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fategoflatass · 1 year

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final thoughts · fall 2022

since i know there're people who like to read my opinions on the different seasons, here you have my thoughts on this (HOLY SHIT OMG WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON???????????) season.

akiba meido sensou (7.5/10)

so, i never meant to watch this show. i thought it would be just another CGDCT slice of life where maids do their maid stuff, and they have fun... I WASN'T EXPECTING THIS THO. this series is crazy, like, the first ep starts with a maid being shot in the head like ??????? and then ranko (best girl imo) starts shooting this rival maid group along with a cutsie song like ??????????????? i was both confused and charmed. this anime is such a blast, it's filled with twists and turns, random shit that it's bizarre but it also makes so much sense. i can't fully explain it, you need to watch it.

akuyaku reijou nano de last boss wo kattemimashita (4/10)

dear lord the toxicity here is astronomical. the way i was looking for a hamefura replacement and i ended up getting this... i feel scammed. this was meant to be a fantasy romance story, but it ended up being a contest to see who's the most toxic person in the relationship. between throwing someone out of a flying carriage just to see them cry and almost stabbing someone on the crotch because they want to break off their engagement with you... i don't know who's worse. they totally deserve each other.

blue lock (8.5-8/10)

i cannot decide myself on what rating i should give to it. while i do love bllk and think is one of the best sports series i've ever read, 8-bit's adaptation is... interesting. while i did think the first episode was amazing, the visual level just started dropping. some of the hand-drawn animation looks weird, and the cgi sometimes looks like it has been taken from a mobile game. i have mixed feelings with these series; while it's still fun and interesting, it just doesn't kick me as much in the chest as the manga does. if you wanna start bllk, please read the manga first.

bocchi the rock! (6.5/10)

as i said before, i'm not a big fan of CGDCT, and this series is just that. i was into the music part of the series and bocchi's social phobia (which, as someone who went through it, i think it's a pretty good representation), but it's still not my cup of tea. it bores me at times, and i'm the one to blame. it's not bad, it's just not my thing. if you're into this kinda stuff, i fully recommend it.

boku no hero academia 6 (8/10)

NOW THAT IS A GOOD SEASON. this one's adapting one of (if not the) best arcs in the series and hell yeah i'm hyped. in case someone hasn't started it, i won't spoil anything. i'll just tell you to please not worry about the quality: the art, animation and everything in general is being tretaed with so much thought and love. i'm just so happy to see all of them back!

boku no roboco (4/10)

(at this point, i've only watched two eps. my opinion on the series may change) i know the manga is popular, i know it makes a lot of anime references. i wanted to try giving it a chance and oh lord. first, it's difficult to find. second, it isn't even funny. if i'm not dropping it is because the episodes are short and fuck it. but not because you make a shit tone of anime references means that you're gonna be funny.

c danchi (1/10)

chainsaw man (9/10)

i'll just leave this here and go on with my life.

GUYS. GUYS. IT'S FINALLY HERE. BABE'S FINALLY HERE. AND OH LORD SHE'S LOOKING AMAZING. i've been waiting for this series for so long, (since it first got announced like holy fuck the feels). i have the entire part one on my bookshelf and it brings me so much joy (and tears and trauma and—) to finally see it animated. the animation, the art, the music, the voices— everything is just fantastic, perfect even. the op is a banger and each and every ed is just so good (some better than others imo). i'm so happy mappa were the ones that took the project like omg thanks mappa but fr fr. if i'm not giving it a higher note is because i'm afraid that would be my inner fangirl speaking so yeah. my children look perfect, that's enough for me. and fuck those who complain about the cgi istg—

cool doji danshi (7/10)

just a pretty chill slice of life short series about a bunch of dorks trying to survive in the wild. they're all so relatable and idk what to think about it. babe's also pretty absent-minded, so this is pretty comfy to me... is this how #representation feels like? besides that, there's not much to say about it since it's just... that. they exist, and i'm happy they do.

do it yourself!! (5/10)

how many times have i said i don't like CGDCT series? many times, but i still go and watch them. why? because i'm dumb ig. it's just a series about a bunch of girls doing bricolage, that's pretty much it.

