Madhatter.NI - Monthly Anime

8th Son Are You Kidding Me

6/1/2020

This show's premise is fine:
Man wakes up to find that he's the eighth son of an impoverished noble. He has no prospects and must find his own way in the world. A genre I am not tired of yet and watched each episode when it came out on Crunchyroll.

Yet choppy animation/terrible pacing, and it's an isekai for no discernible reason other than wow I miss Japanese food and need to introduce everyone around me.

Why am I even writing about the anime?
Born so late, he’s not promised to actually inherit anything, and the lead character has to go make their fortune on their own. The series isn’t terribly plot focused, and seems to focus more on the story of the lead character and his attempt to make a way in the world.

The main character seems to get everything handed to him on a silver platter. He’s had only a few problems in his life: first, he’s the eighth son and his family cares more about making sure their first son is happy than looking after him. Second, he spends so much time alone training that he loses all skills as far as socializing. He spends an entire episode trying to make friends with some of his classmates, and it’s easily the best one so far.

DON'T EXPECT IT TO BREAK THE MOLD but if your looking to kill time this could the anime for you

Cagaster of an Insect Cage

5/1/2020

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where a mysterious disease “Cagaster” turns people into giant murderous insects, this manga-based series follows the struggle of a young couple to stay alive. It kinda scratched that anime blue gender itch

To start this out the story is a solid 6.5, as an Anime fan it earns that. Where Cagaster fails is Netflix's approach to CGI animation for their Anime's, (also hated the female) it just doesn't work. The color is flat, there's a clear lack of illustration detail, and the character movement s is stiff. Look no other than Episode 5 to what this show could have been, through a series of flashbacks, the show switches to traditionally styled Anime animation techniques with what looks like 2D hand drawn animation. It's almost as if the show runners and lead animators are subtly saying "if you want traditional animation you only get it with flashbacks." As if they're saying that's a thing of the past. The 2D style that is shown briefly in episode 5 is beautiful and I wish the entire series was animated this way. If they do green light a season 2 -- season 1 ended well enough if that they may not -- they should consider learning from the mistake of CGI in season 1 and take their time to animate this the right way, which may lead to better action sequences as well.

Cagaster of an Insect Cage, a mix of zombies, Attack on Titan, and bad animation. What could have been. I'd recommend it if you need a quick binge.

Dorohedoro

4/1/2020

Hole—a dark, decrepit, and disorderly district where the strong prey on the weak and death is an ordinary occurrence—is all but befitting of the name given to it. A realm separated from law and ethics, it is a testing ground to the magic users who dominate it. As a race occupying the highest rungs of their society, the magic users think of the denizens of Hole as no more than insects. Murdered, mutilated, and made experiments without a second thought, the powerless Hole dwellers litter the halls of Hole's hospital on a daily basis.

Possessing free access to and from the cesspool, and with little challenge to their authority, the magic users appear indomitable to most—aside for a few. Kaiman, more reptile than man, is one such individual. He hunts them on a heedless quest for answers with only a trusted pair of bayonets and his immunity to magic. Cursed by his appearance and tormented by nightmares, magic users are his only clue to restoring his life to normal. With his biggest obstacle being his stomach, his female companion Nikaidou, who runs the restaurant Hungry Bug, is his greatest ally.

Set in a gritty world of hellish design, Dorohedoro manages a healthy blend of comedy and lightheartedness with death and carnage. Taking plenty of twists and turns while following the lives of Hole's residents, it weaves a unique world of unearthly origin and dreary appearance not for the squeamish or easily disturbed.

Despite his appearance, Kaiman is a very cheerful character. He is like the mascot of the anime, even in the most desperate situations, he manages to entertain both himself and the viewers. But at the same time, when events come to the most serious point, he gets serious too and shows his fighting skills. On the other hand, Kaiman's best friend Nikaido is a more serious character than him. She is even more skilled fighter than Kaiman and has a very complicated backstory, but since this is a non-spoiler review I won't talk about it. But trust me, her backstory is really interesting.

Apart from Kaiman and Nikado, our other main characters are En Family, consisting of five people: En, Shin, Noi, Fujita and Ebisu. We meet with Fujita in the first scene of the anime when he and his partner fighting against our main duo. During this fight his partner dies, but before he dies, he opens a door to magic users' world and saves Fujita. After his partner's death, Fujita asks to En for help in revenge from Kaiman and Nikaido. In the following parts he meets Ebisu, who by chance falls into Kaiman's hands in Hole. After a short fight he saves Ebisu from Kaiman. Just like Kaiman, Ebisu is a character that we can count as the mascot of the Dorohedoro. In her fight with Kaiman, she loses all the skin on her face and (although her face is healed) she is slightly become a lunatic. Then we have fun while watching the funny things she does in this lunatic state.

