(Average+) The Wild Robot

Movie in one sentence:
The same robot you've seen in every other kids movie learns how to love, just like the robots in every other kids movie

Movie in more sentences:
A robot wakes up in the wilderness, and wanting an assignment, teaches itself the language of the animals surrounding it in the hopes they can give it one.

When the animals make clear not to appreciate its presence, Roz figures on signalling its makers to come pick it up, but when it accidentally kills a mother goose inside her nest, sparing one egg, the orphaned chick changes all plans.

This would've been a better movie if nothing and nobody talked.

The idea these murderous wild animals possess even a speck of human intelligence that allows them to string together actual sentences using their barks and growls is just as laughable as the idea they can ignore their instincts and befriend each other. This kind of thing really shows we're dealing with a children's movie, while it didn't need to be. Some scenes in this were so comically harsh, maybe it's more accurate to say I hoped it wasn't going to be.

Rushed relationships are everywhere in this movie. A skeptical fox is instantly drawn to Roz, just because it pulled some porcupine needles out of its snout, and the movie doesn't even care to show how the goose chick was raised and how the robot changed alongside it. This thing is a baby in one scene, then an adult and ready to leave the nest in the next, with only a few comments to help us know what the three main characters feel for each other. This goose's life and relationship with the robot is pretty much the main plot of the story, so then, why is it so glanced over?
Then there's this elderly goose character who shows up out of nowhere and pretends to have known the robot since forever. Literally never seen this guy. Why couldn't he have been the one guiding Roz on how to raise the chick, instead of the fox? It would've made his interest in Brightbill and his eventual death more impactful. Spoilers, but whatever, this involves a character you've hardly seen on screen and won't be emotionally invested in, anyway.

I like the idea of this movie, wouldn't mind watching it again just for the first few minutes, but it's not as good people say it is.

(Average) The Substance

Movie in one sentence:
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hide.

Movie in more sentences:
A once famous movie star sees her fame fading, and when she gets fired from her job as a TV workout instructor for being too old, decides to call the curious phone number given to her by a young man.

A mysterious package is left behind, with drugs and tools that promise rejuvenation, but not by any conventional means. A new girl is born from Elisabeth's body, claimed to be her, yet someone she can't control. The younger Sue keeps eating away at her, causing her to grow ugly and even older, yet she's unable to quit the drug.

..How did Elisabeth know what needed to be done? The package came with instructions, but they were so minimalistic, I would've never understood.

Anyway, this movie ended up being soft porn, very unfortunate. If the times a woman's crotch was shoved in my face was spent on exploring the inner struggles of the main character(s), this would've been a decent commentary video. I think that's what it wanted to be, but then there's the comically weird ending, and I'm left wondering.

It's also a bit confusing how these two women share one life. At first, it seems like they have each other's memories. They know where to find their house, workplace, and how "the substance" works after all, but then you have these moments where Elisabeth watches a TV interview starring Sue with curiosity about what she'll say, while Sue keeps waking up to trash lying around the house -evidentially not knowing she herself did this. So, then, they are not each other..?

Perhaps Sue only knows what Elisabeth knew at the point she first emerged, whereafter their minds became disconnected? The movie doesn't explain.

Wasted potential.

(Average+) Viral Hit

Series in one sentence:
Scrawny child manages to beat up testosterone-riddled maniacs 3 times his size. Like and subscribe.

Series in more sentences:
Hobin -targeted by bullies obsessed with the age of Youtube content creation- happens to get recorded fighting one of them during a live stream, but instead of public humiliation, viewers see a champion worthy of encouragement, motivating Hobin to start his own channel and earn much needed money for his hospitalized mother.

Fun premise, but the bullies are laughable and most characters unlovable. Hobin and his friendship with his rather annoying ex-bully I struggled to care about, and at many parts in the series, it didn't feel like he was doing this Youtube business for his mother anymore.
The glimpses of the Youtube parody site and few explanations on how it and its audience operate are pretty accurate to the real Youtube, but, Viral Hit doesn't know how to portray real life and people. I don't think it wanted to, but that's what made it hard for me to truly like this show.

Imagine a likeable bully victim, a normal person down on his luck, working hard to become someone he isn't, just so his mother may live. Instead, we have this undeniable loser, making warped faces at the camera.

I don't know if there'll be a season 2 to improve on matters. The ending of season 1 was pretty anticlimactic, but otherwise conveyed the story isn't over. Then again, I've seen plenty of anime that ended like this and.. well, actually ended.
This stuff costs money and if no one watches, then it's over. It's not like American entertainment today, where failing or disliked projects keep getting pushed onto people.

Regardless, I don't think I'll watch more of this. It's a series that needs real relationships to thrive, and just nothing in it feels real, no matter how many tears the characters shed for each other.

(Average+) The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen

Series in one sentence:
Um. That's a busty 11-year-old..

Series in more sentences:
A teenage girl is hit by a truck and awakens inside the body of the cruel and psychopathic villain from her favourite video game, destined to die. Feeling invested in the game and the characters, she tries her best not to retrace the villain's steps and be kind to her struggling surroundings.

