Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

I’ll try to keep this short, since I never cared about donghua in general and this title is the first I completed and man did it make me want to watch more of it or something similar. I first knew about it some years ago where a tech demo of sorts was revealed showing an amazing fight between two men that controlled fire and ice. Then these three episodes came out this year and sadly that scene is not present in them.

If you are like me and thus are accostumed to japanese anime, the artwork will feel different and refreshing, yet very polished, there are some intances where the character figures don’t exactly match the backgrounds but they are a few and not very noticeable. The character designs resemble traditional stories a lot, and most characters are tall and muscular manly men and without any facial repetition amongst them, giving it a more than welcomed retro feel to it. The backgrounds are beautiful to look at.

The most important and well known aspect of the show in this regard is obviously the actual animation, which is very weak when the character talk, walk or do simple movements in general, the mouth and eyes movements are kinda sloppy and the same applies to every other bit of body language. On the other hand, during the action scenes, when the show needs to have good and fluent motions, it’s simply spectacular, every single motion is practically perfectly made, and what do you want me to say about the special effects? They reminded me of those used during the most impactful scenes in Demon Slayer, which is always a plus.

There’s also very good camera work, following every fast paced action scene perfectly, unlike, let’s say, Dragon Super Broly, where the camera becomes really crazy at times and don’t let you keep track of some action sequences.

So, great and distinctive artwork, great character designs, mostly good animation and superb special effects which constitute a perfect mix of awesome martial arts with epic super powers. There are some things that could be more polished but as a whole the visuals are an impressive job, especially with very few people working on them.

The sound design is not as good, the music is ok, a generic traditional chinese soundtrack which fits the story and setting well and when it comes to the voice acting, well, I have to admit that I’m not familiar at all with chinese voices and voice acting, but what I heard here felt just right, every character had a fitting voice and good interpretation behind in every scene, from the comical to the tragic ones. The sound effects on the other hand are pretty weak in both the relaxing moments as well as those when there are fights and they make those scenes lack quite the impact.

Even when the show cares mostly about the action, there’s a serviceable plot with serviceable characters behind, nothing groundbreaking of course, it’s just some guardians that can use the elements as their powers that fight against demons that threatens humanity, so it’s basically a combination of The Last Airbender with Demon Slayer, only with manliness and epic fights taken from Asura’s Wrath.

The first episode really lowers your expectations because is mostly silly comedy with wacky facial expressions, which reminded me a lot of Golden Kamuy, but then the second and third became a lot more tragic and serious without ever losing that tone. The power scaling in the show seems to be pretty high as the first demon alone was able to fight toe to toe against the protagonist, and he was incapable of saving most of the people from the village.

And the many deaths shown here weren’t just for showing the horrible powers of the demons, as there are enough scenes with the villagers to make the audience somewhat care about them when they die, although obviously not the point of getting emotionally attached to them, for they lack lot of screen time for that, and the way they die is genuinely tragic and almost heartbreaking.

The demons seem to be evil and kill humans just because at first, but as the last episode reveals, is actually a revenge against them for a horrible thing they did in the past, which in turn was not something done for sadistic pleasure, there’s a very good cause regarding a mortal decease behind that course of action. Very good conflict and very well presented with an appropiate tone.

Now for the negatives which prevent me to rate the show a little higher at least for now, the characters are serviceable as plot devices but none of them have much information revealed about them to let you get emotionally invested, and the plot, on top of simple and straightforward, is just a prologue, a kind of demo for more episodes to come if the small group of people working on it decides it’s worth it to keep going. That’s why it has no actual ending despite hyping you with the different agendas everyone has and the invasion of, I have to say, way less interesting demons, seemingly about to happen.

Besides that, it was a very serviceable promotion that did its job way better than, let’s say, Burn the Witch, for presenting an actually interesting conflict, with a serious tone, and mostly amazing visuals. I really want to see how the story continues, if it does, and if you happened to read this and know more about chinese series that you think are equal or better, please feel free to come to my profile and reccomend them to me, especially if they are similar to it.

18/08/23 update: 

The second season improves on what the first was good at. The visuals are more consistent, as no longer some elements look like they don’t match well with others in some scenes, and the animation during non-action sequences has improved.

The big improvement of this season was the sound effects which were mediocre in the previous one, and are now good. The music and the voice acting retain the same level or at a bit better, since now more demons appeared and they all have cool and differently sounding and well mixed and edited voices. A big change I noticed where the opening and ending, as the ones from the first season where quite inferior and more relaxed, and the ones from this one are slow but powerful rock ballads with traditional Chinese music vibes, very appropriate.

The fights didn’t have the same spectacular level of destruction of the ones we’ve seen so far, but had a bit better choreography since the newer characters added a bit more to their fighting styles and techniques than just an element and martial arts. The guardians use the environment far more than the protagonist, and in general the fights are no longer one against one and involve more teamwork and a bit more of strategy.

The downside has to do with the plot, since despite the first season ending with what seemed to be the setup for a big conflict, there was veeeeery liiiiittle progression from the point it left off, and the big expectations led to…nothing special, just a setup for the next and final season, as things just keep moving slowly.
There is even a problem with the writing which is the demons being unguarded. They are sealed alright, but letting them without someone watching them is plain dumb, that’s how one of them escaped in the first place. Also, characters bump into each other casually or appear out of nowhere for a fight or to save someone at the right time.

At least this season bothered to show a little more of how its world works, and gave the protagonist a backdrop story, an objective, and a strong connection with another character. By the end of the previous one, every secondary character had something they wanted to achieve, but he had nothing, he was just a badass plot device, so this season turned him into a bit of an actual character. With that said his background was shown weirdly, in the middle of a fight, as the demon itself pointed it out. Another cool aspect is how there seem to be shortcomings for using his power, as it affects his body and energy and makes the fights harder for him, and he even needs the help of others.

As a whole, if all you want is action and cool visuals, this mini franchise still keeps being a blast, but plot and characters are still very basic, mostly absent, and barely progressed much, in a far longer season, so I still can’t openly recommend it, but it is ok enough to kill some time.

It’s crazy to think that two shows that reminded me of Danganronpa came out in the same season, one was Akudama Drive, which was brainded but kinda fun, and the other was Munou na Nana, which was braindead and not really fun.

To its credit, it’s a really easy watch and there are enough things happening in each episode to maintain the average viewer hooked if they don’t think much about what is happening and honestly, if more comes out, I’ll definitely watch it because I want to see what happens next.

Visually is serviceable, the artwork is ok, the character designs are akin to those in My Hero Academia although not as creative or unique, the backgrounds are simple but well made. The effects aren’t bad at all but the show abuses a lot of using a certain filter with a certain color for when a character is having internal thoughts, depending on the person, pink for the protagonist, blue for Kyoya and such, and gets tiresome rather quickly. It also does the same as Moriarty the Patriot and about every anime with dark overtones that comes out today, it splashes red all over the screen for when a murder happen or it’s about to happen and it also gets tiresome because it looses impact the more it’s used, overuse work against intention.

As always, I have nothing to say about the sound, both music and effects are serviceable and have enough impact but are not exactly memorable, both the opening and ending are fine, voice acting is also serviceable but nothing special.

Now that all that filler is over, we can talk about what really matters here and say that Munou no Nana relies heavily on having similarities with other works and subverting expectations, to the point of being able to fool unexperienced viewers into thinking it’s original, without adding much (or nothing) on its own.

The premise, the first episode and the first promotional material (both videos and first poster) makes you think that it will be a literal clone of My Hero Academia, with his own version of Deku, that has a very similar design, the same personality, and is equally bullied. He is also presented as someone with seemingly no powers and has a very similar name to the actual protagonist of the show, further making you think that it will be about him. And then the episode is about to finish and the series changes completely.

Basically, all of the above was brilliant marketing, making you expect something derivative that cashes in on a popular series, and then proceeding to give you something completely different, which is basically like Danganronpa by having a school student trying to kill all of their classmates. It was also lucky to come out close to the very similar flavor of the month (despite being two years old) videogame Among Us, thus being seen as the anime version of it.

Anyways, so we have this girl going around, gathering information about the powers each student has and then killing them off. The good thing is how each ability has actual weaknesses that the protagonist can, and does reasonably take advantage of, making her seem smart, the bad part is that every other character is so dumb and fall on her traps and schemes so easily that it kills the illusion that you are watching a well thought out series about murders and how the culprit is gonna do it and how is she going to get away with it.

My first real issue with the show, aside from the dumb characters, is how lucky the protagonist is that no student here is strong, I mean seriously they all have very specific powers that makes her act in a certain way in each episode, and lets her plan something specific in each episode (something pretty convenient) but they are otherwise very weak and are taken off easily. They are supposed to be the saviours of humanity that fight against dangerous enemies but they otherwise die the same way every normal person would do, and don’t receive any training in the school that is supposed to prepare them for doing that in the future.

