I can sense the raging fanboys as I type the title of this entry, but it's one I promised to do for a while and since I haven't posted anything on this blog in forever, I thought this would be a great way to come back.
So what is wrong with Hyouka? Well, in my opinion, pretty much everything.
I always manage to get myself caught up in one-sided discussion with people defending this anime, and no matter how many good and some even valid points those people make, I simply can not for the life of me understand how Hyouka can even be considered above average.
Let's discuss the first problem I have with Hyouka: The Mysteries.
"Oh boy he's just going to rant about how the mysteries were unimportant isn't he?"
Well, not quite, I understood from the get go this anime was not trying to put forward some kind of deep detective charade and that the mysteries were meant to be simplistic and, for the most part, fairly minimalistic.
The problem I have with the mystery elements in this show is that none of them really matter for anything.
I don't get any sense of accomplishment from seeing the characters solve the already miniscule mysteries that they manage to come across. The characters are always triggered by silly stuff and then turn everything into a detective style, clue gathering and crime solving type of mystery, only to solve it and be done with it. The mysteries are, for the most part, unrelated to the plot (or lack thereof) and don't provide any fun addition to the show, they just feel like pointless ways to drag out and pad a way for a really uninteresting adventure.
You can say all you want about the goal of the show being "simple mystery solving" or whatever, but that doesn't take away the fact that the mysteries, on top of being minimalistic and boring, don't add any value to the plot and are, quite frankly, really unoriginal and boring, which makes for an overall negative watching experience.
Moving on to the second problem I have with this anime: The characters
I absolutely hated almost every single character in Hyouka.
This is the part where it comes more down to personal preferences, but I'll still speak my mind on it.
Chitanda Eru made me want to commit suicide. Her whole character is based off of this retarded gimmick of wanting to solve mysteries for no reason. It's like she's brain dead and all she can say is "I'm curious!". Her character is annoying, doesn't do much for the most part, and just feels like a really sorry excuse for a main heroine of a show. She wasn't fun to watch, I just wanted her to disappear for most part of the show so I wouldn't have to deal with this utter BS.
But what this gimmick really ruins is essentially the show's main gimmick: simple mysteries
You see, simple mysteries can be cool and all, but not when all your main character does is look for the most fucking pointless mystery she can find, and then drag the entire cast with her in order to solve the absolutely tedious mystery. This, in my opinion, is this show's major downfall.
Chitanda Eru was a mistake.
This is how it felt hearing Chitanda say "I'm curious!"
She's a hollow shell of a heroine and god forbid the person who thought she was a good character comes up with more stories like this.
Moving on, the other two (almost side) characters: Satoshi and Mayaka
God, these two made me want to shove forks in my eyes so I wouldn't have to continue watching this appalling show.
Satoshi is by far one of the worst main/side characters I have ever seen, his entire premise for acting the way he does is that he feels inferior to the protagonist. And he makes sure you know this EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
He never acts on his own accord, he makes himself inferior on purpose and overall he needlessly becomes a hindrance and a nuisance for no apparent reason other than being an edgy emo teenager.
And what's worse, he never evolves from this. He stays like this throughout the whole show. I don't even know who thought this was a good idea.
The last main character I didn't like, Mayaka, is the lesser bad of the main ones. While I was profoundly annoyed by her being hung over such a horrible crush like Satoshi, at the very least I could concede that she was slightly more proactive than him.
Still though, just like her crush, Mayaka often spent her time mopping around and acting like an edgy emo teenager because we all know being a teenager really is tough.
The sole saving grace of the plot, the protagonist Oreki, really can't salvage the whole show, but I will grant that he's the only character with meaningful and interesting development as he goes from being one of those uninterested types to a more proactive character that's interested in stuff (probably affected by the Chitanda virus).
Still though, I find Oreki's character slightly bland as, just like every other character in the show, his sole gimmick is being OP at logic. Which, at the very least, is a good thing to be OP at, but other than that he's not really that interesting to watch as he mostly just gets dragged around by people.
