The art is almost as if the artists are smoking some weeds when they made this anime and it is bloody fantastic.

Typical color palette? Natural color palette? Logically colored character and object? We don’t do that here. The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace mixed all the color palettes and creatively use them. Clashing color, contracting color and even color that I thought might not look good together looks good in this anime.

If I look carefully at the background and character art, they are not that detailed but it works thanks to the atypical usage of color and drawing style.

Battles are very well choreographed and fluid. A lot of the fights are Dragon Ball Z style hand-to-hand combat with super speed. 

Gore and blood are not the realistic types and they are more of a stylized type with all kinds of different color palettes.

The characters are mostly one-dimensional and don’t have any development throughout the show. Still, it doesn’t mean they are bad characters. 

All the characters are fun to watch and everyone was given fairly equal screen time. Each character has their purpose, comedy play, and basic personality.

Since everything is extreme and over the top. Having a character on extreme one-way personality works surprisingly well.

Hayato is kind of like Goku with only muscle, power, and fight in his brain. But unlike other shounen, he didn’t gain power from the power of friendship. He trains hard to achieve it.

Ysley is like the brain of the Idaten since pretty much everyone else got a muscle brain. He comes up with an elaborated plan to draw out the demons and crush them once and for all while other Idaten play out his plan. Also, he has some mad scientist midset such as opening up the brain to check and brainwashing demons.

Rin is the strongest of Idaten who survive the demon war 800 years ago. She is brutal when it comes to training her disciple and also monkey brain who cannot connect the dots.

Miku is one of the interesting characters from the demon side. She is like a counterpart of Ysley, the brain and strategist of the demons with a freak personality.

The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace

Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi

Both opening and ending songs are fan-freaking-tastic and are playlist-worthy. Pair that with a trippy and creative opening CG visual, it is really sometimes else.

The background music department is great too with some unique sounding music and music that can accompany the high octane visual and scene well. Sound effects are also excellent and appropriately placed.

Voice acting is also excellent and all the major characters are done by seiyuu with a multitude of experiences under their belt and bring the characters to life.

The best way to simplify The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace is, it is a superpower anime but with dark atmospheres plus a lot of extremely exaggerated situations.

Idaten (Gods) and Demons wage war to save humanity 800 years ago and every Idaten except Rin sacrificed their life to seal the Demons. Fast forward 800 years, Rin has three new disciples which she trains and the world is at peace but not for long since intelligent demons are on the rise.

The plot is fast pace and easy to follow but entertaining at the same time. The story is not all muscle brain since one of Rin’s disciples, Ysley got a genius-level brain. He wrote the whole script and plan on how to draw out the demon and wipe them out. On the demon side, they have Miku who is also a mastermind and it somewhat becomes a battle of wit and strategy.

The anime established in the very first episode that it is going to get dark. The story also swings from comical, brutal to dark real fast. In someplace, it is almost as if it is done as a parody to shounen animes.

Other superpower shows - master train their disciple nicely. The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace - let break the disciple and beat them up to a pulp. Battle with demons doesn’t end in a shounen-level fight with some bruise on skins. People got chopped, eyeballs popped, and bodies got holes after battles.

At the end of the very first episode, we got a sexual assault scene but it is done for the story and narrative purpose. e.g. To show the morality of humans, and god in this anime doesn’t really listen to human prayers.

Other potentially sensitive elements include shotacon, sex, religion, Idaten who don’t care about prayers or something might happen to humans unless it is an extinction-level event, autopsies in a gruesome manner, and other ethically questionable situations. A lot of these elements tie back neatly to the story or world-building.

The world-building is decent with an explanation on the whole situation, about Idaten, human cities, intelligent demons, and base demons, etc... The anime also shows three different points of view, thinking process, and morality between the Idaten, human, and demon.

Some explanations are done in a fast pace manner and by a fast pace, I mean in fast forward speed which will require you to pause and read the subtitle.

