DORORO — a review tearing the strings that bind us

Posted on by raesaiko

DORORO — A remake of an old anime previously adapted from its almost ancient manga, Dororo returns with stunning graphics coupled with beautifully animated fight scenes. So, what exactly is in store for us?

Set in sengoku-era japan, Dororo centres around the tale of a boy whose organs were sold off to the demons, and in return, his ruling father is promised the wish of prosperous land. Years later, he returns alive, deformed, and slaughtering demons to regain the limbs he lost long ago. He meets Dororo, a young thief, at the beginning of the story, and they start to travel together. An interesting premise, brimming with so much innate potential.

The first episode marked an exciting and hooking watch, with fantastic fighting scenes and an abundance of veiled mysteries waiting to be uncovered. It thereafter takes on an episodic pacing where each conflict is resolved after the end of every episode — but there was where it fell short.

If you’ve binged the entire series in one sitting, it’s evident that Dororo holds some major pacing issues. It jumps from demon-killing-sprees to tragic backstories that becomes more evident in the second cour, interrupting the initial set-up from the previous episodes. Normally, it wouldn’t be a major problem — if the anime itself connected these points to one another. In the end, the episodes felt extremely detached and redundant; with the absence of a proper impact.

Additionally, it’s not to say that the characters are faultless. Though the tension and the grey areas were done excessively well, Dororo fails at centring around its main characters. Our main protagonist being a plot device at worst, the show tends to shift its perspective from Dororo is Hyakkimaru constantly. This destroys the focus — Dororo felt interesting in the first cour, and in the second, the anime slowly shifts its angle to Hyakkimaru’s standpoint.

There’s emotional conflict and tension. Though the characters were almost unaffected by the constant side-plots that made me wonder what they were there for, Dororo simply left her development stage and went on to being a plot device for Hyakkimaru in the second half. She felt extremely surfaced and blunt in the last few episodes — a contrasting impact the show had in attempt to flesh out her character with backstories. It didn’t justify her actions and whatnot, and instead proceeded to be redundant as a whole to her developement.

Hyakkimaru on the other hand, is your typical monster-learning-to-be-human type of character. His personality felt one-dimensional at first, but the author managed to successfully further his development later one (by sacrificing Dororo’s instead). It gave rise to numerous emotional conflicts and grey-areas that really brought out the story, and eventually tied it up together despite the disappointing second cour of the anime.

The side characters, on the flip-side, were extremely irrational and sufferable at times. They were consistently made up of your everyday troupes, despite my interest in that one old man. I was hoping for something interesting to flesh out his backstory, but in the end, it became evident that he was merely used as a plot device. Hyakkimaru’s brother suffered from personality changes that confused me entirely and wasn’t justified at all, and his mother being a martyr felt unnecessary even though that was apparently her only destiny in this tale.

Not to mention, the animation eventually suffered from a huge decline in quality that obviously didn’t help in the experience whatsoever.

OVERALL, Dororo is brimming with cliff-hangers and extremely bad focus, though the ending was by far the most rewarding of this show. It managed to get by barely with the abrupt collapse in development, lack of concrete direction and horrible pacing in the second cour. The plot conveniences were evident here, albeit the decent usage of conflict. All in all, Dororo is indeed interesting, but disappointing when you digest it as a whole.

ratings =

plot & setting | 5

characters | 5

world-building | 7

overall | 6

thank you for reading through and do drop by my blog to read more reviews xx

MOB PSYCHO 100 — a review surpassing the mind

Posted on by raesaiko

MOB PSYCHO 100 — A long wait after the highly acclaimed first season was released back in 2016, Mob Psycho 100 has finally ended with another equally compelling season two launched early this year.

Mob Psycho isn’t exactly your typical psychic anime — sure, it does possess all of the cliches and troupes we’ve definitely seen before — but still, what makes it such a great future classic?

