb score and booted it up. The game spends 90% of chapter 3 forcefeeding you vaguely philosophical dialog while simultaneously exposing you to some of the most abhorrent shock value that I've yet found anywhere in the medium. Not to mention the nonstop text fracturing. I sure hope you like pressing the enter key because

Every other line that appears on screen.
Is formatted.
Like this.
For no good reason.
At all.

At times it becomes very difficult to trudge through. It's not necessarily one or the other but the 1-2 combination that can lead to a lethal dose of "What in the world am I even reading for?" which was what led to me putting it down. This at times coming off quite pretentiously, especially when intermixed with incessant references to classical music and literature that do little to further the narrative which refuses to open up for 20 some hours.

I must admit that I have a very mixed opinion on chapter 3, as while it starts off rather insufferable it gets a lot better towards the end and even before then has some pretty great scenes. Takuji is a fascinating MC, probably my 2nd favourite that I have seen yet so far in a visual novel. Late in chapter 3 the game finally divulges some info that brings the player somewhat out of the dark. The Kimika ending to chapter 3 is also fantastic and Kimika x Takuji might be my favourite couple in anything ever.

Subahibi tells it's narrative in a fairly unconventional matter. Unlike many visual novels where the chapters follow a linear progressing storyline and most endings are just alternates of that storyline, every chapter in Subahibi is a recap of the same events told from the perspective of a different character. As someone who mostly read very linear games in which there was generally little reason to venture outside of the true ending up to this, it helped me garner an appreciation for how important routes can be in VNs and for that I am thankful. Subahibi is the first VN that I ever completed every route in.

What stops me from rating this lower is mainly just how memorable it is. Takuji, Kimika and Yuki are all fantastic characters and the others are pretty solid too. The art is absolutely fantastic, there's a damn good reason you see so many Wonderful Everyday pfps online. The music is very beautiful; this track here might be my favourite song that I've yet heard in a visual novel.

You know what? I'm going to invoke an early 2010s YLYL challenge. Go to the vndb quotes page and scroll to the bottom without at least cracking a smile. If you make it, you win... uh... a verbal congratulations from me if you leave a comment under this post, I guess. But yeah, this thing is a quote machine and the prose at times can be pretty poetic and genuinely pretty good.

The payoff and message in the end is also pretty sweet and uplifting. It's rare to come across something that teaches a good philosophical message in a down to earth and easy to understand way. I'll admit that I am not a huge fan of Hasaki and found the other heroines a lot more interesting which made the later chapters a bit slow at times since she gets a lot of focus. But besides that everything from chapter 4 onwards was enjoyable. Overall I had a good time with Subahibi, and I can see why it's rated so high even if I wouldn't put it so high myself.

Those who have followed my site for a longer period of time will probably know that I had a small blog before using the popular tool Zonelets. In the end, I didn't end up using it too much in large part because I just really dislike editing text in a code editor. I also prefer being able to just type my thoughts up into a serverside text box and slowly revise over time as things pop into my head.

It's just a lot more convienent using a proper script for this, and so use a script I shall. Also allows people to follow my writings via RSS feed, since I don't have one for my actual main website. As for what will actually be posted here it'll mainly be reviews and critiques of things, especially anime. Really just whatever thoughts are running through my head at any given moment. I'm not someone who tends to share too much about myself but I will probably make more personal blog posts on occasion.

In general, the idea is that here I'll post in a more unfettered way. For most of the "articles" on my website, I tend to meticulously spell check and condense them down in a way that makes them more digestible to read. Whereas here, well, you're getting the rambles and overly verbose breakdowns. This'll be a less filtered and more "personal" arm of... my personal website, ha.

If that sounds cool to you, then feel free to subscribe via email or plug this into your RSS feed!

This review contains spoilers.



Favourite Scene



Score: 10/10 (Masterpiece)

Jesus christ, what an incredible experience. Top tier direction, art, characterization, writing, everything really. The ending is easily the best thing the medium would have to offer if it weren't for Chrono Crusade. The way this show portrays CTE is genuinely horrifying, especially if you're someone who is familiar with sports and knows the sort of things that have resulted from it such as Junior Seau's suicide.

For a 1981 show the animation here is great. The art in general is awesome, blending the Tezuka-like Disney art style of the manga with a more typical 80s anime look that would come to define the decade. The backgrounds are also beautiful and very detailed, with the show often making use of dark colours and cooler colours (something that this writer is, shockingly, very much a fan of!).