fumetsu no anata e 2 (8/10)

second season of "don't get attached to the cast because they're all going to die". at this rate, i think i'm made of stone because i haven't shead a tear in the entire series. i'm also getting use to the show's formula (introduce new character → make you feel attached to them → kill them), so ig that's also why i don't feel that sad anymore? idk, i do feel sad but not that sad yk. anyway, is as good as the first season so you should give it a try.

fuufu ijou, koibito miman. (6.5/10)

i started not liking the series (the male mc was annoying to me and i felt like he would only see the girls by their "personality"), but i ended up getting attached in some sort of way? it's an easy to watch, funny romcom that, even if it's nothing special, will entertain you for the time being.

kage no jitsuryokusha ni naritakute! (5.5/10)

i like the idea, but not the execution. i mean, kinda. it started being a parody of isekai series, but i feel like isekai is slowly but surely eating the show alive. i'm not that interested on the plot and the ecchi scenes and comments are... something. to give you some example: there was this scene where these girls would pose in ways others could check their breasts better and perceive them as bigger than their opponent's. or maybe the many comments they do about the protagonist's dick being a fricking sword????? umm not thank you.

koukyuu no karasu (7/10)

a historical fantasy shoujo series with interesting plot points and a cute romance?? hell yeah, count me in! each and every character is lovable af and trust me when i tell you you'll never get bored. the art is so cute and comfortable (idk how to explain it), and the romance is just... i just want them to date already, am i asking too much? definitely give it a chance.

mairimashita! iruma-kun 3 (8/10)

new iruma season and the first one i'm watching as it's coming out. the children are back and more chaotic than ever in this new arc (the best one yet, from what i heard). i just can't stress enough how this series makes me feel, how comfy it makes me feel. i've connected with the characters in such a way it just makes me smile every time each and every single one of them just appears on the screen. i'm so excited to see who'll win! (no spoilers please)

mob psycho 100 III (8.5/10)

this isn't the last season. no, i refuse to accept it. even though many characters are getting their closures and all this chaos is going on and every wish of them to have a happy life has turned to ash. this is not the end. and that never happened. no. just. leave me alone.

mushikaburi-hime (6/10)

so, they're trying to bring historical shoujos back and while we did get some interesting results (koukuuu no karasu), we also got series like mushikaburi-hime. the series is about a girl who is obssesed with books and a dude that isn't, but because he likes her he's up to deal with that little trait of hers. and... that's pretty much it. the series revolves around their relationship (which sometimes turns a bit toxic due to the male mc). the female mc hasn't progressed in over ten episodes, she won't progress now. if you're interested, there it is. but it's not a series i would recommend.

renai flops (7/10)

i said it before: i love shitshows. this one seemed to be a parody on ecchi, harem series which caught my eye. i mean, the first ep involves the dog scene which is one of the most bizarre scenes i've seen on any romcom. at first, i was gonna watch it for the laughs from how bad it all was, but then the second half happened and it changed my view on the series. from a parody that makes things absurd on purpose to something else. i would recommend anyone who's interested to watch it and please, do not spoil yourself.

shinobi no itokki (4/10)

this show is about a dude who goes to high school and he gets confessed to by a girl he doesn't know. only that it wasn't a confession but a trap, because that girl was a ninja and was trying to kidnap him. but he's able to runaway because he has all these ninja abilities that his mother forced him to learn and never questioned why. and then his mum tell him they're actually ninjas and now he has to go to this ninja school that's literally a high school building in the middle of nowhere like ????? i thought ninjas were discreet???? except no one cares about the school because then someone (don't ask, don't remember) gets betrayed and blames the dude's clan and shit happens and wth is going on????

spy x family part 2 (8.5/10)

part two of this very wholesome but also very fake family! their shenanigans are as crazy as they were in part one, and we got introduced to our queen, fiona. also, the main fake couple are growing closer due to the mission and i think that's pretty cool now get married for real this time.

tensei shitara ken deshita (6/10)

just your average isekai with better than average animation and a wholesome bond between both leads. besides that, i have no much to say about it. i absolutely adore fran and amanda, but the whole idea of fran being op almost from the start is frustrating. i wanna see her grow, but this left me kinda cold.

