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May 10, 2026
Blood Bank is an engaging story with memorable characters and a surprisingly dense plot and worldbuilding. Unfortunately it needed a bit more time to flesh out all of the moving pieces, and that prevents it from reaching the heights of true greatness.
Every character choice and arc is interesting and clearly well thought out, but we never spend time getting to establish and marinate in the finer details before immediately moving to the next point. From the initial conflict with Reign, to Cinderella the Art, and even crucial items like the early stages of Shell and One's relationship, each gets so little time to set up
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and develop before the status quo evolves. The breakneck pace only becomes more detrimental as the plot thickens in later sections. This makes the big moments feel weaker, even if the story is written well enough to read between the lines and understand these things. Each major arc needed at least 10-20 chapters, and the final arc required even more than that. I wouldn't have these complaints if I disliked Blood Bank. I like the chemistry and emotion in Shell and One's relationship. In fact, I like it so much that it's a crime I don't get more steamy and love-stricken scenes between them. I think the art is great, the minor characters serve their purposes well, and I wish I had more time to appreciate everything this narrative set up. None of the writing is bad, it's just impatient when I wish we could marinate a bit more.
All this aside, I would still highly recommend reading Blood Bank. It's a BL where many readers come for the art, the promise of BDSM, or their love of vampires. But they stay with the series and eat it up ravenously because it has a lot more meat to it than the average tropey erotica of the genre. (Look, I'm not here to bash a fun stereotypical time. I LOVE a light and smutty read.) Even with these narrative gaps, Blood Bank is still a pretty good story. But I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to read the story I fully believe the author is capable of writing if given more time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 5, 2026
Re:Zero Season 1 is a mixed bag, containing some of the most gut-wrenching, heartfelt, and occasionally cinematic moments I've seen recently in anime. Unfortunately it also has a lot of bland, boring arcs and characters mixed in with the good, and the placement of some of these lesser bits undermine and even sabotage the established narrative weight of previous excellent episodes.
I know I'm going to get accused of simply being angry because I can't handle my OTP losing, but the quality of a Re:Zero episode increases and decreases to match the amount of screen time and narrative importance given to Rem. Season one only allows
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thorough character development for Subaru and Rem, making, well, CERTAIN narrative decisions baffling and immersion-breaking. Yes, I'm talking about Subaru rejecting Rem for Emilia. Emilia is a fine character, but she doesn't have much personality or depth beyond a few specific scenes, and other characters talking about how wonderful she is rather than the anime showing it through her words and actions. The initial arc of Re:Zero was fine as an introductory piece where we learned about the characters and setting, but the only reason Emilia stuck out was due to her status as the main heroine. Yes, I understand she's the main girl on promotional art and the first girl to meet the MC. I understand that by love triangle and harem logic that means she's the end goal. Subaru regularly and adamantly proclaims his love for her, I'm not saying I'm betrayed that the main girl is in the main couple. But...other than in name only, IS Emilia the female lead of season 1? She's the impetus for many arcs' plots and Subaru's initial actions, but she's mostly sidelined once the story gets going, leaving Rem to pick up the slack and play off Subaru. And unfortunately for Emilia, Subaru and Rem have fantastic chemistry across every good and bad timeline, and we dedicate so much screen time to explicitly show their relationship develop while the others are far away or dead. They seemed so locked in as the main couple that I began to wonder if Re:Zero was going to deconstruct or fake out typical romantic staples such as the first girl being the winner. Unfortunately the real fake out is that after spending the majority of the show to that point together, we have an entire episode dedicated to monologues and love and mental health only to seem to confirm the couple and then smack it down as Subaru says "but he loves Emilia."
Now here me out, I said I wasn't simply an angry shipper. Beyond any feelings about individual characters, Rem has vastly more screen time at this point, more depth, more chemistry. She's confessed her love and died for Subaru multiple times. Subaru himself started the confession episode by attempting to run away with Rem after spending several doomed timelines focusing solely on her. At this point, Emilia has done one good thing for Subaru (save him in the opening episode) and had one well written emotional breakdown with him (after Subaru causes her public shame and she puts him in his place.) By sheer numbers alone, Emilia isn't written like she's meant to be the main character. When a show has multiple love interests it's normal to spend arcs focusing on specific ones. But Re:Zero Season 1 goes well beyond that and ignores most of the main and supporting cast for long enough that Rem and Subaru become the new normal of this narrative. Beyond shipping purposes, Subaru's denial is jarring and seems inconsistent with the episodes leading up to it. Yes, he stated he loves Emilia. But his actions focus on his care for Rem. The only logic I can think of for this massive disparity in narrative importance versus how the season ends is that it was meant to shock and upset viewers. And if that was the goal, then it sure did that for me. But once it required me to recenter on Emilia and Subaru, it was impossible to not feel like this was the weaker option and a waste of the potential Re:Zero clearly showed other times.
