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Some spoilers for CSM Part 2 included

This is a movie adaptation of Reze's arc and it directly follows right after where the anime left off. First of all, I wanna get the negatives, or rather the negative, outta the way because 99% of what I have for this film is praise, as an adaptation. Mappa has shifted their style to mimic the manga's artstyle closer rather than going for their own muted, cinematic twist. While I thought the original Mappa style was awesome and incredibly polished, I can't help but feel like a small portion of the scenes involving CG looked a little less smooth ... due to the change in artstyle direction. Now with that out of the way, here's everything good about it.

Firstly, the animation. Mappa comes back with their A-game here, being at the cream of the crop when it comes to integrating 3D and 2D junk. There's a scene at a beach and I believe they used real photos for the ground and I thought that was an amazing detail, especially when you see a character walk and the footprints are set up there too. Animating the little things are a part of what makes this film pop too. Reze's cheerful, yet meekly mannerisms were a highlight to me, but a bunch of the goofy goobers like Beam and Violence and Power are here too, and I just loved seeing them move "accurately", if that makes sense.

I just skimmed through a bit of the arc in the manga and I noticed that they added certain things to emphasize the narrative and I just thought it was a treat. When Makima was talking about Angel's power of turning people into weapons, we get a shot of just her eye, most likely implying Yoru as a horseman sister. Another thing I liked was in the swimming segment, where we get Reze's VA actually singing the Soviet song, and a new addition of a B-roll of a butterfly getting caught in a spider's nest and getting subsequently eaten as Denji falls head over heels to Reze. It was a very lowkey B-roll which is more for the overthinkers and the manga crowd and I just loved that. Speaking of the swimming scene, the music REALLY elevated it, giving a very ethereal quality. They added a bunch of swimming and whatnot and it feels all so very intimate. The "city mouse or country mouse" line and the one before the fireworks kiss focused on half of Reze's face (mostly the eyes) rather than her side profile. The devil hunter bounty hunter guy wasn't just in his own dingy apartment. They made it so that he was in the middle of a job and was just freshening up before killing a restrained woman in a different room, presumably his target at the time. The additions and overall translation from manga-to-anime was definitely DEFINITELY worth the the money I spent on this film during release day.

Second off, the music. Kenshi Yonezu comes back twice here, singing the full OP and co-singing the credits of the film. The score is amazing. There's tons of high-octane ones that pair really well with the action, and a lot of some pianos and stuff with strong pauses and whatnot. I'm not sure how to expertly describe it but the saws def made a return and you can't have a CSM thing without em. Due to the movie having an OP, I thought it would feel more as a longer anime episode, rather than actually being a movie, but I was thankfully wrong. Not that a long chainsaw man ep would be bad, but I was expecting a movie spectacle for this one.

And a spectacle, I did receive. The climactic fight was killer. Due to Reze being the bomb devil, we naturally get a lot of loud kablamo sounds and they're very impactful. Not just because of the sound itself, but the way they frame her attacks. Other than the amazing sakuga which was mostly clear, yet fast-paced, the sound design were amazing, third of all. Reze's snapping fingers move had a strong but short ringing snap sound, which was followed by the boom booms. The animation was really smooth when it came to Reze's first transformation, as well as her moves that turn her limbs into missiles. That was so sick. Stuff like slashing sfx were also really "in your face" and it just hits different.

The ending was heartbreaking all the same, as well. Reze's death through the Makima-Angel double team was just as strong as it was in the manga. The last shot before the panel of her fully bled out was, again, a front facing one rather a 3/4s one. In short, the Reze movie was the bomb mhm yeah.

At the start, it had a very chill, yet gothic tone due to the setting and the format of the chapters. It had its moments of slice of life where each chapter adds a little bit to the relationship between the Duke and his maid. The story being melancholic at times added to the comfy nature of it all and that wouldn't change up until we got to meet a variety of characters. I will admit that the manga has done well with how they spaced these introductions as well as the introduction of the overarching plotline.

However, when the series transitioned into its plot-related content, ... certain parts dragged a bit especially during the magic school training arc. Fight scenes are lackluster as well so it was a benefit that the manga relied more on character interactions even during the final fight with Sade. It was an all-around decent series that I didn't like as much as it progressed but it managed to keep me engaged mostly due to the cast members expanding, with the likes of Caph, Zain, Walter, and Daleth- in which the latter two I have fond memories of the dynamic between them.

Quite an interesting to see a 6-episode anime with varying runtime per ep. I thought it was your usual Netflix mismanagement affair but I was surprised to see something this tightly-packed in a good way. First off, the animation is stellar. There's a lot of POV shots and the bubbly movement adds to the charming artstyle. Speaking of the artstyle, they really went all-out with the animation of expressions and how free and fluid some of the characters look at times. It's a direction that was much appreciated due to how heightened the subject matter takes itself.

