Reviews

'The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady' ticks all the boxes of a generic fantasy setting: we get a vaguely European-looking kingdom, an aristrocracy that can use magic, and a bunch of monsters that are kinda-sorta kept at bay by knights.

Our protagonist is the "Marauder Princess" Anis, who despite being the King's oldest child cannot use magic herself. Since she remembers her previous life on modern-day Earth, she instead invents the field of "magicology" to build magical devices like a witch's broom, a magical sword, a magical tea kettle, and a bookshelf filled with other stuff that is only shown in the background and never mentioned.

In comes Lady Euphyllia, who after having her betrothal to the Crown Prince dissolved is stolen away by Anis.

The story itself is entertaining enough, although it doesn't really do anything groundbreaking. Similarly, the characters are likeable but generic: the protagonist is reckless and childish yet competent and good-hearted (who both in temperament as well as design is surprisingly similar to Lycoris Recoil's Chisato); the sidekick-slash-love-interest is quiet, proper, and dutilful (and, yes, at least somewhat reminiscent of Lycoris Recoil's Takina). The side characters are similarly likeable and similarly uninspired.

My biggest gripe about the characters is that the show breaks the "Show, don't tell" rule, telling us repeatedly that Euphyllia is a genius of unparalleled renown (it's even in the show's title!), yet the most intelligent thing she ever does is hold a mildly clever speech. Similarly, her character development seems to happen mostly off-screen: at the start, she's the demure Crown Prince's betrothed, and at the end she's a capable fighter, but I was not quite convinced by this development.

One of the show's high points is that the action climax occurs already in episode nine of twelve, leaving room for the dramatic climax. This is well-executed and touching, hitting topics such as duty and self-sacrifice. I was honestly captivated by this part and pretty much binge-watched the second half of the series.

The second high point is the relationship between the characters, which is surprisingly sweet and loving. I expected the usual fare, where the show at best hints at the possibility of two people of the same gender being in love (or the direct opposite, where the entire story is structured around the torrid lesbian love affair, because that's how you entice a certain audience). 'Magical Revolution' is pretty casual about this, reminding me a fair bit of the She-Ra reboot.

As for the production, the art style and animations are perfectly fine but not outstanding in any way. The character design is fairly generic but nicely varied. The Japanese voice acting is solid, the soundtrack gets the job done, and the pacing is reasonable. There is little to no fan service but a bit of violence (i.e. Blood but no real gore).

Ultimately, 'Magical Revolution' is a reasonably good show that probably noone will remember in a few years, except perhaps for having an openly gay protagonist couple. Personally, I liked the show and wouldn't mind watching more like it, but neither did it knock off my socks.

I have to admit that I barely made it through the first episode, so if 'Kandagawa Jet Girls' surprisingly manages to get any better from episode two onwards, please disregard this review.

In 'Kandagawa Jet Girls', a popular sport is is to ride a jetski down a river and fire waterguns at opponents. If an opponent is hit, they typically seem to lose an article of clothing for some reason. Nevertheless, this is seen as a fairly respectable sport.

School girl Rin freshly transfers to Tokyo and wants to become a professional jetski pilot. She teams up with her friend Misa, who shoots the watergun of their jetski. In the first episode, they are challenged by an opposing team, and I assume that each consequent episode will feature a similar challenge until they win some sort of championship (which Rin fawns over).

This premise could be reasonably fun, but the characters are generic to the point of being irritating. The fanservice is far too plentiful, featuring heaving bosoms in an otherwise touching childhood flashback and bare breasts not soon after.

In total, I'm just not sure what 'Kandagawa Jet Girls' is trying to accomplish. For a genuine show about a quirky sport, it is too bland and oversexualised. For adult entertainment I'm sure that any genuine adult entertainment would be far superior. The only apparent selling point is that all the characters and their relationships are female, which could include romance if you squint really hard. If so... ugh, c'mon, really?

From a technical standpoint everything seems up to par, so I'd give it a 4/10.

I'm giving up on Darling in the FranXX after episode four. At least so far, the show is utterly uninspired, borrowing most of its concepts from Neon Genesis Evangelion. While a generic male protagonist is an unfortunate staple of anime, the support cast is just as bland and uninteresting. Zero-Two is the only character that is somewhat unique, but even she doesn't bring anything new to the table.

The story is, at least in the first four stories, fairly generic and superficial. It certainly lacks the depth of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the mediocre cast doesn't manage to make up for this deficit. It's also supremely cheesy and even campy, especially with the oddly female-looking humanoid robots. Having the girl pilots lie on their fours in front of the boy pilots in a blatantly sexual pose would've been hilarious if they meant it as a parody, but I'm pretty sure they're serious about it... The animation style is pretty nice, the soundtrack is not that great, and the rest just feels generic.