It’s an adaptation surrounding the daily life of Shigeo — a boy born with extraordinary psychic powers — whose dream is to finally confess to the girl he’s liked since childhood. Shigeo, despite his amazing capabilities, refuses to use his powers to aid himself in situations even he struggle in. On the surface, he’s your mediocre, average schoolboy that shudders at anything sports-related; a normal student at least, equipped with psychic powers.

Mob Psycho excels in is its engaging narrative and courageous protagonists. It’s story is extremely easy to follow and well-paced in terms of slowing peeling off the overarching events. Sure, it’s largely predictable, but sometimes, it’s fun to wound down a little and let yourselves enjoy the easygoing, lighthearted narrative Mob Psycho has to offer.

Though it certainly does feel like a rip-off from One Punch Man’s original background, I believe that we’re not to compare these two as they’re two different works — needless to say, Mob Psycho is an anime that we shouldn’t try to break down as much. There’s no point ingesting and deeply analysing it plot-wise; because that’s not the type of show Mob Psycho’s supposed to be. You’re only going to get off displeasure and dull episodes if you do just that.

Theme-wise, it’s extremely clear-cut and is constantly repeated throughout the first few episodes. Mob Psycho instead takes a safer route, with your everyday kind and loving protagonist coupled with social anxiety. Instead, Shigeo’s main quest of confession is almost always pushed to the side as an underdeveloped sub-plot, with him inspiring others possessing similar social issues as its main focus.

At the start, it’s not much of a surprise surrounding how the show portrays Shigeo’s morals, with him partaking in constant recurring fights that showcases his overwhelming strength. It’s your ever-loving rinse-and-repeat cycle — with Shigeo inspiring the troubled young souls at the end of fights.

It’s message occasionally gets pulled and wrung out to dry at times, with each progression, each episode, painstakingly spelling it out for you at worst. It’s not bad, really, but it truly lacks in the actual depth that could carry its nuanced meanings further.

It tries to be emotional, but I personally felt that it missed more than actually hitting the target. Sure, Mob Psycho is specific — to the point where it’s practically educating children compared to allowing its audience to infer and read between the lines. It’s never-ending usage of typical villains posing similarly pitiful backgrounds.

What exactly makes Mob Psycho easy to drop? It’s painfully obvious, really. Though engaging, it’s also your typical good-natured, one track anime. It’s mediocre characters, themes, and more than generic shounen takes are all evident in Mob Psycho. But that’s exactly also what makes its cunning.

What defines your average shounen? Your generic good-guy-meets-bad-guy themes? Mob Psycho’s entire narrative is designed to be an ordinary story with predictable arcs — but it’s because of it’s normalcy that makes it thrive. It’s miles ahead of shounens that try to be special (ahem, Fire Force) because it adopts your usual classics.

There’s nothing much to say besides Mob Psycho being excessively adoptive of your standard good-nature’s protagonists, wacky side characters whose personalities failed at comedy, as well as Reigen, who was the only person with a likeable and distinguishing personality despite his occasional ill-intentions.

ALL IN ALL, Mob Psycho 100 is extremely mediocre — but that’s what makes it both engaging and a turn-off. It’s because of it’s typical narrative that it’s gone so far, well on its way to become a classic. Mob Psycho proves that any anime can be successful with strategic execution. ‘Typical writing, brilliant delivery’ sums it up perfectly.

ratings =

plot & arcs| 5

theme | 4

characters | 5

overall | 7

thank you for reading through and do drop by at my blog for more reviews xx

THE SHOUNEN GENRE — an analysis — what’s so good about it?

Posted on by raesaiko

SHOUNEN — As anime fans, it’s no doubt that we’ve all watched at least one shounen classic before. With a diverse fanbase, this genre undoubtedly dominates the popularity charts. But what exactly makes it so entertaining to watch?

A CHARACTER DRIVEN SHOW

Mostly revolving around the usual narrative, it’s obvious how an anime that uses the same formula over and over can distinguish itself — with a diverse and entertaining cast.

One extremely good example of a shounen that has successfully executed this is My Hero Academia.

