Table of Contents
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Review Collection
This is a collection of all reviews on the LoreBook, which includes some that don’t have dedicated articles.
Reviews are listed alphabetically.
The Reviews
Akame ga Kill!
Aldnoah.Zero
I thought the first season was pretty good, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The beginning of the story is particularly well-put together, introducing the world and characters quite well. The relationship between the Martians and the Terrans (alongside an introduction to the power-imbalance) is presented to the audience well, allowing the audience to quickly grasp the situation. From the beginning of the war, the Martians come off as an overwhelming force and a terrifying threat to the Terrans. The opening move with their landing castles is so beautiful, it continues to bring me to tears.
Unfortunately, the perceived threat-level of the Martians decreases fast over the course of the series. This mostly stems from the fact the Martians are morons - an obvious and serious writing flaw.
I found the insert songs to be awkwardly inserted and poorly timed.
The second season pretends the end of the first season doesn’t happen by undoing most of it. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind this as much as I expected to at the time, but it irritates me more as time goes on. This is mostly because the ending of the first season is quite daring…and then the second season just undoes it. I’d compare it to Code Geass in this regard, as I believe it achieves the transition from the first season’s cliffhanger ending to the start of the second season better than Aldnoah.Zero.
The second season generally fails to make the Martians as threatening as they were at the very beginning of the series. While there is a brief moment where the Martians start regaining their threat level, the series brings back the MC after his little break, and him and his robot eye completely destroy the Martians. I’d say this is a shame, as the series could have been much better in this regard.
I do think I overall still like the series, and I would recommend giving it a watch.
Angel Beats!
Anime
I quite liked the Anime. Sometimes the animation looked iffy, but that’s a minor detail.
The characters and their interactions were handled pretty well and it’s likely one of my favourite parts of the show (along with the gags, both foreground and background).
The worst part of the show is how short it was. We get a bunch of characters who are either:
- Introduced, but we don’t learn much about them.
- Have unique designs, but they almost never have plot relevance.
I read somewhere that this was because it was originally planned to have twice as many episodes, but some behind-the-scenes stuff reduced it to 12. At least the extended material (including the OVAs) minimize this short length.
I highly recommend the OVAs. They are mostly comedic, but they’re still worth watching. They made me laugh, if that means anything.
Heaven's Door
Chapters 1-70 focus on the first year. Time is then compressed, by a lot. This is the aspect I dislike the most. The time between individual chapters goes from a few days or weeks to several decades. I’m not joking.
Overall, I like the Manga; since we get a deeper look at the characters and the start of the Battlefront.
1st Beat
As I was playing the VN the first few times through, I knew it would become my favourite VN.
It manages to do exactly what I’ve always wanted from both VNs and Games and surpassed my expectations a bit. I’m sad I didn’t try to play it before I did.
Basically, every choice you make affects the game in some way. A seemingly unimportant choice near the beginning can lead to a completely different outcome near the end. The best part? There are hundreds of choices. You can play it hundreds of times and you’ll still end up seeing things you’ve never seen before.
For your first playthrough, I recommend making decisions you would make IRL. Then, play the complete opposite (usually a huge pervert for some reason). You’ll understand immediately what I meant in the previous paragraph.
Also, although this might just be me, the VN is incredibly immersive. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything as immersive as this. Very early in my first playthrough I already felt like I was a part of the world, I didn’t see myself as following Otonsahi’s view… I was the one experiencing everything.
Although it’ll sound strange, I have a tough time separating Otonashi from myself in my mind. He’s just… a part of “me”. (This may have philosophical value, so wait for Soul!)
Route;Iwasawa
This route radically diverges from the Anime.
The Iwasawa route honestly broke me for a while. So much that I still feel bad about it and I wholeheartedly believe I will still feel bad about it for the rest of my life. Thinking about it makes me tear up.
The route is a rollercoaster, going from extremely happy to extremely depressing in the span of a few hours.
Overall though, the ending is bittersweet. I’m not sure if I’ll experience anything like it again.
Takamatsu’s bro status took me by surprise and… it’s just so heartwarming.
Route;Yui
This route is basically just the Anime.
Overall, the Yui route is a lot better than what we see in the Anime. First, it takes place over a longer time frame. Second, you get to learn more about all the characters involved (Yui, Hinata, etc.). We actually get to learn Hinata’s backstory here, his backstory is pretty interesting too.