I'm sure this show will find many viewers that appreciate it. I'm not among them, though.

'Dusk Maiden of Amnesia' tells the story of high-school student Teiichi Niiya, who can see and touch the ghost that haunts his school, Yuko Kanoe. The first few episodes of the show deal with the light-hearted shenanigans of Yuko and the Paranormal Investigations Club she forms, whereas the later episodes explore the surprisingly multi-faceted and heart-rending circumstances of Yuko's death.

While I'm personally not much a fan of romance shows, they're nice to watch every now and then. 'Dusk Maiden' really did an excellent job here, capturing both my interest and my heart. The first six of twelve episodes are admittedly not much more than fluff pieces, setting up the characters (though the episodes get progressively darker, with episode six being a full-blown psychological horror show, if one that is appropriate for teens). The last six episodes are more or less continuous, and this is where the show begins to truly shine. I'd say that the three final episodes are absolute masterpieces, revealing the truly horrific details of Yuka's death and the bittersweet (pre-) conclusion of Teiichi's and Yuka's romance.

From a technical standpoint, the show does pretty well. The animation is nothing to write home about, at least by today's standards, but neither does it give any reason for complaints. The direction is interesting and unique, especially in the later episodes when there are heavy topics to explore. The English dub is pretty good; IMHO the voice acting of the three female characters was excellent, whereas the male protagonist's voice was as generic as his character. The character design was interesting (modulo the generic protagonist), and the soundtrack did its job.

All in all, 'Dusk Maiden of Amnesia' is an excellent romantic comedy that becomes surprisingly serious in its final episodes. Not only fans of the genre but even a general audience should discover a great show here.

Honestly, I didn't even make it through the first episode. The characters are flat and generic, the animation is mediocre, the story doesn't even try to make sense, and the dialogues are utterly forgettable.

I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of horror anime, but I recently watched Higurashi GOU and Another, and both of those shows did a pretty good job. They weren't exactly masterpieces, just like most horror movies aren't exactly Oscar-worthy, but at least they try.

I highly doubt that Corpse Party tried all that hard. It honestly seemed like something a bunch of bored students would cobble together as some kind of end-of-term project.

I'm quite surprised that 'Subspace Rhapsody' has such a poor overall rating here on IMDB, considering that Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 'Once More With Feeling' is the highest-rated episode of that show.

It is, however, obvious that the writers were not only inspired but also heavily influenced by that episode of BtVS. At the start of 'Once More With Feeling', dramatic tension is at a peak due to the secrets the various characters are keeping; the episode essentially unleashes all the drama in one climax. The showrunners tried something similar with 'Subspace Rhapsody', but ST:SNW is much more episodic than BtVS and doesn't feature quite as much dramatic tension. For this reason, 'Subspace Rhapsody' doesn't manage to reach the pinnacle that was 'Once More With Feeling'. There just aren't that many secrets that can be revealed in ST:SNW. Skipping 'Subspace Rhapsody' doesn't have much of an impact on the overarching plot of the series, whereas 'Once More With Feeling' was perhaps the most essential episode of BtVS' season six.

That aside, 'Subspace Rhapsody' works pretty well. The songs are catchy (though perhaps not quite as brilliant as Whedon's work), the choreography is solid, and the musical numbers fit their characters and setting surprisingly well. The runtime of one full hour is perhaps a bit too long for a musical episode; both Una's and Uhura's solo numbers felt largely unnecessary. Still, I'm glad the ST:SNW isn't afraid of trying new things (similar to the crossover episode we had earlier). I hope they'll keep their courage to experiment for future seasons as well. But I'm also glad that the whole 'Musical Episode' idea can now be taken off Star Trek's bucket list. It's not that well-suited to the format.

'Another' tells the story of the student Sakakibara, who transfers into class 9-3 at a middle school in remote Yomiyama. He quickly realises that strange events are centred around his class, leading to series of mysterious deaths... The anime was a genuine surprise to me. I took me a while to get into it; it isn't until the end of the third episode that things start to properly unravel. However, from that point onwards, the series proceeds to get darker and darker, ending in a finale that is rather furious.

Personally, I don't think there isn't much about 'Another' that is not to like. The visuals are surprisingly great for a show that's more than a decade old. The soundtrack is fitting, although I found the opening and ending themes utterly forgettable. The story easily compelled me since the third episode; I watched the rest of the series in one sitting.