Beyond Emilia vs. Rem, the episodes Rem plays less of a role in are also just less interesting. Since Subaru has less chemistry with other characters, he lacks anyone worthwhile to play off of beyond rare quick moments of good writing. It doesn't help that the White Whale arc, the most tedious and seemingly unrelated stretch of the season, takes place immediately after Rem is sidelined. I'm forced to stare silently as Rem appears the very few times she's allowed to be onscreen, as long as she stays quiet while the boring characters are talking and failing to hit a worthwhile emotional beat. Rem remains to pick up the pieces of Subaru's plans post-rejection, but now the maid outfit feels like a quiet reminder that she's nothing more than thankless hired help for Subaru to dump his issues on and then leave when the mistress is back. Weren't they in a rush to stop the cult from murdering Subaru's friends yet again? Did the writer forget this as we spent far too many episodes on this sudden whale that we never built up until it suddenly appeared at the tail end of the previous arc? The White Whale is a good reminder of what this show is without Rem, and a warning of what's to come without her once Emilia and other smaller characters struggle and fail to carry the same narrative weight on her shoulders that Rem could bench press without breaking a sweat. Then Rem is almost entirely missing from the final battle against the cult post-whale, a group of episodes that left me asking "wait, is this really how we're going to end this season? After the hard hitting previous arcs, we're just fizzling out this way? Man, that crazy and memorable villain ended up a bit anti-climatic."
I've heard people gush about Season 2 being Emilia's season as if to argue that she gets better. Unfortunately that just makes me worried it's going to reinforce how bored I am after losing Rem's narrative importance, especially since I've heard vague spoilers about what happens to her character in later seasons. As someone who came into Re:Zero a decade after season 1 blew up and became popular, I used to think the "Rem is best girl and deserved better" crowd were a bit loud and annoying about what I thought was yet another Rei Ayanami clone. But in the span of one day marathoning all of season 1, I apologized to those people, became a Rem fan myself, screamed at my TV screen, and then became a "Justice for Rem" supporter myself once I got to the infamous episode. However, as I started this review by saying, I'm not delusional enough to assume anyone other than the main girl has a chance. And if season 1-post confession episode is how this story operates without Rem, frankly I don't know if I want to watch more. It was really hard for me to accurately rate all 25 episodes of season 1 under one umbrella. Some were absolute 10/10 masterpieces, others left me so bored I kept checking how many minutes were left in an episode, and a few felt like blatant smacks across the face as punishment for engaging with and enjoying the show. That day my plan was to immediately continue marathoning season 2, but as is I had to take a break because the whole thing ended with such a bad taste in my mouth.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 10, 2026
Mad Place's strengths make it very good at times, but that causes it to become all the more disappointing when other parts are weaker.
The main couple Sehyuk and Ideun have fantastic chemistry in the bedroom and while flirting. Many of the best scenes succeed due to their romantic and sexual tension. In those moments, Mad Place is a great love story with a hilarious back and forth struggle for dominance. Despite being the bottom, Ideun is an expert at driving Sehyuk mad, until the tables are flipped and Ideun has to suffer receiving the same treatment! I could imagine this couple interpreted by fans as
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possible switches post-story with how strong their sassy playful banter is, and the fact that Ideun is canonically a switch who loves teasing his partners. This also makes the sex incredibly hot. If I was rating solely off of these scenes, my score would be much higher.
