(Average) March Comes In Like A Lion

NOTE: Watched season 1.

Series in one sentence:
Imagine a world where people are going wild over Japanese chess.

Series in more sentences:
A young orphan with a talent for "shogi" received small fame status after becoming an early professional, though he struggles the more he plays and wonders if the game even brings him happiness.
After having experienced many negative events, he's become a silent pessimist who can't recognize a friend when he's made one.

I don't know what to think. Some episodes make me feel like "Yeah, now we're on a roll!", but the majority doesn't excite me or turn me off. I just keep watching, because I was given at least one scene in the last episode that was interesting enough to make me do so.

I like the general story, many of the characters even, but there's often so much time in between their appearances that they hardly seem important to the main character. Why do we have 2 or 3 episodes of the boy hanging out with a certain person, where everything is cool and fun, but then 2 or 3 episodes where they're completely absent?

The anime occasionally impresses me with its interesting portrayal of depression and self-doubt, I very much believe that the main character has issues, but then it downplays him and his feelings by inserting all these "lulzy" exaggerated comedic scenes. They feel misplaced to me.
The humor in this anime is non-existent; it doesn't exist out of jokes or clever writing, just loud talking/fake fighting, and pulling funny faces. Animes often use this method to establish a relationship they apparently can't set up using an actual script, I noticed.

I read there's a second season, but my Netflix doesn't have it. Based on what I've seen, I'm not going to check out the rest. The series is too "alright", and I don't get up for alrights in the morning. The characters and interactions I want to see hardly make an appearance, so why should I come back.

If the anime took itself seriously and put real focus on the people in this boy's life, it would've been an emotional masterpiece, I'm sure.

(Good) VOICE OF FOX

Series in one sentence:
I MAKE EVERYONE MISERABLE WITH MY TALENT THAT MAKES EVERYONE HAPPY!

Series in more sentences:
A high school student with a burnt face and a passion for music is forced to be the "ghost singer" of a good-looking pop idol after the death of his father and comatosed mother left him taking care of the bills.
This company instructs him not to reveal himself to the public, but it becomes clear someone already knows the truth and is bringing his career and the reputation of all people involved in jeopardy.

A nice and quick story, though a heavily overdramatized one. The way people respond to slight setbacks in this world is over 9000, I couldn't relate.

The boy's parents ended up getting a car accident because they were too busy turning around their heads telling him he can't be a singer. And.. how is that his fault?
The pop idol's mother was a stereotypical neglectful mother who only cared for the man who left her dumb ass many years ago. And.. am I supposed to feel sorry for this kid now, who still chooses to work together with this man and be a douche at the end of it all?
Even less understandable was the drama that started playing after the ghost singer got exposed, where the entirety of China becomes too hung-up over having been deceived to recognize this child as a talent that deserves recognition. An angry mob even shows up at his house to beat him up over it. And.. why him, of all people involved?
Is being someone's ghost singer the most dishonourable job one can accept in China?

The ending was also weird. The boy is offered a music career and rejects it right away. Why does he reject the offer of a company that is most likely to have him do whatever he wants and pay him for it?
He proclaims to want to do his own thing, but how is that going to pay the bills, idiot? The hospital informed him earlier that his mother needs a more expensive treatment, she is basically dying, and he still needs to pay that large fine to his old company for breaking the contract by being discovered. This is the worst point in time to deny an offer and the anime ends without giving us any reassurance things will turn around.
So then, is this a case of "wait for season 2" or "whatever, read the manga"?

I liked this fine enough, still, it barely gets that good rating from me. It helps that it's a short series.

(Average+) Space Patrol Luluco

Series in one sentence:
A girl falls in love with a boy over his looks and that fact is celebrated as true love.

Series in more sentences:
A young girl is struggling to have a normal life as the resident of a city that inhabits humans and aliens. When her father gets an accident, she is forced to take his place in the space patrol team as well, where she meets up with a handsome boy, assigned to be her partner.
While trying to save her town, she wants to get close to him.