The relationship between Yoko and Joe was so complex that I feel like I didn't even understand it until the last few episodes. I've seen some critique of Yoko's confession but I loved that part. The reason Yoko fell in love with Joe was because he was the only person who ever saw through her. Who understood her. I think this is what she realized, and it is why she confessed to begin with.

Joe choosing to die a warrior's death, doing what he loved, instead of living out the rest of his days a crippled man made me want to salute my TV screen. For as bittersweet as not winning the title was, he died in the end knewing he'd gave it his all and having taken the king of kings to 15 rounds which was all he ever wanted.

As someone who fucking loves athletes that give it their absolute all, or people in general really but especially athletes, this man's character speaks to me on a level I couldn't otherwise conceive of. Boxing was not a mere game to Joe Yabuki, it was a lifestyle. As a hardcore sports fan I truly loved that message. One of the best characters of all time and he surely lived on among the community who's hopes and dreams he shouldered for many years as an icon.

I think that a lot of people who watch this series do not fully comprehend how awful it is to live with CTE, and that his decision at the end was likely heavily influenced by it (the show goes out of it's way multiple times to show Joe emptily staring into space while alone, subtly conveying the impact the condition was already having on him). It's really fucked up shit, it can make you into basically a different person.

Joe was already in such an advanced state at such a young age that he'd have likely never been the same afterwards. I can't remember exactly when it first started showing those panning shots of him staring off blanky but I think it only really started after the Harimao fight, and before then it was likely subtle enough to where he did not notice it.

The series isn't quite perfect of course. I had some issues with it, namely how his weight problem up and vanished after the Kim fight. A lot of people had issue with the Harimao fight; it definitely was unrealistic but for some reason it didn't break my immersion like Joe 1's stupid no guard silliness where he took so many hits unnecessarily did.

On the topic of Joe 1, some of the changes seem to go beyond the massive glow up in production quality when compared with season 2. In particular I felt that in Joe 2 there was far less melodrama. Not as much constant crying, glass breaking, throwing a bunch of perfectly good food into a river to make a statement (cmon man!), that sort of thing.

Joe 1 almost felt like a shojo anime at times. Joe 2 feels a lot more refined and mature especially for a Shounen. Not to say that is an inherently superior attribute, but I do think that this atmospheric approach suits the work a good deal better given that it takes it's characters pretty seriously. I can't help but wonder if the added dramatical flare in Joe 1 was the work of Dezaki.

Speaking of Dezaki, the direction is of course top notch. The post card memories in this show are absolutely beautiful. His incredible knack for shot compisition and the artistic flare in scenes is top notch but without all of the added sappiness, making this one of the greatest examples of cinematography that you'll find anywhere in anime.



Less important, but I really like the 2nd OP. Such a chill tune and as someone who likes that sort of old timey music I really appreciate it. It's usage in the final scene was perfect. To quote this article;

"Titled "Midnight Blues", this was an April 1981 single (yup, 40 years ago) written, composed and performed by Ichiro Araki（荒木一郎）who does seem to love his blues. In fact, my first article on the Tokyo singer-songwriter also had him doing something bluesy but still within the kayo parameters by my reckoning. "Midnight Blues", though, seems to take Araki away from Japan and transports him to some place like Tennessee (hi there, harmonica solo), and he and his band are happier than peas in a pod. No one dies in the ring here; instead, everyone heads out to the nearest bar for a cordial round of brewskis after the fight...with Joe treating. The single also found itself on Araki's February 1983 album "SCENE-PHONIC".

For the next month after finishing this anime I would think about it daily. It manages to teach a well-meaning philosophy in a very subtle and non-pretentious way. Helps that the subject matter rocks; I think Ashita no Joe was the last straw I needed to begin properly getting into boxing. Watched my first full fight yesterday and have been watching film breakdowns and other things. Honourable mention to Hajime no Ippo, which definitely will have it's own review on this blog one day as it too is excellent.

Edited on 09/17/2025

There is one thing that triggers me more than almost anything else does in a conversation. I generally think I am a pretty hard person to annoy. I'd go so far as to say that I have fairly thick skin. But when someone says that I only like something i'm passionate about because of nostalgia? Wow. That just burns me up in a way no other words can.

Stating that someone who likes something only does so because of nostalgia sort of like a double whammy. It is downright insulting to the individual it is directed at as you are inferring that they are incapable of separating their emotions from logical analysis. Not only that, but you are also insulting the media in question by implying that due to it's age, it cannot possibly compare in quality to new things. As if something being newer makes it inherently better. I mean, I had no idea that something being made in the last decade or so automatically gives it a more compelling narrative, art direction, well-written characters, better animation and or all of the other countless things that go into a show.

