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Story: 8
Animation: 8
Sound: 9
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 9

I was intrigued on Leviathans premise from the start. Biopunk vs. Dieselpunk vs Teslapunk World War 1. In that specific regard it hasn't disappointed, but falls short due to various circumstances.

And the major culprit is the structure of the story. The execution of events and the pacing feels extremely forced. None of the events flow together well. This is even more apparent in the second half when the road trip aspect is put into the next gear. And this coincides with the need for speed running world building. The series is obsessed with the idea that it wants to ... show everything it offers as fast as possible due to the limited time it has. And this kills the pacing drastically. Every 1 or 2 episodes we have a new problem to deal with and resolves just as fast. At the same time we overlook the consequences the main team creates. There is a problem solving attitude, but the follow-up questions are blatantly ignored.

But despite these clear downfalls in the writing, I still can overlook those issues and contrivances, because the story and characters are still interesting enough. And me being impatient for a new season is only due to the restraint the story has in regards to show more. There is a sleight of possibilities of what can be done in that setting. The only question remaining is: Can another season be produced to satisfy these possibilities.

Regardless of the fantastical setting, the characters still feel complete, for the most part. Due to the time constrains this only really applies to the main cast. Additionally, crucial characters, like the captain, are shoved to a blatant unimportant role. And even the namesake falls a bit flat as it certainly is a character. There are some footnotes here and there, but I feel there should be more. But alas, this season is clearly focused on the main cast and the world and less about the side characters.

Leviathan puts an interesting premise on the table and leaves it without any explanation so to speak. And we rummaged through the cliff notes and made a series out of it. I hope the real Leviathan comes back again to complete the story. The 3D animation was very good and the sound was implement well, with only slight ditches. As it currently stands, the story is clearly hampered by the will to show the world it wants to tell about. I simply hope it is soon be able to breath more.

Story: 6
Animation: 5
Sound: 9
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 8

Total: 8

Ajin Part 2 has a severe case of 2nd-Act-itis, meaning a very slow start and a non-conclusive ending. The preparation period is just too long. At least the half was preparation, only to be thwarted at the last second by an outside force. This alone dims the experience in comparison to the first season by a lot. Thus one would correctly assume that the pacing has dropped the ball.

And this pacing problem extends to the power system and similar non-story parts. There is barely any progression to it, or the characters. They all further move to their established motives. ... The only changing part are the secondary assist characters.

While I still like Ajin as a series, the 2nd Part dropped the pacing drastically. When a 3rd and probably final season I personally will look forward to it. But the pacing and density of the story needs to be rectified. Everything else, animation and audio, is still on the same level. Animation might me a bit worse, but that is hard to notice.

Story: 9
Animation: 7
Sound: 9
Characters: 10
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 9

Welcome to the NHK does a great job of portraying real humans with real problems and real relationships. Their characteristics are defined by their struggles and their past. And much of the cast can overcome their struggles in a realistic way.

And the whole journey is seen with Sato, an unemployed shut-in who get approached by a young girl who offers who psychological counseling. While it seems very much out of the blue, it is very well explained at the end. Nevertheless, Sato meet with her to escape his lifestyle and reacquaints himself with old school friends, mostly by accident. ... As they cross paths, their fondness reawakens and foster each others mental health. However, this new confidence backfires most of the time and they end up in very difficult situations.

What NHK does really well is picturing the mental state of the characters and their fallout towards these situations. And since were are with the point of view of Sato, most of the tertiary cast won't be seen again, which mimics life very well. The same goes for living apart and losing contact with each other. There is a strong feeling of grounded reality in this anime. Which is ironic since the protagonist constantly fights with his urges to fall for his own conspiracies. And aside his tendencies for pattern repetition, this is his mental weak spot.

But for the cast itself, I all liked them a lot. Like I said before, they all feel real and their actions feel real, even when it often shifts into darkness. The sound is well mixed and neither overshadows nor creeps behind the voices. The animation feel a bit outdated, but still holds fine for its age. There isn't any outstanding work that springs to my mind. It is just fine.

