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HenSemi is one of the tv shows of all time. It's not that good. In fact I think it's bad.

ENTERTAINING VALUE: (0/1) this series is really boring. It's a slice of life and all they do is sexually assault each other and call it ''experiments''. If it wasn't because it's so short, I wouldn't have made it this far on it, but even with that, I had to skip parts because I couldn't stand how slow paced it is for what it offers. Again, the only reason I went this far and I'm not giving it a -1 points, is because it was at least ... short, so by the times you start feeling sleepy, the episode is over.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS (2/4): I simply think nothing on it is specially remarkable. The animation is just fine, the voice acting was surprisingly good, and the ost was ok. Other than that, I was expecting worse considering the kind of anime that it was, but it did not dissapoint nor amuse me.

WRITING(1/4): this series is absolutely stupid. I hate every single aspect of it's writting.
First, I don't know why the fuck they say that this is about an abnormal psychology seminary when in reality is just them exploring fetishes. And they never fully commit to the bit in my opinion, for all it's worth, there's nothing that bad in here, at least for your average echii.
The characters are a mess. One of the worse casts I've seen in my entire life. I care for none of them one bit, I think they are all bad people and the series doesn't realize that.
The protagonist is a fucking rock, I can't think on a single plot line in which she mattered. She doesn't have character, she's just a prop. Every episode developes either using her, or despite her. She falling in love with the NTR guy almost made me have an aneurysm on how bad that is.
The worse of them all is clearly the fake delinquent. Like wtf are you telling me that she was traumatized FOR RAPING HER BROTHER?! SHE WAS THE ONE WITH THE TRAUMA?! are we deadass? And then she just becomes a whore, and cucks the punk guy, and they sell it like conflict or some shit like that, really horrible stuff that I hope I never watch again. My head canon is that they were all killed by a gas explosion.
I only give it a 1 and not a 0 because I liked the episode about the british girl and the mangaka, which has no impact whatsoever, but I liked it, so there's that.
But all of them, the NTR guy, the teacher, the pseudo-ugly bastard, etc can all go fuck themselves. I genuinly hate them and never felt anything positive torwards one of them.

Conclusion: this series is very bad. It's not unwatchable by the skin of it's teeth, but I cannot recommend it to a single soul. Just watch anything else really.

Dissapearence diary is, so far, the only auto biographical manga I've ever read (as far as I know, ''A Journal of My Father'' isn't).
I didn't know who this author was, and I thought it was going to be kind of like Inio Asano/Naoki Urasawa, but I was surprised when I found out that he was a lolicon artist, one of the most influential figures of it's development.
Let's hop in.
My favorite thing about the manga is it's tone. It's a very sober manga for the situation it portrays. It's clear that Azuma is not a mentally well person, but it's never shown that explicitly, he treats ... his dissapearences as something casual, he removes all the reality from it and I think that gives the work a beautiful thematical dichotomy. All is viewed through lens of indifferency torwards the world, like nothing is his business. Even when describing bad people he has to interact with or his actions and tragedies, he just uses such a casual tone you have to wonder ''does he even care'' like when he says that his wiife is probably going to divorce him, you think of all the pain his scapeds must have caused on her, but he just brushes it off in the next scene, it makes you wonder how their relationship is under that layer of indiferency. It's very funny to see Osamu Tezuka named so casually when most people in the industry treat him as a God.
Maybe I'm reading too much, but I like to think this is how you are suppossed to view this. It really makes a contrast with other more dramatical works, here the acts themselves tell as much as you need to know and the atmosphere just emphasizes that feeling of stress and the desire to scape it the author has.
I have to say that I found the second part a bit boring, it wasn't as interesting as the first or last part with the first homeless experience and the rehab center respectively. I understand that how things happened, but I'm judging the manga, not his life (mine is pretty boring too anyways).
The art is ok, on part with the decade, it's very clean and it fulfills it's porpuse. Maybe I'm too used to modern manga, but the scenes and shots felt a little plain, but hey, it's good enough to not get on the way.
After this I tried to read more of Azuma's works, but I was unable to find many, and the few I did were, to put it lightly, vastly different. Maybe this sharp contrast makes me appreciate this work even more.
It's a very good manga, I recommend it.

You have to be a bad person to write all this.
I never say that about any work of art. But this is a new level.
Impressive really. I hope everyone involved in it's creation and distribution dies soon.

