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Mar 29, 2026
Barakamon is a fairly straightforward and predictable story, one that you can attempt to summarize after watching only the first episode. That's not to say it's uninteresting or not entertaining, far from it, but it leans on hooking the viewer in on the episodic journey more than the destination.
From an animation and art style standpoint, there is nothing to complain about. The Goto Islands are brought to life in sharp, vivid colors and the series never fails to capture the easy-going atmosphere of rural island life. This is complemented with a calming soundtrack, well-cast voice performances (I completed the series in the English dub), and
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all of these elements are tied together seamlessly and to a high level of overall quality by director Masaki Tachibana.
The problem with this series is that it is fairly brief. The original source material and the nature of the series would have lent very well to a multi-season/cour run. Instead, what you have are 12 episodes, three of which are dedicated to establishing and wrapping up the story. Given how predictable the story beats are, there is this sense of just going through the motions during the last few episodes, but this certainly isn't an anime that overstays its welcome, and it does end on a satisfying conclusion.
If you are looking for a fish out of water story with humor and heartwarming moments, this is a very competent, albeit formulaic, installment in the slice of life genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 22, 2026
When it comes to the gargantuan that is Dragon Ball Z there is hardly anything that I can add that hasn't already been said elsewhere and at considerable length. In an effort not to retread ground, I'll try to concisely encapsulate what elevates this series to masterpiece status and why I feel it is and will remain unmatched into the distant future.
This series does tension and buildup in a way that no other series to my mind has ever approached and that most never even attempt. The pacing of the original 291 episodes is such that every twist and turn in the plot is given
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its due time to breathe and for the impact to be felt by the viewer. Those who consider the series too slow are missing the bigger picture in my view, and that is to savor every bit of showboating, backtalking, character monologuing, the jump cuts to other characters and what they are up to and thinking, and then back to the action to build it up in such a way that when the impactful moments hit they land fully marinated and with maximum effect.
Dragon Ball Z oozes memorable moments and moods with layers of nuance and ambiance in unforgettable and goosebump-inducing ways. From the figurative and literal apocalyptic showdown on the dying planet of Namek, to the science fiction horror atmosphere of the android and early cell arcs, to the rollercoaster ride of hope-filled breakthroughs and crushing setbacks of the Buu arc... few other series can boast at having even a handful of the kind of memorable scenes, conversational exchanges and epic set pieces that Dragon Ball Z continuously and effortlessly produces from the start through to the very end. Attempted continuations of this story fail to grasp both the sincerity of this series and the finality of Dragon Ball Z's end but also fall short of reproducing the magic behind what gives Dragon Ball Z its core identity and style. From the tension of the stakes involved to the measured pacing, from the balance between necessary exposition to leaving the most profound moments understated or even unsaid for the benefit of the audience.
It has to be experienced at least once, and not just for the purposes of maintaining a baseline of pop-culture awareness, but to experience an action-packed epic with unmatched mastery of tone, tension, and understated depth.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 1, 2025
This anime is a showcase in how to take a promising concept and completely botch it through the most unimaginative and haphazard execution. It can be summarized as "despite the female lead being turned into a lucid zombie early on, nothing really happens".
At only 12 episodes, you would think they would have no problem keeping the story focused and concise but halfway in they are already resorting to what are essentially filler episodes covering side-character backstories, none of which have any real payoff. Apparently, there are three additional OVA episodes, one of which serves as a prequel to the series, but I can't be bothered
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with them. To be honest it was already starting to stretch with the temptation to just drop the series altogether inside the main 12-episode run.
Something to note here is that there are practically no normal or likable characters in this series. The closest being the MC's dad and maybe his sister, but basically every other character is some combination of weird, annoying, repulsive, or all of the above. Whether it's the MC himself who's sincerely attracted to zombie women (not just as a meme), the female lead who is, well, a zombie, her creepy and completely deranged father, her impossibly selfish and conceited step-mother, the MC's perverted and annoying senile grandfather, the MC's perverted and annoying friend from school, or the MC's cousin who insists that she is both "his older sister figure" and "future fiancée" as if there is any overlap at all between those two things... There are basically no characters worth watching the series for. Rea herself is alright, but frankly speaking, there isn't much to her character or personality. She can be summed up as "very nice and polite," and that's about it. The cardinal sin of any anime is having no interesting or likeable characters, and Sankarea is guilty on all counts here.