But since he's the most intuitive of the group, I'll say that he's the sole character I kind of liked in the show.
Moving on to the third and last problem I have with this show: The pacing and the story
When you have a 22 episode show, you have to make sure you maintain a good pacing and have an engaging story so your viewers really want to stick with you until the end. Sadly, Hyouka fails on this aspect as well.
The uninteresting and unengaging mysteries and the generally slow paced and easygoing story only add up to an ultimately boring viewing experience that never managed to make me want to keep watching, but rather it made me feel like I was forcing myself to press on to see if ultimately there would be something worth praising at the end of the tunnel.
Spoiler alert: there wasn't.
Hyouka is a show with basically no plot, and shows with no plots are something I'm known to like even, but when you have no plot, you need good characterization, you need your characters to be engaging and make things happen, and Hyouka fails on pretty much every aspect of this, making for one of the worst anime experiences I've had.
This anime might have been produced with a big budget (based Unlimited KyoAni Works), but if you have a bad source material, no matter how much you sugarcoat it, no matter how many directing tricks you use, it just doesn't work, and Hyouka will always be living proof of it.
To those of you who defend Hyouka, I'm sorry, you're allowed to like this anime, really, I understand all the trickery that went behind in making it, I just think that it's ultimately really non engaging and boring and overall a sugercoated turd that I can not wrap my head around no matter how many times I watch it.
Just ask yourself this: Do you find an anime based on pointless mysteries that are constantly forced upon you by an annoying teen girl that constantly shouts "I'm curious!" to be fun?
If you do, I guess I have nothing to say to you.
If you don't, then I hope you understand why I don't like Hyouka as well.
So I just spent 50 minutes of my day watching this. Trying to process what I just watched is hard, there's just so much information to take in. I watched it alongside OriginalRen, SuikaShoujo and The Major, yet despite our best efforts, our brains simply were no match for the depth and intricacy this anime provides.
I'll try to give you a feel, a small sample of what it feels like to watch "Issho ni Sleeping: Sleeping with Hinako", but I truly believe that the only real way to appreciate this show is to just watch it yourself.
So first off we have our heroine Hinako. Hinako really likes to sleep. Her main trait as a character is not being able to fix the strap on her shirt.
As you can see from this cleverly crafted angle, this entire anime is told in first person perspective. But we're just scratching the surface of how thick the plot really gets.
After Hinako changes clothes, covering your face so you don't see her changing, even though she just ends up sleeping in her underwear anyway, she goes to sleep.
And thus, our sleep adventure begins!
That is the face of pure bliss.
Here we have some amazing shots that truly depict the wonders of a 2D girl sleeping.
A real good close up of the heroine, it's almost like she's breathing on you
In this shot here, you can see Hinako's breasts changing sizes, giving us a clear reason why Hinako just can not get the left strap of her shirt to stay in place, her left breast simply doesn't have as much mass.
This shot here is a classic. The subtle twitch Hinako's leg makes each time really provides livelyness to her sleep, making you feel like you're sleeping right next to her.
10 minutes in and the anime really ramps it up by having Hinako turn to the other side. In my opinion this was one of their best moves yet.
Here we get a first glimpse of Hinako's windowsill which displays a clock and a vase with a plant. This is a very intringuing as the clock displays no numbers, a fact that will become really important later on so make sure you keep it in mind.
Another very rare shot of Hinako's armpit, one of my personal favorites if I daresay so myself. The disproportionally sized breasts really help elevate that armpit.
18 minutes in and the biggest game changer yet, Hinako makes use of one of her pillows! We can neither confirm nor deny if there's any significance behind this pose and the pillow's peculiar shape.
And just 30 seconds later we are shown Hinako's sleep eating abilities.
This is one of the rarest shots in the whole story, at the 22:22 minute mark, Hinako dangles her arm from the bed. What a delightful display of character.
And this 24 minute mark is the crucial turning point where we have a clear view of Hinako's room and lo and behold, nobody is sleeping next side her, even though we're supposed to be there, what could this possibly mean!?