The whole thing feels over the top and cheeky and I love it. It is very entertaining. If you are okay with the dark and sensitive theme, this anime is an excellent watch. The story ends in a cliffhanger though which sucks and I want more. 😫

The arts and animations are the same as in the first season. They are your box-standard anime art which does the job but won’t wow you.

The character is average at best and when in action or motion such as combat, the art sometimes got reduced to super rough sketch level.

Backgrounds in general are not super detailed or populated with objects and look average. Outdoor scenes look fine with some decent shots sometimes but indoor scenes don’t fare as well.

Combat has little to no choreography. The anime uses a lot of still shots when showing hits and attacks combined with close-up camera shots and background effects.

The character development in I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2 is quite good and the characters are way more likable now minus a couple of them who have very little screen time. Since they level up while going on a quest, they are also getting more competent in fights.

Yuusuke is shaping up to be quite a likable guy now and taking more of a leadership role. Since he already killed someone, he wants to keep the blood on his hand only and not on his teammate's hand aka he will do the killing when needed.

The addition of two more characters also enhances the fighting ability of Yuusuke's team more. Keita is an idiot who also serves as comedic relief from time to time but also got his serious side. Glenda is a lesbian foreign girl who joined the team. She is quite good at fighting and also quite sharp which she demonstrated in the second arc of the story.

Shindou is now way stronger and has become quite a fighting force within the team however, not much has changed for Kusue and Yuka since both of them barely have any progress.

I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2

100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru 2nd Season

I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2’s opening song started out as if it is going to be heavy metal music but turn into generic Jpop music. The ending song is slower-paced but really nice.

The background music are solid and fits the scene like a glove. There are some good one like the piano music that plays on the sad and emotional scene or the music that play when game master shows up. The rest of the music are quite generic and the battle music are mostly made up of generic rock music.

Nothing seems awkward, strange, or left out for sound effects from the screeching sound of the ship to grinding of the weapon against the whetstone sound natural.

No complaint about voice acting too. Everything seems natural and suits the character's personality.

While the first season of I’m Standing on a Million Lives started out as a generic fantasy Isekai anime, the second season is much better.

The season continues where the first one left off after Yuusuke learns killing people in the Isekai world actually counts as killing real people. Once again Yuusuke and the team are on the quest with a vague objective but this time two more characters are joining the team. Keita an idiot who is there to serve some comedic moment and Glenda who is a lesbian but quite sharp too.

The reunion with Kahavell and Yuusuke is kind of a bitter-sweet moment but due to time being faster in the Isekai world, Kahavell is already with children and became a widow.

The story got way better compare to the first season with a good twist and much more interesting quests. I went into the second season with low expectations due to how the first season went but I find myself surprised that I am actually enjoying the story.

The Jiffon island arc did a good job at portraiting that things are not as simple as black and white as the story shows both the orc and human side of the story. The human broke the proposal they give to the orc and the orc also kind of invaded the human's land so it is hard to blame any side.

The Zagroth arc also did an equally good job as the first arc at portraiting human emotions both the good side and the ugly side of humans. This arc has a nice twist which got me fooled and there is even some scene that got somewhat dark.

The introduction of the dragon priest gives the story a clear view of the enemy and gives us a wild guess on how the dragon might invade the real world.

Battle Game in 5 Seconds has an acceptable arts quality for both character and background. The arts choose to go for good detail on whatever they got in the anime approach over spreading thin by putting extras.

The characters are done in a year 2010-ish anime art style. They have a fair amount of detail and look charming, to be honest. The colors are vibrant too.

Even though the backgrounds are not highly populated with objects or background characters, background and object that already existed are fairly detailed.

There are scenes where the background quality drop. In one such scene that is very obvious, there is a wall in the battle that looks fairly detail but when a character got thrown into it, the wall turns into an ugly super low detail flat looking thing.