My Hero Academia — why is it such a good example? With your classic rinse-and-repeat formulas over and over again in differing orders, what this anime does is to simply insert an interesting — though mostly troupes — range of characters that keeps its viewers invested.

If you’ve actually attempted to break down and analyse the plot in full, it’s not really much thinking; you can see the writer’s intentions, motives and it’s constantly predictable arcs. But that’s not the point of anime — it’s not the narrative that matters, but the character growth instead.

Though similar hurdles and difficulties, we get to see how every character improves each time a new action-filled arc occurs. That’s how My Hero Academia keeps its fans invested.

Another — albeit bad — example is fairy tail.

The thing about Fairy Tail is that it doesn’t rely much on its character growth to boost its popularity. Rather, most of their characters are used for either plot conveniences (Natsu) or in reality, developed extremely little.

However, it does continue to be successful — though not as much as BNHA — because of it’s repetitive theme that holds out throughout the entire series. It’s arcs, though a little uncreative, also possesses some sort of eagerness that hooks onto its viewers. The characters? Not much. That’s where it fails — the drive that BNHA contains that Fairy Tail doesn’t have. Though, the characters do make up for good comedy.

So that leads us to the second point.

PROTAGONISTS? WHAT KIND?

In shounen, you’d see the classic, motive driven and hardworking type of protagonists — in Kimetsu no Yaiba, Naruto, One piece — basically, in almost all the classics. It’s obvious that at the end of day, these characters are definitely going to achieve their goals; it’s the growth and process that makes it utterly fascinating to watch. But does that mean all good shounen anime must contain a solid and clear goal for their protagonist?

Not necessarily. It doesn’t mean that without a clear mindset for their leading characters, the anime itself becomes a boring watch.

Sure, most of the time, the lack of drive does make the anime much duller and more monotone to sit through, but a good example of an anime defying this thought is Soul Eater.

Soul Eater — With Maka as a female protagonist, it’s not only unusual for the main character to possess the straight-laced attitude she exhibits, but also the lack of usual drive most shounen protagonists have that drags the show forward. Instead, this classic anime uses a different approach.

Interestingly, it contains more curious filler episodes than an actual, solid arc, and only an overarching narrative that lasts the entire series. But it’s further than that. What makes this anime so addictive is Maka herself.

True, the cast, widely likeable as well, also functions as a trait that pulls the show together. Maka isn’t exactly goal orientated — like Naruto or Tanjirou — instead, she portrays a more rule-following type of personality. Whereas Soul is the complete opposite.

Soul Eater does this with many of its cast members, and instead of pushing a singular personality to each of its characters, it’s more as if the personalities of the characters fit together extremely well because they’re complete opposites. They function as a whole that bring this show together.

But take note — not all shounen anime can do this well, hence they usually avoid that unique route.

INCREASING POWER GROWTH & SETBACKS

To shounen anime, it’s almost always a forward success path — the rising level of power for our main protagonist. The need and the want to grow stronger due to setbacks or dreams to achieve their future goal.

BNHA’s a classic example — to grow stronger, fight battles and win or lose due to their current progress in power. It shows how much they’ve grown and how much they can achieve.

However, again, Fairy Tail’s another example why power levels can result in failures.

One thing is true about Fairy Tail — Natsu doesn’t exactly improve through battles. It’s simply another formidable enemy stronger than the last, again and again without failure. That way, we don’t actually see the growth he has gone through, but due to the tough wars, we know how he has improved.

It’s not exactly a good way to exhibit growth, and it feels extremely half-hearted without context. Even his training isn’t taken seriously, and more like a comedy break.

But on the other hand, a shounen (sports) anime that handles the growth extremely well is undeniably, Haikyuu!!

Haikyuu!! emphasises on the training required to reach their goals, and through numerous defeats and setbacks, Hinata learns how important is in continuing to seek new ways to further his volleyball skills.

What makes it different from Fairy Tail in terms of growth and power levels? Simple. Fairy tail flaunts the power of its characters through tougher battles that is simply there to tell you how they have grown, whereas Haikyuu!! instead shows us their newfound power that streams from continuous setbacks.

