This post will be covering both Prisma Illya 2wei! and Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! which are the second and third seasons of Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma☆Illya respectively.
While the first season was about the magical girls, Illya and Miyu, collecting the class cards, the second season is more about the developments after the cards have been gathered. There isn’t a new set of cards for them to collect or anything like we might expect if this was another entry in the Fate series.
The primary antagonist this time around isn’t in the form of evil heroic spirits, but rather a mysterious girl who suddenly appears and looks just like Illya (she doesn’t look anything like Illya). Her apparent goal is to kill the real Illya, and probably take her place because that’s what those types of enemies always want to do.
New Characters
In this season we’re introduced to two new important characters. The first is Illya’s doppelganger, Kuro. The second is a rival of Rin and Luvia who works for the Church, Bazett.
Kuro, named such because she’s the “dark or evil” version of Illya, is the primary new character of the season. She appears after Illya transforms while using the Archer class card.
Similar to how Illya and Miyu can transform into their magical girl forms, Kuro is able to transform into her Archer form due to the Archer class card being fused with her body. This essentially makes her a pseudo-heroic spirit after transforming.
Bazett, the other new character, is more of a supporting character for 2wei! but becomes more important for 2wei Herz! and is one of the main cast for 3rei!! She’s an enforcer for the Church, and like Rin and Luvia her job is to collect the class cards.
Since Bazette isn’t part of the mage’s academy she doesn’t technically use magic, but it sure looks a lot like some form of martial arts enhancing magic to me. She’s able to fight evenly against heroic spirits with her bare hands.
Illya
Herz!
2wei Herz! is the next season of Prisma Illya and starts off with some filler episodes. The first half of this season is actually just summer break filler. Eventually, however, there is an eighth class card discovered and the girls must get back to work.
As was the case with UBW, we learn that there is a second Archer (card) which appears to be the “true Archer.” The fight that unfolds eventually leads to a revelation about Miyu’s identity which has basically been a mystery up until this point and then the next season, 3rei!!, is set up.
Conclusion
As with the first season, I rated both 2wei! and 2wei Herz! 7/10. I think I may have actually liked 2wei Herz! more than 2wei! even though the first half of it was filler. I didn’t mind seeing the characters in a slice of life format as much as I thought I would.
Also, I’m not really much of a fan of Kuro as a character so her introduction in 2wei! may also be one reason I didn’t think that season was as good. I feel like I would like her more if she wasn’t supposed to just be a “dark Illya” and was actually her own person instead. The whole “dark” character trope didn’t do anything for me.
It probably won’t be the next post, but within the next few I’ll review the fourth season, 3rei!! which is my personal favorite season of the anime.
While this review is mostly about the first season of The Seven Deadly Sins, consider it the review for the first movie as well since I don’t remember anything especially important happening in that. Season 2 is still airing and I plan to binge it once complete so there shouldn’t be any spoilers for that season in here.
The basic plot of the series goes something like this: One day a group of knights known as The Seven Deadly Sins supposedly tried to overthrow the kingdom but were pushed back by the rest of the Holy Knights of the land. Since that day, they have been considered the most wanted criminals in the region.
Then a princess decides to find The Seven Deadly Sins and ask them to help her free the kingdom from the tyrannical rule of the Holy Knights who seized power shortly after the supposed coup by the Sins. This is the story of that princess collecting all the members of the Sins.
Characters
Elizabeth is the female lead of the series and the princess who is searching for the Sins. She believes that the Sins were actually acting to protect the kingdom when they fought against the rest of the Holy Knights which is why she believes they will help her overthrow them.
Hawk is the lead pig of the series. He’s literally a pig. Despite not having any real powers, Hawk is a formidable opponent in battle due to his fearlessness (or ability to charge in despite his fear). He works with Meliodas at the Boar Hat tavern as the scrap remover.
Meliodas is the leader of the Sins. He is known as the Sin of Wrath and carries a broken sword which he occasionally uses in battle. We learn at some point in the series that he appears to be at least some part Demon which is most likely the source of his immense power. His special ability can counter the attack of any opponent.