CG is hit or miss, there are things that I can barely tell it is done in CG but then there are characters done in CG that stick out like a soar thumb.

The studio tries to cover up what little battle coordination the anime has by using tricks such as close-up camera shots or showing still pictures of characters hitting each other.

There are a lot of characters in Battle Game in 5 Seconds but the story is done in a way that you will remember them even if they disappear for a while and show up again in the future.

What makes the character more interesting is that the anime makes me wonder what kind of power they have. Some of these characters have powers that more than meet the eyes even after they have shown their power.

One intriguing aspect of the anime is how Akira thinks and how he strategizes for every event to ensure his victory.

The character dynamic between the two main characters, Akira and Yuuri is done well. Akira is a cold, calculating, and logic-driven person who has no trouble killing the enemies while Yuuri being a hot-headed and action-oriented person but also useful in assisting Akira to use his power.

There are decent backstories for the main characters and villains alike. Some of the backstories are quite dark. For example, one of the villains was an orphan who attacked the orphanage owner due to the owner abusing the children and treating them like dirt.

I dig Mion, as the main villain. Her design gave out a cat vibe combine with her personality is pretty nice. Much is not known about her yet and still pretty much a mystery character.

Battle Game in 5 Seconds

Make Event Jikkyou Play by 15-sai & Seiko Oomori

Deatte 5-byou de Battle

The opening song for Battle Game in 5 Seconds is decent but, the ending song is lit.

There are some nice background music and sound effects in this anime and some are unique and interesting enough to differentiate themselves from other animes. The sound effects in battle are nice too.

Voice acting is nicely done and suits the character's personality. Akira sounds calm and calculating, while Yuuri is more gung ho sounding. Mion has a unique voice, especially when paired with her character design.

I believe the last death game that I tried was Darwin’s Game which I loved. It has been a while that we have an anime in the death game genre. Battle Game in 5 Seconds compares to Darwin’s Game isn’t as great, but it holds its own reasonably well.

Our MC is Akira, who is an avid gamer. He was fatally attacked on his way home from school and put into a death game when he woke up. Everyone taking part in the death game is given a unique power. The goal much like other death games is to survive a series of events.

The powers in this show are interesting, and some are pretty unique. Most of the powers are not straightforward like in superheroes animes. (e.g. “your power is anything other believed it to be” or “ability to copy other people power but with reduced effect”).

Due to all these not so straight forward powers, the fights are interesting with a good enough twist.

Akira has the “your power is anything other believed it to be” which may sound overpowered but he also has to convince the enemy of his power and be crafty with how he uses his power. Even though he technically can channel up any kind of OP powers, the anime chooses to use only the reasonable ones.

The 5 seconds rule of the battle or event is dropped in later episodes which is strange since it is in the anime title.

The story is paced well and the character that shows up has reason to do so for story purposes. They don’t just show up and then be forgotten later. Either they show up again in the future to be used in a plot or they die.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s comes with standard anime art but with a sloppy drawing that comes up surprisingly quite frequently. Definitely not the kind of quality I expected from JC Staff who are behind some really good art and animation in series like Food War, Toradora, A Certain Magical Index, and Bakuman.

The character once again has a typical anime art style which is okay but the drawing is quite simple and there is a lot of time the character looks ugly when shown from an angle.

The indoor background is pretty much barebone, we have once again an empty hall with a table and chair without many objects and details to give you the proper atmosphere of the scene. The outdoor backgrounds are pretty decent and believable with the background character moving about.

The anime is very dialog-heavy with little battle scenes. The animation it has is quite okay even though there are animations that are quite choppy.

The character in How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom are not unique and they are probably tropes you have seen in other fantasy anime but they are all likable characters. 

Souma is an average Japanese guy summoned to the fantasy kingdom Elfrieden and he looks the part too. Having no family left back in the old world, he take up the role of king reluctantly while saying he is just temporary and started fixing the kingdom.