The premise is very interesting too. A third generation chaebol becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation and turns himself in willingly, under the request that he's handled solely by a specific prosecutor. The sly nepo baby seems to know much more than he's letting on, and is very interested in toying with the lawyer. He promises to expose the real truth of the crime one clue at a time as payment for sex. Sehyuk begrudgingly agrees but doesn't like feeling controlled by the suspect's whims, and thus the central conflict is created. Their partnership unravels a much deeper mystery than initially assumed, as both men's personal and professional lives are intertwined and feelings become muddled and uncontrollable. It's a good setup with well paced exposition. Unfortunately, while the detective work and mystery are written with enough competence for the reader to follow, it can get a bit tedious. I found myself simply waiting for more cute bickering, sweet romance, or passionate lovemaking to break up a plot that I was much less invested in. And that's the problem. Outside of the main couple's dynamic, the story isn't bad. But it's much less interesting or memorable. And since the majority of chapters focus on the non-romantic scenes, that means much of the narrative involves long explanations of stoic police work without the same charm that I previously mentioned. Once we reach the climax, many of the story's moving parts lack a satisfying conclusion. The ending leaves something to be desired, both legally and emotionally. I'm left with a really fun couple bogged down by a functional but unsatisfying story, and that leaves me a bit disappointed.
The creator absolutely has skill and I'd be interested in their next work. I'd also still say there's enough quality in Mad Place to make it worthwhile. I don't regret my time spent reading it, I just wish I had as much fun during the suspenseful plot moments as I did during out couple's pillow talk.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 18, 2023
This feels like a story written by someone who watched Bunny Girl Senpai or another show about introspection on the teenage experience, and went "I want to write something like that" ...except they had nothing to say and no ability to tell it well. From beginning to end this show is a miserable slog, with characters barely alive enough to have a pulse, miserably bland situational writing, and dialogue so bad that I began to wonder when the last time was the author has left his house and spoken to another living human. On top of that the designs are incredibly forgettable, the animation is
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poor, and even having just finished the show I can't really be bothered to remember anyone's names.
The show seems to go out of its way to avoid writing any remotely interesting characters. Our lead is a typical older anime lead archetype, the clingy pervert obsessed with a girl. However several seconds in his personality is drastically changed via head trauma into the typical bland, snarky, and whiny modern harem lead. I am not saying I particularly like or prefer perverted characters, I usually find them annoying. But at least this would have given our lead SOMETHING. Because all he has now are uninspired monologues about the things he dislikes. The crux of the show, at least how its presented, is about this formerly loud and clingy boy beginning to give his tsundere co-lead space until she begins to want to chase him. I've heard this called a spoiler, but this setup is completed within seconds of the first episode. If this is the only thing interesting in your anime and you have to guard it for new viewers, you have a problem.
And boy DO we have a problem, because we struggle to even follow through with that premise. Not only is our lead miserable to be around and his "development" amounts to walking away and whining, the love interest is equally unpleasant and bland. She is only a tsundere by the laziest and most general guidelines, and spends the majority of the series looking sad because the boy she spent years telling to leave listened to her advice. She never chases after him, does anything substantial to draw him back, and spends large amounts of the series missing or on the sidelines because she is just such a nothing of a character with no depth, motivation, or even surface traits to hide behind. Anything big or dramatic that supposedly happened with these characters happened before the show began and is only mentioned by dialogue, and watching alternating still shots with mouth animation discussing a series that's....well if not better at least DOING SOMETHING is excruciating. I can't imagine these characters being remotely interesting with this writing, but the only way to have even tried that would have been to actually show scenes where the characters interacted enjoyably. (Yes we get some late season flashbacks but they're just as dry and pitiful as the rest if the show) As is the show has never convinced me that the girl is worth chasing after, or the boy is worth missing once he leaves. I've seen plenty of shows where the characters only seem to be interested in each other because they're both labeled protagonists, but these two have to be pretty highly ranked on that list. I guess at least in that sense they're perfect for each other.
Since we don't spend the show actually developing our leads or even having many scenes together, we instead cycle through a series of other, equally uninteresting girls. Whether it's the awkward morals committee president, the shy brocon girl, or the mature looking younger girl, none of them have chemistry with our lead and it's incredibly painful to watch the show mash them up against him in an attempt to beg the "will they or won't they" or "what will the main girl think?" The in universe reasons they hang out with our lead are also completely bland and do not make for interesting stories. Bad characters thrown into uninspired plotlines and given skin crawlingly annoying dialogue made me both desperate for the episode to end to allow a new girl to focus on, but also a deep misery as I knew the next would be just as bad. It's hard to find a show with such a universally bad cast. Not a single member is able to even try to carry the scene, and I never once thought that any character "belonged in a better show" as is often when watching a bad show. It was just a miserable experience from beginning to end, and failed to even raise stakes or energy for the finale. If I didn't know the show was 12 episodes I'd have no idea if there was an episode next week. I left the show as comatose and constipated as I was the entire runtime, but at least its finally over.