Diane is the Sin of Envy as well as a Giant. She uses a large hammer in battle and also has the ability to manipulate the Earth by using it. Kind of like Earth-style Jutsu from the Naruto series, specifically Iwabe from Boruto.
Ban is the Sin of Greed and was once a regular human, or at least something close to one. Now, however, he is immortal which probably makes him the second most powerful after Meliodas simply due to technicalities. Coincidentally, the injury ban has ever received a scar from was due to a fight with Meliodas.
King is the Sin of Sloth as well as the King of the Fairies. He is able to fly and uses a shape-shifting weapon which is often in the form of a spear. He has a particular dislike for Ban and is attracted to Diane despite her enormous size.
Gowther is the Sin of Lust. He is a living doll and so shows little emotion. He likes to read books and has developed a flair for the dramatic due to them, despite his emotionless demeanor.
The sixth and final Sin we meet in the first season is Merlin, the Sin of Gluttony. As her name suggests, she is the most powerful mage in the region. We don’t really get too much other information about her in this season due to her late entrance.
Hawk wearing armor
Conclusion
While I did very much enjoy this series, it was also a fairly generic medieval fantasy anime at the same time. Because of this, I decided to give it a 6/10. I also gave the OVA a 5, but we’ll just group that in with the first season since not enough happened in it to warrant a separate review.
Apparently, the second season is even better than the first so I’m looking forward to the end of that so I can binge it.
Yuki Yuna is a Hero is a magical girl anime that came about after Madoka Magica revolutionized the genre. While there are many who claim Yuki Yuna isn’t a Madoka clone, I am not one of them.
While I recognize Yuki Yuna as its own series, I believe one must be deliberately ignoring the similarities if one thinks that this series isn’t heavily influenced by Madoka. Due to this influence, I will be comparing Yuki Yuna to Madoka throughout this review. However, while I won’t attempt to hide my bias, I will attempt to give Yuki Yuna a fair review.
Like any other magical girl anime, we have middle school girls who use the power of friendship to defeat their enemies. That much is a given for the genre. However, in Yuki Yuna, we have a key difference which is that there’s a religious organization backing the girls.
The magical girls, called Heroes in the series, are chosen by the divine tree known as the Shinju. This is both the source of their power and the source of life on Earth. If the Shinju were to be destroyed, the world would follow which is why the job of these Heroes is to protect the Shinju.
But what are the Heroes fighting against?
The Vertex are beings that come from beyond the realm of the Shinju. Their only goal appears to be to destroy the Shinju and anything that stands in their way. In some ways, they resemble some of the witches from Madoka, such as Walpurgisnacht.
However, the visual similarities to Madoka don’t stop just with the enemies themselves. When fighting against the Vertex, the Heroes are transported to an almost divine realm that features various random colors and textures, similar to those found in the witches’ labyrinths.
Similarities and Spoilers
While this section is going to include some of the major spoilers of the first season of Yuki Yuna (and Madoka), there may be minor spoilers throughout other sections as well.
So as far as similarities go, nothing I’ve mentioned so far has been too extreme. So why is Yuki Yuna considered by many to be a clone of Madoka?
While being a magical girl has never really been a safe job considering they’re often protecting the world from destruction, I think it’s fair to say that Madoka changed the genre significantly by turning the sacrifice of these girls into the main plot point. This is where the clone idea comes from.
Yuki Yuna takes the same concept of magical girls sacrificing their happiness, their bodies, and even their lives and just adds a religious spin to it. Is it really fair to call it a Madoka clone just because it’s a similar anime in the same genre? Probably not, but anyone who’s seen Madoka can probably understand why it’s viewed that way even if they don’t agree with it.
The big reveal that the girls are slowly destroying their bodies and will eventually die due to using their powers could have been a huge surprise, but it really wasn’t. We’ve been there before. Doing something drastic for shock value only works once and in my opinion, Yuki Yuna relied too heavily on this even though it had already been done.