The art style isn't horrible but it's not anything worth writing home about. Some of the character designs are okay. Rea and Ranko for instance, are alright, but the MC just looks like they were pasted in from a gag manga or something where he's like a cat trapped in a human body. The animation is similarly unimpressive but then again not all that much happens from an action standpoint. The soundtrack wasn't memorable either, including the rather boring OP. The English dub was okay, not bad other than Mike McFarland's distracting copy-and-pasted Master Roshi performance.
What ruins this series very early on is how nonchalant and unimpressed everyone in this world is when confronted by the reality of an actual zombie. They are all basically like "Oh, you're a zombie now? Gee, that must be tough huh?". It's just so dumb that it kills any shred of believability or groundedness the series might have had that would have helped set up some stakes or tension with Rea turning into an actual zombie. He basically doesn't even have to hide her presence for more than half an episode and after that everyone just basically accepts it.
The romance is neither compelling nor is it really believable. Hardly any real time or effort is spent showing the two leads bonding or developing feelings in a meaningful way, other than a boring "day at the mall" episode. They hardly have anything in common and this is consistent from the start of the series through to the end.
The series just doesn't know what it wants to do. The jokes and gags are unfunny and poorly timed as they often sandwich fairly serious or heavy scenes and subject matter. The climax is sleep-inducing and the anime just fizzles out by the end of episode 12 rather than have anything you could call an ending. So much could have been done here with the runaway zombie girl concept and it's baffling how they managed to fumble it into something so boring and uneventful. Can't really recommend that anyone waste their time with this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 31, 2025
Nana is one of the more realistic depictions of friendships, relationships, and the growth journey through life, and not just by anime standards. The characters are written in such a believable and authentic way to the point that even when you get to the more frustrating parts of the story, and you will - you'll often find yourself more frustrated with the characters themselves, as if they are real people than you are with the series creators or writers. These feel like fully realized and, by extension, flawed people. Especially the two leads, and this helps the anime establish a sense of groundedness and trust
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between the story and the viewer, forming the basis upon which captivating drama can be canvased.
The series can be admittedly very melodramatic at points, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but now and then you can't help but roll your eyes. Not because the writing is bad, you are rolling your eyes at the very believable characters and the very believable choices they make. Sometimes though, things just fall into place just right (or fall out of place just right) in a way that reminds you that you are watching an anime. The names of the two lead characters both happen to be Nana, which means "7", these two meet each other purely by happenstance, and then the apartment they both later chance on at the same time, being unit "707"... stuff like that. There are a lot of awkward love triangles, squares, and polygons in this series through which one person will like someone who happens to like someone else who in turn, likes this other person... You can't help but get the feeling the series/author are going out of their way to ensure happiness is just out of reach for a number of these characters.
True to the subject matter of the series, the music and above all, the background score, really elevate certain moments into truly special and unforgettable territory. The somber tracks that back up particularly powerful scenes or heartfelt character monologues are likely to give one goosebumps. One of the few series that had at one point brought me close to tears, with the soundtrack doing the heaviest lifting. This is powerful stuff, and the composer Tomoki Hasegawa has earned my lasting admiration for these hauntingly beautiful compositions. While utilized regularly, the track titled "Kizutuite mo" (傷ついても) translated to "Even if it hurts" or "In spite of the wound" never stops being a profoundly moving and chilling piece, especially with the expert placement and the excellent dialogue and vocal performances of the characters.
I elected to watch the dub and I was not disappointed. Similar to Black Lagoon, Madhouse animation x Ocean Studios localization set a very high bar for quality in the mid to late 2000s. The standout performance here is without a doubt Rebecca Shoichet as Nana Osaki... she brings the character to life in a way that is practically beyond live-action. You can see her voice as much as you can hear it and those who've finished the dubbed version of the series will likely immediately recognize what I'm describing.
Without giving away too much, as this is a series best enjoyed going in blind, this is one of the best romantic dramas and stories centered around close friendships that I have ever seen. The two main characters, in their alternating turns reading out the short cold open monologues, continually reinforce that this story is more about the journey than any final conclusion and this is both true and a good thing given how the manga has been on an indefinite hiatus for some years and the anime has yet to be continued.
This is a story about love and friendship but also one about loneliness and regret on a fundamental level. One of my favorite quotes from the series is "We all have to live with the choices we've made". I think this is a simple but beautiful encapsulation of the anime as it is one long series of choices and consequences but also one of the central themes of Nana. So many poignant moments in this series hinge on difficult choices, the weighing of uncertainty and doubt with passion, love, ambition and sense of right and wrong. This is followed by both the payoffs and regrets that inevitably follow any difficult choice and in that way I think the series recognizes something in the human condition that is seldom explored or examined; that sometimes there is no clear or correct decision, only the decision we made. That both implies helplessness but also agency and it's this marriage of the two that makes Nana a truly unique and powerful experience.
