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Sep 13, 2025
Reading through a lot of my reviews, especially recently K-Pop Demon Hunters, you may notice a pattern of bias that I have toward style over substance. You may believe that if a piece of media is flashy, or cool or fun enough, that I may be more lenient towards (or simply ignore) any narrative flaws said media may have. And for the most part, that is true. That’s why I like Tron. But Infinity Castle really pushes this bias to its limits.
It is the highest praise I could possibly give to the animators, the cinematographer, the foley artists, the composer, and to the entire
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art department that I would even consider giving this dogshit a rewatch. I’m glad for those hard working genius artists that I saw this in theaters. Visually, this movie is incredible, up there with the Entertainment District Arc. It was because of the pure excellence of these artists that the fights were as hype-inducing as they were and that this movie had any entertainment value at all. And that’s the only reason I’m giving this movie a score this high.
I have complained in the past that copying the manga verbatim into an anime leads to extremely rough pacing that just doesn’t work for anime. It works even less for movies. Mangas are released over long periods, each chapter only really able to focus on one thing at a time. On top of this, mangas aren’t really supposed to end, there’s no reason to. Eventually the artist will come up with an ending, but the story is never obligated to finish leaving a lot of the story to be repetitive, meandering and drawn out (Spy X Family is a great example of this). TV shows are like this in the same way, however an episode of television is a lot longer than a chapter of manga, leading to choppy pacing where every five minutes, it feels like the show resets itself even if it’s during the middle of a scene. The pacing works for manga and can work for TV, but it is impossible to turn this shit into a movie.
Demon Slayer Infinity Castle is the worst offender in manga to movie pacing. This shit should have just been a couple of episodes in a TV show. It is insulting to call this a movie because clearly, this story was never meant to be one. The scenes don’t meld into a coherent story, the movie would start a scene then never finish it. It would stop the story entirely and spend 30 minutes on a completely different plot that has no bearing on what's happening in the rest of the movie. Each scene is decent on its own but there is no actual story to follow. This is not a movie, it’s a compilation. A fight happens, the hero’s lose the upper hand, they have a flashback (sometimes 3 at a time) then the demon has a flashback, and then they do an epic move, rinse and repeat. Then move on to a different completely unrelated fight for the same thing to happen again. Do this 3 or so times and you get yourself a movie. No scenes lead into the next, nothing that happens early in the movie affects what happens later. You can get away with this kind of pacing in manga where the line between scenes is obscure and undefined. But in a movie where you only have so much time to tell a story and every scene counts, this kind of pacing is choppy, lazy and leaves no room for investment. This is how you get a “movie” that doesn’t even have an ending. It just stopped.
Even if this was a string of TV episodes though, the pacing would still suck. My biggest flaw with these fights is that the victories are never earned. The hero gets their ass beat then they have a flashback, say nuh-uh and win through some bullshit they just remembered. Like they could’ve won at any time and just forgot they could. This wouldn’t be too big of an issue if we saw these flashbacks as actual scenes prior to the fight but Tanjiro just remembers he could see into an entirely different realm that we never heard of until he conveniently had to use it.
Zenitsu’s fight is the perfect little micro example of my point. Zenitsu has been a coward this entire series. That’s kind of his thing. But then he gets a letter and suddenly he’s better and a badass now. Let’s just skip the character development and say he’s cool now. Sure, why fucking not. So the letter said that he has to get revenge on this guy we literally never heard of until a couple seconds ago. So Zenitsu meets this guy who’s now a demon, they have a 20 minute flashback explaining their past and Zenitsu kills him. And the whole time I’m thinking, I Don’t Fucking Know Who This Guy Is. This fight has no weight or meaning because I just learned this guy existed like 2 seconds before his epic fight to the death. This is Zenitsu’s big character moment. None of it was built up. You can’t expect the pay off to work if you never set it up in the first place. It’s like if Luke Skywalker killed Darth Vader in the same scene Vader revealed he was his father. At that point who fucking cares?