Welcome to the NHK is an anime dressed as a conspiracy theory with great characters and believable scenarios. There is an underlying darkness behind the screen, and I very much enjoy that type of writing and psychology. Even when I was a bit impatient towards the end, it still resolved very satisfyingly. Even when I feel it was a bit too long, it still used the allotted time well.

Lazarus can easily be summed up in a single phrase: A anime made by a tin-foil-hat wearing conspiracy theorist.

Story: 3
Animation: 9
Sound: 9
Characters: 3
Enjoyment: 2

Total: 4

... And these word aren't chosen lightly. But the anime also wears these words with pride. And ultimately, this concludes into pretentiousness. But this is more about the story itself rather than the anime as a whole. The story really is the focus and attention of all the spite I have toward it attitude. And this all culminates in episode 7, the "Island Episode". Everything I despise about this story is all bundled into this single section.

But I need a go back a bit for summarize: A super-drug starts to kill people after 3 years after the first in-take, and the first wave of deaths will appear in 1 month, unless the inventor is found who holds the cure hostage. A team is formed to find the inventor because he demanded to find him in exchange for releasing the cure. Thus a global hunt for him begins.
And the episode format already irked me right away after the 3rd episode. Because every episode beforehand was pretty much a nothing-burger. You could easily skip those episodes without losing anything. And interestingly, this also goes for everything afterwards, including the end. This story has absolutely no substance. And everything that happens is stupid and forced by the writers. And the amount of stupidity is immense. Characters constantly do weird and simply wrong decisions at all times, just for the sake of action or drama, not because it is the best option. The very first episode is a prime example. When offered freedom and a cleansing of a multiple-life-sentence in prison, the character rejects the offer, because, and I quote, "I like breaking out of prison.". And the whole first episode is only about trying to catch him. There is a similar vibe with the "final fight" guy. He was only included so we have a fight at the end.

These haphazard applications are very much the second core of this anime. The main core, as mentioned before, is the conspiracy stuff. Constant surveillance, super-drugs, climate change, military conspiracies, hidden foreign spies, more hidden spies, assassin programs, AI cults, super hackers, and more spies. Everything is touched and used in the most boring way. There was an attempt to weave these plots into the characters, but it ultimately felt predictable, cliché and very stupid. To believe that the young super-hacker girl was raised in an AI-cult without internet doesn't make sense in any way. Especially since it is the hacker-stereotype used in movies where they actively do stuff against each other. Most likely because it is flashy.

Speaking of time and research from this anime. It is atrocious. There is little to no effort put in any capacity for researching the subjects for this story. The super-drug was invented and released to the public within a month. The EU has such big test-trials for new drugs with a year minimum. And the FDA, and this anime plays mostly in the US, has 10 months trials at least. Furthermore, the inventor was the first the take the drug, which would make him the first to die, and this apparently all with all humans and different metabolisms. There is a reason why there are side-effects to literally every drug on earth and all listed on that small paper. Because all humans are different. In many regards, but the metabolism aspect, in this case, is the most important. This further strengthens the view this anime has on humans as all equally stupid animals who destroy the nature.
And the ending isn't any better. Only the epilogue shows how the antidote was fabricated and administered and the rapid pace of everything. Remember Covid? And the rollout of that? It took months and years to administer the vaccine to the population. Not to mention the conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine people. It feels like this anime was written before the pandemic, but with all the conspiracies that followed with them.

So, Lazarus is bad. The story is boring, without any substance, the characters are weak, stereotypical, and partly very stupid. And the world is just a mess of conspiracy stuff. The animation can be good, especially in the fight scenes, even when the context is non-sense, and the audio can, on occasion, raise the atmosphere immensely. But I have to bash it again for how pretentious it is. The intro alone screams: "Look at me. I'm a masterpiece of visual story telling." Nobody like pretentious assholes. Nobody.

Story: 8
Animation: 5
Sound: 9
Characters: 9
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 9

Ajin does a lot of things right. The story is gripping, even when it borders into cliché. The music is great and the power system is well explained, with more implications ahead of us. The only two things it actively struggles with is the animation and the characters.