Parents are advised that 'Another' contains a serious amount of violence. But I highly doubt that many children would be interest in the show anyway; murder mysteries typically appear as rather boring at that age. There is no nudity or fanservice beyond the obligatory beach episode.

In total, I can easily recommend 'Another' to anyone who likes paranormal thrillers or mysteries, as long as you don't mind seeing quite a bit of blood. I was vaguely reminded of 'Final Destination' with regard to the gore (although the story of 'Another' is vastly superior); take that as you will.

Truth be told, I'm not a great fan of the original Haruhi anime and would only rate it a 7/10. This movie, though, is an absolute masterpiece that by itself is reason enough to watch through the series.

There's nothing about this movie that isn't close to perfection. The animations are crisp and stunningly gorgeous (especially compared to the series, which certainly shows it age). The cinematography is a sight to behold. The soundtrack brings back the best motifs of the show but also does its own thing. The voice acting, even (especially?) the English dub, is top notch. And the story itself... 'The Melancholy of Harumi Suzumiya' was a humorous show that rarely delivered more than light-hearted slice-of-life moments with some added craziness. I fully expected 'The disappearance of Harumi Suzumiya' to be very much the same, just on a higher calibre. It's not. The movie made me laugh. It made me cry. It brings the characters to life in a way that the show couldn't, and it has more plot twists than I could have foreseen. Most of all, this movie brought me happiness like only very few movies have managed.

However, as a stand-alone movie, I believe that it would fail its audience. Nevertheless, I cannot in good conscience rate 'Disappearance' any lower than 10/10; something I usually try to avoid. But this movie did it all, and it did it all perfectly.

I didn't know anything about Higurashi before watching GOU, but I do see now why the series has so many loyal fans.

The series is set in the rural village of Hinamizawa in 1983, following a group of school children as their idyllic day-to-day lives slowly descend into madness. The show is divided into five arcs, each of which follow different turns in the events that lead up to the local village festival. For the first three arcs, the story follows the protagonist Keiichi as he becomes closer friends with either of the girls in his group of friends; the last two arcs are told from the perspective of one of the girls.

The high points of the series certainly are the lovable characters and the intricate storyline, which often gives rise to fantastic cliffhangers. This, unfortunately, also is the biggest downside in my opinion: act four ends with a magnificent cliffhanger that honestly is one of the best I've ever seen. However, act five does not resolve it; it's instead left to the sequel series to tell how the story concludes (and, if the ratings are any indication, it does an absolutely terrible job of it).

While the fifth arc is a terrific story in its own right, it does not work as a conclusion to the series. Similarly, the final episodes of arcs one to three often feature a scene where one of the characters tells the then-protagonist what else happened off screen; this honestly feels rushed and comes out of nowhere.

It feels to me as if it would've made more sense of combining GOU and its sequel, SETSU, into one (longer?) series. This way, I certainly don't plan to watch the sequel and am left disappointed. Oh, well.

Apart from that, the series does a genuinely good job. The animations are nice but not stellar, the (English) dub even works pretty well, and the series itself is highly entertaining.

There's certainly a content warning for gore, though. I don't really mind if anime turns violent, but the graphic disembowelling was perhaps a bit much.

'Talentless Nana' tells the story of superpowered children on an isolated island, amongst whom a serial killer is hiding. Large parts of the story are told from the killer's perspective, others from the self-declared teenage detective trying to solve the murders.

This cat-and-mouse game reminded me of a child-friendly version of Death Note, though it certainly requires more suspension of disbelief. Both the killer and the detective regularly make Sherlock-Holmes-like deductions, only that the writers certainly aren't as talented at coming up with reasonable schemes as Doyle. This is further hampered by the young target audience: all the clever schemes must remain understandable to kids, so the script heavily relies on everyone being oblivious and multi-step plans going perfectly right.

This isn't a huge issue, as long as you keep in mind that this is not Breaking Bad but a show aimed at young teens. Just like we shouldn't complain about violations of physics when watching Star Wars, we should forgive 'Talentless Nana' its own take on logical thinking.

What bothered me far more is that the series declined as it went along, ending with a finale that was neither fish nor fowl. In the first few episodes the killer is a deeply morally ambigious character, killing fellow teenagers without remorse. Yet as the show progresses, those victims suddenly become monsters themselves, the killer suddenly is quite heroic, and the overall theme of the show turns from something unique into something widely generic. I found the ending particularly disappointing: it leaves all the loose ends untied, dissatisfying the viewers that liked the first half of the season, while also compromising the more wholesome themes of the second half. Basically, the writers tried to go for the best of both worlds yet ended up with the worst.

Nevertheless, 'Talentless Nana' was enjoyable and certainly had its moments. Ultimately, though, it's just not all that memorable, its uniqueness sacrificed for no good reason.