Shin and Noi are partners working under En's order. This duo are the my favorite characters of Dorohedoro. Because they have a great harmony and their every scene has a perfect blend of comedy and action. Also their background stories are pretty well-written. Shin's background story reveals the bad aspects of Hole, showing how rotten both sides of Dorohedoro's world. Noi's background story shows although the things that she does are malicious, how kind hearted and unselfish the character is. In short, in Dorohedoro's world there are no characters who are absolute good or absolute evil, all the characters are in shades of gray, like the atmosphere that anime has.

Give this adaption a try as it's sure to pass time & fingers crossed for season two to come quickly!

Infinite Dendrogram

3/1/2020

I made it through Infinite Dendogram. Yes the main character is badly written, but a few others things make up for it. I didn't care what happened to Ray Starling, but I found all the other characters compelling, from Marie the alleged journalist to Hugo and Franklin to even Nemesis..

Another textbook example of a promised Isekai plot that was never utilized nor planned well, that sums up most LNs and the novelists in this day and age trying to break the SAO mold that sadly cannot be shaken. Looks like an anime to fill a status Que.... Watch it or browse it I only recommend if nothing else catches your interest. At times I wanted to fast forward but watching it with my partner and discussing what the production could of done added some fan fiction.

Starting out this journey like newbies, MC Ray Starling is the kind of newbie I would expect from being a total beginner, but the problem is that as he progresses he went from a rookie to a full-on if I speak it into existance... it will happen. Even as Embryo Nemesis (AI program) tracks his progress and becomes his sword (and shield if putting it literally). And everyone, I mean EVERYONE in this game, friends and foes alike, are just copy-paste cut-outs from similar shows we've seen time and time again, and communications with Ray are as simple as molasses (but of course, confusing and questioning to the newbie). I did like the pimp character with the succubus. Their story and skills were more interesting lol

Somali and the Forest Spirit

2/1/2020

The world is ruled by spirits, goblins, and all manner of strange creatures. Human beings are persecuted, to the very point of extinction. One day, a golem and a lone human girl meet. This is a record of the pair, one a member of a ruined race, the other a watchman of the forest. It tells of their travels together and of the bond between father and daughter, but the golem can only live for another year or so, he must find other humans in order to get her with her own race before he dies. Simple and relaxing feelsy show.

I always have a weakness for these types of adaptations related to dramas between children and adults and that manages to convey a very innocent and beautiful feeling to the viewer. And clearly "Somali to Mori .." had not been the exception, with the opportunity to offer us a fantastic adventure that is quite original and promising if it consolidates a 2nd season.
As for the audiovisual section, it seemed appropriate for the occasion, although I do not feel that it stood out in any way so regular / acceptable.

Art & Sounds are well done .

Finally the characters section, since for my taste it is what it most fulfills, because everyone has a role in the history that is conferred on them and they manage to do it very well, giving space for their developments in the chapters that I touch, but I think this point will be better reflected even in the future if he achieves a new sequel adaptation for this title, as I mentioned earlier.
Anyway, in view is that it is an Anime with a future, now it is up to the decision of the producers and studios if they let it live or on the contrary the story dies here without more ...

I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense.

1/1/2020

Since this is a VRMMO our protagonist establishes a guild and in this guild we have eight characters: Maple (Tank), Sally (Fighter/Ninja), Iz (Smith), Kasumi (Fighter), Kanade (Mage), Kuromu (Tank) and Yui & May (Juggernaut Sisters). Although we have so many characters, none of them are worth to mentioning since all of them are empty characters. Yes, we spend a lot of good time with them but we don't really know any of them either. All of these characters, except for Maple and Sally, are just some random people from a random MMO. I watched Kuromu for twelve episodes but I can't say anything about his personality and it is very frustrating because if this show focused on its characters, we could watch some interesting stories about them.

BOFURI as it is called due to it’s absurdly long title is a rather delightful show to watch. Yes, the fact that it’s another virtual reality Isekai may be a bit eye rolling, but it does help that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has a very light tone to the point that it can be considered slice-of-life, since it very much is. It basically looks into the life of a teenage girl as she has fun with her friends in the virtual space. The only thing making her stand-out from the crowd is that she naively Min-maxed a defense build that in turn led to her getting favorable results. Essentially she found a way to break the game and make herself drastically overpowered in a short amount of time. It amounts to very little aside from making boss fights and pvp tournaments very easy for her because in the end, it’s just a game..

This anime had me looking forward to each episode to see the madness Maple comes up with. I only suggest this anime as I fell in love with Syrup the Turtle & the enjoyable OP Maple becomes even though the admins try to nerf her skills.

Ascendance of a Bookworm

12/1/2019

Ascendance is a very relaxed show, with conflicts that are much more grounded than most fantasy stories. The first major arc of the show is Myne's attempts to make paper! With such a simple and, in some regard, boring problem, the show needs a stellar cast of characters to keep viewers engaged in the story.

Ascendance of a Bookworm is simply structured differently than most modern isekai. Myne is not a Chosen One. She has no great quest to achieve, no incredible destiny handed to her upon her rebirth. She's poor and lower-class in a world where social class is everything, so she can't buy her way out of trouble. She has no special powers beyond whatever knowledge she accumulated as Urano. If anything, her small size, lack of strength and tendency towards chronic fevers leaves her at a major disadvantage. All she has is her brains and determination, but that is enough to lift Myne out of her lowest moments and become the heroine of her own life.

There's something of a casual, lived-in pace to her story. Myne's quest for books is a long one with many steps, starting with her trying to figure out how to make various forms of paper. In the meantime, she learns about the world: her new family, the city around her, and the seasonal rhythms of peasant life. There's a great deal of emphasis on crafting, be it Myne's making simple comforts for herself or helping her family with things like candlemaking or making basic shampoo.

I found this anime after witnessing a short clip on crunchyroll where Myne (Spoiler) mana is used to get her & her parents out of a situation. After watching the first 3 episode it quickly became an anime I binged with my partner. I am looking forward to season 2 and ask for you to give it a try.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

11/1/2019

The plot is very easy to understand, it is about a boy who was sold to a devil by his parents and he has to try his best to hide that he is a human while going to a devil school. One of the things I liked about this plot is that Iruma wasn't made to be a sad existance. In fact, him being in that position made him earn lots of knowledge, skills and a mindset that helped him in his new life.

~Characters-
Mairimashita! Iruma-kun has a rich cast but main focus is always our main trio: Iruma, Asmodeus and Clara.

Iruma is your typical pacifist shounen protagonist. He is always a bit naive but still has passion for achieving his goal. He has no great powers but still manages to prevail against stronger demons than himself by his luck.

Asmodeus is the best first year student of Demon School. He challenges against Iruma but loses, and after that lose he becomes the stablemate of Iruma. According to what we learned at the Devi-doll Arc he has some complicated backstory due to his mother but looks like it’s a topic of another season.

Clara is my favorite character of this show. I was looking for a character just like her for a long time; always energetic, always finding a way to have fun and never stops to entertaining the audience. In fact, I've found a few characters like her before, but they were all supporting characters, so their screen times were not long. But Clara is a member of the main trio so she has a decent amount of screen time.

Supporting cast of Mairimashita! Iruma-kun is a bit cliché but at least every one of them has its own personality. The fact that there are so many characters that make each one feel different from each other and this prevents the anime from becoming boring.

~Art~
Mairimashita! Iruma-kun has a unique art design. Character designs, color scheme, background designs, and many more art design elements are things that you can't find in another anime. Also every demon has its own unique character design, none of them look alike. However, visuals and animations aren’t that good, especially animations are very bad at some certain scenes.

~Sound~
Soundtracks are hellish and funny at the same time, and that gives a unique atmosphere to the show.

Voice actings are decent. Clara and Amelie have very good voice actings but other characters’ voice actings are mediocre.

~Enjoyment~
Mairimashita! Iruma-kun was a unique comedy experience for me. It was an anime that I enjoyed every part of it, except School Festival Arc. I recommend this anime to people who are looking for a relaxing comedy anime with a very unique atmosphere. - "shiranaitori "

Vinland Saga

10/1/2019

Vinland Saga Review: Thorfinn and Friends...? (Minor Spoilers)
By: Gari Chutney

Admist the plethora of isekai and harem anime that came out in Summer 2019, fans were blessed with a viking tale called Vinland Saga. As an avid manga reader, this title was always in my plan to read, among other fantasy type stories such as Berserk, Claymore, Vagabond, Blade of the Immortal, etc. You get the point. Seeing that it was finally get an anime adaptation brought me joy as I felt I was drowning myself in the isekai pool... *side eye to Wise Man's Grandchild*

Anyways, Vinland Saga is a pretty chill watch if you like vikings and Norse mythology. Furthermore, if you are someone who appreciates adventure type shows where the most important thing is watching the main protagonist grow and develop before your eyes in order to achieve their personal goal, this may be your show. Starting as a young child, Thorfinn has only known of a simple life. His father Thors, appears to be the paragon of love and compassion, probably something that would rub people from his former life the wrong way. Through a cowardly maneuver, Thors' past catches up to him and his son Thorfinn witnesses the very thing his father wanted to protect him from. Filled with vengeance, Thorfinn is forced to abandon his childlike innocence and grow up the hard way.

Though this season only covers one major arc in the manga, the anime serves as a great introduction and leaves the audience ready to head to the nearest B&N to purchase the first volume. My few critiques for the anime is that the pacing can be a bit slow at times and rushed at others. Also, regarding character death, I wasn't quite attached to any of the recurring characters that die. There's only a handful of characters that the anime tries to get the audience to invest in, so if they were to die, sadness would be evoked. However, what occurs in the anime is that characters who have relative importance but not enough to make me care, die and to me the scenes following such deaths are drawn out too long. Perhaps those deaths serve to shock the audience instead. I didn't suspect most of them and perhaps because of that, surprise was supposed to be the intended emotion rather than sadness. Either way, both critiques are rather shallow because once you finish the show, there is some pay off.

All in all, Vinland Saga was the drop of water that was needed in the desert-like summer of 2019. I highly recommend watching this anime perhaps one or two episodes at a time. As I mentioned earlier, the pacing can get a bit funky, as a result the first half can get a little boring, but remember, it's for the sake of character development. It's not filler but rather the essential scenes that the manga readers would appreciate to see. The animation is pretty most of the time, fight scenes can get gruesome, and there are tons of interesting characters (I know, sounds contradicting, but it's true, they are interesting but not entirely investment worthy). If you are someone who is knowledgeable of European history, then you need to start this yesterday. 9/10 recommend.

The Tale of Hyakkimaru and Dororo - A Tezuka Production

9/1/2019

The Tale of Hyakkimaru and Dororo - A Tezuka Production
by: Gari Chutney

Osamu Tezuka, the Godfather of Anime, has certainly blessed us with the gift known as 'Dororo'. As part of the Winter 2019 simulcast, Tezuka Productions (partnered with Mappa Studio) released the series celebrating its 50th year since the first 1969 anime adaptation. Using current animating techniques coupled with a revamping of plot and storytelling, Dororo is a series that will impress most while possibly boring some.

First of all, who is Dororo? Dororo is an orphan child who hustles to get by. Fairly precocious and ambitious, Dororo often gets into the wrong kind of trouble. Eventually, Dororo encounters Hyakkimaru, a person without personality.

...And skin, and eyes, and limbs.

I wonder why the anime is called Dororo when Hyakkimaru's story is so intriguing. Hyakki is the first son of Daigo, samurai and lord of his land. Around the time of Hyakki's birth, the economy of Daigo's land and surrounding territories are suffering. Famine and war ensues, and people die when they are killed. Fed up with his citizens dying and crops failing, Daigo abandons his Buddhist beliefs and makes a pact with several demons to revitalize his land. In exchange for protecting his land, he sacrifices the livelihood of his newborn son. Hyakkimaru, literally a hollow being, is ripped from his mother's arms and tossed away.

What makes Dororo a fascinating anime has to be the various people that Dororo and Hyakkimaru encounter. Some stories stand as moral lessons while other stories will just leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Despite the polarity, with each fateful meeting, Hyakkimaru becomes closer to his goal, and quite honestly, it's worth the journey.

According to other fans, Dororo takes a hit when it comes to animation and story progression. Around halfway through, the quality drops and for some that is a deal breaker. In addition, compared to other anime that was currently airing during the Winter 2019 semester (Quintessential, Kaguya-sama, Shield Hero, etc.) the story line may appear to stagnate after awhile. To be honest, Winter 2019 had a lot of decent releases which would make committing to an episodic show like Dororo that much harder. All in all, watching Dororo is a great way to pass time and enjoy Tezuka's work. Would recommend if you enjoy action.