urusei yatsura (6.5/10)

many people were hyping this show, and i do understand why. after all, it's pretty rough fighting against nostalgia. still, even though the visuals are so cute and the op and ed are pretty good, it just shows the series it's an old one. the comedy falls flat at times along with some characters, although it's still enjoyable. i don't know if i'll keep on watching the second season, but for now i don't feel like dropping it.

uzaki-chan wa asobitai! ω (6/10)

so, uzaki is back. the first season has never been one of my favorites, but i decided to give the second season a try and watch it as it was coming out and... well, it's uzaki. for some of y'all it may be hilarious, but to me it's just fine. it's boring most of the time, although i do like the idea of the mcs dating (please do so for fuck's sake). if you're into this kind of comedy, you should give it a try.

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http-eiji · 1 year

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Hello good day. Can i ask where to read manga of banana fish. Is their posibility have season 2. Its so painful watching this i cant accept ash died he deserve to be happy with eiji. In manga have a garden of light there. Why not in anime dont have episodethank you..

I've not read the manga in a very long time so I'm not sure where to read it online.

So let's talk about why Banana Fish is never getting a season 2 and why they didn't animate the epilogue chapter.

Banana Fish won't be getting a season 2 because the manga is over and they adapted (nearly) everything. The closest we could get is if a studio ever adapted Yasha. Yasha is another manga by Akimi Yoshida following an entirely different set of characters years after the events of Banana Fish. Sing is featured, Yut-Lung is mentioned and Ash gets hinted at.

If you want more Banana Fish content, there's plenty of side content. There's Private Opinion, Angel Eyes, and Fly Boy in The Sky, which are all set prior to the events of Banana Fish. There's also New York Sense which is an album/art book of all the pictures Eiji took during and after Banana Fish (even spanning after the epilogue chapter, Garden of Light).

Garden of Light was published in the final volume of Banana Fish. It's set 7 years after Banana Fish and follows Akira, Ibe's niece, who comes to stay with Eiji in his home in New York as he's preparing to launch his photo exhibition.

Originally, many in the fandom thought we'd get a GOL OVA. This never happened and, now 4 years on, almost definitely never will.

IIf I had to guess why GOL never got animated, I'd say it was because of:

1) Time constraints

It's impressive that MAPPA managed to adapt a 19-volume manga into a 24-episode show. They were already having to cut and rush through things.

2) Wanting to keep the ending open to interpretation

The anime clearly wanted to keep the ending more "open." Whilst many will say that Ash dying is obvious in the anime too, it technically was never confirmed in the anime. After every episode aired, there was a little relationship chart showing who was alive, who was dead, and what everyone's connections to each other were. After episode 24 aired, the relationship chart changed several times. This wasn't usual. Normally, a new, updated chart would be released, and that was that. This chart originally showed Ash as dead, but later it showed that maybe he was alive.

(You can read the relationship chart here and all the changes made over the course of several hours after the final episode aired.)

Why would the anime do this?

It could be for marketing reasons. For example, after the show aired, people would look at newly released official art and speculate if it showed a post-canon Ash and Eiji together. It could be that someone on the team wanted to change the ending but couldn't because they weren't allowed to. They may have thought it would be better because this is such an old manga and it had never had an anime adaptation before then. So it wasn't important to do the story justice.

I really don't know the real reason, so this is purely speculation.

#banana fish #garden of light #asks

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ss-hikaru · 4 months

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2023 Anime Round-Up

Favourite Plot Anime

Favourite Comedy Anime

Best Adaptation of a Manga I've Already Read

Very lop-sided seasons this year 😅

Winter 2023 - 1

Spring 2023 - 10

Summer 2023 - 2

Autumn 2023 - 8

TOTAL: 20

In order of ranking - air date - alphabetical

Gold - AKA Excellent

Play It Cool, Guys - The comedic timing on this was excellent. And 10 minute run times! More series need to be shorter given the type of short chapter manga they are based on...

Hell's Paradise - Hotly anticipated by me since I read the first chapter of the manga and thought it was gonna totally be my kinda show. Beautifully animated as expected from MAPPA.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 - Kinda surprised I liked this given I'm not really into romance, but I suppose I do really like series that focus on online relationships.

