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TheBlackSwordsmann
Reviews
Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Chapters: Special 2 (2023)
Yet again, another great show with a terrible ending
Ugh... Here we go again.
It has been 3 years since I read the ending of Attack on Titan and to be completely honest I've forgotten about this series and lost interest in it but considering how in love with this series I was as a young adult still in college back in 2013 and onwards, I almost felt obligated to watch the "Final Season"(s).
Attack on Titan captivated me in it's first 3 seasons for the same reason Berserk did and that it had an amazing and complex story that foreshadowed a lot of future events that would eventually take place that connected the dots and filled plot holes in the most incredible ways. All of the writing up until the time skip were so masterfully done by Isayama and I was truly amazed by his story telling abilities. I felt it transcended Manga writing the same way Kentaro Miura did with Berserk but on a higher scale given AOT had earned higher levels of recognition in mainstream media/platforms and had, obviously, a much better anime adaptation.
I really feel Attack on Titan is one of the biggest contributors to the change in society's eyes regarding anime and manga. It played a huge role in making anime "Cool" and accepted as a normal thing in society.
What I am trying to convey in this review is that I am not a hate watcher or hate reviewer. I am giving my honest opinion when I say I truly think the ending was terrible.
Attack on Titan's final episode and really the entirety of the "Final Season" was really just a complete disappointment. Isayama's writing went from masterful to confusing to outright sloppy. For the entirety of the series, it was explained clearly that Ackermans were not able to be controlled by the power of the founding titan and their memories could not be tampered with but for some reason Eren was able to erase her memories of meeting with him before killing him.
There still is no confirmation of who the father of Historia's kid is. Was it Eren's or just some random farmer?
Why did Zeke getting killed by Levi stop the rumbling but not Eren? Wasn't Eren already in possession of the founding titan's powers? Wouldn't Ymir's power and will supersede that of the need for Eren to be in contact with Zeke because she already chose to disobey the royal blood and give Eren her power? If it was necessary for Eren to be in contact with Zeke at all times for him to continue to have the founding titan's powers then why was Eren still in his founding titan form until Jean blew up his nape?
This is the textbook definition of absolutely terrible and sloppy writing. None of it makes sense. Add on to the unsolved mystery of what this "life" creature was and what its actual impacts were. How did Eren turn into a colossal titan? Who did he consume that gave him those powers to turn into a colossal at the end without the Life Creature being attached to him?
In addition to all of these unanswered questions, they absolutely eviscerated Eren's character progression with the up most disrespect. I honestly thought they would change some of the lines delivered in the anime but they didn't they actually made it even worse than the manga.
Eren turning into an absolute beta when throughout the story was presented as a fighter who never stopped moving forward, was so pathetic to see. In those final moments with Armin, him collapsing to the ground and crying about wanting Mikasa to think of him for 10 years, calling himself an idiot who got powers he shouldn't have was like the author just spit on our faces and it turns out Eren was never the main character, this was never a complex action based story, it was a love story and the main character was actually Ymir and she used Mikasa to free herself of her love for her abuser.
Mikasa didn't really change at all, she still sat there next to Eren wearing that scarf depressed, still unfortunately no progression for her at all.
So heartbreaking to see a story collapse on itself like this the same way Game of Thrones did.
The animation of the action scenes were not as good as it used to be either. Mappa has incredible artwork and their art design I think is actually better than Wit Studios but their fast paced animation for AOT was not any where near the level of Wit studios and that also played a big part in my unenjoyment of the final seasons.
But with all that said I still think AOT made a big impact on anime and gave me some great memories throughout the years.
My rating for this ending was a 2/10.
My overall rating for the anime has dropped from a 10/10 to a 7.5/10. Endings are important and crucial to the overall rating of a series and AOT unfortunately is another series gone fishing in Cancun instead of Valhalla.
Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Chapters: Special 1 (2023)
Great artwork, rough ODM animation, out of sync music
I thought this special episode was enjoyable and had some really good aspects to it like the Artwork for example I thought looked excellent. I've always said that MAPPA's art style compared to WIT is much better during slow paced non action scenes and it just looks absolutely fantastic. I liked the extra little dialogue they added into the anime that weren't a part of the manga, I thought they were very clever about that. I loved the soundtrack they chose for the episode, but I thought that some of the music just didn't match the scenes that were happening on screen, and I thought some of it was a bit overbearing. For example, Hange's death scene I thought the music was just so out of place. It sounded so casual, and the vocals of the singer were so damn loud that it was just too much and exaggerated, it was almost cringe. Not only that but the pacing of the scene, it was like Hange was just some NPC no one cared about and just immediately moved on and the emotion of the scene just simply wasn't there, felt rushed, which makes sense considering how rushed the manga's final chapters are, so I can't hold MAPPA to that too much.
Aside from all of this, the biggest gripe I have with MAPPA ever since they've taken over Attack on Titan, has been MAPPA's animation when it comes to fast paced, action/ODM scenes. Biased fans keep saying how amazing the ODM scenes look but I'm sorry they look ASBOLUTELY GOD AWFUL. One of the most important and for me the best part of AOT that really drew my interest in this series was the animation in their action scenes being incredibly well done and the transitions being so smooth and buttery. I'm not saying this as some WIT loyalist because I think MAPPA is incredible and I love all of their work they do but when it comes to AOT, WIT studios animation in their action scenes were just so well done, that it makes MAPPA look like a joke. The action scenes in this episode looked terrible, the ODM movement looks so stiff, and it looks like the character is lagging, like the TV is still trying to render what is happening on screen. It takes me out of the immersion of the show, and it has been this way ever since the very first episode MAPPA has taken over. It ruined the anime for me to be completely honest, but it is what it is. Hopefully it gets better.
I thought the voice acting was excellent as well. I loved the light hearted interactions between Armin, Annie and Mikasa. Overall 7/10.
Vinland Saga: Slave (2023)
Typical Shonen Garbage
What a ridiculously weak start to a new season. The entire episode was a snooze fest filled with "please cry" moments. Typical shonen anime, 'the weak male protagonist sees his family die in front of him and he's too weak to do anything but cries and one day will become some beast savage seeking revenge.'
How many times have I seen this story before? For the love of God, please Japan, do something original. It's bad enough that series like this get the green light from major studios like Wit and Mappa over real seinen manga like Berserk and Vagabond that actually deserve the Mappa level treatment. This episode was so painfully dreadful to have to sit through. The new character Einer watches his sister get kidnapped and eventually murdered, she even puts up a better fight than him. Terrible. Already dislike this character more than cry baby Thorfinn. Season 1 was very overrated, they literally killed off the two best characters the series had in Askeladd and Thors, and I just don't find the story that is playing out here or any character as enjoyable or interesting by any means.
Only good thing here is that MAPPA of course has incredible animation and sound design. Music was decent. Character designs look good. But still a very weak start. Massively disappointing.
Elden Ring (2022)
Incredible, straight up godlike.
This was my very first souls game. I was completely green when it came to souls games and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was unaware of how extremely challenging souls games were and I learned very quickly the reality of them when I tried to walk up to the tree sentinel to talk to him assuming he would be an ally and getting absolutely demolished and planted into the ground by his massive 10 foot golden sledge hammer of the gods and then later on getting destroyed by some bats and then hitting a weak skeleton villain and it turning into a 30 foot grizzly bear all within the first few minutes of the game.
I really loved how difficult it was, I play street fighter and tekken competitively and I feel like the skills and fundamentals of fighting games translated extremely well in Elden Ring. I caught on pretty quickly and learned the Meta of the game. You have to have very good timing, good instincts, you have to be able to learn the pattern of what your opponent is doing and adapt to it while also controlling your spacing and knowing what resources you have which is all relative to being a competitive fighting game player.
I really enjoyed the world of Elden ring, I knew with George RR Martin helping with world building and mythologies behind the story I knew it would be a great dark fantasy type and it was exactly that. It has all different types of terrains and environments that I felt could make anyone feel immersed in it. If you like snowy environments, sunny and colorful, dark and scary, royal and regal, magical and spiritual, they have it all.