From a technical standpoint the show is good, with lovely animations and a good art style. The English dub is also pretty great.

I hope the writers will continue with similar concepts in the future. Perhaps then they'll actually stick to their themes. I certainly would enjoy watching something like that!

The claim to fame of 'Oshi no Ko' is clearly its masterpiece of a movie-length pilot episode, the heights of which are not reached again for the rest of the first season. That being said, in its entirety, it's still a pretty good show.

'Oshi no Ko' tells the story of the twins Aqua and Ruby, who are reincarnated after their first lives ended early. They want to follow in the footsteps of their mother, who was a famous idol in her youth. Aqua, however, also has more sinister ambitious, trying to solve a murder mystery and bring those responsible to justice.

What struck me as particularly excellent -- other than that first episode, which honestly is a prologue like no other -- were the complex characters. Be it the washed up genius child actress who gets no good roles now that she has matured, or the genius contemporary actress who falls prey to social media... all the characters are multi-faceted and deeply embedded in the less glamourous sides of Japan's entertainment industry.

The art style is also unique and modern, perfectly complimenting the well-thought story. The English dub is solid, and both the sound as well as the animation of the musical numbers are great.

Nevertheless, there were episodes where I felt that the plot was advancing at a glacial pace, or where the plot point of the week wasn't all that compelling. Since we have to give numbers here, I'd say that the show's remain closer to a 7/10 than an 8/10, with the sixth episode being the solitary upward outlier at a 9/10. Thanks to the marvellous prologue episode, however, I arrive at a firm 8/10, and am hoping that the second season will reveal a similar miracle.

'Call of the Night' is a fairly relaxed slice-of-life show, telling the story of the teenaged Kou and his vampiric acquaintance Nazuna.

Kou is the typical generic anime protagonist: a kind-of-nice introvert without any friends or social relations to speak of, no strong opinions on anything, and this one thing that's the plot hang-up; in this case, Kou doesn't much like the tedium of every-day life but prefers nighttime. As soon as he meets the vampiric Nazuna, his life's ambition becomes clear: he wants to turn into a vampire.

I have now watched five episodes of this show, and it hasn't managed to grip me yet. There isn't much of an overarching plot but instead an episodic format, which wouldn't be a problem if the individual stories were compelling. However, they just aren't. Kou as a protagonist is fairly boring, and Nazuna unfortunately isn't much better: in theory she is a decades-old creature of the night, but in practice she's pretty much an immature teenager with few interesting qualities.

The issue remains that Nazuna _is_ a decades-old creature of the night, and her budding romance with a teenager is, well, kind of creepy, and not in a good way.

The visuals are admittedly solid, with often gorgeous backgrounds and unique character designs. I'm not the greatest fan of the art style, but I can see why people would like it.

Ultimately, though, 'Call of the Night' just didn't manage to catch my interest. If you're a fan of slice-of-life shows, this will be your thing. I need either more complex characters or a compelling story, and this show delivered neither so far. Oh, well.

Barbie is a good movie. The visuals are nice to look at, the premise is quirky, the dialogues are often witty, it's somewhat self-aware, and even (some of) the songs are pretty great. It made me laugh, it made me smile, and that's great.

And yet... it's definitely not a great movie. From what I'd gathered, it's supposed to be a pointed satire that will quickly become a corner stone of gender equality. Instead, it's overly preachy, reductionist, occasionally fails to see the point, and only repeats a message that countless other movies have raised before in much more elaborate manners.

The largest problem, though, is the lack of a clear target audience. There are many series and movies that are primarily focused towards children but that can be appreciated by adults as well. Barbie certainly doesn't fit in this regime; I heavily doubt that many children will care about this heavy-handed discussion of an essential adult topic. And yet it is also a bit too silly to properly work as a movie that's targeted at adults.

If the movie had come out two decades ago, it would've been brave, and we would be more easily able to forgive it its many flaws. But this is 2023, where women's rights are actively backsliding in large parts of the world, and where the primary issue of gender equality is no longer man vs woman but binary vs pluralistic.

Nevertheless, Barbie is a fun movie. Parts of it are fantastic. It's much better than anything we could've expected from a Barbie movie. It just isn't the ultimate social critic it was portrayed as.

'Kanata no Astra' tells the story of a group of high school students who find themselves stranded in space, desperately trying to get back home. Along their travels onboard the derelict spaceship Astra, they need to overcome various challenges, becoming a closely-knit group of friends in the process.