While I thought I wouldn’t cry (because I didn’t really cry in the Anime for Yui, heartless I know), I was taken by surprise. Something about this just works much better than in the Anime. I actually buy the relationship between Yui and Hinata.
Overall, a pretty good route.
Route;Matsushita
This route doesn’t diverge from the Anime as radically as the Iwasawa route.
Although I hesitate to say so, I think this is the weakest route. That being said, it isn’t bad.
The whole route is basically the bromance between Otonashi and Matsushita, one that is… beautiful, honestly.
This one did make me cry as well, I’ll admit. Though aspects of it did get on my nerves, but I can’t remember what those were.
Cross Ange
As alluded to in the initial summary, the series is split into roughly two parts, which becomes obvious to almost everyone watching. I don’t remember many details of the series, so this review will be general. Once (or rather ‘if’) I re-watch this series I’ll be sure to add more detailed critiques.
The first half is what I’d consider to be a fairly standard mecha seriesA) with added fanservice. The sexy stuff didn’t bother me all that much when I first watched itB), as I believe there are other shows that have way more sexual contentC). This part is mostly focused on the main characters battling dragons every episode and resolving personal drama. There are hints for the second part sprinkled in every now and again.
The second part of the series is what I’d believe most viewers would consider the ‘cool’ part. The focus shifts away from repeated battles against dragons to a story about rebelling against the creator god of the world. I won’t go into further details, because I don’t remember them.
I mentioned before that it’s obvious to viewers that the series is split into two halves, and that’s sort-of the issue. While the two parts do flow together moderately well, it isn’t to the same degree as Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, where I didn’t even notice the transition when I first watched it.
There were a few times I felt some of the characters were off, particularly Jill, although I don’t remember the details exactly. I found the worldbuilding interesting, and I do still occasionally think about that aspectD).
I remember being impressed with the soundtrack of the show, which shouldn’t be surprising when we consider the name of the series.
The final note I have is that the CG is noticeably better than in most anime, although it isn’t good enough for it to not be obvious.
Danganronpa
Unfortunately, I have few specific things to say, because it’s been a while since I’ve played the games, so I’m only going off of what I remember.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
The first of the Danganronpa games is very good, and provides a solid foundation for the rest of the series.
The most significant issue this one has is that some things are repeated excessively. The most infamous example of this would be Mukuro Ikusaba, the 16th student hiding somewhere in this school, the one they call the ‘Ultimate Despair’. This actually somewhat proves my point, since I don’t remember many specifics, having played the games a while ago, but this single sentence is ingrained in my mind due to how often it was repeated.
Along the same lines, the game occasionally goes off on barely-relevant and long tangents seemingly to set-up a red herring. However, the fact these go on for so long makes it fairly obvious that it’ll be a red herring.
On the good side, I found the mysteries in this game (and the series in general) to be very well written and quite compelling; I often find myself using Danganronpa as an example of a well-written mysteryE). I find the gameplay appealing as well, and after I finished the whole series, I was disappointed there weren’t more trials to work through.
Anime
The anime is an accurate adaptation of the first game. I can’t remember off-the-top-of-my-head what changes it made to the story, because I remember it as being almost the same.
The game is obviously more detailed (having more time to work with), and the anime leaves some stuff out. Thankfully, it chose not to repeat some things in the way the game did, but this has the downside of making the anime less meme-able.
Manga
To be clear, I’m talking about the manga - Danganronpa: The AnimationF).
The manga is also an accurate adaptation of the first game, although it’s longer and covers more than the anime. From my own hazy memories, the manga includes more details than the anime
The artwork is also quite impressive, matching the art-style of the game very well.
I don’t have much to say on the manga that wouldn’t just be unfiltered praise. Of the ways to experience the Danganronpa storyline itself, the manga is probably the best. It streamlines the story, but keeps many of the details intact (per my memory). For those who want to just go through the story, I guess I’d recommend this.
Super Danganronpa 2
This was the first Danganronpa game I actually playedG), and it’s an experience I don’t think I’ll forget…because it was the first time I felt like I was forced to think about what I was doing in regards to the mysteries.