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This anime isn't the great thing.

-ENTERTAINING VALUE: it took me forever to watch it because tbh it gets pretty boring at times. Not unwatchable, tho, but it could certainly have a more interesting narrative.

-PLOT: I liked the being university students thing, it allowed for more freedom and other kind of scenarios other than the same summer festival, sports festival and highschool most romance anime have or at least had for the last years.
It's very light hearted and I can't really blame it for that, because it can't flop if it doesn't try. This kind of anime isn't going to blow your brain like say ... Code Geass or Serial Experiments Lain or anything, but at least it's no pretentious, it knows it's limitation, and even tho I would have liked it to have a more emotional tone, maybe more romance-esque moments, I grew a sentiment of appreciation for it's comitment to it's tone. Not enough to excuse it for not trying, but charming nonetheless.

-CHARACTERS: I know about the controversy with Uzaki, the main character, but I don't give a fuck. She wasn't as annoying as I though she was going to be, so that's nice. The characters are pretty standar and there's not much to talk about them, at least they don't interrupt the plot, which again, is nice.

-HUMOR: I didn't laugh at a single joke. Not even a chuckle. They are pretty cliche and standar. Yet, they are not a detriment for the pace, so it's like they aren't even there to begin with.

-ANIMATION: is not that great, the character design, colors, direction and drawings were all pretty dull and boring. Not much going on visually. Like, the animation doesn't look bad, it doesn't have deformities, it's consistent and all, can't really complain, but let's just say it's like eating a boiled potato. Sure, you are eating something that isn't bad, but I'm not yearing for trying it again.

WOULD I WATCH IT AGAIN?: Yeah. I think that there are more interesting things for sure, but if I want to just kill some time off and not really think, just watch an inofensive series, I think Uzaki-chan would be a good series for that. I actually liked it, even if I can't come up with a remarkable thing to say about it, good or bad, it's just a very honest series, it goes for what it wants, and that's nice.

FINAL VEREDICT: Uzaki-chan is about as unremarkable as it gets. I can't really point out an aspect that I considered specially attractive, creative or unique, everything that it does it's already been done.
But in the same way, I can't really point out something I found specially bad or offensive, everything it does, it just does enough to not be considered bad.
It's just a normal slice of life anime with some romance tints. I'm pretty sure that fans of the genre will like it. I'm not one of said fans, so I'll give it a 5/10, can't go with anything else.
I can't really call the series ''mediocre'', maybe just ''meh'', and this days, that's as much as you can ask for.

Serial Experiments Lain has a cult status amongst seinen, experimental and Avant Garde animes.
I personally enjoyed it.
So let's get to see what I think of this anime:

-Entertaining value (0.5/1): the series is not boring. I think the dialogue and visuals are intriguing. However, there's a very big problem with the series. The lore is confusing af. This makes hard to know what you should pay attention to or what is just there because. Trying to make sense of the series is hard, and it can become frustrating.
Not knowing exactly what is happening may make you lose the thread of the series. It wasn't enough to ... quit, but I certainly felt bored while watching it at times. So yeah, the overall series isn't boring, but it has too many slow points. So it doesn't get the entertaining value point, it's clearly not the virtue of Lain.
-Technical aspects (4/4): I think sometimes that I put too much weight on things like animation and sound, but I also think those can make or break a series too. In regard to Lain, I think that the series has a very, dare I say, sofisticated style.
I really like how the characters aren't phisically idealized, most of them look like normal people, normal japanese people, instead of the classic anime style. I don't mean this style is bad, but Lain makes a very good job at transmiting a more mature and short of realistic atmosphere this way.
And talking about atmosphere, I love the direction of the series.
Those long shots of just powerline noise, Lain looking at the void, the color palette, how the outside looks so bright... it's awesome, and one of my favorite points of the anime. I think I wouldn't have liked it as much if it have had another aesthetic. Even deviating a little some things, like the sounds the mom makes when she eats or the interfaces of the devices would make a difference for the worse.
Also, it has one of the best openings of all times and probably the best visuals on an opening ever. Which always adds.
The voice acting is also really good, I can't describe it well, it sounds like the anime looks, completely different, more mature and realistic. I don't mean that it makes it inherently better, but it's a bold choice that I appreciate. Lain's voice actress is absolutely mad with all the personalities she portrays, a total champ.