The game is extremely challenging and does not hold your hand at all and if you don't like challenges/deep exploration and puzzle solving and would rather have everything on training wheels the entire way through I'd recommend staying away from this game because this game will frustrate you unless you are willing to adapt and learn from mistakes. You will die a lot in this game but it all helps in adapting and is very satisfying once you've over come the odds.
Boss battles are next level. I don't think I've ever seen boss battles like this in any game ever. Not just the main story bosses but even side bosses that you will randomly run into throughout the world are so well done and intense. I think the boss battles in this game are what makes the game incredible and each time you fight a new boss makes you better and helps prepare you for future bosses and fighting against regular enemies.
The weapons and magic are also the highlight of the game. Over 300 weapons and some of them are just so satisfying to swing around. Makes you feel like an absolute menace swinging a colossal sword or battle axe that's bigger than your own character.
Definitely a 10/10 for me and I hope they make more DLC for this game.
House of the Dragon: The Rogue Prince (2022)
Another great story telling episode
Another great episode telling us the story of House of the Dragon, setting the tone for the rest of the series. Had a moment in the episode where we almost saw two dragons fight which really got me hyped. The tone of the episode is very much what we expected from a game of thrones series. I have very high hopes with this series and so far the series hasn't disappointed.
They have immediately started off the series with an internal conflict and have done a great job with pacing so far. I feel like the series is moving in the right direction.
I'm really looking forward to another legendary series and I hope we all get that.
Resident Evil (2022)
The cringe is unbearable. Cancel Culture version of RE.
I couldn't stomach even 4 minutes of the show. Everything is just bad. The pacing, the characters, the CGI, the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual lore of Resident Evil. I knew it was gonna be bad the moment I heard the term "climate change" in the first 30 seconds of dialogue in the first episode. I cannot believe they actually have a scene in one of the episodes where one of the actresses does some crazy dancing with the stars style dance during one of the episodes. This is not resident evil. Netflix is becoming very dangerous to a lot of beloved franchises and this is getting out of hand. This series was clearly produced by Silicon Valley people who have blue and pink hair and pronouns listed in their bios and no experience writing. It's almost as bad as Dragonball Evolution. It this series is any indication of how Netflix adapts legendary franchises, I hope they stay far far away from Berserk.
Beruseruku (2016)
Incredible story, annoyingly terrible animation.
Berserk (2016) is just incredibly heart breaking to be honest. When I watched this series I felt like I was at a crossroad between an absolutely godlike story with excellent characters and just absolutely god awful laughable animation. I've never read any of the manga, I've never watched the original anime series from the 90s, all I knew about berserk was that everyone who watches anime and reads manga have nothing but incredible things to say about it and I absolutely agree.
It's to my understanding that the 2016 version takes place around Ch. 140 give or take and there were moments where I felt like I was lost or didn't understand the back story of certain things that were happening but even then I still was able catch on pretty quickly and still found the story to be absolutely amazing.
This series should be absolutely godlike, but it isn't. It's massively disappointing. The animation is purely CG garbage! I cannot believe the animation studio GEMBA actually thought that this was okay? It's almost as if they were purposely trying to disrespect the author and the fan base with how bad of a job they did. I hope that GEMBA and the other animation studios who worked on this aren't making any more anime. I feel they should be banned from ever touching any new projects in the future. I'm not exaggerating at all, this is how bad it was. There were so many intense moments in the story that built up so much hype and the music would boost the hype even more and then the fighting would start and it just completely belly flops and takes you out of the moment and you just can't help but cringe at how bad it looks.
But even then, I still watched all of it and I can honestly say I still enjoyed it, purely because of the story. It's obvious, without even reading it, the original manga source was a masterpiece and it made watching this series bearable. The main character Guts is officially one of my all time favorites and the supporting cast is just top notch. The way they all connect with each other is just beautiful and hilarious as well.
If you can stomach bad animation for the sake of a good story I'd recommend it, otherwise don't bother.