The score is also pretty cool. There's a melancholy ... that comes with the sappy stuff, and peppy music accompanies the more happier scenes. The latter usually comes in raw and halts to an abrupt stop, giving the narrative a somewhat dark comedy vibe, which I'm admittedly neutral on. But when it works, it works real well. There's something so inspired about the way they used camera angles here too. Subtle things like the POV from Shizuka's hanging, and the light covering Marina's dad's face on the dinner table were all much appreciated in setting the scenes.

As for the characters, there's Takopi. His character design is a strong contrast to what's going on with the other 3 main characters. The innocent personality of his is one that exudes charm and really gives a whole lot of impact when he observes something that's kinda fucked up. Shizuka's arc was good. I figure the last stretch of the show where she was on her delusional era needed a liiiiiittle more punch for me but overall it wwas handled well. Marina's whole thing with her home life and how we get bits and pieces of it all throughout was great. Sadly, I feel like the weakest character in the series for me was Azuma. The Asian mom stereotype was definitely the biggest part of his conflict but it's less compelling than the more "serious" problems Shizuka and Marina had. Ultimately, his toxic behavior of wanting Shizuka's approval served more as a hype man for that character's narrative rather than his own.

I personally see episode 5's reveal to be one of the most interesting parts of the series, as it tackled the title as it is and showed us a side of the story that tied things together. It helped that bits of the dialogue and visuals had me going like that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme- the way they were all cleverly called back to. Speaking of the ending, I do have some minor problems. While Takopi's presence in the last 2016 loop was felt and I shouldn't sweat the small stuff on how it affected the crew, I do feel like there should've been a spoken line on Marina's part, where she acknowledges that hurting Shizuka was never going to fix her family, and that Shizuka was never at fault. But regardless, it was a short and entertaining show.

The early parts of the manga were pretty good. It follows the story of Komi, a beautiful, unintentionally-popular, and silent girl who has trouble communicating with her peers, aided by the most average of average guys, Tadano. Nearly all of the characters have pun names based on their personalities and I thought that was kinda cute. The original formula relied on Komi just doing cute things and slowly forming a bond with her classmates, as she tries to reach her goal of getting 100 friends. Over time, the series would go through multiple recurring characters because of this format and how we follow Komi’s ... life through 3 years of highschool. This would work both as a positive and to the manga’s detriment as this meant not being able to see weaker personalities in the future, but also not being able to stick with great characters as well. This can be observed through characters like Najimi, who was the original comic relief of the bunch that would go on to have a less important role in the future. Over time, Najimi’s presence would become more of an annoyance which was not appreciated. For characters that I was glad that were gone, we go to Yamai. She was not great and the fact that we got a chapter dedicated to her in the last few chapters of the manga was too little too late. Oda should’ve made her kiss Nakanaka violently or something to make up for it but he didn’t.

Like with most people, I find that the fall off point for the manga started after the whole love triangle drama. The hints themselves with Tadano rizzing up Manbagi were good enough as a spice but the moment they actually had to resolve it, I felt like they needed to wrap things up. That irritating period really diminished people’s love of the manga, including mine. It didn’t help that Komi’s 3rd year cast was the weakest by far. An entire arc dedicated to the germaphobe girl was not necessary. I did not care for her nor her relationship with the sweaty girl. The ex-student council pres becoming a recurring character was ass too, seeing as how I think she is the worst recurring character of the entire series. The gimmicks of the other 3rd year classmates too were not all that great. Personally, I’d say the 2nd year classmates were the best. They all had a part to play and each of their dynamics with one another were at least acknowledged. The homoerotic tendencies between Tadano and Katai were silly. Naruse and his portioned interactions with sweat girl were cute. Of course, Manbagi was great.

After the slump, I can honestly say that Komi picked itself back up after Tadano and Komi finally “will they”’d. The silly SOL adventures started feeling more fun and comfier as they hit familiar manga romcom notes. Komi’s development from only doing notebook writings to full-on conversations also helped pushing the envelope as well. Basically, anything that didn’t have them playing games with Najimi and/or ex-student council pres were good. We didn’t get too much of it near the end but I had fun with Tadano’s sister-Komi’s brother chapters too, especially with the former’s assertiveness. In the 3rd year, we also got extra plots relating to this group of underclassmen, mainly focusing on the tall girl I forgot the name of. I appreciate the yuri. It wasn’t enough to fill the Yamai x Nakanaka gap but it’ll have to do. In conclusion, Komi-san wa Comyushou Desu started off great, then flopped, and then picked itself back up again (not as great as the start but still). I’m glad I read it but I’m glad it also ended.

I was looking for an anime to watch last year so I figured I'd check out the series that people have been saying is the sleeper of the season. After watching the finale, I can safely say it exceeded my expectations. The setting was incredibly interesting. The premise was pretty fresh. Having something set in the past and the main source of conflict is standard knowledge for the modern age scratches a particular itch. I loved the idea of having different main characters, not including the "truth". The moment episode 4 rolled around with the OP changing Rafal with Oczy was mindblowing. Speaking of the ... opening, it's amazing. It's boppy and has a lot of pep in it, with the chorus having grand visuals that it deserved.

Speaking of the MCs, I would say Oczy's part is my favorite, probably because it's the longest and plays around with a lot of struggles relating to the time period. Jolenta's struggle as a scholarly woman was great. The satisfaction of that being referenced and being tied in the next part was immense. Also, Badeni was a pretty interesting character as well. Rafal was great but having only 3 episodes on his belt made him a great opener, if anything. As for Draka's story, there were some things I didn't quite like. I understand her parallel of changing beliefs alongside Schmidt but, unlike the chad that is Schmidt, I found that her eventually believing in faith and God felt a little bit rushed. Nowak is our recurring villain and I loved how they went about him, up to the very end. They gave him his flowers on his deathbed and I could not be any happier seeing this strong presence's conclusion be taken care of.

With regards to the series' flaws, there are a couple. There's a bunch of "manga-isms" here where it shows you the "manga if it was an anime" rather than "adapting" it, if that makes sense. Heck, before the epilogue text, we get the final shot with some manga panel-esque thing and it just looks weird if you didn't know that that was how the manga's "final" page actually looked like. Speaking of final things, the last part of the show concerns a real historical figure by the name of "Albert Brudzewski". Most of the part is set in a "real" version of Poland this time and that was pretty jarring. Seeing an older version of Rafal was trippy in a very neutral way. Overall, Orb is an amazing series. 9/10.

This is a manga series serving as a Spiderverse spinoff, I believe. It follows Doc Ock getting isekai'd into the body of a Japanese schoolgirl, making a split personality type of thing. Sadly, the series was quite underwhelming. Doc Ock's motivation as a villain here felt too righteous than what I expected but I'm sure there's probably a storyline somewhere that did the same thing. The characters are not all that engaging. Otoha, the girl harboring Ock's mind in her body, is probably the only likeable character in the manga, mainly because she's a bundle of sunshine. Although, she's still a pretty "safe" character and ... her arc is not all that compelling because of it.

Taka is our other main character serving as this universe's Vulture. Her arc also felt middling despite it encompassing the entire series. I just didn't really connect with her and her teenage angst which felt forced in some ways. Other characters like Maruko and Deirogi had their own arcs and they were also both very bad, particularly Deirogi's. I did not care for her becoming a less selfish person. She was a bully character who was just an annoying thorn with no screentime and the arc's purpose was to make us care for her, albeit unsuccessfully. Maruko's arc also came out of nowhere and both generally feel like they just had to pad out volumes or something.

The appearance of Superior Spider gave me a bit of hope that we were gonna get something interesting but the presentation of how he was handled after his introduction was not at all noteworthy. He was just there and the same goes for Sakura Spider, whom was even more "just there". The consistent streak of mid never stopped even when we got to the final arc. Otoha's teacher became crazy for literally no reason. Dunno why they did that. Not to sound like i'm thirsting for edge but I think this story would've been better if it was a little darker. Cut out everyone else except for the Ocks and the main thing with Otoha and Taka. A lot of unnecessary fat for characters nobody's gonna care for. Also, Superior and Sakura should've frenched. That is all. Octo-Girl gets a 5/10.

This is the anime adaptation of the famous shounen manga and I was honestly pretty disappointed at how things turned out. I first started the series because I heard of how great and iconic this was but I only ever really fully enjoyed it after like 25 eps or something. First off, the good parts. I thought they did a good job with casting Onizuka's VA. A lot of the casts have great deliveries, with the star clearly being Vice Principal. He has a lot of funny lines and I would say he has my most favorite performance of the show. There were like a ... handful of stand out arcs too like the exam arc.

Unfortunately, that's the most consistent thing I could praise the show for, because its premise failed to deliver a story that was entertaining for most of the time. I find that a lot of its lessons halfway through the series range from lackluster to just downright confusing. There's an arc (Urumi's debut) in which the lesson was about how the girl being focused on had to admit that she wanted to live, despite the fact that her having a lack of care to her being is secondary to her actual struggle, which was a distrust towards teachers. There was also another arc (Fuyutsuki goes to the countryside cuz her female students are picking on her) where you'd expect a teacher to learn something about setting boundaries for her students or at least showcase that she loves her students equally. However, the narrative handwaves it in favor of showing that "teachers make mistakes" when that was completely far from what was set up.