And I just have to point out how convenient it is that everyone buys her lies about her fake talent, it has an in story excuse, since every power has its strenghts and weaknesses, but when the protagonist comes with a different excuse of how it worked or didn’t just when it was needed, and everyone eats that crap everytime, it becomes unexcusable and a clear sign of bad writing. It also abuses it a lot, doing it once or twice would be convenient but acceptable, but when is overused like this, it becomes unacceptable. In JoJo, Joseph can guess what his enemies think and that conveniently throws his opponent off a little, enough to give him time to come out with another plan, but it’s not abused as much and is presented as dumb in a series with an over the top tone, here it’s presented in a serious manner and that only makes it lame.

Anyways, having a character going around killing other characters in each episode in somewhat convenient ways with very convenient outcomes would get formulaic and boring very fast, which it does, and thus the series introduces a main antagonist who looks like a combination of Bakugo and Todoroki and sounds just like Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail. What I’m trying to say is, this character was planned to be the one to confront the protagonist from the get go.

From there, they play a Kira and L cat and mouse game where they know exactly what the other does and are constantly trying to make the other look like the culprit (in case of Kyoya) or themselves innocent (in case of Nana). But just like with everything thus far, everyone around them is so dumb they don’t believe what Kyoya says, even if it makes sense to the most part and is often supported with actual evidence.

On top of that, these people are acting all friendly when they live in a world where something is supposed to be out there ready to kill them on the spot. Heck, even when they are getting killed off each day, they still don’t suspect their classmates (especially the students who just transfered) and still act all friendly, just like in Danganronpa. Bad shows copy even the worst aspects of other bad shows it seems.

I’ve seen people defending the show saying that is understandable for the characters to be this stupid because they lack the information the viewer has, which is true. I’ll expand on that later but now I’m gonna say that, just like it happens with Moriarty, having a Mary Sue protagonist in a series about murders and cat and mouse game kills all the tension and makes the show very dull to watch.

And Nana is not even consistent in that regard, for example, Moriarty is a Gary Stu but at least is presented as such in his own series, he is more consistent than Nana, who constantly messes up yet still gets away with it simply because the script says so and everyone else is seriously dumb, instead of doing that with actual wit.

Even if someone still manages to defend the show in this regard, there are instances where someone else than Kyoya finds out about Nana but doesn’t expose her for stupid reasons. It makes sense for the necrophile girl to remain silent but what valid excuse does the guy able to seen the future has for not doing so? Why he wanted to fuck Nana, that’s why, Such stupid reasoning and it made him look like a one dimensional ugly bastard rapist you would find in a doujinshi instead of a shounen series. No, there are no valid excuses for this episodes, the show is just lazily and badly written.

And I also have to point out how having an inmortal antagonist who is also mentally unbreakable ruins all the tension and fun even further.

A common criticism about the series, which I agree with, is how Nana kills the only guy with the capability of nullifying others’ powers, who would be helpful later on, and constantly keeps doing something similar, killing off characters that could be helpful if used against others. I mean, the first guy was already kinda exploitable if you think about it, try to put him against his bullies and convince him that those fuckers are the enemies and done. But oh well, if he’s exactly like Deku then he would consider his bullies as his potential boyfriends, I mean best Friends, so it would be pointless.

Still, for an agent that is supposed to have been trained her whole life in stealth and assassination, as well as someone that is constantly acting like someone she’s not, Nana sure rushes to kill off everyone instead of trying to manipulate them against the others, which would make the series less formulaic and tiresome and actually somewhat smart, and not leave her exposed every single time.

Another issue with the show is the mood whiplash, as it’s constantly throwing random silly comedy in the middle of serious moments that are supposed to be suspenful and intense, doing it once or twice would be forgiveable but when it happens all the time it becomes a serious problem. And it’s not because the series is a shounen, Moriarty is a shounen series as well and it never trashes its tone like that by throwing stupid comedy just because.

Even Kyoya, who’s supposed to be the serious and smart character and counterforce of the protagonist, has silly quirks such as wanting friends, crack jokes in inappropriate moments and even wanting to play with Nana’s hair, what a way to kill the characterization of even the only actually interesting character of the show.

The theme present in the show basically comes to down to discrimination based on previous events, just like in Moriarty, the other muder mystery show of the season, and just like that series, it fucks it up in its presentation for the same reason, it presents the conflict in a simplified good vs. bad way. Only one side of the conflict is explained and it gets really hard to accept their ways of reasoning and acting when they have innocent high schoolers being killed off for doing absoultely nothing, it’s completely one sided, victimizing and unjustified that it ruins the whole theme exploration.

And finally there is the issue of the nonsensical setting, it’s almost impossible to accept that no one finds it strange that there’s only one school to train the future protectors of mankind, and it’s located on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere, even My Hero Academia is better in that regard. The show tries to excuse that by basically turning the setting into a Battle Royale clone midway, but that only makes things worse. Are you telling me that all of humanity agreed to send kids on an isolated island in hope of everyone killing each other? Talk about a one sided conflict. And you are also telling me that this has already happened before? And no one found it strange how all the future saviours of humanity died together on the same island? Many times? Hello? And it also turned the show from something with pretences of intelligence to a generic death game you can find everywhere these days in both anime and western entertainment since the success of Fate/Zero in 2011 and The Hunger Games in 2012.

Heck, now that I think about it, another strange thing is how no one finds it weird that the stories about the enemies of mankind are basically legends for there has not been a case since forever and are you telling me that only the talentless people know about the incident in the past? How is that possible? Are these kids taught different history depending if they have abilities or not or what? Even when they go to the same school before the latter are sent to an isolated island?

I don’t even understand how do these kids even have families back in their home, if this school has been doing that since who knows when, their parents should all be dead as well…or that would be the case if it was genetic as in My Hero Academia, but it’s not. And that only raises the question on how do these people even get their powers from, it also makes me think that perhaps their parents themselves sent their kids in order to get killed on that island and that only makes it worse.

Finally, aside from the characters being dumb, only two of them have background stories, one is Nana herself and is just a generic revenge plot past, and the other is Michiru or whatever that dog girl is called, and is a generic I helped someone once and began doing it ever since type of past, boring. I can give the show credit for developing Nana a little by becoming genuinely attached to her, and not only because of her healing powers, but it comes to down to being reluctant at first and then attached to someone just because they are kind, with yuri overtones included.

No, her actual development is slowly wanting to know the truth behind all things and even that is nothing much.

In conclusion, Munou na Nana is a show that you can easily watch if you just accept everything it throws at you at face value but the moment you start thinking about it, it falls apart completely, the setting makes absolutely no sense, the themes are rarely explored and when they are, the presentation of them is pathetic, the plot is full of conveniences to the point it becomes unacceptable, the tone is a mess and the characters are absolute garbage. And I will still torture myself to watch more of it if it gets more seasons because I want to see how the plot unfolds, even when it takes all of my stamina to not fall asleep while doing so.

When Akudama Drive was announced and its premise revealed, I thought we were going to get the most stupid attempt at social criticism through the two japanese prefectures present in the show, especially because the man behind it was responsible for Danganronpa. Then it was released and I began watching it and it didn’t have any pretence of seriousness and was 99% a dumb action series, which is a plus.

Whether you like the show or not, I think we can all agree that it’s completely nonsensical, it lives and dies purely by the rule of cool, it cares mostly about its style and very little about its substance. The setting combines elements from different cyberpunk stories, it partially takes the executioners and authorities from Psycho Pass, as well as their ideologies, it partially takes the public executions to please the people from The Running Man, and its aesthetics are very close to those of Cyberpunk 2077’s, even if it came out earlier.

Combine all of that with a Suicide Squad tier of plot and characters and what you get is essentially a schlocky ova from the ‘80s, stretched to last for a whole one course series. The good thing about the show is being self aware and conscious about that and never trying to be really serious or deep. Its crappy writing support that idea. The fact that the episodes are named after movies and more of them try to imitate their basic plots in a simple and schlocky way is a clear indication of that. In specific:

-In Se7en the criminal responsible for the most gruesome murders is freed and pursued, like in the movie, minus the detective work and the religious overtones.

-In Reservoir Dogs, the gang is altogether and discuss the next course of action, like in the movie, but replacing the more elaborated narrative and the outcome with action.

-In Mission: Impossible the heist kicks in and is full of plain stupid action, like in that silly franchise.

-In Speed, the gang gets on a train at full speed and confront the executioners, like in the later half of the movie of the homonymous film.

-And The Shining becomes a slasher film with a character finally losing the little sanity he had left and chasing other around and trying to kill them, obviously missing a lot from the movie of the same name.

I won’t talk about Dead Man Walking, Brother, City of Lost Children and Death, for they have major plot points that I can’t spoil, as well as Black Rain because I don’t know a movie like that, and War Games because, outside of the hacking, the plot is completely different to the one in the movie and of course Akudama Drive because is it not named after a movie and it’s also the last episode.