Some of the plot contrivances and the strange, rushed anime ending combined with a habit or tendency to overindulge in what can be described as "misery porn" keep this series from being a masterpiece, but only just. There is a very high bar for quality set here and a story and characters that will stick with you for a long time. I could not recommend this series more, it simply has to be experienced.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 31, 2025
Dragon Ball is a shonen classic, but not quite a shonen masterpiece. For those who grew up with Dragon Ball Z as their first and formative introduction to this IP, it can be hard not to approach Dragon Ball as this sort of silly prequel to a much larger and more ambitious space and time-faring epic. Despite that tendency, there is no denying that Dragon Ball maintains a high bar for quality throughout its run and influences so much of what comes after in the genre that the appropriate recognition is both due and earned.
The strengths here lie both in the characters Toriyama has
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designed and written, and the interesting blend of Wuxia martial arts fantasy with 1980s sci-fi aesthetics. There is something so charming and unique about the feeling and mood of the original Dragon Ball that it's hard to place another closely comparable anime. Much of it comes away firmly as a gag series, which isn't bad but certainly distracts from the more serious tone that the series increasingly tries to take as it goes on, especially towards the end.
The biggest misstep, I think, with Dragon Ball as an anime is the pacing. This does not feel like a story that needed 153 episodes or even really 100. Some of it is due to drawn-out and repetitive action scenes and a sizeable chunk of filler episodes (20+), but much of it is eaten up by regular periods of glacial pacing. Not that any of this stuff is bad necessarily, but you do get the sense the series doesn't fully respect your time, something I never felt was the case over 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z, filler and all.
The other hit against Dragon Ball is that most of the best stuff happens in the front half; the stuff with Pilaf, Muscle Tower, General Blue, Goku wiping the floor with the Red Ribbon Army - after that, the series is never again quite as fun or as funny as it was in this first half, or as epic and serious as it would get later in Dragon Ball Z. Everything in this in-between occupies a sort of weird middle ground between those two styles and focuses that is certainly still a good watch but is just simply not as memorable as everything before and after it. The time skip at the end was a welcome change to develop Goku and company, and did a decent job setting up Dragon Ball for a very respectable final arc, but nothing here at the end really holds a candle to what awaits in the Saiyan arc and beyond.
Dragon Ball is a very competent and endearing series in its own right, there is no question about that, but it ultimately has a very different tone and formula than Dragon Ball Z. I feel that what it goes for (and succeeds in achieving) is just not quite as enduring or as powerful. As far as comedy shonen series go, this is up there with the best of them, but as an action-epic, it falls a bit short. You'll be entertained, but you won't be getting goosebumps regularly crawling up your arm as they would with Dragon Ball Z.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 2, 2025
This manga was profoundly boring and uninteresting. I'm still not really clear on what genre this really belongs to or what it was trying to do. Maybe the author and their editors felt the same way, thus only 15 chapters.
There is a central theme that is constantly returned to and preached about involving protecting those close to you but there isn't really anything that happens that makes you really care whether they manage to protect each other or not. The manga does a poor job establishing the characters in an enticing way - if anything the kind of exposition that was needed at the
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beginning of the story is revealed almost at the very end and by then it was just too late and too boring to have any kind of impact on me.
The action is sparse and not particularly impressive and the jokes are frankly all terrible. I don't think I found anything even remotely funny or amusing. The character and monster designs are okay and the art overall is certainly not terrible but everything has a generic sheen to it. Very formulaic. Worst of all the characters are all either completely unlikeable, mildly unlikeable, or just dull and ponderous.
While there is a concept of a story here and a potentially interesting backdrop in the "scarlet world" and the door-portals, there is too much substance missing and not enough style and polish to make up for it.
I don't think there is any reason to read this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Apr 11, 2025
This is an enjoyable rom-com but I can't help but feel that from a pacing standpoint it feels fairly rushed once you get past episode 3 or 4. The comedy and jokes mostly work but by no means is this a side-splitting or exceedingly funny series.
If I had to summarize the vibe I would say that it's cute and charming but unfortunately not that deep from a romantic development standpoint. What this series does best is tug on heart strings in a gentle way that doesn't ever feel excessive or self-indulgent.
