Cyberpunk Edgerunners

Normally I wouldn't talk about a show like this because I am not well versed in the genre or the table top RPG that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on but I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week after I finished it. I'm going to approach this post from two ways: 1. How the anime itself worked out for me and 2. Just how much it uses stuff from 2077. This isn't going to be a full-on review in my usual style and will be me just talking about how the show did its thing.

Premise: David Martinez is having a really bad time. A poor kid getting bullied at a corpo school and whose mom is just barely keeping everything together in order to raise the scratch to cover his tuition. On top of that, during one really bad day, he and his mom get caught up in a gang shootout and she dies. Pushed to the edge by the city's madness, David falls in with a crew of Edgerunners just to survive and feel some semblance of control or purpose.

I had a blast with this show. I started it only planning to watch the first two episodes and before I knew it, I was on the final episode. The fights in this show are absolutely insane looking which is to be expected from Trigger. The way the show visualizes how the Sandevistan works is absolutely gorgeous and beautifully done. It left my jaw on the floor every time David used it. The show looks stunning across the board. This show is one hell of a trip.

Night City is rough if you're not working for a corp and thats putting it mildly. If you don't get killed as collateral damage in some gang attack, you just might run into some random spaced out psycho in a back-alley who'll blast your head off at a moment's notice. Thats not even getting into the amount of gonks on the street who might try to mess with you as you go about your day. The only way to survive as a runner is to chrome up so you don't fall behind and the more you add, the more your clock ticks down. I figured out how the show would most likely end by the halfway point and I was still on the edge of my seat.

I'm not gonna lie, I've spent way too much time roaming Night City in 2077. In all honesty, I've spent more time than I should have farming Night City's mooks for item drops. Its basically my go-to game these days when I'm not playing stuff on the Switch. However, it did not occur to me just how long I've spent playing it until I saw this show. I knew exactly where every scene was taking place just based on minor background details. It more than did the city justice. Even the show's soundtrack is pulled from the game and I'm almost certain I heard a few sound effects from the game here and there. I think I may have also seen a few quickhack menu displays from the game fly by at one point.

Do I recommend the show? Definitely. Everything else aside, its a Trigger anime and it goes hard on the spectacle. I honestly think it would be worth a recommendation on that aspect alone. Overall, I had a great time with the show. I don't see any way to continue the story from this season but if there were another season and/or anime spinoff, I'd like it to be sort of a season long anthology type of show. I'd love to see a season centered around the gangs of Night City and how they interact. Maybe also a season about corporate power struggles and skullduggery.

Isekai World Tour: Sword Art Online: Aincrad Arc

Lets rip this bandage off and talk about SAO. I'm going to handle this differently than my other posts in this series. I'm going to split this show up by arc as opposed to season so each arc will get its own post (also because there is only so much Kirito I can handle in one viewing). This mostly because the first arc of SAO ended up being more enjoyable than I remembered and its really in Alfheim where my issues with it as a whole start cropping up. Welcome to the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!

Premise: The hottest and most anticipated new mmo has dropped. 10,000 lucky players log in to get a feel for the game and everything is going fine...right up until they log out. Suddenly they're transported to a town square as the sky goes red. The Game Master appears and tells them that they're stuck here until they beat the game and if they die in the game, the nerve gear will fry their brains. He congratulates them for being able to play his little game and wishes them luck.

I surprisingly enjoyed this arc more than I did the last time around. Its not bad but its not amazing either (well, outside of two episodes) and I have a few minor issues that don't break the arc for me. Kirito is still op as hell tho. The first half of the arc was really good but honestly, it gets kinda boring once Kirito and Asuna get together. Its one of those things where the constant time skips makes me not believe their relationship because its not shown on-screen until they get together. I legitimately said "WTF!" out loud when Asuna tells another player that Kirito is her reason for living. The arc is at its best when its just Kirito bumping into people and helping them out. Easily the best episodes in the arc for me are episodes 5 and 6. They're a pretty sweet murder mystery about players somehow getting PK-ed in safe zones. Its a fantastic episode that gives a decent amount of insight into how certain aspects of the game work. 

Kirito is a weird protagonist for this kind of story because the people he meets are more interesting than him. I would've loved to see an episode centered around Klein or the merchant guy. Outside of Asuna, the supporting cast isn't there consistently. I honestly would've preferred if this arc had been an anthology following Kirito as he helps people out during his traveling because the relationship with Asuna and her guild don't really add anything until the final two episodes. Actually now that I think about it, this show might have been better off if each episode had a different pov character in general.

I'm torn on the Yui episode, its an ok episode but its also a bit manipulative. Spoilers: Kirito and Asuna find an amnesiac girl while on vacation and adopt her while they try to figure out who she is and if and she has any family. She isn't a player, she isn't even human. She is a mental health algorithm designed to study and help people acclimate to SAO. The system admin forbad her from doing that so she could only watch on in horror at the players' mental anguish until her code bugs out and she seeks out the only two happy players in the game: Kirito and Asuna. See the problem yet?  Yui is designed to poke, prod, and study people's mental state and because of that, she inadvertently sort of controls the responses people will have to her. So I'm not sure how much of their "family" was legitimately Kirito and Asuna liking her and how much was Yui's programming accidentally causing them to react that way. It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth the more I think about it.

Final Thoughts: All things considered, the arc is ok and it held my attention well enough. As mentioned earlier, the second half of the arc is a let down compared to the first. The show makes a point of saying a few times how emotionally scarred and terrified the player base is due to being stuck in the game but it only really shows it in one or two episodes thanks to all the timeskips. Sadly from what I remember of the next arc of the show, its all downhill from here.

Air Gear: The Power Of One Fantastic Idea

Lets get this out of the way: I love Air Gear. Its honestly one of my favorite anime and not because of the plot, characters, or really any event that happens in the show. Thats not to say its a bad show, its just rather standard and nothing to really write home about. What makes the show stand out for me all comes down to one simple and admittedly fantastic idea. This is gonna be more in-line with how my Isekai World Tour posts work instead of it being a full on review.

What is that fantastic idea? Its one simple part of the show: The Air Treks. Air Treks (ATs) are these sweet rollerblades with an exceptionally powerful motor thats both small enough to fit in the skates and powerful enough to let the user ride up the sides of buildings and jump far enough to fly through the air. They are amazing and really give the show its own distinct feel. They're basically the backbone of the show imo. I'm gonna be honest, I don't like sports anime. I find them to be insincere and can't get into them due to not finding the love of the sport believable. However, I whole-heartedly believe every single second of Air Gear. When the opening theme (Chain) kicks in while a character describes what their first time riding was like and how ATs changed their perspective on life or let them forget their troubles, it legitimately feels like they've found their wings. I get hyped every time the show pulls that trick. Hell, I suck at rollerskating in general and have a massive fear of heights but I'd probably be willing to risk breaking my neck just to feel what its like to fly. I want to be able to feel the wind on my face, take off like a rocket, soar through the air, and scale buildings with nothing but wheels attached to my feet. Thats how well the show sold the idea of ATs to me.