In general, I do not have anything against the 3D cell-shaded animation look, even if it is clearly noticeable. But, this animation style falls flat in some regards for details. And this goes hand in hand with the character design. Almost all characters have short hair, so it doesn't wiggle around that ... much. But some characters have long, loose hair, and especially one of the main researchers, and that hair is extremely stiff and doesn't move when he moves his hair, especially during bows. This is mainly a nitpick, but it sucks the immersion from that scene.

The characters itself are intriguing for the most part, even when they act stupid in others. The main character in that regard is most likely the most obvious example of that. There is a clear dissonance between his appearance and his actions. This most likely stems from the fact the he still is a child, but acts, in many cases, very logical and adult. Similar in the physical department. Another weird quirk with one of the characters was the disappearance of the friend character from act 1. But I do suspect that he will return in another season.

But that greatest strength the story has for now is the implementation of the power system. Certain people are born with the power to not die and summon ghost-like figures, which are invisible to the naked eye, for the most part, extremely similar to stands from JoJo; especially Part 3. But the first part, the non-dying part, is the one this season focuses mostly on. Which is smart because it is easier to understand when seen.

For now, Ajin moves in the right direction. The applications and implications of the systems at hand carry the somewhat shoddy animation easily through this season. The characters are still in motion in regards to their developments with many hints to wavering allegiances. But I still have to acknowledge the wonky applications of themes in this series. There is a heavy underlying tone of xenophobia in the general public, fueled by the government. And I feel that the end result of this theme will not be handled gracefully.

Story: 6
Animation: 7
Sound: 8
Characters: 7
Enjoyment: 7

Total: 7

As the title suggests: Xenosaga The Animatino is based on the first Xenosaga Game. It is thusly, for a game adaptation, complete. But there are still loose ends which encompass the other games.

As typical for the Xeno games, Xenogears, Xenosaga and Xenoblade, these stories are heavy in theming and in Judaeo-christian images. But similar to the Xenoblade series, without knowing the other parts of the games, it is hard to infer meanings into most of what is happening. This is especially true about dropped plot-points like the Zohar or the Gnosis, which definitely will play a larger role in ... the other games. But as a single anime-season, it is hard to grasp these nuances. This is further embodied by the fact that the anime was released between the second and third game, making this anime effectively an advertisement. And in that aspect alone, it clearly succeeds.

But, as mentioned before, incomplete story lines harm the experience at the end. Another thing is the pacing. This solely stems from the fact that this is an adaptation into a TV-format. The 20 minute episodes still need an exciting end each episode to work. But the games story doesn't have these story beats in a regular interval. This causes a lot of rapid-fire cuts at certain points to explosively push the story forward. These story beats feel very artificial and out of place. Similarly, the animation also differs in a lot of ways. The final episode has some nice choreography, but all others are bland in comparison. This doesn't only go for the fight scenes, but also the generic animations. You can feel and see the differences clearly when certain animators were let loose on a certain scene. In the end, this results in a very mixed quality for the animation. With top tier in single scenes, but also bad and static quality at the bottom.

As it is based on a JRPG, some would think that the characters are great and well fleshed out. This is partially true. Only the key members of this story get some introspection into their characters. And, as mentioned earlier, still have secrets, probably answered in the later games. But for what we have here, it isn't that deep I would like it to. The main problem is the rapid introduction of cast members. This is more spread out during the game, probably. But this rapid-fire style causes issues with who actually is a party member and/or core character, and who is not. This is mostly noticeable with the salvagers ship crew.
The sound and music was fine for the most part. But I wished it would've been more pronounced. I know that there is clear talent at the studio. Although I do not know if the game OST was used in the anime.

As I mentioned at the start: Xenosaga - The Animation was advertisement for the third game of that story arc. For that: Good work. But adapting a video game story as a weekly series automatically generate issues. And pacing is the heaviest subject to suffer from this. And despite these flaws in pacing and characters, I still enjoyed it on some level. Hopefully, I can play that game series in the near future to appreciate it more.

Story: 5
Animation: 7
Sound: 7
Characters: 5
Enjoyment: 6

Total: 6

Bye Bye, Earth is inconceivable deceptive. Nothing really fits together well. But I have a very strong feeling that is until now, the end of season 1.