Honestly, I'm a bit on the fence with regards to the show. For an adult audience it oftentimes is far too simplistic and childish, but for young teenagers, it likely hits the perfect spot between honest suspense and cheerful humour. That 'Astra' firmly belongs in the genre of SciFi is perhaps its greatest boon: while many of the plot points have been done before in various works of science fiction over the past decades, the lack of childfriendly SciFi will let them appear refreshingly original for a younger audience.

Nevertheless, there are many things the show does very well, but also quite a few points where it runs itself into the ground.

The cast, for example, experiences genuine character growth; however, they are initially so absolutely stereotypical that it's honestly annoying.

Similarly, the story hits many excellent plot points and has quite a few twists and turns that I did not see coming. Unfortunately, at other points it is utterly foreseeable or makes use of some of the worst dei-ex-machina that I have ever witnessed.

It is, though, a very childfriendly show, which is excellent in my books. There is no absurd violence, no romance farther than hand-holding, and no fan service (discounting the beach episode, but even Avatar: the Last Airbender had one of those).

The production value of the show is pretty good; the English localisation (both the voice acting and the onscreen texts) are excellent.

If you have never seen SciFi other than perhaps Star Wars before, you'll possibly find 'Astra' a refreshingly unique tale. If you'd like to introduce SciFi to young teens, this show is for you. Otherwise, your mileage may vary.

'Bochi the Rock!' tells the story of the absurdly introverted Hitori Gotoh who wants to become a rock star. She is as talented at playing the guitar as she is introverted, so her first step at becoming an outgoing extrovert is joining the high-school band 'Kessoku Band'.

The show's greatest strength lies in its characters, who are all likeable and memorable, and the emotional connections they form. 'Bocchi' quickly becomes a thoroughly positive and uplifting show about a shut-in forming her first friendships while making excellent music on the way.

The soundtrack, while not exactly filled with masterpieces, is pretty neat, joining the pretty animations and solid voice acting in a generally high production value.

Personally, I found the humour a tad too overdone and silly at times. It's also very much a slice-of-life show, so there is generally fairly little suspense and not all that much of an overarching story. The exception to this are the last few episodes, which are continuous and, in a few scenes, oddly intense. It does feel like the show peaked more around its middle than at its end, though.

I wouldn't mind watching a second season of 'Bocchi the Rock!', and can certainly recommend it to anyone who isn't turned off by slice-of-life all-girl music animes. It's perfectly kid friendly, except for the notorious drunkard... ehh.

You might already have deduced from its title that 'Good Night Oppy' is not an objective and informative documentary. Indeed, if your intention is to learn more about the magnificent feats of science and engineering that are the Mars Exploration Rovers, you should look somewhere else.

Instead, 'Good Night Oppy' is a love letter to both rovers and the NASA personnel that made them possible. The rovers are heavily anthropomorphised throughout the movie, and there's good chance you'll be left in tears when Opportunity finally "dies" towards the end of the film.

There's a part of me that says that it shouldn't be so, that this should be a proper documentary that rationally states the facts instead of a dramatised video diary.

A much larger part of me gets very emotional whenever Opportunity comes to mind, because look how far she went! It's a strange quality that we humans can feel genuine love for what essentially is no more than a pile of metal and silicon. But it's no secret that Opportunity (and Spirit, too, years before) managed to capture the hearts of millions, and this movie perfectly brings that across.

And perhaps that's an even more important raison d'être. The science of the Mars Exploration Rovers is something that interests those who are already deeply invested into space exploration. But the story of Spirit and Opportunity is for everyone.

That being said, the movie itself is generally fairly well made. I liked the dramaturgy, and the visuals are gorgeous. The "rover diaries" were perhaps a tad overdone, but the interviews with the scientists and engineers were great. It's easy to see how much love went into the rovers.

Truth be told, I wouldn't mind watching something similar about all the many, many missions that have explored our solar system. But I suppose that no spacecraft and no rover came even close to reach as many hearts as these two did.

Well. We'll get the opportunity for something similar about the Voyagers in the not-so-distant future, I suppose. More tears await.

'Parasyte' tells the story of high-school student Shinichi Izumi, who one day wakes up to find his right hand replaced by an intelligent parasite that had originally intended to replace his head. The two have to learn how to not only live with each other but to survive encounters with other parasites as well.

What sounds like a fairly wacky premise -- and indeed is pretty weird at times, with parasites forming bladed tentacles and mouths where ordinary arms or heads should be -- quickly turns in a quite thoughtful story. Alongside the furious action whenever Shinichi and his parasite, Migi, battle opposing parasites are the slice-of-life romance between Shinichi and his high-school sweetheart Murano, and more philosphical ponderings concerning morality and the meaning of life.