-Writting (3.5/4): not conventional writting, which doesn't make it bad. It makes it a bit difficult for me to analyze it, but I'll try my best.
The thing I disliked the most is that the narrative, although experimental and with pretty interesting choices, makes it pretty difficult to understand what is happening, what is real, what matters, what is just an staylistic choice, etc... That was my biggest issue, it lost me a bit with it. You can still figure out what's going on in the episode, but it gets frustrating and many details can fly over your head.
Some people say this aspects are part of what make the series special, maybe it is true, for me, it was hard to understand it, so I see it as a negative.

Lain as a protagonist is unusual and surprisingly well executed. She's a very intrinsicate character, her development isn't very apparent, but it is notorious. As a protagonist she moves the plot along and is very active. Her concept is very creative and well executed despite how hard it looks, even the role she has in her universe is unusual for a protagonist, but it's still worked perfectly. The multiple personality thing adds a lot to the character as well.
The rest of the characters are fine. I think the best apart from Lain are Alice and Masima.
Other characters are interesting as well, maybe for other reasons. For example, Mika, Lain's sister, who loses her mind after being trapped between the wired and real world and her slow descend to madness. It's very good and transmits a palpable feeling of despair.
Although we do not know much about Lain's father, it is a mysterious figure and with a background that only suggests his true personality and intentions. I think that does not develop as much as a more typical character, but it is an interesting way to use him.
The rest of the characters are short of similar. A bit like ''tools'', but in a good sense. They have character but the actual emphasis is placed on the impact they have in the plot and Lain rather than them as characters. For me it works because of the little time they get, which makes it clear what they are there for, the series doesn't decive you or lies to you about their role.
Some people may like it, others not, what can I say, I like it a lot.

The plot/lore is confusing, in part for what I said, the avant garde/experimental elements confuse the spectator. The lore is good, pretty grounded, although it could have been explained in a better way, that's for sure. Even with that, it is fairly well explained, it's more so the development of the work what gets compromised by the narrative choices. There are moments of legit info dumping, which is usually bad, but in a series like this is pretty relaxing to see no obstacules to understand what is happening. A bit lazy, but not bad enough for me to see it as something inherently negative given the context.
The subplots work really well considering the anime is dense enough with Lain alone.

The themes it touches are spectacular. The theory of information, the actual being, the different personalities, existencialism... it's all awesome. Some things are hard to understand by, again, the narrative, so some things can be lost. What is understood however is a pretty profound philosophical commentary, but laid down in a way you can still make sense of it. That's pretty hard to achive and a very big positive. However... all this themes are pretty dense. Maybe a bit too much for just 13 episodes.
It has a lot, in a good way. Not many series do as much as Lain does in those 13 chapters. In fact, most series wouldn't be able to touch all this themes with half the elegance the series does. Still, too dense for me, what can I say.

-Extra Points (+1): I want to give the series an extra point. Why? because I want to, because it's my review and I do whatever I want.
But also, because this series was ahead of it's time. That phrase gets thrown around a lot, being meaningless most of the times, but Serial Experiments Lain is the definition of this. Internet was on it's infancy and the themes the series explores and how it does it are still relevant to this day, how internet influences our lives and how we act, the existentialist problems it brought, the common conscience... it's all so perfect and touched soberly. For making a work that is still relevant on it's themes so early and with this much precision, I could just give it an extra point.

-Final thoughts: really really good series. I think that if I watch it again and understand better certain elements, I may give it a 10. But that's not happening rn, so an 9 it is.
Perfect if you like dense philosophical animes with experimental narratives, unique visuals and pretty bold themes.

ReLife was amazing. Spoilers ahead.
I judge the 13 chapter season as it's own, without having in mind other products.

*First of all, what I think is flawed on it.
ANIMATION
The animation is absolutely unremarkable, it was a bit shocking as the animation and story contrast quality wise. It's not the worst animation, but extremely bland, even if you compare it to productions of the same era. The character and enviroment design is very weak as well, pretty bland and cliche. It adds nothing, the worst part of the series.

WORLDBUILDING
The ReLife organization is not explored at all, it isn't clear how it works, the pills, the organization's ... goal or anything else really, it feels like a deux ex machina and the erasing the memory is... out there, I guess. I understand that in a 13 chapter slice of life anime there's not much reason to explore that, but I think it would have been interesting.