The dub is overall quite good and some of the VAs do an amazing
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job playing multiple characters believably which proves vital given the body-swapping trope central to the premise here.
Overall this is a light-hearted, feel-good watch. Definitely better than average. I don't think you'll be disappointed other than thinking this anime could have benefitted from at least another 12 episodes to flesh things out and let the individual character arcs breathe.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 19, 2025
A largely nonsensical movie that constantly changes focus and direction every 10 minutes or so from start to end. There are some apparent critiques directed at consumerism and corporate corruption but nothing really makes any sense. You're telling me people are literally dissolving into bubbling foam on the sidewalk in full view after ingesting this mass-marketed beverage and only this young boy has noticed and bothered to say something? It's all just dumb like that.
What's interesting here is how inconsistent the animation is. Most of the animation and the character designs are typical for late 1960s anime and rather unimpressive but then a tank or
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flying pirate ship will show up that looks like it was ripped right out of an early Studio Ghibli film. In those moments you know right away that Miyazaki has to be the one responsible for those sequences given the obvious attention to detail. These sudden spikes in animation quality are at times actually jarring compared to the general quality of the rest of the film.
The plot is completely forgettable and the dialogue is also uninteresting but the action sequences are decent for the late 1960s and these standout bits of early Miyazaki animation are worth checking out for those who are inclined.
Also the ending sequence is somewhat hilarious and shameless from a tonal perspective. MC sails around in a yacht with his new friend and his dog while a song in the background hypes him up as the savior of the world. Then the memento of his deceased mother (that brought him to anger and sorrow earlier in the movie) falls off the boat into the ocean and he doesn't give a single care or look back. Good stuff.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 27, 2025
Horus: Prince of the Sun is an interesting proto-Ghibli picture that really tests the art of the possible for late 1960s anime. Watching it for the first time I was quite impressed with the animation given the fact that this film released in 1968. If you take even a cursory glance at the anime landscape at the time and works that were contemporary to this film the animation prowess on display here easily blows the rest out of the water. It is important to keep in mind that in the late 1960s it was not uncommon for anime films and television series to be produced
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entirely in black-and-white and with fairly cheap or stilted animation. A rather extreme example would be 1967's experimental Ninja Bugei-chou, a film spanning over two hours that contained no animation whatsoever, only voiceovers and camera panning over black-and-white still images. Horus, releasing little more than a year later, occupies the total polar opposite of this spectrum; lush colors, detailed shading and lighting techniques, picturesque backgrounds and smooth, high frame animation.
This film's Ghibli DNA is immediately recognizable and it's fascinating to observe how relatively modern it looks for how old it is. It certainly isn't flawless however and limitations in both the production and budget become very apparent around halfway through the film where rather long and complicated scenes play out using still images (not unlike Ninja Bugei-chou in these moments) which is particularly jarring given the stark contrast to the sheer fluidity of movement and the high number of moving objects in frame in other scenes.
The story I found to be pretty basic and to be honest rather boring. As an adventure narrative this would have stood out as something more gripping perhaps in 1968 but I found that it plays out like a bog standard mythological hero vanquishing the dark lord with very few truly unique or standout elements. That said it is competently told, even by today's standards. The score provides some charming melodies and hymn-like songs and the English voice acting is decent despite being very much a product of its time.
From a technical perspective this film is impressive to behold and was definitely a milestone for Japanese animation. Outside of the art direction and animation quality however I don't think time has been kind to this film. It's okay for what it is but I think if there is a reason to watch it in 2025 or beyond it would be from a perspective of anime archeology where it offers context and a study into the seed-planting and root-laying for what would later become the legendary Studio Ghibli.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 22, 2025
Clear my mind... Keep it undisturbed...
Dragons Rioting is a battle ecchi harem series that strikes the right balance between fan service, comedy, action and wholesome moments. To describe it in a sentence, this is Dragon Ball Z except it's also a high school ecchi manga.
Speaking of Dragon Ball this manga is rife with Japanese pop culture references from other manga, anime, video games, broader Japanese culture and occasionally Hollywood and even real-world history. You really get the sense that the author Tsuyoshi Watanabe is a major pop culture enthusiast and that this work is a labor of love written by a manga/anime nerd for manga/anime
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nerds. The references at times can start to pile on but instead of getting to the point where it might come across as annoying you just start to recognize and accept this as a quirk of this series. The English Yen Press release also does a good job collecting all of the references at the end of each volume in case there were any you missed or didn't understand.