... And the core theme that ties everything together is institutionalized freedom. With a high-fantasy setting with anthro-races and magic, this world building seems to be very split in the middle. On one hand, the world building can be very strong. But then, it meanders for a while and does nothing, or even waste time. And this waste of time is essentially season 1, and especially the second half, because the first is introduction.

To summarize the world: the planet is divided into countries controlled by gods. For now, we haven't seen other countries, but that is that. From what we've seen so far, this god is mainly busy with putting the pawns on their places to do something, most likely to kill himself. And to do this, he basically controls everybody via strict rules and curses. You want to travel the world? Do these trials, kill your master, live alone and do the hokey-pokey while you are at it. It feels fleshed out and frustrating at the same time. Mostly because the first season doesn't give any conclusion or stinger to warrant a continuation. But these decisions are to be blamed on the producer and the scheduling. With only 10 episodes, the season is very short in comparison. And the studio hasn't used the allotted time properly.

This is mostly evident with dropped aspects, or put on ice, and very rapid pacing changes. The dropped aspects are the flowers in episode 1 and the featureless aspect later on, even though it doesn't matter except that she obviously isn't from that planet but comes from the moon.

But the most irritating, for me at least, is how inefficient everything becomes because of those aforementioned rules. There are multiple episodes dedicated to warfare, but everything done in those scenarios is totally pointless and partially hinders the whole operation. For now, there is no benefit for these actions. The most likely explanation would be a rule from the god.

I can easily see why Bye Bye, Earth is so low ranked. It needs too much time to go anywhere and doesn't go far enough. The main story is halted as early as episode 3 to establish other stuff not really related to the main plot, but to meander in the world. The characters feel very flip-floppy and stagnate development-wise. The audio is "only" fine even with a heavy musical themes. There should have been much more in that regard. The animation isn't to spectacular either. I would expect that season 2 would improve upon these flaws, for it is currently running as of this review. But I won't go into season 2 immediately, if at all.

Story: 4
Animation: 6
Sound: 8
Characters: 4
Enjoyment: 4

Total: 5

K, or Kings, is very mediocre and flip-flopping between qualities at the same time. Especially the animation is heavily hit by that. But the worst offender is probably the pacing, which is atrocious. And unimportant side characters get heavily focused on for barely any reason.

But I would like to start chronological this time. Because Episode 1 already displays many, many issues this show has. And this goes, as mentioned before, especially for the animation. Some cycles are plains wrong. One would argue that a torso-walking animation from the front should be easy, but I have a nagging feeling that ... an intern made that and is passed through. This problem isn't as widespread as I make it out, and some singular scenes have a masterpiece level of fluidity. But those scenes only highlight the lows in comparison. Some still images, animation cycles or camera pans just look really, really ugly. There is a stark difference in animation quality in that studio. And it is normally the producers job to address that.

Next are the characters. And I'll will briefly mention the designs first. Especially the little girl is totally out of place. While everybody else, male and female, adults and students, have the modern proportions, especially in the head area, the little girl has the classic yosei proportions. Especially from the 90's, like Sailor Moon. With extremely large eyes as the main feature. Do not, and I mean never ever, put a normal marble in front of an eye. Not only does it look very stupid, but also highlights the art style to a negative degree.
For the characters themselves, there is only a single person who is somewhat interesting, and that is the deuteragonist Kuro. He has a strong moral compass and his personality derives from that. All the other characters are blank slates. And for some reason skateboard dude and double-servant guy are heavily focused upon. But their backstory is so bland that I couldn't care less about them. Also, both of that are loud, boasting and obnoxious. And the main character doesn't do the best of jobs either. Due to his memory loss he only tries to find it for 70% of the runtime. And the middle section feels like filler for that.

Transitioning to the story, it is bad. Nazi scientist finds a tablet which give people, and animals apparently, the power to lead, to command and some extra powers. After the war he goes to Tokyo, for some reason, where he lives in a blimp for 70 years, until the current events. In total, the story is set up as a murder mystery with superpowers. Ill-defined superpowers at best. And like mentioned before, the pacing is awful. The first 4 episodes are introductions and literal hide-and-seek. In the middle section the main characters are absent. And the end is unsatisfying and abrupt. As a result, the story feels very unbaked. The given content of the story is just too short to warrant a whole season of anime. Which is kinda weird become 2 of the 7 kings weren't shown or mentioned at all. My guess would be that they gambled on another season and wanted to hide the characters until then.