Yuki Yuna
What Sets It Apart
So hopefully by now, you understand, at least somewhat, how Yuki Yuna isn’t really anything new, but that doesn’t mean it’s just a carbon copy. And, while these things that set it apart make the series better for some, in my view they just distract from the important points of the story.
The first thing here is that the Heroes aren’t some super-secret group who quietly protect the world in the background. In fact, they have a club at school specifically for Heroes, and since everyone left on Earth follows the same religion they all know about the existence of the Heroes who protect the Shinju.
The next thing is something I just have a personal issue with which is the use of smartphones as a source of magic in anime. You may recall my review of In Another World With My Smartphone which is currently my lowest-rated anime. Well, in this series, the girls use their smartphones to activate their Hero transformations, and, for whatever reason, that infuriates me.
The final thing I’ll mention here is the slice of life aspect of the show. This is something that many people actually enjoy about the series, but as far as I’m concerned, I just want some magical girl action, not slice of life filler. I think the idea was to make the viewers connect with the girls more, but let’s face it, it was filler.
Characters
The protagonist and the titular character is Yuki Yuna, a 2nd-year middle school student who dreams of becoming a hero of justice. While her name in English would actually be Yuna Yuki, due to the way it’s written in the English title this will be the only character whose name I use in the proper Japanese order.
Yuna is actually the one character I like more than her Madoka counterpart because, unlike Madoka, she actually does things. When transformed into a hero, Yuna fights with her fists.
I’m going to be honest here, Yuna is the only character who I actually remembered the name of after finishing the series, probably because it’s named after her. The rest of the girls I always just referred to in other ways which I’ll mention below as I go through each one.
Mimori Togo, or Wheelchair Homura as I called her, is basically the same character as Homura Akemi from Madoka, but in a wheelchair (in case you couldn’t guess). She looks like Homura, she acts like Homura, she’s obsessed with the protagonist like Homura, and she uses guns to fight like, you guessed it, Homura.
Next, we have Fu Inubozaki, the Mami Tomoe of the group. She’s the older classmate who serves as a mentor for the younger Heroes. She also has blonde twin curls like Mami (it’s like they weren’t even trying). Unlike Mami, however, Fu uses a large sword to fight.
The fourth girl, Itsuki Inubozaki, is Fu’s younger sister. She’s probably my least favorite character, although I couldn’t pinpoint any real reason why.
Itsuki uses some wire weapon (there’s probably a name for it, but I don’t like it enough to find out) to fight which may be part of the reason I don’t like her. I’ve never really been a fan of characters who use those (like Lubbock from Akame ga Kill!).
The fifth and final Hero of the season is Karin Miyoshi, my personal favorite. She’s the Kyouko Sakura of the group, which makes sense since Kyouko is my favorite from Madoka too.
Karin is the mysterious transfer student of the series and uses a pair of katanas to fight. She’s also the tsundere of the group as she doesn’t like to admit the rest of the girls are her friends.
Mimori Togo
Conclusion
So how does Yuki Yuna is a Hero compare to the other anime I’ve watched? It’s a 6/10. It was a decent show, but as I believe I made clear, I’m a Madoka kind of person and Yuki Yuna just didn’t have enough that separated it from Madoka in a good way. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t good either.
I don’t think I mentioned this at the start, although maybe it slipped in somewhere in the middle, but this review is only for the first season of Yuki Yuna. There will be separate reviews for both the prequel (The Washio Sumi Chapter) which I recently finished and the sequel (The Hero Chapter) which I still have to watch.
Knights of Sidonia is a mecha anime that takes place over 1,000 years in the future after the destruction of Earth. Humans now live on giant space ships, the last known of which is the Sidonia, and have been genetically altered so that they reproduce asexually and can use photosynthesis.
The reason for Earth’s destruction is an alien race known as the Gauna which have the ability to shapeshift. The Sidonia defends itself from the Gauna by dispatching mechs known as Gardes. I don’t remember the exact mechanic from the anime, but the Gardes become faster or more powerful or something if they are connected (classic mecha anime trope).