As mentioned earlier, the rest of the show isn't much to write home about. The main character and his friends are about what you'd expect and they don't really go outside of that. They're slackers when it comes to everything accept ATs and one is pretty pervy for the sake of a joke. The dub itself is 2000s as hell to the point where I'm pretty certain the reason it makes some of the jokes it does is because they were certain it wouldn't air on tv. The plot is as a bog standard as it gets for a sports anime as well. Despite what I said about it being a good mood setter for flying scenes in the show, I'm not really that big on the opening theme, it just works really well in those scenes. Its not bad, its merely ok. The ATs are what push the show from ok into great for me. In fact, after rebinging it all, I desperately wanted more Air Gear content. The way this show treats the ATs alone is enough for me to give it a recommendation. As of right now, my only option is to read the manga and oh boy from my research into that thing does the manga get stupid. Honestly, I think the show was right to end where it did but I wouldn't be opposed to a season two.

Isekai World Tour: Konosuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Seasons 1 and 2

I know I already covered this show on the blog before but I reread my original review and I really didn't say much about the show other than that I liked it so it was due for a redo. Like the other posts in this series, this post is probably gonna be kinda short. Welcome to the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!

Premise: After a tragic and frankly pretty embarrassing death, Kazuma Sato appears before the goddess Aqua. She insults him and laughs in his face about how he died and then "graciously" offers to bring him back to life in another world with a single boon to take with him. Kazuma is the petty and vindictive sort so he chooses to take the goddess herself as his boon.

How do I describe this show? Back when I first watched it, I was just testing it out as this kind of comedy can be very hit or miss with me. It took a few episodes for me to get a feel for the show but by episode 4, I was on board with it. I absolutely adore this cast. They're just one big lovable catastrophe of an rpg party. This party only has 2 braincells between the 4 of them and Kazuma has one of them. You have the overpowered but basically useless arrogant idiot (Aqua), the hyper focused mage obsessed with one spell (Megumin), and my favorite: Darkness. Darkness is the best of the trio for me. She is a crusader specifically because she likes getting hit and she can't hit back due to her low accuracy. Thats something she basically admits to in the show. I don't usually enjoy characters like her but man, this party and show really makes her work. All 3 of them combined makes for one enjoyable headache for Kazuma. It is never a boring day for the man with these 3 ladies. I can't really go into much else about the show because imo, how the party plays off of each other and the shenanigans they get into because of it is the main draw. There isn't really much an overarching plot at they just happen to luck into fighting the evil generals. Saying anything else about it would also basically require me spoil the jokes and thats not really something I should do for a comedy.

Final Thoughts: I started typing this before season 3 got announced. I miss these lovable idiots and I'm really looking forward to season 3. The show somehow manages to side step the cringe aspects of its characters' comedy. It manages to do it so well that I actually found myself laughing about Darkness'...tendencies. Not just any laughs for that matter, minute long deep laughs. For real, if you asked me which character I was certain I would've hated when I first saw this show, it would've been Darkness. This show managed to leave me a smile on my face with each episode. Its is easily one of my favorite isekai anime to the point where I actually want merch from it. However, its not a show I can easily recommend, mostly because if the comedy or characters don't click with you, you're probably gonna be bored or annoyed.

Isekai World Tour: In Another World With My Smartphone

You know, there are so many other light novel adaptations I should cover in this series but for some reason I really just have the urge to vent about this one. Its not something I'd consider bad, its just really meh. Also, this is specifically just going to be about the anime, not the novels as I haven't read them so if any of my complaints are rectified there, I won't know. Now, join me on the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!

Premise: God screws up and accidentally drops a lightning bolt on 15 year old Touya Mochizuka. He is surprisingly chill about being dead all things considered. As an apology God brings him back to life in another world and grants Touya's one request...to bring his smartphone with him.

First off, I really don't like the title. It sounds like the setup to a joke that never comes, which honestly sums up the show itself imo. The show's whole setup makes it sound like it should be a parody but its not. Furthermore, God also grants Touya a few other gifts he didn't ask for. He enhances Touya's physical abilities and (this part is a sticking point I have with it), he grants him complete magical affinity with all the elements. Due to this, Touya can learn every spell in that world, including custom abilities that are effectively rng-ed into people at birth.

All of that wouldn't be much of a problem if anything in the world could touch him. Between him being so broken and his chill nature, there is absolutely no tension in the show whatsoever. So the show just feels like a sequence of things that happen. I can't even call it a power fantasy (ugh...I hate using that term due to it being a tad too broad imo) because of all that. Its an odd case where the story is too chill for its own good. Maybe that changes as the novels go on but the anime doesn't have any really draw to it imo. Even the characters didn't manage to grab me. I know I keep complaining about this but Touya is way too chill to be interesting. The show doesn't go much into the female cast either so...yeah, there is virtually nothing to this cast at all.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this post is kinda short given my usual lengths.This show just strikes me as a way to kill time and thats about all there is to it overall. Its way too chill for its own good. It doesn't go beyond what you'd think it would and doesn't really do anything interesting with the semi-comedic premise. Its not bad but there really isn't a big draw to it. It kinda feels like the only reason this was adapted was because of the Isekai boom. I can't even recall anything about the world he was dumped into. I dunno, maybe the novels fix my problems with it as they go on but I can't really say this made me even want to check out the novels after seeing the show. Thats really all I have to say about the show since it basically gave me nothing.

Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign

Isekai is a genre I'm rather fond of even if a lot of it comes off as same-y. I have found some I really dig but I've never done a deep dive into the genre before. There are so many I should cover at some point: Log Horizon? Re:Zero? SAO (ugh)? Konosuba (ok I already did a post on that but still)? There are so many Isekai to choose from these days (and I really should experience just how much the genre has to offer) but I figured before covering anything new-ish, I'd go back to the first Isekai-ish show I ever saw. This is going to be less of a review in my usual style and more my thoughts on the show in general so its not going to be in-depth. Welcome to the first stop on the Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign!

Premise: A player of an mmo game awakens after passing out in a dungeon. He can't remember exactly what happened before he passed out. To his surprise he also can't log out and even then, he doesn't particularly want to. In addition to that, he can now do things that outright break the game's rules landing him in the sights of a few other players in The World. If that wasn't bad enough, strange unkillable monsters are starting to pop up. Only one thing seems to be (relatively) certain: The mysterious Key of The Twilight just might be the lynchpin of it all.