Another anime about a faceless girl dying and getting soul-swapped with an unfortunate fictional character from her favourite piece of media, which helps her to predict every little thing that's going to happen. The main difference is that she isn't changing the story with the end goal to survive, which was interesting, but it didn't necessarily make the story itself interesting.

"Pride", or really, the girl that inhabits her body, seems to be genuinely disgusted by her character and will tell every other main character that they may kill her if they think she's becoming a danger to the land, which is a selfish thing to request, since killing a monarch doesn't lead to a good future for the perpetrator. Unless they're globally hated like the original Pride was, I suppose, but that's irrelevant now. Evil Pride never existed in this reality.

The emotional scenes were decent. The girl shows a good level of care for those around her, but honestly, I think it would've made more sense if this was a time reversion story instead of an isekai, because why cry heavy tears for what's just a game world, as far as you're concerned. I don't think I could. Every day of my life, I'd wonder if I'm stuck in some kind of dream or simulation, theoretically able to awaken at any moment. I'd doubt that what I'm seeing is real.

Why not have the story be about the real Pride, living through her despicable life, having enjoyed moments of kindness from those she discarded, betrayed, or worse, and when she's assassinated with no friends around to shed a tear for her, that's when the realization hits she's gone off the deep end. Time suddenly goes back to when she was 8 years old and she decides to properly explore all those given chances over the years, resulting to a better life than the one she had as a spoiled and feared monarch.

Anyway, lol at episode 3, where Pride doesn't think of sending over her kidnapped (???) fake brother with the transportation powers to move the boulder off of the army captain's foot, and the room doesn't think of cutting off the video call so his son doesn't have to watch him get slaughtered by dozens of enemy men. And what kind of world is this where you have swordsmen and normal, present-day guns. "Never bring a knife to a sword fight" is a saying for a reason.

The fake brother is also given glasses further on the episode, and I don't know why anyone would do that or accept such a gift. He was never claimed to have bad eye sight, so these are obviously props. He looks stupid, a pointless addition.

(Average+) Sasaki and Peeps

Series in one sentence:
When you can't think what plot to settle for, so you do all of them.

Series in more sentences:
An average salaryman with little to spend decides to cut the knot and look for a cute pet to share his solitary life with, but the bird immediately starts speaking to him and reveals to be a reincarnated magical being from another world.

Through him, Sasaki obtains magical powers as well and is introduced to the bird's true place of residence. He makes a fair living selling them products the more simple folk have never seen before, meanwhile, people from his own world take notice of his supernatural abilities and a secret organization of psychics wish to recruit him.

It started alright, but why does it involve a talking, reincarnated, magic bird and getting isekai'd and getting recruited as a "psychic policeman" back home and the existence of "magical girls" and lizardmen?
The series lost more focus with every episode that passed and at the very end, just started throwing random shit at you.

This could've been a great slice of life story about a simple man finding joy in the only company he's probably had, even if it's not the cat or dog he wanted. Let the drama come from the girl next door, who he always finds sitting late at night, waiting for her negligent mother to arrive home or open the door. I'm surprise Sasaki never invited her inside his house to wait, though considering this young girl has an weird crush on him, perhaps calling the police would be a better step. Why this hasn't already happened and this otherwise kind man allows for this obvious abuse to continue, is beyond me.

There were alot of teenage girls in this show fawning over the guy, while he's 39, and I think he's a nice guy too, but, like, I'm not 16 years old and blushing over it. This had to be the most unrealistic thing to happen in this fictional fantasy story.

The psychic organization part of the series is the least interesting and necessary, nor particularly well done, since its workers are really not that strong and their incompetence shows itself whenever they're in public as well. Like, why would you carelessly talk about another employee and his magic abilities when you know there's a regular human girl being interviewed in a police car just a few steps away? What a sloppy way to force a big reveal onto another character.
And with unrecruited psychics out causing harm or destruction, how is it possible that the secret of their existence hasn't come out yet, especially in this modern world of cameras? An airplane is blown out of the sky by an emotional high schooler, and not only have I not seen any effort from the organization to save those passengers, it's only the three bullies directly standing next to them who are taken care of. How, I don't know and the show doesn't bother to explain. This organisation is a joke.

Speaking of joke, what the fork is wrong with episode 9? I saw some of the weirdest editing and animation goofs in there. Then episode 11, where it throws you into a situation without explaining anything, and funny music plays during fight scenes that could've actually been really threatening and cool.

This show wants too much and it doesn't make for a great package. I think that if the series was about a lonely man trying to connect with the bird he had to adopt instead of the cat he's always wanted, while dealing with his neighbour and her abusive family, we'd have a better story.

I'll give this a meagre "Average+", though that might be too generous of a rating.

(Average+) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense

Note: Only watched season 1

Series in one sentence:
Noob gamer uses the same 2 or 3 moves the entire time, pretty realistic.

Series in more sentences:
Kaede tries out a popular virtual reality video game, and in her inexperience, makes peculiar decisions that only end up benefitting her.
Other players can't stop talking about her as she's climbing up the ranks and continues to experience a tremendous amount of luck during her digital travels.

A fun idea and the start was alright, until the main character's friend shows up to play and Kaede is given a back seat for the next couple of episodes.