At the 26 minute mark, Hinako has a dream about the moment we confessed to her and she gladly accepted our feelings. While the dream itself lasted a mere 10 seconds, I could really feel a deep emotional connection with Hinako's character just from watching her sleep for the past 26 minutes.
And in the next minute, Hinako wakes up. I'm sure we were thinking the same thing, and that is how much we love each other. Hinako, being the amazing girlfriend she is, sings us a lullaby with really inspiring lyrics such as "Go to sleep, go to sleep on Hinako's chest" which have the result of making her fall asleep.
At the 30 minute mark, Hinako has yet another dream, this time about when she was training hard to lose weight, she even gives us advice on how to be BIG like Hinako.
And now, the biggest game changer yet, Hinako falls off her bed! My heart could barely take it, seeing Hinako fall on the floor after 30 minutes of sleeping really came out of nowhere, this anime sure knows how to tug on your heart strings.
And now starts the most romantic scene in an anime I have ever seen.
What a straightforward approach. Hinako tops all those tsunderes in generic romcoms, you don't get this level of romance too often.
Of course we have a really deep connection with Hinako, and she reassures us of that by returning our feelings (even though we didn't really say anything, I'm sure our feelings got acress).
I had to hold back my emotions over how realistic everything got, the intense urge to kiss my screen really started to come out.
*doki doki*
Hinako wastes no time though, she knows what her main goal is, this woman has her priorities set straights, that's why right after this she once again heads to bed and instantly falls asleep. Pro sleepers really are something else.
But the thrilling ride isn't over yet, can you believe they still have more in store? This time, Hinako invites us to sleep on the same bed as her. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. The anime really makes this a realistic experience by tilting the camera 90 degrees. It truly felt like I was right next to Hinako.
[immersion intensifies]
35 minutes in, Hinako does yet another unpredictable thing, she decides to get a night snack. Gosh, this anime really doesn't hold back on the plot twists.
Brushing your teeth is important too. Even if you didn't eat anything. Deep.
Once again, after falling asleep, Hinako falls on the floor. This time facing the other way, I liked that change of pace, this anime really knows when to spice it up.
She doesn't forget her girlfriend duties though and reminds us we are also an entity, a sentient being, and thus we need sleep as well. Notice how her strap keeps sagging lower and lower, symbolizing we're reaching the end of our journey.
After she falls asleep, Hinako has one last dream. In this one though, she ended up getting fat due to eating so many snacks. I'm sure she'll resume her training the next day!
And now, after a whole 40 minutes of Hinako sleeping, morning comes, and this is where the plot really thickens!
You see, after this, Hinako sleeps with us again, twice, do you not see what this means!?
This whole time, we've actually been trapped in a dream world, but not just that, we were trapped in a dream world, inside a dream world, inside a dream world, inside a dream world, and we weren't a human being either, we were a ghost that posessed random objects around Hinako's room in order to try to wake her from the dream by looking at her body from several different angles. Remember the clock I mentioned at the beginning? What was missing? Pointers! That's because in this dream world, there's no time flow! We've been stuck sleeping with Hinako over and over, that's why she always wears the same outfit when she sleeps.
I could barely see this coming, it came by so fast my brain just had no time to process it.
This anime is a deconstruction of the human psyche, one that if you're not paying attention to, you will miss its profound message, the 50 minute length time really manages to portray to intricacies of the brain by having the same still shots over and over again across the timeline, you really feel like you're diving into Hinaki's profound sleepiness and tracing its patterns.
The emotional bonds you manage to form with Hinako as you watch her sleep from every possible angle really make this a standout from the crowd. You can not get this deep level of characterization anywhere else.
It brought me to tears as my eyes were strained while I wtched 50 minutes of a girl sleeping on a bed, making me empathize with her.
The story sucks you in, almost making you fall asleep just like Hinako.
This 16 year old girl who can't put on a shirt strap properly is the apogee of all female characters. If you haven't used the term "waifu" now, I'm sure this anime will change your mind.