The series remains strong throughout, with not a single episode failing to deliver the consistently high quality. It does some minor issues, however: in a very few scenes (~ three or so over 24 episodes) large crowds were rendered by cgi and look appropriately terrible; the soundtrack is generally good until it suddenly is rather bad (also only once or twice); and the philosphical ponderings can get a bit too melodramatic and lengthy, particularly in the later episodes. I also didn't quite warm up to the art style, but that is only a personal preference.

Everything else -- the direction, the story, the characters, even the (English) voice acting -- is excellent. Unlike other highly-rated animes such as 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' there also is no fan service or anime-typical silliness in 'Parasyte', safe for what comes from the premise.

If you in any way like the genre or are open for odd premises, this show is a clear recommendation.

(This review is based on the first season. At the time I'm writing it, the second season has been announced but not been aired yet.) 'The Eminence in Shadow' tells the story of Cid Kageno, whose ultimate goal is to become the titular eminence in shadow, i.e. The powerful force in the background that remains unseen. While forming his shadowy society 'Shadow Garden' in the shadows, in his public life he tries to appear as a 'background character' as much as possible.

The story is very obviously a tongue-in-cheek parody of those Isekai shows where the protagonist ends up being an undefeatable hero who gets all the girls. 'The Eminence in Shadow' pretty much starts with that, with a protagonist who is pretty much the epitomous Mary Sue, and an array of gorgeous female characters that make up his secret society. Cid often only tries to appear enigmatic, yet because he literally can do no wrong, his thoughtless decisions uncover treacherous plots and defeat heinous enemies.

What bothers me most with the show is its inconsistency. In many episodes Cid is this borderline incompetent and overdramatic Japanese-guy-reborn-in-a-fantasy-world stereotype whose plot armour makes him undefeatable, yet in the next scene he will suddenly turn actually competent as his role suggests. For many episodes the show is an obvious parody, not taking anything serious and focusing on humour, yet at the end it tries to build up a complex and serious story. In its first half the show keeps a tight lid on the fanservice, yet in the second it is fairly lewd (though still pretty tame for a typical anime of this genre). All of these facets are at odds with each other, and IMHO they don't really work.

The characters are, unfortunately, another issue. Cid is partnered with an absurd array of gorgeous females, some of whom become secondary protagonists. Yet those that should be closest to him, the various members of Shadow Garden, are so underdeveloped that I don't even know who is who after twenty episodes.

The production level is at least very high, with nice animations, a solid soundtrack, and (English) voice acting that ranges from serviceable to excellent.

Ultimately I'm quite happy that I'm done with the first season, and quite surprised that a second season was even made. Many episodes felt like a slog to get through, so bland and boring that I wondered why I was actually continuing. The final episodes are pretty good, but it's difficult to take the properly dramatic events serious of the antagonist is literally called 'Perv Asshat'. Honestly, it would've made more sense to make one serious show and one parody, keeping the two themes separate. This is just a mess.

Bonus points for Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, though.

'Saga of Tanya the Evil' tells the story of Tanya Degurechaff, an orphan girl in what is very obviously Imperial Germany ("The Empire") during the onset of the First World War. However, Tanya is the reincarnation of a high-ranked business man in modern-day Tokyo, whose faithless atheism brought her/him to the attention of the god-like "Being X". In the alternate universe she has been reincarnated in, Tanya has the ability to use the magical technology the Empire uses to help fight the War. She tries to survive the War and reject Being X, who tries to force her into accepting him as her God.

The spiritual backstory is only used for the premise and to, at times, advance the plot; the main focus of the series is clearly Tanya's role as a military commander. The military side of the anime is indeed very well developed; especially in the later episodes, the strategic considerations of the writers are thoughtfully developed. This is the greatest strength of 'Saga of Tanya the Evil'.

Personally, I found the protagonist difficult to like, however. Usually I'm very much in favour of the more rational and pragmatic characters, yet Tanya has few redeeming qualities, often committing atrocities that are not considered war crimes only because of loopholes in international law. Her fight against 'Being X' may be interesting, but it is pretty much only achievable through subjugating the entire world under Imperial (German) rule. And, well, I find it pretty difficult to root for that.

The other characters are barely worth mentioning. There are a few Generals that feature recurrently, but the characters immediately surrounding Tanya are so thinly characterised that I can't remember the name of even a single one.

She show does a reasonably good job of showcasing the horrors of the First World War without turning it into a moralising and joyless slog (though, honestly, I'm not all that comfortable with how WW1 is glorified at times).