I’ve mentioned in the past that mecha anime generally aren’t for me, and this is a fairly typical example of why. While there are some mecha anime that I like such as Gurren Lagann or the new series, Darling in the FranXX, generally mecha anime I come across don’t have the quality of animation I’m looking for.
Knights of Sidonia is a prime example of this; it uses 3D animation which is never as good as 2D animation. I’ve watched other series that use a mix of 2D and 3D animation and even in those you can see the drop in quality whenever 3D animation is used (Sailor Moon Crystal and Overlord are just two examples of this).
Generally, when 3D animation is used in anime, it looks like it only has half the frames per second (FPS) that it’s supposed to which makes it look choppy and awkward.
Other than my issue with the animation of this series, I found that the plot reminded me somewhat of Sword Art Online which typically isn’t a good thing. I don’t remember exactly when the switch happened so we’ll assume it was the swap from season one to season two, but the anime changed from a mecha anime to a “playing house with a tentacle alien” anime.
If that sounds like a bad change of story, that’s because it is.
Characters
Nagate Tanikaze is the protagonist of the series. He grew up in the depths of Sidonia, cut off from the rest of the citizens except for his grandfather, only emerging to the “surface” after his passing. While in the “underground” layers of Sidonia, he spent his time piloting an old Garde training simulator until he mastered it.
Because of his mastery of the Garde simulator, he was chosen to be a Garde pilot upon going to the surface.
Izana Shinatose is the female lead as far as I’m concerned. She is, however, technically not female, but instead a non-binary third gender that has the ability to choose to be whichever gender (their bodies physically adjust to this choice). Anyway, she ends up basically being female so that’s what we’ll go with.
The final character I’ll mention is Tsumugi Shiraui, the tentacle alien. She is a Human/Gauna hybrid who typically takes the form of a giant, fleshy, pink mecha; however, as part Guana, she can alter her appearance as well. Typically when not acting as a mecha she interacts with the other characters in the form of a tentacle alien which is something that should never be in any anime.
Nagate and Izana (Probably)
Conclusion
Somehow I gave the first season of this series a 5, but the second season a 4 so we’ll pick the 4/10 as the rating for both seasons combined. This anime is actually rated pretty highly on MAL for some reason so I guess there are just a lot of die-hard mecha fans out there.
Maybe one day I’ll watch some of the old Gundam anime from before 3D animation ruined the mecha genre to see if it’s actually the animation I dislike or the genre itself.
It’s finally time to review the first anime I watched as a kid (other than maybe Pokémon). While what I watched as a kid was the original series, Sailor Moon Crystal is the new and improved series. While the original series strayed away from the manga, Crystal is a more faithful adaptation and has better animation (and art in general).
Sailor Moon was the start of my love for the Magical Girl genre which includes other anime such as Hina Logic, Madoka Magica, Yuki Yuna, and Prisma Illya to name a few that I’ve watched.
The story focuses on 10 girls known as Sailor Guardians who are each associated with a planet (or the Moon). These Sailor Guardians protect the Solar system and Earth from invaders; mostly through the power of friendship as magical girls generally do. However, along with each Sailor Guardian having a planet associated with them, they also each have special powers.
There are currently three seasons (39 episodes) of Sailor Moon Crystal, each consisting of one arc from the manga. The fourth arc is supposedly going to be made into two movies rather than an anime season.
Sailor Pluto using her Garnet Rod
Seasons
The first season of Sailor Moon Crystal follows the Dark Kingdom arc. The Dark Kingdom is led by Queen Beryl and their goal is the resurrection of an evil entity known as Queen Metalia by using the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal. In this season we only have the 5 “original” Sailor Guardians: Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus.
The second season follows the Black Moon arc in which the Black Moon Clan led by Prince Demande attempts to destroy Earth and the Legendary Silver Crystal by using an evil power known as the Malefic Black Crystal. In this season we are introduced to two new Sailor Guardians, Chibi Moon and Pluto.
