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Baan is the creation of globally famous Gigguk, a Youtuber who wanted to make his own anime, it’s under 20 minutes long, made by a studio who have never made an anime before.
Summed up this way, it’s not a description that inspires much enthusiasm. And the Gigguk Youtube channel was never one I personally liked, I merely watched this when it showed up in my feed one day; and so with all doubts (and a smug half grin on my face) viewed this little anime, and was completely blown away.

There could be a lot of reasons something resonates with some people more than ... others; maybe the cynicism after having seen any number of brain-dead, Light Novel adapted isekai that barely attempt anything truly meaningful or profound- led me to expect something equally cheesy and low-brow. Like some kind of harem full of sexy anime girls and some more in-jokes that many isekai insist on shoving in our face… but when instead you find yourself looking at a beautiful dragon floating in the sky, see the simple yet relatable personal struggles of two people trying to adapt to opposite worlds, the reaction might be unexpected.

Maybe it’s what threw me off about this story that I found most captivating: it is a deeply personal, sympathetic, kind hearted, loving story- the last thing I would have expected from a Youtuber whose style (in most of his videos) I once described as “annoying”. The character designs are modern and relatable- nothing exotic or out of the ordinary- but there are things that appear on the screen far different than what you would expect from a typical anime: a lovely colorful dragon that lives in the sky; a princess wearing a golden crown that you would only find in Southeast Asia, an office scene that in just a few minutes made itself more relatable than anything I had seen in any other anime, before or since.
The production values are quite high- though they don’t do anything too extravagant- it also doesn’t hesitate to show imagination.

I haven’t written this review to tell you whether to watch this little 20 minute video, it’s short enough you should have already done that. I am not at all a fan of this content creator’s channel, I merely watched this with an open mind. And all I can say after seeing it twice is: it’s brilliant. It’s beautiful. The scenery, the characters especially ‘Rin’, the music, everything about it is wonderful. It made me cry both times.
Sure there are still a couple things that needed some improvement: the concept of a gate where people can go and willingly transfer to another world (apparently open to all) seems like it needs more explanation, or at least some limitations on it, as I would expect to see crowds climbing over each other to escape to Euthania- the size of which haven’t been seen since outside the American Embassy in Saigon in 1975. I had to make a Southeast Asian reference, apologies.
The lack of focus on Daichi, who seemed like he would be more the audience surrogate than Rinrikia was also a weak point- but this and the other bits that needed tightening really come down to lack of time in such a short story, and not flaws big enough to detract from the overall experience.
The music is wonderful- I did not even realize it was Kevin Penkin’s work until after I had watched it but what can I say, I’m hardly surprised.
All I can really say after watching this is that if Mr Gigguk wishes to expand on this story I would be glad to have more, his story is compelling and heartfelt, the production is solid and I would recommend it to anyone.
And as far as the debate on whether it should be considered anime or not- when it was produced in Japan and released there first- should have been put to bed by now. I would also say that a lot of Japanese Light Novel authors have been quite literally put in their boxes. By a Youtuber who I’d have once thought the last person able to have created something so lovely. But he has. What can I say… sometimes it really is a great thing, just to be surprised.

Have you ever watched an anime that was so perfectly right up your alley and then looked at when it came out, and felt like some kind of tragedy that you had missed the boat? I felt the same way when I discovered Free(!) but this one really flew under the radar. It's based on a mobile(?) game, which I haven't played because I don't play any mobile games... but the concept is very simple: magical swords that take the form of extremely cute boys reside in a magical layer, which the narrator says is the year 2205 but I'm not buying it- and ... where they live in a very big traditional house which belongs to a mysterious "master" we never see. They get tasked with traveling back in time to solve some mysteries in the past, and fight monsters that have showed up. But 99% of the time they are just hanging out at this lovely palace, doing laundry, eating cake, giving each other gifts, taking photographs, getting drunk on saki, putting wishes on the big cherry blossom tree. So basically it's fluff. But it's fluff with very attractive and kindly characters who are easy to like.
The number of characters is one of its problems- there were 47 or 48 sword boys introduced. And they all have proper names, some of them are only different by one vowel- there's no way you could remember all these names as a non-native speaker of Japanese, but at least the core cast stays basically the same.
You really don't need to know anything about the game to watch this show, and you don't need to be the "target audience" to enjoy it. Despite the potential for it there's no gay vibe, although several of the characters including Yasusada the primary character often wear nail polish or flowers in their hair. But there are some muscle guys in here too, there are a couple of traps, and a lot of shotas. Everyone is beautiful in this and I loved the friendly vibe and the tasteful visuals and even the fights were alright- mostly because they wear uniforms that just add to the cuteness.
I watched the English dub, since it loaded automatically and after a few minutes already got used to the voices so never changed it, it's a pretty good dub.
This show was so fun I watched all the episodes in about one week, it was time well spent, and it's pleasant enough I'll probably rewatch it.

