Category Archives: Final Thoughts

2021 Summer Anime Season: Final Thoughts

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2021 summer anime season final thoughts

It’s that time of the year again, so here are some of our Final Thoughts of the summer anime season that just came to an end~

Blue Reflection Ray

blue reflection ray

I actually dropped Blue Reflection at about the halfway mark, but I wrote about what I thought up until that point. 😛

Prior to this being announced, I had never heard of the Blue Reflection game, so I don’t know how the anime mirrors to the game (if it mirrors it at all). What I do know is that Blue Reflection Ray was another dark magical girl anime where despair is king, and while I thought it started out in a pretty interesting fashion, over time, my interest fell pretty hard. A lot of that has to do with how the story felt stretched out, no doubt because of this being two cours.

Compared to some other non-Madoka dark magical girl anime, I thought the story had some interesting aspects to it, but I was disappointed when it was apparent that the villains were comically evil. I hated Shino, Uta, and Nina, though a part of me liked Mio. It’s pretty much the opposite when it comes to the main cast. Ruka, Momo, and Miyako were winners in my book, though I was less impressed with Hiori.

Thanks to the bad girls, this anime seemed to have a decent amount of yuri, so there’s a very good chance that I’ll finish watching this and review it in the near future. Based on the other dark magical girl anime that I’ve seen, the bar for these types of shows isn’t too high (if we’re not talking about Madoka), and the first cour of Blue Reflection is probably not the least enjoyable one I’ve seen. I’ve stretched this out long enough, so stay tuned for a proper review in the coming weeks… hopefully. 😀

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2021 Spring Anime Season: Final Thoughts

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It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the spring anime season that just came to an end~

BATTLE ATHLETESS DAIUNDOUKAI RESTART!

battle athletess daiundoukai restart anime

After watching the first episode a few months ago, it was pretty clear that this revival of Battle Athletess wasn’t going to be good, but this was a classic case of a franchise that should’ve stayed dormant. In every regard, this seemed like a regression from the previous Battle Athletess anime, which I didn’t even think were that great to begin with. There are so many bad things to point out here, but maybe the thing that stuck out the most to me was just how boring this was. The straightforward plot made the competition to become the next Cosmo Beauty almost irrelevant, since the events often took a backseat to the meddling from an incredibly generic set of villains, and it was clear that none of the other girls were a real challenge to Kanata or Eva. Even the finale was amazingly anti-climactic, so I was bored for almost the entire twelve episode run.

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2021 Winter Anime Season: Final Thoughts

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2021 winter anime season final thoughts

It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the winter anime season that just came to an end~

JUJUTSU KAISEN

jujutsu kaisen anime

Hands down, Jujutsu Kaisen is my favorite show of the season, even beating Shingeki no Kyojin and Otherside Picnic. Unlike many other fans out there, I had not read the manga and simply went into it because of the hype surrounding it. I wasn’t expecting much, just some action packed shounen anime with a story like whatever else you can find flying around right now. And while the story itself didn’t strike me as anything that unusual or outstanding, everything else did.
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2020 Fall Anime Season: Final Thoughts

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2020 fall anime season final thoughts

It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the fall anime season that just came to an end. Hope you all have a happy and safe New Year~

Adachi to Shimamura
Length: 12 Episodes | Genre: Romance, School, Slice of Life, Yuri

adachi to shimamura yuri anime

For the first time in quite a while, this season gave actual yuri anime to get excited about, but I had some mixed feelings about the yuri headliner of the season. I should mention that I haven’t read the Adachi to Shimamura light novels or manga, so this assessment is solely about the anime. Before the season began, I expected this anime to be a nice middle ground between Kase-san. and Bloom Into You, yet after finishing the season, I was left feeling unfulfilled and like AdaShima lacked the magic of both of those series.