Full disclosure...I went into this show with relatively fresh eyes cuz it had been so long since I'd seen it that my memories were hazy at best. I was pleasantly surprised with the show. There was a lot more talking than I would've figured going into this and quite a bit of meandering early on. With that being said, its actually a pretty solid character study and has a decently intriguing mystery. Tsukasa learning that while his mind is trapped in the game he can feel everything happening to him but can't actually die because the entity keeping him there won't let him was downright horrifying. The man has an existential crisis wondering if he is even real at all.

While Tsukasa is the main focus of the show, I dig the supporting cast. They all get some nice moments and in the case of BT and Bear, we get a look at their lives outside the game. Bear's focus episode is great because it asks the question of how much of his desire to help Tsukasa comes from his desire to make up for failing to be apart of his own son's life. He eventually comes to the conclusion that he legitimately does want to help the kid. Pretty much thinking that no matter how bad the real world is for a person, its healthier not to spend it all in a world of fantasy. As for BT, well...she just straight up prefers the virtual world to the real world. Its not really delved into but I kinda got this vibe that her irl life was kind of sad, hence her insistence that reality is reality and a game is a game and that the two should never mix. That basically implies that the game is all she has in her life. Its even more apparent because she makes friends with a former member of the Crimson Knights (Crim) while chasing down the mystery of the key and when she wants to meet up irl to hangout and he shuts her down because he has the same mentality she does. There isn't much to Mimiru because she never wrestles with the question the others do. That being if they should help Tsukasa even if its not what Tsuaka wants. Mimiru is all in for trying to help him really early on and she doesn't really back down from that. There are three other characters in the show (Sora, Crim, and Silver Knight) who I can't really talk about for spoiler reasons. Sora's overall plot isn't finished until the video games and Crim and Silver Knight tie into Subaru and I can't really talk about her.

I'm not going to get into the main mystery because well, gotta leave some mystery to the show. I will say this, if you're going into it for the first time, you'll probably figure out what the key is at about the halfway point of the show as thats when Tsukasa does even if he doesn't say it out loud. Because of that, I also can't talk much about Tsukasa and by extension Subaru. I will say that in the end Subaru basically becomes Tsukasa's rock and helps him take that one step forward.

Music: The only thing I remembered from my first viewing of the show is the music which is still fantastic. Its actually even better than I remember and its downright haunting. Yuji Kajura pulled out all the stops for this soundtrack. I swear if I could mute everything except the music, I would totally have it on in the background as a I go about my day. Its easily one of my favorite soundtracks from any show I've seen. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it and I wish I could track it down just so I can play it as I go about my day.

Final Thoughts: I uh...don't really have much to say as a closer. There was a lot about this show that I did not remember. I know there is a contingent of folks these days who hold the talk-y bits against it but honestly, I don't see the point of the hate. Even the non-plot talk-y bits are important because its character interactions letting them get closer to each other so that they can build to the eventual moment when all of the cast comes together for Tsukasa's sake. The change brought on by the talk-y bits are entire reason BT sides with Tsukasa in the end despite only caring about the mystery of the key itself in the beginning. Its not a show I can easily recommend but if you haven't seen it, give it a look if you're curious. You might get as much out of it as I did.

My Thoughts On Boruto

Been meaning to do this for a while...lets talk about Boruto. I liked Naruto in the beginning but then Shippuden dragged on and on that I got kinda of sick of it. At the time of this post I'm about 70-ish episodes in as shounen anime is not something I watch weekly. I find it much easier to watch while marathoning. I'm gonna give my thoughts on the arcs I've seen so far and other stuff pertaining to the show.

Boruto is a perfectly fine show...when its focusing the kids and not the lingering threads from Naruto. The Nue arc, the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc, and Byakuya Gang arc are probably the best examples of where Boruto's strengths as a story lies. I also particularly like the stuff centering around Mitsuki. Though thats mostly because I find it fascinating that he isn't just a pawn in an Orochimaru scheme. Dude just wanted a kid and gave him the free will to follow his own path.

The power scaling regarding the kids seems a bit off. Iwabe I can buy being able to use earth style since he its outright stated that he was held back a lot. I can also understand the kids who have clan specific justu already having mastered them before entering the academy. However, they all seem a bit too skilled in their academy days for kids who aren't even official ninja (Iwabe withstanding cuz again, he is older than everyone else). It irks me in particular that Boruto himself is able to use lightning style right off the bat (though at the very least they do state its his natural chakra element so maybe thats why) and he was able to get the hang of wind style just by watching Mitsuki do it a few times even if he failed to do the wind scythe properly. Him figuring out the Rasengan I can sort of buy but the instinctual elemental change irks me because somehow Boruto can just use lightning style without thinking about it. That felt kinda like they just wanted give him his own custom Rasengan early on to separate him from Naruto.

It also irks me that they seem to have broken the Sharingan a bit. Sarada activates it for the 1st time during the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc without the massive chakra drain that is supposed to happen once its triggered (yeah its worse for non-Uchiha but even Sasuke looked like he was tiring out from using it in the Haku fight besides all the damage he took). She also figured out the copy ability really quickly and thats where another change became evident. The Sharingan seems to scale back the chakra requirements for copied jutsu to something the user can handle now. She copied a lightning style justu and elemental stuff in general is supposed to require a fairly decent amount of chakra on its own. The guys there were facing during this arc were either Chunin or Jonin (can't remember which) so that fight should've been way out of their league since they weren't even Genin yet. Yet they all came out with barely any scratches.

They were fighting these guys

The "prodigy" explanation only goes so far as even though Sasuke was considered a prodigy because he could use fire style, he still had to train and struggle (my head hurts just saying something good about Sasuke). It also really doesn't hold water for a good chunk of Boruto's classmates since we don't know who their parents are.

The opening arc of the show had me hooked after 4 episodes. It was a great introduction Boruto and his classmates. The first few episodes a give you a good feel for how much things have advanced during the time-skip. The later half of the arc centers around some left over stuff from Danzo's foundation. Its also a bit of a revelation that even though the world has moved on since the 4th Ninja War, the Leaf still has some aspects of its past that it needs to deal with.

Despite the weird power-scaling, the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc was really good imo. Its essentially Boruto's class going on a field trip to help build solidarity between the two villages. Their trip happens to coincide with an attempted coup de ta. Boruto befriends Kagura,the front-runner for the title of Mizukage. Sadly the guy leading the coup knows a lot of about Kagura uses his guilt over being related to the Mizukage that instituted the killing exam Zabuza mentioned to manipulate Kagura into joining the coup. Its essentially a really nice, dramatic arc about the Hidden Mist needing to deal with the sins of its past. Its especially effective as Kagura was able to realize that he is not responsible for his family's sins. Its also a nice parallel alongside the first arc.