I have reviewed a few fantasy seasonals before, and this one doesn't rank much better than the rest of them. Apart from the opener- but I'll get to that later...
The problem with these light novels is they don't require any actual skill to create, they get illustrated by someone else using anime software with zero art skill, hence why they all look the same. They lean heavily on tropes rather than trying to tell an interesting story and they have nothing new visually to offer. The story here is a plain Quarter Pounder with NO cheese: protag's hero party gets destroyed by the demon king ... and he gets reincarnated, is reborn back in time, as himself. So he has foreknowledge. That's it, that's the story.
So, the PLOT is self-explanatory...
The CHARACTERS are all cardboard cutouts and I mean this literally: Kyle is MC-kun #1,789. He's not ugly, and I can't say he's a bad person... but apart from trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle I described above, he has no real personality other than being blandly nice. Liese is cute red-haired chick #58million, Ursa is silver-haired chick etc... Kyle gets a magical companion Sildonia who when she first arrives is constantly shoving food into her face because we're supposed to think that's cute; and he meets Theron who I swear- is somewhat disturbing. If you've watched a certain television program called "the news" you're surely aware of some people going off and murdering a bunch of people without a care, but here we're apparently supposed to think that's cool. He's my least favorite character in this, but at least he stands out for being unique (uniquely a creep, but it's something)

So what follows is a bog standard fantasy-adventure where the four main characters who are actually five- work together as a team to try and track down the baddies. They save a princess; discover the mayor is stashing corpses in the basement, and run into some demons. The animation isn't much to speak of; I grew up watching anime that was becoming famous in the world for its incredible techniques, but nowadays it seems people are happy to watch stuff without any real animation. The demons were described as baddies but thanks to the least charismatic cast I've seen since... the last seasonal... I was sort of empathizing with the demons because at least they had clear motivations and didn't seem nearly as cruel as they were described.
But there were upsides to this show- the opening song "Enja" isn't well titled but sweet Lord.. that song is awesome and was possibly the motivation for me to start each episode. It's not like I was excited to see what would happen next but I could listen to that song a hundred times.

I guess I've watched seasonals that were terribly dumb and boring (Farming Life) and I was Reincarnated as the 7-year-old-prince (just stupid) or fantasy that were laughably bad like Ubel Blatt even if I sort of liked the characters....
Here, it's just another hamburger, with nothing on it. It's not terrible, most of the episodes are mildly entertaining, the visuals look nice, the girls are extremely cute, the music.... well the OPENER is good, but the soundtrack OH BALDERDASH!! now there's another thing I forgot to mention!!!! The OST is all over the fucking place, I mean one minute there's some nice strings, then there's some jazzy horn music like Yoko Kanno's in Cowboy Bebop except it's The Yoko Kanno We Have at Home kind... other times there's like really emotional stuff happening, like people getting slashed, and the soundtrack is like "Badampy-dumpty-dump isn't this fun!" and it's JARRING!!!
Okay so other than that, the soundtrack, and the shitty characters, and the unoriginal concept, and the paint-by-numbers script- you have a slamming opener, decent visuals, cute demon girls, and some CGI horses....
Oh God don't get me started on the horses.
You can watch it if you want, it's not terrible. But if you rate this any higher than I did, I'm going to demand an explanation.

Well here's another Wandering Samurai With Sidekick Flick. Have you seen Dororo? Then you've seen this. Have you seen Rurouni Kenshin? Then you've seen this. Have you seen Ninja Scroll? Same thing.
Meiji-Gekken 1874 a very recent but somewhat obscure anime I reviewed last year- has a major parallel with that in having a blond haired European as a major antagonist...
So I don't really need to summarize the story do I. Wandering Samurai With A Past roams the countryside staying hidden and anonymous and has left the order on his own after engaging in some pretty horrific bloodshed. The problem here is his past is ... only ever related through VERY blurry flashback scenes which are only made more lucid (and sensical) at the very end; while the sidekick in question, a boy named Kotaru, is also on the run with his dog but it isn't made clear why (until near the end). Someone's trying to catch him, and Wandering Samurai (who never even introduces himself) just appears one day in a hideout where the boy is staying and they soon become a pair. Or, a trio- because the dog Tobimaru is actually quite important as the boy's sidekick.
Well in The Elusive Samurai (another more recent one about Tokiyuki who fled after his family was overthrown) the boy was on the run from goons under the employ of the Shogun; whereas here it's the Ming Chinese who are the devils, trying to assemble some huge clock tower/temple for some ritual I can't explain.

