Rockgiant

Mr Inbetween
Ray balances his civilian life with his job as a criminal for hire.

This show tries incredibly hard to be grounded and realistic. And it is. It maintains an atmosphere of absolutely 0 excitement for most of the series. It's cool and impressive how they managed to make it seem so real, and how they showed the calmer sides of crime, but at the same time, it almost never feels like anythings actually happening. Even when something is happening on the crime side, they try to show how boring and uneventful crime really is. This makes it realistic but leaves the show kinda boring. Another reason it never feels like anything happens it's because of how quickly they ignore an event. Something may be a big thing for 2 episodes and then it's never even thought about again. I guess this is occasionally a good thing because they dropped the bs anger management class. Every time This thing appeared, they would try to tie in some stupid character trait to Ray that barely made sense. "He's an angry guy." But in reality he's a criminal so what he did makes sense without the anger part. And then they try to say it was all the anger all along. Of this show is gonna add background information too is all just gonna be mentioned once with no lead up, made irrelevant in about 5 minutes, and then never addressed again. You don't learn that Ray was in the military until halfway through the series and it adds nothing.

This show is focused on Ray Shoesmith. Ray is a pretty great character but no one else really is. This show tries hard to do characterization in really awkward ways that just ends up being annoying. They should just leave it to the plot to develop the characters. I think a big part of why it never feels like anythings Happening is that every character has like 3 facial expressions and for every single one of them -_- is the default. Actually Ray's is -o-. The also never really feel like they focus on anything. It feels detached when it's trying to be closer to Ray.

This show is also supposed to be a comedy. It's not incredibly funny but there's some good moments here and there. Season 1 is probably trying the hardest to be funny. Most of the jokes in the show land but they just aren't all that humorous. The best part about this comedy though is the conversations. Sometimes you'll just get tuned in to a conversation at the halfway mark and they're talking about some random stuff in a somewhat pulp fiction way. It's interesting but not used enough to stand out too much.

The ending to this show is also really sloppy. I kind of got what they were going for about an episode and a half early but they didn't focus enough on Ray's character for it to work that well. I really like the actual ending to the series and about the 15 or so minutes leading up to it, but the two and a half episodes before that are kinda messy. The introduce a new character in the last 3 episodes for a singular purpose, and they kill off a side character who really didn't need to die, especially not like that.

Overall this show is incredibly grounded and I appreciate the realistic and unexciting approaches that they take to parenting and a criminal lifestyle. However, it's sloppy and this kinda leads to it being boring. It's an alright show that's occasionally great but it rarely takes the steps needed in order to be great.

Best episode: socks are important (season 2, episode 9)
Worst episode: I'm your girl (season 3, episode 7)
Best season: 2
Worst: 1
Light 7

5 days ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

Nichijou
It's a slice of life
It's normal slice of life things
Mogami River

This show is so frigging peak. Literally every single scene of every single episode is great. There's no empty space in this. Everything about it is solid and it's just straight good. It's also one of the funniest shows I've ever watched, if not THE funniest. There are so many jokes that actually had me screaming with laughter. A lot of this shows humor comes from pure absurdity. One of the first scenes in the series is of Nano chasing a cat and then accidently running into a kid and setting off a nuke. Another excellent scene is when Mio and Yukko get bit by dogs and unleash a laser beam of pain that pierces the heavens and destroys the solar system. This show is honestly such a clip farm. Every single scene is excellent. They all seem like the calm down or are close to ending and then they just keep going and it works so damn well. This show is also highly unpredictable. There's moments in here that are just wholly unexpected and it's amazing. Regular show is probably the most similar thing I can compare this too, and this is even better than regular show. This show has a ton of visual metaphors that add a lot to the series. One of the best things about this is that they also take their visual metaphors literally which adds to the insanity and absurdity. There's also some underrated wordplay, probably even more in the original Japanese that just didn't translate.