Like is the case with most anime playing off in a virtual reality world, it's only fun to watch when it's acknowledged it's a video game. After all, if everyone's a devoted roleplayer, then it's no different from those isekais where the main character finds themselves in a reality that merely functions like a video game, but is a real world with real consequences.
Like, how are players able to taste food in this world? Aren't they just wearing a helmet back home? How does that connect to your brain and tongue? It can't be legal for an entertainment device to be this physically intrusive and make you believe you're feeling, tasting, and smelling things that aren't there. Not to mention the mental ramifications a hyperrealistic virtual experience will cause; because someone with even the slightest of mental illness won't be able to discern reality from video game anymore.
Since you can visit cafés and buy fake cake for no reason -it's not like you'll gain a buff or your HP gets restored- will that make you feel full? Will you stop eating in real life and starve to death, since your brain is being tricked? What stops a player from going to the bathroom in a game like this, thus pissing themselves in their bedroom and not even realizing it? I find these pretty important questions, and when an anime argues for a big fake world that has all these details and features, it's important to establish how even. In my opinion.

I liked Bofuri when it was just Kaede exploiting this video game, acknowledged to be a video game, and that just didn't happen often enough for me. At the end of every episode, you get this chatroom bit of players talking about her as if she's some crazy rarity, which was fun, but I didn't think the praise was warranted most of the time.
The speed in which she -or any other character in the anime for that matter- defeats a monster is ridiculous. How is she able to if her attack stat is 0 and she's not some ridiculously high level yet? I also don't buy that she finds all these game-breaking abilities no one else has ever found before in this extremely popular MMORPG.

Events you think deserve its own episode are over in a minute, and then the next big event happens that same episode, which again, is over and done with the same minute it's stated to exist. And as if things aren't moving in super speed already, this anime has an abundance of compilation scenes, accompanied by the same stupid music track as well. How lazy can you get.

This could've been funny, simple entertainment, but the story is in a constant hurry to tell itself and I don't think Kaede is that special after seeing her friend fight. The anime has a strange preference for this friend as well, even though she and her fights are boring.

Also, no one in-game uses their real name, but apparently every avatar is just the actual player sitting at home, but with an outfit? So much for anonymity.
More importantly, where are the 30+ unwashed and unshaven gamers? You're telling me it's only cute, young people playing this game? And is the title of the show insinuating that players experience actual pain upon getting ripped apart by an in-game monster? What the Hell, why?

(Average+) Solo Leveling

Series in one sentence:
Should've gotten a job at McDonald's.

Series in more sentences:
Portals to monster dungeons suddenly appear and open themselves up in the modern world, and with them, humanity grows supernatural abilities to destroy the "boss" inside, necessary to erase the portal before these monsters can break out and infiltrate Earth.

Amongst these well-paid hunters, one is notoriously weak, yet forced into the business to help his struggling family, until one day, he and his team find an inescapable foe and his resilience in the face of utter defeat grants him a special ability that helps him grow in ways he could never before.

Starts out badass, but suffers from the same thing all those weakling-grows-powerful anime stories do, which is that the moment the main character becomes strong, he turns into this bland, mean-mugging hero. Completely unrelatable, just an empty vessel for the viewer to project themselves onto.
The guy looks really different after his training as well, I felt like I had lost my mind for a few seconds after seeing him again.

Sung also acts rather angry and psychotic at times. Like, I understand you've entered a cruel business and are in a difficult position in life, but how has the fact you're still alive and are benefitting from a power no one has not made you more optimistic?

The problem-solving skills Sung used to have, that made the first episode so exciting, are now an irrelevant talent with his tons of ever-expanding, random fighting abilities that basically do the thinking for him. I didn't quite care for his battle scenes because of it.

They've already announced a season 2, I'll still likely check it out, and I'm sure that this show is a bona fide "good" in most people's eyes, but to me it feels like the most exciting developments have transpired and now you're just watching a guy with no personality playing a video game on easy mode. I doubt it the fantastic first episode will ever be topped.

I'm still waiting for a show starring a hero with no strength using their smarts to win their battles. I've seen many anime with a set-up that could've gone into that direction, but content creators (and perhaps audiences?) are so hungry for power fantasies, no one ever wants to entertain a story where one's intelligence is the power. Not without also combining it with great magical or physical strength. And it's a shame.

A cunning weakling hero, a cunning weakling hero, my kingdom for a cunning weakling hero..!

(Average) Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Series in one sentence:
Fairy walks around the place slowly and does things slowly.

Series in more sentences:
Frieren was once a hero who saved the world from doom, but because of her species, knows she'll be the only one to remember this and her fellow heroes for many generations to come.

With two of them already dead, she begins to realize how she took everything for granted and retraces her fondest memories of them with her new companions, whilst traveling towards a land that's claimed to house the spirits of the dead, hoping to settle some open ends.

 

A great idea with a boring execution. Characters just show up, relationships are cheaply established with the help of silent montages, and whenever they do talk to each other, it's almost always with this monotone, soft voice. I think that makes sense for Frieren, but why is everyone else in this show equally unexcitable?
The flashback scenes featuring the other heroes were nice, especially Himmel inserted some life in these otherwise slow episodes, but, you know, the guy is dead, so he doesn't exactly get that many appearances. It's still Frieren's story. If not that of her equally dead-faced student, Fern.