So it's a warrior anime that means the majority of the characters are men; grizzly, ugly bastards most of them. The opening scenes has a bunch of bandits attack a caravan of Chinese traversing a gorge, and they get gorged (pun intended). None of them were made to look sympathetic and so the scene plays out with just these blades slashing throats left and right- blood spurts everywhere and I was laughing my ass off. It was kind of awesome, and the whole anime is filled with scenes like this. Some dude steps up, the other turns, and SLASH BANG SPLATT!!! It's hugely entertaining, never boring, yet somehow empty of meaning.... so here is where my criticisms come in:

The basic outline of the story is so standard, you don't really need to be told what's going on. There's an unstoppable, undefeated warrior on the side of the Ming Chinese (and he's blond). There's a wandering samurai who looks suitably disheveled and who always keeps his sword sheathed. There's a boy running from bad guys. There's a dog (woof woof!) and there's the requisite Fat Warlord who lounges in his splendid hall surrounded by minders who make comments about what's going on. There's an Old Mystic- you've seen this guy before: he wears red, he's also a warrior with some unknown ability, he wants to live forever (or has), he mixes potions, he's also in a position of power. Cop Craft just popped into my head- yeah, same guy in that show, too. Everything is so cliche the anime thinks it doesn't have to tell a story so it doesn't.... which eventually it feels kind of like, what IS going on?
The weakest character by far is the dog the boy Kotaru- he just walks behind Wandering Samurai guy yelling at him, "Hey give that back!", "Hey what are you doing here!", yelling in the same monotone voice over and over again. He was incredibly annoying. Every time the guy calmly says something nice to him, boy yells back "gripe gripe gripe Gripe!" and it got tiring. He finally softens in the middle of the movie and starts talking somewhat normally, but he's still just an archetype, and never feels like a person with memories, fears, feelings, or desires. At that point the samurai finally reveals who he is- he's Nanashi which literally means No Name and, thanks..... It just emphasizes the lack of identity. They show black dye dripping from his hair, his hair color is revealed to be reddish (no, not ginger! not blond which would have been significant- just this dark maroon color) but the significance of his hair color is never explored and he just says he doesn't know anything about himself. Okie dokie.
The aims and desires of the Chinese are equally murky. They are shown building this massive edifice in the mountains for some ritual. It's shown in the movie's few CGI shots. It's huge and kind of ugly... and its purpose is apparently part of some ritual: the boy Kotaru is not even some relative of an overthrown family or anything- he's just a kid who was RANDOMLY CHOSEN to be a sacrifice for this Chinese ritual to obtain immortality. If his blood is ingested, they can become immortal.

WAIT- WATT???!!!??!?
Why didn't they build the thing IN CHINA? They say they want to give the emperor immortality- but he is never shown. So... you're gonna kill this kid on top of this massive thing at midnight, drain his blood and then what? The emperor is a thousand miles away and this is the Middle Ages. OH COME ON!!!!
The huge temple like contraption is custom designed to be so huge and so complex that it makes a perfect obstacle course to make killing the boy unnecessarily long and drawn out- and to give an interesting location for the final fight- when the Heroic Japanese come riding to the rescue to stop the ritual- though their actual motives for wanting to stop something they don't even understand is unclear. And they don't even know who the boy is they've never met him!!! It just makes no sense. But the important thing is the Chinese warriors are able to slash necks by taking on five men at a time, and two of their fighters are female. (These are the only two attractive women in the entire show and they last maybe 30 seconds? The other women are a couple fatties hanging out in the Warlord's palace waiting for everything to be over so they can get married and do girly stuff)

But I have to say Bones does an excellent job animating the action scenes, there's a ton of blood-soaked violence but it's played lightly enough that it's more of an action movie rather than a vore-fest. The final battle between You Know Who and I Don't Need To Tell You was awesome but also kind of the same sort of thing the movie had done the past hour and a half, and felt totally unnecessary. The final act was an exciting climax but the actual ending was kind of meh. So I dunno I enjoyed my time watching this do I recommend it Hell Yes but is it good, well yea but not really....

If you're a fan of samurai anime then everything I said above^ is irrelevant.

