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Dec 29, 2025
Hell Girl is an episodic anime with a great atmosphere, but a too much immoral concept.
Briefly about the essence of the anime. There is Enma Ai, she is Hell Girl - a spirit that brings revenge and takes offenders to hell. At least synopsis promises this, but in reality she has no restrictions at all, and this (partially) ruins the show for me. She does not take revenge, but simply kills any people on the orders of "clients" regardless of whether they are guilty or not. So, in this world, you can be a decent person, but still someone can not only kill you,
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but also throw you into eternal suffering in hell!!! Sorry, but looking at such a concept is very annoying, outrageous and disgusting. It is probably because I grew up in a country where Christianity dominates (although I am not religious) and according to its morality such a thing is not possible - so it is just a difference of cultures, but still it is really piss me off. The only thing that partially saves this anime is that most of the victims deserved their punishment.
Actually, this is the main entertainment point of this anime. Each episode Hell Girl gives us some random characters and their life situations, and we as viewers evaluate their choices for ourselves: was it worth it or not? How would we act in such a situation, etc. These episodes are generally monotonous, none of them particularly stuck with me, but overall directing work was good, so I wasn't bored watching them either.
The anime looks relatively cheap and typical for the 00s - not very detailed but not too simplified like in modern times, gloomy, muted colors, character design is inexpressive... Only Enma Ai herself stands out against the background of all this.
Music is what made this anime so much better. It, and especially the incredible opening, is the main ingredient (along with the visuals and direction) that sets the tone and creates this magically enchanting monotonous-dramatic-phlegmatic-melancholic atmosphere of the whole show.
Characters. They don't exist here, or rather there are only secondary ones. Enma Ai herself and her companions are literally instruments that (almost) have no effect on anything. She is charismatic as an artistic image, but in fact she has no effect on anything 99% of the time. That journalist Hajime and his daughter are just plot instruments and exist simply to show us all these separate stories from each episode.
Overall, this is an anime that left a very mixed impression on me. It captivated me with its atmosphere and gave me food for thought, but at the same time it drove me crazy with the immorality of its concept. Depending on my mood on different days, I can rate it from 4 to 8, so let it be something in between.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 24, 2025
Classroom of the Elite is a very good unintentional post-ironic comedy. From the first minutes I saw this anime that way and was very surprised when I didn't find the appropriate "comedy" tag. The extent to which the main character here is so over the top cold-blooded edgelord and an all-round "genius" in literally everything made me laugh throughout the whole show.
Concept of this school with its strange rules is absurd enough in itself, but the biggest fun for me comes from how seriously and dramatically all these games in the sandbox are shown. Kids, come on, it's just a school))
Overall there
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is a large and diverse cast of characters, but the only one truly worth paying attention to is the main character - Kiyotaka Ayanokouji. The whole world revolves around him to show the audience in front of the screens how cool, incredible and super-duper mega-brain he is. The methods for this are quite simple: make other characters stupid when it is convenient, make timing of events very convenient for the main character too, if he determines that some event is more likely - it means that it will definitely happen, when Ayanokoujiт"manipulates" ohter people they always act as he predicted, etc. And I haven't even mentioned his physical abilities. Our boy (if he wants to) can run 100 meters in 5 seconds, throw a javelin at 300 meters, have a reaction like a cobra, or can beat up a whole crowd in a fight thanks only to some trainings and just learning how to do it))
And you know what? It's so hilariously stupid so is really fun to watch.
Anime looks and sounds well and has good directing work, nothing more and nothing less. Technically, all these games and manipulations are done well and the fact that it mostly doesn't make any sense is not immediately obvious, for understend that you have to stop and think a little about what actually happened.
Overall, my perception of this anime as a unintentional comedy is not widespread, but it is what allowed me to enjoy this show and that is why I advise everyone to perceive it that way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 16, 2025
Xam'd: Lost Memories is a potentially great anime that (partially) collapsed under the weight of its own ambitions and age restrictions. This anime is too complex and serious for such a "family friendly" presentation and there is also too much going on compared to its running time. But even so, it's still a worthwhile show.
What makes me think there was a lot of potential here?
- First, the quality of production. Visually, the anime looks absolutely fantastic. High-quality backgrounds, lots of dynamic animation, bright, well-balanced colors - it's there from the beginning to the last second. The music is also good, but it doesn't add anything
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extra.
- Second, it's a truly unique setting, all elements of which are invented from scratch and not just a copy of something.
- Third, there's a large, diverse and interesting cast of characters. That's less true to the formal main character, who is pretty standard, but many others and espeshaly the "real" main character (Nakiami) is incredible. Everyone has their own motivations and different character traits and continuously acts accordingly.
So, what went wrong?
- Firstly, there is not enough time to fully reveal the world and characters. The anime should have been either twice as long or a little simpler. In general, there is enough information about what is happening, but even at the end there are many gaps in knowledge about the world itself. And the same can be said about the characters, we more or less understand them, but we know very little about most of them in general. There's also a lot going on in the plot overall.