Alot of episodes have this "story of the week" feel you know from Saturday morning cartoons; which introduces a character with some kind of plight that the heroes briefly get involved with, again making it hard to feel emotionally invested.
Then the series takes a turn to this magic school story arc, and damn me, just the announcement of them going there bored me endlessly. I thought you were going to meet Himmel inside that afterlife domain, Frieren, what is this? Seeing Himmel was the only exciting end goal the show introduced here, why waste time with all this other crap?

Cannot relate to the people who deem this their favourite anime of 2023/2024, and I've heard quite alot of Youtubers utter that opinion. It's the whole reason I checked this anime out, but little to nothing happens in terms of action, and the philosophical side of it also isn't expressed well -if only because I'm not feeling any genuine love amongst these characters. It's not convincing when time keeps skipping and casual, natural conversations are few.
To suddenly introduce a character's funny habit or mention an interest they had definitely isn't convincing me. Fern likes to have her hand held whenever she's sick and in pain? Then why have you not shown Frieren doing that when she was young, Beyond Journey's End? Her period as a caretaker is completely glanced over and only afterwards does Frieren barf out a few comments about that time and how she feels about seeing Fern having grown up.

I failed to pick up on the brilliance other viewers witnessed when watching this show. This was truly boring. Truly. The demons at the start inserted much needed action, but they fuck off the moment they appear and aren't mentioned again.
Since I can't imagine myself ever putting on this anime again, I have to give it an "Average".

(Average) Barakamon

Series in one sentence:
Man with boring job, that brings less value to the world than a garbage collector, gets his house constantly broken into by people he should've called the cops on weeks ago.

Series in more sentences:
Handa prides himself in his work as a calligrapher, but when a snooty critic has no good word to say about his art, he loses his cool and punches the man, affecting his reputation.

His father suggests he moves to the countryside to get away from it all and Handa wishes to use the opportunity to improve and reinvent himself, but is constantly disturbed by the locals, one of them an overly optimistic little girl.

After watching Handa-kun, I said to check out the series it was based off of.
I'll admit: I've seen Barakamon's cover art and accompanying synopsis pass me by at Crunchyroll multiple times, long before finding Handa-kun, but never clicked on it, because it sounded intensely boring.

And I was right.

I love Handa-kun. Ignoring the first half of the first episode, it's well-paced and clearly made by people who wanted to have fun with it. Barakamon is none of those things. The pacing is bad, none of the jokes are funny, I cared for none of the characters, including Handa himself, and the whole plot is just one big nothing.

It's already hard to get me or most (Western?) people excited for the art of, well, writing letters using a big ol' ink brush, so to make Handa's whole story arc revolve around Japanese calligraphy is a peculiar choice. It's a boring profession, so why should I care if he fails or succeeds at fine-tuning his talents? I'm not even able to discern whether Handa is a good calligrapher; everything he does looks like a bunch of muddy, aggressive swipes on a piece of paper. That shit he drew on the boat in episode 4 was absolutely hideous.
I suppose you need to be Japanese to possibly understand the beauty of it all, but really, do most modern Japanese people care about calligraphy in any serious degree? Does anyone who likes Barakamon like it because it features Japanese calligraphy?

It's hard to feel invested in Handa's supposed growing connection with the locals, as not only are the children either bland or annoying and do they keep breaking into his house, there's no time spent on showing them grow accustomed to each other. Handa moves in in episode 1, and in episode 2 it's already established he gets free food from some local every day, and the little stalker girl is familiar with his work habits. Days to weeks have supposedly passed.

Handa in Barakamon is presented as overly obsessed with his profession and a fairly aggressive person at times, who's apparently never experienced a moment of happiness or tasted friendship in his life. How else can he be so affected by these countryside people, their habits, and countryside kindness? None of it makes sense if Handa-kun is even a little bit canon, since he was very timid in that one and loved by everyone, though he needed time to realize that.
It'd be more fair to say is that it's the Handa-kun series that doesn't make sense, since it's Barakamon's spin-off and all, but it stays the superior show to me. Handa is a more interesting character in that one, the humor is better, the side-characters are better, and the underlying story that is Handa's loneliness and craving to connect with people is more relatable.

Also, that "sea slug is an orgasming dick"-joke is really inappropriate to do with two 6 year old girls and I've become a worse person having seen it.

(Good) Handa-kun

Series in one sentence:
X=12

Series in more sentences:
After his jealous best friend lies a popular girl has been spreading nasty rumors about him, Handa is convinced everyone hates him and takes every compliment he gets as a sarcastic attack or angry criticism. Meanwhile, he's the most adored student at school and his nervous, stand-offish behaviour is seen as cool and mysterious.

Finally, some good food.

The first half of episode 1 worried me, it was close to unbearable to sit through, nearly contemplated turning off the series, but the moment the actual series began, it was a joy all way through.
Handa's predicament is tragic, if only because he's so miserably lonely and in need of company. It's a show where every relationship is built on misunderstandings, fairly clever ones as well at times, that's never not funny.