Here we go with Part 2 of this Chiname BL. The 2nd season of Ling Qi doesn't even feel like a continuation of the previous- it feels like they started the story all over. I see some reviews claiming this is better- and it only is in the visual department; the story though is one long, melodramatic, dialogue laden, confusing, boring slog.
It starts out with Yu Keika trying to save a cute shota boy spirit from some awful fate- NO, says the cold Xi- you mustn't save someone. Then it decides to jump back in time and be about Xi when he was younger ... and has long hair and looks like a girl; and his former boyfriend Shouken. This Shouken guy has the duty to protect Xi, because his own family is constantly trying to kill him, so are servants in the household (who the family then defends when they try to kill him)
I have no idea what the purpose of the Youmeshi is supposed to be, apart from someone who is a powerless waif who leads a weird Chinese ceremony. But he's the worst protagonist ever, every time someone like that silver-masked guy steps up to do something, he crumples into a ball and can't do anything. Every time Yu tries to do something he gets stopped because the enemies are more powerful. When a guy selling medicine by slicing up a little mushroom boy and giving it to people; the Fam sides with him, and pussy Protag-kun can't do shit. When the same guy then tries to murder Protag-kun, the Fam scolds Shouken for saving his life and apologizes to the dude.
WHAT. THA. FUCK!
Then as the story works through what happened with Shouken and how he was cornered in a forest, it spends the next 3 episodes doing a recap and showing the same scenes over.
I suspect the people who reviewed this and said it was good only watched the first 2 episodes. I have watched both seasons of this and the first season was definitely a mess but it was far more entertaining than THIS.

ALL of the characters are assholes.
The main characters are wimps. The main protagonist is a helpless weakling in nearly every scene- when he's young AND older. Every family member is trying to kill him. Every enemy is more powerful.
There are no decent fights. There are no stakes apart from “The power of the Youmeshi is great and respected by everyone” 
- this repeating theme that the Youmeshi (Xi Tanmoku) is REALLY POWERFUL and REALLY IMPORTANT but he spends the entire 12 episode on his knees coughing up blood or crying; meanwhile the very people who insist how important his role is are trying to murder him again and again.

The story has no idea how to sell a concept with dramatic scenery. Instead it uses subtle things like a necklace with a talisman falling off; or a hair falling from Xi's head; or him crying after being told not to show up at an idol concert he was to perform at- to get the point across that Xi isn't allowed to do anything, because “The power of the Youmeshi is great and respected by everyone” 

He can't save a little green haired shota boy from a horrible fate. That's bad.
He can't save a mushroom boy from being tortured and used as medicine. That's bad. /
He can't be saved from being killed by the guy who was using the mushroom boy as medicine- that's inconvenient.
He can't let 'any part of his body' fall into the hands of others! So no hair falling out bro!
Also, his sister can bitch at him and say cruel things and the show implies she has a point.
ABOUT WHAT?
The grandmother is apparently the matriarch, and spends more time being an apologist for all the scumbags trying to sell bad medicine or murder her own family members that she's just an annoying cypher.
“The power of the Youmeshi is great and respected by everyone” 
... that seems to be the theme this anime wants to get across- and I DON'T CARE.
It's not a concept that is shown to be compelling.
And the climactic scene is down to A LETTER. It simply does not use dramatic visuals, it uses these tedious, mundane things like reading letters and necklaces falling off and hair being picked up off the floor... and its reliance on such boring and unconvincing events which it has to constantly replay over and over because it knows they don't come across well- it means the characters spend whole episodes spilling tons of dialogue that just goes on and on and on.

There are way too many characters and I didn't care about any of them. And the one who is the villain is obvious from the start- but the characters, the Tanmoku family mostly- spend 11 episodes apologizing to him and shaming their own son that the only revelation in the end is that they finally stopped being incompetent chuds.

I cannot recommend this anime at all to anyone. It was decently made, it looks nice, the music is actually decent- but the story is frustrating, the character motivations are all over the place, the dialogue is boring, the main love affair is pushed into the background and the ending is anti-climactic... just like the whole anime. It had good parts, mostly in the first few episodes. But it was just not entertaining, I had to force myself to finish this.

If you find the main couple even slightly attractive and have interest in the story- the first season is by far the better choice. It's also a narrative mess, and has a lot of clunky animation but is WAY MORE ENTERTAINING than this.

YuruCamp, Encouragement of Climb, Houkago Teibou Nishi; some anime about cute girls doing activities for fun and adventure. All involve some amount of travel; buying gear; practicing with beginner levels; then adding friends. Zatsu Tabi is in the same category. 
These kind of anime broadly fit the description ‘iyashikei’ for healing. I am a big fan of shows like this, so choosing to watch it was a given. Unfortunately it was not nearly as fulfilling or as well made as those other shows.