While I'm not a friend of the art style (I believe the developers tried to make their characters look European?), the animations are very well done. Aerial battles are especially gorgeous to look at, and clouds often have that "Renaissance painting" style to them. Similarly, the overall production is well-made, and the (English) voice acting is pretty good.

Nevertheless, personally I liked neither the characters nor the overall story, but I have to admit that I'm not much of a friend of the genre. If you do like media featuring the First World War (or warfare in general) and don't mind the addition of magical technology, you'll probably enjoy the series much more than I did.

What I found quite funny is that the series gives the disclaimer that all characters, places, etc. Are fictional and no parallels to existing places are intended, and then show you a map of what is clearly Europe with a (German) Empire, a (French) Republic, a (British) Kingdom, and a (Russian) Federation. And the capitals of those places are, for example, Berun, Parisee, and Londinium. And there even is a U. S. Army. All perfectly fictional, of course.

Of all the installments of this venerable franchise, 'Star Trek: Picard' is also one. It is neither as original as the original 'Star Trek', nor as fresh as 'The Next Generation' was, not as heartwearming as 'Voyager', and not as complex as 'Deep Space Nine'. Instead, 'Picard' is one thing above all, and that is nostalgic.

Unfortunately, nostalgia enough doesn't make for a good series. The first season lived entirely on the fans' desire to see their old heroes again, and yet Patrick Stewart's aged shoulders did not manage to prop up the show all by themselves. That the second season exists is something that best be ignored by everyone who likes decent television.

The third season, finally, is Star Trek again. We get a proper Federation-style starship with a proper Federation-style bridge and crew, with properly campy enemies and an overly melodramatic plot. We finally see the crew of 'The Next Generation' reunited (and also Seven of Nine, because everybody loves Seven of Nine).

We get a final episode that is truly excellent, a beautiful farewell for everyone we learned to love over the last decades. We also get nine episodes that are reasonably good yet still flawed.

When the entire series revolves around reassembling a bunch of characters that have been retired for long, long times, the plot must unfortunately be somewhat contrived, not leaving a lot of room for logic.

Imagine, for example, that you are the captain of a starship which finds itself in a dire situation (a staple of the franchise). Who do you assemble in your meeting room to brainstorm solutions? Is it (A) your trusted senior staff members who are educated on cutting edge procedures, or (B) some old dudes you actively mistrust that haven't been in the loop for decades? In virtually every episode of past series it was A, yet now it must be B, for this show is not named after a space ship but after one of those old dudes.

It does quite often feel jarring to see our aged heroes in situations that honestly should be handled by people at least two decades their senior. This was true for William Shatner in the last few movies involving Captain Kirk, and it is even more true for this show.

It doesn't help that our old heroes seem to have lost their common sense along the way just as much as their junior colleagues.

Still, I cannot deny that the nostalgia works. However, without knowing at least the basics of 'The Next Generation' and a smidgen of 'Voyager', 'Picard' would be an unholy mess of cameos and unfamiliar retirees running around for no apparent reason. Even if you do know and love those decade-old series, it is an absolutely understandable choice to watch only the third season of this show. If you consider yourself a true and hungry fan, perhaps watch the first one as well. I can't think of any good reason why anyone would want to bother with the second. It certainly isn't needed to understand the rest, thankfully.

Now go, watch in awe and cheer for your old heroes one last time, before utterly forgetting every last detail about this nostalgia-laden stack of mediocrity.

'The Menu' is the most unique movie I've watched in quite a while. It starts almost plebeian, with the protagonist and her fellow guests visiting a high-class restaurant. Yet as they're served course after course of an extravagant meal, more sinister machinations reveal themselves.

If I hadn't been aware of the movie's rating and genre, the food-centred start would've fooled me. It is masterfully done how the 'The Menu' slowly but inexorably changes tone, and yet the change of genre doesn't ensue until a sudden bang.

The story and direction would be nothing without the superb cast, however. Ralph Fiennes particularly comes across as a subtly threatening antagonist, reminding me quite a bit of a modern-day Peter Cushing. Anya Taylor-Joy plays her role perfectly, as does the supportive cast, with an honourable mention of Nicholas Hoult.

All in all 'The Menu' delivers more than was promised. It is a suspenseful thriller, a black comedy, a satirical allegory on modern society. If you want to be mindlessly entertained, this movie is for you. If you want something to ponder for a few days, this movie is for you.

If you don't like cheeseburgers, well, perhaps skip this one.

'Terror in Resonance' is like one of those mature Hollywood series critics love to gush about, only in anime form. The story is centred around two adolescents and their introcate plot of terrorism, the detective trying to stop them, and an innocent girl who accidentally gets involved. What begins as a cat-and-mouse game ends with two national conspiracies that are slowly revealed.