It's a shame because it's very romantic to the idea of being a good teacher and whatnot or being true to your feelings and stuff, when it does execute the lessons of its stories properly. A lot of these lessons are perpetrated by Onizuka himself. But since a bulk of these morals fall flat in execution, it just makes the character less charming. While, at the latter half of the series, we do get moments of the students having Onizuka's back and it's endearing, it also gets ultimately undercut by Onizuka himself doing some dumb shit or whatever. Anyways, 5/10.

The animation quality was really good for the first few eps but that was about it. When it comes to the story, it never really does anything new. The best description I could give the series is that it's "baby's first shounen". Any new anime fan would love this series but as someone who has watched his fair share of shounen, it just doesn't hit for me. Not to mention the villains which admittedly don't have a lot of sauce due to some of their actions unfortunately not being as graphic as they could've been. Will himself is a pretty heroic person and he doesn't ... really have a lot of flaws. He has some intrusive thoughts leak out here and there but it's not big enough to make a dent in his character.

As a fan of the original one-shot, I was interested to see the story animated which is why I went out of my way to watch it on premiere day. It was a pretty darn good adaptation. The animation was incredibly fluid and it really captured Fujimoto's style 1-to-1. There were some movements that looked like they used tweening or something and it wasn't awkward in the slightest. It looked natural and fit the scenes they were on.

Speaking of natural, that's one way to describe the VAs as well. I especially love Kyomoto's voice, as it perfectly fits the character. Since I've already read the ... source material, I knew the story was going to be good but I believe the movie elevates it beautifully using the medium's quirks. There's this key piano music that plays and, while I don't necessarily think it's a cut above other piano performances used for emotional moments, it definitely does its job.There were a couple of moments where you're left without any background music and I also think the movie chose those shots well. Fujino blaming herself for Kyomoto's death was one such scene where the silence worked.

Art is also a big part of this story and I'm glad there were things that mirrored the fake Chainsaw Man stuff. Pochita's door looked very cool. Pages and volume covers of the fake manga looking like those of CSM's were great in a silly kind of way. I really liked the scene where Fujino flipped through Kyomoto's JUMP cover and she saw her old 4koma. The page it landed on I think was a page with fake Denji and Reze. Fujino and Kyomoto's comics were partially-animated as well and that was a treat to look at.

This story is one that lays Fujimoto's doubts and feelings as an artist bare in his own wacky way, and the film tries its damndest to do that justice. The montage after Fujino sees Kyomoto's autographed jacket once again was extended and I personally believe that it could've been trimmed down to how it was originally. But aside from that, you can't get an adaptation as perfect as this.

This is Doga Kobo's 50th anniversary anime, which is also an original. I was itching for a series that had just aired but also something that had a conclusion so I picked this one. I think it's alright. The first episode was really strong. The camerawork was pretty atmospheric when it needs to be. I thought the setup was unorthodox, yet interesting, as it focused on the formation of an anonymous artist group rather than what animes usually see as "a bunch of girls that play instruments form a band". The anime had this really cool format of the girls working on the song and ... the final product would sometimes be used as the ED of the episode. It helped that the songs themselves weren't half bad.

After all the main girls were introduced I began to notice a pattern which I didn't wanna say was a problem yet because there were too little episodes. However, after finishing the show, I can now say for certain that the anime had a problem with solving its conflict. I thought that characters would resolve their issues pretty easily, or at the very least, have quite simplistic presentations as to how they're capped off. The episodes where Kano and Mahiru, the two main members, recruit the last two members have this problem. The execution of how they were convinced to get onboard with the JELEE group wasn't all that satisfying.

Speaking of the characters, I have some thoughts, though I'd like to start with the last two JELEE members. I thought Mei was the least developed of the group. Other than her "recruitment" episode, she really ran out of meat and it seemed like the story knew that and only managed to implement her when it's in support of other characters' development, particularly Kano. As for Kiui, I was surprised at how much stuff she got in comparison to Mei.
Because of this, I would call her my favorite character but, again, the nature of the show's quick resolution of problems dampened the experience.

As for Mahiru and Kano. I really didn't like how their struggles formed. I thought the seeds the story planted for them being "weird" was forced and unrealistic. Mahiru quit art because her peers thought her drawings' colors are weird, as if the mural didn't look amazing. Kano, expressing that she wanted to be like her mom, who was a big shot producer, was met with laughter from her classmates, which is probably the most baffling thing to me. It all just feels very artificial as the starting point of the drama but I also had problems as these things progressed. Kano's mom was a weird case, because there's definitely signs of neglect which would make you root for Kano but the overall portrayal of her character was not really that malicious. This is because the show lacks any acknowledgement of said neglect between the mother and daughter.

Truth be told, the series as a whole would be best enjoyed in a surface-level way. There were a lot of ideas that were introduced later on that never really got the screentime they deserved, like with Mero's own scummy problems, and Kano's dad. If this had gotten double the episode order it had, I could see it being a very good show. The artist group foundation and that "in-universe ED" format brought it up for me.