Scalpelexis

[Watched 2 episodes, first impressions] As the season didn't exactly get off to a dazzling start, I was already worried that I wouldn't find anything truly entertaining. I was wrong. Jujutsu is an incredibly styled hunt for a pretty damn disgusting demon spawn spiced up with a dose of action and grins. Sometimes you just have to laugh of death and deal with cloven hooves with sarcastic vigor. The understated artwork sat well, the characters are classy and I have a lot to look forward to. 3 stars

Rhythm is the name of this episode? Hah, how ironic. The first episode stubbornly refuses to get us into anything that could even partially be called rhythm, because for every second of action we get 5 seconds of uninteresting commentary and thoughts from what seems like all the occupants of the hall. I felt like the character in the famous Edward Munch painting when I went back to Welcome to the Ballroom, since Production I.G. has once again cut an anime that isn’t an anime, but a presentation of static images at a snail's pace. Please, anything but that.

[Watched 1st episode, drop] Little girls on eroge themes and all of it supposedly centered on gossipy local politics and facts about trains. A truly bizarre combo that might entice you to a certain amount of curiosity. Even if it did, the first episode chased me far off.

[Watched 4 episodes, drop] My personal prediction came true, and this anime didn't offer enough fun, curiosity, creativity, or an attractive enough form to make up for the unbearable tedium. Not to withhold all the credit from it – by Japanese standards, the main young couple are pretty exceptional: a love as instant as soup in a cup turns into a wedding similar to a Las Vegas one in terms of speed, and since the first episodes Nasa and Tsukasa have been "fighting" against the mundane, day-to-day life of the newly hitched. Since they don't exactly expect any trouble, they have time for blushing at each other in an ordinary and alternating fashion like a bunch of traffic lights at an intersection. Now and then they go shopping, now and then they cook, and even now and then they go to sleep. The story makes no secret of the fact that it does not want to engage in any more exceptional, out-of-the-ordinary events. Even though the series tries to avoid clichés, the scythe strikes stone in the humor section, which features classic anime jokes or just the familiar everyday misunderstandings that bring back the thick fragrance of unoriginality. It's not helped by the miserably ordinary artwork, which was just a constant distraction that I found more suitable for a bedtime story for kindergarteners. The ordinary is everywhere, and I need go no further for a more fitting description of Tonikawa. 2 stars

Another more meaningful and powerful episode after a long time without one. As much as I dislike the witches, it fit here. It's just that the animation is starting to get a bit wild in the last few episodes.

Manga readers certainly couldn't wait for the conclusion of the first part of Riko and Rega's journey through the Abyss, which was already introduced at the end of first season. It was already obvious after the narration of the mysterious Ozen that the "White Whistles" were more like the local Seven from The Boys than superhero villains, and it was impossible not to look forward to the villainous Bondrewd. That whole metaphor and parell of the Abyss, where the raiders go to fulfill their desire for wealth, power, adventure, or love, only to eventually face the question of how much they must sacrifice, is woven throughout the film in a very poignant way. The only ray of happiness was the character of the enchanting Prushka. Compared to the series, I missed the travelling through more and more levels of the Abyss, and while Kevin Penkin is an ace composer that I wanted to enjoy thoroughly, his music was just more at home during the more open and melancholic scenery of the living outside world than within the walls of the fortress. But I'm not knocking anything in that regard: The Kinema Citrus audiovisuals are again of a dream standard (the opening flowery field, the fights) and the script and direction are tight, I just like the slightly happier scenes and you won't find many of those here :-) I was all the more pleased with the last minutes of Ozen's shrewdness. I was wavering a lot between 4 stars and 5 stars – it falls right in between, but I subjectively like the world and story of Made in Abyss a lot. Subarashi!

[Season 1] The problem with the series is probably a very narrow spectrum of viewers – it's young children who are no longer bothered by people dying in the claws or teeth of dinosaurs. But at the same time, they still can’t be too savvy or mentally mature to forgive the relatively idiotic behavior of the little kids (they almost die once, so they'll go try again... and then again... and once more for good measure, shameless suicides) and the nonsensical physical properties like a wounded man's successful, long escape from a predator. The writers plunder ideas from previous Jurassic Parks nonstop without a hint of shame, so you won't see much originality, though you might feel a slight nostalgia at the mention of some names. Besides, the series serves as a great sightseeing tour through all the nooks and crannies of the island and the dinosaur species. Complete with CGI, the dinosaurs look much better than the simple painted figures. I'd give it a stronger 2 stars, but I can turn a blind eye for the weakest possible 3 stars.

Good, it's starting to meet a standard. An excellent last 1/3. If there were more episodes like this, Re:Zero would be a whole different ballgame in terms of quality.

Story-wise utter nonsense, but here it was purely fan service for fans of the previous 2 seasons. We kind of got something of everything in the familiar main and supporting characters of Roanapur, and the minutes we’d been lacking of the local iron maiden Roberta were made up for. And honestly, it was nothing special. It's not that I wasn't looking forward to Roberta, because we already know from Season 1 that if anyone can stop Revy, it's this cleaning lady from Colombia. But they didn't need to make her an off-the-leash bulletproof monster with no direction, bouncing between a psych ward, an orphanage, and a minefield. Rock did give us a welcome "hardening" (er, I mean mentally), but the kiddies were already more than extraneous in such a shallow plot. A rambling, disjointed one-off action delight with a hefty dose of pills.

This "second salvo" came across like the proper afterparty of a ladies' night out somewhere in Thailand. A lot of them are drinking, most of them have a cigarette in their mouths at all times, and all of them have some kind of Colt on their hips... or in their armpits. I was surprised how much the male characters were faded to the background (except for the heavily sentimental Rock) and how the stories were "shortened" into 3 arcs, but most of the time I didn't complain because it was a blast. Season 2 is here to throw as many live targets as possible to those sharpened lilies Revy, Balalaika, and Eda, for them to empty their magazines at with the requisite swearing, clearing a path for the next scoundrels. One day it's a wide-eyed pair from Transylvania, then a hired gang of Jack the Rippers and Jason Voorheeses, and throw in some Yakuza. That's all we want or need. As long as it went along to the rhythm of endless hyperbole and moralizing light-hearted catchphrases, it was great, but by the end we got to the insanely overwrought philosophy lecture and no, darlings, you shouldn't have done that. Gin tried really hard, but the duo of good-looking Rock + wannabe gangster Yukio successfully bombed and destroyed everything that was good about the show with torpedo-like efficiency. Morons; after all, it must be obvious to everyone that Black Lagoon isn't even remotely built for this, and the whole mission statement rings as hollow in the finale as the Venezuelan treasury. Because of this, I am once again giving it a weak 4 stars. However, I would very much pray (preferably in that rip-off church) for the sadistic Balalaika and the eccentric Eda to join forces together in something, because Roanapur could never handle it.