Reviewing Mediocre Anime – Why Is This Harder Than Reviewing Bad Anime?

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This is more a personal reflection than an actual article but I’ve said more than once on the blog I’d rather review something awful than something mediocre. I mean, I’d rather review something amazing than either of those two options, but mediocre anime are just so hard.

After the Summer 2017 anime season I noted: “A lot of the Summer shows are ending and I’m left trying to write a series review and I’m finding that for some series I am drawing a blank. Why? Because too many shows this season were not particularly good but they weren’t particularly bad either.” Fall 2021 is feeling a little the same even though there have been a few standouts (in both the good and bad way).

Why are bad anime easier to review than mediocre anime?

Bad shows are easy to review. Or at least easy to rant about. There’s plenty of issues to pick fault with and discuss and usually plenty of examples. Sometimes there’s even a nice contrast point if the show does something well.

Hand Shakers definitely was not a mediocre anime. It was bad.

Hand Shakers was an excellent example. I ended up cutting my review of that series short mostly because it was quite obvious what my opinion of the show was and continuing to tear it apart would have served little purpose.

On the other-hand I had fun writing my review of Knight’s & Magic which tragically suffers from most of the plot issues of Hand Shakers when you sit back and think about it (though visually Knight’s & Magic is pretty good to look at).

If we go to recent shows I’d seriously have to consider both Tesla Note and Platinum End for this type of review. I’ll probably enjoy writing both of these reviews but I don’t have much nice to say about either show at this point.

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Likewise, shows that are fairly strong are pretty easy to review because there’s a genuine reason why you liked it and things to discuss in terms of what it has done well. Again, there may be a point or two that didn’t work so well to contrast with all the positives, but again, it all becomes pretty easy to get your point across.

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For instance, my review of March Comes in Like a Lion is more a gushing love letter to Rei’s character and his journey and that was the cut down and edited version of the review. Similarly, I had a great deal of fun thinking about my final review of Princess Principal. By no measure was that anime perfect, and yet it was a great deal of fun to follow along with during the season and there were some really strong points in the show’s favour that can be discussed.

During Fall 2021 Jobless Reincarnation would mostly fit into the good category with a few rough edges and Mieruko-Chan works for me though I get that the appeal is fairly genre specific.

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But how do you review mediocre anime?

So what then do you do with a show that you don’t actually have any kind of strong opinion on?

The true mediocre anime?

It didn’t do anything overly noteworthy in either a good or bad way. It just kind of was. Everything is more or less functional and while it wasn’t exactly inspiring it didn’t make you want to run for the hills either.

Which brings me to my reviews of Clean Freak Aoyama-Kun and Fastest Finger First. Both anime pretty much stayed in the ‘okay’ category for the season. Fastest Finger First I had a lot of fun with but have admitted all along is not objectively very good. Clean Freak Aoyama-Kun was a bit more up and down but overall the anime works as a comedy even if it isn’t overly funny (that isn’t actually the end of the world for most comedy).


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More recently I’m going to struggle when reviewing Banished From The Hero’s Party because honestly what is there to say about the show? And even The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window never got so bad it deserves a rant but it certainly hasn’t given me a huge amount to write about other than a general feeling of disappointment that the plot didn’t end up being more exciting.

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The problem with reviewing mediocre anime is you fairly quickly run out of things to say. Or everything you say has a qualifier on it. “The characters are fine, but…” “There’s some potentially interesting ideas here however…”

And even when you go back through your notes for these types of anime, you notice that largely you’ve just made the same points episode after episode and you can’t think of anything noteworthy enough to warrant expanding on any particular point.

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And with so many anime coming out each season it is inevitable that a lot of it will fall into the mediocre anime basket which is already overflowing with anime that I’m really wondering just how you can fairly review something that at is core functions and has some entertainment value but equally isn’t particularly impressive.

Apparently being a mediocre anime is worse than being bad when it comes down to writing a post about the show.

Which is probably the reason I do select a range of shows when deciding what to watch for the season. Mediocre anime have the advantage of maintaining a pretty even flow which means I’m unlikely to want to drop them throughout the season where as good shows have a habit of failing catastrophically during the final act and bad shows are just kind of bad.

That said, mediocre anime don’t have the emotional highs and lows and certainly don’t have a lot of fizz-bang and little to talk about that hasn’t already been said. Therefore a mixture of anime is needed to ensure episode reviews have a bit of variety.

What do you do about reviewing shows that just don’t have that much to talk about? And would you rather watch an anime that is easy to review or one that is just alright to watch?


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Karandi James


Fastest Finger First Series Review: Do You Like Watching Characters Answer Questions?

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Overview:

Koshiyama is about as typical an anime dweeb as they come. A book nerd starting high school with few friends or social skills. Then he get dragged into a practice quiz and discovers Quiz Bowl.

Review:

There’s really not a lot of story here. Geeky and shy kid joins new quiz circle at his high school and as a result gains some confidence, kind of makes some friends, and kind of finds a rival. I say kind of, because in these 12 episodes the skeleton for future developments is set up but very little time is devoted to anything outside of quizzing and learning about question formats and practicing to answer.

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Enjoyment of this show relies very heavily on the audience enjoying game shows or playing along with quizzes. If you like hearing characters discuss strategies for when you can quiz in or narrow down answers, then you will have fun. If you like seeing if you can beat characters to the right answer, you’ll probably have fun. If you actually want the back story on the characters or to see any of the potential character developments realized you’ll probably end up disappointed.