Death Note: Desu nôto (2006)
Started out strong but then lost its footing
Death Note was a fun short series to watch and very different from anything I've ever experienced. There were a lot of elements of the show, at least in the first half, that was very unpredictable and unique. The series started out very strong with the character/story building, overall darkness and introducing new ideas to the viewer but as the series progresses the story starts to slowly become less intriguing. Once it got about half way through, it started to become very repetitive and predictable.
There is a reason why this series was so short and that's because the overall plot was doomed to hit a dead end. They over did it with the passing on of the notebook, giving it to multiple people. I loved the idea of a second Kira, especially when I found who it was. But then Random characters with absolutely no back story popping up out of no where getting possession of the notebook and getting such a huge responsibility and role in the story was a huge turn off. It made the death note insignificant imo, and took away from its grandness in the story.
L carried the story and his fate was extremely disappointing, not necessarily because he died but how early in the series he was killed off. I found myself losing focus on the TV many times in the second half of the series. They depended on Kira to carry the story forward but he was so predictable in the second half. They introduced new characters to carry on such a big role filling L's shoes with N and Melo and they expected the viewer to accept them as the heroes who ultimately claim victory over Kira. It was so random and kind of annoying to be honest.
But all in all, I really enjoyed the first half. I'd give the first half of the series a 10/10 and the second half a 3/10. Overall a 7/10. Definitely shouldn't be in the 9/10 club. It's not on the same level of the AOT's and Breaking Bads of the world.
Naruto (2002)
Naruto is a mix of everything
Naruto, is an excellent anime series that has a great mixture of everything. For the longest time, I ignored this series and never understood the hype. I'd watch clips of it back in the early 2000s when it first came out and I just couldn't get into it because I was so into Dragonball Z and felt it was totally different from that, and that turned me off to it. But after almost 20 years, I finally decided to watch it and I absolutely loved it. It's crazy but now in my late 20s, I think that this series is better than Dragonball Z. It has pretty much everything you'd want in an anime; it has the amazing combat/action, comedy, love and sadness, all with a really interesting story to back it all up.
These days, I find myself exploring more modern day anime, some of my favorites being Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. Naruto, even though it is considered an older anime I feel was ahead of it's time and definitely inspired a lot of the newer animes we see today. The characters are all amazing and really what makes this series so incredible. Usually in most tv series, you typically have a few characters you love and have solid character development and back stories/arcs. With Naruto, the side characters and enemies are just as interesting and incredible as the main characters and I feel that really sets this series apart from others.
The only reason why I wouldn't give this series or Shippuden a 10/10 is simply because of the absolutely ridiculous amount of filler and flashbacks that it is plagued with. I truly feel that the excess flashback scenes and how drawn out it became, really dampened the potential as a top 5 anime of all time. It's almost disgusting how many times they'll use a flashback scene multiple times, sometimes within the same episode within minutes they'll play the same flashback filler multiple times to try to create an emotional reaction by the viewer. Sometimes they even use an entire episode to show previous scenes from previous episodes.
The combat is really cool and I feel really made being a ninja/shinobi a really awesome thing that I feel influenced alot of different cultures and people. Unlike. Dragonball and other animes, it doesn't always have a happy ending. Sometimes people you loved as viewer end up dying or doing things that really hurt you as a viewer.
I recommend this anime to anyone loves great action, characters comedy.
Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san (2021)
Hilarious and the english dub is excellent
This series is hilarious and just flat out goofy. The girls in the show are just straight up bullies and cute as hell. The jokes they use in the show are very modern and relatable to real life banter. Using the words like "sus" and "my guy" was not at all what I would expect from an anime but the English voice actors absolutely nailed the dub version. I think it's progressing very well and feels good to get away from all the super serious/action packed anime I've been watching so much of lately like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. A lot of comedic relief and relatable moments that I really enjoy.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Sneak Attack (2022)
Excellent episode but one flaw
Another excellent episode from this masterpiece of a series. Mappa studios have really outdone themselves with the visuals. The action was intense and they even brought back some of the old music from season 2 and remixed some of the other old tracks which I love. This episode should have been a 10/10 but because of the fact that they chose to use about 3 1/2 minutes of the episode literally showing us the exact same scenes that already took place in the prior episode I really felt was very unnecessary and disappointing. We wait one whole week for a short 24 minute episode which in reality is more like 19 minutes of actual content if you subtract the intro, ending, preview and the intermission break. None the less, I still enjoyed the episode and I feel this season is on track to surpass all the previous seasons. I just hope they stop replaying scenes in the previous episodes just to fill in content.