Ok, there are some classic themes from sci-fi stories such as:

-An oppressive and incompetent government, people raising against it because someone made them realize that and the authorities breaking their own laws and going full tyrannical;

-A civil war with ever growing technology that destroyed the surface and even the moon in the past and made some parts of Japan completely uninhabitable;

-Experiments with artificial humans, all of them more or less clones of each other, some of them leaving the labs and slowly getting emotions;

-The search for immortality or eternal longevity by a mad scientist and the replacement of bodies in order to live and remain as a computer with one and only conscience that combines everyone’s, before entering in one or two inmortal bodies and more stuff.

All of the above is presented in such a superficial, dumb and over the top way, it’s impossible to take any of that seriously. They are just background excuses for the mindless action to happen.

The first episode alone is an indication of bad writing, everything happens through accidents and conveniences, with the unnamed protagonist bumping into all these crazy people and events by accident just because she was pursuing a cat.

Then you get six or so episodes dedicated completely to the action, the group almost never stops going from one place to another and blowing away everything in their path while killing every random person they encounter, except for the executioners who are so powerful, two of them can deal with 5 top level criminals and boy do we get some great fights here, combining hand to hand combats with different martial arts between Brawler and Master and all sorts of crazy weapons, to Courier’s super advanced motorcycle, to Doctor’s drugs and poisons, to Hacker’s drones and Cutthroat’s…well, he’s a living weapon himself.

This non stop action makes the show entertaining and spectacular on one hand, while setting a proper tone, but in the other it makes the crappy writing too obvious, outside of the nonsensical action and all the plain impossible stuff that happens, spending half of the show in just mindless explosions, forces the series to reveal its plot twists so close to each other to the point it looks like the show is pulling them out of its own ass.

There are other unexplainable things such as:

-The blown out moon;

-A train that for some reason still goes to an uninhabitable place;

-Why and how is every common citizen just walking around in a city full of superhuman criminals that runs around at will;

-How is Swindler exposed as an Akudama when buying but not Courier at the beginning;

-The fact that outside of the first two executioners that have to be taking by five top tier akudama at the same time, the rest fall like flies;

-The way characters keep disappearing and reappearing out of nowhere, and so on and so on.

And there are also small segments of two chibi stuffed mascots explaining stuff in a silly voice at the screen with silly voices in a completely different art style, later revealed to be an educational show in this world but in ours is just an excuse for infodumps that are never even truly complete. Also, they are directly taken from the Monokuma’s Theater segments in the Danganronpa games after each trial.

The Danganronpa influences don’t stop there, every character carries some sort of title or class and does not have their names and backgrounds revealed before they start falling like flies, at least their interactions are somewhat important and affect them somehow.

The protagonist, posing as and later actually becoming Swindler is basically like Rock from Black Lagoon or Edamame from Great Pretender, the only normal person around here with some resemblance of morals as she tries to keep the damages at mínimum and becoming some sort of mother or older sister figure for the kids as well as being the person who helps them being more aware of their goodbeing and suffering, and how important they are to each other, as well as not treating their wounds as nothing and ultimately she’s the one that makes everyone around her to become a little more…human.

She can become a little preachy at times but for her type of character and her role, it’s somewhat excused. Well, just like the two examples I mentioned, Swindler slowly gets affected by everything that happens around her and by everyone she comes across, realizing things about the society she lives on and siding with the Akudamas before becoming a pure criminal herself, leaving the moral high ground behind and doing what needs to be done while still keeping her as the only somewhat human person around here. And she becomes a semi proactive character to the point of starting a riot.

The little sister changes as well but unlike Swindler, her change of behaviour is too sudden, she begins as a mostly silent, almost a shrine maiden type of character who is always behind her older brother’s back and she becomes like a…like a little Swindler. It happens from one specific episode to the next which makes her development completely unbelievable.

The only other character who has some development is Hoodlum, a minor criminal who just like Swindler, gets involved in all of this by accident and survives by lying his way before he gets influenced by his “brother” Brawler and grows some balls because of him.

The rest are never truly explored, they are just character archetypes with no information about them and remain as such until the end of the show or until they die:

-Hacker is just your typical nerdy genius better with advanced technology than the whole government;

-Brawler is just your typical thick headed tall and muscular guy who solves everything with his fists and puts strenght and manliness above everything else;

-Courier is just your typical serious and estoic guy who just wants to get it all done as fast and effective as possible;

-Cutthroat is just a typical psychopath that kills for silly reasons and the more the show goes on, the more he goes full slasher film antagonist, especially when he becomes Swindler’s stalker;

-And lastly, Doctor is a take on the mad scientist type of villain in the form of a typical bitchy woman who seduces naive young men and then plays with them and their lives however she wants in order to get what she wants before ruthlessly killing everyone.

One look at their designs and you understand these characters completely and know exactly what to expect from them, and maybe even how they will die, but I obviously can’t get into details concerning that, all I will say is that at least the show spends some time with them before killing them in an epic or ironic way, unlike in Danganronpa where you don’t give a crap about who dies because you don’t see them much on screen, and their deaths are so silly and random you mostly laugh at them rather than being shocked or sad.

Now that I mentioned Danganronpa, did you notice how the cast here can be summarize as the batshit crazy version of someone from that franchise? Hacker is a criminal Fujisaki, Brawler is a sociopath Nidai or Owari, Cutthroat is just a male Genocyder Sho on steroids, and Doctor is a criminal Mikan. The only character who can’t be summed up this way is Courier and only because he’s so boring, there’s no character in Danganronpa that is that serious to compare him with, there are only Byakuya and Ishimaru but even they are completely different to this guy.

Heck even some designs remind me of the Danganronpa cast, Swindler looks like a fusion between Chiaki and Ibuki and Brawler is the child of Sakura and Hagakure, the only difference between this show and the Danganronpa anime adaptation is that here actual money or effort was placed in order to make these crazy designs justice and not whatever the Danganronpa anime was, where everybody was ruined, even Kirigiri, how can someone dare to ruin Kirigiri’s image like that? Unforgivable. Another difference with that show is that here there is not stupid pink blood…but there’s a lot of censoring.

Aside from the designs, the visuals are practically perfect as far as I’m concerned, consistent artwork during most of the duration if not the whole of it, detailed and well made backgrounds, fast paced action with ever fluent motions, and well made effects with well rendered CGI, outside of the stupid censorship present in later episodes, I have no complains here. It’s unbelievable that it was made by Pierrot, nobody would have expected that.

The digital coloring has the looks you would expect from this setting and with the people making it, very colorful but still with dark tones, it really is like watching an anime version of Cyberpunk 2077 but without all of the bugs and glitches and the drops in frames. After this, I don’t even want to see what Trigger is going to make based on the game, especially after the big disappointment it was in just a week after its release.

As for the sound, the music is kind of a letdown, neither the opening nor the ending stand out and I even already forgot them, and the soundtrack in the show goes completely unnoticed. The sound effects on the other hand are plain fantastic and immersive, is like watching a Hollywood action film. The voice acting is well done for this type of series, is just like it’s obviously not amazing by default, with all the silliness it has. Shotout to the almost unrecognizable voice of Megumi Ogata as Doctor, it was a refreshing performance from her.

Down to it, if you shut off your brain and tolerate these sociopaths, you’ll probably have a blast with this one, with all of its crazy characters and plot twists and all the non stop superbly animated action, I personally didn’t enjoy it much because at one point I wanted at least some downtime to learn more about the characters and take a breath from all the fast paced explosions and fights, but I can’t deny that I was expecting to see what crazy event was going to happen in the next episode when it was airing and was fairly entertained while watching it, had I watched this one ten years ago, I would have most likely loved it almost as much as I love Hellsing Ultimate.

Burn the Witch is the definition of a cashgrab that relies purely on the fame of a previous work of its autor in order to sell and it otherwise offers nothing of value. It’s supposed to be some sort of spin off that takes place in the same setting as Bleach but it has absolutely nothing in common with it.

I didn’t make a review of Bleach because there is no point in doing that, since everyone and their mothers already talked about it both positively and negatively, but I will make comparisons between the two.

First thing to notice is how it takes place in a different country, nothing wrong in that, and it goes for a urban/contemporary fantasy and magic realism type of story, meaning the normal people is more or less aware of everything that happens (in one side), unlike in Bleach where neither the Hollows nor the Shinigami could be seen by people with weak spiritual energy…at first, something that changed completely later on.

This would be pretty interesting if said normal people would get a role in the story but as of yet they don’t do nothing of importance, heck, they are not even allowed to interact with the monsters, which here are presented in different form than they had in Bleach, as dragons. Another thing where is weaker than Bleach is having a much lighthearted tone.

Although Bleach has lots of silly comedic moments from beginning to end, the first episodes have a creepy atmosphere with a haunting soundtrack at times, something which was completely lost here.

For something positive, the Soul Society here works completely different, it no longer follows a military logic with clear borders that separates the japanese elite from the poor and miserable foreigners (cough) but instead works as some kind of company where the Soul Reapers are some kind of employees that hunts the hollows in pairs for credits.