This show is constant insanity and always over the top yet it still feels grounded in reality at its core. It's a slice of life that's just pure insanity, yet most of it's situations feel like just an exaggerated reality. It's honestly refreshing. Despite it's insanity, it still manages to feel realistic. This is mostly cause of the really well done characters. Obviously some of what they do is over the top but they still feel pretty realistic. For the first half of the show it's mostly split into two parts, the school part and the family part. The school part consists of Mio, Mai, and Yukko and any side characters. The family part consists of Nano, Sakamoto, and Hakase. The only problem i can really think of work this show is that Yukko is too dominant. Arguably Nano is the main character of the series as her actions change the series the most but Yukko steals near every scene she's in. On the family side it feels pretty balanced. Each character is really good and can stand in their own. On the school side, each character is great and could work alone but Yukko kind of eclipses them. It feels like most of the show in the school life is bouncing off of Yukko, even when they're focused on another character. That being said, every character on the show is really good. Even the side characters are peak. This show has incredible jokes with its side characters. One of the funniest moments in the series is during the first episodes where they're just having a normal conversation and then a dude with a Mohawk just causally walks past. What makes it even better is that they turn that into its own separate amazing joke for a great side character. All of the characters play off each other really well. Mai is a legendary troll and Yukko's reactions are pure gold.

This show is really great with its nothing scenes too. There's transition scenes in every episode that last a couple seconds and they're either a cool running joke or just a really cool and vibrant background or a cute dance from Nano and Hakase. The background transitions are really cool and they can definitely subvert your expectations with these. One of these backgrounds is from the perspective of a vending machine and that's just so frigging cool (Nichijou reference😱). Speaking of subverting expectations, this show is mostly just a collection of random incredible scenes without much of a correlation. There is progression but the scenes don't interact with each other most of the time, but when they do, it's genuinely really well written. They can write a simple narrative that still makes a great scene or they can flex their narrative complexity on a great scene.

This show is frigging awesome. Everything about it is just so damn good. I highly doubt there will be another slice of life on this level. There probably won't ever be another comedy this hilarious either. I love everything about this series. There is absolutely nothing that they don't do at a high level.

Decent 9

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5 days ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

"I was splitting chopsticks with my buttcheeks" - Socrates or sumn

6 days ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

First comes the rock, what's it gonna be, rock paper scissors and a one two three

6 days ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

K-on
5 girls make a band (holy crap a slice of life with a slightly different concept)

This show would be much better if they were all fans of Merzbow. Like just imagine if all of the songs were harsh noise and everything else was the exact same. It would be peak🥹

This show really doesn't get good until Azusa (hope that's the right spelling, I had to watch in dub) shows up. Oddly that's not because she's the best character (although she is), but instead because the show actually just gets better once she's added. The early parts of season 1 are terrible. The writing in this section is terrible. I shouldn't be expecting a slice of life to have great narrative writing but this just feels like cheating. There's a whole episode where they get jobs so that Yui (i know i spelled that right because Evangelion reference) can buy her guitar but after they do the job they don't have enough money. But it's ok because apparently Mugi just owns the store and can get it at a massive discount in the last 3 minutes because why not. The writing is terrible before Azusa shows up. Also the characters are not good before Azusa. Especially Mio.

When the show first starts, Mio is insufferable. Her whole character is just "gets scared easily". They squeeze way more jokes out of that than are funny. It's just annoying. They cut it back in the later portions of the series but it's so overused in the first season. Mio actually undergoes some character development as she gets less scared and embarrassed as the series goes on. She actually ends up being one of the more responsible ones in the end, yet she still pretty childish at times. Another good thing about Azusa'a introduction is that it gives Mio a character dynamic that isn't with Ritsu. In the early part, Mio is reliant on Ritsu. She just doesn't work without her. Once Azusa gets added, Mio starts being allowed to function outside of her relationship with Ritsu.

It's pretty cool that the best couple in the show makes drum n' bass together. I doubt that was even intended it just worked perfectly. Ritsu is the second best character and she was carrying the early sections. She's very similar to Yui honestly. Both are energetic and childish. This makes it kinda trippy whenever Ritsu is the most mature in the group. Yet, it kinda makes sense? While Yui's childishness goes to far at times and she's ends up being annoying, Ritsu somehow always comes off as charming. Even when she's being a bit rude or mean, it's clear that she's trolling while Yui always seems dead serious. I thought Yui was OK in the early parts but honestly she's annoying in large doses, a problem Ritsu doesn't have. Hot take but Yui is one of the worst characters in the show.