Dr Stone New World (Part 1 & 2) - I've read the manga and this is a good adaptation

Oshi no Ko - I'm reading the manga and this is a good adaptation

Undead Girl Murder Farce - I wasn't sure what this was gonna be like but it was very fun! The chemistry between the two main leads was great and the mysteries were interesting.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - I was interested to see if it was worth buying the manga and the answer is yes.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions (Season 1) - I'm reading the manga and I was not expecting Isshiki or Ron to sound as they do.

The Apothecary Diaries (Part 1) - I'm reading the manga and Mao Mao also doesn't sound like I expected. Looking forward more to Part 2 since it will cover story I haven't read yet.

Silver - AKA Good

Mashle: Magic and Muscles - This adaptation did what it could with its source material 😝 Mashle the manga has some pretty high comedic notes but the rest is pretty average

Jujutsu Kaisen (Season 2) - I didn't really like the Shibuya Arc much and some of the fights seemed really drawn out, even the animation couldn't really elevate it for me

16bit Sensation: Another Layer - Goddamn shut-up Konoha. Shrillness aside, this was a fun while also stupid show, although I would have liked to have learnt more about how games were made in the 90s.

Spy × Family (Season 2) - A lot of filler this time round? Disappointing.

Bronze - AKA Okay

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Swordsmith Village Arc) - I am a bit tired of how this one feels drawn out. I feel like it could be more concise.

Dead Mount Death Play (Part 1) - The animation is mediocre but the story throws enough plot hooks to make me wonder what is going on.

The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons - I feel like I would enjoy this in manga format more. Felt like melodramatic padding to fill the 24 minute timeslot.

Nuh

Skip and Loafer - I would have liked this more if it focused on the unlikely friendship between the girls.

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! - didn't make it to 3 episodes

The Marginal Service - such a stellar voice cast but the first episode looked like trash

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead - it's meant to be a comedy but I found it too depressing (the work stuff not the zombie stuff)

Migi & Dali - the first episode was weird, would have watched more to see what the hell was going on but the season was too stacked with other shows to watch

Dead Mount Death Play (Part 2) - was deprioritised against other shows. Next season is looking pretty slim so will probably be able to catch up on this one.

Attack on Titan: The Final Season Parts 3 & 4 - I wasn't a huge fan of the series to begin with so I don't think any ending would have satisfied me.

#yearly anime summary

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chuluoyi · 5 months

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Pity 60?! ALMOST THERE! You can do it! 🥳 2 ?! Goodness how even 😭😭 The lowest I got was 6... Not any better but 2 is so close to being flat broke...

Yeahhh her dad is such an ass Maxi is the sweetest! And she's got a super hot husband now so I guess she DID benefit from being married off 😚 Oh I've read that too! Edna is such a girlboss I love her! It's different from the normal damsel in distress kind of Female lead, and it's really refreshing. What else have you read?

I hope so! But I'm still 18 and I wanna enjoy being single hahaha! I've seen my friends cry and weep over guys and I feel like I want to stay unburdened by the weight of a relationship till I'm like 19-20-ish? Thanks Chu! haha it's getting super rainy where I'm from... It's so cold istg...

Ahaha! I'm not THAT young. But I do agree that my watchlist is soul-sucking dhdhdh. Though, there's something about sad animes, don't you think?

HAHAHA you're young too! And you finished Naruto during your summer break?! Omg just how much did you watch per day you're amazing.

Right?! We deserve to know, Gege! Have mercy please was killing off our 3 JJK daddies not enough-

Hmm I honestly preferred the old art, even if the animation wasn't on par with Mappa's. I did pick it up after awhile, but Instagram spoiled me so I lost motivation after 2-3 episodes of season 4... I should really delete all social media accounts before watching a new anime...