There are only a few characters- Chika, this blue haired girl on the cover with red beanie; and her friend Koyomi who ... has purple hair. At one point they give their ages as 19. They’re presented as independent adults- at 19?? Okay, just roll with it. Chika needs inspiration for her manga as she’s hit a wall (understandable for someone so inexperienced) so she decides to take a journey, I think at the suggestion of her publisher. 
She chooses a place by randomly grabbing a brochure at the train station- that’s kinda cool actually- I’m envious you can go to a train station and just go anywhere in the country in a couple hours in Japan. The rest of the anime has her roping in Koyomi first, then some of her girlfriends to travel with her. This had a very similar vibe and setup to YuruCamp. But something is missing…

Well the problems begin with the places they visit. The first is a temple- which is wonderful; Chika walking up all those steps through woods on a mountainside. But everywhere else is the kind of flat, dull, boxy modern sprawl landscape- you know wide roads, tons of concrete and guardrails; power lines, and the architecture of the convenience store.
Not what I would call inspiring to look at. And they never wander far from the pavement.

The second issue is the biggest I had with the whole show: absolutely NONE OF IT is drawn. Every scene, and almost everything you see, especially if there are cars or houses in view, even most of the temples- are ALL PHOTOGRAPHS. Yes they are- look closely. Some of the scenes are filtered; some have the crowds traced over with still anime characters but some aren’t even filtered at all and it’s very obvious! Some of the scenes didn’t even bother with filters!

This DOESN’T look good- it looks like Who Framed Roger fucking Rabbit at times, with very flat 2D anime girls walking around against photographed backgrounds and they are not integrated at all. The worst part about this is people watch this thinking they’re seeing High Art- oh look how the animators knocked it out of the park! NO!! They haven’t animated anything! They ran some photos through photoshop filters- in every damn scene. It’s CHEAP and LAZY.
And in a way this is me spoiling it for you and I make no apologies: if you can’t tell the difference between a photo and an anime then I’m just going to point it out to you! 
That brings me back to the first issue because, if you’re just going to animate a couple of characters and nothing else- why not show us something more inspiring? 
Despite that so many anime take place in cities (Tokyo usually) when they travel, in all the shows I mentioned and this one- they go outside the cities. I know for a fact Japan has lots of beautiful places to visit. But just as in YuruCamp- the creators of this show are content taking us through dull, barren hilly landscapes and never stray far from the pavement. Why not go to Okinawa? Why not go to KYOTO? They actually went to Hiroshima at one point- in one of the early episodes. HIROSHIMA!! And did they visit the memorial? No.
Did they see the city? No. Did they do anything interesting? They sat at a cafe in the train station because the train was delayed.

This didn’t even feel like an anime- it felt more like a bad Japan Tourism Board commercial. It feels like this was made to show segments during NHK regular programming. Nobody outside Japan would even care about any of these locations; everything is so mundane and pedestrian that even most Japanese probably wouldn’t care unless they were planning a low-cost weekend holiday. None of these places are even good for long term stays.

I usually review anime based on the visual, sound and emotional experience. Well, the visuals are N/A because it’s almost all photography; the places they went to were bland, the music did not stand out to me, and it made me feel not much emotion- just a mild smile. It’s a neat idea, but I couldn’t really relate to the characters- all of whom are female (nearly every speaking character everywhere they go); and couldn’t really connect with the surroundings because it looked so uninteresting. Hopefully this studio will put some effort into animating and illustrating on their next project. This felt like a cheaply made promotional video for tourism. It was mildly pleasant but dull and not very entertaining. I can’t recommend it for casual anime audiences.
This got attention because it’s a seasonal, but once the season’s over it will be forgotten. With a subject with as much exciting potential as TRAVEL, this anime turns it into something as boring as grocery shopping. If you go to your local bus station and buy a Greyhound ticket to the next city over- no matter where you're from I guarantee you will have far more interesting experiences than anything shown in this anime.

The first season of Free! was a surprise discovery for me and I said a lot of nice things about it, together with the first movie Early Days. Since then I can't get enough of the show and have watched almost everything the series put out; up to this season... Where I feel like the fun waterpark ride has come to a stop. This isn't bad anime by any means, it's not even a bad installment of Free, but compared to how it started it's simply not as strong as before.
The events of this season carry on where it left off with the Take ... Your Marks specials, with Haru, Makoto and Rin heading to university and the beginning of their adult lives. Gou, Nagisa and Rei are still in high school- they were underclassmen so this is obvious- but is where the problems begin. Then we have a whole new bunch of characters introduced from the different universities, setting up new rivalries for Haru and Rin to compete with in national competitions- the tournaments on the path toward international competition. THEN the show decides to reintroduce a couple of characters from the Early Days movie- Ikuya and Asahi- plus another- Hiyori (oh yes, I'll get to him in a minute!) ... AND THEN! They introduce some personal trainers who find their way toward Haru and Makoto who have their own backstories- and we still revisit Sousuke who is planning to head to Tokyo for surgery on his shoulder (busted rotator cup- ouch!!) but wait there's more- the Iwatobi Swim Club is still going but now headed by Rei & Nagisa who recruit a couple of new members (including a really cute girl I thought was a boy at first but still am not sure) OKAY HAVE YOU KEPT TRACK OF ALL THAT????