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2020 Summer Anime Season: Final Thoughts

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2020 summer anime season

It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the 2020 summer anime season that just came to an end~

Lapis Re:LiGHTs
Length: 12 Episodes | Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Music

lapis re:lights anime
As you can tell by the number of anime on this season’s list, it was a REALLY disappointing season. Probably the most disappointing season we’ve ever covered, and the one full-length anime we watched wasn’t all that great either. At first glance, Lapis Re:LiGHTs seemed like an interesting mix of magic and idol anime, but at the end of the day, I thought that it failed to capture the magic (pun intended) of either of those genres. Because it was used so rarely, there were times that I almost forgot that these girls can actually use magic, and the musical performances were few and far between, so I feel like this anime could’ve been a lot more entertaining than it turned out to be.

Too often this felt like just another slice of life anime, and although I thought the main cast was decent, they weren’t enough to right the ship and get me to become invested in this show. There were other girls at the academy that I simply didn’t care about and didn’t enjoy watching, and if you’re hoping that yuri would come in and save the day, you’re going to be disappointed as well. The first episode made it seem like Tiara and Rosetta were going to have this really strong connection that would result in, at least, a lot of yuri subtext between them, but it didn’t quite work out like that. The situation kind of reminded me of Koisuru Asteroid, and after Tiara and Rose get acclimated at the academy and join the other Lapis girls, that connection mostly disappears. There were a couple of other bit characters that seemed kinda gay, but their roles were tiny and they made practically no impact on me.

Overall, I didn’t expect Lapis Re:LiGHTs to just be so bland and forgettable. It’s kind of what might happen if you were to take Love Live!, strip away 80% of the singing and dancing, allow the girls to use magic, then not give them any worthwhile reason to use that magic. At least the final episode was a bit better, but it was too little, too late. I’ll forget all about this show in a month, so good riddance, 2020 summer anime season, you won’t be missed. 😛

Total Enjoyment: 5/10

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Anime Spring Season 2020: Final Thoughts

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2020 spring anime season

It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the 2020 spring anime season that just came to an end~

BNA
Length: 12 Episodes | Genre: Action, Fantasy, Super Power

bna anime
We didn’t watch a lot of shows this season, did we? 😀

Whenever Trigger comes out with a new anime, I’m either all over it, or I’m not interested at all. There’s no in-between. Kill la Kill? All over it. SSSS.Gridman? I couldn’t care less. BNA had an interesting premise, so I gave it a chance, and my curiousity was certainly rewarded. This turned out to be pretty entertaining and had the action, comedy, and flair that I’ve come to expect from Trigger.

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Anime Winter Season 2020: Final Thoughts

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2020 winter anime season

It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the 2020 winter anime season that just came to an end~

22/7
Length: 12 Episodes • Genre: Music

22/7 anime nanobun no nijyuuni
Last year, I watched a Korean horror movie titled White: Melody of Death. It wasn’t great, but I liked how it was different than what you’d normally expect from something featuring idols/pop stars. I mention this because, at this rate, I’m kind of over idol anime. Almost all of them seem really similar, and the whole process feels like it’s just about selling some real-life CDs and merch (who still even uses CDs?!). Anyway, early on in 22/7, “The Wall” was pretty intriguing, and this show seemed different enough to make me hopeful that this wouldn’t be just another idol anime, but while it wasn’t as unique as an idol horror movie, 22/7 still wasn’t your typical idol anime.

The focus here isn’t so much on the music as much as it is on the individual girls themselves. Most of the girls had their own episode (there were eight girls in the group), so we get to see their backstory, learn their motivations, and get to know them much better. It’s a far more effective approach than what you typically see in other idol anime, so I was a lot more emotionally invested in these girls than those of other similar shows. Some of the episodes were better than others, and while some of the drama was kinda predictable, I still enjoyed it more than your typical song and dance. This anime was recommended in the comments, so I was hopeful it would have some yuri, and early on, things were looking promising. Miu and Sakura seemed to have a really close relationship (Miu x Nicole as well), but the show gets away from that, so yuri wasn’t as big as a factor as I was hoping for. Still, I found this a little more enjoyable than something like Love Live!, although I’m not sure that fans of that series or “traditional” idol anime would like this as much as I did.

7/10

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