I am not 70 episodes in to Dragon Ball re-watch because of "nostalgia", that is utterly absurd to suggest. Dragon Ball is a fantastic show that revolutionized the anime medium. It virtually created the battle Shounen as a concept. Western anime fans tend to have a demented view of it since it created the Western anime industry alongside Sailor Moon. As such it is unfairly criticized as being "vanilla" or "tropey" despite the fact that it pioneered those tropes.

Not only that, but the majority of Western fans skipped half of the story. Resulting in them having no buildup for 90% of the cast and the aliens twist being spoiled immediately. This is also why people falsely say that Goku has no character development; they did not watch Dragon Ball. His character developed in the first half of the story, his arc was already completed by the time the Saiyans arrived for the most part. You skipped straight to the second half and then acted as if you'd seen all there is to see.

Something being special to me from my childhood in of itself is not enough to make me sit down and dedicate so much of my time to it. Sword Art Online was one of my first anime ever and I fully acknowledge that it's garbage. My opinion has adjusted accordingly despite the fact that I liked it when I first saw it. There's plenty of media that I liked when I was younger but that I now realize has little artistic merit.

Nostalgia can cloud someone's perception of something if they haven't experienced it since childhood, I'll fully concede that. A lot of people are aware of this and refuse to revisit old things they enjoyed at a younger age because of it. THAT is an example of nostalgia influencing someone's opinion, and a case in which the term is fairly applicable.

Want to know where it's NOT fairly applicable? When you are directing it towards someone who has revisited the media in question. For an example; Nostalgia isn't me regularly playing Mario Kart Wii for hundreds of hours in the past 3 years. I play it because I believe it's superior to every other entry in the series and I have legitimate reasoning for thinking so. Such as the fact that item usage is more strategic, the gameplay isn't so on rails like Mario Kart 7 and it's successor are, that there are deeper techniques & a higher skill gap compared to other entries, that inside drifting bikes are meta and that the game generally gives you so much control over your vehicle.

Nostalgia also isn't me dedicating hundreds of hours to this very website. While apart of the initial kick to get me to make this site may have been nostalgia-related, do you think the fact that I wanted to have a website when I was a little kid over a decade ago is what has kept me updating it for almost 4 years now? Absolutely not.

I maintain this place because I despise the controlled walled gardens that have consumed cyberspace. This site helps keep me off of social media, and also allows me to express myself without fear of being deplatformed for wrongthink. Not to mention it gives me a place to share my creative endeavors. I don't do this for some tacky "aesthetic", I do this because I think everything about personal website ownership is superior to the pathetic state of the modern internet.

An additional humorous thing is how even with media that I'm not nostalgic for, you'll still see people acting like if you prefer them to the newer version you must somehow be blinded. I first watched Hunter x Hunter in it's 2011 form, and not only that but it was one of my first 10 anime ever. A 100+ episode voyage that was one of the very first shows I ever watched. Huh, naturally I must be pretty nostalgic for it right? It's surely among my favorites right?

Nope. I vastly prefer the 1999 adaptation which I only watched for the first time in 2024. The funny thing being that if I were to mention that I prefer 1999 in a lot of HxH fan spaces, I'd immediately get shouted down for "NOSTALGIA!!!" when if anything I'd have nostalgia for the 2011 version.

There are many legitimate reasons to believe '99 to be the superior adaptation. Whether it's the art style, the incredible background art, the dark tone the show has compared to 2011's overly cheery tonal whiplash, the much larger color palette, the slower pace and more detailed coverage of events, the more realistic character designs, or the shot composition and generally superior directing by the great Kazuhiro Furuhashi. But no, it's all nostalgia bro. Do you see now why I find it so obnoxious? It's nothing more than a way of shutting down conversation.

After all, if you simply dismiss something based on it's age, you don't have to do that pesky thing called "thinking". You don't have to interact with art that's slightly outside of your comfort zone because it does not wholly conform to modern design trends. None of which by the way are inherently superior than older ones. I suspect that many people who default to referring to appreciation for anything old nostalgia likely have not thought about how dismissively it can come off. I hope that this little rant of mine can shed some light on that. Don't be that guy.

Originally written on 01-29-2025

This is something that I meant to post about long ago but never did due to my site not being in a good state. I had actually written a rough draft but I never did post it; looking back now, it's kind of funny because at the time I had made little progress. That version of the post would've been more about what measures I was planning to take at the time; this post will be reflecting on what i've done.

