Anime Review: GATE & GATE S2: I don’t know if this some kind of Japanese propaganda but I know I want more of it

[SPOILER ALERT]

I always start this kind of review with my opnion on the whole and this couldn’t be different: The series went from “OK” to “Needs a new season” on the 30 seconds of the 14th episode.

At first meant to be a full season(24-5 episodes) one week earlier to the release of the 1st season on -as I remember- Fall 2015, the studio came and said that it would be divided in 2 courses, everyone was uncertain of the series, even the studio. The first season is a setting for what blows up on the second. Basically an out-of-nowhere portal appears on Akihabara and suddenly dragons and humans rampage out of it and the killing starts, we meet our main character the is a Japanese guy, otaku,a lucksack and Lieutenant Capitan on the Self Defense Force and he is really competent on that job although he is an otaku. After shit comes down the government of Japan tells the SDF to enter and secure land, they enter and find a fantasy land (from this point you can guess the rest but believe me, it’s worth watching) and they find the civilizations that live there humans,nekomimi,kitsunemimi and so on. After some stuff the folk from the new world start to interact with the SDF(even if it doesn’t appear at first, they do have a different language). And then the main character Itami Youji gets his 3 waifus (Beware of the bad names, for a time purpose I gonna only use fist names but in the anime you can hear the whole things)Lelei,Tuca or Chuca and Rory. 

-Side Note-: Rory in my opnion was the most important factor to bring this anime to the big public and I’m totally ok with that but I have to say, Rory is not a loli,like, for definition she is but in a sense she doesn't seems REALLY young.

An Ode to a fallen icon

I mean, if you do not know what happened, the image is autoexplanatory.

Well... shit. Before I start to rant let me set a precedent and say that I love Manga Rock and the team behind it by making an app that lasted as a benchmark for a decade. Now to the rant.

The context

Ever since the Tumblr purge of 2017 I never thought that something that could destroy such a huge user base could happen again. But here we are 22 of April of 2020, 1 day (on my timezone) after the shut down of reading in Manga Rock and here I am watching the reddit explode from inside out.

The situation

Not a basement studio (NBS), the studio behind Manga Rock has been struggling for years with the need for money and thus threats of lawsuits and the sort. Understandable, keeping one of the largest plataforms in any space costs money and as it grew it gained recognition and then came the legal problem with both Japan and US (companies, not necessarily government). From one side there are manga that are translated and sold in the US (US is an example you can use your country as an example) so if you distribute that unlicensed that can be called piracy. On the other side there are manga that may or may not be in the process of being translated or even then if you distribute the japanese copies raw it's still piracy. So... it's kinda complicated. Long story short, the writing on the wall was that there was a limit until someone would actually file NBS with a lawsuit, In the beggining of 2020 NBS warned through the app that they had to shut down MR as we know it but they were working on a successor. Fine, sad, but still, fine. They explained their side. Ok by me. Fast forward to Febuary we have that deadline and the phases on NBS plan to phase out MR. Still ok, looking for a substitute because they said the new app may not be available as the shut down happens. Understandable. Two weeks go by and.... COVID and chaos, people lose jobs, government mandated isolation, Steam breaks records of users. You get it and to this day (mid-April) we may have still a month of this. Thing is the shut down was delayed until now but NBS didn't say anything about why they delayed, a normal person would think "Oh, they will give us more time because of the pandemic and isolation." But then again, we may have another month of this and they fucking shut it down yesterday! And with no visible official announciment about the feedback because boy... They got some real feedback. Now. We knew it was coming but man. The timing and PR are inexistent, like, why now? But way, there is more. The Beta for the new app is out but ir's shit, like, REAL BAD SHIT.

The crux of the problem with the new app

The problem about the new app is not about the UI by far I couldn't care less about the UI as it's a new project but the shitty part and the thing that killed the app with one day of existence is the content. NBS is trying to go clean and license all content they distribute. Fine and alll on paper but let's remember that not even 10% of all manga published by big studios as Jump and so on reach western countries i. e. no license for more than 90% of all manga out there i.e. the majority of manga series will, most probably, not be in the new app so basically I have nothing to read there. Not to say that everything there now (Disney and chinese comics) are bad but come on, I went there for the drama-mature focused series and now I'm dead on the water. Not to mention the guys who paid for premium.

Conclusion and thoughts

Well. I don't know what to say. I want to believe NBS is trying to make this new app as good and free as MR. I can only hope because I'm still waiting to see anyone say the new app with its content is even ok.

I will be using Tachiyomi for the time being.

Good night sweet prince, all those years and all tears my FBI agent saw... Goodbye.

Anime Review: Maken-ki & Maken-ki Two: An animated guide of how to have a good manga, a good first anime season then making 16 OVAs, grabbing 10 of them, calling it a season and destroying the image of the series in the process

[SPOILER ALERT]

Disclaimer: This was originally written in early 2016, ever since then and, as it turns out I basically 180'd my opinion on the series so I might revisit this as a review of the manga and maybe some of my opinion on the authors. Now for the anime review.