- Secondly, there is a mismatch between the level of seriousness of the story and its depiction. Imagine if something like Attack on Titan or Berserk were to be made into a "family-friendly" format, that's what's partially happening here. On paper, we have a lot of violence, war, mass murder, terrorist attacks, discrimination, human experimentation, etc., but on screen, most of it is reduced to a level that children can watch and balanced with more cheerful moments.This is most noticeable in the characters' reactions to tragic events - they often lack emotional expressiveness.
In conclusion, it was an interesting and relatively enjoyable anime (especially the second half), but maybe I'm just too old to fully enjoy it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 11, 2025
The practice of "taking inspiration" from other people's works is common in Japan, but this anime is a special case, because it is almost 100% distilled plagiarism. Literally all the key events, characters, the foundations of the universe and even the locations and the ending of the story are a (very poorly made) collage of Hellsing and Trigun. The only thing the author did was throw a shoujo wrapper on it with hope that the target audience is not familiar with the aforementioned "originals".
And it worked so well that it even gave it an anime adaptation, and not from someone little-known, but from the Gonzo
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studio, and they did their job. There were a minimum of action scenes and only some backgrounds were drawn in great detail/beautifully, but overall this is a good-quality made anime from a technical point of view (like for its time and clearly insignificant budget). Some shots look quite cinematic and I even noticed homages to Equilibrium and The Matrix films. The music, especially the opening and ending, was chosen very well too.
However, the advantages of the anime are offset by the clearly primitive-dilettante level of scripting and presentation of the story. The first six episodes was far from great already, but still feels quite good, there I could feel some kind of "atmosphere" and there the only two characters I liked (that "cyborg" and Hugue) had screen time. Later, gradually the amount of insanity and idiocy began to grow sharply and eventually reached really cosmic proportions, especially where the author was not engaged in compilation, but came up with something of his own. Examples will be spoilers, so I'll just give one that doesn't mean anything without context: "we need to send someone on a super important, probably dangerous, secret diplomatic mission on which the fate of the world almost depends. Who will be our envoy? Of course, this young, stupid, weak-minded (and not very strong in body) whiny child"))
In addition, the plot in general did not feel coherent, and part of the episode's timing felt like "water". And so it's impossible to say anything about the plot or the characters - they're (almost) all terrible. Even if a character doesn't do something idiotic themselves, the fact that "smart" person systematically fail to notice and take into account the idiocy of others - that puts them in the category of stupid one too. And I would like to separately note the terrible inconsistency in the core of the story, which also destroys the characters. For example, in one episode a character can easily kill someone to save someone's life, and in another he is ready to sacrifice an entire city just to avoid killing one villain.
In conclusion, I would recommend this anime exclusively to its target audience (teenage girls) and then only to those who have a significant tolerance for any stupidity and illogicality. I didn't like the anime at all and I only finished it by inertia from a good beginning. My rating is not 1 only because there are still some remnants of good things from the aforementioned plagiarized works.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Dec 10, 2025
Probably the greatest fanservice for history lovers in the entire anime medium.
Let's start with the elephant in the room - this anime is known primarily for its extremely realistic depiction of the late European Middle Ages, and more specifically France during the Hundred Years' War. Most of the praise focuses on the realism of the weapons and tactics in battles, and that's entirely true, but all the other elements such as architecture, landscape, clothing, interiors, dialogue, the interactions of different classes of people, their way of thinking, etc. also look very authentic. If you have at least minimal knowledge of this time period and
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a love to history in general - there is a great chance to get multiple orgasms just from the level of accuracy and detalisation))
The aspect described above is done so phenomenally that it overshadows the plot of the anime itself, which is actually also very well done too. I really like how the anime shows how difficult or even impossible it is to change the course of global social processes, especially if you do not have political power. I like that the power of the witches is not unlimited but is balanced by restrictions from heaven. I also like that witches and everything else supernatural for contrast are shown as unrealistic as possible. All this is a good directorial and script decision.
In general, the anime is a mix of a dramatic plot (Maria's attempts to stop the war), a romantic line (which is a weak element of the show) and comedy (partly quite lustful). And I really like the comedy here, for example, only that one scene when Maria sees a man's "sausage" for the first time in her life - that is pure gold))
Speaking of characters - I like almost all of them, because they behave according to their age, experience and character traits. Mc, like many young people, is idealistic, naive and maximalist, and according to the plot she has no one who could teach her wisdom, so she acts accordingly. And the same can be said about everyone else: a religious fanatic acts as a religious fanatic, an ambitious unprincipled mercenary as an ambitious unprincipled mercenary, etc. The only boring character is the guy Maria loves (Joseph). He is just a typical indecisive "nice guy" without any significant personality traits.
The audiovisual part was made well for its time, but it is obvious that the budget here was far from the highest.