Sawako is the actual worst though. She's so obnoxious. Everything sure does is either corny or annoying or creepy. I really don't like her character and is definitely weird that she's the only adult character. Luckily she's not in too much of the series like Yui is but Sawako ruins half the scenes she's in.

Mugi was also a problem in the early sections. She was a blank slate of a character for awhile. Her personality for about half the series was just rich and nice (and they didn't really show the nice part). Similar to Ronnie from the shield, she was just there to say a couple lines and then stand in the background. Eventually she gets to be a more developed character but it's mostly just copying Yui and Ritsu.

There's a couple important side characters too like Yui's sister Ui (ain't no way I spelt that right). Ui's entire character is just devoted to hey sister though. She's lowkey glazing her sister and it's just annoying. Especially when I already don't think Yui is one of the best on the show. The other side characters are cool though.

And the best character is Azusa. She's much more chill and responsible than the rest of the gang. She forgets she's supposed to be the responsible one thug cause she gets so caught up in their bs. She seems so done with them at times but she still cares for them. Probably the best aspect of her character is that she's an overthinker. The show peeks into Azusa's inner thoughts the most, which makes it a lot easier to connect to her. Azusa episodes also just tend to be better written. Their narratives get a lot better as the series progresses in general but they really step their game up for Azusa episodes. Azusa even had the best line in the series, which is literally just a sigh in season 2 episode 3.

Slice of life shows are sort of reliant on having good characters to be good and this show kinda falls short there. I also don't really like the ending where they all go to the same college together. I really liked how Azumanga ended because they didn't all stay together after high school. Sometimes people just drift apart. You don't stay together forever. Amphibia also did a pretty good job of explaining this. Overall this is a good show that's kinda carried by Azusa and Ritsu. It takes a while to find it's ground but once it does, it's really good.

Best season: obviously 2
Light 7

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1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

FLCL
Naota meta a crazy alien pdf on a vespa with a big guitar

Was it really necessary to diss us Eva fans like that? It had only been 5 years were we really that bad😭

This is frequently regarded as off the wall insanity and wild for the sake of being wild. Everything makes sense though and it's really not that insane. Maybe that's in part cause it's just came off of Xavier but this also just doesn't seem that crazy in general. It's a solid show but it's not "wild". The meta jokes are really good like when they make fun of the audience for thinking it's confusing (people keep saying there's no discernible plot in this show and genuinely, are we watching the same series? There's definitely a plot). This show can be fun too with some typical over the top and ironic sequences.

One of the biggest problems is with the characters honestly. They have more happening under the surface that they don't explicitly state but suggest. This helps really flesh them out but on the other hand as real characters but on the other hand, they kinda drop them. The side characters from school are either boring or annoying in most situations (the communist is pretty cool on episode 3 though). Mamimi gets screwed over by an ending that glosses over her. Naota changes a lot from episode to episode which fits with the theme of coming of age but it Def feels off in the last episode. Haruko... is there too. Her character is actually well done but it won't snap into place until the last episode. Speaking of the last episode, that ending was a roller-coaster. At first I thought it was gonna be a Berserk type ending, then i thought they were gonna end with a death, then it turned into Evangelion with a happier ending.

This show feels very reminiscent of some other shows. It's honestly very similar to Gurren lagann yet it was done earlier. It's also vaguely similar to the Berserk 1997 anime.

There is some symbolism and important details going on here. There's some cool visual metaphors as well. There's also some really good foreshadowing hidden in here. The first couple episodes keep a twist hidden until the end of the episode and the reveals work really well. It's not incredible advanced or anything abs is overarching message is a little lacking but it is solid for other reasons. Some of the more abstract sections, such as the future sight of episode 4, are well done. Some of their layered jokes really aren't. I didn't need that whole episode to be about Haruko fooly coolying Naota's dad. Oh yeah there's also a scene where he just starts mastering the art of baiting in the middle of the dining room while everyone eating.

Decent 7

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Rockgiant

Xavier renegade angel
There is no plot or concept to this thing at all

This show is insanity, personified. It's on adult swim so it's kinda expected to be ridiculous but this is seriously unhinged. Nothing makes sense, every ten seconds is unrelated to the last, they go from sex jokes to 9/11 jokes in a span of 3 seconds and the visuals get trippy. This show is just pure absurdity.