There are so many spinning plates in this act- that if you hadn't been paying really close attention to the first couple seasons and already know the main cast, you could never keep track of all the names. Not to mention there are some international swimmers who show up- in addition to Rin's Aussie friends... to put it another way, a new bishonen shows up every episode and they're getting harder to tell apart.
Of course, the stakes have shifted completely from the first season of Free that was really about the four boys Nagisa, Haru, Rei and Makoto (and Rin) discovering themselves and trying to understand why they want to swim and what is the meaning of teamwork. But in Dive To the Future, it's about so many different characters going their own way on different paths toward adulthood- and the teamwork dynamic is no longer a thing. Now it's all about the INDIVIDUAL. What do YOU want to do? Why do YOU want to compete? What's it mean to YOU?
And this is fine with Sousuke and Makoto- especially Makoto who has a very strong reason for wanting to contribute something to the next generation. But Haruka was never a well defined character- he spent 3 seasons staring into the blue and not saying much; and shouting at his friends when they tried to get him to just consider where he could go and who he should be. Now, he's making a decision- but it's never clear in the show if he has fully made it or not. He never seemed to care about winning before- "I just swim free" and probably because he always easily won. Now suddenly he has to care- and that transition hasn't fully matured.
And then we have HIYORI who is by far the biggest problem.
He isn't just a jerk who says nasty things to people; and naturally he's really good in the water- making him a difficult antagonist- but he's preventing Haru and Makoto and even Ahase from even seeing Ikuya, and acts as a barrier between Ikuya and every other character in the show. This is not a good thing. And his reasons for doing it only make him scary. His manipulative, possessive, passive aggressive demeanor that tries to shift a fake smile depending on who he is talking to- just gave me the creeps.

But the show's biggest sin is simply the huge cast has forced it to prioritize some characters over others- and that meant Nagisa and Rei (and Gou even) get relegated to background roles and are hardly seen or heard from. And every other character in this is fighting his own personal battle, so it never feels like a cohesive unit the way Season 1 and Early Days did. And if you ask MOST fans of Free I think they would mention the teamwork aspect; or how they all felt like a family, as one of the strongest features of the anime. So as a result it feels like something is missing- everything above is what's missing.
As anime it's just as good looking and well animated as previous seasons. I would say there wasn't quite as much movement in the water as before, and it doesn't try to do anything really special.
For all these reasons I can't give Free! Dive To The Future nearly as high a score. It's only good if you have watched everything that came before, and those previous seasons and movies were better than this. So it's an extremely well made anime, that left me feeling somewhat disappointed.

Mahou Shounen Majorian is a manga by Atsuko Ishida: if you look up “Majorian” on eBay (to look for a copy) you’ll find a load of Roman coins for sale. 

If you look up Atsuko Ishida to see what she’s been up to (besides this obscure shota BL manga) you’ll find… A LOT. 
She has worked on everything from Magic Knight Rayearth to Ranma 1/2; she’s done work on Bubblegum Crisis, on Megazone 23, Windaria, even Wanna-Be’s!!! I literally have a VHS copy of that old OVA- this lady has been involved in nearly all my beloved anime that I was in love with in ... my college years, I cannot believe it! So you might find it surprising that a character designer who is also a mangaka with a few DOZEN titles to her name did this Magical Boy BL, or by the diversity of her resume, assume it’s just another day at the office…

Either way, I was immediately intrigued by the story- I have been trying to draw a similar type of story, about two boys with one who is a bully and the other who is cute (or ‘effeminate’) and I have some pages drawn, hand drawn on paper- same type of thing as here but… mine is nothing like this! 