Believe or not, this is a good thing, in Bleach, the Reapers sent on a mission could be a single soldier or both the captain and lieutenant of a squad which was kind of sily if you think about it. Why would you send a single person on a mission, or why would you do that with the two biggest authorities of a squad, leaving it behind without leadership and boy was the Gotei 13 lucky that they never received an attack at the same time. Also, I never understood why the captains have only one lieutenant and only one squad under their supervision. And the ranks were complete bullshit, with stronger people serving under weaker people at times. None of that nonsense is present here, as everyone has the chance to get a higher rank just by working a lot.

Also, the Gotei 13 is presented much sooner and they already began moving in order to capture some sort of legendary weapons/creatures which are seemingly going to be important later on. What I didn’t like is how the place feels like a school, is there really a need to have a school in everything, especially if it involves magic?

Anyways, the premise is more or less the same as in Bleach only less interesting because of the lack of a creepy atmosphere as I already said but also because the characters here are complete shit. The black haired girl is the only one who is completely serious about what she does and does not take bullshit from anyone, but she’s also so serious she’s just boring to watch. The blonde one is just Hiyori from the Vizards in steroids and man is she annoying.

And still not as much as the guy, he’s so stupid, he ruins any attempt at seriousness. And there’s also a yandere type of antagonist who has a crush on the blonde girl and just like with the guy, I was expecting for the moment both of them die on screen, which obviously didn’t happen because they are going to be main characters later on.

Another problem in the show is how the spells are totally boring, they are just light beams of different colors and that’s it, nothing like in Bleach where they had all sorts of shapes and functions and I need to point out how the characters keep pulling powers out of nowhere, in fact that is how the anime ends, leaving any sort of closure completely open for it is just a prologue which exists only to promote the manga.

That is another issue it has, it’s too short and silly to make anything feel important, and on top of that, since it clearly wanted to promote the manga, it skipped the pilot chapter which shows how the main characters get together and are connected, none of that is present here, which could have worked as a bit of their backgrounds.

It also feels uninspired, with the dragons flying around it just feels like you are watching something made by Hiro Mashima, and the two sides from the same city, which seem to work as some sort of parallel dimensions connected to each other (I’m only guessing, it’s never explained), is basically taken from Harry Potter, with the only difference being that the “muggles” know what happens here and can move from one side to another under certain circumstances.

I like how the legendary weapons/creatures are based on classic fairy tales, I’ll give it that, but even then it’s nothing I hadn’t seen done already in Read or Die, in a much more creative and fun way.

Ultimately, what everyone who watched this really cared for was the action and the visuals, and I have to admit that they are not bad, but when they are praised beyond the point they deserve, I have to point out how neither of these elements are that great either.

By comparison, in the same season, Majo no Tabitabi and Akudama Drive came out and Burn the Witch just pails before them. And in the same year we got the likes of Tower of God, Deca-Dence and Fog Hill of Five Elements, all of which are also far better and more spectacular than this show in these aspects.

Another thing that was praised about it are the character designs and I don’t understand why, Kubo knows how to draw his stuff but he also tends to repeat the faces of his characters a lot, in Burn the Witch, the black haired girl is basically a mix between Orihime and Bambietta from Bleach and as I said the blonde is an aged up Hiyori. The same thing can be said about every other character, they resemble the characters from Bleach a lot and the artwork lacking in details does not help them either. There is a character with a somewhat original design, but he has the same problem as Mirio from My Hero Academia, he resembles a famous character (Luigi) a lot and the chances of liking his design are gonna be divisive because of that.

The special effects are not bad but for a show where they throw magic left and right, they could and arguably should be better, the best things in the visuals are the backgrounds, the city looks really good. The motions are fine but nothing really surprising, again I feel like they could have been better and at times they felt kinda sloppy. They feel consistently fluent and fast paced but it’s mostly because of the camera work, which follows every movement the girls make with and without their brooms. And as I said, Majo no Tabitabi did it better.

I have nothing to say about the sound, the sound effects lack impact, the voice acting is one of the same you can hear everywhere, the music is alright but nothing really memorable.

And that’s it, there isn’t really much else to comment about it, it’s short, it’s just a prologue, it’s mostly silly and nonsensical, poorly written, it has trashy characters, it feels disjoined from the series it’s supposed to be related to, it feels derivative in some elements, everything it does has been done before (for better or worse) and it’s not amazingly animated, it also had the bad luck of airing in 2020, the anti hype year, and thus it didn’t caused as much impact as expected, but I guess it served to remind the audience that Bleach will get a sequel soon, let’s see if this one still retains its audience and manages to sell once that adaptation of a somewhat hated arc is over.

To be honest, I wasn’t planning to watch this series for I am kinda biased against it. Anime based on western products? The ones I watched were bad. London as a setting? The one I watched was bad. Also, based on Holmes’ stories? The previous anime version was a family oriented episodic comedy with talking animals. Also, I’m not very familiar with the books nor other adaptations, I watched the movies starring Robert Downey Jr. and I didn’t like them. Also the poster has this combination of brown and red that instantly made me think that it was going to be edgy garbage.

Yet wherever I go this series has a rather good if not high rating, and it’s also very different from the works I talked about so far. The shows based on western properties I watched weren’t based on classic literature and the World Masterpieces Theater is highly regarded so why not giving this one a chance? The series set on London that I watched was a reverse harem with an amnesiac protagonist and silly supernatural elements thrown in just because while this one is a crime mystery with sociopolitical overtones. I didn’t watch Sherlock Hound but this one has humans and it is not focused and the action as the movies from the last decade.

So I watched the first two episodes and my suspicions were confirmed. To begin with something positive, the artwork is pretty well done and it practically has no quality drops, is very consistent in this regard. The backgrounds are beautiful to look at and resemble the time and place it takes place in pretty well.

The rest, however, is not as polished, the character designs are very generic and everyone is a bishounen which gave me serious fujoshi bait vibes. And boy does the series attempt to make everyone look young and attractive, just look at Holmes’ companions for Pete’s sake. Motions are serviceable for this type of story, nothing really wrong nor bad there. The effects are not bad but when a crime happens, the series uses a filter with this same combination of brown and red ever present in edgy anime nowadays when it tries to be thriller or horror and it fails miserably at it because there’s nothing scary nor much tension in it.

I don’t have much to say about the sound department, the music and sound effects do their work just fine and fit the setting, the voice acting is ok but nothing special.

Now, despite being promoted as a crime mystery, the series is not that, for there is no culprit to find and murder to resolve, you are explicitly shown who the responsibles are and how they kill their victims. It’s closer to a psychological thriller, where we see Moriarty taking advantage of people’s hatred towards evil nobles that constantly mess with their lives if they didn’t ruin them yet, and leads them to killing those bastards, that’s it. Moriarty is basically like Johan from Monster but since I didn’t watch that show, what reminded me of was the antagonist from Babylon and that made me want to drop the show before I even began the second episode.

Also, for a series attempting to tap into discrimination based on social status, the handling of such topic is completely ridiculous. Every noble we see on screen is the worst scum of the Earth, we’re talking about Akame ga Kill! level of characterization here, if one whole side out of two in a conflict is presented as complete garbage then the theme exploration is reduced to a simple good vs. bad type of story with clear sides because one of them is completely demonized while the other is always victimized, which is the most simplistic and silliest way of dealing with sociopolitical topics.

The only exception as of now is the oldest brother and only because he killed his whole family. It’s very hard to accept this killing for a greater good excuse of the protagonists when they sadistically plan ahead how to drive both the nobles and their killers mad and anticípate the deaths of the formers.

And don’t get me started on their backgrounds, completely ridiculous, victimizing and preachy. Aside from that, Moriarty is a Gary Stu, for he’s good at eveything, outsmarts everyone and plays with them however he wants, does absolutely everything he wants, and the police somehow don’t notice how many nobles are being killed or disappear so close to each other, nor do they search for clues and weapons used in the murders. If the protagonist has no competition whatsoever then there’s no tension at all.

I dropped the show on its second episode but picked it up again later on and I can summarize the first half of the series like this, simple exploration of a serious topic with a huge scale, horrible characterization, and tensionless episodic cases. Holmes appears in the sixth episode to make things a little more interesting, but the case on the cruise was easily the worst and most ridiculous of the bunch and even he couldn’t save it. The culprit wasn’t even doing anything until Moriarty started to drive him mad, like Freddy Quimby in The Simpsons, he was a horrible but innocent person, until he snaps and kills in an over the top way and gets exposed and killed rather stupidily.

Thankfully, the last 4 episodes are way better not only because they adapt A Study in Scarlet and some other case but also because they focus on the cat and mouse game Moriarty and Holmes play with each other, it is not Light and L but still alright to the most part, and they focus on how Holmes is slowly getting corrupted by Moriarty’s schemes while showing how ruthless the latter can be, if I can give credit to the show for something, is being consistent with this character so far, showing his manipulations and preparations in detail and how he never doubts when playing with the lives of people at his will, he’s basically a blonde Shogo Makishima. Also, finally some detective work.