Handa's social awkwardness is pretty endearing and I wish there were more episodes. That it only got 12 and the last one aired 10 years ago, while there're worse animes out there that get 5+ seasons, is sad.

I've come to understand this is a spin-off series of the anime, Barakamon, and if that one is just as good, I might check it out. Regardless, what's definitely worth checking out is Handa-kun.

(Average) Lovely Complex

Series in one sentence:
Japan thinks 172 cm is tall for a woman, wtf.

Series in more sentences:
A taller than average girl and shorter than average boy seem to be each other's natural enemy, and yet, no one is more on par with their personality and interests as they are with each other's.
It doesn't take long for Risa to realize she has feelings for her frenemy, but teenage awkwardness and ill-timed drama makes winning him over a struggle.

I've never seen a show that started off so well lose itself so hard.

Episode 1 was a good introduction, and it's strange that the creator didn't make this introduction the whole season. You know, have the show be about these two wanting a partner, meeting those partners, discovering they're a bad match every time, repeat, until they realize they are each other's ideal partner.
But the two main characters are quick to "befriend" each other and I did not expect the series to be about Risa and her absolutely psychotic obsession with Otani.

Generally speaking, I liked these two. When there wasn't repetitive drama going on. When at their best, they're feisty, fun-loving, and play well off of each other. The energy of this anime can be so wild, it's fun to watch.

But the show takes a quick nose dive in more ways than one. The dialogue and conflicts kept getting recycled, Risa and Otani are constantly compared to this real-life Japanese comedy duo to an obnoxious degree, and Risa expresses often that being a "comedian" hinders her ability to be a woman or something weird in that vein. When she figures out her feelings for Otani, she gives him no break and cries all the time, I found it pretty out-of-character for this otherwise hard-headed, shouty girl.
It was warranted at certain moments and surely emotional, but it just kept happening. She keeps getting a moment of hope, but then the same episode or the very next, she gets depressed again. Like, chill.

She puts alot of pressure on Otani with her questions, crying, and yelling, which is a disrespectful thing to do to someone who's expressed not to be interested. And no one in the show is on Otani's side. They make him feel guilty for not enthusiastically returning her feelings the moment they're expressed. That's unfair. Some people need time to think about what it is they're feeling.
Risa has only been his frenemy until that moment; this strange companion he couldn't see eye to eye with, despite being identical. Their relationship is a contradiction, they're cut from the same cloth, which ironically causes them to clash.
And really, do you want to enter a love relationship with someone who hits or scolds you all the time? Sharing the same hobbies and interests becomes a trivial positive at that point.

The show doesn't make use of the things it has. Risa's childhood friend, for example, is in love with her and hostile to Otani, he could've been a real rival if they toned down his hatred for short people and was less of a pathetic worm. But, he ended up being a completely pointless addition to the series, he rarely made an appearance, even though he so confidently expressed to make Risa love him. Alright, where is you then, idiot? Even as his shitty self, he could've given some balance to the show, because Risa is always the loser chasing the guy and sobbing about every little thing. I recall the both of them being desperate for a partner at the start of the series, but Otani isn't putting in the work even a little. His only role is to be chased. More lovestruck girls show up, even though the series first tried to argue that short boys struggle getting girls the same way tall girls do boys.

When Risa and Otani start dating, nothing of note changes and the show clearly has nothing to tell anymore. It inserts some more rushed drama, because that's the only language Lovely Complex understands, and only helps making it more evident that these two should not be dating. Is Otani's insinuation he's not entirely in love with her and "his heart still needs to be stolen" not saying enough? And how insulting is it to date someone like that. Why did you take her as your girlfriend, then? Talking about putting the cart in front of the horse.

And I can't even blame him, because Risa is such a violent crybaby, her falling in love with him literally made her a worse person.

(Average+) The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Series in one sentence:
Guy is a 3D skeleton for half a day.

Series in more sentences:
A knowledgable, but weak adventurer takes a dangerous risk and pays for it with his life, yet awakens looking like a skeleton. In the hopes to regain his human form and continue his quest of becoming a high class knight, he takes on any monster he can, while disguising himself in a less than flattering outfit.

Interesting start and overall plot, but another one of those "adventure of the week"-medieval fantasy shows with a bland hero character who fights bland battles you've already seen in similar anime.

It's not a bad show, objectively, but I have so little to say about it, it just didn't impress me. I wanted more high stakes, more persecution, more uncertainty about this guy ever getting a speck of flesh back.

I don't think I'll watch the next season, if it comes.

(Good) The Apothecary Diaries

Series in one sentence:
No one cares a girl got kidnapped, including the girl.

Series in more sentences:
Maomao, born from a shamed prostitute, is the learned apprentice of a talented apothecary, one day kidnapped by thugs and sold to the royal family as a supposed no-name servant.

While taking the situation for what it is, she grabs everyone's attention by just being herself, primarily an eunuch of supposed high ranking. Her knowledge for medicine and detective level of intelligence makes her a valued employee and Maomao is often summoned to solve mysteries no one else seems able to figure out.