Ishida is an artist whose inkwork flows like water.
I’d go as far to say she’s a brilliant artist. She uses visual cues like soft, rounded curly features on the cute boy’s (Iori) hair- and harsh straight strokes for the bully’ (Masaru). Eyes uncolored stand for shock or bewilderment, lightly shaded with a dot for anger- and fully inked pupils for a casual or satisfied gaze… but when the characters transform (into Magical Girls!) her lines turn into something that- well what’s the manga equivalent of sakuga? THAT. Whatever the word for THAT is. It’s impossible to describe- you have to see for yourself. Yes it’s probably present in lots of manga, but it’s also true that a lot of manga today are made on computer; and this was hand drawn. I couldn’t stop staring at her drawings and wondering at how they flowed vertically on the page. The visual style of the two different boys carries over to their Magical Girl equivalents- rounded, soft features and curls for the softer, gentler one; and a determined pose and harsh stare for the harsher boy. But there is more at work here besides just the visual style of the characters and drawings- there are also themes that stand out: such as how the two bunnies who give the boys their powers are a black and a white rabbit; while Masaru has black hair and eyes, and Iori is drawn with white (uncolored) hair and eyes…. it’s that familiar concept of YANG and YIN. Masaru is angry, energetic, ill-tempered, unbalanced- he has too much Yang. Iori is so calm and sweet and dutifully helping his mother cook and clean, and care for plants- and he doesn’t even complain when Masaru attacks him- “Why don’t you complain!!” he shouts- Iori is the embodiment of Yin, like he’s overflowing with it. They transform into Magical Girls and Ishida’s inkwork flows into abstraction as Yang and Yin swirl around each other… as they always do.



And if I stopped this review here I’d have had this as a masterpiece, with no complaints of my own. But unfortunately- I do have a bit of Yang in me- there is one aspect of this manga I didn’t care for nearly as much as how it looks: the story. The story was frustrating in a way that I felt like… maybe it’s actually brilliant but I was desiring something less harsh. I am more like Iori, I like cute and calm, I wanted to see a relationship develop but instead what unfolded was a whole lotta drama. The first volume was good- but by the end I really thought Masaru’s bullying was so cruel and unnecessary that I wondered, does this author like boys getting bullied? The second volume things go sideways, and more sideways in volume 3… to the point where she has an event take place that let’s just say I wish she hadn’t. I do not and have never understood the fixation with it- and I’ll leave that comment there, I’m not in the mood to spoil it nor to put down the author.


She has taken the route of having the two little bunnies who bring the boys their powers become evil- something that today would be taken for granted- but six whole years before Madoka Magica even came out. 

So this is actually quite a unique and interesting manga that came about when Ishida just ran with an idea as her own personal passion project. I would say it’s more for female readers than male- I doubt many men would be interested in this. But it’s also a bit overdone with the drama and some unnecessarily mean actions that happen, it has TOO MUCH YANG is what I mean to say; it needs more Iori and his sweetness to balance out the tornado that is Masaru and his emotional outbursts. She wrapped up the story in a nice way but then it got too wordy. 
The only place I know to get this is online- I haven’t found a copy for sale yet, and don’t expect to, it’s already 20 years old. Try to go slow while reading it, and gaze at Ishida’s ink work. She really did a good job. Except for the monster designs though- those were terrible. 8/10

The first movie of the series Free!

This is the only installment of the series where the boys are shown as their younger selves- but like with the first season; they still look older than I'd think they would (this is middle school); only Haruka (Haru) and Makoto are present this time; well Rei and Nagisa have cameos. It follows the events after Rin left for Australia; but before high school. Haru & Mako are hesitant to join Iwatobi school's swim team; a couple other boys try to talk them into playing basketball. This is also the first time you see the two of them as ... being pretty good at another sport... which was kind of interesting. In class, a cute boy with green hair keeps looking at Haruka. They join the club, and end up being paired with a couple other boys- the green haired boy is one of them, along with Asahi who is enthusiastic (sort of like Nagisa, but he's more the monkey type, kind of dumb but a lot of fun). The green hair boy is Ikuya. And I've already spent a paragraph and this is just the setup- the movie is almost 2 hours long!
I mean, you have a bunch of guys that are supposed to be in middle school; but are way more mature than that, and Makoto towers over them all. The coaches- team captain and trainer are actually students but they also act like adults. So it felt kind of awkward when they show them later sitting in desks in a classroom. It doesn't help that in the English dub they use the word "Sir" for "sempai" which I think is just our two languages not quite lining up with meaning. Haru's mom leaves town after a call that their dad was 'injured' at work- but no context was given. It seemed like they just wanted her out of the way, they don't even bother showing her face- but it becomes important later.