In summary, this is a relatively simple, fun and enjoyable, well-made, finished story. It has virtually no big flaws, but it also doesn't have anything extra to really stand out. This anime is not a masterpiece, but it doesn't try to be one. For ordinary people, I would rate it 8/10, but personally I would add another point for the unique high-quality historical authenticity.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 7, 2025
86 - is a very dramatic, highly emotional, strogly teenage-oriented story where complex themes (war, genocide, etc.) conveyed in a simplified surface level plot and characters, but also with competent directing, nice visual and phenomenal music by Hiroyuki Sawano. It is simple and very emotional and usually this is enough to blow up brains of a young (or just inexperienced) audience. And since it was one of my first anime - I also got hooked on this. But later, when the emotions cooled down - the plot problems became a hundred times more noticeable.
The basic idea itself is simple (I like that it's a
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war against AI robots and not other people), but it lacks even minimal detalization and explanations. For example, why is that squad protecting the people who are literally committing genocide against them? Why don't they just try to escape or attack their oppressors if the alternative is guaranteed death anyway? Why, after all, with such technology, are pilots needed at all? Why in a normally functioning country does a 16-year-old girl (when I watched it, I thought she was about 25, lol) lead a military unit? And there are a lot of such questions, like really a lot .. and almost zero answers. As a result, the world and the characters here feel superficial and undeveloped. I don't even fully understand their basic motivation, not to mention something more complicated. Of course, I can just imagine/guess everything by myrself, but isn't that what anime is supposed to do?
The war itself is shown in a simplified, rather more symbolic form, at least compared to real life. The smell of blood, dirt, sweat, gunpowder, feces, and torn intestines is not felt through the screen. Everything is cleaned up for the perception of teenagers, but the dramatic emotions themselves are conveyed so strongly that they can bring tears to the eyes of many, including me.
The visuals are generally just good, nothing more, nothing less, the action is just good too. The only thing I can point out is that I like those semi-realistic spider tanks. They are definitely a better option than some standard mecha.
In conclusion, the perception of anime depends very much on your emotional involvement. If you have it, then you will probably be delighted with it and forgive the minuses, and if you not, then its extreme simplicity and schematic plot will be impossible not to notice. I personally went through both stages, giving it a 9/10 at first, but now that the emotions have evaporated, I can't give it more than 6/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 27, 2025
Frieren is iyashikei in disguise. Fantastic and incredible for what it is, but overhyped to a cosmic scale for things it doesn't actually have.
First of all, the entire selling point of the show is an illusion, or even a manipulative lie if you're negative. It's not an "after the journey" story, it's just a regular journey, just with a different purpose. Also, the fact that the main character lives much longer than ordinary people and this creates certain psychological challenges for her is not a new concept and not unique either.
The plot is as simple as possible - Frieren has a goal to reach
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a certain place and she slowly walks towards it, and on the way she and her companions have some various adventures. The classic semi-episode structure allows for a constant change in the tone of the anime. This makes it more unpredictable and therefore more interesting. One episode can be more dynamic, another calmer, one more action-oriented, another more dramatic, and yet another more comedic or romantic. But overall tone remains chill, calm, and safe - you know for sure that nothing terrible will happen to the main characters.
Three (four if you count Himmel) main characters are likable enough, but they lack some distinctive traits. There's also a bit of a lack of natural communication and interaction between them. They've been traveling for years but talk as if they'd met two days ago. All the secondary characters fulfill their roles, but they are realy forgettable.
The worldbuilding is the weakest element of the show. Everything is super standard as far as it's theoretically possible. I didn't notice any really interesting ideas or concepts. The world in general feels very strongly like a video game, rather than fully alive one.
The music is good, nothing more to say.
The visuals both animation and drawing - are top class. The character design, the fluidity of movements, the detail and quality of the backgrounds... - everything is very high-level from the first to the last second.
Conclusion:
Frieren is an anime for relaxing. Coming home after a hard day at work, making a warm tea, wrapping yourself in a blanket and watching one or more episodes - that's what it's perfect for. This is how its pluses are best manifested, and the minuses are almost invisible. A cool and chill anime with incredible visual quality, good music, likeable characters, and a simple but interesting enough plot. What else do you need from iyashikei? My personal rating is literally for this.
But if you look for what it doesn't have (uniqueness, deep philosophy, a full-fledged plot, a well-developed world, etc.) - you will probably be disappointed. There is some of this too, but very little.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 26, 2025
First of all, this is a short anime with size of one standard episode, so there's not much to say here.
This is a pretty simple and standard horror OVA of its time, without any extremes in any aspect. Almost nothing stands out either in a good or bad way. The visuals are good, atmosphere is fine, the characters are there, some standard plot about "hunting demons" is also there, some action and gore are also there, in general, nothing special, but all these ingredients are "cooked" well together. The only thing that stand out in this anime is a little unique appearance of the
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main character (like her a lot) and the design of those small flying monsters.
In summary, this OVA is too short to leave any emotional trace or even just to be remembered, but it's high-quality enough to be a nice tasty "snack" for one evening for enjoyers of old anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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