He soon learns the hardship of leading a kingdom and the weight of shouldering the kingdom. I can see that his character develops steadily and he becomes more comfortable being in a leading role to the point that he said something that sound like a king easily.

Liscia is the princess of Elfrieden and is engaged to Souma. She is a strong-willed character but also shows her cute side or jealous side when other girls got close to Souma. Even though she is inexperienced in kingdom building and politics, she learns them along the way and is also great support for Souma.

The other supporting characters are not as developed but the interesting part is how Souma utilizes them to develop his kingdom.

In case you are curious who are some of the side characters. We have Juna who is a songstress but also an experienced spy. Hakuna is a very cold and calculating adviser for Souma, reminds me of Snape from Harry Potter from the way he looks. 

Aisha is a strong bodyguard character. She kind of give out the same vibe as Shion from The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Tomoe is your loli character or imoto character with a unique power. Poncho is a fat guy who is a food expert and plays a role in solving the country's food issue.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s opening and ending songs are fine. Not my favorite but they are an okay listen.

The background music is decent. It did its job of propping up the scene and they sound pretty decent and somewhat separate themselves from the generic fantasy-themed music but they are not very memorable. Sound effects are also decent and nothing seems to be missing or out of place.

Voice actings are great and bring out the character's personality. That is probably not surprising since the voice behind the characters are experienced seiyuu.

Souma is voiced by Yuusuke Kobayashi, the same voice behind Subaru from Re:Zero. Liscia is voiced by the same seiyuu who voiced Hestia from that dungeon anime. Aisha is voiced by the same actress behind Valdilena from 86. Well, you get the gist.

There is no shortage of Isekai anime but How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom separates itself from the other fantasy adventure one by making it story around kingdom building and politics.

Souma, who was an average guy from Japan was summoned to a fantasy kingdom of Elfrieden which is failing financially. After the king was impressed with Souma knowledge, he was instead made king and was forced to engage with princess Liscia.

It is refreshing to see a none-overpower character in an Isekai anime. Souma in terms of the brawl is pretty weak but in terms of the brain, he is calculating and realistic in handling the kingdom situation. He did all this from his knowledge without any tool like google or smartphone. You could say his knowledge is overpowering.

The story will go over issues such as food production, improving trade, handing the nobles and other dukes, civil war, war with other nations, and foreign relations. Think of kingdom-building games like Civilization.

Souma being from modern-day Japan, bring his knowledge along, and a lot of his policy, technique and the way he solves issues are unorthodox to the fantasy kingdom which have techs on par with the medieval era but with magic.

The anime shows the hardship of being in a leadership role too and sometimes you have to make a hard decision or be put into a tough situation. Sometimes you have to sacrifice something to get another thing in return.

The world-building is pretty good but it isn’t some unique fantasy world. We have magic, magical creature, tech power by magic, furry races, neighboring nations, demon, etc... and the anime explain them all and make sure you have a good understanding of the world.

The romance aspect of the anime is very mild, there is the moment the girl gets jealous or shy, and obvious that they like Souma.

Even though Remake our Life! may look like another standard art style anime. The amount of detail that goes into the art is great and the art totally delivers. They may not be as stunning as some of Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song shots or the background uber detailed as Wonder Egg Priority but it did well enough in its own right.

The character art looks great with vibrant color and is mostly solid throughout the anime. Character animation is also fluid and nothing that looks awkward or strange.

The background is well-detailed, looks believable, and didn’t feel empty at all. There is one shot where they are shooting a video at the stage and all the equipment, bags and props are visible on the side. 

The complaints about the background would be the background characters in some scenes are reduced to not even having a face and characters in the city are mostly cardboard stands.

Remake our Life! character design is nicely done with some reality in it. There isn’t a character making unrealistic and unnecessary drama or big fuss out of things. They make the decision for themselves, the arguments are realistic, there is no unnecessary romance drama, they try to deal with their problem themselves or by consulting with each other, etc...