Lastly the world building. It is confusing. The whole story is set in Tokyo, Japan, but everything seems very normal. According to the characters, the kings act in shadows and run a puppet government, giving orders directly to the prime minister. Yet, they post large bounties in public spaces with big announcements, and everybody was like "Who is it this time?". Like as if that would be a very common occurrence.
Also, people tend to find plot convenience on roofs in abundance. Need a hiding spot? A full ass dog mascot costume lies there. Those are expensive. Nobody would just leave them on a roof. And I don't like to mention the small cat on the roof of a 50+ story building just vibing there.

In total: K / Kings is just nothing. The mystery isn't really we could anticipate, which is the worst kind of mysteries, simply due to the vague rules of the power system. And the action genre is so broad and packed with much better anime that is drowns in a deluge of other mediocre or worse titles.

Master Keaton is exceptional in the few things it does. But due to its episodic nature, it can't reach the apex of what it could've been.

Story: 7
Animation: 8
Sound: 10
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 8

Total: 8

There isn't much to say about Master Keaton. The episodic nature hinders many aspects, mainly a coherent story. What we instead get are various scenarios Keaton finds himself in, mostly voluntarily. This ranges from hostage rescues, stakeouts, family drama, refugees and much more. The variety of the topics is certainly the best way to utilize the episodic format. What stuck the most was how timely everything still is, even if it played in the ... early 1990s. While it is commended for that, it only shows how stubborn humans can be in that regard that all these problems will probably never go away.

But for all the positives, through the cracks of the facade, the negative shines through. Some episodes, for example, won't even need the main character, because the newly introduced A-plot characters for that episode can carry it alone. It feels that Keaton was just shoehorned in, because he must be the only main character. Other episodes, mainly in the OVA part, can't breath properly and end on an unfinished note. The only double episode has the opposite problem: it has too much time. The restrictions of the anime medium are the main culprit for these problems. Which is another reason why the episodic format isn't suited for this style of writing. More complex themes are left on the cutting board because of that.

It still is a good show, and the animation still holds to this day, even when it feels outdated. The sound, on the other hand, feels pitch perfect. Especially the violin suspense theme feels like I already heard it a million times.

In all Master Keaton is a very good episodic anime, which limits its own abilities in regards to character development and story telling. As a trade off, it is very condensed in its essence, which can be an advantage for people who don't want to binge a story. Just relax, feel the good vibes and let the suspense take over you.

Story: 9
Animation: 9
Sound: 9
Characters: 9
Enjoyment: 10

Total: 9

There isn't that much to talk about Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction. It's great. This mainly stems from the core theme of how power corrupts. Being stronger over the weaker, often with the help of tools or by nature. And with the frame of an alien invasion, one can easily draw parallels to existing problems. And this is what the show does best. Setting the ordinary problems into the fantastical.

But there is one major nitpick I have, because of how clumsily it feels. And that is the Stein's Gate-esque time machine. The one where only your consciousness is transferred. ... The whole fact that it exists already is like a literal Deus Ex Machina. It doesn't feel earned and in both cases it is more like given out of pity by a higher force.

Otherwise DeDeDeDe is very constant. The animation is great for the more part, even when the CGI is clearly distinct from the rest. Which wouldn't be that bad since most of the CGI is not only reserved for the aliens, but also even for the godlike technology which is clearly magnitudes further ahead than what it was shown.
The sound doesn't move far to emphasize impact in important scenes and also doesn't distract from the story.
The characters have a great chemistry and work well for this story, even when I feel that Oran could be replaced by a completely different character. Her eccentric antics are necessary for the story, but still could be fulfilled by another eccentric character.

There is a clear juxtaposition in the story. The death of a single character we spend time with is more important than a genocide of an entire race. To us, at least, I suppose. But the sad reality is, that it also applies to the real world. If we can save the ones we care about, then other people don't matter. Even when the hypocrisy wears us down in the end. And for that, I can respect Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction.