(Good) Beetlejuice

Series in one sentence:
An immensely powerful ghost of dubious age is the voluntary slave of a 12 year old and her unimportant 1st world problems, but no one knows why he even bothers.

Series in more sentences:
Follow the many adventures of Beetlejuice, a mischievous rebellious ghost, and his best friend Lydia, a "normal" goth girl with her heart at the right place. While Beetlejuice is often on a quest for money, power or fame, Lydia is just trying to get through her teenage years and desires nothing more than to explore the world of the dead after finishing homework.

The Beetlejuice series is one I remember watching alot as a child, yet hardly remember anything about. A memory you don't remember is a strange memory to remember. Lewl. After having received the complete DVD set as a gift and watching the whole thing through, I discovered the reason for this confused feeling of nostalgia.

This series is all literal jokes and American sayings, visualized. The characters rarely have normal dialogue. No idea why, the movie this series is based off is nothing like that, but I guess they chose a funny formula for a childrens show and stuck with it. I don't know any cartoon like it, so good job to them.
But it explains how a foreign child, with a basic understanding of English, doesn't know what's going on whenever the main character transforms into something weird every 3 seconds, or how it relates to the plot, because it doesn't. I think it was so distracting to me as a child, the plot and side characters didn't stick with me. The residents from the Netherlands and the real world didn't look familiar to me at all. Even after having watched this series in full I can't say I recognize anything about their looks or behaviour, so I guess Beetlejuice (and Lydia) was the only character I cared to associate with the series for all these years. Mainly because I used to have a crush on that guy.

But I wonder if any child understands the jokes at all; the "that really gets my goat" one is repeated multiple times, and I've never even heard that one in real life. Is that an early 90s thing?
Speaking of jokes that repeat, this happens a little too often for my liking. With the bad ones you just wonder why they're bothering, and the good ones are ruined by the repetition, so there's no winning this. At the end of season 4 Beetlejuice scolds Lydia for almost repeating a joke he already made in that same episode, while that comment could be applied to the entirety of the series. When you don't spend full days watching the episodes back-to-back, it's probably less noticeable, but I heard the same joke 3 times a day; it was disappointing to learn how lazy the writing was in that aspect.
A show like this needs clever writing and you'd think they wouldn't run out of steam this fast with so many writers in the team taking turns. It's nice that they gave these people the chance to make their own Beetlejuice episode, basically, but a camel is a horse designed by a committee and this series grows some very distracting lumps at times. The pacing of some episodes reveals to any outsider that there were multiple captains on the ship.
Even so, there were also multiple episodes about Beetlejuice being disappointed in his living car for being a puss, while the ending of each of those episodes should prevent that from ever happening again. How there could be this much repetition with so many different people throwing their hat in the game, beats me.

Beetlejuice always goes back to zero and has learned nothing as soon the episode is over. For example, he keeps his eagerness to work with people he knows will screw him over, as long he's offered the promise of money at that moment. It sounds like a funny running gag or the kind of stupidity that's simply part of his character, but the way it's portrayed it just looks like bad writing.

Most episodes are your standard childrens show adventures, with the addition of non-stop literal humor of which only 10% of the jokes are actually funny, or at least cute. It really is a product of its time.
There are two episodes I absolutely adore; the one where Beetlejuice has to be Lydia's mother's dog and the "Uncle B.J.'s Roadhouse" episode. But as funny or well-written the good episodes are, the bad ones are a strong opposite of that. I remember the first episode of season 4 fitting that description.
It was about Beetlejuice hosting an educational talkshow and inviting over historical figures to argue with each other. Beetlejuice did nothing funny, said nothing funny, the TV boss-character they inserted is just a dumb and unneccesary character in general, and after 3 minutes I was wondering if I shouldn't just spare myself the torture and skip it. But damnit, that's not how you prepare a review, so I sat through the snorefest, waiting for a funny joke or piece of information I would've liked to know about the main cast, but the episode offered nothing. The irony is that I was enjoying myself more when the characters weren't fighting and stayed humorously civil, but everyone else in the episode argued that the violence was needed for "the ratings". The whole war scene dragged on for so long, I would've preferred a real war happen.

It felt like a response to actual critizism they might've gotten back in the time; about the show not being educational and all that. Some later episodes felt similar. Content creators really need to remember that this kind of petty stuff makes for terrible entertainment. You should never acknowledge your critics, just focus on the story you want to tell. Anyway, this is all I'll say about that, I'll hold my tongue <insert image of me ripping out my tongue and doing the same thing 5 episodes later> and won't scold the creators for something that's just an assumption made by me. I can't say for sure if this happened.
But yes, pretty much all episodes about Beetlejuice having a TV show or acknowledging the series to be a series are the least interesting, with "Uncle B.J.'s Roadhouse" being the only exception. It's an easy rule to remember when you go to watch the series yourself.

I also noticed I enjoyed the show slightly less whenever Lydia doesn't have a proper role or doesn't make an appearance. In my opinion they don't treat her like the co-star the show's intro portrays her to be, though that's something you might not have noticed back when you watched the show on television.
What I like(d) about Lydia is that she thinks Beetlejuice is "funny" and "beautiful", that alone is the funniest shit to me, but as the series progresses, it's like she enjoys Beetlejuice's company less every day and she's usually put in a position where she's nagging or scolding him for his decisions, or just his visual jokes.

I honestly think she takes the guy for granted. Whenever she's in trouble, his name is the first one she shouts, while she on her turn just stands there and gasps whenever Beetlejuice is in danger. There's not much he gets in return for aiding her, or whoever she commands him to aid, it's a bit unfair.
I understand the guy is already dead, so that might not urge her to save him from decapitation, but he obviously experiences pain. I would've liked to see more devotion from her in protecting her friend from violence he doesn't even deserve. There are only a few episodes where she stands up for him. Sort of.
But as we see her less entertained by his comedy nearing the end of the series, I ended up wondering why these two are still even friends.
Beetlejuice stays his upbeat and helpful self, I know why I'd want to be his friend, but what's left of Lydia to like as a gruesome ghost? In a way, she's a Disney princess who wears black; there's not a naughty bone in her body, she only wants the best for everybody and gets angry when Beetlejuice doesn't care for it. He always has to cater to her wishes.

Interestingly enough, though, Beetlejuice isn't always interested in sticking out his neck for her, and sometimes doesn't even get there in time to save her from danger. In any normal reality, Lydia would've been long dead because of his negligence.
I previously thought Beetlejuice never allowed himself to fail if it concerned his only friend, but I suppose when money or fame is involved, he truly doesn't give a shit about anyone. In one episode he sells out Jacques the skeleton, who he personally trained to win a bodybuilding contest, over a medium sized jar of beetles (qualifies as food). If these beetles didn't end up trying to kill his ass, he would've never had a change of heart and Jacques would've never won in the end. There are more examples like that, it's weird thinking about it.
It's better than making him a total slave to his friends' demands, but I could've sworn that at least he and Lydia had lots of hinted at interest in each other and he did anything for her, but now I'm done watching this whole thing, there.. really wasn't.
It kinda messed me up to have assumed this for so long and seen people make fanart of them, while my personal conclusion is a mere friendship. Sure, they have their comments and scenes; the Prince Vince episode is a fair example of that, but it stops being a pattern if there's 10 episodes of nothing inbetween.
When you have Beetlejuice flirt with other women and Lydia making relatively few appearances, or given merely one scene at the end of an episode, there's no build-up to anything, unlike some fans have claimed over the years.

Anyway, despite all the things I've mentioned, I can't dislike the series. The Beetleman himself and his bad humor are cute, I just enjoy watching this guy do his thing. The good jokes are good and the bad jokes tend to get a pass for being uttered by an extremely charming ghost. I just wish the series didn't end so abruptly; the last episode offers the viewer nothing, it's in no way a goodbye to the fans. It's not even a good episode by itself. I'd say it's the only one where Beetlejuice non-stop annoys me. It feels like they suddenly ran out of money and just quit right on the spot.
I think it would be a good decision to continue where they left off and pick up the series again. I hope I'm still alive by the time they do this, otherwise I'll be watching from the Netherworld.

Anyway, encore:

Top 5 best episodes

1. Mom's Best Friend 
2. Uncle B.J.'s Roadhouse
3. Don't Beetlejuice and Drive
4. Scummer Vacation
5. Wizard of Ooze

Top 5 most boring or unbearable episodes

1. You're History
2. Not So Peaceful Pines
3. It's a Big, Big, Big, Big Ape
4. The Neitherworld's Least Wanted
5. Moby Richard

Top 100.000 overused jokes that were horrible since day one

1. Beetlejuice puts on a British accent while snooty music plays in the background.
2. Beetlejuice gets burned and says "woa" in a low pitched voice.
3. Beetlejuice makes a cheese joke and turns into a smelly cheese.
4. Beetlejuice morphs his head into someone else's and talks in their voice. Nightmare fuel. 
5. Beetlejuice utters a saying that includes the word "goat".
6. Beetlejuice makes a pickle joke and he, or Lydia, turns into a pickle. Nightmare fuel.
7. Beetlejuice makes a corn joke and shows off tiny corns between his toes.
   
   (Click the X at the top right corner of your browser's window to read the rest of the list..)

(Good) Little Witch Academia

Movie in one sentence:
ADHD Harry Potter with girls.

Movie in more sentences:
A young girl decides to attend a school for witchcraft after she witnessed a magic show performed by a (in)famous witch. While she can't keep up, she is undiscouragable and determined to become just like her childhood idol.

Honestly, I made the description sound more whole than the movie actually was. It's hardly a movie and more of an animated short, so you can imagine that the events go by very quickly. Nevertheless, the characters are very established, you immediately know what kind of person they are and what their relationship with each other is. That's some talent.

But the short still feels like an episode of a larger anime series. I actually thought I was watching a series when I clicked the thumbnail, but I should've known better. After all, the first thing I said to myself a few seconds in was "Wow, holy shit, that animation is amazing".

The plot itself is basic, but none of that matters when you're being completely hypnotized by the smoothness of the animation. You just cannot stop watching, I have never seen this kind of animation in an anime before. It was like old Disney, with a hint of old Looney Tunes, I did not expect to see quality this flawless when I first saw the main character's cartoony face in the thumbnail. It's so insanely beautiful, and to think this movie came out in 2013, a period where people stopped giving shit about 2D animation years before that, not to mention 2D animation of this quality. The studio took a risk. Then again, it's an animated short, so I guess they knew it would be best not to add too many minutes to an art form long abandoned.

Every still image you see of this movie isn't doing it justice, you have to see these characters move. Go watch it, I think it's maybe 20 minutes long.

(Good) Kuromukuro

NOTE: Watched season 1.

Series in one sentence:
Inuyasha with less romance.

Series in more sentences:
A young soldier from the far past reawakens in current time, right when Earth is being attacked by the same alien robots that were also present in his time. He battles these machines together with the below-average schoolgirl who released him, who happens to look exactly like the princess he'd sworn to protect 450 years ago.

Kuromukuro was released to our Netflix yesterday.
And I finished watching it yesterday.
I feel unfulfilled.
Stop uploading these painfully short anime snippets, Netflix.

But it's not Netflix' or the show's fault, I'm just so used to animes rushing their plots and their character relationships; I expected the two main characters to have made out by now. But by anime standards, they don't share the screen all that often. In fact, the guy has more touching scenes with the 9 year old sister. That's no gud.

But you know what, a slow build-up is admirable and fairly realistic, and it's not really what made me itch; but the fact I got to see so little of the guy's experiences with modern life. I was more interested in seeing how this old-timey teenager acted in today's world than the "epic" fights against the giant robots. But his days off are always these short scenes, and every other scene plays off in the laboratory or in the aliens' meeting room. I try really hard to care for what they say and do, but, you know, there are no jokes in those scenes.

But the show has characters and writing that make you keep watching, and there are some really, really funny jokes, I had grand gigglesnorts.
Having that said, I think the whole first season is the build-up. It has to be, the show is still too tame, it doesn't quite yet give you want you want to see.

I'm curious to see what the next season will bring.

(Good) AJIN: Demi-Human

NOTE: Watched season 1 (and 2 in 2017)

Series in one sentence:
Follow the life of a kid you're not sure you should be rooting for.

Series in more sentences:
In a world where ghost-spawning, immortal humans exist, called "ajins", and are globally hunted and subjected to cruel government experiments, a boy named Kei gets hit by a truck one day and discovers he is one.

His survival gets immediate media attention and he is forced to leave his old life behind. Meanwhile, a group of ajin vigilantes plan retaliation for the mistreatment their kind has suffered.

Upon sitting down for this anime, I was immediately disappointed by the animation quality. It's this cell-shaded 3D animation that moves, like, 5 frames per second. A kickstarted solo animator at Youtube could've done this.
 
But as you can see, I gave this series a good rating. In fact, this is one of my all-time favourite shows.
The story, the atmosphere, and the concept of the ajins alone are awesome.

Nevertheless, something I tripped over in my first viewing was the portrayal of the relationships between the characters. The characters themselves started off fine, as characters tend to when you're first introduced to them, but after I finished watching season 1, I decided to sit down and think about what exactly made me feel this way.
There were no charming friendships, connections, or interactions in AJIN. It all felt a bit bare, fake, or outright hostile. Everything in this fictional world felt dreary and loveless. There was always this palpable distance between the characters, even when they teamed up together. Not even the two friends who're described to be friends really felt like friends. Maybe that's because their friendship had already ended, but if you push them back together for this story, why do their interactions still feel so rehearsed?

I was also surprised that none of the people who chased down Kei showed a second of concern for the fact he's just a child, also unfamiliar with his abilities, nor can I recall anyone ask themselves the question why humanity is judgemental of these beings at all.
And as for the main character himself.. that guy is the most difficult to understand, even though the series explains word for word what his deal is. But just saying something is so is not enough.

Kei's actions and reactions were all over the place in season 1 and only sometimes matched the given claim that he is a selfish dick. He's described to follow one life rule: that only the things that directly affect him matter, but I found it to be inconsistent.
He starts off pretty calm and boring, like you're dealing with this mousy intellectual who has nothing going on in his life and is happy with the bare minimum, but when he gets chased around with his friend, he suddenly has nothing but angry thoughts. Then, when he gets captured, it's all tears and lamenting like a fragile soul.
One second he saves strangers without giving it a thought, and the next he's arguing with himself that they're not worth it.
 
On paper he makes for an interesting character, but not one anyone would feel sorry for, like the series tries to do at certain points. I simply don't like him enough to care whether or not he gets captured again. For the sake of the story I do, but not for the character that is Kei.
After escaping the dreaded operation chamber, he grew way too overconfident too quickly for my taste, making it hard to sympathize. Even the villain commented on it, but like I said before, "saying something is so is not enough".
Is Kei supposed to be an innocent thinker, able to smile and shed tears for himself and others, or this uncaring stone-faced sociopath the series mainly wants him to be? Is he playing the people around him with fake concern? That can't be it, he truly seems to care about those he announces to care about, but at the same time, he was quick to abandon his best friend when they were still children. So, what is the extend of his ability to care? Some people might answer "he cares about others if it benefits him", but I'm not yet convinced of that.

Kei feels like an antihero attempt, which is cool, but he needed more time to transition between these different mental states he went through, so his core personality stays consistent and clear to the audience. Especially since we're not given the details of his personality and backstory before getting thrown into the ajin adventure with him.
But well, by looking at the way the events are ordered in the series, I'd say it was the intention to tell the story this way.

..I guess the conclusion of this lengthy paragraph is that it could've been done better?
 
I also hoped Kei's childhood friend was going to be a secondary main character, but he was pushed out of the story rather quickly and only returned in season 2. He was his most loyal ally and it was a shame he got so little screen time.
Kei's reason for ditching him made no sense when taking into account he saw no issue in staying with this old lady further on in the story. She's also a regular human, is she not? How was she in less danger than his friend? And the place he stayed at was a secluded village (where everyone knows each other, as well), like the village Kei's friend offered him to stay in, yet for some reason he didn't want to go to. He just gave him a"that won't work", and that's all the reasoning we got.
The series is clever and not difficult to understand by any means, but Kei cares so little about others, he doesn't wonder much about anything, and so his inner monologues don't help the audience understand at times. It's strangely fitting for his character, though.

But well, the series keeps you hooked. Most viewers probably won't relate to what I've just said, because not everyone has the need to dissect an otherwise great anime like a maniac.
Some matters feel rushed, but you can make the argument you're simply not given the time to be bored. The show keeps on going and you want to know what happens next.

A definite watch. The main theme you hear throughout the series is one of the most awesome musical compositions I've heard.

(Average+) The Seven Deadly Sins

Series in one sentence:
A group of super-powerful fighters are only super-powerful when it's necessary for the story.

Series in more sentences:
A young princess goes out to find seven legendary fighters to save her imprisoned family from the "holy knights" that started taking matters into their own hands. But these legends are said to be criminals and nobody has seen them in years.

I enjoyed myself, but if the main hero hadn't shown off his cool moves so early in the game, I would've stopped after the first episode.

Upon watching, you're immediately introduced to the worst clichés the anime branch has to offer; like the soft-voiced, angelic girl character who cares about everyone and cries about everything while sad piano music plays in the background, the "funny" sexual harassment, an aggressive blood-hungry captain/knight who acts like that just so we can hate him, and a loud comic relief who isn't funny. Though, the latter we see enough in Western cartoons as well.

Three of these four clichés continue on throughout the rest of the first season, so I hope you like that kind of thing. Can't judge the quality of the later seasons, they did not yet exist when I started watching this show and haven't seen them yet.

In general, the cast was enjoyable. I despised the princess and the pig character, but near the end of the season they had grown on me. Though, that can also be because the creators eventually realized that the other characters were way more interesting to give screen time to; and the princess and pig were usually teamed up and dumped into the background. They proved themselves useful at one point, but it's still a shame they were this unnecessarily irritating most of the time.
The pig's dialogue is screaming, always screaming, and I don't care for cutesy anime girls that cry all the time, so the princess turned me off as well.
I also don't understand why the script writers dumped the giant, Diane, with this princess in so many episodes. She's actually a good character and skilled fighter, but she sat at home often.

When you're first introduced to the cast, you think you're about to get something you've seen in millions of other Japanese fiction, but the majority of them were given an interesting backstory for that extra flavour. Of course, some backstories were still overused, but it succeeded at making me care for them.
The only thing I'd like to mention is that the friendship between two of the fighters, that was described to be a tight and loyal one, actually proved to be disappointingly fragile. It was weird and I didn't like it.
 
The last episode was rushed, but the cliffhanger at the end promised a second season before there ever was one, so it can be excused.
Despite my harshness and complaints, I think this is an adventure you should check out for yourself. You'll learn soon enough whether or not it's for you.

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18-8-2020 UPDATE:
I finally watched the other three seasons, so let me give my quick opinion.

The second "season", that consisted out of FOUR whole episodes WOW, was absolutely heinous to sit through. What a waste of time. It calls itself "Signs of Holy War", and it's so pointless, you could and should skip it and go right to season 3, "Revival of the Commandments".

This is where the story begins, and just like season 1, it keeps your attention. Still, throughout the last two seasons it felt like the position of crybaby was now given to Diane -as if the abundance of crotch shots wasn't enough to ridicule her otherwise cool character- and there were so many subplots, there was no time to properly focus on them, they were overdramatic, and sometimes interrupted the more interesting storylines.
The one with Arthur is really boring, and after Meliodas leaves in season 4, you hardly see the guy anymore.

But well, I can't say this didn't hype me up for season 5.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
6-8-2021 UPDATE:
Alright, just finished season 5. It was boring. Many battles were fought, but scenes lingered, while important developments were rushed. I was unimpressed and occasionally confused.

This season also casually cast aside the fact two characters traversed Hell for more than a lifetime, yet somehow kept the same fresh determination to help their friends as when they started the journey. After 100 or so years, you can bet your ass I'll stop caring.
Feelings for people waver as time goes on, especially when you stop meeting them face to face, that is a fact of life. This show has way too many characters who's obsession for their love interest makes them willing to wait hundreds or thousands of years to see them again. Damn, just get yourself a new bitch, you sad little fool.

I believe this is the last season, which makes this a pretty lacklustre end to things. Many issues are still not resolved, but I suppose the idea is to consult the manga. I won't.

(Bad) Ebichu

Series in one sentence:
An even more childish Hamtaro.

Series in more sentences:
A realistic representation of the life of a small pet. Sit back and relax, as a hamster is being thrown across the room by a bitch of an owner, who truly deserves the shitty boyfriend she has. Cringe at the one-frame sex scenes, yawn at the boring storylines, shake your head at the animal abuse. Ebichu.

A funny scene from this anime popped up multiple times on Facebook, which made me curious to see the rest of this show, but I won't drag out this review longer than it needs to be and just say right away I was very disappointed.

The series is short enough, but the episode plots are surprisingly childish and extremely boring for adults to sit through. But then you have the jokes and most of the scenes, that are too adult for small children to watch. It's like this anime is made for nobody. It's sad that the only entertaining thing to watch in this anime is the strange crush this one guy has on the hamster, and I suppose the dirty caller who sometimes dials the hamster's owner for no reason, but you don't see and hear nearly enough from these two characters.

The hamster is annoying as shit and always makes the exact same jokes and shouts out the exact same swear words. Her best performance is being punched against the wall by her owner. Speaking of her owner, she has nothing redeemable about her at all, but her boyfriend is even worse. Enjoy, as you sit and experience the beautiful relationship of a guy who cheats all the time and a woman who acts likes she's though, but has no self-respect and spreads her legs for the swine anyway.
I'm sure that in the minds of the creators this was supposed to be a funny running gag, but it greatly annoyed me. No one wants to see a bad relationship if there's no resolve at the end. I expected the two of them to break up in the first episode, but they stay together the entire series long, and I just don't understand why. It's not like a portrayal of an abusive relationship where you want them to break up for the good of the character you care about, you just want them to break up so you don't have to sit and watch two extremely stupid people going at it all the time. These donkeys shouldn't breed, not even if they were the only two humans left on the planet.
And this is were the entire show fails for me; because if the main characters are trash, why should the viewer care about anything that happens in this show.

If you've seen the same phonecall scene at Facebook I have, I can promise you that it's pretty much the only funny joke the entire series has to offer. But even that scene becomes less funny after you've seen all the episodes; as the hamster shouts "pussy" all the time, so good job turning that scene into a bore as well, Ebichu.