(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..!