Anime Review: Vivy ~Fluorite Eye’s Song~

Good morrow!

Today, we will be taking a look at a show that tackles a specific future: AI and the destruction of humanity.  Did you guess right? It’s “Vivy ~Fluorite Eye’s Song~, a series that has one hell of an opening scene, and even more hell of a story!

A little look at the plot synopsis, created from my own mind:

The story follows the beginning of artificial intelligence’s rise to commonplace, as AI begins to grow in both popularity and usefulness.  Specifically, a musical-type AI named “Diva” struggles to gain an audience, though she is “encouraged” by a human child to aim for the big stage.  Her coding is suddenly intruded on by another AI named “Matsumoto”, that tells her she is the key to preventing an AI apocalypse.  As she tries to ignore him / get rid of him, she becomes more aware of how true his mission is – for better and for worse.

And for once, I will ACTUALLY be spoiling some major points, so SPOILERS AHEAD!

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Anime Review: MASHLE: Magic and Muscles

Hello again, all!

Today’s review tackles a show that I hadn’t had the desire to watch for a while, but took a shot and watched it.  MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES is definitely a unique show, but it’s got enough of a following that it must be good, right?

Here’s a quick synopsis:

In this world, magic is prevalent, and almost everyone in it can use magic to some degree – except our protagonist, Mash Burnedead, who was born without a mark (basically, has no magic potential).  He instead trains his body to the max, day in and day out, at the behest of his father, who hopes this is enough to protect him from the sinister underbelly of the magic world.  But an event endangering his happy family life forces Mash to enroll in the magic-centric Easton Academy and try to become a Divine Visionary – a person deemed as one of God’s chosen.  Will Mash be able to succeed in his studies and live in peace?

Spoilers start now.

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Anime Review: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Cour 1 and 2)

Hello once again, peeps!  After a long time trying to finish this series, I’ve finally done it!  Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a brilliantly-designed series, and I would like to review it here as best I can.

As always, my rating system for Anime is a little weird, but all of the notes for my style of judgement is on a separate page on the blog.

A short synopsis:  Frieren is an elf mage who, along with the Hero Himmel, the priest Heiter, and the warrior Eisen, defeated the Demon King of their world.  Frieren returns to keep a promise to Himmel after fifty years, and is able to be with her party once more before the Hero passes, where she regrets not spending enough time with her short-lived allies.  The show follows the struggle of Frieren trying to understand humans’ emotions, reasonings, and beliefs, while simultaneously retracing her adventures with a new party of younger people.

From here on, it’s spoiler territory.

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Anime Review: Buddy Daddies

Good morning, my friends! Today, I have a wonderful anime to share with you: Buddy Daddies! I’ve been putting off watching it for no real reason, but now that I’ve seen it, I’d like to provide my thoughts on it.

As with all of my reviews, I have a personal scoring system for each series or film I review (it has been recently updated):

  • Plot / Story. Out of 10 points.  Describes how well-thought out the plot was, and how the story arcs build into the series as a whole.
  • CD (short for Character Development).  Out of 10.  Rates how well the characters and their relationships with each other build over the course of the season / movie.
  • Art / Acting / Music.  Out of 10.  Based around the flourish of the art style(s) and acting; character design, clothing, environment, and how well-placed little details (easter eggs or Chekhov’s Gun moments, or acting details like choking voices during crying scenes) are done.  It also includes musical direction in media where BGM or insert songs have an effect on the flow and atmosphere of scenes.
  • Rewatch Value: Out of 10.  This is my opinion on how often I would watch it given a clear schedule, or in some cases, how many times I recommend rewatching to catch all of the small details.  It is also affected by how much of an impact it leaves (A Silent Voice, for instance, leaves a heavy impact for me, but I wouldn’t watch it for a while afterward because it’s a little depressing for me).
  • Overall Rating: Out of 10.  This is my final opinion of the show as a whole, and is based on all of the above elements, as well as any other feelings I need to mention going into or coming out of a watch session.

At the end of the scoring, I will give an X/50 score with a letter grade from F, D, C, B, A, or S (S being a perfect 50).

Synopsis: Rei and Kazuki are hired killers that work in the underbelly of Japan.  When one of their jobs gets interrupted by a small child looking for her father, Kazuki decides to take her in until they’re able to return her to her parents, but they soon discover that taking care of a child along with their regular work is not as easy as they thought.

From here on out, there will be spoilers.

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Returning Once More

Holy moly, it’s been a while.

I think the last time I updated this thing was (checks watch) 2017!  Wow, seven years really flies by when you’re having fun.

So, to be brief, I’d like to tell you what’s been going on (bear with me, there’s quite a bit):

For starters, I’ve got a full-time job that I love.  Working with both my coworkers and vendors is an enjoyable experience, and the work itself is something that my unfocused brain can easily grasp, organize, and process.  I’ve even written some documents outlining my job’s ins and outs for the company’s position (not officially, but my superiors are actually sharing it around to help new people).

I’ve also been writing A LOT.  In addition to my To Aru universe fanfiction and that old Albel Academy story (both of which I haven’t updated recently), I have a Touhou universe fanfiction that is up to seven chapters, as well as two original stories that I have been excitedly working on for the past year.  The main one I’ve been focused on is at seven chapters as well, though I plan to release the chapters over a few weeks once it’s done.

In addition to writing stories, I have been thoroughly revamping some of my tabletop games; two in particular I have grown quite attached to, in part because they are somewhat related to the stories.  I’ve gotten most of the mechanics figured out, but there’s still a lot of work to do before they are playable in any capacity.  With how much I’ve been working on these, I’m a little surprised I haven’t burned out yet (knock on wood).

Other than those endeavors, I’ve been slowly catching up on my backlog of anime and manga, though my game backlog is still pretty much untouched.  I was finally able to play Payday 2 with a friend, though, so I see that as a major plus!

I still plan on posting reviews here – both the quick season posts and the in-depth reviews, especially the Kizumonogatari one I promised all of those years ago.  By the way, can you believe we’ve gotten Off Season and Monster Season in anime format?!

To summarize my intentions going forward, I think I’d like to start updating this blog again at a gentle pace, maybe like two to four posts a month.  Now that I have a pretty set schedule for my work, friends, family, and hobbies, I think I can be more consistent in updating this.  I’m probably going to do a review post (probably on Kaiju No 8 or Kizu) and a progress post on the favorite story I’m working on, where I’ll follow in the footsteps of the brilliant writer L.G. Estrella and give you more detailed info on it, such as word count, chapters, and maybe even sneak peeks.

Because I now pay for all of my streaming services, I will be getting most of my anime review material from Crunchyroll or HiDive releases, but there is always a new series dropping on other services, so I’ll try to stay diligent.  I’m also watching series on a regular basis again, so I may be able to give more variety than just SoL and Yuri.

I’m excited to come back here, so hopefully you’ll be happy to join me on this restarted journey!

Tadaima,

Marcosias A. Isif