What a surprise, the sexually charged eunuch still has his balls. Called it he was a prince the moment the existence of one was brought up.

Oh. Spoilers, lol.

Liked it, mostly. Just about to deem it a "Good". I've said it before that I don't enjoy these "emperor with 50 wives and castrated servants" settings much, especially when you have all these employees having a silly good time with each other. Sir, you've been snipped, and madam, you will never get the chance to start a family either, you'll forever be the grovelling slave in this fancy whore house called a palace, why are you smiling? And why are you smiling, wife #12? You're literally just here to be a sex toy and baby maker.
It's a strange setting from the past to romanticize, but nothing from the past really makes for a decent setting to insert a romance or comedy in, honestly.

At the halfway mark, I didn't feel as invested anymore. I'm not sure if I can explain it, but it felt like nothing of note was happening. Maomao is fired for an episode, but pretty much brought back immediately. The way everyone responded after she finally returned from what was abduction and forced servitude was nothing short of heartless. Her surrogate father especially is a very emotionless man and uninteresting as a character, though the series gave him a much needed backstory. Not that it did anything for him, though.
The series picked itself back up fairly nicely after that, but I still didn't feel as invested as I did at the start of it all.

The ending was open, with nothing having been established for Maomao, but the announcement more episodes are coming was its saving grace. The internet claims season 2 is planned for 2025, and I think that's a good thing, if it remembers to take care of loose ends and kicks this one-sided romance between her and Jinshi a bit harder.

Speaking of.. I totally missed why he has to pretend to be a eunuch, did the show even tell..?

(Average+) Mr. Villain's Day Off

Series in one sentence:
Man is in love with a species that's notoriously too lazy to reproduce.

Series in more sentences:
Demon-like aliens have their eyes on Earth and wish to destroy the human race, but their nameless general is a peculiar man who refuses to lift a finger outside of working hours and adores panda bears.

I mostly liked this, but the nothing ending and the bits that solely focussed on the rangers dragged things down a bit. Not all comedic bits were created equally, either. 

The villain main character made the series, though I wondered if the panda obsession would get on my nerves. But well, the absurdity of it is charming. The absurdity of this alien army general having a home on Earth and participating in the human way of life is charming.
I had to think to myself to what degree, though. All throughout the series I wondered: Is this a "Good" or a less charitable "Average+"?

As much as I like seeing the guy mosey around and doing his thing, the series feels like a filler episode galore. I would've liked a bigger narrative presented, and arguably, that's the aliens invading Earth, but there's no progress in this plot. Very late in the season, it's revealed that there are other life forms who intend to attack Earth, and this goes nowhere. The series deems itself finished, despite all the open ends it created for itself.

(Average+) Hazbin Hotel

Series in one sentence:
Heaven is Hell.

Series in more sentences:
Charlie, the princess of Hell, is tired of seeing her underlings getting routinely slaughtered by Heaven's exterminators and thinks to solve everything by setting up a reformation institute inside a hotel, hoping to give her clients the chance to enter Heaven and escape the punishment of eternal suffering.

It proves difficult to convince both angels and demons her dream is obtainable, and it takes the continuous support of her loved ones to see it through.

I can't say these 8 measly episodes -that rush through a story that's more fitted for three full seasons- left me impressed. Vivienne had quite some years since the pilot's release to write a script with bare minimum decent-level pacing, not to mention the real-time practise her Helluva Boss series should've provided.
I'm seeing the skeleton of a cool story, but it's like they only animated the cliff notes. The show asks its audience to be emotionally invested, but I struggled with it. No matter how heartfelt and well-acted some of the dialogue was, it's rarely earned, since these story beats come too soon into play.

The pilot episode should've been Vivienne's assurance that Hazbin Hotel could've succeeded fine on the internet, thus allowing her to create as many episodes as she wanted and take her time exploring the characters and overall story. And really, to have been given a spot on a streaming service, yet produce a series that still has that feel of being a small (though talented) team-created webcartoon, it solidifies for me that this was a pointless wait. Maybe not in the monetary sense, I can't speak about green numbers, but if Vivienne's soul is that of an artist, Hazbin Hotel should disappoint her at least a tiny little bit.

Let me proclaim the following first: Did not even hate it. I wasn't hopping up and down in excitement, the only moments that made me chuckle was Alastor going "hmr" after being asked to spawn a video camera and the snake continuously extending his services to the party crowd in episode 6, but at least this wasn't boring. You're not given the time to be bored.
I liked most songs, though I'm not sure if every episode needed one, let alone two or more. I think there were three I skipped after a few seconds, because the lyrics stopped conveying anything new. It went on a bit too long. Primarily the ones in the Heaven episode were bad.

Vivienne's character designs are the main element that attracts people, but I can't say everyone was created equally in this show. Some characters are really "Tumblr" and overly detailed, others minimalistic dogmen, and many of the more human characters have the same mold; with slender bodies, giant eyes, perhaps an extremely voluminous head of hair, and a giant fanged smile. It's her art style, I suppose, but this kind of thing erases the individuality of a character. A smile says alot about a person, but if everyone grins like Alastor, then what makes him special anymore.
It's why I don't find the manga art style in general pleasant, either. I've watched so much anime, yet it often feels like I'm watching the same characters with the same eyes and same hairdo, just in different settings. Why, as an artist, would you want that?