Previously, I had been fairly passive with mystery stories. Most of my experience was from watching TV shows, where I simply waited for the mystery to be revealed. Granted, TV show mysteries are poorly constructed in the first place, but the point is more the passivity. Danganronpa 2 really made me stop and think about the mystery, and I was surprised to find I could do it quite well.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Danganronpa 2 is what awakened the critic within me, as I started to more carefully analyze media after having played it. Now, I should mention I wasn’t exceptional, as I still let the game guide me, so it’s not like I solved the case after sitting down and thinking before starting the class trial.
On the issues side, the second game solves most of the problems of the first (although it manages to make hangman’s gambit much worse!). There isn’t excessive repetition of details, and if there were unnecessarily long side-tangents, then I can’t remember them.
However, a very serious issue shows itself here for the first time, although it’s not clear this is an issue just yet. This is the attempt at topping the reveal of the last game. The first game had a shocking reveal at the endH), and this game attempts to top it. I’ll say it’s debatable whether it succeeds or not, because within Danganronpa 2 itself, it’s executed well. Unfortunately, I believe this became the start of a trend that future installments ended up following to the detriment of their own stories, and the franchise as a whole. I’d argue that there’s very little that could be more shocking than the reveal at the end of the first game - which was effectively the definition of despair - and this game attempts to top it by going at it from a different angle.
Danganronpa 3
This is an anime and serves as an overall ending to the original ‘series’. This anime singlehandedly created a lot of confusion, and will continue to create confusion into the far future.
To be extra clear, this anime serves as a sequel to Danganronpa 2, which itself is a sequel to Danganronpa. This anime is split into two ‘arcs’ - the Despair arc, and the Future arc. It ends with a special episode called the Hope arc. The Future arc is the de-facto sequel, and the Despair arc is a prequel (to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc).
If this appears simple to you then you should know that it gets more complicated than I’ve laid out here.
The anime is intriguing, and annoying, in that it demands watching the two arcs inter-changeably, starting with the Future arc. I have yet to actually do this, as I didn’t realize it before I started watching. I first watched the Future arc, and then watched the Despair arc.
Despair
It showcases the characters from Danganronpa 2 prior to their turn to Despair. My complaint is that they are portrayed too idealistically. Consequently, they come off as less ‘real’ than characters from the games.
There are additional issues such as:
- Mukuro Ikusaba is portrayed in a way that doesn’t line up very well with her characterization from Danganronpa and Danganronpa IF. This isn’t noticeable to those who haven’t read IF, or gotten her free time events in Danganronpa, but it’s very noticeable to those who have. This annoys me in particular, because she’s one of my favorites.
- On occasion, characters act like complete morons. Due to this, it’s understandable now how Junko managed to destroy the world, but this has the effect of making it far less impressive.
- Some plot details are just nonsensical. Unfortunately, I cannot remember specific examples.
Future
I remember very little about this in particular, except that it has similar issues to Despair. Some things in here are just completely nonsensical, even by the standards of Danganronpa.
New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
This is a sequel that leaves behind the previous storyline in favor of a new one. While I, and presumably others, expected this would lead to something different yet similar…no, well yes, but no.
The budget for the game is visibly higher than for the others, likely due to the unexpected popularity of the series. V3 is probably the prettiest of the Danganronpa games, which extends to the artwork as well as the 3D backgrounds.
The mysteries in this game are also very well written, as is now custom, just that V3 may have made a mistake in making the first the best and most interesting one.
V3 suffers from the issue that I laid out in Danganronpa 2, which is that it attempts to out-do the other games, which has led it to make a few very serious mistakes.
The biggest of these is the ending, which comes off as insulting to the Danganronpa fanbase, and has the added bonus of making the entire previous storyline come off as pointless. I’d be admiring how impressively bad this ending was if I wasn’t one of the fans disappointed by it. I can’t be specific…because I can’t remember it well at this point.
The minigames are greatly improved over the previous games, although I distinctly remember being disappointed by the lack of a presence of some from the previous games.
There’s an extra mechanic added to the debates that allows you to lie. But outside of using it when it was introduced, I never used it during the game at all. This is one of the missed opportunities of V3, and the lying mechanic comes off as needless.
The bonus board-game mode is surprisingly fun, and it really doesn’t surprise me that it got spun off into its own game…which I’ll definitely end up buying at some point.