Even though Kyouya is the main character, he feels a bit generic both in looks and personality, but the story makes sure he is worthy of being the main character. The female characters also have quite charming personalities and honestly, I like the female character better than the male characters.

Kyouya is the main character for this anime but he kind of fall into generic anime main character where they are kind, helpful, and oblivious of the female romantic approach. But the good thing about Kyouya is his calculating but also daredevil personality where he manages a video game development project admirably using his past experiences.

Shinoaki is totally my type of girl. Calm, friendly, and energetic when necessary. I always admire people who can draw, especially anime artists. As someone who cannot draw things properly, and I am naturally attached to Shinoaki characters. The romantic approach she took with Kyouya is also subdued and natural but also bold when necessary.

Nanako has a fantastic character development plot where she is inspiring to be a singer but afraid she cannot sing. However, with Kyouya help, she gains enough confidence to persuade what she loves which is singing.

Tsurayuki is an inspiring writer and even though he play a huge role in the story, he doesn’t really have much impact. He is a friend but also somewhat acted as a rival for Kyouya where together they bring the best out of each other.

Eiko is an inspiring artist who Kyouya meet in class and have a more mature vibe compare to other female character but is also slightly tsundere. Even though she meant well for her friends, she doesn’t really mince her words too.

Remake our Life!

Bokutachi no Remake

The opening song sounds like generic jpop for my ears but the ending song is a good upbeat slow rock song that fits with Remake our Life! theme.

The background music is hit or miss. There are some really good ones in some of the chill scenes and in the serious heartfelt moment scenes but there are also some fairly unremarkable ones that only serve to fit the scenes. There is no shortage of background music though and every music serves its purpose well.

Sound effects are not cheaped out too. Everything sounds natural as it should be from the sound effect of the crowd down to the sound effect of a mouse click.

Voice acting is fantastic. I love all the character voices and they bring out their respective character personality perfectly.

We all have regret in life and thing we think back and say I would do this or that better if I can go back in time. Remake our Life! Is about that.

Kyouya, is a 28 years old salaryman working in the game industry when his company bankrupted. He always regrets not choosing the right university or being as passionate or as good as the group of famous artists named “Platinum Generation”. After a night's rest, Kyouya found himself 10 years in the past where he will have a second chance to undo his regrets.

Kyouya went into his university of choice and end up in the same dormitory with the younger version of Platinum Generation peeps he admire. Shinoaki is a super famous artist in the future, Nanako who is a famous singer, and Tsurayuki, a famous writer.

Anything that has some insight into a specific industry, be it manga, anime or video game industries has a special place in my heart. Remake our Life! Even though they didn’t go deep into the game industry, it still shows a good amount of insight into the game industry such as crunch time before release, bug hell, an engine problem, and managing times.

Time-traveling always comes with the risk of changing the future and effect it does on these Platinum Generation peeps Kyouya so admire due to his present and action.

There is also a subdue message that controlling creativity with strict time is never a good idea. Kyouya being a somewhat calculating person end up controlling Shinoaki's creative direction to meet the deadline and in return extinguished Shinoaki's passion for drawing.

The anime also shows that getting out of the comfort zone is necessary for progress and to always keep your passion burning.

Romance exists in the anime but it takes the backseat since the anime's main focus is on creativity and the artists. There is a love triangle happening too but there is no drama out of it. Much like reality, romance in the anime progress naturally.

I have no idea if the character art is done on purpose or not but if they are trying to make the art unique, they manage to do just that but I can’t help but find the art to be sloppy in multiple scenes.

The character arts look fine close up but when the characters are further away, they look like a rough sketch. There are also a few characters where I find the character's face proportion weird.

I dig the background art though, they look like they are sketched and colored in and have a good amount of texture detail to them, making the bad living condition of the corporate drone that much believable. (e.g. the building walls are not just single color perfect-looking walls, they got scratches and stain-like texture on them too.)