Honestly, this dynamic between Holmes and Moriarty and the similarities to Death Note is what made me want to watch the second season when it comes out the next year, if the whole series was like that, I would have given it a higher rating, but when you spend 7 out of 11 episodes reminding me of series such as Akame ga Kill! and Babylon, then you leave me no choice. Oh, and it was still better than Talentless Nana, because it has a far more consistent tone. But that is a story for another time.

UPDATE: From this point I talk about the second season, with some spoilers here and there

I already covered the first season so I won’t go over the basics again but I will compare the two for a bit to better stablish why I think the second season is slightly better, there are spoilers but who cares, everyone already watched this show.

In terms of visuals, the second season got rid of the stupid red and brown horror like filters and features more action scenes with ok enough motions. In terms of sound the opening and endings were better, albeit still pretty forgettable.

The best aspect of the second season was reducing a lot the amount of purely evil one dimensional nobles that ruined the first and focusing more on the cat and mouse game between Holmes and Moriarty with high stakes, even attempting to deal with the birth of the nation and a woman’s life at stake in a conspiranoical way…for about three episodes before going back to the same thing, and the woman changing gender thus being a transgender man in 1800’s London because I’m sure that was a thing back then.

A complaint I’ve seen from others that I agree with is that this season feels like it’s throwing references to iconic names just as fanservice, here is Jack the Ripper, here someone names himself James Bonde, Bond, without the e so it’s not too obvious, although not a major problem.

The bad things implemented in the second season that weren’t present in the first were more comical scenes and cool action. The former were supposed to add a bit of personality to the main characters and give them some scenes to interact between them in a relaxed way to make them more likable, but they clash a lot with the overall serious tone and approach of the series, not fitting into the whole thing, plus a character changed his personality completely between episodes and the fact that he can adapt different personalities and looks with ease does not let these moments feel genuine. The latter were supposed to make things more exciting but they are short, over the top and feel way too improbable within a more or less realistic setting in a show that takes itself seriously to the most part, kicking a coin at a ridiculous speed to make a bullet bounce? Come on now.

Anyways the show got rid of the one dimensional evil nobles to the most part, thank God (besides a completely absurd flashback episode) to focus more on the gang trolling them and getting important information of them while presenting more enemies and people with ideals similar to William’s along the way, thus becoming more political, which would have made things more interesting if they were handled properly. More seemingly capable enemies would have add more tension but since anyone’s still playing under William’s rules, that doesn’t happen. There are even fights among two gangs of assassins and you can barely see them.

No major complaints about the other guy, but he was too idealized and threw away his ideals way too easily, before becoming a tragic figure in a rather preachy manner and disappearing from the show completely in a couple of episodes.

Eventually the major issues within the show were, ironically, the elements that I expected to save it at the end of the first season, the interactions between Holmes and Moriarty and the conclusion, which was rushed and contradictory. Regarding the former, for a show that was supposed about these two geniuses going against each other, making one of them being completely fooled by the other was a major disappointment, but making them respect each other and even become friends with major fujoshi vibes ruined it completely, especially with the finale, which did the right thing of not being the exact same as the original, but it was too different, a very lukewarm alternative to it. I recently watched the 1995 “Heat” and the 2004 “Collateral” movies where, respectively, a cop and a criminal and an assasin and his hostage come to respect each other while trying to get rid of the other and they don’t become friends, because their very line of work and positions in the conflict make it impossible, and the finale of those movies were a lot better while still keeping the dynamic between them.

The second aspect was seriously bad for several reasons, first it tried to pull a Lelouch without comitting itself completely to it, second it resolved the major conflict very easily, all it took after all the killings was a two minutes preachy speech about the ways of the past and how the former nobles were different to resolve everything and last but not least, both Moriarty and the series desperately tries to paint him as some sort of villain and a necessary evil, yet almost every new character he encounters treats him as a tragic hero and one of them even says something like “you’re the man this country needs to change”. Excuse me, what? We’re talking about a mass murderer here. As much as I dislike the V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight movies for being too silly and too improbable and forced at points, they still did a good job when it comes to present both of their criminals as the villains who are clearly wrong, even if somehow they ended being supported by the majority of their audience.

Apparently the manga still goes on but what’s the point? The main character accomplished what he wanted, the main objective of the series and the themes already got a conclusion, sure, it was terrible, but it was there, going on with it is just stretching it at that point. That is why I won’t keep track of the franchise anymore, there’s no point for it to keep going and what I expected to raise its level was terribly handled. With Death Note, I guess Monster, Heat, Collateral and perhaps even The Dark Knight around, there’s no reason to watch this one.

Taisou Zamurai is definitely and oddball, it’s one of the most unique shows of the year and also one of the weirdest slice of life anime I’ve ever seen. The first two episodes are the divisive type that either hook you or alienate you to the point of dropping the show, which suffers from a serious identity crisis.

The premise make it seem like it’s just a sports anime but no, it’s also a drama about a man who has to take care of his daughter all alone by himself because his wife died, it’s also a comedy that keeps throwing random things at screen, from a fake ninja who is pursued by agents, to a weirdly drawn parrot, to a gyaru who changes her language at times, to an acupuncturist drag queen, to references to fictional action movies and the list goes on.

It’s also a coming of age story since there’s a noticeable time invested in developing the protagonist’s daughter and how she deals with her dead mother, her absent father, the kids at her school that makes fun of her dad, the ninja’s weirdness and all that stuff.

This weird blend of elements is what gives it an identity and makes it memorable but at the same time is what makes it hard to gain and define an audience. Everything gets its fair share of time but nothing gets enough time on screen before moving on to something completely different.

If you just want to chill and be moved by Rei’s character arc, you have to wait until some episode decides to focus on that because in the middle you’ll get weird comedy and basic training, yet if you stick with it, you’ll get the best and most moving episodes this anime has to offer.

She’s basically like Rin from Usagi Drop or Hime from Kakushigoto, only a lot more mature than them despite all of them sharing the death of at least one of their parents. Her character arc reminds me of some Simpson episodes dedicated to Marge or Lisa where they accept everything that happens around them concerning their families the best they can before they snap, then they deal with the consequences of their actions and grow because of those events, with the obvious difference being that her development is not undone because this is not an episodic comedy. She also gets to find what she wants to do with her life which is basically follow her mother’s footsteps.

If you want to see an inspirational sports series, Joe’s arc is pretty well done for you, not only he practices a sport which wasn’t covered much in anime (right now I can only think of Ganbarist Shun! as an alternative, and it was a completely different series), but the show spends a fair amount in building a fading star type of story around him. At first, it seems like it was all due to an injury but as later episodes reveal, it has to do with his own regrets and traumas he can’t leave behind, until he does because he needs to regain his former glory in order to take proper care of his daughter.

On top of that, Taisou Zamurai does the unthinkable thing of spending time in his training, showing concepts and rutines concerning his discipline and the ever present risk of not being able to perform ever again if he makes a wrong move or gets permanently injured because of excessive training, this is what other shows such as Iwa Kakeru lack and what I complained about in my review about it.

The downside is that the actual sport is not shown in a very inspirational way, the training is mostly skipped, the matches are shown quickly, and the CGI models used in them are poorly made and even more poorly animated, this definitely does not make the gymnastics to look exciting.

With that said, we see him recovering and training in order to make a new skill that will give him more points in his competitions and it’s partially thanks to his interactions with Leo, the fake ninja who’s actually a dancer. This guy is the weakest main character for me, he’s just clowning around for most of the time, and his own story is not that interesting nor explored much, but as his role of someone who has a positive influence on Joe, and at the same time gets influenced by him goes, he makes a good plot device.

I don’t have much to comment on the comedy, it’s the type of random comedy I just can’t bring myself to like, it’s not the type of over the top humor that I hate (Nichijou, Asobi Asobase, fucking Pop Team Epic, stuff like that) but for a slice of life anime, this just puts me off. Whether if this is a negative or not, it’s entirely up to each person. One thing that I have to give credit to the show is not mixing any of this silly stuff with the dramatic moments, I may not like these elements, but at least the show does not suffer from tonal whiplash.

As I hinted earlier, the first issue with Taisou Zamurai is that it’s poorly animated, leaving the sport aside, the artwork and the simplistic character designs are definitely lacking detail and the models get deformed from time to time, both the backgrounds and the effects are also simplistic and the motions, even outside the gymnastics, are rather poorly made.

As for the sound, the voice acting is ok when it’s serious and mature and kinda bad when it’s silly and comical (except for Kappei Yamaguchi as that parrot, what a guy), so it stands somewhere in the middle, the soundtrack is mostly absent or forgettable, the ending is alright, the opening is not. I don’t understand why they went with rap of all things and even having these three voice actors who are not really good at singing and one of the characters hate (or pretends that he hates) the other two so what is he even doing there. The sound effects are very good to the most part, in both the daily life moments and the sport competitions.