The mis-step that is V3 is probably comparable to the Rebuild of Evangelion, due to the increased budget and popularity, and the presumed confidence of the creators. This point of comparison will require more thought, so I’ll leave it there for now.
Spin-off manga (collective)
One of the big surprises of the Danganronpa franchise is that if you count up all the official media together, you find that most of the franchise is comprised of manga. This isn’t all that surprising for a Japanese multi-media franchise, but is surprising if you consider that Danganronpa’s core is comprised of Visual Novel mystery Games - of which there are only 3.
The spin-off manga I’m referring to here specifically is that comprised of all the anthologies, which adds an extra layer of ‘what’ to Danganronpa. I personally can’t think of another franchise that has as much anthology content as Danganronpa.
Off-the-top-of-my-head, here’s how many I can think of:
- Anthology for the original game.
- 4コマ anthology for the original game.
- Anthology for the animation.
- 4コマ anthology for the animation.
- Anthology for the second game.
- 4コマ anthology for the second game
- Anthology for the first & second games.
- Anthology for the spin-off game.
- 4コマ anthology for the spin-off game.
- Anthology for the third game.
- 4コマ anthology for the third game.
- Anthology for the series as a whole.
Those are the ones I can think of, and it’s entirely possible I’ve made a mistake somewhere here by leaving something out or putting something in.
Being manga anthologies, each individual chapter has a different art-style, and different tone. The 4コマ ones are exclusively comedic however.
Having gone through…a lot of them, I can say that they are great supplements to the series as a whole, and quite entertaining. Of course, if you’re not accustomed to Japanese humor, then you likely won’t enjoy yourself as much.
All these anthologies have the effect of confusing me. I’m not sure how these all came to be created. It’s possible that after the second game, it simply became habit, but exactly why the creators thought it was a good idea is a mystery to me. I should be clear that I don’t think it was a bad idea, it simply perplexes me.
Death on the Nile
The Final Station
Great Teacher Onizuka
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar
Hisone to Masotan
Hyouka
Hyouka is about a guy named Houtarou who spends his time unwillingly solving inconsequential mysteries. He does it at the behest of Chitanda who is very curious.
It’s a fairly standard slice-of-life with mystery elements. Although, it does keep hinting at supernatural happenings… but nothing supernatural happens. This came to annoy me more over time, but never enough to “ruin” the experience for me.
Some thematic elements also annoy me. Such as during the Juumoji arc, which is largely about talent… but since I fundamentally disagree with how they view it… yeah, I’m not the biggest fan.
The mysteries are fairly interesting… although I hesitate to call them “good” because a lot of the evidence is revealed last minute or after it’s solved by Houtarou, making them hard or impossible to solve (an issue I observe with many mystery series).
The emotion, characters and animation all keep it afloat though.
While this review may make it seem like I dislike the series… I do enjoy it a lot and recommend it. I dunno, these things just annoy me.
I, robot
Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetei: Tenshi-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen
Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai
Anime
The anime doesn’t adapt the entire manga. This is most obvious at the start of Megami-hen which skips forward from the end of KamiNomi2 to the Goddess arc in the manga.
Besides this, the anime ends at Megami-hen and doesn’t adapt the restI). This, interestingly, leads the anime to having a sad ending.
I’ll elaborate on this a little later.
Comparing the Anime to the Manga: the Manga has better comedic timing, if that even makes sense. Generally, the comedy in the Manga is handled far better - the framing, layout and such all aids it. The exception to this would likely be ‘I am your husband’s illegitimate daughter.’ where the Anime is superior.
Manga
The Manga has a bad and abrupt ending. I may elaborate further, but this is the short of it.
Kämpfer
This one’s a guilty pleasure of mine. The show is pretty bad, but I still can’t help but love it. It’s essentially about a guy, named Natsuru, who becomes a girl…but the show is better described as lesbian urban fantasy.
It just feels like it’s completely aware of what it is…and lacks any sort of shame.
The show gets gradually more frustrating, especially Natsuru’s denseness. The manga is a slight improvement (Natsuru is less of a push-over)…but it does have a couple’a plotholes and such.
Oh right, the original series ends on a cliffhanger and the last episode is a bizarre special. There’s an extra two-episode mini-series which extends the ending and has a pure fanservice episode.
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
Labyrinth
Labyrinth is a bizarre film about David Bowie acting as someone like David Bowie surrounded by goblins.