Issho ni Sleeping: Sleeping with Hinako is, without a doubt, the best anime ever made.
I decided to make a blog so I can rant about all the manga I read and hopefully get more people into the medium and perhaps even discover some interesting titles. Granted not everything I will review will be positive, but I will always try to see how a manga could be interesting to other people besides myself as well. Thanks to @Kawasumi for giving me this amazing title for the blog.
For my first post I'd like to talk about one of my favorite manga, Prunus Girl
This light hearted series tells the story of Maki Makito who meets a young girl named Aikawa Kizuna during the entrance exams for his high school. She looks like a true beauty and both he and his classmates are entranced by her. But there's a catch, Aikawa Kizuna is actually a crossdressing boy!
Now I know those of you who dislike yaoi might already be cringing at the thought of reading this, but I'd like to ask you to read this entire review and perhaps give this great manga a chance, because I really think this is one of those cases where a manga knows how to play the tropes to its advantages and reach a wider audience you wouldn't normally see with these kinds of stories.
Starting off with the story itself, there really isn't an overarching plot per se, as each chapter is pretty much its own self contained arc, with a few exceptions that span over 3 or 4 chapters. They all mostly involve Maki and Aikawa in some crazy situation and Aikawa attempting to steal Maki's heart in the process. Although you might think this becomes stale quickly, I believe one of the things that kept me going was the fact that with each chapter the two characters seemed to grow closer to each other. Their relationship isn't a constant back and forward, they actually do develop a mutual bond and it doesn't cause any frustration at all because you know from the get go the two are meant to be together.
Maki might often brush off Aikawa's advances, but ultimately the two are made for each other, and it shows with each chapter. The thing that I really enjoyed the most amidst all this is how Aikawa's gender barely ever comes into play. Yes, it's used as a gag to some degree, but not as a way to say "these two can't be together because they're both boys". It was great to read a story where there really isn't a great wall to climb over in order for love to happen, it was a mere question of time for the characters to form a strong enough bond to be together. Their relationship is honestly one of the most natural I've seen.
Moving on to the characters, this manga actually has a surprisingly diverse cast to look at, and what's more, all of them are pretty accepting of Aikawa's crossdressing. There really isn't much of a rivalry outside of Maki fighting all the boys off of Aikawa in order to protect him. There are a few characters that try to meddle with their relationship, but ultimately nothing really gets out of proportion and all the conflicts between the characters are easily solved at the end of the day.
At 42 chapters, you might think this manga can get stale due to how little "plot" there is, but trust me, these characters manage to grow on you quicker than you'd expect, and you'll find yourself cheering them on and wanting to know what kind of antics they'll be up to next. There's even certain characters that get their own arc, so you'll never feel like a certain character didn't get what they deserved.
Aikawa and Maki might be the center, but their surroundings do a lot to help bring this manga to life, and it's wonderful to see an author knowing how to not disappoint their reader when it comes to side character development.
In terms of artstyle, the manga doesn't particularly shine through I must say. The characters themselves don't get a lot of detail (even the main ones) and backgrounds and few and far between, with the ones that exist not having a ton of detail either. But I think the characters have distinct enough features to at least not have same-face syndrome, so that's something. I also don't believe the art is bad in terms of aesthetics, mind you, it just that it's not particularly detailed. You be the judge I guess.
To close this off, I'd like to at least address the elephant in the room, and that is of course the gay relationship between the two main characters and the question of gender identity as whole. Of course, despite being a romantic comedy, this manga is still ultimately about two guys falling in love with each other (well, it feels more like a bromance, but alas!). I have to be honest and say I do very much enjoy trap characters, so I was obviously biased from the get go when I read this manga, but I think the light heartedness with which the manga takes itself, as well as the fact the characters are all accepting of the situation, makes the reader question things less and instead just presents a fun tale anyone can enjoy. Even at the end, Aikawa's gender really isn't a big deal for anyonee, and I think one key elements of the story is the acceptance of his crossdressing and the fact that, before he's a boy or a girl, he's just a person with a wonderful personality, and that's all that matters.