This happened throughout the whole movie. Nothing had build up because all the work was done in a flashback that plays right before the pay off happens. We get introduced to a villain, get a flashback of why they are bad, then they die. Like a college student procrastinating his homework until the last hour before it’s due then uses Chat GPT to do it for him. This can maybe work a little better in manga (not really) but it is inexcusable in movies.
What really sucks is the Demon Slayer had great pacing before. Seasons 1 and 2 were great. They built up a threat, you learned more about them and slowly the steaks ramped until a euphoric moment where it all releases. The Spider Mountain arc is a great example of this. We go through his family slowly learning more about Ryu until the final fight where the last puzzle piece is put in place. Great shit. You can’t ramp the stakes if it doesn’t start somewhere. If it doesn’t have ample time to build.
In the end the characters aren’t interesting (because of lack of time spent exploring them), the fight scenes are all bark no bite, they forgot Inosuke existed, the humor is misplaced and Kibutsuji lost any aura he used to have and has devolved into a yelling madman. Shit is ass.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 6, 2025
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this show. It’s clear a lot of passion was put into this; this show is very clearly a passion project and it really shines through. The themes and character development were extraordinarily developed. The two episodes that really delved into Natsuko’s struggles (Despair and First Love) were extremely captivating and in my opinion, Zenshu at it’s best. The depiction of art block and just the overall struggles of an artist were so expertly incorporated into the isekai plot that it had me invested the entire time. The experiences Natsuko goes through so clearly comes from the heart
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of the writer and I commend that. Along with that, the animation is incredible, and the action was really creative. But for me, as an isekai, there’s not too much to make it stand out. The characters (other than Natsuko) were bland at best and annoying at worst. The cartoonish art style really made it difficult for me to get fully immersed in the darker shit that happens. The tonal shift was really well done and I think well set up, but before we actually get to the meat of the story, it feels like we go through a lot of bullshit that doesn’t matter. The earlier episodes each goes into a side character and their struggles, but none of it feels to reflect or say anything about Natsuko or Luke, making it all seem really episodic and pointless, only more so when you realize they don’t really lead anywhere. The world is bland and the power fantasy of changing the bad things that happen in your favorite show just makes it feel like every other isekai. It was only when shit started to hit the fan when I started to really get invested. But even then it seems like there wasn’t too much. In the last episode it was very clearly trying to pad the runtime with way too many unnecessary shots of carnage. If this show were a bit more focused and less meandering, I really think they could have incorporated the isekai elements extremely well. After all, the connection you have with the movie that got you into movies is a connection like no other, one that is extremely personal to me as I have had the same experience. I really appreciate the focus on that connection as it is a highly personal and unique feeling and it was depicted beautifully. Depicting that connection was an inspiring reason to make this an isekai plot. But narratively, the plot could’ve used a lot more focus. As an artist, this show is really special to me, as a critic, it could use some work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 23, 2024
I find it difficult to write reviews for a lot of shows. Especially good shows like Chainsaw Man. This is because a lot of the time I simply have trouble articulating what it is about the show that makes it good, or there was nothing of note that stood out to me to talk about, or there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. I have rewatched this show 3 times since it came out and I have never written a review about it because my praises seemed very cookie-cutter and would make for a boring review, both to read and write. Other
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than some wonky pacing, the characters are interesting, the world is solid, the animation is great, the action is great, it's creative, the mystery is enticing, the silent moments of just getting ready in the morning make for great characterization etc. But it wasn't until this recent viewing that I finally found what really stood out to me about this show: The themes of degeneracy. Now anime especially is no stranger to using sex as selling points for their shows. I mean just look at the unnaturally large breasts on every one of their characters. Or the entire ecchi genre. Having eroticism be a part of your anime has become the norm for the most part (for better or worse). But the degeneracy in Chainsaw Man is fundamentally different from almost all other anime. The way eroticism is used is something that I haven't seen much of anywhere else, anime or live-action.