The Byakuya Gang stuff is really good. Its essentially an arc about a gang of "thieves of justice" from the Land of Snow breaking into the Leaf's science office to steal gadget with data on every jutsu ever created. In order to cover their theft and escape, they actually slowly make the workers in the Leaf village more and more disgruntled until they take to the streets in protest. The subplot is about Shikadai befriending a kid in the part over a game them just hanging out. Naturally the kid winds up being apart of the gang and since Shikadai helped come up with a plan to track them the two come to blows. The kid gets thrown in jail for taking part in the theft but decides to do better when he gets out as he found out that the "thieves of justice" he works for just common crooks during the heist. The kid has this interesting ice style jutsu that hypnotizes people via reflections in the icicles.

The Shin Uchiha arc is just downright stupid and pointless even from a character perspective. The entire thing is about Sarada not being 100% sure Sakura is her mother because of a photo of Sasuke and his old crew from his days with Orochimaru. She goes looking for Sasuke to get the truth from him. You know the drill for this type of setup, she finds "evidence" that Sakura isn't her real mom (the "evidence" led to miscommunication that made her think Karin was her mom) and its revealed its all because of a mix up and that Sakura is actually Sarada's mom. It honestly would've been much better handled if the arc had revealed that Karin was actually Sarada's mom but that Sarada didn't care because she'd only known Sakura as her mother this whole time and Sakura took care of her. The idea that family isn't just blood would've added another layer to this arc. This arc also just glorifies Sasuke so...no, thats points off for it in and of itself. Somehow Sarada doesn't have daddy issues. I legitimately don't understand that.You probably noticed I didn't cover Shin Uchiha...thats cuz he doesn't add much of anything to the arc despite being the villain. Just something about wanting to kill Sasuke for killing Itachi and that he has an army of clones of himself. This is the worst arc out of all of them so far.

The Chunin exam arc was great and I was really digging the updated tests. All the tournament fights were pretty fun to watch. It showed off a lot new and different jutsu and fighting tactics while avoiding dragging the fights out longer than needed. The "Don't cheat!" lesson for Boruto was handled well enough. It was easily my favorite arc at that point...then the stuff with Kaguya's clan crashed right into it and tanked it for me. During that stretch of episodes I just sat there bored and counting down how long I had until the kids (besides Boruto) became relevant again. Not really much kids can do in a fight between gods. It felt a bit like a slap in the face to have an arc centered mainly around the kids and then side-lining them for a less than stellar meta-plot thats trying to help tie up loose threads from Naruto's ninja war arc.

Like I said before, the show is actually pretty fun when its not focusing on the stuff from Naruto or when the characters from Naruto aren't taking center stage. Boruto's plot-line about having issues with Naruto is a bit irritating. Him wanting to step out of Naurto's shadow is perfectly fine. However, him thinking Naruto is a bad father is just dumb. I know he is a kid but someone likely would've explained Naruto's philosophy in great detail to him before his issues with Naruto being Hokage ever got this far. Now that doesn't absolve Naruto of neglecting his family in favor of the village. I can buy him relying on his shadow clones to make sure he can fulfill his duties has Hokage, however I feel the way he does it is wrong. He has his clones spend time with his family so he can do his job as Hokage. Given Naruto's personality, it should be the clones doing the work while he spends time with his family. Another part I don't like is the chosen one plot-line for Boruto as its a tad over-done as far as shounen anime is concerned and its weird that they gave him that when his main goal is to escape his father's shadow. Overall, its an alright show that fans of Naruto will probably like, I just wished it stopped trying to expand on notes from the original show and focused squarely on the kids finding their way in the world.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Review

Man, thats a long title but anyway, moving on. This anime is a weird one for me and not just because its a comedy (I don't watch very many comedic anime). Its because well...normally I'd hate 3 out of 4 of the main characters. Its just so well done that I love these jerks. This is also one of those anime where I have to spoil some parts so I'll just give my opinion before hand: I enjoyed this show so much that I found myself sort of heart-broken when the words "Thank you for playing" popped up at the end of season 2 instead of a bumper for season 3. I can't recommend this anime enough. With that out of the way: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!

Unfortunately, this an anime where I'm going to have to spoil the first episode to explain the setup. This is partially because its the first joke and partially because while the show has a plot, it takes a back seat to the comedy and isn't really a major focus. This shut-in otaku named Kazuma goes out to pick up the latest game. On his way back, he sees a girl about to be hit by a "truck", pushes her out of the way, and supposedly gets run over. He then finds himself in front of the goddess Aqua who offers him the chance to reborn on Earth or be brought back to life in another world and go on adventures to slay the Demon King while being given a special power or weapon. This is where the catch and comedy comes in. Aqua mocks him for his death and reveals that truck that hit him was really just a slow moving tractor and that he died of shock because he thought he was gonna be run over. Kazuma is kinda of vindictive so he chooses Aqua herself as the thing he is taking with him simply because she made fun of him. From there we essentially follow their misadventures in this fantasy world. Each episode's main plot is solved rather quickly as a part of the joke and then the episode moves on from there.

Now, as I said above, the plot takes a back seat to the comedy so the characters, their interactions, and the jokes will determine whether or not you enjoy the show. Normally, I'd hate most of these characters but honestly, I love the main four so much.

• Kazuma: Kazuma is a really fun protagonist. Dude thought he'd be some awesome adventurer with incredibly high stats only to end up painfully average. He is in his element in this new world even if it doesn't play out like he thought it would. He constantly comes up with strategies only for him to be exasperated with his party members, particularly Aqua. They prefer just doing their own thing. He is also pretty quick to figure out an enemy's weakness.
• Aqua: Aqua is the biggest jerk of the show. She is whiny, arrogant, insufferable, and kind of stupid. Thats the entire point of her character. Despite all that I don't hate her. This is because the show makes those tendencies of hers a punchline a few times. Due to her actually being a goddess, she has incredibly high stats except for intelligence. She is easily the strongest character in the show yet the most useless at the same time.
• Megumin: Megumin is the Arch Mage. She is basically a glass cannon. She only knows one spell...Explosion! She can learn more spells but she only uses Explosion because its powerful and she just loves to blow stuff up. It is also so powerful that it leaves her unable to move afterwards.
• Darkness: Darkness is the group's Crusader. She is also well...a masochist and its probably the reason she decided to be a tank. Thats pretty much the bulk of the comedy with her. She runs head-first into battle taking hit after hit after hit. She drools at the prospect of being brutally beaten and used by her opponents. Thankfully she has the strength to take those hits and keep going. She constantly misreads situations and implies dirtier and more disturbing things than whats actually being said. Normally stuff like that would make me cringe but it made me laugh every single time the show did it. Her stuff is probably my favorite gag in the entire show.