Because of the pacing, secondary characters disappear shortly after getting introduced. I was surprised to see that TV demon guy return at the end of the season, and every time the screen switched back to him, I just couldn't help myself and think "Why are you here. What do your comments add to this battle scene you're spectating?".
He's a missed opportunity for conflict, specifically to Alastor, thus the hotel, thus Princess Charlie, but he does nothing throughout the series. His one and only plan was to send a spy over, who got caught right away.. though somehow, cameras were still placed everywhere in and around the building, if I have to believe the last episode. So, the spy succeeded, because the rest of the crew was too lazy to properly check the place? The incompetence.

Alastor himself was also a bit disappointing. When I watched the pilot, I expected him to steal the show in future episodes, but it's the exact opposite somehow. This mysterious villain, who agreed to help Charlie with her business, is suspiciously absent and silent most of the time. Then, Charlie's father shows up and he's suddenly doing this song battle with him, where he basically proclaims to be Charlie's better father. Very bold, considering they've hardly interacted.

And that brings us to the lady in charge, one of the worst characters in all aspects: Princess Charlie Morningstar.

Her bland clown vampire design is devastating for a character described to be Hell's princess -if not the child of a discarded angel and hauntingly beautiful woman- and to make things infinite times worse, she's embarrassingly powerless and an emotional Disney princess. You can't take her seriously, while it's her plight you're following and should be rooting for.
Charlie is so hyper-focused on her own dreams, she's blind whenever a real and solvable problem is staring her in the face. Angel's predicament comes to mind, I'll get to that in a bit, but there's also the fact that the majority of Hell's residents are simply awful and deserve to be where they are, like her father told her.
Lucifer himself wanted to give his people a better life as well, but failed at it, no details given, which evidentially means that being a wet blanket monarch runs in the family. Neither Charlie or the king use their full authority to force change, and I don't understand why. Sure, ordering people to behave would create a dictatorship, but if this is the only language Hell beasts speak and it prevents people from getting killed and molested every second of the day, then it's a necessary evil. A necessary evil that might lead to true reformation amongst the next generation of Hellborn.

It wouldn't have been hard to make Charlie interesting, because a devil who's good-natured is interesting by itself. Having that said, the real mistake made here was having Hell acknowledge she's a loser. She's their damn princess, the ultimate authority, she should have power beyond anyone's imagination, but Hell's residents laugh at her and her hotel remains unvisited. Only the TV demon's spy is recruited during the entirety of the season, and that's only because he's also a discarded loser with nowhere else to go.

That crippling fear everyone has for the overlords, this group of demons that sit far, far, far below the royal family on the hierarchy scale mind you, should've been Charlie's running gag. Hell should be grovelling at her feet, completely blind for her docility and kindness. That would've been funny.
But Hazbin Hotel's universe doesn't respect hierarchy, even though Vivienne very clearly set one up. Just, why is Alastor feared as he strolls down the street, yet can people act cute with fucking King Lucifer? "Who is this you brought with you?" a mere overlord asks Alastor about the one and true princess of Hell standing next to him.
How and why can there be people who don't know the face of their princess? Has Charlie never made a name for herself since the day she was born?

The part where she got distraught upon learning her girlfriend used to be an angel I didn't get. Your father used to be an angel, making you half angel, but also, Heaven is where you wish all of Hell to go to. You know. This place where the angels you dislike so much reside?
She later confides in a person she literally just met and clarifies she's disappointed Vaggie didn't trust her enough to come clean about it, but, also adds not to like how she used to kill her people. I lol once more. This lil' clown. You believe that, yet you're crying for the victims, who kill themselves and each other on a daily basis as if it's normal? Because it is? Since this is Hell? Those people? Also weird that the owner of a reformation institute won't entertain the thought of granting redemption or forgiveness to the angels and has to be told that regret might make someone uneager to speak up about issues that involve her personally. She only cares about the way worse -or perhaps- equally terrible residents of Hell.
Nonsensical conflict, but at least it was short-lived. The one positive about a series that speeds through its script.

Charlie's wish to reform Hell is a funny premise, but it's thoughtless to write the angels as assholes, having Hell's creatures acknowledge they're assholes, yet present a cartoon plot about giving demons a second chance to enter this place they don't even like.
A good chunk of Hell's residents is there for a reason and these cursed souls are better off getting destroyed. After all, would bleeding heart Charlie forgive and help people like Angel's pimp?

Angel's episode is like getting punched after years of having lost your senses. You feel the horrible sting, yet you're happy to be feeling anything at all, this was a captivating episode.
But I still have to ask, was episode 4 the right moment to tell his story? Is this cartoon with casual swearing suited to cover a subject this raw? The episode had powerful, emotional, excellently voice acted scenes, but it's the only episode that goes this hard, making the rest of the series look tone-deaf in comparison. Hazbin Hotel likes to occupy itself with quirky comedy and exaggerated crying, as if you're watching a bad Spongebob Squarepants episode, so to have a story with so much real and believable emotion -it's all the more distracting when everything goes back to normal the next episode. Or really, when Angel gleefully sings about being a used-up whore at the end of the episode itself. Don't care the song is catchy, it should've been featured a few episodes away.