Hunter x Hunter (2011)
Great anime but not as great as it's made out to be.
Hunter x Hunter is an awesome anime with really cool characters and a pretty cool plot. I really enjoyed watching this series but there are some gripes I have about it. This series spends way too much time on dialogue and talking. During fight scenes, they'll build up the anticipation of the fight and then all you get is a bunch of dialogue between fighters and them explaining their techniques and it drags on WAY too much. When they do eventually fight, the fights are in some cases really disappointing and end very quickly with more dialogue and talking. Don't get me wrong though, there are tons of really cool fight scenes and some epic moments, it's not all just boring stuff but it comes and goes in this series. I love the comedy factor in this show. They have a lot of humorous moments and goofy moments that adds an element to the show that makes those boring moments more bearable. As the story progresses, it starts to become more dark and sinister. The character development in this show is not the greatest. Most of the main characters in the series don't change much throughout the series but the side characters who show up in certain arcs tend to have more development than them tbh. The ending of the series is very sudden and there is no sign of the series coming back. The manga is just as slow in its new releases. All in all, I'd give this series a solid 8.
Ousama Ranking (2021)
I'm sold on this series 3 episodes in
When I found out WIT was the studio producing this series I had to check it out. Initially I was hesitant at first just looking at the cover and description, but I immediately got hooked in the first episode. Most new animes I watch, I get distracted very easily and feel like I've seen it all but this one is different. Something about this series drew me in and kept me hooked on the TV. Only 3 episodes in but it has already come out the gate very strong with great animation as expected with WIT studios, comedy, a sense of mystery, darkness and incredible fight scenes. The series establishes character arcs and back stories immediately for a lot of different characters and I'm already feeling connected with them.
The main character is a dwarf sized kid named Bojji. He's pure hearted, can't hear or speak words at all, just noises, but he can understand people somehow, I assume by reading their lips but some characters he speaks to don't have lips, so I'm not certain on that yet. He seems like a hopeless kid who is set to become the next king after his ill father passes and names him as his replacement. Kings in this series seem to represent the strength of a territory and are bred to be great fighters. Unfortunately, his step mother voids the kings will and his shady younger brother who has no disabilities takes the reign instead and immediately tries to purge people. This was really sad because Bojji understood what was happening and with his disabilities he couldn't say anything. There are alot of sad scenes involving Bojji, people making fun of him thinking he can't understand what they're saying about him but In reality he understands everything and is aware of himself and his disabilities but plays it off with a very positive and happy spirit.
I didn't know what Bojji was going to be like as a protagonist and based on how people were making fun of him and calling him weak and unable to carry even a small sword, I didn't think he'd be able to do much. Boy was I wrong, he challenges his brother in a sparring match with wooden swords and I thought he was going to get destroyed. But he shows clearly that although he doesn't have strength, he has incredible defense, awareness, quickness, and counter attacking abilities when fighting. Very Floyd Mayweather-ish. He outclasses his brother and makes him look foolish and the guards in the castle start to criticize him unfairly for not fighting fair and not fighting aggressively and recklessly like his brother was, therefore they saw him as the loser and one of the guards tells him to stand still and fight like "a real king" and his brother immediately bashes him to near death. His brother walks off very smug and overly confident that he actually won.
I won't go into any more spoilers but all I can say is that this series has incredible potential and it's totally different from anything I've ever watched.