The show can actually be decently smart though. They have a ton of dumb visual gags that work well but their dialogue is ridiculous. They frequently spit dense wordplay and entendes. It rarely has any sort of relevance to the episode but whatever. The show also has a ton of one liners. Pretty much every line in this show is a quotable. "Dance god. We made you up and we can take you out". This show is pretty rapidly paced too so all of this absurdity and dense dialogue is crammed into a short time span. It can be overwhelming add tons but at other times it's just really good.

There's some big overwhelming with this though. The first half of season 2 is abysmal. I know i said this is fast paced but this is actually too fast paced. This problem shows up a lot on season 2 but the second half showed it down a little. Oddly enough, it's so fast paced that there's so much happening that 4 minutes feels like 30. It's a drag to get through this section of the show. "Life is just death in drag". The second half of season 2 is very solid though. The series finale is a bit weaker but 6-9 are really good. Also this show had done crazy voice cameos. Why in the actual fuck is snoop Dogg in this?

This show is completely off the walls insanity. Azumanga fans line to home about the show being a lobotomy but this show right here fits that description a lot more. At times it can get philosophical and I can always respect their writing skills, but sometimes they're just doing too much.

Best episode: season 2 episode 9
Worst episode: season 2 episode 1
Strong 5

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Rockgiant

Chernobyl
If you don't know what chernobyl is, take a history class.

This show sort of makes a good case for anarchy. On the one hand, it does how horrible a government, society, and authority can be. On the other hand, it does how organization can be a necessity. At first the show starts as a light critique of governments and an argument for the necessity of transparency (i sound so pretentious using all these big words). The show then shifts to a dramatic retelling of what happened to repair the aftermath of chernobyl. At the end it shifts back towards a criticism of lies in the government.

During the middle section, the show is a dramatic retelling of the events that followed the explosion of the chernobyl nuclear reactor. This section is interesting but not particularly immaculate. This show is dragged down by the fact that it's a docudrama. You already know what's going to happen, and the characters already exist. Praising any sort of character development or characterization would be sort of wrong. Complaining about corny or cliche sections is similarly awkward. These things really happened. However, this is a dramatisized version of the real events. They are pretty solid at showing a person's personality but not particularly immaculate. Some lines and small scenes, especially on episode 4, are honestly corny and retold in a too familiar way.

What really would matter for this show is a message (which can be presented by what they focus on in their retelling) and the entertainment value. This show is surprisingly good at displaying a message about government corruption, honesty, caution, and morality. However, it's a little lacking in entertainment for me personally. It's a little slow. It feels like each hour long episode is almost twice a long as it is. The cinematography is really excellent in many scenes but there's few scenes that really stand out as excellent or particularly entertaining.

Many people also say that this show is dark, bleak, and depressing and honestly, how? It's not that bad at all. Maybe I've been ruined by other shows but this doesn't feel very bleak to me which might be part of why is about to get the score it does.

This is a very well made show but it is unoriginal. It had no choice but to be and it is an excellent version but I still don't think it's the masterpiece that the rest of humanity seems to agree it is.

Best episode: 5
Worst episode: 4
Light 8

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

Berserk
Guts kills millions or sumn idk there isn't really an overarching concept or plot.

This gone look so weird when I just went from fruits basket to clannad to his and her circumstances to freaking berserk. Also I know i just came off of 3 shojos but like why tf is there a love triangle in my violent medieval psychological thriller. It's not even really bad or anything it just feels so out of place.

I was gonna try to put the legendary Tarantino speech about top gun here but I don't think it quite fits even though this is lowkey very gay.

This series is meant to question the depths of human evil but honestly i think people are doing too much. It's about more than just that. It's having a dream evil? While having a goal in life is inherently selfish, is it truly evil? Would your life be better if you never had a dream? Why is it so hard to abandon a dream we no longer believe in? Is there really any purpose to life or are we just here to exist? Do you really know yourself? Why is it different to kill someone you know vs someone you don't? Should it be different? Why tf are they wearing armor? How can people change from meeting others? How does life and circumstances change people? Why would you live for someone else? Have you been a fool to yourself? Why do we hate?