Sadly this anime only has 2 seasons at the time of this post. Its continued in light novels so if you're hooked enough on the show, you do have an avenue for their further misadventures. I haven't read the light novels yet so I can't vouch for how things go after the end point of season 2 of the anime. Due to it being a comedy, its kind of hard for me to get my point across but I do recommend giving the anime a shot if you don't mind not getting a complete story in that form.

My Hero Academia Seasons 1 and 2 Review

Lets start the new year off on a positive note. I was seeing really good press for this show before my laptop went down and since I had time to kill when it went down, I decided to check it out. Man, this thing was right up my alley. At first I was afraid this was gonna be show one of those shows that was all hype and no substance like Attack on Titan. I got so engrossed with this thing. Normally I'd give a recommendation at the end of the review but before I go into detail I'll just say this: Give it a watch, you'll probably like it.

I've seen two other superhero anime, those two being Tiger & Bunny and One-Punch Man. This one differs from the other two in that superpowers are incredibly common in this world, roughly 80% of the human population has some sort of special ability (known as Quirks). Naturally, powers being that common leads to villains misusing their powers and heroes rising up to stop them. The show centers around Izuku Midoriya, a boy who grew up idolizing heroes and wanted to become one himself. Sadly, he was born without a Quirk which is almost unheard of at this point. That all changes when he runs into his hero All Might. After seeing Izuku's drive to become a hero and seeing his heroic nature, he decides to pass his Quirk One For All on to him so Izuku can achieve his dream. From there the show follows Izuku's life at U.A.

Before I get to the characters and other stuff, I want to talk about the Quirks themselves. I love how the show handles them. They're all unique and memorable. Some of them are extremely powerful but they also have some interesting downsides. There are a ton of Quirks so I'll just talk about some of my favorites. Tokoyami's Dark Shadow gets stronger in darkness and weaker in the light. There is a guy in the festival arc whose body can turn to metal and his downside is that he has to eat a lot of iron or the metal gets weaker. My favorite downside is Denki's. He can generate massive amounts of electricity but if he generates too much, his brain short-circuits and he becomes an idiot for a while. Heck, even though Midoriya has One For All, he can't bring out his full power without shattering his bones on impact. They go into so much detail about how the Quirks work that they actually manage to make characters who would normally be outright broken appear on the same level as everyone else. Whether is a flaw in the Quirk or the person using it, everyone has a weak-point no matter how powerful they are. Considering its in a genre known for being all about broken protagonists just wrecking every opponent, that is an amazing feat.

The characters are fine and enjoyable, I have no complaints about most of them so far. My favorite character is probably Deku since I tend to enjoy that type of character a lot. He is definitely my kind of protagonist. Todoroki is definitely a close second. Erasure Head is probably my favorite of the teachers since he is tough but also knows when to cut someone some slack. His Quirk is also really interesting along with how he fights. With that being said, there is one character that annoys me: Bakugo. Characters like Bakugo are normally fine with me but if this wasn't a show about kids learning to be heroes, I'd be treating Bakugo like a villain. His personality doesn't read like someone who would be a hero in any other context. He classmates even joked about him sounding like a villain at one point. Its an odd thing for me to harp on but he just feels out of place compared to everyone else. With that being said, he doesn't actually make me angry, just annoyed at him when he shoots his mouth off. I know he'll probably get better down the road so I won't hold him against the show itself.

I love that Izuku still has to think strategically even though All For One is technically the strongest Quirk in the show right now. Its sort of refreshing to see that level of power have that big of a downside for him. He is able to come up with so many work-arounds like focusing the power into his fingertips so he can stay in the fight. The dude even has detailed notebooks filled with info on the other students/teachers and their Quirks. He can figure out how an opponent's Quirk works and adapts pretty fast. That resourcefulness and level of analysis is something you'd expect from an admitted superhero fanboy who grew up idolizing heroes without a Quirk of his own. Seeing him train and learn to make One For All his own while learning to control it has been great.

What more can I say? Its a show that has definitely gone beyond my expectations and has a ton of charm to it. I highly recommend it to any of my readers who are fans of anime, tokusatsu, and superheroes in general. There is so much thought put into the show that I can honestly say it deserves every single bit of praise I've seen it get. Its a fantastic show and I can't recommend it enough. This is without a doubt the best show I saw in 2017. Thats pretty much all I've got to say so I'll leave you all with this: Go beyond...PLUS ULTRA!!!

One-Punch Man First Impressions

Yeah I'm kinda late to the party on this one. I've been watching One-Punch Man lately on Toonami. I'm actually rather enjoying it so far. Its fun and hasn't managed to disappoint me action-wise. This one is gonna be shorter than my usual posts like this.

I'm not going to give a basic overview of the setup like I usually do since I think a lot of superhero/toku fans have likely seen this show by now. Essentially monsters and supervillains have started showing up so heroes have arisen to combat them. The strongest of them by far is a man named Saitama.

I like the idea of the Hero Association. As much as I love Tiger and Bunny, the Hero Association in One-Punch Man is more what something like that would realistically be like. Anyone can be a hero provided they pass the written and physical tests. The heroes are also ranked and scored based on their activity and ability. A nice detail I like is that the C-class heroes get kicked from the Association if they're inactive for a week. The show also manages to make each of the heroes and villains memorable in one way or another. If I were to pick my character favorite so far, its probably either Genos or Speed of Sound Sonic (yes thats actually his name). Genos is basically a cyborg who admires Saitama's strength and wants to become stronger so he becomes Saitama's student. He keeps trying to figure out how he got that strong and doesn't believe Saitama did it through regular training. He is a lot more serious-minded about being a hero than Saitama. Sonic is a ninja that just wants to fight Saitama as Saitama was the first person to ever beat him so he wants to prove that he is stronger.

This show is so close to One Piece levels of weird for me. Its sort of so odd feeling that I can't put it into words. I can definitely say this much about it though: Its fun. It also doesn't take itself too seriously. I particularly like how no one believes that Saitama got this strong just by doing strength training. You've got all these special beings just assuming that Saitama has superpowers just because he is strong enough to blow pretty much anything away with one punch. The show is pretty fun in terms of its action. I was actually rather invested while watching a simple training fight between Saitama and Genos.

I was sort of hesitant to watch this because of all the hype. I was worried it would end up like Attack On Titan and that I'd run into particularly militant fans if I didn't like it. Unlike Attack On Titan, I totally see how this got popular. It honestly deserves ever bit of praise I've seen it get. I'm definitely enjoying myself with this show. I particularly like how Saitama doesn't make a big deal about his strength while everyone else is going nuts trying to figure out how he got that strong. Thats really all I've got to say about this show so far. On the off-chance you haven't seen it yet, check it out, you'll probably enjoy it.