In Fairy Tail, they never outright lose their fights and hence, it’s almost certain that by the fourth arc, they’ll always win. Yet in Haikyuu, the characters themselves face problems that they fight to overcome, whether its teamwork or matches. They lose, and therefore they learn.

That’s how they effectively use the method of increasing growth to interest the viewers.

OVERALL, there are many reasons why a one shounen series is better than another, but these main points are what I feel furthers the tension and allure of a good shounen. Thank you for reading xx

CAROLE AND TUESDAY — a review that transcends music

Posted on by raesaiko

CAROLE AND TUESDAY — Once again, this Spring 2019 music anime makes a fascinating debate with its stunning graphics and enrapturing voices.

There’s something about this anime that just catches your attention. With a brilliant first episode, this science fiction reality pulls us into a beautiful world met with chance encounters and fresh sights. There, the enthusiasm and young friendships just make us more inclined to watch.

The first cour — or rather, till episode 12 — has a great build-up. The timing and flow were precise, and it didn’t feel too rushed or too content-packed. This story is simple; two passionate girls on their way to inspire the world with their music. It was delightful to watch them struggle and there were moments where this show really shined, albeit the drama that I felt was a little forced. I liked the themes for this show, but even though it certainly wasn’t the main point, the subtle nudge at its surface was enough to make me grasp the entire picture.

The music was decent, and the graphics were stunning and beautiful to look at. No complaints there too. However, there was where it ended.

The characters were extremely basic. Carole and Tuesday had their little bonding scenes where we’d get a glimpse of their interactions and their way of life, but that was just it. To be frank, I barely even know them outside the stage. It’s strange — that this film put so much effort into crafting their relationship, but it was ultimately wasted on the girls that clearly wore their personalities in the form of clothing. I really liked the opposing themes of love; how most of the characters were involved in a form of it. But many of them felt like backgrounds that came and went.

Angela was different though. Unlike the attitude and compassion our main characters possess, Angela is one of the better rivals in this show. Compared to scenes which featured Carole or Tuesday, Angela’s frames were the ones I found most intriguing. I blatantly preferred her feisty and rebellious nature; the story entangles her into a web of threads that was hard to pull off, but they did so cleanly. She was — dare I say the only — character that actually had acceptable (not extremely good, but clear) drama, and the defiant nature made her a great character to subtly develop. Which then again reminds us how poorly developed this show is.

The fact that this anime wasted their potential by tossing her aside after they decided that they didn’t need her anymore and introduced a totally unnecessary plot twist made it extremely frustrating. The ending was unsatisfactory and even added on more plot holes.

Yet I found most irritating was the unnecessary filler episodes that were evidently there to steal time. It was like the show didn’t know what to do with the remaining hours before the final showdown, so they bluntly inserted episodes that didn’t matter. Mostly occurring on the second cour, these excruciating minutes not only opened up more plot holes, but had no effect on the plot whatsoever. We could have a depressing love story, but mention nothing about it in the next few episodes. It didn’t even possess any emotional impact. Forced drama, and unnecessary fillers, they ruined this experience.

Not only that, but the sudden drag into a political stand made it even worse. It dragged this film further down, and though it was somewhat interesting, they were painfully awful to watch due to the lack of context they hold. You could basically tell that they were trying too hard at this point. A music anime spiralling into a chaotic confusion — that was exactly how I felt like in the later episodes.

To summarise it all up, this show is one wasted diamond in the rough. I especially liked the former episodes where the storyline was still intact, but if you haven’t watched it yet, you should at least give it a try — who knows, you’ll probably love it more than you think you would. Though it eventually spirals downhill later on.

ratings =

audio & soundtracks | 8

characters | 4

plot & setting | 5

overall | 5

if you’ve read all the way here, thank you so much for taking the time to do so xx

KIMETSU NO YAIBA — reviewing the bonds eclipsing cruelty

Posted on by raesaiko

KIMETSU NO YAIBA — A family bond fiercer than fires against papery desires, Kimetsu no Yaiba dominates the 2019 anime charts with its breathtaking visuals, heartfelt emotions, and of course, it’s splendid storytelling. But what makes this anime such a great watch?