The four boys end up becoming a team together- so the team dynamic has to be built, ground up again, with two new characters from the viewer's point of view.
They do not work well together. Ikuya tries to copy everything Haru does- Asahi flounders in the water; and Makoto gets thrown off by a comment from the trainer that he's only swimming because Haru is. All of this sounds kind of ridiculous now that I read what I've written, like a fangirl gushing over her favorites in Fruits Basket..
It's hard to explain, there's something in this show that just elevates it
It's the passion clearly put into its production, the voice acting, and the music. This is KyoAni at their best. I just spent the whole review making fun of the drama, how it all feels so forced, but then you see one of the boys break down and cry and realize with the way his voice is heaving- that it's something you've experienced before and just like that it pulls you in. Seeing the four of them sitting together, having a sleepover, was a moment of bonding, but also makes me think of the childhood I wanted but didn't quite have. You just want to be in the same room with them and absorb everything.
So they go to their final competition not just as a club, but like brothers, and when you see how incredible they achieve- it feels exactly as exciting and moving as watching your nation's hero win Olympic Gold.
Then the screaming rock song at the end.... this happened to me once before, I think it was Manaria Friends, and that was when I got emotional: The singers are clearly not good at English... they butcher the words so badly, why did they put English words in this song... but only when you try to understand them.
If you don't- all you hear is the passion in their voices.

So much passion went into making this movie, so much emotion and beautiful visuals and with great characters and I enjoyed every moment of it that I even backed it up in several places just to see a scene again and again, or hear a line one more time. I would definitely watch it again. I can't give it anything less than 10. You watch it and tell me I'm wrong.
And all this from an anime that supposedly was just made as fan service for girls. You win, Free. You had me completely captivated. I could only hope that a single ecchi anime on the other side of that spectrum could be even half this good.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. It's hard to believe Free! is a 12 year old anime. 2013 is when I started streaming anime seasonals and the year I moved into my condo. It's been that long, I've changed a lot since then, not all for the better- and I remember when this came out- and caused quite a stir.

Well the passage of time and how we change, not always for the better, is the major theme in Free. A group of boys decide to start a swim club at their high school, but three of them were involved with another boy who is the ... main antagonist when they were younger- but have since grown apart. The theme of change was there throughout, an early scene shows them going by their old middle school- while it's being demolished. Demolitions are another thing that I have witnessed a lot of since moving to my city; the ruthless destruction of the past in favor of bigger and more- burying it forever under the dirt... but the beef between the two main characters runs deep. What's the cause? Will Haruka, Nagisa, Makoto and Rei figure out how to get through to former friend and rival Rin?

The first couple episodes are a little slow; but once it gets going it gets REALLY GOOD.
But a lot of people never find out, because of the elephant in the room...
There are plenty of things to criticize. Nearly all the boys in this anime don't look like teenagers exactly, they look like grown men. They're all tall, apart from Nagisa, and have chests that would make Michael Phelps look out of shape, when they wear their 'uniforms' which is shirts and ties they look like bankers- and in the English dub they talk like adults. The girls look like typical anime HS girls- but there's a noticeable lack of romance subplot that I was expecting- oh no step aside ladies- this anime is all about the guys.
That's possibly the one thing preventing some people from watching it; oh it's made for girls (horse shit!) as if it's behind crime scene tape. But even though there's a few shots I could see were intended as fan service; I never got the feeling it was forced. Not forced as hard as in most of the bewb-bouncing lunacy you see in most fan service anime anyway.

That's because this isn't really a fan service anime- it's a SPORTS anime. Sure Haruka's whole "I only swim free" thing is kind of ridiculous; and a lot of their motivations for not wanting to compete seem contrived; and some of the drama feels forced... but by the mid-way point when they finally compete together in a regional, things fall into place.

The most compelling character from my perspective was actually the guy with glasses- Rei. I haven't seen a stronger piece of character writing with him- he has this totally unrealistic "maths and analysis" approach to sports at first, but his motivations are much more believable- he is just determined to try; and being a total beginner he felt the most relatable to non-swimmers, and his voice actor really sold it. All of them did actually, this is a really great English VA effort. I don't want to get into the plot or anything; I can just say I had a great time watching this- the last 3-4 episodes were incredibly good and I turned into a total fanboy by the end. It made me cry, then laugh. I got super invested in the characters.
I can't believe how lucky I've been this month to find so many great anime that I have actually enjoyed and not hated having to get through. I actually can't believe the rating of this is just over 7. It was way better than that; and it's been watched by over 800,000 users. That's not a small amount. Sometimes there really is wisdom in a crowd.
Ignore all the BS about it being a fan service anime for girls and definitely watch it. If you ever enjoyed watching olympic swimming or anything like that, the sport itself is perfect for an anime. It doesn't matter if you don't like seeing guys in swimsuits, because they are way stronger as characters and you'll be more interested in what's going on and why. I enjoyed this a lot and am watching all the next seasons and hope they are as good.