Oh no is he okay HAHAHA was the ending that sad I'm slightly tempted to binge the rest of AOT after my exams are over hmm... How could he?!?! Gojo dying is one of the few anime deaths that shook the world 😭😭Or is he just jealous 🤭

Omg a fellow monkey! Sugu's monkey cult is expanding- Ngl I would gladly be a monkey if it means I can get slightly closer to Suguru-

Also I've received your TOT req!! The bakerlon card is legit so cute ahhh 😫😫

-🪩

i… gave up🥲 seems like there’s no hope for me 😩 i’ll wait until next year then and save the s chips i get from the monthly pass for the upcoming events🤧

HAHAHAH the benefit is right there!!🤭 i love maxi’s progress though and YES I LOVE EDNA SO MUCH omg she’s so badass, takes care of her own shits and the plot twist is soooo omg i finished that manhwa on one night and was left sooo full😩 it was one of the best manhwas for me

hmm i think i’ve read quite many arranged marriage stories but suddenly i can’t think of any of them🥲 but another great manhwa i read is unholy blood! i love hayan sm she’s also badass and her romance with euntae drives me almost insane bcs of the slow burn🤧 but it’s so so great by the ending i was sad to let it go. have you read it?? and do you have any other recs?

so true! i honestly don’t think there’s any benefit for us to force ourselves to have a boyfriend/girlfriend that early (especially if they say it’s for the status—a classmate of mine once told me that she was dating this guy just to know how being in a relationship was like💀 she’s messed up) because in the end, we are looking for the real thing. the real thing doesn’t come easily, it takes time. fyi my current boyfriend is my first bf, we started dating just last year, which means i have my first bf at 23🥹 and i’m so glad i heed my mom then, that it’s no use to have boyfriends when you were still in high school or college as chances are they are still immature themselves.

but if you do find someone who is good in school, then it’s okay to try! just don’t be discouraged if you don’t because nah we need the true ones😉

(aw sorry to come off as lecturing i can’t stop myself but my mom’s advice is what saves me🥹 and i really do think it’s so good)

me too!! it’s rainy and cold nowadays *sigh* but at least it’s not as hot?🥹

THERES 🗣️ SOMETHING 🗣️ ABOUT 🗣️ ANGST 🗣️ that made me feel like i want to jump out of the window yet satisfied my inner soul at the same time🤧🤧🤧

HAHAHA i felt old bcs now i’m paying for my own bills and impulse buying😭 JSJSJS nono i watched naruto from eps 300 onwards actually🥹 still, that’s quite a lot 😭 but yeah, i could watch at least 5-10 eps per day back then 🥲

PFFT DADDIES so true 😔😔 *sigh* my life has never been the same ever since that gojo sukuna fight. i started looking for spoilers (i didn’t follow the manga before), installed twitter and reading theories. my heart used to be thumping so hard each time i went over the spoilers you know? like i know gojo was going to lose somehow but i hope so much he didn’t and then when chapter 235 dropped and gege took a break i was like “!!!!” only to 236 to reverse it in the most brutal way💀

ahh i see… i’m starting to think that aot is for boys😭 like most of my guy friends are like “this is the best anime of my life” while my girl friends are just bamboozled with everything🥹

he’s mourning and coping the way we do for our jjk daddies🤭🤭 save to say that karma gets him bcs he doesn’t follow the manga HAHAHA maybe both i don’t know but he gets 🙄🙄 when i swoon over gojo ahahhaha

oh? good luck on your exam disco anon!! i know you’ll do well!!🫶🏻

HAHAHAHAH OMG that’s the term he used too!!🤣 like he’s okay being suguru’s monkey just because🥹

waah! that’s good then!! the card is so CHIC but i haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet along with the side story card🥲🥲🥲 i will after this weekend i think bcs work has been so tiring *sigh*

#this is sooo long im so sorry but i really love talking to you sjsjsjjs #—chu’s mailbox 📬#💌: 🪩

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aotimagines · 3 years

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woah...today’s episode was just...

also, we don’t claim the people harassing MAPPA, bye.

#mod elle #not a request #snk sunday #honestly this fandom is so entitled #i've never seen a more entitled fandom #if it wasn't for MAPPA there would be no season 4 #so like shut up

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levmada · 2 years

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I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS

DFIJGRJ

//spoilers for new aot episode

sorry if i ramble, im on cold medicine. HOWEVER-

the OP and OT still fire me up and render me to tears (respectively) so so so much. when the title card came up and drums were already banging i was so HYPE-

Reiner coming close to sacrificing himself and giving in so many times is tragic by itself, and now porco (who bless his heart finally got some closure from his brother's death :((() sacrifices himself for Reiner, just like Marcel did😭. Reiner can truly never catch a break for all his mistakes.