But down to it, Taisou Zamurai’s biggest problem is it’s biggest strenght, having this silly comedy thrown at screen and blend of different genres in just eleven episodes makes the pacing very uneven, constantly changing things and tones and dragging the plot down before forcing it to go really fast in the final episodes, thus making the show feel both fast and slow at the same time.

If you want something rather unique, here you have an aging sportsman, as he is trying to get over the death of her wife in order to improve himself and be a good father, a little girl realizing what she wants to do with her life, as well as what she does in her school and her home, a breath taking dancer who runs away from the pressure of being amazing and pretends to be a ninja while he’s chased around the world by other performers, I think? I didn’t really understand what the hell they are, they look like they belong in Men in Black rather than here. And you also get a look at a rather unique sport.

In the middle, try to deal with an acupuncturist drag queen, Kappei Yamaguchi destroying his lungs while voicing a south american parrot, a grandma who runs a bar and looks like she belongs in Gangsta or Black Lagoon that also drives the car of another person like Irisviel from Fate/Zero in a road full of traffic, from a stadium to an airport and back again to the stadium, mildly cringy and mildly inspirational monologues taken from fictional schlocky action movies, and an undeveloped romance between a guy who can’t speak normally and a gyaru whose words can’t be understood 95% of the time she talks, even when she’s not changing languages just because she feels like it.

If you don’t mind any of that as well as poor animation, you get a mostly decently made story with mostly decently written characters, that got completely overshadowed by Haikyuu! As for me, if the show had one or two more episodes, its events were paced a bit better, and it didn’t have these weird elements and comedy, I would have rated it a bit higher, but I won’t since that wasn’t the case, yet I can still say that it is among the best shows from this year, even if that doesn’t mean much.

As for some recommendations there are:

-Ganbarist Shun! the only other pure gymnastics anime that I know of, but beware for it’s a school comedy with some ecchi.

-Igano Kabamaru, horribly animated, among the craziest and weirdest school comedies anime ever put on screen, staring an actual ninja.

-Usagi Drop and Kakushigoto (the anime versions of both of them), slice of life anime about grown men taking care of a little girl by themselves, way more simple but also way more focused.

As I said in my Majo no Tabitabi review, there were only two shows I was expecting that began airing in fall, one was that show which turned out to be a disappointment and the other was this one which…was also a disappointment, but for different reasons.

To be honest, the only reason why I wanted to watch it is because I saw the poster and the release date being in early October thus I decided that it was what I wanted to watch after finishing September.

So the first episode begins, plays and finish and there’s no fanservice! Sure some may like certain camera angles but they hardly count and are excused for the subject matter thus I don't consider them to be fanservice. Compare this show to Keijo or Harukana Receive and you’ll agree with me. Although that was a letdown for me, I have to admit that it was better this way, is a weird case where I was pissed because the show wasn’t worse than it actually is.

Ok, so leaving my hornyness (does that exist?) aside, that was a positive surprise I received from the show, it wasn’t ecchi crap, it actually tried to be an actual sports show with the same motivational train hard, make friends, have fun with them and win competitions type of story.

The negative surprise I received from the show was the completely unexpected gamer pandering, as the protagonist used to be a shut in neet who used to play games 24/7 during her late childhood/early teens until her parents sent her to another school where she joins the wall climbing club and instantly becomes good at it because she’s a pro at puzzle games, well at least there are parents that actually do something for their neet child.

Sorry but no, this excuse just doesn’t work, first, how does changing schools automatically makes a neet to become a social person and change her lifestyle completely? Second, for a girl that used to do nothing but play videogames all day, she already has some muscle before she even begins climbing; and third, she just started in this sport and can already compete toe to toe with someone who has been training and practicing her whole life, completely naive and unrealistic.

And is not that I don’t like what the show was going for, it went for a inspirational message of leaving videogames behind, working out and starting practicing a sport while still retaining the good things you got from them and learned because of them. Is just that the way it was delivered was, again, just too positive and unrealistic.

This is a problem I have with sports anime in general, they try to inspire the audience with their stories but make their disciplines look like a walk in the park, easy to get in minutes and master in hours when the reality is completely different, they don’t show nowhere near as much training and possible consequences as they should. Sure, the protagonists may lose from time to time and cry enough tears to fill a river but that’s about it. Everyone does things wrong in ther daily lives and cry from time to time, that make the shows relatable but can hardly count as inspirational, they are too idealistic, toned down and manipulative instead of having actual exploration of their disciplines and themes.

I mean, having Konomi succeed in conquering the wall while playing videogames in her mind literally makes it look like a game. These segments become another rather minor issue present in the episode and throughout the whole show, I found them silly but not a big deal, but others may find it too stupid and cringy to the point of dropping the show. It becomes even more of a problem when an even better girl reveals that she’s so good at wall climbing because she plays rhythm games and that ultimately led Konomi to repeat PA-PAPAN-PAPAPAN-PA in her mind in the final episodes, ugh.

Other more important issue has to do with the other characters’ backgrounds, none of them is as bad as Konomi’s but they are way too simple, rushed and presented in inappropriate moments such as the middle of a competition thus stailling the plot, and they all come down to I’ve been doing this my whole life and there’s someone I want to surpass, that’s it.

Another important issue is the very first scene of the show spoiling the ending…or is it? This was my second positive surprise from the show, it made it look like Konomi and Jun would be rivals competing against each other in the final episode but they actually become friends and that flash forward was actually showing the middle of the series, not the end of it, and it wasn’t what it looked like at first.

After that we follow the usual route of training, new characters introduced, character bonding, competitions and stuff and there are both good and bad things present in here.

The good part has to do with Konomi actually failing at climbing at first and even being afraid of it thus making it seem like she would grow organically as a better climber, while at the same time developing Jun a little, the only character who gets that in the series and the best because of it, even if her character arc is the typical cold tsundere who becomes more friendly throughout the episodes, before she fails horribly at something, gets traumatized, leaves, gets over it with the help of someone else and returns stronger with a better design (for me at least):

The bad part has to do with how much Konomi improved to the point of exaggeration, she moved from a rookie with potential to beating opponents who have trained and practiced climbling their whole lives and the whole scanning then conquering the walls in one second gets repetitive and unbelievable very fast, it was like seeing a battle shounen protagonist getting a huge sudden power up after just a few days of training, we’re talking about that level of overpowered.

The show tries to excuse it by saying she always had the potential because she used to do ballet but it’s not believable, she did ballet when she was a child before becoming a neet who plays videogames all day and night so no. At least she doesn’t really win, but in a way that feels cheap, and even then it was nowhere near as bad as what they did with Jun, holy crap was there really a need to treat her so miserably? At least it led to her character development and better design.

Speaking of which, truth be told, all the character designs in the show are…decent, they don’t really stand out from the lot that much, and some of them can become ridiculous when resembling animals, but there’s quite the variety in heights and proportions and all of them have their fare share of muscles for they have been training their whole lives. Oh and they are mostly dressed and are never sexualized, except for maybe a certain shower scene, but even then it’s short and you can’t really see much in it. Again, compare this show with examples such as Harukana Receive and Keijo and you will notice that this is the better show at least in both of these regards.

As for the rest of the visuals, they are also ok, simple artwork, good enough backgrounds, well made but kinda silly special effects, serviceable motions. The sound is also ok, voice acting is nothing much but sound effects and music, while not being anything to write about, are fine.

Eventually the biggest issue the show has is how rushed it feels in its second half, showing the outcomes while barely showing the matches, and having a very cheap finale, I mean come on how did they even win? They lost 2 out of 3 competitions, and then the show just…ends.

So in the end Sport Climbing Girls is a show full of both good and bad surprises leaning a little towards the negative: It doesn’t have fanservice (+) but it panders to gamers (-), it has a good inspirational message (+) but its crappy writing does not support it in the least (-), it seems like it spoiled its own ending (-) but in reality it doesn’t (+), a good chunk of its characters have their backgrounds revealed (+) but they are terribly rushed, simple, and even dumb (-), the main character is overpowered (-) but not really (+) but actually she is indeed overpowered (-), it makes her and her friends fail and not winning all the time (+) but does it in cheap and miserable ways before rushing the ending (-) and it has character development (+) but only for one of them, and it isn’t much (-).

Ultimately, for every step the show takes forward, something else was making it go backwards, essentially failing at what it was trying to do but not to the point of making it atrocious and it was still better than what I expected and is among the better really really bad sport anime with women released in recent years. Now, on to the moe hockey on ice anime that will be released next year.

When fall began, there were two anime that I wanted to watch. One was Iwa Kakeru and only because it aired on October thus it was what I wanted to watch once I passed September. The other was Majo no Tabitabi because it made me think that it would be like Little Witch Academia when I saw the trailer.

So, imagine my disappointment when the show was not at all like that show but on top of that was a poorly made episodic series about an unlikeable protagonist with a completely messy tone.

The show is promising in its first episode though, although nothing groundbreaking in neither its world, premise or characters, the exposition was very good, presenting this aspects organically through interactions among the characters and through the protagonist traveling to places.