Prunus Girl is a very fun, easy to read manga. Albeit the subject matter is clearly not one most people are into, I believe the story does a fantastic job of just taking itself lightly and instead focusing on its lively cast of characters and their antics, shifting the focus from a guy on guy relationship to a mere relationship between two people.
I hope people give it a chance, because I think it might really open up the window to this genre to some. I at least have never found a proper manga that works with the theme of crossdressing and gay relationships as well as this one.
This was a really tough thing for me to witness because I really like the original Pupa manga. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it had some decent dark and psychological themes and an interesting pair of siblings as main characters. It's a horror story about some of the more grotesque things you could write about, a story about a sister who's forced to literally eat her brother in order to survive and they cope with it as well as the mad experiments going on in the background.
But this anime... this anime managed to suck every ounce of life out of Pupa. This is not just a "bad" adaptation, it wasn't just your typical "oh it left out some important bits" or "the pacing was kind of bad", this adaptation, can not even be considered an adaptation of the original Pupa manga. This anime right here is an insult to all adaptations in existence.
I was really excited when this was first annouced, but that excitement didn't last long as it dawned on me that the anime would have an episode length of 3 minutes. At this point is where essentially all of my red flags went off and the prospect of Pupa having a successful adaptation was basically already ruined. I tried to think of any possible way they could successfully pull it off, but I just couldn't think of any. And sure enough, as soon as the first episode of Pupa aired, I knew that I was in for one of the worst rides of my life.
Anime isn't famous for having good horror shows. The amount of really good horror anime in existence can likely be counted by the amount of fingers one has, and Pupa already started off with the wrong foot by censoring the living hell out of every single meaningful shot. I'm not one to advocate that gore and violence is what makes horror, it's definitely not, but in the case of Pupa, the core of the story lies in the grotesque and brutal violence of a lot of scenes, and by censoring all of them with huge black bars, you're already taking away any "wow" factor the show might have had.
And if you're wondering how ridiculous the censoring got at points, just look at this:
A man holding a knife!? That's heinous! Censor this madness right now!
But don't worry, I re-watched the series in blu-ray just for the sake of getting the most out of it, and even then, it still utterly fails to transmit all the grotesque scenes and all the violence the original manga had.
All the entrails are sloppily drawn, nothing feels vivid or impactful, the "gore" consists mostly of ludicrous amounts of blood gushing out of people for no apparent reason.
So even in the gore department, this series fails.
The one thing they could have at least gotten right, they utterly fail at, and after a horrid 2 first episodes, watching the rest of Pupa was like dragging my dead body across a floor made out of sand paper.
Let's quickly go over how the show adapted the story:
Yume and Utsutsu go home together one day and Yume is turned into a monster and it's revealed she has been infected with the Pupa virus. This virus grants the host with regenerative abilities, but in return, they cause insatiable hunger.
Yume kills her brother by stabbing him but in a sudden twist he comes back and we discover he also has been infected by the virus and can regenerate himself. Though for some reason he doesn't have the hunger thing.
Our Onii-chan vows to protect Yume by letting her eat him whenever she's hungry and the anime turns these scenes into laughable moments by having random cheerful music play in the background as Yume eats away Utsutsu's body. This does nothing good for the show and just removes any and all kind of meaningful impact the scenes might have otherwise have.
We have some flashbacks to the siblings' past where it's revealed Yume's mother had the virus inside her and that's supposedly how Yume got it. We see Yume as a child eating a bird and being stabbed by her own mother, only to then be revived by the virus, this in turn caused her mother to lose most of her sanity.
We also learn that the siblings had a rough past with a really abusive dad, but the show really fails at portraying what is one of the most important plot points of the manga, and that is Utsutsu's dad and his tendency to be violent towards him. Not to mention his role in the story development itself. But I wouldn't expect anything less from such a crappy show.
Our siblings get taken away by some random organization we never heard of (10/10 context!) and Utsutsu gets experimented on for some reason. Yume manages to break free using her monster powers and Utsutsu escapes with her, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies.