@ mappa whoever added his smirk..... thank you

arguably.. porco was a better man to the end - reiner was going to 'save the world' no matter what it took, even when he knew Marcel lied to get him there and it cost both Marcel's life and countless behind the walls. When Porco ran out of strength, he did his duty and gave up the power to Falco - i def see why porco feels that way bc tbf if my brother lied so i couldnt become a warrior, to protect me, and ended up dying for the guy who took my place? - i'd be angry too. IM GONNA MISS HIM.

COLT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD AND THE WAY HE WAS JUST BURNT AND GABI BROKE DOWN AT THE SIGHT OF HIS CORPSE.. fucking hell.

on the topic of brotherly love, u could tell it tore zeke up to go ahead and turn everyone into titans, if only bc it would mean sacrificing falco and most certainly the lives of ppl he's fought alongside for years. i think zeke suspected that eren didnt totally have his side after the scene where he dropped the baseball (which on the surface is fucking hilarious, btw) - but he definitely wanted to believe he did. i think zeke came to care for eren a ton, in his own twisted way, but it wasn't reciporcated in the end :(.

The music when Zeke screamed and everyone transformed??? i was thrown right back to season 1 . it was so so damn good. it tore me up somehow, watching Nile and so many in the MP+Garrison die😭😭. especially Pyxis for some reason; just watching his eyes go totally dazed when he became a titan was fucked.

LEVI IN EREN'S MEMORIES

and i have sm to say abt the memory sequnce in general!! in the manga, it looks like this:

which is so interesting bc many of these panels i didn't see (but then again i only watched once). in general, the way mappa adapted it was trippy as fuck, and so fun to watch. i enjoyed it a lot, but i noticed??

mappa included the high school au from the manga in eren's founder memories??? nerd armin was there too but i didn't catch a screenshot of it. that is rly rly interesting bc while it is a joke story in the manga, the fact that it's here in the anime would confirm parallel universes, contradicting the theory that aot only has one, determined timeline.

isayama has said before that the high school au would be more important to canon than he lets on, especially when it comes to eren's character, but i didn't think it would actually happen??

i cant remember right now if panels from the au are in the canon manga, but if they aren't then mappa might be doing something different with the anime ending (scared).

anyway! the cover from the sauna scene is also there for some reason

but you won't catch me complaining about a shirtless levi teaser when zeke's nipples were at the forefront in paths.. i still like him, even after all he's done and no matter how ugly his beard is.

i do miss levi though.

in general, zeke n eren fucking served this episode. god bro. sjifdjfdfj. as did mikasa - it hurt so much to see the 104th still helping eren reach zeke after Sasha (and knowing what's gonna happen).

hhh

i probably need at least 4 business days to collect my thoughts. this episode was trippy and incredible - mappa outdid itself imo with how it adapted this part of the manga. 9.5/10.

#i dont want to annoy anyone i know so i dump my thoughts on tumblr #dont judge me>:(#aot #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #aot season 4 #aot review #kane says

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aj-anime-blog · 3 years

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To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts - Review!

First review here we go!!

So, after being completely and utterly obsessed with Jujutsu Kaisen and AOT season 4, I decided to check out MAPPA studios and watch a bunch of stuff from their roster. My so-called "MAPPA binge" included this strange and unknown piece: Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e, or in English, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. An adaption of a manga originally released in Bessatsu Shounen (you might recognize this as the magazine that released Attack on Titan!), it looked pretty promising. I do have to admit that I didn't read a page of this anime's manga, though the art style on it looks gorgeous!!

The concept behind the show: A war has torn two halves of a nation apart, split into the North and the South. The Northerners, who were previously greatly outnumbered in battle, created a half-human, half-beast species known as "Incarnates" because of their God-like abilities. But the Incarnates begin having some issues when their beast forms take over their bodies, turning them into monsters. When the war ends, our protagonist, Hugh Hank, an Incarnate and previous captain of the Incarnate squad, swears to kill all of his mutating Incarnate buddies before they can destroy the world.

This review will not contain spoilers until the labeled "Spoiler" section at the bottom.