I can’t describe how it felt to watch this film. It isn’t bad or good it’s kinda meh. But there’s just so much that’s weird in it you end up feeling… strange. There were a lot of things that make you wonder just what the hell you’re watching. I think the jokes were pretty funny though, one of the few things that works in this film.
David Bowie was an interesting choice for the goblin king. What he did in the film was also pretty intriguing1). His crystal balls were a bit… well weird.
The production value was way higher than it deserved.
Can’t say much except that it was a strange film, give it a watch at least once.
Last Action Hero
Little Busters!
We follow the hero as he enters the demon king’s castle and prepares to make the final blow, but before he does he listens to what the demon king has to say. The (quite feminine) king tells him how the war between humans and demons should continue because it’s better for both sides. She then tells him her plan to end the war peacefully and make the world a better place. So, he decides to work for her.
The show is well made and has good writing, but if does feel a bit boring sometimes. Most of it is just talking about what’s going to happen when we do x and then we kind-of see x being done and the results of that.
The most entertaining parts are near the beginning, a brief period in the middle and then the end. The rest just feels a bit empty.
And as strange as it sounds, I feel like it may have progressed a bit too quickly. Near the beginning-middle we see 3 people getting educated by the demon king in like 2-3 episodes and around the end we see them again, but they feel like different people. It feels like a bit was left out where they undergo character development.
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Anime
The series is overall great. Nothing really stands out as especially bad, but considering I haven’t played the VN yet, this might change.
What I especially like is the foreshadowing. The foreshadowing is hidden fairly well, which makes rewatching the series somewhat of a treat. Highlights include:
Kyousuke’s many lectures to Riki. Kud after recovering from her faint and, by extension, the brief conversation between Kud and Kyousuke. The Busters actively trying to engage with Riki and Rin might count (I always found it a bit strange and unnatural). Kengo’s reaction to Riki and Rin’s shenanigans during the love sickness bit may also be a form of foreshadowing. ‘Did Kyousuke put you up to this?’.
Unfortunately, I can’t think of much else to say. It might be since this is one of my favorite series, and one of the first anime I watched.
VN
A review of the VN is gonna take a while. The main reason for this is that I accidentally wiped my external hard drive a while ago. This drive also happened to contain my completely legal copy of Little Busters! which erased my saves. So I’ll be re-doing it from the start. Not that I got anywhere before then.
EX 4コマ
I read this before the actual 4コマ because I thought it was shorter.
To my surprise, I found this a very enjoyable experience. To such a degree, I consider this to be semi-canon.
It has a fairly interesting plot, for a 4コマ. The jokes are fairly funny as well, which should be a given for a 4コマ. The characters feel a bit exaggerated, but that’s also standard for a 4コマ.
Unfortunately, the scanlators fell behind so we’ve only got 2 and a half volumes (the series is at 4 volumes I think).
Midori no Hibi
Mieruko-chan
Mieruko-chan is a series about a girl named Miko who can see scary spirits. Yūrei and the like. She decides to deal with this… by ignoring the spirits as best she can.
The premise struck me as interesting, but what really hooked me was Miko herself. She is, in my opinion, one of the bravest characters I’ve ever seen and she’s become a personal favorite of mine. I admire her greatly. Despite her incredible fear, she still does her best to ignore the spirits…even if that means getting really close to them. While I like the other characters, I don’t like them as much as Miko.
The show is episodic until the last couple’a episodes, which is a mini-arc. There is a pretty good twist that honestly got me good.
I recommend it.
Music and Lyrics
Pandora
On the surface it looks like a film that opposes nuclear power, but it doesn’t.
We follow a group of engineers who work at a nuclear plant, the plant is over 30 years old and hasn’t undergone any maintenance. When the man in charge sends a letter to the first lady (intended for the president) the shady politicians have him fired. Then something bad happens, and then something worse happens.
The film critiques bureaucracy and crony capitalism I guess. Everything wrong that happens is the result of greedy business men and politicians.
But anyways, the special effects are marvelous. Especially when the plant finally explodes. Set design and costumes were great.
Although obviously just part of the film, but the way things just kept getting worse felt a bit eh to me. But I guess this is to show how bad it could get if something like this happened.