These are all important questions presented by the series but never fully answered. The show also managed to present great psychological depth in its characters. It actually maintains the ability to be super interpretive without using many symbols or metaphors. Just the characters mind states and actions can be interpreted in many ways. Just to point out the great depths of this show, there's a side character who's only in 2 episodes yet they give him a deep character and motivations in this time. They don't even have to directly say anything either. On the other hand, there's a lot of side characters who are mostly left alone. People like Pippin never really get a character and plenty of others don't get a deep one.

For some reason the art style of this series ticks me off. The backgrounds seem extremely static. Obviously they aren't gonna have the budget to make it always moving but it still seems off. Same with the characters and everything else too. Additionally, these characters are ridiculously overpowered. It's somewhat justified since they've all been training since they was wee little lads but it still seems excessive at times. Why is anyone even wearing armor on this series? Literally everything breaks through it with 0 effort and the armor only slows you down so why is anyone wearing it? They can also win every fight with one blow which I'm not actually that annoyed with but does show the power problem. The biggest problem is that the main characters are invincible. There's literally a scene where guts has about 30 deep gashes all over his body and the next day he's pretty much fine. He's not even slowed or anything. Even in the first episode he gets crushed yet somehow he's fine? Speaking of the first episode, odd choice to make the last episode chronologically the first episode. Kinda spoils the outcome of a lot of the series.

The soundtrack on this is really good. I don't have too much to say about this and you do hear the same songs over and over but the soundtrack is definitely worth mentioning.

Overall this show can be very intellectual and had deep characters. However, it's not too good at much outside of its characterization. Luckily that's usually one of my favorite parts of a series anyways so it's fine.

Best episode: Eien no koku (episode 25)
Worst episode: episode 17
Decent 8

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Rockgiant

His and her circumstances
Hideaki Anno makes a rom-com.

Yeah you heard me right. The guy who made Evangelion also made a rom com. Also like Evangelion they ran out of budget and he had to cut some corners with the animation. This also led to a lot of pointless recap sequences and episodes. Similar to Evangelion, there's a lot of still frames and the drawings are not that good towards the end. There's a lot of black and white sections too and there's even some reused footage from Evangelion. Unlike Evangelion, he could save money by using the Manga panels. However, that kinda led to it's own problems. This show started only a little bit after the Manga did. The manga didn't wrap up until 2005 and this series got cancelled well before then. Gainax didn't like that the manga writer wanted to make it a more psychological drama series and this led to the show getting dropped. Also I think there were tons where they were almost at the exact same point as the manga or even slightly past it. This show was a mess in its creation and we should be lucky it even turned out as good as it did.

The first 4 episodes show what this show could have been. I'm guessing they had a much bigger budget here and Anno was allowed to just run wild. There's a ton of crazy looking frames like the ones below. These first episodes are like a fever dream. It's also far more com than rom and it works very well here. The best part about these early sections are that they include a ton of symbols and visual metaphors to help you understand the characters more without even having to say anything. So many crazy, abstract things are depicted that it's hard to tell what's real and what's imagined. Honestly everything in these first couple episodes might be influenced by the character's perspective. The pilot is honestly one of my favorites behind the shield and Evangelion. Sadly, the show stopped with its insanity and started shifting more towards rom than com. They also had a lot less symbols and visual metaphors. They kinda fell into a lull where it almost doesn't even feel like the same show anymore. The characters changed way too much for 5 episodes and then they kinda stayed like that. It makes the first couple episodes seem out of place even though they're easily the best in the series. They stick to this simpler section for a while but get more serious for a time slightly after the halfway mark of the series. However, episode 19 goes back to where it was without much of an acknowledgement of what you just saw. Also episode 19 feels like a 24 minute prank. Pretty much everything after episode 18 is kinda ehh. It's not bad it's just not great. The middle section was at least still trying to teach life lessons and make some statements. The end is just ehh. It's never really great but never really bad either. The series is also pretty unfinished. The end doesn't wrap up anything for reasons previously discussed.

This series had a lot of potential but gainax was holding it back. It's vaguely reminiscent of Evangelion at times and worth checking our if you're a fan of Hideaki Anno but isn't that great in the end.

Best episode: 1
Worst episode: 26 (I don't remember the number of the recap episode)
Strong 6

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1 month ago | [YT] | 3