In general, what do I think?: 4/10, this show kinda sucked. Ouch! I hate being that blunt! Especially on my first review here! But To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (let's call it TTASB from here on out!) had glaring flaws that, while it did hold up as a show, made it uninteresting and hard to love. Not only were the characters mediocre and boring, but the show seemed to contradict itself and its own opinion of the Incarnates all the time! Are they bloodthirsty monsters that need to be killed? Are they misunderstood humans who should be given peace? I don't know! Our main characters don't seem to either! Other than the "war bad" motif that gets shoved down your throat from episode one, the show felt stagnant in what it was trying to make the audience feel.

I hate being so cynical about it, though, because it does still earn those 4 points! Even though a lot of it falls flat, as a whole, it's still an ok show! Hank and Schaal have good concepts and their dilemmas are interesting in certain parts when the writers manage to nail pits and pieces of their development! The fight scenes were cool and I think that the concept for the world was neat! And the show does have a pretty cool title. Let's be honest, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts sounds super metal.

So what about those characters?: 5/10! Hugh Hank and Schaal are our two main protags for the show, and they both have pretty interesting concepts! Hank is an Incarnate, he used to be the leader of the other Incarnates, and he made a vow with them that when they lost their minds, he would kill them himself. Schaal is the daughter of one of these Incarnates that fought under Hank. Interesting, right?! How could these two opposing characters get along with one another?

TTASB tries to give the two of them a sort of grumpy-old-mentor-teaches-a-cheery-youngster relationship (which, admittedly, is one of my favorite tropes) and manages to forget everything good about having this kind of relationship. To start, it feels like Schaal has next to no reason to be tolerating Hank, and vice versa. She follows him around because *insert some excuse about understanding the Incarnates?* and Hank lets her because *insert I really don't know*. It really feels like Schaal doesn't need to be there, and she's just a plot device to move along Hank's character development.

Then, the two of them never really interact in ways that really moved me. It never felt like they made a deeper connection that meant something to the plot. They interacted, sure. They spoke about their issues, yeah. But it never felt like Hank needed Schaal, or that Schaal was emotionally tied to Hank, until the show spoonfed it to you that they were.

In the end, neither of their developments felt compelling or interesting. There were a few scenes that maybe, if you squinted, hinted towards them growing as people, but for a 12 episode anime, it was very menial. It also felt like said scenes were fairly forced, with their development not really leading them to the point that they ended up at. Again, TTASB has a bit of an issue with contradicting itself.

The villain was so meh. He has a motive, yeah. It's pretty lame. He's not compelling at all. Nothing about him is interesting or kept me hooked on him. The show probably could've existed without him, to be entirely honest. I don't really have much else to say about him! I just did not really care about him at all.

The best characters in the show are hands-down the supporting cast of Incarnates. Each one has fairly interesting motivations, and even though they're only given an episode or so to tell their stories, they feel the most genuine. My biggest qualm with them is that the show doesn't build their connection to Hugh Hank at all, so when he gets emotional over them, you're kind of like "uhhh u know this guy??". More about this down in our spoilers section, as I'll go over a scene where this is prominent.

So characters were meh, but what about the story itself?: 4/10, just as meh. Again, very interesting! Lots of potential! But it fell flat where it mattered. To be clear, just before we dig deeper: the 12 episodes of TTASB isn't the entire story. It's clearly intended to be continued, though, as of writing this, I haven't been able to dig up any news about a potential season 2.

I don't really mind if animes aren't completely original, as long as they're fun, but TTASB didn't really do that. A lot of the episodes felt boring and reused like it was a watered-down copy-paste of other material. Some episodes were repetitive and seemed to be trying to hammer in the same themes, only to be later contradicted by other episodes. TTASB will spend a few episodes showing you how misunderstood and sweet the Incarnates are and then have an episode where an Incarnate murders a bunch of people. I would love it if it was, in any way, shape, or form, sarcastic, but it is not. TTASB just thinks it can get away with the blatant disregarding of its own morals. It only ends up feeling disconnecting and frustrating.

It follows an almost monster-of-the-week style format for introducing the Incarnates, which does them a bit of a disservice, in my opinion. I really would have liked it if there was a bit more overlap between the Incarnates and their stories! We know that they're all very close (or, at least, the show tells us that they are without really showing us) so seeing them interact with one another outside of their respective episode would've been fun!