Approximately 5 months ago, nearly half a year ago now, I embarked on a journey to start speaking in my native tongue. Throughout my life, I've always had a strong Southern accent. I'd garner positive attention for it, i'd garner negative attention for it, but regardless it was undeniably apart of me. It was something that I'd come to associate with my digital identity so to speak, because if anyone heard my voice in a VC it'd almost always receive some sort of remark.

There's one online friend of mine who I've known for about 7 years now. When we first met, he (along with some others) were in a VC with me. So this guy remembered my voice, he knew what I sounded like. I spoke, and this was the comment I received;

"Your accent is fading."

That really, really stuck with me. It bothered me a lot to be quite frank. Because on some subconscious level, I was aware of this too. To hear someone who used to talk all the time about how I sounded say something like that was... harrowing. At the time, I just denied it and moved on.

Yet day after day, that quote just keep worming it's way back into my mind. I couldn't shake it. After going back and listening to my voice from old recordings; some from about 6 years ago, others from 12 years ago, it was apparent that my accent had indeed faded. I sounded much more "General American" than anything.

This is far from an uncommon occurance. Across the United States, regional accents are dying out at a most disturbing rate, including the Southern accent. For a bit more context, earlier this year I looked into my ancestry. In short, I discovered a lot of things about my lineage that I found cool. Not only did I discover this after not really knowing exactly what I was for many years, but as someone with a strong interest in history, this naturally spoke to me.

I began to immerse myself in Southern culture, history, art, music, all of that jazz. To realize that all of this time I had such a strong accent, one so indictative of who I am and where I come from, and yet I had never appreciated it nor had I properly appreciated my people was somewhat upsetting.

In what may have been a subconscious reaction on the part of this "incident" with my friend as well all of the other pretexts listed earlier, I ended up reaching out to and befriending another person who had a Southern accent. This person started to talk to me about how his too had been partially ruined by mass media consumption. As well as how he had in fact begun training his voice to make up for it. Upon hearing of this, I quickly resolved myself to begin doing the same. I was at first stumped on what measures I should employ, but after some deliberation I came to some criteria I would abide by.

Drop my crippling YouTube addiction in favor of watching anime in subbed Japanese

Listen to more Country music, try not to listen to as much rock as I had been listening to before

If I speak in a way that sounds off, I will immediately repeat whatever it was I just said to myself in an acceptable manner

If the above bullet point happens when I'm talking to someone pr in public, I will instead repeat myself mentally/in my head

Make a conscious effort to speak in an accent instead of allowing my voice to adapt to it's surroundings when I'm around other people who talk in a more General American manner

While I have not been flawless in the execution of all of these measures, I believe that I've done a pretty good job overall. On the part of the first bullet point, I've watched about 1050 episodes of anime since June. So uh, yeah, mission complete there. The reason I chose anime is because it's generally best experienced with subtitles anyways, and obviously the quirks of a foreign language will not influence my voice.

I'd also just been meaning to watch more anime in general. As opposed to watching YouTube, where dang near every content creator has that radio commentator voice that I am trying to avoid. By watching so many hours of YouTube content per day as I was, I am 100% sure it was playing a huge part in the decay of my accent.

The second point has also been largely successful. When I made my last.fm back in March, I listened to an absurd amount of music. I was averaging like 128 scrobbles per day, and nearly all of it was rock. Not of the Southern variety, either. My average scrobble count has dropped like a rock since then, and I rarely go above 500 scrobbles in a week nowadays.Not only is my overall scrobble count lower, but much more of it is country than before. I've immersed myself in Southern folk tunes, bluegrass, gotten back into country, and I've also started looking into country with more funk touches to it.

On the third and fourth points, I believe I've done a good job when it's in private and I'm just talking to myself. That said, sometimes it does slip my mind to correct myself when I'm talking to people in the real world. Mentally, I mean, since I'm not going to repeat the same sentence like a psycho to someone I'm talking to IRL. That is something that I need to improve upon moving forward.

On the fifth point, I have done well. After recording my voice to another buddy, he remarked that I sounded exactly the same as I did years ago when we last talked, which was essentially the best thing I could hear. As did the one from earlier. So yeah, overall, I am happy to report that the measures I've implemented have worked dividends. I sound very similar to how I did many years ago and I couldn't be happier about it.

I will continue to use YouTube for videos that don't contain speech, such as AMVs, random clips, gameplay videos, etc. The key goal is to cut down on the 20+ minute essays of nonstop speech from general American speakers. Finally, as I said earlier, I want to make sure that I do better at the fourth point as it's probably the one I've done the worst on out of the five.