What I love about One Piece

Ok, I know I already talked about this during my post on the Big 3, but I've been playing One Piece Romance Dawn almost non-stop so I figured I'd elaborate on why I consider One Piece to be the king of the Big 3. Pardon me if this ends up turning into a crash course on One Piece.

This thing is arguably the most popular anime and certainly best selling manga series in the world. I have yet to actually meet anyone in the anime community with something bad to say about it other than its length. It is quite honestly an anime that is worth all the acclaim that the fans give it. It is also one of the strangest anime I have ever seen yet the show makes it work so well that it just results in a really fun show.

All of the Straw Hats are great characters and each of them has gotten great moments so far. Unlike the other members of the Big 3, where the main character is usually the only one shown getting stronger, everyone gets the chance to become stronger so they don't just get knocked out of a fight immediately. They all feel like legitimate characters. My personal favorite being Ussop because I feel he has come along way since his cowardly beginnings both in terms of his tactics and in terms of his creativity. Characters that might seem broken actually aren't as the anime/manga makes it very clear that no matter how strong someone gets, there will always be someone stronger down the line. This leads to a lot of very gripping, intense fights. My personal favorite arc so far is the CP9 arc because it shows exactly what each of the Straw Hats are capable of. The villains are unique, very memorable, pose a great threat, and in general are just fun antagonists. Every battle in this anime/manga has this sort of grand feel to it which lacking is really lacking in Naruto and Bleach.

One Piece is that at that level of weirdness where everything just seems to make sense no matter how odd or outlandish it gets. Seriously, only in One Piece can a cola-powered cyborg shipwright, fish people (not just mermaids), a skeleton musician with an afro, and a talking shape-shifting blue-nosed reindeer doctor make total sense. My personal favorite example of its weirdness however comes from the Alabasta arc. It is during the battle where Chopper and Ussop are fighting Baroque Works agents Mr.4, Ms. Merry Christmas, and their cannon dog Lassoo who is quite literally a cannon that ate the Mutt-Mutt fruit Dachshund Model.

Ussop asks Ms Merry Christmas how it was even possible for a cannon to do that and she basically responds by saying "Its a new Grand Line trick. You haven't seen anything yet.". That one line speaks volumes about One Piece's weirdness.

The Devil Fruits bring a very nice variety in abilities to the table. Though each fruit has different strengths, they all share the same weakness: people who eat the devil fruits can no longer swim and will sink like a rock in water deep enough to drown in. On its own, that doesn't sound a like a big weakness but it becomes a major possibility when you consider that the two most common occupations in the show/manga are Navy and Pirate so just about every devil fruit user falls into one of those two categories. That isn't the only threat to the devil fruit users either. There is a special stone from the bottom of the sea that can shut off a person's devil fruit abilities as long as the stone touches them. There is also Haki and one of the types (Armament Haki) can counter devil fruit users abilities and is especially effective against Logia types.

One of my favorite Devil Fruits: Ace's Mera Mera Fruit.

Overall there are three basic types of devil fruits: Logia, Zoan, and Paramecia. Logia devil fruits allow the user to change their body into a specific force of nature like Ace's fire based powers thanks to the Mera-Mera Fruit. Zoan fruits give the user the power to transform into animals such as Chopper's humanoid form and ability to speak via the Human-Human Fruit. The Zoan type is not limited to just regular animals, there are some that grant the powers of mythical creatures like Marco's Phoenix fruit as well as the Ancient Zoan fruits that allow the user to turn into dinosaurs. Parameicia fruits grant the users general super-human powers such as Luffy's ability to stretch via the Gum-Gum Fruit. To make it even more interesting, certain devil fruits render the user immune or resistant to other devil fruit abilities, like the Gum-Gum fruit rendering Luffy virtually immune to Enel's Rumble-Rumble fruit due to Luffy's body being rubber or the Wax-Wax fruit being able to neutralize/block the Venom-Venom fruit's poison.

One of the more fascinating things about the show is how Oda set up the Navy wanting the Straw Hats heads. The Straw Hats are pirates in name and symbol only, they have for the most part done nothing that is actually illegal. It shows how corrupt that the Navy and the World Government actually are if they're willing to hunt down people doing more good than harm. The testimony from all the people they've helped would be more than enough to clear them of the charges but as long as they fly the Jolly Rodger, the World Government will only ever see them as pirates. That is a stroke of genius.

However, the most impressive feat of the anime/manga by far is Oda's ability to keep things consistent with previously established continuity and character backstories. Now on its own, that compliment doesn't sound like much of a compliment but consider this: At the time of this post the manga currently has over 748 chapters which is a total of 78 volumes and the anime has 708 episodes with about 12 movies. That in and of itself is amazing. I can't help but think Oda reads through some of his notes before writing a new arc just to make sure he doesn't repeat himself. Oda also really knows how to handle character deaths. He rarely kills off characters but when he does, he always does it in a grand fashion so no matter what happens later, you will always remember the character's final moments. Anyway those are my thoughts on One Piece, an anime that I consider to be the current king of the shounen genre and it is definitely worth the acclaim that the fans give it. The anime is just plain old fashion-ed fun. And with that, I'll leave all with this:

My issues with Sword Art Online

Well I've been watching Sword Art Online's third arc lately and I think its about time that I expand upon my issues of why I don't like SAO as a whole. I'll be talking about each arc individually. It is one of the more popular anime out there in the same vein as Attack on Titan and well, you already know how I feel about that. This one of the prime examples of an over-hyped anime.

This picture alone represents the drastic change between the first and second arcs.

Sword Art Online arc:

This had potential but I don't feel it did much with its concepts other than the life or death struggle but even then, it doesn't go beyond them trying to get out before they get killed. One thing I remember finding very odd is that they were all in a hurry to leave once they found out they were stuck. They were in a position that a lot of people would love to be in minus the whole "you die in the game, you die for real" thing. This unfortunately means that there are a lot of generic characters who get introduced just to die. Asuna was awesome in this half but sadly, well you'll see when I mention the Alfhiem arc. This arc doesn't go very far into what it actually means to be alive which would've been interesting to see given their real bodies were comatose. It may seem odd that I was expecting something like that given that I've ragged on Casshern Sins for doing something similar, the only difference being that all of Casshern Sins' characters are robots and it comes off as being pretentious but that is a story for another day.

Yeah he makes this face a lot during this arc.