Lust makes you do some really stupid things. This is something I think we can all agree on. We date the wrong people, we rely on the wrong sites, we look at people the wrong way. Lust can be a source of ego, of desperateness, of depravity. If honed in a healthy and loving relationship it can be beautiful, or it can so easily spin out of control. Chainsaw Man is a show that is interested in exploring these Themes of lust and eroticism. It's depraved nature isn't just so they can sell their content and make waifus, it is a genuine interest in the topic, and it is explored phenomenally. Denji is a horny boy, just like we all were (or are), and everyone around him uses this to take advantage of him. Denji's devotion to his lust is a bit cartoonish, but isn't unrealistic for a 16 year old boy. At that age, sex is just as, if not more important, than every other aspect in your life at that time. It's around this time where many kids are finally able to indulge their curiosity and make mistakes. Denji who now has his ordinary life wants the forbidden fruit. It's that kinship to the main character, when I remember the time I thought along those lines as well, that makes his stupidity that much more retrospective. Denji's motivations may seem silly and funny, but thematically, they make perfect sense and are the reason for his web of manipulation and eventual downfall (I'm assuming, I haven't read the manga).
This perpetual horniness is of course what makes all the women in his life take advantage of him, which is another side of eroticism we don't see much of. Denji is a serious victim and I'm only assuming it gets worse and worse throughout the manga (certainly seems that way based on the Reze trailer). Of course there's the obvious seduction tactics that Makima uses to place Denji under his control, but Power and Himeno take advantage of him just as much. In case you forgot, Power literally tries to kill Denji using her tits as a lure. That scene where Himeno almost drunkenly rapes Denji is genuinely uncomfortable and made me have extremely mixed feelings on her for the rest of the show. I just couldn't get myself to like her after that scene. The way Denji pledges himself to all these different women who take advantage of his lust is extremely disturbing to think about, and were this show not from Denji's perspective where all of this is awesome, we would look at these characters extremely differently. Especially after taking into account that he's underage and they are adults.
The reason I really wanted to bring up this topic is because it is a subject matter that I wanted to focus on in a future project. Maybe not the sexual manipulation portion, but the lustful curiosity of teenagers, the stupidity that comes with it, and porn addiction. These are all very sensitive and uncomfortable topics, especially in America. But it's because these discussions are so rare that teenagers in America are so poorly equipped to deal with these feelings, leading to bad decisions that will follow them the rest of their lives. This is always a difficult topic to focus on in the media because then you have to somehow show lust and sexual desire with teenagers without being pedo-bait. That's why Chainsaw Man is so impressive to me. It handled a lot of these taboo themes perfectly and I can't wait to watch the rest of it. Or read the rest of it, whichever comes first.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 28, 2024
A review coming from someone who has never seen the original series and doesn't even like basketball. This is a masterclass in filmmaking. Starting with the animation. Of course, I'm sure you've already heard how stylistic, smooth and phenomenal the animation is; it is one of the best looking clashes of 2d and 3d animation styles I've seen, so much so it was hard to tell at times what was cgi and what was traditional animation. But what really stood out to me about the animation, was how it uses the merits of animation to pull off camera movements that are simply not feasible in
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Live-action. The way the camera weaves, ducks, dives, pans, tilts and zooms all in smooth drawn out sequences to really put us in the middle of the action with the characters was simply breathtaking. Those sequences, as complex and as close to the characters as they are, is only possible with animation, a camera cannot capture those movements that well. Maybe one shot like that, but it takes tons of planning, rigging, blocking and money and is simply not feasible to make a movie where most shots are this complex. But with animation, the limitations of the camera are shattered. It's a breath of fresh air to see an animated movie, especially an animated movie that has no fantastical elements, use the merits of being animated to this extent.