After this, the anime pretty much ends with Yume once again eating away at her brother and the credits rolling.
Sounded fun right? No? Hmm, I wonder what might have been missing... Oh wait, every fucking thing was missing.
This show provides absolutely zero context for why most of the events are happening.
One of the main villains, a scientist called Maria is introduced early on as some sort of mastermind behind things, and at one point they even mention she's going to impregnate herself using Utsutsu's sperm and Yume's egg cells in an attempt to give birth to another monster, and we even see her with a pregnant belly! But what happens after that? NOTHING. Absolutely fucking nothing.
We never see or hear from this lady again, we're just supposed to accept she disappears I guess. But if you're going to make her disappear, why introduce her in the first place??
But that's not all, Utsutsu's father, who even appears on the very first manga chapter, is rarely shown in the anime, and he has a very present role as he's the motivation behind a lot of Utsutsu's reasoning and he's also the one who gave him all his scars, but the anime doesn't even bother to explain anything related to it.
In the episode where we learn about Yume's backstory, her mother seems to be an important character and we even see her in the present day talking to their father. And then they never appear again! Ever!
Why are you showing your viewers things that won't matter later on?
Lastly, when Utsutsu and Yume get kidnapped, not only do they make everything look ridiculously stupid by having Yume and Utsutsu, two people who have regenerative abilities, lose in a fight against one single guy with a pocket knife.
I mean, who looked at this show and thought "let's make a series about two siblings with a weird virus in them and then never utilize the virus in any of the scenes where it could have been useful".
We also never know who the organization that kidnapped them is or why they're doing what they're doing, we're just shown, and very briefly so, some of the torture they're performing on Utsutsu, but most of the actual gorey scenes are never actually shown.
It's like they decided to make a horror and then strip it of any scenes that might make a horror show good in the first place.
Couplethis with terrible and incosistent writing and you got yourself a big pile of crap. Or in Pupa's case, a small pile of crap, because this anime only lasts for a whole 30 minutes if you combine all the episodes, so at least it's not like your eyes will be subject to the atrocities this show has for long.
And after all the completely random nonsensical events I just described above, this anime has the audacity to have one extra episode at the end with absolutely no connection to the previous episodes whatsoever. This last episode is just a cheerful scene with Yume and Utsutsu going shopping for a new teddy bear for Yume. What's the point of it? Give me consolation after all the shit I've had to deal with when watching the show? Because if that was the intention, I'm sorry to say it only prolongued the suffering.
It's like the final nail in the coffin before this series is buried for eternity to never be seen again.
And let's not forget the god awful product placement, because don't think I didn't see that, then again it was hard to miss given how out of place it looks compared to the rest of the shot:
Yeah, letting a child read Pupa, a manga full of gore and violence.
10/10 product placement
To wrap this up and so people stop asking me to watch this show, Pupa is a complete and utter mess with no sense of direction, no writing consistency, bad dialogue, bad art direction, bad gore, bad story, bad everything.
This show does not have a sole redeeming factor, not even for the lovers of pure gore, I do not think it is physically possible for someone to watch Pupa and think "huh, that was cool". You would have to stretch it, and I mean really stretch it, just to call Pupa "average".
The other shows I've ranted about before this don't even come close to the level of garbage that is Pupa.
Do not watch this. I repeat, do not watch this, you will lose brain cells at a 10 times faster ratio in the 30 minutes you'll spend watching this show. Please, I'm caring for your health here, do not dare to touch this show with a 10 ft pole.
If you're curious about Pupa in the slightest, at least do yourself a huge favor and read the manga, because at least that's tolerable and knows what it's doing, but for the love of everything, do not lay eyes upon this monstrosity of an "anime".
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spray lemon juice in my eyes and pretend Pupa, just like the Tsukihime anime, never existed.
What a great way to start this blog, using a recent example to showcase just exactly why some anime are a mistake.
Mahou Sensou, produced by Madhouse... yes, you heard it right, Madhouse.