The story tries to be darker and grimier than it actually is. I didn't end up caring much for the nation itself and much of the politics that the show tried to utilize felt boring and, again, watered-down. It felt like the show wanted to make it a political drama about war and human rights and only ended up shying away from what makes those genres impactful. Again, this isn't to say that TTASB's story is bad, it's just not as good as it could've been.

But it's MAPPA, so the art has to be good, right?: Yeah! Art was cool! Nothing golden, like MAPPA's newer stuff, but a solid 7/10! The fight scenes were nice, and even though a lot of them felt redundant to watch, they were still smooth! I have some qualms about a few of the Incarnates' beast forms (especially Hank's) looking like they belong back in 2001, but they still looked cool nonetheless.

I don't really have much to say on this front! Nothing really blew me away, but I never looked at the screen and winced away.

Ok and finally, pacing!: 4/10. 12 episode animes always have tricky pacing to them. I like to think about the show being pretty much only 5 hours long, which isn't that much time to cram in as much story and plot as they might want to. Overall, TTASB actually had pretty decent pacing, with a long enough build-up that led to a final showdown. If you ask me, I do think there was a pacing problem in the second half, as it felt far too stretched out, but that could've just been my perception of it.

My biggest issue with pacing loops back to the characters again. They're never really given time to explore or build up relationships. Especially not Hank and his prior team of Incarnates. I think that there should've been more screen time dedicated to their time in the army, to better explain the emotional distress that he's going through as he's forced to hunt them down. Instead, TTASB relies on a throwaway line or scene to deliver this emotional blow, and it nearly always falls flat.

Music!!!!: 6/10, The soundtrack in this anime really wasn't memorable and I don't remember much from it. Whoops!

I did like the opening a bit! It was done by Mafumafu, who I think has done a Pokemon intro song? Either way, it was energetic and fit the theme of the show well! The ending is also a bop, now that I'm thinking about it! It manages to be nostalgic and sad without being too slow! So good music on both fronts!!

OK, now we're in spoiler territory! Be warned!

I don't have too much to say regarding spoilers. Nothing in the show really feels important enough that I have to mention it under a spoiler tag. A few small notes, I suppose.

The show treats Hank like the more important character but then throws him away in his "death" to focus on Schaal, which was a very frustrating episode. Schaal felt so bland and useless in it, even when she faced her father again. Bringing him back to life felt like a sad excuse to force her into character development. I did like it when she found the courage to shoot him, but I also thought that it wasn't really as emotional as the show wanted it to be.

Hank's connection with Schaal, particularly in the second half, feels completely unnatural and forced. When she gets kidnapped, he has some sort of mental breakdown over her and it, if anything, felt creepy. It was undeserved and was forced down your throat rather than built.

Beatrice was the best character in the show and I think that if they stuck to ideas like hers (misunderstood creatures who just want to go back to their old lives), the story would have been much better. Instead, you switch to characters like the Gargoyle Incarnate, who just goes on a murder spree, and it ruins a lot of the development that Beatrice brought to the table.

& our deep deep look at one part: Forgive me if I get this screwed up a bit, it's been a weekish since I finished the show and my brain dumped out all details of it already.

Hugh Hank goes to the mountains and fights the Garmr Incarnate, Rex (Roy? I'm a bit confused on his name), in an epic show-down. Obviously, at the end of it, Hank wins, killing Rex. Now, if you're like me, you sat there for most of the fight going "who tf is Rex and why is this battle important?" and only at the very END, when he's dying, do you see a clip that you might remember from the very beginning of the anime, with Rex talking about Schaal. You go "oohhh I know who he is!" but you wished that you remembered this ten minutes ago when the fight started because it would've been so much more impactful. The show didn't remind you of this scene. It didn't tell you that Rex was this same person that you already met. It expected you to remember, and I didn't. This scene sums up a lot of the character problems with the show, where even if something does have emotional weight, the show doesn't act on it.

Now we're done!: Sorry if this was harsh, but that's my full review on To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts! I'd love to hear if you agree with me or think that I'm totally wrong! If you've read the manga, tell me if it's better or worth a read! And thanks for reading!

(The crossed-out "Hugh"s are all of the times that I got Hank's name wrong! I'm not super great with character names, but I always take it as a bad sign when I screw up the name. )

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