The sound design was also incredible, showing a surprising level of restraint in what needed sound and what didn't. By blocking out certain sounds in certain moments to emphasis the importance of certain actions, it creates a very focused narrative and adds to the hype. And I'm not just talking about moments where they mute the sound or choose not to have music, but choosing when you hear the crowd or how loud they are, or how heavy the breathing is; instead of having all of these elements play all at once, they masterfully choose the right moments and volume to create a narrative with the audio.
The writing and editing go hand in hand for this movie. Now, I know the anime, and by extent the manga, did most of the heavy lifting for this movie, but the way the editing process stitched the story together is simply stunning. While I'm sure the manga gives ample time with each character, having never read or seen that, this story was still able to give me the nuance of every character with just their facial animations, very restrained flashbacks, almost all of which connect to the main character and progress his story, and it was enough for me to get invested in every one of them and see their growth. Unlike most anime, where every backstory and motivation has to be explained to us like we're fucking toddlers, this movie gives us just enough to piece together these characters and allows us to experience their nuance and make out own assumptions, without interrupting the pacing with pointless exposition.
All of this is the power of editing. I have never seen the show, but I know they changed the main character, so I don't have much so say on that, but I think his story and his framing device for the other characters was genius. But of course the most difficult part of this movie was always going to be balancing the emotional core of Ryouta's backstory with the action of the game. Unlike most sport movies, all of this movie takes place over a single game, intertwined with flashbacks to the characters stories. Balancing these two aspects, making it seem like neither one interrupts the other abruptly, or making it so we are just waiting for the scene to be over to get back to the action, or the drama, is an incredibly difficult feat. But this script is so tight and the editing is so well paced, that I hardly even noticed the transitions between scenes. It all just flows so damn well culminating in of of the most hype inducing, surprisingly subtle, emotional and pure spectacle of a film that I am just left in awe.
Shit made me want to watch basketball and I hate basketball. Maybe I should watch more sport animes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 22, 2024
(Updated review because MAL doesn't let you make new ones for some reason.)
Original Review:
You know, I don’t really mind when a show divulges (or better yet evolves) from its premise, even if it was character based. Of course as the character grows, motivations change and the circumstance changes with it. Like in Love is War, the whole premise is trying to get the other to confess, but when they get together, that premise is gone, but still because of how the characters were developed, there was still a lot more story to tell. The premise evolved and changed. That is a good series. But I’m
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sorry, you cannot just forget your premise of, oh yeah, your main character planning the murders of his classmates! Like seriously, this kid is actually fucking deranged, carrying around a box cutter waiting for the perfect moment to kill people. That is the actual premise of the show. A loner who plans to murder people falls in love. And the show just glosses over it. He’s just added onto the pile of loners who get with the popular girl but like… This kid was going to kill people, you can’t just pretend that didn’t happen! This show makes him seem like just another loner character, but other loner characters are just sad and unconfident, not psychotic. Basically you’re just supposed to forgive him and feel sympathy for him because now he’s in love. Even though there was literally a moment where he was about to stab her before chickening out. What the actual fuck? And the girl isn't even all that. She has 3 character traits: she’s ditzy, she likes snacks, and she has big boobs. Her big boobs are one of her 3 personality traits. Did I forget to mention she’s in middle school? The more I think about this show the worse it gets. I mean if you want to make the argument saying it’s a statement on how tragedies including loners who snapped could be avoided, then I’ll say, do you really think this show is smart enough for that? Be real. I don’t think anyone has ever actually made that argument, but now that I think about it, that’s the only way this premise could work. But that takes smart social commentary, a focus on his murderous intentions and the reasoning behind them, and a full character evaluation on both the protagonist and the love interest. This show is not smart enough for that.
Updated Points:
This is a review I wrote casually and I wasn't expecting it to get the attention that it has, and because of how nonchalantly and somewhat jokingly I wrote it, I have gotten a lot of angry comments complaining about my review. So I thought I might press my point and address theirs.