Goblin Slayer (2018)
A lot of potential but not quite there
Goblin Slayer is a dark fantasy anime that has a little bit of everything but doesn't necessarily do any of those things at a high level except for the character designs and animation. The artwork and animation looks amazing and definitely love the character designs. Goblin Slayer is unique in the sense that there is a heavy focus on rape and sexual assaults by goblins. I guess it adds to the somewhat bland plot and story, makes you feel for and connect with the characters because of some of the things they've experienced or witnessed their family members/friends experience. I really liked the character interactions, I felt the chemistry that the main squad has between each other really helps elevate the show, keeping things interesting and funny. Most of the women in the show are sexy, adorable and very curvaceous, which I know a lot of people enjoy. The thing that bothers me most about Goblin Slayer is the fighting scenes that just seem so stagnant and so anti climatic. One of the boss fights ended with a very low impact knife to the neck that I felt was so lame and in some of the other fight scenes the characters just stand still and swing their swords, no sense of athletic ability and versatility in fighting styles for most of the fighters. That bothers me because a show that's so heavily focused on villages being terrorized men being killed and women getting kidnapped and gang raped by goblins, you'd want the fight scenes to be epic and vicious and it sometimes doesn't feel that way. The story sometimes felt like there was no sense of direction and stagnant. For example The anime leaves out some cool parts of the manga and because of that lack of direction the story has, they took the manga and implemented the arcs out of order and it had no impact whatsoever. Overall, I still enjoyed the characters, their personalities, the artwork and the goblins enough to still give it a 7. The series is not over yet and I feel it can definitely get a lot better with season 2.
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Solid children's movie, funny and lots of nostalgia.
This movie was exactly what I expected it to be. People who were expecting an Oscar award winning acting performance from Lebron are very delusional. Please do not forget that this is a movie made specifically for children with an NBA player as it's main protagonist. With the low expectations I had for Lebron's acting skills, he surpassed my expectations. But this movie wasn't just about Lebron, the Looney Tunes absolutely delivered a great performance. They were so good, the amount of nostalgia and comedy they brought was incredible. On top of that, there was a ton of other nostalgia aside from the looney tunes which I won't spoilt but it was so cool how Warner Bros brought it all together. The CGI and visuals of the movie were incredible and anyone saying otherwise clearly doesn't know a thing about good CGI. The main thing that I think stands out most about this space jam was how much I laughed. It wasn't a masterpiece but what children's movie is a masterpiece? I can't think of any. I liked it and my son liked it too. Better than the original.
Shingeki no Kyojin (2013)
Absolute Excellence. Ecstasy. No words can do justice.
Attack on titan is not just one of the greatest anime shows of all time, it's one of the greatest and most remarkable works of art/entertainment PERIOD. I seriously cannot put it into words what this show does to you as a viewer. This anime captivates you in every possible way imaginable. Amazing storyline that just gets better and better with each episode. They do an amazing job developing characters and the relationships between the characters. You as a viewer begin to feel a connection with each of the characters and feel for them and the greatest thing about that is that the show does not hold any punches when it comes to the fates of those characters. The music compliments the show so well and enhances every scene. The fight scenes will absolutely blow you out of this world. The intensity and viciousness of each battle is so epic, it will literally have you on edge and make your heart pound. Idk what it is about the fight scenes, but something about the sounds of titans feet stomping shaking the earth and the feeling that you're there in the battle gives you absolute goosebumps like you'll never experience watching any other show. The show is so unpredictable and will always keep you guessing. This show will make you forget any other show you've watched. Do yourself a favor and watch it.
Mortal Kombat (2021)
Lifelong MK fan who still plays MK games competitively
This was one of the biggest disappointments in my life for me. I am a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan who still plays MK11 competitively and loves the lore of MK and continued to follow the games every single release since the 90s. This movie felt extremely rushed, the CGI was terrible. Acting was horrid, almost child like. Felt like I was being pranked. Liu Kang actually threw 4 kicks in the entire movie! WOW! 4 KICKS! The god of kicks for the champion of earth realm, threw four kicks and barely got any screen time. The movie made no sense. There was no build up. The action was decent, but didn't truly represent Mortal Kombat and all its glory. The hopes to ever make another MK movie are dead and I am very confident after that horrible movie that there will never be another chance for MK to be on the big screen.