Point of order, I started to read the manga because this series really caught my attention but the anime reached the “mediocre” level.

Basically I will just say what the anime says (that is not much) about the story and so. Basically there’s a kind of nature’s power anyone can use if they train and it’s called Element but that alone do little things, there are artifacts that can bring the true power of Element to the wielder,those are called Maken. To the ones who want to train the powers there is this place called Tenbi Academy which turned co-ed just the year before the main character enters the school,<insert surname> Takeru and 1 minute later we get to know <insert surname> Haruko, who tells the story as inside narrator and out of nowhere we get to know both Himegami Kodama and <insert surname> Inaho.(Cuttitng to the chase) After some episodes they kind of explain really without explaining much the deal with Kodama wanting to kill Takeru and why the school is target of attacks and a lot of other things. At this point you have a full catalog of waifus and all, the story is basically settled as: there is a club that is called Kenkeibu and also Maken-ki and that has to do with the student council cuz they got to ensure fair duels and peace at the school(this is the much the anime tells). The first season ends wish a girl of the Kamigari organization releasing Takeru’s wild power and he gets saved by the waifus. The season ends with the good vibe of “the second season will clarify my questions” or so I thought. - Personal Note-: This first season review looks down on the good points of the source material because after I started reading the manga I got really mad at the anime because the manga is WAY better than the anime in many ways.

Now, calling Maken-Ki Two a second season is way too much. Those are OVAs straight, direct and without questioning. There is no chronology between the episodes not to say that there is no actual storyline at all. Those episodes are good as OVAs full of funny moments, fan service and so forth but calling that a second season is just offensive to the ones who really expected a continuation and that is most of the reason I can’t give a good recommendation to this anime. If you want something full of fan service and laughs go ahead and watch it but if you want story you would be better off reading the manga. 

Anime review: Love Live! School Idol Project & Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season: All that waifu material and yet...

[SPOILER ALERT]

This one is controversial to me,I went for God Tier waifus and average story and I ended up finding mid-to-top tier waifus and a-little-above-average story. The anime resolves in a simple way, the problem is shown in the first 4 minutes of the first episode. From that point on the first season wraps itself showing the way till the group gathers all the 9 waifus, the internal ships and the competition that names the anime. From this point I spoil that since there's a second season is no mystery that they don't win,Well. They actually give up on entering after they discover that the crisis -school closing - is averted thanks to an earlier performance of theirs and so the season continues and end with one of the first 3 -Kotori- going study abroad but she doesn’t tell anyone and they end up arguing and airport scene of “Please don’t go”.... You know the thrill.

Second season is a little more straight to the point... more or less. The third-years are going to graduate and “luckly” the Love Live gets to be earlier than expected *(¬ - ¬) seriously?* and they go like “Last concert with all 9 of us” but at some point comes to them that if they wer not together they should change the group’s name - which ticked me a bit cuz... c’mon. What group stays with the original formation forever? But I let it pass since it’s an anime- and then this becomes really a problem when they get a block to singing because of that and I went like “Motherefocka you did wat?” This remembered why I’m always skeptical about anime with only girls as main characters - Don’t get this as a machist statement, my point is: as a male in my early 20′s I just don’t see the reasoning in some of girl’s inner conflicts. But yeah, they go to the competition, win and happy ending.

As for a review, If I was to grade it,a 6,5/10 would do it for overall, a 5 or 5,5/10 to story,music depends on your taste so it’s x/10, art 7/10 and for waifus in general 7,5/10 my personal favorites are both Maki (Obviously) and Nozomi.

I won’t recommend the anime by itself but as it’s high commented and nearly everyone in the community have their own waifu from here it is a good add to the portifolio.

Content disclaimer

If you have not checked my profile on Bloogger, I had a tumblr blog where I ranted about anime and related stuff. I'm getting back to writting that kind of review and I'm moving the content from the old plataform over to here so  expect some post with some inconsistency issues when talking about my point of view on series and so on.

First episode review: Qualidea Code

[SMALL BUT YET SPOILER ALERT]

It’s been quite some time since I wrote the last one of this but here it is, a First Episode review. Qualidea Code This one got me really hyped since it was announced, well, how could I not? The staff reached the "dream team" level. Minds and artists behind some well known and some of my favorite series: Kawamura Kenichi  , responsible for Devil May Cry and Black Lagoon; Tachibana Koushi, creator of Date a live; Watari Wataru, responsible for Oregairu and Sagara Sou responsible for HenNeko. 

From the first episode it's easy to detect the way things will roll, Action, Magic, Romance and a sip of Harem.Doesn’t really sound that great but believe me it’s look pretty good. The episode felt 10 minutes long despite the 25 minutes size, Characters archtype are top knotch, ones that are not used as main in normal ones which adds a special flavor to it.

The prospect is good as the as the art really fits the way things go and the relations between the main characters are not plain but developed at some point.

Looking for the development of this piece