The main argument my somewhat angry fans pointed out to me was his murderous intentions were never meant to be a focus and were never meant to be taken seriously. What I'm assuming they meant was his thoughts of killing people were meant to highlight his isolation and loneliness, therefore emphasizing the impact the heroine has on his life. Following that line of thinking, my point of them abandoning his delusions early on is nonsensical because from the moment she enters his life, his loneliness diminishes and so does his desire to kill. It's a progression of the story and his character and not an oversight or lack of competence by the writer.
My response to that is, what kind of deranged or dethatched people think that murderous fantasies of people you know is a normal response to being a loner? Maybe I'm wrong because I was never what you would consider a loner, I always had at least one friend. However, lets look at what his fantasies are supposed to represent. Our main character feels like he doesn't belong. No one has reached out to him and because of that he has grown increasingly jealous of people around him. With this, a person can go two ways. Either blame it on themselves and have extreme low self esteem or blame it on others and grow spiteful. Our MC is the latter. So now he's spiteful of his classmates for having friends and a 'normal' life and is enraged at seeing their happiness. I understand this.
However, in no time during this did his classmates ever act malicious towards him. They might have pointed out that he was a loner, but as far as we know from this season, the MC hasn't been bullied or threatened, or even excluded on purpose (maybe, it's been a while since I've seen it ngl). My point is his murderous intentions aren't out of response to some severe stimuli, where he feels murder is his only option, it is a result of nothing but jealousy.
And the argument that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously doesn't work either. We, as an audience, know that he, deep down, doesn't have the guts to do what his delusions are telling him to do. We know that he's not gonna kill. But the protagonist has convinced himself he is. And he's prepared. And he carries a weapon with the intent to use it. I mentioned how he planned on killing the heroine at one point. We know he's not going to, but he thinks he's ready to do it, only chickening out due to a lack of guts, or willpower, or maybe some part of goodness in him. But the fact remains that he believed himself capable of killing her. And she had done nothing wrong to him. In fact, she had been nothing but kind to him up till that point. That takes a deeper level of hatred then just jealousy in order to get to that point, and if it's not that, then something else is going on mentally to get him to that point.
The writer never addresses this, never explains how he got to that point and never intended to use his murderous intentions as part of his story. Notice I said murderous intentions instead of fantasies, because the moment he brought the knife, it became an intention. My point was, that his 'bloodthirstiness' was nothing but clickbait to get peoples attention and a mark to differentiate his character from the other thousands of loner characters. The writer never wanted to write a character with deep rooted problems, or show his character in deep distress, because he just wanted to write a romcom. Perhaps he was too afraid of his Protagonist being too unlikable, but buddy, that's the point of writing stories. Those fantasies are real and dangerous, and to use it as clickbait for your story is both lazy and disrespectful.
I stand by my original opinion. Also the other complaint I got was I called the heroine bland but like, dude, I'm not gonna argue over your fucking middle school waifu. I didn't care for her, I thought it was kinda funny so I added it to the review. My bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Oct 14, 2024
This is like an Anti-Totoro. Where that movie had me smiling the entire runtime, this movie had me crying the entire runtime. It is the greatest Tearjerker of all time. But that's also my biggest flaw with the movie.
Grave of the Fireflies is a 'Tearjerker', a movie that is designed to make you cry. And while it is very successful and made me cry like a little bitch, it's also the only Ghibli movie to actually feel like it's making an active attempt to make me cry. Now, I've cried at almost half the Ghibli movies I've seen, but in those instances I was simply
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overwhelmed by the film. This movie feels like it's almost cheating into making me cry. Like I'm obligated to. Like this is some of the most depressing events in a movie, what am I gonna do? Not cry?
This is why I have a distaste for tearjerkers in general. Most of them (not all) are very lazy in their emotional manipulation. Like, and I hesitate to even bring this up because it feels like I'm disrespecting this movie, but like Marley in Me. The only reason that movie is considered sad is because (spoilers ig) the Dog dies. But people cry every time a dog dies, that movie did absolutely nothing to deserve those tears and it is one of the most lazy fucking movie I've seen. A sad thing happens and so you are forced to be sad. This barely ever works and people are too quick to say a movie is amazing because it made them cry. Like no, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not good stop fucking saying that.