Funny, but not funny enough, quirky, but not quirky enough. The ending would've been perfect for a story that actually cared about giving its characters screentime.
This series made me wonder if the animators wanted to change genres halfway through.

The episodes are short and fast-paced, and the beginning makes it seem like they're going for comedy, but eventually a story is introduced and the jokes become less there or good. This more serious story fails, because the characters were never once taken seriously before that time.

What more is there to say. Would not watch again.

(Average+) Hi Score Girl

Series in one sentences: 
Video games turn you one-dimensional, go burn your Playstation before it's too late.

Series in more sentences: 
Follow the adventures of a young boy obsessed with video games who's one purpose in life is to beat his superior rival. His relationship with the quiet, popular girl in class is a strange one that not even he understands, but there's one thing that connects them: video games.

Listen. I love video games. I love video game history. I love to talk about video games. So it says alot that the main character managed to annoy me.
He won't shut up and it's pretty sad he has nothing else going on for him, except to ramble on about games. It's his hobby, it's his personality, almost every time he opens his mouth you can expect the same dribble. The scenes that had actual character building were refreshing, but few.

The only morally decent character in the show is this blonde girl who appears out of nowhere later in the show, and is only there to replace the horribly violent rich girl the boy first bonded with. I don't think her presence was needed, though I find myself agreeing with her inner monologues all the time, so I'm grateful for that. She often criticizes her love interest, which is good, yet she's still in love with him. Why though?

The bonding in this show means little. Every few episodes is a giant skip in time, where it's revealed that the main character hasn't once seen or spoken to the people he supposedly hung out with before. We're not talking about days or weeks, but months, or even exceeding a year. That's horrid. Why is the anime doing this? Why can't they have written him to be more social? 
There are 2 girls lusting after his ass and he seems to have a preference, but they hardly meet up or talk, so why should anyone care about the conclusion of this love triangle?

The first one had to leave him behind at the airport, and did so while bawling her eyes out. Then she returns to his school 2 years later and neither one of them even take the initiative to run over and jump in each other's arms. I hated it. They seemingly care nothing about each other, until some piece of dialogue comes up that insinuates they're everything to each other. Like a year later. I hate it.

Still, I'm going to check out the next season. I need to know if it becomes better, I really want it to.

(Average) Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!

Note: I watched this movie in my own language.

Movie in one sentence:
A hasty reboot of the original series' first few episodes, starring a pointless hero plot.

Movie in more sentences:
Young Ash Ketchum starts his first day as a Pokémon trainer and is gifted the feather of a legendary Pokémon after proving his worth by protecting his starter Pokémon from harm, Pikachu. He is told that the feather is an invitation to meet Ho-Oh and the story proclaims that those who get it are deemed "the rainbow hero".
During his travel to the giant bird, Ash experiences happiness and hardships, all equally important to help him realize what he left home for.
 

Very nice animation with respect for the art style of the old TV-series. I also loved that our Ash had the same voice actor from the original. After all, this lady got replaced too often for my liking and I didn't think they would put in the effort asking her for this flick.
Our Meowth sounded horrible, though. But I suppose that doesn't matter, since Team Rocket was the most pointless addition in the movie. I'm sad because of it.

Some people say these guys got shafted in the original first Pokémon movie, but this one took the cake. They had one of the best lines in the series, but here every piece of dialogue from them was a waste of time listening to.
They show up for 5 literal seconds, each say one line, maybe, and then they get fucking launched into space for whatever reason. Then what seems like half an hour passes, insert another 5 second scene with them, repeat. It was awful.

But alright, let's talk about the plot of the movie.
It's not well thought-out.

Ash Ketchum is presented as "the rainbow hero", but the only thing that they say about this title is that you'll be able to summon and fight the legendary Pokémon, Ho-Oh.
Hmmokey. And then? What's the "hero" aspect here? Ash didn't even capture it. Pikachu didn't become stronger by fighting it. This was an empty side quest Ash wasted his time on.