To be fair this show is arguably low hanging fruit. Absolutely nothing about it looked interesting before release. The designs were bland and the promo art failed to even make interesting teasers or show energy and personality. The plot synopsis was incredibly lacking, though what else could you say with a show like this. Any energy wasted on this show is too much. But I saw a fan of the light novels pleading with people to give it a try, that its really good and just seems bad because the synopsis can't give away spoilers. I'm always interested in a good underdog, so I reluctantly withheld my assumptions. But if it looks like a trash, smells like trash, and seems to have no redeeming qualities like trash, it probably belongs in the dumpster. Except even trash implies that I felt anything other than lazy annoyance. This truly was a show I hated every second of and only finished out of obligation so I couldn't be told I just didn't "get" it by not finishing it....what an accomplishment. Maybe next time I'll just believe my gut.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 6, 2023
In the modern revolution of unambiguously good BL such as Yuri on Ice, Sk8, and the Banana Fish adaptation, Love Stage can certainly feel a little dated. Love first consummated (or at least attempted) via force is a trope largely left in the past but is still present in Love Stage. Romance with ultra famous celebrities is extremely common in the genre, and to modern gay people the waffling over "how could I like boys/boys other than my one true love are no good!" can feel a little tired. That being said, despite all of these potential slights, Love Stage has an oddly infectious energy
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that left me constantly wanting more.
Compared to a lot of BL of the time and before, I found myself engrossed with Love Stage and staying up later than I should to watch more and suffering for it in the morning, only to watch more and do it again the next night. While the tropes are common, the plot is predictable, and the characters are fine but not standout, I blew through this series and enjoyed it. The humor is surprisingly enjoyable, and the earnestness of the characters is endearing. I was never bored with the cast or annoyed with the plot progression. That may seem like a low bar, but older animated BL that this reminds me of wasn't exactly a greatest hits of the best material. The close familial vibe of the cast was warm and inviting. Our main character's annoying traits were funny because he received comeuppance for them rather than expecting the audience to simply like him for being quirky. While I was quick to say that the plot was predictable, I still was sad that it was only 10 episodes and would gladly welcome more. I feel the marks against I mentioned are valid criticism, but Love Stage was consistently a good time despite those. And I have to respect it for that. Overall I was pleasantly surprised and always entertained, which is all I can really ask for in a show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 26, 2023
This show was described to me as "an unaware child cassanova tells the main girl every romantic line that a tired adult woman viewer would want to hear after a long day". And it's true. It's me, I am the tired adult woman watching this show to absorb its innocent charm as I recover from daily life.
My Clueless First Friend is simple: Takada loves Nishimura; excitedly, wholly, and enthusiastically. He loves her so much that he absolutely cannot process anything less than perfection about her, so any bullying, self doubt, or otherwise negative thoughts are turned on their head into positives. And this is good,
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albeit unusual for Nishimura, a meek bullied girl who's used to being ostracized as the Grim Reaper. Luckily Takada is also a young boy obsessed with "cool" things with dark powers, so the grim reaper moniker only adds to his obsession.
And that's the formula. People are mean to Nishimura, Takada turns their comments into compliments. Nishimura is used to being alone, Takada follows her everywhere and has the best time. Any doubts or insecurities are repeatedly confronted and destroyed until Nishimura is forced to begin thinking of herself at least somewhat beyond her usual self loathing. It's simple and a bit repetitive, but it's very charming and because of that it never got old. Maybe eventually it would if it ran longer, but at 13 episodes we had plenty of fun situation writing and evolving cast to keep it fresh and engaging.