To be clear, I am not calling Grave of the Fireflies lazy. In fact, I think this is still an amazing movie. This is still a compelling, nuanced and thematically rich piece of art that deserves every tear I shed. It is leagues above any other tearjerker movie and most movies in general. What I'm saying is that throughout the entire movie, I could just feel the intention breathing down my neck and it felt like the only reason for this movie existing was to make me sad, which made the movie feel one-note and slightly bland.
Now this is a nitpick, I still love this movie, I am complaining in Ghibli Standards which is far above any other standard I have for any other studio. It's still a 9/10. I used this more of an excuse to complain about Tearjerkers and emotionally manipulative movies (fuck you Boy and the Striped Pajamas).
Also, Goddamn, that last shot alone almost made me give this movie a 10/10, not gonna lie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 9, 2024
Why does it seem like anime studios don't put in any effort into their shows? This is actually an anime that I've read the manga for first and really enjoyed. I loved the characters and they actually have great chemistry for once. I don't know why but for some reason in anime romcoms, the writers are so hellbent on focusing on how to force circumstances onto their characters to progress their love, that they forget to make them actually have an interesting relationship. Like these two characters are a really fun duo. You believe their romance because you see their friendship first. They play off
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of each other well and have a trusting relationship that is fun to watch, and it's because we see how much fun they have together that we root for their romance. It may just be my ideals from the American culture in which I grew up, but I prefer relationships built on enjoying the others presence more than emotional residence. Anyways, I love the characters and I really loved the premise of acting out a harem. It's cute, charming wholesome and just a good time.
So, why the 3/10? You see, I was talking about the manga. Now, what I'm about to talk about is not one of those "the manga was better" spiels (even though it was). The biggest issue I have with the anime is the fact that the 10-page chapters that the manga had, where it was just focused on one sort of gag a chapter (kind of akin to American comics like Calvin and Hobbes) does not translate well to the cinematic format. These are not episodes of a show. They are five unrelated circumstances that have the same characters, mushed together jarringly into 20 minutes. It is a series of gags, not a story. This worked for the manga because of how manga is formatted. Where it takes like 2 minutes maybe to read a chapter in the manga, it takes 5 for it to play out in the anime. It does not work for anime. Why is Japan so insistent on just copying the manga verbatim?
Now that kind of series of gag show can work. Nichijou is amazing and it does the same thing. So does Saiki K. But those work because their gags are short and there is enough variety that it remains interesting. This show only has two actual characters and each segment of the episode is 5-6 minutes. As much as I love these characters, these unrelated string of 'things that happen' is not engaging enough for a 20 minute episode.
Why can't they make an original story, with the same characters, the same premise, the same humor? Just add a story. That's all you need to do to make this show great. Deviate from the manga and make a story that fits into the 12 episode run-time. The whole manga is based around the Drama Club, right? Why not make a story about them going through a troubled production, or just give us a sense of time progressing like Horimiya? Add new characters, add emotional depth, as long as you keep what made the manga so great (the chemistry and the humor), we won't complain. I am asking as a fan of the manga, to not just copy and paste, but do something with the source material so it can fit the anime medium. But they would never do that. Because making an original story takes effort and risk.