Overall, if this happened irl it would be the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Pretty good watch.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Sakura Quest
Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda
Shin Godzilla
Sword Art Online
I will slowly start to work on these reviews (and the rest of the article) as time goes on. I will maintain a set of notes, that I will include here if you wish to read them, before I actually write something proper up. They’ll be placed in spoilers.
Anime
Sword Art Online
My impression of SAO has remained consistent over the years - it’s alright.
The series isn’t a masterpiece, or even that great, but it’s around a 7.5. I think it’s a reasonable enough start to get people into anime, and I don’t think it’s all that bad.
The series does suffer from some pretty serious storytelling issues, but I think it’s fairly telling that SAO’s issues aren’t that significant compared to the godawful storytelling in western film…and SAO is considered one of the worst shows, which reflects well on anime as a whole.
What’s interesting about SAO is that people’s views of SAO have been clouded to a point where a lot of criticism is simply invalid, and can be disproven simply by watching the show and paying attention (a blasphemous concept, I know). I think this is due to the detrimental influence of reddit and anime youtubers.
In fact, after realizing this, I started to realize that my own views on SAO are up in the air as far as being valid or not, which is why I won’t say anything specific until I’ve actually gone back through the series.
Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale
This is (currently) the only thing that I will comment on, although still generally.
Ordinal Scale is bad, it’s not well written, although it isn’t awful. There are some interesting ideas in here, but most of them are wasted because the writing isn’t the best.
Manga
Progressive
While Kirito has more of a character, he feels disconnected with the rest of the series (at least from what I’ve currently experienced). This is also true of Asuna. And of their relationship. Kibaou actually feels like a character, rather than an idiot like in the anime.
It’s a shame that the manga appears to have ended early, because it’s probably the best of SAO, as far as the Aincrad portions go.
Toaru
This was initially a small note regarding the entire series, but I eventually added way more. I’ll fix it up at some point. For now, it’s okay like this.
It becomes clear fairly quickly that the science side of this universe is far far more interesting than the magic side (and consequently, science-side stories are more popular). While I can’t put my finger on exactly why, I have a few ideas:
- The ‘magic system’ of espers is fairly unique when considering magic systems across fiction. Specifically, the mechanics and how the powers are used, alongside the general æsthetic. This is in contrast to the ‘magic magic system’ which is fairly standard.
- Extending this, the powers are used in unique and fascinating ways…but also in ways that make a lot of sense. This is one of the only franchises I know of that handles teleportation well, for example.
- A counter to this point is the fact the anime continually fails to explain how magic works. It seems to assume people will be familiar with the LNs, which I’m still in the middle of reading.
- Something I should note here is that I’ve been reading the LNs and magic is far more interesting than it appears in the anime. I do still believe the science-side is more interesting, but the magic side isn’t as uninteresting as I first thought.
- The magic side borrows too much from the real world regarding characters (Aleister Crowley), organizations (The Anglican/Catholic churches), and items (The Book of the Law). The science side, however, is (to my knowledge) free of such borrowings.
- This is a guess and not one I’m very confident in. I find the way a lot of these real-life things are integrated into the world a bit off.
- Characters relevant to the science side are far more interesting than those relevant to the magic side.
- The characters have more grounded designs and more fleshed-out characterization. At least from what I can tell. The most popular characters (Misaka, Accelerator, Shokuhou) are all science-side.
- Academy City is a really really well fleshed-out place, having a perfect blend of familiar and unfamiliar. Exploring the lore regarding the city is fun.
- The Science side has clearer power levels - it helps they’re literally called ‘Levels.’ You can (mostly) tell how powerful an Esper is based on their Level, and you can even guess an Esper’s Level from what they do. In contrast, it’s much harder to figure this out for the magic side.
- This also makes comparing Espers easier.
- At the same time, it acts as a signal to the audience. It acts as a shortcut for introducing characters, especially Level 5s like Accelerator, and adds to how intimidating they are.
A lot of this may be my own bias, since I personally prefer the science side and I’m trying to figure out why.
Anime
These will currently stand as just a few small notes. I’ll write more about it later.
Toaru Majutsu no Index
It’s not the best of the series, but it is fairly good. I consider it the best place to start if you’re new to the franchise (outside of simply reading the LN).
Toaru Majutsu no Index II
It’s better than the first season, at least that’s what I remember.