Overall, I've largely achieved this little goal of mine. I've thought about modifying my speech all together, to speak in a more old timey manner. But honestly, I just can't get past how fake and inauthentic it feels. So I doubt I'll end up doing that. Maybe if I do truly pivot to modifying my accent in that way I'll write a followup post about it. But for now at least, I think I'll just stick to what I know best.

1/7/2025 Update: As apart of one of my two New Years resolutions, the other being to complete 15 books/vns/manga, I've decided to drop cursing from my lexicon to the best of my ability. I'll still use the words every once in a while, but I feel casual cursing makes my speech sound juvenile and I'd like to change this.

Originally written on 01/07/2025

Does it really make a sound?

Recently, the Mario Kart Wii players page officially stopped accepting submissions through the designated "Time Submission" thread on the forum. You can now only submit times through the Discord. As someone who is not apart of said server, it effectively walls me out of submitting times to the Player's Page and renders the website nothing more than a formality. This got me thinking to all of the previous instances in which this has occurred over the years; it's far from the first time this has happened to me, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

"Dude you only have to join it and never look at it again!" or "Dude you only have to make an account, you don't have to post with it!"

Is a very common sentiment that I received from many friends and people attempting to recruit me into leagues in the past. Yet even with this in mind, I still cannot bring myself to do it in most cases. To have my tag available to so many eyes, to have whatever links I might have on my profile easily accessed by people in the community whom I don't want accessing them, all of it doesn't sit quite right with me. These are merely vague feelings of unease though, not the main reason why.

On a forum I browse, I read a post where someone coined the term "Discord sludge". I think that's the best way I've ever heard it described. All large Discord servers feel the exact same. You'll have the same #memes channel where people repost the same images that are being posted in every other Discord server. In fact, you have the same channels in general. #general, #gaming, #anime, #tv-shows, the channel for typing while in VC, #sports, #bot-commands, the literature channel that nobody ever posts in, the shitposting or "off topic" channel which ends up just being mindless spam, did I miss any? You have the same ironic sense of humor, that witty-all-lowercase zinger style of typing which is masked by 20 layers of irony. Same bots. Same channels. Same culture. It's all the same save for whatever the server primarily focuses on, which in the end is pretty much just window dressing for the sludge itself.

Not only are large Discord servers homogenized to a sickening degree, they carry with them a sense of mediocrity. This stems from the fact that these servers have to appeal to as many sensibilities as they can. I think this plays no small part of where the sludge originates from in the first place. The rules are generally the same. You can't say anything that offends X or Y, but then this other thing that offends Z is okay. It's all totally arbitrary where the lines are drawn so it ends up coming down to the personal whims of the mods.

Furthermore, if you've ever had the misfortune of interacting with Discord moderators you know they'll just ban you regardless of the rules if they happened to wake up that day with morning wood. I just find everything about these communities detestable to the highest degree. Due to their insular nature, they tend to profilierate circlejerks and echochambers. Even if the server is officially public, if you join and happen to interrupt the regulars or if your "vibes" are off you'll be ostracized or muted usually.

"So what's your point? Public discord servers bad? What does this have to do with the above point of just joining or making an account and ignoring it?"

I'm getting to it. In essence, while these gripes are apart of why I am so naturally resistant to joining these places, there's one more that stands above the rest for me. That being how we've collectively decided to just... not have websites anymore. Nope. Run it all through the Discord server. How many people do you think will go out of their way to join a server for some niche interest? It's a far smaller amount than the ones who will view it on publicly accessible platforms that don't require an account, such as a dedicated website or even other places like YouTube.

It's insane to me that you have video game communities comprised of people who are genuinely the best in the world at what they do, yet if you aren't in that server they basically don't exist at all. Every so often when I'm watching a Mario Kart Wii Youtube vid I'll hear the commentator go, "Oh yeah this guy's one of the best online players in the world btw!" and it's so jarring because I've never even seen their name before. These people have mastered a skill and they receive no notoriety or attention for it outside of these small, insular groups. They have no presence outside of Discord, they may as well not exist at all outside of them.

What happens if an admin wakes up with ill intent one day and just nukes the server? Does that mean that the rankings cease to exist and the history all goes up in flames? After all, you can't back up a Discord server. When something is gone on Discord, it's gone. This is especially troublesome with the trend of people hosting mods through servers.

For an example, CFB revamped is a mod for NCAA 14 which became very popular. You had YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers playing with it. These YouTubers make up the majority of how people experience NCAA 14 in the current year and give the game far more publicity than it'd have otherwise. Yet many of them, even the ones who were apart of the servers because of how nightmarish they are to navigate, would be unaware of submods that further improved the gameplay.