For being an MMO it didn't really separate the various classes outside of weaponry or even name the classes. They make no attempt to even think about what they were going to do on the off-chance that the final boss was unbeatable. For the most part we never even find out why the villain trapped them in the game in the first place. Admittedly, I did sort of enjoy seeing Kirito and Asuna interact and we got a touching moment or two between them. Overall, this arc was just ok.

Alfhiem Online arc:

This is where the show just hits the fan for me and its where the bulk of my problems with this anime come from. It completely destroys any good that came from the Sword Art arc. The art style goes through a drastic change and becomes more cutesy in general but its a high fantasy MMO so it is somewhat understandable. This arc basically amounts to Kirito constantly saying "I've gotta save my waifu" and focusing on only that. Seriously, even when the villain reveals to Kirito that Asuna isn't the only one trapped it still sort of feels like he just wants to save Asuna and if he saves the others in the process then so be it. While Asuna was awesome in the first arc, she unfortunately gets becomes nothing more than a damsel in distress during this arc. I'm not even gonna acknowledge the infamous tentacle scene when Asuna tried to escape as it was in very bad taste and only there for the sake of fan-service. It was completely unnecessary and idiotic. It even angered the show's fans from what I've heard. It is by far the worst moment in the anime so far. Seriously, why is it even in there? Granted that might be because it was in the light novels.

This was just....ugh...NO!!...I can't even talk about it!

From what I was able to piece together from the plot, the villain's plan was ridiculous. He basically wanted to marry Asuna because her family was rich and he could use that money to finance his experiments. That is kind of weird, creepy, and cliche all at the same time. To top it all off, I can't even take the villain seriously in this arc. Its made pretty obvious that he is little more than a joke. I keep finding myself asking why this arc exists.

Gun Gale Online arc:

Something about this arc just feels off to me for some reason but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think its mostly because even though Kirito is still the main protagonist, he hasn't exactly adapted to the Gun Gale mechanics/play-style. He is in an MMO about guns and gun-play but he is still using a sword as his default weapon and playing it like he has the other two MMOs. I know his specialty is sword fighting but it completely clashes with the game genre that this season is using as a base. Another weird thing is that this arc seems to actually be questioning what reality actually is. Kirito goes on in the first episode about what constitutes something being real. If its something that seems real in a virtual world, who is to say that it isn't real. While that is a nice idea, I find it odd that SAO of all things is asking this question as it doesn't feel like it has earned the right to ask them.

The villain is named Death Gun and well honestly thats one of most ridiculous names I've ever heard. There have also been hints that he is related to the Laughing Coffin guild from SAO and that he might have been one of the people Kirito "killed". They're just now playing up Kirito's trauma from being trapped in SAO. Why wasn't this brought up before? It makes the Alfheim arc seem completely unnecessary since they could have addressed it then instead of having that entire arc focus around saving Asuna. The overall reveal of how Death Gun was killing people was underwhelming and the twist itself was extremely easy to see coming. Seriously injecting them with drugs to simulate a heart attack was all they could come up with? The Ragnarock part of this arc is nothing more than filler which is weird because its in the light novels so its canon filler.

As a whole the anime itself is pretending to be something it isn't. Its a romance/drama anime that wants to be shounen/action anime that wants you to think it is an MMO anime. I call it a romance/drama anime because that is what the entire second and third arcs smell like to me. It was an ok anime during the Sword Art arc but during Alfhiem it just takes a nose dive and doesn't really recover for me. Something about the Gun Gale arc just feels off entirely to the point where it doesn't even feel like the same anime. It also doesn't feel consistent between any of those three arcs. If you like this anime, more power to you. If you haven't seen it, I would only recommend this anime as nothing more than popcorn material.

My thoughts on Attack On Titan so far

Well, episode 16 of the dub aired on Toonami so it is about time that I do my usual mid-season review. Honestly, this anime is one of those where I'm struggling to understand why it got popular. The same can be said of Sword Art Online. Anyway, without further adieu, lets take a look at how Attack On Titan has been for me so far.

Characters:

I'm just gonna come right out and say it, I don't like Eren Yeager. His dislike of humanity has yet to be explained and from what I've gathered so far, he has been this way since he was a child. He seems to blame humanity for his inability to leave the walls instead of the blaming the titans. He also seems to blame humanity for not throwing themselves at the titans. Early on, he showed very little care for the lives of people around him save for his mother, Mikasa, and Armin. He didn't even acknowledge that his squad was getting eaten during the Trost arc. I was actually surprised that someone actually had to tell him that people were dying and that he should at least acknowledge them for their sacrifice. The secondary and background characters seem to just be there to up the body count. A lot of them seem to be very weak-willed with the ones being afraid of the titans usually being motivated by Eren giving an uninspiring speech that amounts to him saying "Lets go kill some titans!". Mikasa is a character that I can just barely get behind since she at least admitted during the Trost arc that she screwed up and cost people their lives. A lot of the characters exist just to increase the body count.

The Titans: Honestly, I don't like the Titan' designs and I don't understand why the characters are even remotely afraid of them. Yeah they're big and can move fast but they don't even look scary. They evoke laughter given their designs, not fear. Most of them aren't even that smart so a simple strategy is enough to take the regular ones out of the equation. It sort of feels like the only reason humanity has struggled with them for so long is because they aren't thinking and just reacting to this big lumbering oaf coming toward them. There has only been one titan in the show that I've liked. It was a one-off titan who I have since dubbed "Santa Titan" and hilariously, he ate Eren. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. Confusingly, they are essentially made of hot air and are light as a feather yet can still somehow punch through a wall. That shouldn't be possible even if I suspend my disbelief. They are also photosynthetic which leaves me scratching my head even more, not so much in disbelief but because it renders their hunger for human flesh pointless from a biological perspective. They're just eating to eat and it doesn't make them look anymore terrifying.

The Body Count:

The body count in this show is absurdly high. It feels like there is almost no weight to anyone's death because it throws death after death at you so fast. It really gives off the impression that no one in this show matters at all. It makes it very difficult to feel for these background characters since most of them are being introduced at the exact moment of their death. No matter how large the cast of characters, even the most minor characters' deaths should be treated like a big event, especially when you're killing them off in big numbers like this because that is the only chance we'll have to feel for them. The "anyone can die at any moment" mentality doesn't really work in the show's favor since its usually the cannon fodder getting eaten. One death I did find funny was in episode 13, some nameless soldier was watching horrified as his friend was getting eaten and then a titan just swats him like a fly. The show also features an absurd amount of gore between the titans eating people and Eren's fights in titan form. The gore gets old very quickly to the point where it isn't even a unique aspect of the show anymore.