It also establishes the character pretty well, she’s nothing like Akko and is instead one of a kind among the witches of this world, whose function and system is never explained by the way, there’s magic in this world and the witches are treated with the upmost respect, yet they don’t seem to have an organized way of doing things and the normal citizens act like these girls are a common thing.

Anyways Elaina is nothing like your common protagonist, she’s selfish, arrogant, sarcastic and self centered, which is why the whole first episode is about her being rejected for being at the top of the world and learning how to not be a jerk at the end of the episode by facing a way stronger and better witch.

It also sets the bar when it comes to its production, to put it simple, Majo no Tabitabi is straight up both gorgeous to look at and well animated. Although there’s some obvious CGI which clashes a little with the rest of the visuals, it’s never crude or ugly and is rendered pretty well and moves accordingly with the rest of the elements.

As far as the rest of the visual elements go, there are practically no quality drops, the backgrounds are detailed and beautiful, the lightning and shading are well done, and the motions are fluent most if not all the time. The directing is good too, there’s a clear effort done in the storyboard to make the show visually dynamic, with lots of zoom ins and zoom outs, and the camera following the movements of the brooms from both the front and the back while constantly changing the angles in an organic way and not in a way that gives you a headache as in famous american action films like Transporter, Taken or the Bourne trilogy (I didn’t watch the newer ones) where the camera goes crazy at times and don’t let you understand what the hell is going on.

All of the above applies to the action scenes as well, which although not that present throughout the show, they are done masterfully. By comparison, Burn the Witch aired in the same season and the only thing everybody praised about it was the action and animation, and Majo no Tabitabi humilliates it completely in both aspects, especially in its last episode with its epic fight where a whole town is involved, full of big spells, and whole houses being blown away, while not even once losing detail in the artwork or fluidity in the movements.

The only negative in the visual department, aside from the not so good CGI, is the character designs, they are not bad but are way too simple, forgettable and there are characters that are way too similar one another.

The first episode also let us know how the sound is going to be, there isn’t much to talk about it, is a serviceable sound design for a fantasy series, typical opening and ending, typical soundtrack, well made but not special voice acting, good but not amazing sound effects, that’s all.

Then the second episode begins and Elaina didn’t change one bit, thus killing the illusion that there will be character development and a sense of meaningful learning and growth throughout her journey. On top of that Saya appears to change the tone of the series from a mildly interesting adventure to a silly yuri comedy. The whole second episode was full of emotional manipulation, Saya lies to Elaina and forces her to do stuff she doesn’t want to while at the same time presenting us her drama about not being able to see her sister, making you think that it’s a somewhat serious thing, but as the show would prove in its final episodes, that’s not the case at all. I was hoping that she didn’t appear ever again, but sadly, she did.

The only good thing about this episode was establishing another thing about the witches, despise their seemingly high social status, they have to constantly work their asses (not literally, not in this season at least) in order to get money and stuff.

Then came the somewhat controversial third and fourth episodes which are easily the best for me. These two episodes felt like classical fairy tales with dark overtones, dealing with dark topics such as slavery, sexual abuse, forbidden loves and a war because of it, and whole kingdoms being affected in the middle, if not completely destroyed and the heart breaking message of how sometimes your good intentions can backfire at you, as you end up doing more harm than good when you try to change things, which is ever present in the whole show but never again treated with this quality.

And just like the first episode, they are subtle about it, everything is shown visually and through character interactions, such as Elaina pointing her wand at that asshole but not attacking him in the end because, well, he was the major of the town and doing so would bring serious consequences, while their endings are actually dark and implied, not fully shown not hammering you in the head with their themes and messages, and not in a way that feels vague and open to interpretation, as it’s still somewhat clear what might actually have happened.

As I said earlier, their endings felt like the dark endings of classical fairy tales and are thematically coherent within the show and are in-story excused, as a big part of Elaina’s character has to do with how she wants to be a magic because of the tales she read as a kid thus this way of treating these mini stories feel right for this show. For all I care, these two episodes were the peak of the series.

On the other hand this third episode was very divisive when it comes to Elaina’s behaviour. Some liked how she’s not like a typical protagonist who jumps in blindly to help any random person she encounters and others hated her for not showing the slightest sympathy for the people around her and acting like “yeah, whatever, shit happens” and treated her like a inhuman sociopath.

I don’t care about any of that, my only issue is how this episode made it clear that Elaina is not a proactive character that does things on her own, she’s just imitating the book she loved as a kid and reacting to whatever happens around her at best, or is just a passive observer who doesn’t care about the stuff she’s supposed to be excited about and learn from in her travels at worst.

After that there was nothing of interest, the stories became way sillier and didn’t have the same feel nor the thematic depth, and on top of that Elaina became more and more unlikeable with each episode. There were episodes with sociopolitical issues such as one where everybody in a kingdom wants to be able to lie again, one where the people from the same country are divided in two by a wall in the middle (Berlin anyone?) and one where two sides of the same town are rivals when it comes to economy but their conflicts are so silly, the tone of the episodes so light, the messages so preachy and directly told, thus no subtle at all, the theme exploration so vague and one sided and Saya appeared again that the series went to bottom of the garbage and lost my interest.

As for Elaina, although I was still tolerating her after the third episode, these episodes made me hate her completely, she did nothing to stop the serious issues she comes across in the third and fourth episode, but takes part on town, countries, kingdoms level issues when someone jokes about her being petite, not curvy and flat chested, or cuts her hair. Come on, you saw a girl, younger than you, being treated like a cum bucket in her work and a whole kingdom getting destroyed, and did nothing but you lose your shit with these petty reasons? Absolutely lame and despicable.

Then there was an episode that was even advertised as too dark and violent for tv screening and was nothing but shock factor, gore porn, emotional manipulation up to the max, crappy writing and bad plot devices such as pointless time travelling and amnesia to negate any mental permanent effect and consequences. Also how is a little girl even able to do these things? And Elaina? She tries to stop someone from killing an actual sociopath serial murderer, right after the episode where we see her using spells left and right because someone cut her hair, which she can AND did grew back, get out of here.

Also for such a big fuss it caused because of its content, for someone like me, who watched anime and movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, this episode felt like I was watching Fairy Tail in comparison. I had to read people praising this dumpster fire of an episode because they still were under the illusion that this would lead to Elaina’s character development, AND IT NEVER HAPPENED, the next time we see her again she’s still unaffected by any of this.

There were more stories but they are not worth mentioning in details, one took up two episodes and it was easily the most stupid of the bunch with the laziest resolution and it had Saya appearing AGAIN and this time with her sister who is ten times worse and made it clear that they being apart was never a big deal. Also, incest jokes, because that was what the show needed at this point as its final nail in the coffin.

Outside of the amazing action, the last episode had nothing of value, it was just self validation from the autor, having different Elainas in a sorry excuse of introspection while talking to each other and seemingly themselves at the same time, and the show itself openly praising Elaina for not having personality. Oh, and they publish their super amazing book titled like the show. Also, they end up sleeping together in the same bed because the yuri bait can never be absent and now it expands to even selfcest, great.

Thus Majo no Tabitabi went from being my only truly anticipated show of the season to being my biggest disappointment in it. It’s beautiful to look at and starts strongly, but looses steam fast and only goes downhill from there while at the same time it becomes a complete joke of itself and makes you hate her main character more with each episode. The only thing I’m grateful for when it comes to this show is how it helped me to sleep, as I was always watching its episodes right before falling asleep on my bed, if you plan to watch it, I advise you to do the same, as it’s the biggest benefit you will get out of it.


RECOMMENDATIONS

-Flying Witch for feel good type of shows/slice of life fans
-Kiki’s Delivery Service, similar premise, more focused story
-Kino’s Journey, similar premise although the main character is not a witch
-Little Witch Academia, similar beginning, way better outcome

Tonikaku Kawaii is a series that uses a catchy premise in order to hook the audience but soon turns into something generic. Normally I would consider that to be a negative but in this case it works in its favor because to me said hook is unnecessary.

There is a supernatural element in the series which is barely present, not really adressed much and on top of that it has no real purpose in the otherwise generic plot so why is it even there? I don’t know. Thus said element is so underplayed that even the english name of the show hints to it more than the series itself.

Aside from fooling the audience into thinking there’s more with a 0.1% of mystery bait, Tonikawa definitely grabs the attention of the audience with its first episode because it begins where at least four decades of its genre usually ends. Even a romcom from not so many years ago like Ore Monogatari! seemed to move fast at first, only to slow down right after the main couple is established.

Tonikawa begins estabilishing a couple, having them holding hands and even getting married and starting to live together! Is a series that understands that in this time and age, not even a generic romcom can attach itself to the way things used to be. If your series starts slowly and does not hook the audience pretty fast nowadays, you might as well give up.

It also knows how to play with expectations because it indirectly mocks the isekai genre in the way the characters get to know each other, weird but effective use of trolling and comedy.