For NCAA 14 specifically, there was an AI mod that made the CPU make more intelligent decisions. This made the game significantly harder and more realistic, and it was painful to watch these YouTubers playing without it abusing the AI because they had no idea it existed. If even the YouTubers who were IN THE SERVER!!! didn't know about it... the ones who spend hours editing their videos and who have very nerdy passion for the game mind you, how many of the people who watched those videos did? A vanishingly small number, to be sure.

Hell, you even have breaking news locked behind X. A while ago, I was put under a tornado warning. The only place I could find anything about this warning was on X, and I couldn't view it since I don't have an account. I also cut the cord long ago, so I was unable to tune into the news. Fortunately nothing happened that day and I later discovered that my local news has a stream online that I've used since then whenever an emergency alert comes up. But what about people who don't have a news station that does that? Do they just have to stay in shelter the entire time during a tornado warning (which can last hours), having no idea if it's coming or not?

I just find it all very regrettable. You have fantastic mods for games that most people will never use because they're locked behind Discord. You have incredibly talented players pulling off one of a kind achievements that most people will never be aware of unless they're uploaded to YouTube. This also hurts the players, who don't receive the notoriety that they deserve. The servergoers sacrificing so many potential benefits for the sake of a little more convenience, and it also screws over the people who aren't in them that won't be able to know thanks to their actions. It's all around a losing proposition that's somehow become normalized because of the tumor that is internet consolidation.

When these communities die, rather it's in 5 years or 30 years, there will be no internet archive-equivalent for them. These mods, these achievements, the history of these communities, these moments in time, they will be lost for good and become nothing but memories. In what can only be described as the ultimate irony, it will be the artists behind these things who are at fault for it. Public communities can be archived, are more accessible, and are also usually more friendly owing to their nature of being able to be discovered by anyone.

As such I can only express my utmost disappointment at seeing the Mario Kart Wii scene become exclusive to Discord servers after 16 years of tenure as a public-facing community. I'd have loved to continued submitting my times to the players page, but now I guess I'll have to get to work on making a timesheet here on my website instead.

Originally written on 12-04-2024

This review contains spoilers.



Favourite Scene


Rating: 7.5/10 (Very Good)

The Birth (1st OVA)

Excluding the brisk pacing, I don't know that there is much that you can complain about here. While lacking in detail when compared with it's manga counterpart, the art and visual feast for the eyes that this OVA provides is nothing short of mesmerising.

The Demon Bird (2nd OVA)

This one is a bit weird because it cuts off a lot of events from the manga. It also re-orders quite a few things and in general just really doesn't make much sense if you're continuing from the first OVA, feeling almost like a hodgepodge of randomly selected scenes rather than a conclusive narrative.

Despite this, I found it enjoyable if a step down from it's predecessor. The scene of Akira confronting the demon prior to Siren is stomach churning, and the Siren scene itself is fantastic. I do wonder; had they cut down a bit on the eyeporn, could we have gotten a more detailed adaptation in a cel-animed style? I guess we'll never know, but if so I can't help but wonder if they made a mistake in not using their budget frugally over a longer period of time ala LOGH.


Amon (3rd OVA)

My high opinion is being affected by the manga for sure; I'd advise against watching the third OVA standalone, the first two work far better as standalones though they still aren't great as such. But with Amon I'd probably go lower because of how certain events come out of nowhere with little buildup.

But I thought this was an outstanding alternative ending to the series. Some genuinely stomach churning scenes, the way Akira's grief is portrayed was fantastic and very realistic in my opinion, it went far deeper into that aspect of his character than the manga did. His scream while in the pool of blood swirling in the darkness was just chefs kiss.The art and animation is a definite step down from the first two OVAs but the artistic vision and composition of some of the scenes helps make up a lot, alongside the fact that it's covering the best part of the source material. Though it probably helps I watched it on a low quality VHS rip, for the A E S T H E T I C of course.

Also what the hell was that at the ending after the credits rolled with the figures? Felt very surrealist almost. I really love the artistic vision here, it's such a crying shame we never got a proper cel adaptation of Devilman. It was probably a similar case to Berserk where a lot of the stuff was just too graphic to make it on to TV due to censorship, but Berserk got the fantastic 1997 anime at least.

Controversial take, but in my opinion this was the best and most fascinating of the trilogy. This is almost solely because of the higher quality material it covers though, as while it has a unique and interesting approach to the material it's actual production quality is blown out of the water by the first two installments.

This review contains spoilers. It's only 4 episodes though so go watch it, it works standalone.