The star of the series is not only the plot but also its characters, whom are at best morally ambiguous yet still sympathetic and even likeable. 'Terror in Resonance' forces no moral justifications but lets its audience come to their own conclusions.

The excellent plot and fantastic characters are supported by an immensely high production value. Not only is the art style of a rarely seen quality and the soundtrack subtle yet beautiful, but the direction is utterly flawless.

There are a few excellent anime thrillers out there -- most recently, 'Summer Time Rendering' comes to mind -- but 'Terror in Resonance' sets itself miles apart. The realistic story combined with the gorgeous visuals -- and an utter lack of both fanservice and anime-typical silliness -- makes 'Terror in Resonance' the one anime that I can wholeheartedly recommend to any and every viewer.

Rarely have I seen something filled with this much suspense yet so densely narrated.

The premise of 'The Future Diary' (aka 'Mirai nikki') is an anime-typical one: the god of the universe tries to find a successor by pitting twelve people against each other in a fight to the death. Each contestant has a 'future diary', a cellphone that can tell certain aspects of the short-term future. The protagonist, Yukiteru, is the anime-typical kind yet isolated middle-school boy. Together with his love interest, Yuno, he tries to defend himself from the other ten contestants' attacks.

What sounds like a fairly generic premise is quickly derailed by one of the main characters being an utter sociopath. Alliances of convenience rise and fall every few episodes, and the character development is quite remarkable.

While this show might seem like something primarily aimed at teenagers (such as shows with somewhat similar premises like the 'Fate' franchise), 'Future Diary' contains some seriously gruesome scenes featuring, for example, gang rape. The violence is not much more graphic than other shows, but the nudity certainly is (including bare breasts with nipples, which is pretty uncomfortable considering that most of the characters are middle-schoolers).

I'd say that the show needs a few episodes to really get going, but it's filled to the brim with suspense afterwards. I especially liked the characters and their interactions, particularly between the protagonist and his love interest, though one of the support characters seems to be lifted directly from Neon Genesis Evangelion (including his character design and the central points of his subplot).

The animations are pretty good but not extremely so, and the overall production value remains high. The English voice cast does a good job.

There is an OVA ('Redial') that serves as an epilogue to the rest of the series.

'Akiba Maid War' tells the story of the innocent seventeen year old Nagomi, who wants to be a maid in a maid café. Unfortunately for her, the many maid cafés are heavily involved in organised crime.

What sounds like a fun premise for a lighthearted action show ends up fairly bland. The characters are uninteresting and inconsistent, acting as the plot demands it. Actions have zero consequences to a point of absurdity. If there is an overarching plot, I sure didn't see it within the first five episodes (after which I dropped the show).

The main attraction of 'Akiba Maid War' is supposed to be the contrast between the overdone violence and the cutesy maid theme, using the violence for its shock factor. However, in times where series like 'The Boys' have desensitised us to even realistic-looking violence, the little bit of animated gunplay of 'Akiba Maid War' fails in that regard.

On the positive side, the animations are good, the characters are designed well, and the general production value is fairly high. I'd even go so far and say that 'Akiba Maid War' is an excellent show for its niche. It's just that this niche is fairly narrow. A more compelling narrative certainly would've managed to interest a wider audience.

'Summer Time Rendering' is the ultimate proof that the 2020s do not solely consist of endless sequels, reboots, or formulaic and generic fluff pieces. Its original and suspenseful story begins with one of the most compelling pilot episodes I've ever seen, combining genres like nobody's business, and keeping up the quality throughout all twenty-five episodes.

Without spoilering too much, I'd say that the series begins as a combination of a nostalgia fluff piece and a murder mystery, quickly gains elements of an occult urban fantasy with cleverly introduced time travel, before evolving into an action-filled thriller that ends in a lovely, episode-length epilogue.

The marvellous plot is heavily supported by the equally marvellous cast of interesting and emotionally capable characters, completely blowing must contemporary stories out of the water. The English voice acting is unfortunately not quite up to par but servieable enough.

Visuals are crisp and fluid, the soundtrack is subtle until it isn't, the direction is perfect, and the fanservice is thankfully limited to its bare minimum.

Bonus points for the plot twists and cliffhangers, and for that absolute miracle of a change in dynamics between the first and the second half of the series. Extra bonus points for the most compelling opening episode I've seen in a long while, and for the stunning episode 15 that left me in awe.

'Summer Time Rendering' is not only the best anime I've seen in a long while, it's the best TV show as well, easily.

Kudos to everyone involved, especially the script writers; hopefully they'll come up with more magnificent stories in the future!