Also, the score sucks ass. What's with this goofy ass music. The score should enhance the experience not distract from it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 20, 2024
This is a show that I feel bad for not liking that much, because the biggest issue I have with it, really isn’t this show’s fault. And that is the animation. Now I’m not going to bash a show for a poor budget, nor am I going to praise a show just because the animation is good. But with this show in particular, the jokes just fall completely flat due to the lack of energy the animation has. All of the jokes are told so simply and directly that, even though they are hilarious and the cast of characters are amazing, they just are presented
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in a way that feels like they didn’t care about the jokes. Which I know isn’t the truth. The jokes lack energy. The build-ups aren’t built up enough and the reveals and payoff aren’t shocking enough. Just take a look at their jokes and imagine if it was told with the same animation of something like Mob Psycho or Nichijou. Kineshi’s enthusiasm and pumped-up fiery spirit would be so much more dramatic and pronounced, making his failings be that much more impactful when the punchlines come in. Saiki’s crazy powers would finally feel overpowered and amazing, which would clash wonderfully with his actors deadpan deliveries. As it is, it feels like a powerpoint presentation of a bunch of jokes the writer thought of. It is funny, but not nearly as funny as it could have been if it were given the proper budget. Presentation is just as important as the content itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 1, 2024
Why is it that almost every show I tried to watch this season had the most abysmal pacing I've ever seen. Absolutely nothing happened in this season and the final episode was nowhere near earned. Each season seemed like it was increasing in threat, building tension and ramping up the stakes with a (somewhat) consistent momentum. Then this season happens and that momentum comes to a complete halt just so they can show off all the Hashira that they didn't have time to actually use I guess. Then after you've had an episode with everyone lets just skip to the finale. I once described this
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show as an impossible endless gauntlet where every threat feels impossible to beat, but then they get even more powerful. That's why I loved the show, despite its (very apparent) flaws. Last season took a notable step back in how threatening the demons were, but now this season, which had no actual battles and seemed more like a shitty comedy, all tension and investment I had in the series is gone. There was no build-up to the finale, they just said 'ok I don't want to write this anymore, lets just cut to the end'. If they don't want to write it then why should I want to watch it. Also by the look on his face in the last episode, it seems Zenitsu is over his problems or whatever which is complete bullshit and also unearned but maybe I'm wrong (I hope to God I am).
But to give credit where it's due, the animation is absolutely stellar and the mansion blowing up was fucking cool as hell. Last episode still sucked though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 13, 2024
Delicious in Dungeon really does just feel like a good game of Dnd. Not only in the wildly creative world and unique ways of fighting enemies, but in brilliant way that the show shifts between its widely different tones. On one hand, you have the advertised fun comedy of a ragtag group of colorful individuals bickering as they face off goofy adversaries and cook weird meals that we can only dream of. This is exactly what you’d expect. The monsters aren’t anything unique, there just the classic fantasy monsters straight out of Volo’s guide. However, the way they are portrayed and thought of as realistic
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creatures part of an ecosystem, it both fleshes out the Dungeon and the world they inhabit, as well as creates unique fights where they way to defeat them is more creative thinking than overpowering them, just like any good game of dnd would be like. I know I keep mentioning Dnd, but that’s what this show reminds me of. It’s the same kind of fun. Just rolling dice to beat the enemies is boring, so players will try to come up with fun ways to fight enemies or target weaknesses on enemies more powerful than themselves. This show is engaging because every episode is like that. A creature appears and they have to come up with a unique way to figure out its weakness and get the better of it, then come up with a equally unique recipe to match the creature, which is something I can see players just talking about for fun while the Dm just sits back and laughs with them. This just feels like a campaign with a really good Dm and it makes me want to get back into the game. And therein lies this shows greatest strength. Because they’ve developed that kind of routine, these kinds of fun characters that we actually learn to care about and a world fleshed out enough that we care about the mission and the outcome, when this show takes a dark turn and takes itself seriously, it doesn’t feel like emotional whiplash or two identities fighting over the same show (like Re:Zero), it feels like a natural progression of the story. Like you’ve had your fun, but now we’re in the actual mission. But even in those moments, the characters, while emotionally distressed and invested, they never lose their charm and still fight in unique ways, making it so the show can seamlessly transition between serious and goofy scenes without risking losing that investment and sense of urgency. Just like a good game of Dnd. Some sessions are funny but when shit goes down, good players will take it seriously, but still have fun with it. Just like the showrunners are doing. The drama and characters are strong, the world is fleshed out, it's fun it's investing, it's a great show and I can't wait to watch more. It's a lot better than I thought it would be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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