Favourite Scene


Rating: 10/10 (Masterpiece)

The greatest anime production of all time for my money. Perfection in every sense of the word.

I am finally coming back to write about this after my 3rd watch. After watching it for the first and second times on one day, I found myself in a near trance-like state of shock. I kid you not that this is the reason I had no text under this for so long, but now I feel like it is time that I articulate what it is about this work that is so special to me.

The visual direction is, of course, unmatched save perhaps the somewhat iffy black strobe effect used in action scenes. The art is absolutely outstanding. You could hand random background frames found in this OVA on your wall and easily have them pass for vintage paintings. No show even comes close to this or the Reflection OVA in this respect.



The dialog writing is among the best that anime has to offer. The wordplay gives off a very Asiatic vibe, which is of course perfect for the historic Japanese setting and the story contained within. Within the lines of the characters there is much meaning concealed beyond the first glance. There is symbolism hidden outside of the dialog too, and it seems like every time I watch this I find something new.

On my most recent watch, I noticed that towards the beginning of episode 3 Tomoe looks at herself in the mirror and runs her finger along her cheek. She is tracing the scar left by her first love on Kenshin's cheek, likely reflecting on her first love while simultaneously noticing the conflicting feelings in her heart as she writes.

Another detail that I find interesting is how Kenshin's hair is routinely portrayed as pitch black, particularly in action scenes. I believe this is an intentional design decision/metaphor meant to represent the darkness shrouding him. Subtly portraying the message that in spite of his notable intentions he had been turned into little more than a stoic killing machine.



Have I mentioned that I adore Kazuhiro Furuhashi? He's easily my favourite director. His knack for shot composition, art, and all of the little ways he manages to sneak meaning into scenes without ever directly stating it to the viewer is outstanding.

The narrative of the OVA itself too excels at showing and not telling. It showcases a natural, yet tragic love story and all of the small, gradual changes in emotion between Kenshin and Tomoe. All of the characters have realistic, grounded motivations and never do any of the events feel contrived.

The plot, while fairly straightforward does somewhat leaves the viewer to fill in some blanks. I am fairly confident in my interpretation at this point however. Tomoe's meeting with Kenshin at the end of episode 1 was not by chance, her and Ilzuka were in on the assassination plot from the beginning and she had likely been informed that the assassin and Kenshin would meet there.

It is stated in episode 2 that there is a mole in the Choshu clan. Yet interestingly, Iizuka is trusted with the investigation duties. He covers for Tomoe, also a spy, by informing Katsura that she was not seen communicating with anyone on the outside. Tomoe is shown gripping a dagger on multiple occassions, likely with a desire to avenge her husband and kill Kenshin.

From what I understand it is made clearer in the manga, but I actually think I prefer the OVA's more indirect method of storytelling as it helps add a bit of ystery to an otherwise straightforward narrative.

The music is fantastic and fits in every scene it is used. The motion fluidity present in the animation is outstanding. I really just can't think of a single thing that this anime does not execute flawlessly.

And of course, the ending. The ending is absolutely perfect, poetic and the absolute best way this could've ended. Tomoe throws herself into the blade in order to exact vengeance for her first love by showing Kenshin what it's like to lose someone you love, a feeling he had never felt before and forcing him to understand the harm that his suffering inflicts on others.



Yet she also used her body to protect the battered Kenshin from being killed by the man infront of him. It was truly a perfect conclusion, only befetting of a true masterpiece. 10/10. The shot towards the end of Tomoe grappling Kenshin with all of the colour faded from his face was perfect.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Very Good)

This show was excellent. But it also reaffirmed to me that the demographic doesn't exactly appeal to me. Sounds backwards but the parts I liked the least were the typical shoujo fare, aka the melodrama, which while it was an ingenious way of telegraphing to the viewer just how petty and out of touch the nobility was to their population, also just kinda felt tacked on and excessive sometimes

Fersen IMO was a weak character, he just.. showed up and the chicks all fell all over him. Particularly did not like Oscar's crush on him. I really liked the character writing overall though. Oscar, Andre, Jarjeyes Sr, Alain, Rosalie and Jeanne were particular highlights. It was incredibly complex and welldone outside of a few exceptions.

The episodes where noble plots and historical events transpired were highlights as well. I like how it feels as if history is simply happening around Oscar and Andre, they are just cogs in the machine in the everturning wheels of time. Overall a very enjoyable experience and very much worthy of it's classic status.

It is definitely the most digestible 70s anime that I've so far watched. If you're looking to give some old vintage a chance you cna't go wrong with Rose of Versailles.