Toaru Majutsu no Index III
It starts out strong and fizzles out near the middle. The last bit of it is terrible.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
It’s okay, but is somewhat boring. Not the best place to start off.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
First half is great, second half is trash. I’d say the second half is the worst of the series.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T
No doubt the best of the anime.
Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator
It’s much better than the manga, which I learned after reading it. This one is about in the same range as the first two index series.
This is the only anime to ever get close to explaining how magic works in the series.
Manga
Astral Buddy
I enjoyed this one quite a bit.
Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator
It’s…not great.
Toaru Idol no Accelerator-sama
This is honestly one of the best pieces of Toaru fiction created.
Toaru Kagaku no Dark Matter
It’s fine.
Tonari no Seki-kun
There's Something in the Sea
Notice: This is a review-only article, and is only listed on the reviews collections page!
Review
There's Something in the Sea
There’s Something in the Sea was an ARG created to promote the release of Bioshock 2. It also happens to be some of the best Bioshock content released and I highly recommend it for fans of the series.
The ‘game’ involves playing as the character of ‘Mark Meltzer’ a journalist who starts investigating the disappearances of little girls. It starts out with a map of the world, with the locations of kidnappings, alongside their dates, marked on it. Additionally, clippings from news articles, notes, and the occasional picture, start getting added to it.
TSitS is strangely captivating, and I found myself practically glued to the archive site…so much, I ended up forgetting to do stuff in life, like eat. The story is relatively simple, but the characters are so well written that they feel like real people, aided quite a bit by the acting. I did, however, at times end up mentally screaming at Mark, but this was not because he was doing anything stupid, but because he wasn’t doing what I would have done in a particular situation.
There is a summary video of it on YouTube, but I’d recommend going through the original, as the video leaves out a lot of details and isn’t nearly as captivating.
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- Note: It requires Flash to run and Ruffle only properly supports phase 1. However, if you install/use a browser that supports NPAPI plugins2) and you install Clean Flash Player; you won’t have issues.
Trivilinks
Twister
We follow a group of scientists who are crazy enough to chase tornadoes. The MC is a guy who stops chasing tornadoes because he wants to become a weathermanJ).
The premise is interesting and the execution is alright. The special effects were pretty good except for a few momentsK).
It felt like it went on too long, at least for me. The characters use Dorothy 3 times and the space between each feels too long.
Minor complaints aside, it’s a decent watch.
Unciv
Please no more…
— ninjasr 2022-08-01 14:27:05
Unciv is an open-source turn-based strategy game which is a straight up copy of inspired by the Civilization series of games.
I used to occasionally play it in the past, but I stopped once I realized I wasn’t having fun.
I don’t know, nor care, if what I say can/does apply to the Civ series. This is partially because I don’t intend to play any of the Civ games. However, I am convinced the Civ games are of a better quality, from what I know.
Victory in this game lies in only one thing: population. As long as you prioritize growing your population you will win no matter what happens. Population essentially generates all the other resources you need, so once you reach a certain point you’ll start rapidly outpacing everyone else…in everything.
To achieve rapid population growth you should prioritize tech that:
- Raises population growth (obviously)
- Raises food growth
- Gives buildings that provide either
Once you unlock religions it’s even easier, as there’s a god conveniently titled ‘god of fertility’ and, later, you can choose tenets that either increase population growth or food production.
While you could get a bunch of settlers to increase your overall population (and, by extension, increase your production of everything), this isn’t actually all that needed…but I do recommend it.
Of course, this makes the game somewhat boring, since you can simply overpower the AI…or dumb players.
An older version of the game had an exploit where you could trade tech with AI. Within just 4 turns you could become the most technologically advanced civ in the world. You would then proceed to overpower the AI.
Besides this easy exploit(?)3), the combat in this game is painful, especially in the late game. Unless you’re technologically superior to your enemy, fights will take ages. Sieges of cities however, are far worse. Cities have both defense and offense - while this is nice when you’re getting attacked by barbarians, it’s annoying when you’re trying to conquer. In the late-game, due to tech, cities are indestructible fortresses, where you’re forced to shell or bomb them to hell before you send an infantry division to kill themselves to take it. Even then, you will probably lose half your army in conquest. Being technologically superior is the only reasonable way to take this. The only upside to this is that it does force you to build up before you go to war…more realistic.
I don’t like this game, and I won’t be playing it again.