Animation-wise, it is average. Some character's movements in some scenes are not as fluid.

The highlight of Meikyuu Black Company is Ninomiya. The rest of the characters are mostly supporting and plot devices even though they are all likable. Ninomiya alone solo carries this anime. His personality and action are what make this anime better.

Ninomiya is the total opposite of most Isekai main characters. He is selfish, clever, manipulative, satirical, overconfident but also has contracting personalities such as being fair to his friends, being dumb, being thoughtful, and also charismatic.

A lot of comedy happens thanks to him. Throughout the story, he has tried different plans, ventures, and scams to get out of his corporate slavery life along with his friends with varying degrees of success and failure. 

As for other characters, we have Wanibe who is a really likable guy who is loyal to Ninomiya. A loli dungeon boss call Rim who have a bottomless pit in her stomach. A hero name Shia is loyal to the corporate and Renga is a mage from the future but also a trap.

All the characters mentioned are likable and add to the fun and comedy of the anime but Ninomiya is the one who shines above everyone else.

The Dungeon of Black Company

Meikyuu Black Company

The opening song sound cool and the ending song is quite chill and easy going. Both of them sound nice.

The voice acting for Ninomiya is absolutely godlike. The voice is so suitable for his overconfident and scheming personality. All the other cast also have a voice that fits the character's personality.

The background OST suits the theme and helps create the atmosphere of the scene. Some of them sound unique and have a nice ring to them. Sound effects also sound natural and there is no shortage of them.

The Isekai genre is overrun with generic fantasy adventure-themed stories but every now and then we got a gem like Meikyuu Black Company.

The story starts with Ninomiya, who is living a comfortable life after managing to become a top brass in our world got teleported to a fantasy industrial era world and become a corporate slave at a company. Ninomiya after living a comfortable life is not happy with the result and plan to get out of the corporate slave life.

Meikyuu Black Company is an exaggerated satire comedy about corporative culture, corporate slavery, bad working condition, company that treat their workers as just expandable resources, unpaid overtime, etc... Just name any bad thing about corporate life and it is likely to be in there.

The comedy is really similar to Combat Agent Six or Konosuba style with Ninomiya having the same vibe as Combat Agent Six where he plays dirty, comes up with really questionable plans, or gets rich quick tactics.

I got a good laugh out of the anime and a lot of things they make jokes about are spot on in corporate life and modern capitalism. The anime also throw random things from time to time and it is still enjoyable especially since the anime itself is a parody and satire.

The only issue I have with the story is, the plot jumps around some time and the story starts in the middle of nowhere and I have to check if I miss anything in the previous episode. Despise this problem, the overarching story is still about Ninomiya trying to get his arse out of corporate hell with his trusted friends.

The art style and animation on the first episode are quite alluring. The character arts are solid, the combat animation is well animated with nice choreography and the background may not be uber detailed but it is still pretty decent. Too bad this quality drop from here on out.

Character art for the most part is solid. It has a standard anime art style and looks really clean but there are scenes where the character art got sloppy too.

The background is also hit and miss depending on the episode and scenes. There are decent-looking backgrounds such as one of the fights with flames around or inside a church. However, almost all the cities are empty with no people in the background and there are halls in some scenes that are also really empty.

The fight animation in the first episode is really smooth, well animated, and looks fantastic but almost all the fight animations in the later episode are pretty much slideshow with background effects and a little animation. 

Apart from Siesta and Kimihiko, the rest of the characters are quite bland and have little dynamic to them.

The character chemistry between Siesta and Kimihiko is really fun to watch. The way she teases Kimihiko, Kimihiko being a male tsundere has feelings for Siesta but acts like he didn’t or the way they both trust each other more than themselves when it comes to fighting and solving cases.

Nagisa who is supposed to be a replacement for Siesta since she got Siesta’s heart is a less interesting and engaging character compare to Siesta. 