I can see where this might be dull to some people. It definitely isn't particularly deep or difficult of a watch. But while the cerebral and high concept shows have a place, the older I get the more I also value the simple, sweet, and happy ideas too. Truly after a long week of being worn down by the world, I loved to watch Takada shower Nishimura in affection as the warmth helps rejuvenate and energize me. Even if other weekly shows stumbled, I could use My Clueless First Friend as a palette cleanser to feel good again. It's a simple show with clumsy and unambitious art, but the designs that could be called weak in other shows actually work with the laid back vibes of this show. Overall its just an enjoyable time, a soft hug of a show that came once a week to cheer me up. While it never could've lasted forever without losing some of its charm, I will definitely miss having it going forward. Quiet + outgoing odd couples will always be a common trope, but few are as wholesome and uncomplicated as watching these two children navigate their first time caring deeply for one another and learning how to support and grow together.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 25, 2023
How do you turn the world's most boring sport played mainly by middle aged men into an interesting anime? Season one seemed to have figured it out, struggled with some pacing and budget issues, and then completely threw out the winning pieces in season two.
As an initial fan of Birdie Wing season one when it aired and before it gained mass appeal, I absolutely despise season two. The show initially gained attention by bombastic, adrenaline fueled situation writing that seemed to involve taking psychedelics, shonen anime, and campy lesbianism and throwing it all in a blender and painting with the resulting slurry. And it worked!
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Season one may have been silly, but the high stakes and insane gambling golf games managed to be enjoyable and compelling, and the characters had enough appeal and eccentricities to be enjoyed. There was often a method to the madness and it was a blast, and any shortcomings could be forgiven because we operated on rule of cool. The latter half of season one struggles as it changes setting and arcs, but any stumbles were easily forgiven as it was still exciting to see what comes next.
Season two starts off very painfully aware that we ended in the middle of an unfinished arc, but rather than sidestep issues with the usual energy, it disregards everything. The insane golf powers reminiscent of gambling anime like Yugioh or Kakegurui or sports anime with crazy finishers like Prince of Tennis are gone. While each new character is hyped as a bigger threat, gone are campy perfume tricks or robot arms or godlike precognition. Even our main character loses her ability for a worse, new one. Her individual bullet shots were a little silly, but had specific functions. One had crazy backspin to make interesting moves, one was a strong enough shot to break trees, one got impossibly high vertical angles to go over any obstacle. The powers were campy, but followed understandable rules and ideas. The new Rainbow Bullet, Rainbow Bullet Burst, and Shining Rainbow Bullet are just different ways that she hits the ball really good and wins while we put different effect filters over the camera or show stock footage. And now the in universe audience states that the shots leave real visible rainbows. I never assumed her colored shots LITERALLY had visible light, that was just an effect. I can only watch Eve shoot the OP rainbow shot that everyone tells me is so good and she wins so many times before I'm bored in a way I never was in season one.
We also completely remove any fun setting. Gone is the underground golf mafia and their billionaire funded insanity. Instead are boring and bland tournaments where if I wasn't being told that something cool was supposedly happening, I wouldn't know. We fight a mafia battle exactly once and during it Eve looks directly into the camera and screams THIS IS NOT REAL GOLF. It's been a long time since a show told me to go shove it quite that hard. Birdie Wing season two can tell me all it wants that the tournaments are important, the new random competitors are strong, and the shots are cool but it feels like all talk and no show.
And most damning, we take away the fun lesbian bits from the show. Eve no longer hits on girls and has her swooning fandom. Her main lover Aoi is even nerfed once we bring in the absolutely terrible "your daddy is secretly my daddy and we might be sisters" bull. I watched Birdie Wing for the lady killer with attitude doing trick shots against golf assassins to impress her innocent lesbian girlfriend, not...whatever this is.
So what does Birdie Wing add in place of all it removes, besides more identical uninteresting tournaments? Mainly a really bad attempt at backstory, first shoved at us for an entire episode and then progressing at a breakneck speed to try to replace the former energy with character writing. But the show's strength was never in compelling and well written story, it was the camp we left behind. I resent every moment wasted in the lame drama and subsequent injury and sickness arcs. They were bad ideas and poorly implemented with jarring pacing. Any deep or dark moment fell short because I was too busy either lamenting what I lost or staring into space bored.