The story takes place almost entirely at the Nangokuren all-girls school. Well, "school" in the sense that this is one of those high schools in manga where no one ever does any studying, ever goes to any classes and where there seems to be no structure at all to student life whatsoever other than rival gangs of menacing, busty girls accosting one another in physical showdowns to determine who can exert dominance over the other. It more resembles a prison in that sense with the school functioning as little more than an excuse to gather the characters together in one place and to provide them with both a gladiatorial arena and a turf to fight over.
Now, with any harem series the weak link can be and often is the MC. Usually these characters are either so bland or so unlikeable that they either have no presence or impact on the story at all or they wear thin the patience of the reader who'll either check out entirely or begrudgingly read on in spite of the MC. This is not the case at all with this series. The single best part of Dragons Rioting is without a doubt Rintaro Tachibana and that is saying a lot in a manga chock-full of badass, ass-kicking alpha females who look like they can break necks with one quick twist of their thighs.
Unlike most harem MCs Rintaro is surprisingly and refreshingly quite likeable. He's a good-hearted guy without being an insufferable goody two-shoes, he's a sheer badass in his own right and admittedly fairly OP but without it coming across as undeserved and above all he is funny and entertaining. Not only is Rintaro not a scumbag, which is something most ecchi or harem MCs at least occasionally flirt the line with, he's also an honest person who genuinely cares for others in a way that feels authentic. You really can't ask for much more from an MC in a manga like this.
Rintaro is given a contrived but novel reason for being fiercely avoidant of women and lewdness - a congenital disease that predisposes him to what could be a fatal heart attack if he ever became too aroused. As ridiculous as this obviously sounds it works on three distinct levels: (1) as a plot device to establish a need for years of intense training with his father the martial arts master, (2) as the main underlying comedic fabric and formula for much of the humor throughout the series, and (3) as a meta level satirical jab and subversion of the ecchi and harem genres.
Aside from the titanic martial arts clashes, absurd humor, and the panty shots another thing that stands out in this manga are the underlying themes of friendship and comradery. This manga has some soul and the message it constantly returns to is learning from people you care about and as a result growing to be a stronger person, both physically and socially. While this might appear to be an invocation of the cliché "power of friendship" trope, Dragons Rioting genuinely anchors friendships as a consistent theme central to the story and the journey of the characters and in the end comes across fairly wholesome and warm especially for a series where school uniform policy is adhered to only in the loosest possible sense.
While the art is at times very good there is something left to be desired in the way of consistency throughout the series. Most of the character designs are top-notch and fairly memorable. Despite the fact that the series quickly gets crowded in short order with what feels like rows upon rows of beefy amazons, they are all fairly distinct in both their physique and outfits that you never really lose track of who is who. The author demonstrates a wide range in styles, from hilariously misshapen comedic caricatures (usually of Rintaro) to downright graceful and majestic double page spreads featuring epic special techniques or particularly badass poses during some of the more serious face-offs. But these panels are fewer in number than one might hope for and so overall I would put the art quality roughly in the B-tier on aggregate. By no means bad and in some places surprisingly good but just not consistent enough to truly stand out.
Above all this manga is genuinely funny. The myriad of absurd special techniques and martial arts styles employed by Rintaro, usually in efforts to avoid looking at or colliding with the female form, never really wears out its welcome. I lost track of how many times I had to close the book and laugh out loud at the unbelievable stupidity of his special techniques both due to the cheesy animal-inspired naming conventions, that goes something like "Way of the Sneaking Shrew - Burrowing under Busts", as well as the absurdity of the physical movements involved or the sometimes unrecognizable shapes Rintaro has to take on.
Beyond that recurring joke the series is full of ridiculous scenarios and conversations that often make you want to strangle multiple characters at a time. One particularly memorable episode was where both Rintaro's pupil and his stalker follow him home on summer vacation - his pupil motivated to seek his guidance on training and the stalker to presumably find a way to make him her boyfriend. Before long Rintaro's eccentric muscle-bound father appears suddenly, and without asking imposes a strict training regimen on the girls, resulting in the stalker girl in the end spending more time being trained by Rintaro's insane dad in grueling martial arts trials and never actually getting to spend any time alone with Rintaro. If you get a kick out of scenarios like this you'll enjoy this manga.
It's unfortunate that this series never got an anime as I feel everything here would lend itself well to a 12 or even 24-episode adaptation. While Dragons Rioting isn't breaking any new ground, it does a lot of things right and delivers entertaining battles and laughs in a consistent way and wraps up with an appropriate conclusion before it ever starts to grow stale.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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