Rating: 7/10 (Very Good: S1 6/10, S2 8/10)

I've seen a lot of people who's opinions I... actually respect dunking on this series which I find surprising. So I want to offer my two cents as someone who tends not to watch much modern anime but considers Oshi no Ko easily my favourite anime release since Kizumonogatari part 3 aired back in early 2017.

The top criticism you will encounter Oshi no Ko is that it presents itself as a sort of negative critique of Japan's idol industry while not exploring those themes in a meaningful way. I kind of disagree with this? Let me put it this way; I do think that Oshi no Ko does a decent job of presenting some of the pitfalls of the industry and all of the stress that comes with it, even if that is not quite the focus of the narrative. I'm thinking namely of Ai's death and Akane's bullying during the dating game here. I believe it shows these incidents in fairly grounded and unsensationalized manner. Is it low hanging fruit? Sure.. but... that leads me into my next point.

The primary underlying problem I think is that many went into this expecting some 2deep4u social commentary about how the idol industry is evil or whatever. I'll be honest and just say that I think OnK would be far worse had it went for this approach. First of all I kind of don't like anime that push one central idea onto the viewer. In my opinion, truly sophisticated works will give the viewer a balanced view of a topic or multiple topics and then allow the viewer to come to their own conclusion.

In this regard, I think Oshi no Ko presents an interesting duality. Is it worth dealing with the parasitic leeches that comprise the industry itself, or the potential risk of dealing with loony stalkers, or people online harassing you or all of the other negative things in exchange for living out your dream of becoming an idol? Well, that's left for the viewer to decide.

I also disagree with the idea that this show gives off an air of pretension. I do not see this at all. Nothing Oshi no Ko does is particularly avant garde nor does it present itself as such. I suspect that a lot of people had the show hyped up to them by hypebeasts on social media which put their expectations in the wrong place. Oshi no Ko excels at being a drama with excellent character writing, fantastic visuals, a distinct and striking art style and with some informative showbiz elements thrown into the mix.


There are some undercooked things about it, like how the whole reincarnation thing was never really explained nor has the murder mystery plotline been explored all that deeply yet as of season 2. I'll agree that the reincarnation bit feels tacked on to the story to appeal to our modern isekai-filled industry, but I am hoping to see more on that in subsequent seasons.

I think what I'm getting at is that a lot of what I don't like about how modern anime fans interact with art is exemplified by many of the negative critiques of this show. Imagine if a long runner that spends copious amounts of time developing the cast and setting before getting into the meat aired today in our 12-episode instant gratification world. You'd probably see criticisms very similar to the ones directed at Oshi no Ko.

Oshi no Ko takes a slower burning, more deliberate approach to building up it's cast and characters, a refreshing change of pace in an industry so inclined to appeal to the ADHD monsters of the current year. A particular highlight of season 2 for me was the character writing of Kana's attempts to cope with her past of being chewed up and spit out by the industry. Though she is known by those around her to have a great deal of talent, she often willingly puts herself into less glamourous positions because she had become so conditioned to do whatever she could to find a job once her 5 minutes of fame had worn out. Yet it seems like the many things that OnK excels at are often ignored by critics who just want to dunk on it for not living up to the original premise that they were sold on; not by the show itself mind you, but by random retards on the internet.

If I had to critique something, It'd probably be the shoddy pacing of season 1. The show tends to operate at a pretty brisk pace, so the detour to spending half the season on a dating show in the middle gave me whiplash. It does not feel in tune with the other elements of the story; like, you're telling me all of that pivotal stuff happened so quickly in episode 1, but we've got to spend 5 episodes on a reality TV show?

I would say it's a great example of what bad pacing actually is. Many times you see bad pacing flung at any longer show but this is nonsensical IMO. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, for example, actually feels quite well-paced to me as you usually have a major event happening every episode. To me, bad pacing = inconsistent pacing. When strongly pivotal events are rushed through while rather mundane and less important ones get an uncharacteristically large amount of focus, that is bad pacing. That is how I would describe Oshi no Ko's first season.



Season 2 does a better job of this, though this could perhaps be aided by the fact that it does not cover any material which could be considered as climactic as the first season. I am hoping that the pacing of season 1 was a consequence of them trying to push out an interesting 12 episode series to see if it'd profit enough to warrant continuation rather than a feature of the show moving forward, but we shall see. But as of now, Oshi no Ko has been a fantastic experience for me and I'd consider it an awesome series that you should definitely check out.

Also, I just want to say that Kana's character writing absolutely steals the show in S2. Say what you will about Aka's ability to write complex narratives, but he's so damn good at creating likeable and realistic characters.