The only decent aspect that stayed was the music...quite literally. The great jazzy OST stayed and tried its best to carry weak writing. The opening song from season one also stayed. And don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic song that I never tire of hearing. But with the same song and a half reused OP sequence I began this season worried about budget and pacing and was really never proven wrong. Season two lacks any ability to wow or impress, and since we had those skills previously I couldn't help resent watching it.
It seems I both got on the Birdie Wing hype train before average, and then left it early too since I don't hear many complaints matching mine. But I was absolutely miserable, and no matter how much I wanted to get back on the train, Eve never was able to do a trick shot between the cars like in season one and repeat the same lightning in a bottle.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 25, 2023
I once read "if you want to find a good anime/manga, find one with ugly art. That means the story was good enough to be published in spite of it." However Rokudo is another show proving that wrong, with a story, characters, and animation quality as poor as its art.
Fundamentally Rokudo begins with a problem. The premise is that our titular lead gains an ability to make delinquent or otherwise "bad" girls fall in love with him. It's explicitly shown early on that this is just hypnosis and the girls have no control in the matter. Rokudo hates violence, and the plot of the show
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is how he leads these girls into healthy, normal school lives because they will listen to him as his love slaves. This renders all character arcs pointless, as who cares what he can convince a hypnotized servant to do. There's no resistance because they're instantly subservient, and the change isn't real or meaningful because they're hypnotized. How could character development be interesting when it's all fake, unless we rely on that betrayal for drama? And while the narrative does seem to plan to eventually cover that, it's annoyingly clear the final message will be "he just found the good that was inside you all along" which is BORING and BAD WRITING.
Even if the character arcs were convincing, why would I want to watch outgoing, dynamic characters be sanded down into subservient innocents? It's just not a compelling narrative on any level, especially with the lack of nuance or creativity that this series comes with. I can only assume the creator has a love of either hypnosis or breaking women into waifus, but it seems like a mistake to assume that's a common desire. I'd much rather watch bad girls be outgoing and large characters...though not these girls. From an emotionless, mostly silent sukeban, a strong loli, a gyaru in only the most basic and debatable ways, a do good cop boot licker, a cross dresser, and more, these girls aren't desirable in any form, good or bad. This is truly a harem of the weakest written girls obsessing over a lame guy even by self insert harem standards, and his equally uninteresting friends. I complained about making dynamic characters bad by hypnosis, but it's all theoretical because these were never particularly compelling characters to begin with. And then I cannot overstate how unattractive and cheap the art is, between about five times as much eyeliner as any girl needs, ugly attempts at spiked and styled hair, and just a general list of design archetypes in anime but done worse than average. Add that the art itself is ill-proportioned and incorrect, and I can't even space out by looking at the art. It's a poorly written show with bad concepts and ugly art, truly nothing helps redeem the weaknesses of Rokudo. Coupled with Gen Satou's screaming performance feeling particularly annoying because it accompanies bad character writing, and confusion why seiyuu legend Akira Ishida is playing the comedy fat sidekick friend, the audio does no favors either. Truly just one strike after another.
Maybe it's mean to go after Rokudo. It was clearly going to be a weaker show from the initial premise and designs, I can't think of anything short of abandoning it's core pieces that would have saved it. But it still got greenlit by manga editorial staff and then picked up by an anime studio. However I can't imagine they ever will make back their initial investment on a show like this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Apr 24, 2023
Akebi's Sailor Uniform? More like Akebi is a Sexual Awakening for an Entire Class, the anime.
Akebi is a mix of popular slice of life moe tropes done well individually, all smashed together and shoved into one character. Individually, each episode is fine and the characters are cute enough, but when viewed as one whole narrative it becomes a story about how Akebi is just the coolest and smartest and prettiest and nicest and...etcetera. Every character has to come to love and adore Akebi, whether they were interested to begin with or actively disliked her. Anything Akebi does has to be endearing and personally healing to
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the character she is interacting with. Akebi has so many abilities and positive personality traits, highlighted by a story focused on telling the viewer how awesome Akebi is, that as a character she comes off bland. There's both too much going on and at the same time nothing at all. The worship eventually becomes white noise until it blends together creating a dissociation and ultimate realization that the entire final episode is every member of the show collectively discussing how much Akebi changed their lives and nobody but Akebi is as special as her, all while they stand in a dark auditorium and watch her dance for them. Like...I get it dude, you're in love with your OC. I could tell that from the way she's drawn and the focus on certain body parts and how every single cast member wants to jump her. I didn't need a season long crash course about how your OC is the best original character ever. And even beyond the fatigue, the girls skew a little too young and the both childlike and sexualized style accompanying the worship does feel a little bit disturbing - and I am not the type to balk at taboo in anime. If anything I think I could've handled the young designs if the worship didn't get so overdone and I'm reminded the age of the character the author is simping for.