So it knows how to get an audience and it avoids the usual slow set up in order to get to the most interesting bits of its genre but at the same time the first episode makes the couple to feel completely unbelievable. I mean come on, would any of this really happen? No, this sudden girlfriend/wife appearance can only happen in anime and it has since at least three decades, especially in the harem genre. You know, My Goddess, Monogatari, Sekirei, Campione, Rec, heck even Monster Musume, and above all High School DxD which even has a bigger similarity with this show by having the protagonist being saved by the main girl in its first episode.

Another catch is the main protagonist who is far more direct than any other protagonist of its kind yet I have to point out how Nasa is really obnoxious in the beginning with his embarrassment towards his actual wife, and his referential comedy is easily among the worst I’ve ever seen. At least later on he becomes a little more direct and is shown as a capable guy able to manage just about every situation.

From there, the series unfolds in a close to what would happen manner, the daily routines of this couple has to do with living together, getting more stuff, buying rings, getting another better house, getting to know their families and friends, all that stuff.
Yet the tone is to the most part very light, there’s no conflict between the couple and their interactions stop at being cute. Also for a series with this fast beginning they sure don’t get any further than perhaps two or three kisses per episode with never getting to the juicy parts.

All of the paragraph above is still questionable because a valid criticism which I’ve seen made about the show is how it plays out almost like a kid pretending to have a wife while playing with a doll. That has to do with Tsukasa being so... submissive. This is a thing which makes sense in an anime because it comes from Japan but man would it cause an uproar if it ever becomes mainstream in the west. I don’t mind that much but I would definitely like a little more proactive character.

Her character stops at doing everything Nasa wants her to do, which makes him feel obsessive and possessive half the times. She’s also idolize beyond belief because she has all the traits otaku want in their perfect waifu. Tsukasa is cute, obliging, don’t want to spend much money, likes Nasa for the most generic reason that he’s kind and on top of that she’s a gamer, and that’s pretty much it. At least the references she makes are way better than Nasa’s.

She sometimes let out some lines in the likes of “your tongue will be completely mine” or “I’ll let you see me on my underwear whenever you want to” that makes you think that something juicy will finally happen but nah, both get embarrassed and the show keeps being cute and wholesome.

But since the tone of the show is very light and not serious at all, and Nasa don’t come off as too pervy or desperate to me, I give it a pass, however, if it tried to be dramatic or a serious romance, instead of a comical silly version of one, I would complain about it too.

Their interactions alone would make the series boring very fast and that’s why more female characters keep appearing and thankfully none of them makes the show feel like a harem, except perhaps for the 11th episode, which was easily the worst because of that and because of the way too obvious Capcom publicity. Other than that all of the other girls are funny in their own way except maybe for Chitose who’s really annoying at first but thankfully Nasa is a capable main character who knows how to deal with her and it has nothing to with romance nor misogyny.

As far as production goes, the show is nothing espectacular, it plays it very safely with ok visuals and ok sound, there’s people who don’t like Chitose’s voice and say her voice actress don’t fit the character, I personally don’t know her and her job at portraying an annoying little sister was properly done to me. What I don’t like is Nasa’s voice, he looks too moe for me and yet he has quite the deep voice which sounds older than he is and looks, with each passing episode he raises his voice a little so my issue with this disappeared as I got accostumed to his voice.

Down to it, despite a forced and unbelievable but otherwise weird and somewhat interesting premise with a quick set up, Tonikawa is still a basic romcom trying to be either funny or fluffly, it has nothing offending nor insulting, it can be funny at times and is to the most part just a watchable time passer, it got lucky to come out in 2020 where there wasn’t much hype, and not having any competition in its season. Is just a romcom which you watch and enjoy with your brain disconnected or hate because you don’t like the characters, then you forget in a week after it’s over and you move on to the next of its kind.

What I liked about Ajimu: Beach Story back when I watched it is how, despite being a romcom, it doesn’t feel like a typical entry in its genre, no overreactions, no too much melodrama, no fanservice despite taking place on a beach, no cast made up of teenagers with moe designs but rather ones that look like actual teenagers, and they were also far more sensible and mature than what I’m used to see in romance stories within this medium.

Hikari no Densetsu has pretty much the same positives, plus far better animation, a slightly more sophisticated soundtrack, and a far more original premise, as it mixes slice of life moments, with drama about a love polygon and a sport which isn’t portrayed much in anime, or entertainment in general honestly.

But maybe that has to do with how boring it becomes to watch it. Don’t get me wrong, the gymnastic performances in Hikari no Densetsu is one of its best aspects, as they are well animated, are accompanied by sweet piano pieces, which they dance to, thus making them part of the plot and not just background melodies, and the girls can mess everything up from one moment to another and even hurt their bodies, while there’s also some emphasis on how their emotional state can affect their results.

It also does the unthinkable of not having a protagonist who is either op or a complete underdog, while at the same time does not let her win all the time, quite the contrary in fact. But the problems lies in how repetitive it is, during most of the series you see the same performances and listen to the same music again and again and it gets tiresome after a while. Thankfully, they begin with balls and ribbons and add a little more stuff later on but still, the performances don’t change much, if at all. This becomes an issue when, after all the training, there's seemingly no change in them, for better or worse, and since the sport is never discussed on a technical level, I don't think many people watching it will realize how better the characters have become or how the scoring system works, outside of the very obvious mistakes everyone can notice.

But ultimately the best thing in the show are its characters and their interactions, they are not that memorable nor have the most unique personalities, but as I said they are pretty sensible and mature by anime standards. Despite the main two girls being rivals in both gymnastics and love, they support and admire each other as they have positive influences on one another, encouraging each other to make advances on the guy both of them love and making each other notice the best and weakest points in their performances on the carpet, thus serving as the inspiration for the other to try new figures and improve ther performances and scores.

And all of that is done without melodrama, no crying, no screaming, no fighting, no insulting each other, no keeping distances without talking for days or weeks. Just two girls who have a friendly competition on seeing who gets to the be on top of the tournaments they take part of and who gets to be with the guy at the end.

Also, whenever they lose or do poorly, they do not treat that as the end of the world, they see each instance as a new one with newer possibilities and chances to improve, get to know better competitors around the world and they are happy for the one who wins at the end, even if it’s not themselves.
This is a truly inspirational sport series, not one of those manipulative ones that feature people yelling and crying and being depressed for weeks over losing where the main characters always win at the end. But I also how to point that, towards the end, several performances are skipped almost completely.

The quality in visuals is not amazing but still pretty good for 1986 standards. There are definitely quaility drops in general shots, there are still images and there aren’t many impresive effects, but up close the characters look great despite Hikari having a generic 80s design while Hazuki looks like a generic bishoujo from the 70s, and the backgrounds are really well drawn. The motions are ok to the most part and well done during performances. As for the boys, Oishi also has a generic bishounen design for its time while Mao looks like a generic punk from that time, he almost looks like he belongs in Aishite Knight instead of here.

Speaking of Mao, he is the hardest character to like because, although his relationship with Oishi is similar to the one shared by the girls (although not as influential), he always seem to be pissed and angry and getting in random fights all the time. It gets particularly hard to root for him at all when he gets agressive with Hikari towards the final episodes. Well, at least he accepts things as they are without much bitching either.

He also brings the so much needed variety to the soundtrack, as he and his rock band have their own side story of becoming a little more famous, while the series also show how shady music records can be, but it’s all shown in a very shallow way, there’s just no way to believe someone would go that far to take a starting minor band out of the picture like this, especially when their songs are so mediocre. Seriously, I don’t know who Mao’s voice actor is but he is not very good at singing and is even worse an acting, not convincing at all, well atleast every song of them is somewhat part of the plot.

The rest of the cast do their job just fine, but the sound effects are definitely weak, aside from the bouncing ball, everything else just doesn’t sound right.

The sport part has a proper closure without the typical ending by episode 17 but this is when you notice the issues regarding the other genres, as Hazuki seemed to have a very serious ilness which is otherwise forgotten, every character has their own conflicts within their families but that is hardly shown, or explore, and is usually resolved in easy ways, even partially out of screen, several performances gets skipped almost completely and Oishi’s own side story is entirely disregarded.

And finally, when it comes to romance, there’s just not much in here, is the typical thing of the characters not confessing their love for a big amount of episodes, right before the series ends and leaves this aspect without a satisfactory closure. This partially has to do with the series not doing well and probably catching up with the manga before the it got finished several episodes earlier than the initial plan, but still, the last two episodes were by far the weakest, the romance had a very disappointing resolution and the series made a big time skip and had the characters saying how every one of them did afterwards by themselves, with still images.

Thus the series looks fine, sounds…alright, does a good job with its sport even when its presentation gets boring, and has lovable characters, but the slice of life bit is frankly uninteresting and the romance does not get much attention before being rushed and skipped completely towards the end, making it hard to openly recommend to anyone outside of people looking for something different, as it leaves the audience completely dissatisfied with its finale.