As someone who has read the initial source material, Ufotable has certainly outdone itself with the heart-lurching action scenes, not to mention the catching opening and ending songs. It’s definitely one that could rival the manga, though it does hold some minor pacing issues itself.

But its charm does not only lie in its production. Kimetsu no Yaiba pulls together a simple — yet complex — narrative, and sometimes, we don’t need an intricate or plot twisting take to get ourselves immersed in a story. This anime does just that; it unfolds itself with amusing characters, a driven protagonist and heartwarming scenes that doesn’t delve too deep to the point of making it unique.

Because Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t your one-of-a-kind concepts, it’s execution and progression makes it so much better then any other shounen (cough, Fire Force, cough) exhibiting a unique concept.

The underlying reasons on why Demon slayer is so hard to put down is because of it’s beautiful, clean progression. As mentioned before, this anime does exhibit some pacing problems that stops it from reaching its fullest potential, but like any other memorable shounen out there, it does a great job on pulling its protagonist back onto his feet to tear the way through this story.

On the other hand, it’s plenty true why the growth doesn’t impact us that much. Because of the one episode rush on telling us how much he improved throughout the two years really affected the overall strength progression regarding Tanjiro, I can’t help but feel that what sets apart this show from reaching greater heights is its power rush itself.

Throughout the series, Tanjiro wants to improve his strength. Yet, what sets apart this show is its latent potential to bring about greater obstacles for our protagonist — but it refuses to. Now, if it’s kind of confusing to catch what I’m getting on, take this example; how about an antagonist he can’t defeat, and also because of his faltering, he lost something precious at his current strength?

These circumstances is what drives a show forward. Kimetsu no Yaiba flaunts brilliant chances to do so, yet it almost never uses that opportunity to fly to greater heights. With that, it could’ve factored in the stress of ‘I’m not strong enough’ or the residual fear of it happening again, leading to his constant mistakes that stall his growth. Now, I know exactly what you manga readers are screaming about, but for a sake of a spoiler-free review, take note of the above two points that didn’t occur.

Though, that doesn’t change the fact that Demon slayer is ground-breaking at what it does achieve.

A vibrant cast each with their own tales, their backstories perfectly blend into the narrative itself. How exactly does Kimetsu no Yaiba spin a captivating tale? Simple. It reveals the past of both demons and side characters, so much that each of them could be the protagonist of the film itself. It’s a beautiful revelation, each unique to its own.

But again, that opens up so many latent opportunities to connect individual arcs together to form something much more captivating and heart-warming. With an over-arching intention, like ‘people can’t choose where they are born’ or something that manages to collectively join the tales together, the residual impact of each demon or the next unravelled backstory could’ve added up to one that becomes more heartwarming. But instead, they fleshed out the characters themselves, and barely even speak of their stories again.

On the flip side, another aspect about Kimetsu no Yaiba that I have hardly any complaints about is its cast members. Tanjiro is your typical shounen protagonist, but that’s exactly what makes him so compelling to root for. Though Nezuko’s somewhat of a meme in the anime community, I can’t help but feel that she’s being used as more of a plot device. Inosuke and Zenitsu were fleshed out really well in the manga, but it felt kind of rushed in the anime despite its brilliant counterpart.

ALL IN ALL, Kimetsu no Yaiba is a compelling anime with so much latent potential to exceed even classic shounens. It’s definitely my candidate for anime of the year, and though I feel that it’s kind of overrated, this anime is one of the more overwhelming ones to make its mark this 2019. It’s on its way to become another classic, so I hope it doesn’t fall short.

ratings =

world-building | 9

characters | 7

plot & story arcs | 7

overall | 8

thank you so much for taking your time to read through this review and do drop by my blog sometime xx