The company that brought you amazing shows such as Hunter x Hunter, Death Note, Hajime no Ippo, Nana, Chihayafuru, etc. is the company that one day probably went to a mexican restaurant, ate some expired tacos, and in the process of expelling all the dejects from that dinner, Mahou Sensou came to life.
I do not understand how anyone managed to look at this finished product and thought "Wow! This is going to be a hit!" Yeah, right, a critical hit in my brain cells, that's what.
The show starts off pretty normally, our protagonist, Takeshi, and his fake girlfriend, Kurumi, are just wandering about when out of nowhere a random girl appears collapsed on the floor (you know an anime will be great when the first scene is like this).
Being the selfless protagonist Takeshi is, he brings the girl, Mui, to the infirmary.
And these were the greatest and most well written moments in Mahou Sensou.
Yep.. after this point we're going to be scraping the bottom of a dirty toilet, be prepared.
When this girl they found collapsed, Mui, wakes up, she proceeds to shoot Takeshi with her magical gun. You know, as a greeting. Perfectly normal.
But wait, that's not all, after shooting Takeshi, guess what happens? He turns into a magician!
That's right folks, hitting someone with magic in this universe means they turn into a magician. I know it sounds unbelievable to some, but I promise you, for the life of me, I am not kidding.
In the Mahou Sensou universe, if I shoot a magical fireball at your face, instead of burning you to cinders, you will be turned into a fucking magician.
And they explain this like it's normal, they literally throw a huge flashback on how magic works and how there's an alternative universe for magicians and stuff and how the magicians have to keep their identities a secret.
But if you can turn a person into a magician just by shooting them in the face, why not turn everybody in the world into one!? It sure doesn't seem like magic is a big deal if you can just transmit it like it was ebola.
At this point, I'm already left facepalming and wishing I had never pressed play in this anime, but we're just getting started here.
So of course, after this, random magicians appear and they try to kidnap Mui.
And Takeshi somehow manages to be a pro at using his magic and kicks their butt.
In the process his fake girlfriend is hit with magic and she also turns into a magician.
We're then treated to an explanation on the different types of magic in the Mahou Sensou universe, most of which are completely retarded, but the ones that are relevant here are Takeshi and Mui's magic, Acceleration magic, you know that kind of magic that does the thingy.. just kidding I have no freaking clue what kind of magic "acceleration" is supposed to be, nor do they ever explain to you, so good luck coming up with theories. And Kurumi's magic, corporal magic. Say the word "corporal magic" in your head 5 times and then imagine what kind of powers it brings to its user. If you guessed "boob growth", you're right! Of course there'd be a magic type just for the sake of PLOT, no anime is complete without it amirite?
Once all the explanations are over, Kurumi and Takeshi transfer to the magical academy in the magical universe. Yep, because parents never ask why you're suddenly transfering to a magical school. And this is where the "journey" in Mahou Sensou begins.
Most of the events in the anime are pretty irrelevant and just involve the characters practicing their magic in contests and stuff.
Takeshi's best friend, Kazumi appears later on because he also got shot in the face with magic. Boy being shot with magic really is popular huh?
His magic type is fire, which he never manages to use properly and just ends up blowing himself up. Useless best friend character: check!
But that's not all, his little sister also randomly appears at once point because she was hit by her brother's magic.
At this point I'm starting to feel like the whole "magic is like ebola" plot device only exists for the sake of introducing new characters.
Magicians also have to have a proper device they can use to cast their magic.
In Takeshi's case, he gets this mystical cursed sword that's rumored to have immense power (of course no one took it before that).
And needless to say this sword has a little girl spirit dwelling in it, which Takeshi conquers in his dream, making the sword officially "his".
He even names the girl/sword, and she is never seen again in the anime, ever.
Talk about caring for your sword, Takeshi. She let you be her master you heartless bastard, at least give her some attention.
And then we're treated to more retarded romantical conflict between Takeshi, Kurumi and Mui and just a whole bunch of other BS.
We then are shown a supposedly important competition between the academy students in which they have to perform great and exciting tasks like escaping a maze.. yayyy....