*Now the good.
CHARACTERS
IThe characters are biggest point on the series.
The teenagers act like teenargers, they make a big drama out of little things, as teenagers do, it makes sense.
Kaizaki feels more like an adult pretending to be a teenager, and it works very well, the interactions are fun to watch.
How he finds himself bonding with hishiro feels pretty natural in that context, how he cares for her since he thinks he's the oldest of the two, and how that evolves into empathy is masterfully done.
I like how at the end it's not clear if they have fallen in love, most likely yeah, but I prefer to pretend that they saw themselves and relate and trust each other; a personal preference.
Also, the plot twist of Hishiro actually being on the ReLife program as well is soooo well executed. It feels natural since it's hinted before that there is another ReLife participant in the class, Hishiro feels like the type of person the program would have recruited, and when it's revealed it has a lot of emotional impact.
But what I love the most is how the other doesn't know they are in the same program. They take from each other, complement each other as characters, develope a relationship in which they want to make the most of this new found youth; it's almost poetic, goddamnit!
I could talk for hours how the relationship between Kaizaki and Hishiro is a banger, but I must move on.

PACING
The time is used, dare I say, economically.
ReLife doesn't get itself wrapped up on unnecesary moments or fanservice, it goes to the most important moments that define the character developement, it works very well.
It's a 13 episodes series after all. It would be cool to explore other aspects of their student life, it's not bad to have a bit of fanservice or explore other dynamics, but I think that only showing the important is a very effective use of pacing.
One can make the argument that it makes the series a bit dense, but that focus on character development makes it stand out from most situational slice of lifes in which characters goof around for 12 chapters and have some minor or no moments of character growth. Not that that those animes are bad, but that kind of pacing would have served no porpuse to this one.
Pacing is something the ReLife uses to it's full potential. It is usually not the most flashy aspect of an anime, but it can make or break an anime depending on how it's used.

COMEDY
The use of comedy is pretty good too, it makes the anime less dense, but it doesn't use it to the point of being annoying neither does it interrupt the important emotional moments. Again, using it's resources at it's fullest, it always adds.

MESSAGE
Lastly I want to talk about the message: everyone deserves a second chance. Kaizaki feels guilt and insecurities, and the ReLife program allows him to autoexplore himself again. By being on an enviroment full of peers, he was able not only to understand himself and work hard torwards a change, but improve the life of others, even if they will eventually forget about him. Same goes for Hishiro, she leaves her cold personality and finally finds friends and stops being afraid of caring and bonding with others. Because everyone deserves to embetter themselves, to change as people.
Life isn't a crystal path in which an error will send you to eternal damnation. People commit mistakes, learn, and grow, and this anime is able to show that in a beautiful and endearing way.
If it have had a different plot, it problably would have been about teenagers trying to live their school life to the fullest. And that's perfect. But is the fact that you are seeing a protagonist that has already been there, commited mistakes and is now trying to be better is what makes this message really click. The message ReLife tries to convey is what really ties all the anime together.

MUSIC
I also want to add that I really liked the ost. It's very jazzy, maybe not for everyone, it's definitely different. I feel that it adds a lot of the personality and atmosphere the animation itself couldn't, so I think that's pretty neat, but again, not everyone's cup of tea.

Spoilers ahead!!!
I never make reviews. This isn't even a review, I'll just talk about one aspect about this manga, but I think it's so well executed and has such a fundamental role on it that I believe it's enough to make this one of my favorite mangas of all time. And that aspect is how humanity is portrayed.
Many people die in this manga. Humanity is on it's last breath and the actions of any character isn't helping matters. The world is going to end somehow someway, if it isn't the witch, it's the earth just giving up, it doesn't matter.
In that context, where ... human lifes are portrayed as something so comically cheap that thousands of people can die on a chapter without seemingly any worry, it makes the relationships between the characters feel so much more important.
Their lifes can end at any moment without warning, yet, they choose to love and risk losing that because they simply are humans trying to get something out of this horrible horrible situation.
For the world or overlord that runs that twisted nightmare, it may seem like killing someone makes no difference, that's how it's portrayed most of the times; but, at the end, someone must care, someones son, father, brother, lover or friend died and that can mean much more than just wipping another thousand people they didn't had a relationship with.
In a world were life isn't worth anything, the way it shows it in fact matters the most is incredibly genius and beautiful.
I don't care about any aspect of the manga outside of this, this device would make me love this manga as much as I do even if any other aspect of Fire Punch was different.