The chemistry between Nagisa and Kimihiko is also not really up there but it also makes it feel like Nagisa is a whole other person and not Siesta who is kind of dead and Kimihiko have to accept it and move on.

Then there is, Yui who is a chuunibyou idol with an eye patch covering her sapphire eye which got some superpower. Charlotte treats Siesta as her mom and goes on a mission to help her. Alicia is the second personality of a villain. All these side characters are like plot tools and nothing more.

The Detective Is Already Dead

Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru

The opening song sounds like generic j-pop but the ending song sounds wholesome.

Background music for the most part is decent. There are good sounding ones like a funky detective tone that plays when Kimihiko and Alicia went on a detective mission or the sad music that plays before Siesta somewhat died.

Voice acting is pretty good for the most character. Siesta has a calm and sweet voice. Nagisa has a believable voice suiting of an active high school girl and Yui's voice acting is also suitable for her personality. The only voice acting I find a bit bland is for Kimihiko.

I don’t really have much to comment on the sound effect. Nothing seems out of place but average in quality.

The Detective Is Already Dead is one of those anime that started out really strong with what seems like a good action detective story but then took a swan dive after a couple of episodes.

The show begins with Kimihiko who has rotten luck and always gets involved in shady stuff. One day he was on a flight when the flight got hijacked and was made a sidekick of a legendary detective Siesta. Together they fight the hijacker who happens to be a member of an organization called SPES and got superpower too.

The first episode is really intriguing. Siesta seem to have everything plan out even before the thing happens like a female sherlock holmes, a good mix of supernatural element and the mystery deepened when Siesta died and gave her heart to another girl call Nagisa. It has what seems like an excellent anime and unfortunately, the rest of the episodes doesn’t follow suit. 

The rest of the episodes feel like an amateur detective story where I can guess what is going to happen next easily and a lot of the story took place in a flashback on how Siesta somewhat dies but not really because she can still takeover Nagisa body if needed.

The anime jumping between the past and present all of the sudden at the start of the episode and the overall structure is also quite bizarre and make it difficult to follow.

The writer seems to be hell bend on making sure Siesta's quote of “A first-rate detective solves a case before it even happens” stays true. There are things, explanations, or events that seem like they got makeup out of the thin air just to make that quote true.

There are things left unexplained such as why Sieste's heart is special and she can still take over the host body if needed or why does the sapphire eye has supernatural power.

SPES is probably one of the most unimpactful villains in anime due to how the anime portraits them and there is no sense of real threat coming from them.

The art has a standard production style anime art style which you have seen on countless animes.

The character arts are also standard anime art style but they look decent and consistent throughout the anime. Not really a surprise coming from the studio behind anime such as "Dr. Stone", "ReLife", and "Rental Girlfriend".

Fight animations are done using close-up camera shots on one character and still scenes with background effects to hide the fact that the anime has little choreography when it comes to combat. Rarely does the anime show two characters on screen duking it out.

The background arts are not super detailed or populated but it is decent and once again consistent throughout the show. The background art style and colors also successfully convey the vibe of the story be it chill moments or when under attack.

Character-wise, I have some characters that I like in Seirei Gensouki but it is lacking on the character development front. The reason being Rio is always on the move and doesn’t stay in one place for long and he travels alone leaving any friends he made behind. 

Doesn’t help when the show has a lot of characters to remember too. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with the show having a lot of characters if they are developed decently and memorable like in "The time I got reincarnated as a slime".

A lot of interactions between characters are also on the surface level apart from when it is between the main characters such as Rio, Latifa, and Celia.

Rio is our typical OP isekai MC but he does have a good proper backstory and he learns more about himself back when he visited his home village. 

Unlike some harem MC, he is not as dense when it comes to romance and pretty cool-headed too. Rio also has a Kirito from SAO vibe going on, even have a coat similar to Kirito.