Pacing and Raccoon Faces: These 16 episodes felt like 32 and definitely not in a good way. This show has a ton of exposition in it. Unfortunately, it is usually used to pad out the episodes. This is one of the few anime I've seen that has so much exposition but doesn't actually say anything useful or important at all. The padding is also extremely obvious. Take the battle of Trost for example, the Titans are ravaging the city and while Jean is in the supply depo, he spends about 3 minutes doing an inner monologue and the entire time two titans are just staring at him through a broken window. While that was probably in the manga it doesn't work in the anime for one simple reason: It is supposed to be an urgent situation and everything is supposed to be happening in real time. There is no indication of a slow down time-wise that would usually go along with something like that. It just makes the show feel like its dragging its heels. The show features a bizarre phenomenon given the art style where everyone turns into raccoon people during the close-ups. Their eyes always sink-in during dramatic moments so it makes it look like they're wearing a raccoon mask. It takes away from the seriousness of a scene when all I can think during said scene is "Jeez man! What happened to your face?!".

Raccoon!! Seriously though that is gonna become a meme one day.

Overall Thoughts: There really isn't much more that I can say. I am somewhat astounded that this thing got popular. The show is insanely boring and for a show that has been applauded for its action sequences there are far too few of them with it being padded out instead by exposition. The show lacks a sense of urgency overall. Even in the middle of the Battle for Trost while titans were swarming the city the characters still found time to hand out exposition in real-time. One of the other issues I have is that the show fails to set up viable rules for the titans and even when it does, those rules vary from titan to titan. For example, titans draw their nourishment and energy from sunlight which is why they don't attack at night. Doesn't sound so bad right? Well here is where the problem comes in: Some titans take longer than others to become inactive once the sun goes down. Yeah I understand that it is done so humanity isn't just walking beyond the walls at night with no consequences but because of that, it is only a matter of time before the writer introduces titans that are powered by moonlight. Every fantasy story does one of two things: 1. They follow real world laws to some degree or 2. They don't follow those laws but explain their own rules so you understand why they work the way they do. The writer is so busy trying to make the titans mysterious that he has created situation in which he can do anything that he deems necessary and it will still fit the narrative. Because of the vagueness or outright lack of rules regarding how the world works, the show almost requires you to think of it using real world logic. Once that happens, the story and its so-called logic fall apart at the seams. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Attack On Raccoon City...I mean Titan.

My thoughts on shounen anime's Big 3

When the subject of anime comes up, inevitably one of 3 names will pop up in the conversation at some point: Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. These three are by far the most popular anime in the world. Two of these anime suffer from main character syndrome. To clarify what that is, its a term I coined to describe the phenomenon wherein the main character is the only one who can do anything and gets insanely powerful simply because the plot says so while the side characters get reduced to background roles. Though one suffers to a much greater degree than the other. Anyway here are my thoughts on the Big 3:

Bleach:

For the record, my knowledge of the events of the Bleach anime only extends to how far the dub has gotten on Toonami and I haven't caught up with the manga. This is my least favorite of the big 3 for the simple reason that it has a tendency to drag and repeat itself during the canon arcs. The Hueco Mundo arc is the exact same arc as the Soul Society arc just swapping Rukia for Orihime and the Arrancars in place of Soul Reapers. The War For Karakura arc is where the show just hits the fan for me due to Aizen having the largest amount of plot armor/plot convenience I've ever seen. Seriously, it got so bad that I ended up doing a massive rant about Aizen. The less I say about Aizen here the better so just go check out my Aizen rant for my full thoughts on him. The show actually has some interesting filler arcs. My personal favorite being the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc because it gave you the feeling that they were more than just weapons used by the Soul Reapers. I almost cried when that arc ended. The overall plot for the canon portions of the anime simply boil down to "Aizen was responsible for everything up to the War for Karakura" so the plot really only hinges on him and Ichigo. Ichigo's personality is kind of hard to pin down since he has that generic "I will protect everything precious to me" type of personality and well he doesn't go very far beyond that. Ichigo suffers from main character syndrome and his friends often have to rely on him to save them (Orihime and Chad). Orihime's downgrade is especially stupid since she basically has the powers of a God and can reverse any phenomenon she wishes yet she is basically reduced to acting as a medic and mostly uses her healing shield. This show is by far the biggest offender of the 3 when it comes to main character syndrome.

Naruto/Naruto Shippuuden:

This is the one I'm more neutral on so it might be harder for me to put this one into words. Its better executed than Bleach that much is for sure, though Bleach has the more interesting filler arcs. The characters are alright and don't seem to constantly suffer from main character syndrome or at the very least not to the degree that Bleach's side characters do. It has a nicely built up world and I like its history. With that said I do have some issues, like Sasuke not being killed off yet. Seriously, Kishimoto kills off better characters yet lets Sasuke live. Its gotten to the point where even some of my friends who are Naruto fans are calling BS on it. Granted my knowledge extends more into the manga than it does the anime and I left off at the 4th Great Ninja War.The only reason I stopped reading the manga was because SJ magazine went all digital. Though from what I've heard, it might have been good that I stopped there as I've had some people tell me that the rest of that arc basically amounts to spring cleaning in terms of character deaths. This included two really shocking ones, Neji and Shikamaru.This anime had a strong start with some really great fights early on. My personal favorite fight is the Zabuza/Haku fight. Anyway thats about all I can say for this series.

One Piece:

Well what can I say about this one that hasn't already been said by other people. Out of the Big 3, this is the one people seem to love the most and honestly, I think that love is totally justified. The characters are lovable, the villains feel threatening, the world is nicely built up, and the plots are nice. The show just seems to have a knack for making the implausible plausible and making weird stuff look completely normal. Only in One Piece can a cola-powered cyborg shipwright, a skeleton musician with an afro, fish people (not just mermaids, actual fish people), and a shape-shifting talking blue-nosed reindeer that is also a doctor not seem out of place. None of the characters in this anime suffer from main character syndrome. The entire crew feels like they are actual characters and don't get reduced to background roles. Each member of the crew is able to hold their own in a fight, even Usopp who as of the Franky arc earned his spot as my favorite character during his fight with Luffy. Luffy is one of those Goku-remakes that is able to take on a life of his own and step out of Goku's shadow to become his own character instead of just an example of his archetype. The only thing I can think of that I dislike about this anime is the second half of the Foxy Pirate arc. The world is actually set up well enough to where Oda can write side-stories for some of the characters outside the Straw Hat crew. I'd personally love to see a side-story based on Buggy the Clown, Jimbei's adventures before becoming a warlord, the story of how Crocodile founded Baroque Works and a whole lot of of other things. While a lot of characters can be seen as over-powered, it is shown from the very beginning that no matter how strong someone gets there will always be someone stronger down the road. Every shounen anime/manga series will inevitably hit the point where they start to drag and One Piece is no exception to that but I don't see it happening anytime soon.