Of course in the middle of this the academy is attacked by our main villains.
Our group of friends manages to escape the maze immediately in the process (the anime literally just cuts off and they're outside the maze now, talk about skills!) and then fights the villains.
Of course the teachers, who are all supposed to be pro magicians, just sit around and say it's impossible to save them unless they reach the goal, talk about safety first.
A couple of battles later everyone's safe and stuff.
After this, our group of friends goes on a journey to save Mui's brother who's part of this faction of magicians that's trying to create a giant magical warfare (used the title, roll credits). There's nothing much to this, they just manage to rescue him by themselves from a supposedly terrorist group, no biggie right?
Then out of nowhere we're introduced to Takeshi's brother who's now ALSO a magician after being hit with magic (can't forget to remind the viewers that magic=ebola). And needless to say he is part of the villain's group and he hates Takeshi and is jealous of him having a girlfriend. So naturally he kidnaps her and kicks Takeshi's ass, laughing in his face like a true scumbag. The show tries really hard to make sure you hate him.
Of course soon enough Kurumi is saved and everything's good.
In the meantime the great war ensues in the real world, a plot to unite the magician's world to the human world, because it's much more effective than just shooting every human in the face with magic, gotta make sure we destroy everything right?
Oh and I forgot to mention, Takeshi's mom is also a magician, and Takeshi himself trains with her after this.
So yeah, magic is not transmitted by genes, but by shooting someone in the face.
Fucking great right!?
We're almost done, hang on to your seats.
At this point you're already bleeding through your eyes and wondering when this show will finally end. But you're finally greeted with war.
Finally this anime will stay true to its name and turn into a legitimate magical warfare right..? Right.....?
Well, if you consider flashing lights in the sky to be "warfare" then I guess so.
The whole "war" is just Takeshi and his brother fighting. In the process of this fight his brother stabs Kurumi and then wheeps over it like a baby.
And then, out of nowhere, the academy principal appears, does some crazy magical spell bullshit and turns time back and Takeshi and his brother are in the magical academy 50 years ago.
And then.. the anime ends.
Yep... that's it. That's the ending, there's nothing else.
You go through 12 episodes of absolute garbage only to be greeted with a cliffhanger.
You don't know what happened, there's no explanation, no nothing, it just ends on this note.
And thus, you can finally lay this anime to rest, forget it ever existed and rub some lemon in your eyes to cleanse them.
You know, I'm going to contradict myself here a little.
I know I mentioned you're entitled to your opinion and all. But seriously, if you find this anime to be above average in any way, shape, or form, I definitely believe you either 1) Only watched one or two anime in your entire life and they were probably boku no pico and Skelter Heaven, or 2) You're blind.
I do not know or understand the concept or even the theory that says a human being can enjoy this anime. It is beyond all logic and reason.
This is not "so bad it's good" level, this is absolute well dwelling dog feces tier level anime.
Nothing decent happens in the anime.
The "warfare" are just flashing lights.
The main conflict between Takeshi and his brother is retarded because the brother is a piece of whimpy shit.
Kurumi servers no purpose and is just there for showing her boobs and then dying.
Mui also serves no purpose at all other than being the reason Takeshi is even in the mess
And the whole setting is just stupid from the very beginning.
This anime is absolute trash. There are no redeeming qualities and I hope to god that if anyone ever reads this, that they do not try to subject themselves to the horrors of this show.
The final veredict for Mahou Sensou, on the vomit scale, is an 8/10: vomited my own lungs
Well it sure took a while to make an entry on this blog.
This blog is meant for me to rant about anime I watch and that, most of the time, thought it was terrible.
Mind you every entry in this blog is my personal opinion and you're free to disagree and even enjoy the anime I complain about, so please try to be considerate of my opinion and don't ragequit if I mention an anime you like.
I still don't have a set format for my entries or a schedule, they'll likely be very inconsistent because I'm lazy, I don't even know for how long I'll keep posting stuff, so yeah don't expect professionalism in any form, you've been warned.