Season three follows the Death Busters arc. In this season there is yet another group attempting to destroy Earth. However, this time it’s a group called the Death Busters who plan to merge their leader, Master Pharaoh 90, with the Earth, turning the Earth into the center of a second dark star system. In this season we meet the final three Sailor Guardians, Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn.
The third season was vastly superior to the first two in both animation and story. The first two seasons used 3D animation for the OP and Sailor Guardian transformations, but the third season does away with this in favor of more traditional animation. The third season also used more stylized animation to emphasize comedic parts, usually at Usagi’s expense.
Characters
Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino, is the protagonist of the series. Unlike most of the other Sailor Guardians, she doesn’t have an “elemental” power but instead uses the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal. Sailor Moon is the Guardian of love and justice.
Tuxedo Mask, Mamoru Chiba, is the male lead. He fights alongside the Sailor Guardians to protect the world and is the partner of Sailor Moon.
Sailor Mercury, Ami Mizuno, is the first other Sailor Guardian we meet in the series. She’s a genius girl who always scores at the top of the class on tests. Mercury is the Guardian of water and wisdom.
Sailor Mars, Rei Hino, is the second Sailor Guardian awakened. She works as a shrine maiden and because of this, she can tell when evil spirits are around. As Sailor Mars, she is the Guardian of fire and passion.
Sailor Jupiter, Makoto Kino, was my favorite of the Sailor Guardians as a kid because I only knew the “original” five Guardians. She has increased strength and loves plants. Sailor Jupiter is the Guardian of thunder and courage.
Sailor Venus is the final Sailor Guardian we meet, although she was the first to awaken, even before Sailor Moon. Venus is the official leader of the group consisting of herself, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. Venus is the Guardian of love and beauty.
At the very end of season one/start of season two, we are introduced to the youngest Sailor Guardian, Sailor Chibi Moon. Sailor Chibi Moon, Usagi Tsukino, is the child of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask from the future. She’s essentially a smaller version of Sailor Moon as her name implies and she uses the same powers of the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Sailor Pluto, Setsuna Meioh, is the second new Sailor Guardian we meet in season two. Pluto is the Sailor Guardian tasked with guarding the space-time door. Her duty is to ensure that the space-time continuum stays steady and to ensure that nobody uses the door to travel through time. Pluto is the Guardian of space-time and change.
After she was introduced, Sailor Pluto became my new favorite Sailor Guardian because of her story. She is the lone Guardian of the space-time door and for her, there is no time, only eternity. She must never leave her post and anyone who attempts to break one of the space-time taboos must be defeated.
The next two Sailor Guardians were introduced together in season three and serve as a pair. These are Sailor Neptune, Michiru Kaioh, and Sailor Uranus, Haruka Tenoh. Sailor Neptune is the Guardian of the ocean and acceptance, while Sailor Uranus is the Guardian of the sky and flight.
The final Sailor Guardian awakens near the end of season three. Sailor Saturn, Hotaru Tomoe, can only be awakened when the three talismans of Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus come together and resonate. The awakening of Sailor Saturn means the end has come. She is the Guardian of silence, destruction, and rebirth.
After finishing season three I decided that Sailor Saturn was actually my favorite of the Sailor Guardians. Her job is simple, to destroy everything so that the world can start anew.
Sailor Saturn using her Silence Glaive
Conclusion
The first two seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal were about a 6 for me, but the third season was an 8. Because of this, I’ll average these and say the series as a whole is a 7/10.
The series is pretty episodic for the first season and a half which is something I’m not a fan of, but the second half of season two was much better since it became more about the overall story than individual episodes. The third season also started off episodic but ended with an overall story as the second season did.
I think that the introduction of Sailors Pluto and Saturn is the reason the second halves of seasons two and three were so much better than the rest of the series. These are two Sailor Guardians whose powers don’t lend themselves to an episodic anime. Sailor Pluto’s power of space-time control and Sailor Saturn’s power of destruction work better in a continuous story rather than an episodic one.
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