Latifa is a cute demi-human who was sent to kill him by the kingdom he run away from but he manage to stop Latifa and become friends with her. Latifa treated Rio like her Onii-chan and later open up to Rio that she is also someone who got isekai-ed.

Celia is another character that I like. Kind, sweet, and didn’t differentiate between noble and commoner. She is the one who teach Rio how to read and write when he was a child but somehow also like him so... kind of a shota-con?

The rest of the girls are unmemorable with not much going on. They are just there for the plot's convenience.

Spirit Chronicles

Seirei Gensouki

The opening song sounds like a generic jpop to me but the ending song has a nice tone to it.

The background musics and OST are decent but they won’t be winning any award anytime soon. They service the scenes they are played on well and have a very fantasy tone. The sound effects are also decent.

The voice acting for the main casts are super solid. Rio is voiced by Matsuoka, the same voice actor for Kirito so Rio has a lot of Kirito vibe and his voice acting is excellent.

I’ll swallow up any Isekai anime whole but not all Isekai anime are made equal and Seirei Gensouki is one of the mediocre ones. It is enjoyable but far from the level of the good one like "The time I got reincarnated as a slime" or "Rising of the shield hero".

A guy call Haruto died in a bus accident along with two other girls, one of whom he had a crush on in the past. Haruto reincarnated into Rio along with all the memories which enable him to use OP spirit power.

Rio in a twist of fate saved a princess of the country and got the privilege to enroll in the royal academy. However, almost all the noble students in the class didn’t take kindly of Rio as he is a commoner and will do anything to attack him.

The beginning of the anime is actually really entertaining. There are some gruesome scenes, conflicts with noble students but Rio manages to handle them perfectly. Luckily not all noble treat Rio badly, a teacher call Celia is really close with Rio and helps him often.  

However, the anime turn into a common adventure Isekai fantasy show after Rio was accused of something evil which he didn’t commit and he decided to run away and go on an adventure. 

It is still quite entertaining even though the story isn’t really deep, we get to see Rio training in his spirit power at a demi-human village and visit his home town which he doesn’t have many memories of and learn about his past and also improve the lifestyle of the people there.

For an Isekai anime, Rio's past life memories and stuff take the backseat and wasn’t referenced as often.

The ending is super rushed and left open-ended/hanging with the viewer wanting for more. Unfortunately, I don’t think this anime is getting a second season looking at its quality and feel more like a promo for the light novel.

The Ascent wants to be both a top-down RPG and twin-stick shooter game but fails to excel at any of the two.

The gunplay aspect of the game is great with an element such as aiming high or low, crouching behind an object to take cover, and aiming high to shoot over cover. The different types of guns also feel good and meaty to use.

However, what good is awesome gunplay when mob and boss can be killed easily by kiting in a circle and dodging occasionally to avoid getting hit. Bosses have very little to no mechanic too and combat gets stale after a while.

The RPG aspect of the game is too shallow to be anything purposeful. Stats apart from health and energy don’t really matter much. Armour stats such as defence again certain element also doesn’t really matter much when combat is easy enough with kiting and dodging.

There are very few variations of enemies to fight and a lot of the same guys are reuse in different areas. Bosses which you defeated in the early story join the normal mob you fight.

Money is basically useless in this game. Gun, Armor and Augmentation drop from mob or chest are better than the thing you can buy. 

There are a good amount of guns to choose from and use but if you upgrade them all over the place and separately, you might struggle to get your favourite gun to max upgrade. Especially when the upgrade doesn’t use money and uses a special kind of upgrade token.

There are a dozen of skills to equip and use but I find only a couple of them actually useful especially in the late game.

The map is annoying to read with no elevation indicator or ability to a waymark. No manual save and autosave have delays between each saves.

The graphic is excellent with a vibrant city filled with NPC, neon signs, billboards, flying cars and bikes, multiple stories buildings, garbage, and all kinds of futuristic cyberpunk stuff. When rainfall and the street become wet, it looks incredibly good with all the neon light reflections.

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