This isn't going to end well.
In a world torn up by flames, it's survivors of the Great Cataclysm are constantly at risk of spontaneous combustion turning would be victims into infernals, monstrous looking demons of fire, to combat this, several organisations form the Fire Force, a group of individuals made up of a mix of Fire Fighters and Pyrokinesis wielders, focussing on Company 8 of the Fire Force, we have Shinra, a hero wannabe known as the Devil's footprint for his fire feet who is out to discover the circumstances behind his mother's death and brother's disappearance as it becomes clear that one or more groups within are behind the spontaneous combustion incidents.
This is by the same creator as Soul Eater and is implied to be in the same universe as well, the nature of how the subject of fire is used can create some disturbing, horrific moments considering that no one in universe is safe especially when it becomes apparent what the actual cause is, so the setting really creates a high stakes environment and the blue coats of the Fire Force are the best uniforms in all shonen anime beating out Naruto's jackets and Bleach's robes.
But as a Shonen series, it's weak in execution as it can really make the use of fire seem painfully dull and uninspired as Shinra alone is basically a fighter with rocket shoes as a main power and the personality to match, Sanji can do that without Pyrokinesis while other prominent fire users like Ace and Natsu are much better wielders in Shonen anime, even ninja in Naruto use it better.
I hate using this term because Soul Eater was much better made and it's a term that gets thrown around on Twitter too much but Fire Force is painfully mid.
I would've appreciated it alot more if it were all Fire Fighters without Pyrokinesis as it ups the risk factor and gives more weight to the struggles, it could improve later but I'm not confident beyond season 1.
Dub maybe okay but expect some familiar casting.
Final Verdict: A painfully mid shonen with a good setting and the potential to do better if it went a different direction than what season 1 offered.
A quick crappy anime from the earliest days of ADVFilms.
Akihiro finds an interesting rug on his walkabouts which he decides to take home in the hopes of impressing class mate Miyuki. Mistaking a back handed comment as benevolence, a pink haired girl emerges from the rug called Malon and immediately declares undying love for the hapless twerp as in a space of a few minutes manages to ruin Akihiro's date with Miyuki, magically convince Akihiro's mother that she is his cousin and get kicked out of the house for using magic to manipulate everything in her favour.
Malon is from Phantasia, a place we never see as the budget only allowed us to stare at Japan, an exile named Roll chases after Malon to eliminate her but Malon refuses to fight back as she has no free will of her own to ignore Akihiro's comments, it takes two of Malon's friends to get Akihiro to take back his comments to save Malon's life and what will start as a relationship if the series was actually picked up, it obviously wasn't since this is a sad rip off of Urusei Yatsura but instead of the lead being the godmother of tsunderes, she is a pathetic naive door mat to an ass hole who will dump her for a better model; I'm with Roll on this one, probably would've ended better if he burned the rug.
I don't even want to think about this being a dub.
Final Verdict: A clone of a better anime with no redeeming qualities.
The full title is Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, but I'm not writing that in the title.
In a world where divine blessings decide your path in life, the heroes party is formed to eliminate the Demon Lord, but the sage of the group banishes Gideon for being a liability despite his sister Ruti being the hero.
Changing his name to Red and settling down in the countryside opening an apothecary and later being joined by Princess Rizlet "Rit" in a very believable loving romance, but among the quiet is a drug problem threatening to disrupt Red's new found peace.
I don't think an overarching plot of drugs and backstabbing is really necessary, I'm here for the romance between Red and Rit, probably the most adorable couple in all of anime and proof that romance in anime isn't dead.
I can quite easily ignore the more serious elements just to watch Red and Rit buy a bed together, it's very much a bare bones budget fantasy anime otherwise.
Dub is serviceable at least, Ruti especially is unexpectedly hilarious when she bitch slaps Ares in a very bloody manner.
Final Verdict: A stale fantasy series with a beautiful romance within the tired plot of fantasy tropes.
This series deserves way more praise.
In a world of fantasy, adventurers gather to defeat monsters, a young priestess takes her first job slaying Goblins, however the quest goes horribly wrong when her companions get murdered and violated by the goblin hordes, before she ends up dead herself, a man clad in iron armour with minimal weapons and specific strategic items slays every last goblin with extreme prejudice, he is the Goblin Slayer, driven by a past event that's haunted him, Goblin Slayer kills all goblins no matter the situation. Joined by Priestess, High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman and Lizard Priest, the objective remains clear. Slay Goblins.
Right from episode 1 you realise very quickly that this is going to be brutal to watch, they make it very clear that Goblins have no moral compass and treats them as the ultimate evil despite the fact that on a grander scale they are starter monsters, having that black and white morality makes it easier to support the heroes in their quests especially when they have to really show how horrendous the crimes the goblins commit are, there is no grey and that simplicity makes this show compelling to watch.
Goblin Slayer actually feels like a proper dark fantasy on the level not seen since Berserk, and like Berserk it pulls no punches when it comes to harsh realities, the dub equally backs up this sentiment.
Final Verdict: Goblin Slayer is one of the best examples of dark fantasy and very simple to pick up and watch, very close to being a top ten anime.
This anime is my worst nightmare.
A long time ago, the battleships of all the major factions fought to destroy the Sirens, however a rift develops splitting the factions into two alliances, Azur Lane and Red Axis, among the conflict, Sakura Empire secretly develops a new weapon using siren technology, the conflict becoming ever more complicated and the ace of Azur Lane Enterprise going through a journey of self reflection, the battleships may need more to stop this new threat.
This is my first experience of the so called waifu simulator, usually combining anime girls with battleships or similar, having them battle avoids the label of them just being eye candy and the all female cast zero males dynamic avoids the male gaze accusation; but it's still not going to make for a convincing story.
The main problem is the cast is so bloated that it's difficult to focus on any aspect of the plot when every group of characters fights for attention, then you got Enterprise who speaks the same tired words all the time to really bring the mood down especially when there are so many scenes where it's just the cast having fun, the Sakura Empire doesn't fair any better in this regard.
It's my worst nightmare as a writer as an over bloated cast can lead to an early collapse of the story. At least the British forces were given great designs.
The dub has the quirks of using accents to identify who is on what side which can either be fun or distracting but then again full Japanese can make it even worse for the cast to stand out as many voices will be similar and overlap one another.
Final Verdict: This genre never does well in the story department and never escapes the realm of being a glorified game of top trumps, no matter which medium it's presented in.