There is an end battle where Ash again fake-dies while being heroic, but it only exists because there was some spiteful sexy boy following them around, who messed up the ceremony. He grabbed Ash's feather, which caused it to become cursed, whereafter this shadow Pokémon -who had been following Ash around the entire time- had to cleanse it, but then.. becomes cursed by it itself? How?
I believe it was said that this shadow Pokémon becomes a customary spectator when the hero appears, so then, why is it evil? I can understand it giving Ash that weird fever dream when he lost a battle and started acting like a douche; I think that qualifies as a lesson, but why did this Pokémon want to brainwash all Pokémon in the area into killing people? Who assigned this evil thing to this spectator job? Why would the almighty Ho-Oh allow for that, even? Did this Pokémon just fail to cleanse the feather? Then, again, why was it assigned this job if it can't do its job?

Speaking of Ash's douchy little moments, I found them the most interesting scenes in the movie. It's a shame that this plot was over fast, I liked the idea of Ash moping over his failures. It's a realistic response to have for a child his age, who's so set on wanting to become the best.
I thought this was going to be the main struggle everyone would have to deal with, but Ash turned back to normal very quickly and thus reinstated his destiny as the rainbow hero. Baww. I guess heroes aren't allowed to be villains for even a little bit.

Ash was also given two travel companions that aren't Brock and Misty, which is fine in theory, but these people weren't all that exciting. They both got this sad backstory shoehorned in, concluding their character development.
I would've preferred if Ash made his Ho-Oh journey with Charmander's owner. Or his original rival, Gary Oak, even. Imagine a world where Gary and Ash become tight friends.

The end credits were funny, though. You get these short animations of Ash's original friends from the TV-series turning around and looking with an expression going: "What the fuck is this movie, then?"

All in all, I think a crazed Pokémon fan will tolerate this movie, I tolerated it, but it ended up doing little by wanting to do too much. It's a reboot that doesn't bring anything interesting to the table, thus didn't need to exist.

And can I just say that those "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" moments between Ash and Pikachu were pretty damn weird? The bad guy also gets one with his dog. Omai.
And because I know people will wonder: Pikachu talking wasn't as distracting in my language.

(Average+) Nobunaga Concerto

Series in one sentence:
A total idiot manages to survive for years in a mercilessly violent time period.

Series in more sentences:
A lazy high school student is suddenly sent back in time and comes across a young runaway lord who looks exactly like him. The stranger notices this fact right away and asks him to take his place as lord, as he's too weak to fulfill his responsibilities. Not given the chance to reject, the student is found and taken back to the mansion as "Nobunaga".
Despite not liking his position, the history book inside of his school bag helps him predict what is expected from him, and the once foolish boy manages to earn people's respect. He will work to make sure "Nobunaga will rule all of Japan".

I loved it and I'd absolutely watch a second season of this if there was ever one planned, but..

..it speeds through the most interesting parts and the comedy could've been better.

With a plot like this you can do alot of cool stuff, but it felt like the series just did the bare minimum. An acceptable bare minimum, but still.
It would focus on the boy messing around or coming up with a non-strategy that happens to work out in the end, but then the story's narrator appears and basically goes like "And then they won". Next scene.
In a comedy, something like that would've been a funny one-time joke, but I really wanted to see how this idiot exactly "won". It's glanced over every time, it was a bit annoying.

The episodes make huge leaps in time, while the characters do not visibly age, which confused me greatly. I'd finish one episode, and in the next everyone would be talking about big events and people never mentioned in the last episode; because it supposedly happened off-screen. These wars and meetings should've been episodes or cut, honestly.
Because of these huge jumps, it also didn't feel like the relationships were all that developed. For example, Nobunaga's wife doesn't hide that she adores the faker and it's insinuated they go out on dates alot, but I've never even seen the two kiss. The boy is really unromantic and in most of their scenes together the woman just looks confused over what her loony husband is muttering about.

But okey, I'd say it's a fair watch, despite these flaws.