Despite my complaints, as I previously stated, as stand alone stories most episodes range from decent to good. It isn't poorly written as a concept, it just is a little too much a gospel of character worship. I'd like to rate it lower but I did find myself enjoying episodes when I could seperate myself from the overall feeling of suffocation by Akebi. However as the episode count grew that became harder and harder, and honestly I was relieved when it was over that I didn't have to sit through any more ramblings of why Akebi is the best waifu and girlfriend material. I enjoyed pieces but I'm glad it's over.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 24, 2023
The issue isn't that MagiRevo isn't good. It's VERY good. The problem is it doesn't give us enough time in its world.
MagiRevo is set in a typical fantasy setting, but what stands out are its characters. While they do fall into archetypes, they play their roles very charmingly and are addictive to watch. The show also smartly remains a relative slow burn for the first arc so we can marinate with the characters and to show the slow journey of healing and acceptance. But then the show speeds up, and it feels like the one season should have been at least two, maybe three, with
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very clear stopping points for each one. Most every idea brought up and explored by the show is fun, but I feel like I'm watching the greatest hits, and that at certain points the characters developed further offscreen. Anything that feels sudden would have been completely fine and natural if we had more time to introduce it, and I do wonder if the source material is able to go slower.
While my first reaction after seeing this series is to critique the pacing, that's such a tragedy because the episodes we do get are very good. Not only would more time help, I WANT to spend more time with these characters. The writing is solid, the characters are strong, and the visuals are nice. The plot takes a few drastic turns as new arcs begin but the decisions themselves are fine. I wish I saw them slowly develop in the background and then come to the front in following seasons, especially some of the larger later reveals.
I do appreciate the show's exploration of homosexuality as the social other. Anis' ostracization as the only royal without magic and her own talents in thaumaturgy/magicology (I've seen it translated both was and I'm unclear which is the official wording) prevent her from ever being seen as an equal. She can excel far beyond her peers, but because she doesn't fit the norm she will always be lesser unless she is forced back into the mold society made for her. Even if her way of life is what makes her happiest and most fruitful. Preventing her from living authentically only harms her and others around her who cannot benefit from the strengths of her inventions, but old elders set in their ways about what is right demand conformity. Anis fights a sisyphean battle but still manages to find a like minded community and those who see the value in her way of life.
And then in case the subtext isn't enough, the show is explicitly gay because subtext alone is for weaklings. I am so relieved to see such an unapologetic lesbian. Finally, no hand wringing about how to dilute it to placate naysayers in the audience. Anis is gay. This is not the only part of her personality, but it is an important part she has always had, will always have despite any resistance, and pretending otherwise damages her mentally and makes her physically ill. Her romance with Euphy, while slow, also refuses to be seen as just sisterly or friends or a phase. These two girls are in love and will be together, even if they have to revolutionize society as they know it to do it. On my second watchthrough I also began feeling their fathers were an analogy of if the girls hadn't been true to themselves...I don't feel like that's a stretch because lines here and there as well as parts that are clearer on a rewatch are very direct - the fathers have a close relationship they swallowed down in order to fit into the royal and heterosexual society. There are other characters that also feel gay or bisexual, overall this is just a very queer piece both in narrative subtext and in a cast that all has romantic tension with the same gender. Anime friendships often give that energy by mistake and even BL and GL can try to sugarcoat it. So again I appreciate how MagiRevo both crafts intelligent analogs and also shoves its rainbow stained hands in your face to say "hey, we're gay!!" It handles both extremes well, just like how Anis and Euphie seem to be opposites but are equally well crafted and interesting, mixing beautifully together.
MagiRevo both feels safe and at home in its tropes and archetypes, while loud and proud enough to stand out. It's a good time and I'm very glad it exists, from beginning to end I enjoyed it and it became a seasonal favorite. I just wish I was allowed to stay with its characters longer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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