Charlie's passiveness in this episode was infuriating. She won't see Angel's stuck in an abusive work environment and just (princess btw) pitifully crawls away when her friend demands her leave. Her friend, who disappeared inside a closet with his boss for a few seconds, then returned with a black eye and trembling voice, his throat littered with swelling tears.
Nowhere in the episode does she acknowledge anything to be off, instead, she "comically" sobs to be sorry about overstepping his boundaries. Fuck you, blind swine, how hard can it be for the offspring of the most powerful being in Hell to destroy Angel's contract, or preferably, his boss. Useless friend and useless monarch, absolutely maddening.
I don't understand why Angel's pimp can't be disposed of, besides narrative reasons, but it doesn't make sense within the world itself. Angel is friends with a princess, and she's lame, sure, but through her, he should also have the less pacifistic and more powerful Alastor on his side. And yet, no one in that hotel works towards his happiness or even suggests to snap his rapist in half.

As strong as episode 4 was, there's no proper ending to it. Husk -probably the most hideously designed character in the whole show- comes to his aid and thinks to start a conversation by bringing up his own predicament; as if having to play bartender is in any way similar to being taped and raped by multiple men every week. Then that cute song about them being losers starts and everything is fine, like we never even witnessed that horror montage a minute earlier. And like I insinuated, the next episode acknowledges nothing and Angel is back to being his carefree self. I quite hated that.
Episode 6 attempts to pick up his story again, where he suddenly acts super protective over the annoying small cyclops girl, and defies his pimp, also out of nowhere. It's brief and happens very late in the episode, and his witnessing friends just watch him get smacked and again do nothing to help. Baffling.
Meanwhile, Charlie's having a meeting in Heaven where she's given disapproving stares after swearing once in their presence, while Adam is sitting in a balcony spewing filth at every opportunity, and no one even looks up. The angels then quite randomly decide that demons can't be reformed, concluding the meeting. Baffling.

Swearing is abundant in this show. The worst offender was Adam, who was insanely irritating. I did not see the humor in the why, because, why? He's a pointlessly rude narcissist who can't utter one sentence without calling someone a bitch like he's fucking Jesse Pinkman.

What a missed opportunity to play onto the fact he's human. A human, with humanity, "emotional flaws", which should set him apart from Heavenborn angels. Have him and Eve be the only ones to care about Charlie's dreams, if only because they indeed consider all of humanity to be their children, or really, because they feel guilty for being the ones to spawn sin into the world.
But they went so antagonistic with this man. Like, Vivienne, my friend, did Adam hurt you? Why does he look like a 2000s bro? Why does he talk like someone who spent too much time on Reddit? This man is supposed to be the first human spawned on Earth, but he swears up a storm like a 12-year-old who just saw an episode of South Park for the first time.
There's this ancient demon character with an old-timey dialect, insinuated to talk like that because of his age, but then, why does Adam not? He existed before Hell did, thus before that demon did, so is older than the vast majority of the Hazbin Hotel cast. It makes no sense. And this same logic can be applied to Charlie's father and a few others, I'm sure.
And why is Adam in Heaven at all, considering he and Eve are directly to blame for Hell opening itself for humanity? He got welcomed into Heaven, while his offspring is still living out "the sins of the father"? That's twisted. Just as twisted as the tremendous amount of power and authority these angels gave Adam, who doesn't even hide he's a violent douchebag.

The more you sit down and dissect these otherwise short episodes, the more they fall apart.
Nonsensical is the reason why this one overlord refuses to tell the rest of Hell that angels can be killed, unexplained it is why Charlie is advised to ask the help of the cannibal race specifically to battle the angels, or why convincing them requires song, and the existence of episode 4 alone is strange when taking into consideration that the pain and anguish of other characters -background characters- are played off for laughs in Charlie's intro song and other instances. Ha ha to the guy who got devoured alive by cannibals, but grieve the sex slave?
The tonal whiplash is something I'm sure Hazbin Hotel's way too young audience won't pick up on, because Vivienne is unironically good at distracting this demographic with colourful character designs and catchy songs.

Hazbin Hotel would've been better if every episode covered a simple day of attempted rehabilitation, slowly building up the characters in the meantime and keeping the story light and comedic, but it's almost like the creator is worried she might never get the chance to showcase her work on a streaming service again, so throws out everything at once.
There are so many early plot twists and discoveries that were better off getting revealed at the end of the season, or in the next, with the assumption it's a proper season with 12 episodes at the minimum, of course.

The gist of my experience is that Vivienne has a fun vision, but the execution lacks. She should've let nitpicking psychopaths like me read over her ideas before making this show, but the truth of the matter is that the people who already liked her work won't care. Not right now. When more time has passed, perhaps, but then the show has already been watched and it'll be a nostalgic memory.
And well, another truth of the matter is there's objectively nothing wrong with that.

I hoped for way more from this show, but if I were to stumble onto season 2 someday, I'd probably check it out, because as much as I complained, Hazbin Hotel isn't "that bad".