For me, I loved being inside Koshiyama’s head as he tried to find the answer to questions. Sometimes he was successful and sometimes not (so at least no plot armour for the rookie quizzer) but his thinking and how he drew on his knowledge from the vast array of books he had read was kind of fun to follow.

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The other members of the team and most the rival players are also fun enough, but they just don’t spend enough time with any of them. They all remain more types than characters and, particularly with the leader of Koshiyama’s team, it felt like there was a lot missing that would just make all these characters feel a bit more real and fleshed out.

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Mikuriya gets a lot more time as the set up rival from another school, but even he doesn’t get much beyond his attitude and aptitude. We literally know nothing about him beyond the fact that he likes quizzes and he doesn’t like to lose.

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Of course, the show isn’t all smooth sailing. The introduction of Akira in the latter half hurt my enjoyment of some of the final episodes. He was a really annoying character and while the show needed something to shake up all the composed quizzers and Akira served that role well, he didn’t make it more fun to watch.

The opening song is enjoyable enough and the dings and beeps of the buzzers are certainly nostalgic sounding. Otherwise the music and sound is pretty unremarkable as are most of the visuals.

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There’s no greater narrative going on here. No fighting for a greater good. This is just about the characters and quizzing with Quiz Bowl getting the lion’s share of development even at the expense of the characters. Still, if that works for you then you should have some fun with this show. I certainly did and while it is hardly going to be my favourite anime ever and rewatch value is pretty low (sorry, once I know what the answer is going to be a lot of the fun goes out the window) I’d actually happy watch a second season of this, though that seems unlikely that we’ll get one.

Probably the best thing I can say about this show is that it is consistent in what it delivers.

If you watched Fastest Finger First I’d love to know your thoughts on it.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 12: Define Fun

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Review:

As expected, this anime has ended by wrapping up the meet though really the tension in the episode ended with the end of the match up between Koshiyama and Mikuriya (no spoiler on how that goes). Basically, there’s a lot more story implied with where the two go from here after this meet but as this is the final episode there’s a real question of whether we’ll ever get a second season or if this is really it for the anime.

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I had a lot of fun with this final episode though will admit that other than watching characters over think questions, and seeing people try to deal with Akira, nothing really happened. Of course, it is a show about quizzing so I’d probably have been a bit put out if they’d tried anything else for a final.

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I’ll get to a full review of this show later but I think the biggest disappointment is that the characters still haven’t been developed much at all. Because we spend so much time with the quizzes, any characterization is definitely taking a back seat.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 11: Low Level Thrills Ahead

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Review:

There’s not a lot to this episode beyond the obvious and yet when it ended I felt my body relax because I’d clearly been tensing up during most of the second half. It’s kind of fun to be that caught up in a single character’s emotions even if the end result is quite a sore neck.

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The third round of the quiz meet continues with the second group and Akira is back in his sister’s school uniform and determined to generally annoy people. I still really hate Akira’s character but I give credit to the creators because clearly that is what his character is intended for.

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The real thrill here though is Koshiyama as well see him employing everything he has learned about quizzes and questions as well as a fair desire to win even when he doubts he can. I particularly loved the final question mostly because he did exactly what I would do when I know I’ve come across a piece of information but can’t remember it. Of course they end on a cliff-hanger but from what I’ve been able to find out next week will be the final episode of the season so I guess things will come to an end one way or another then.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 10: No Time For Distractions Like Backstory

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Review:

They finally kind of got into the team leaders past this week on Fastest Finger First and then they decided that was too distracting from answering questions and we moved on. Or rather, Fukami does as she puts aside the question of whether their captain actually knows her brother or not and focusses on answering the questions in the third round as she fights it out for a place in the final.

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So if you are desperate for back story or anything really other than the quiz itself, you probably aren’t getting it this episode, but the quiz is really fun so that isn’t really too much of an issue. Plus, with so many religious themed questions this one didn’t really require specialised knowledge of Japan and made it much easier to play along at home, presuming of course that your knoweldge of Christianity is better than your knowledge of Japanese classic literature.

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All and all another fun episode and one that leaves us on a cliff-hanger as Koshiyama prepares for his own go at round 3.


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Top 5: Anime of Summer 2017 That Weren’t As Bad As Their Synopsis Made Them Sound

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This might seem like an odd choice for a list but I’m going to be honest, going into the anime of Summer 2017 there were only a few shows that on reading the synopsis made me want to try them and then most of those were unavailable to me. I did get to watch Elegant Yokai Apartment Life and it had the opposite problem of the write up makes it sound more fun that it is.

So instead I got to just randomly sample shows that I went into expecting not to really like them very much and in some cases the results have been pleasantly surprising. That’s not to say these are the best shows I’m watching or the best on offer, only that they are actually more fun than I initially thought they would be.

Anyway, I’d love to know if there’s a show that has surprised you this Summer season by not being dreadful.

Anime of Summer 2017 that weren’t so bad.

Please note: Probably only limited spoilers below.

Honourable mention this week to Princess Principal. Not only is it one of my favourite shows of the season, it is one that from the short synopsis I read and the character designs I was pretty positive I was going to drop, not because it sounded bad, but because it just didn’t sound or look like something I would enjoy. So glad I watched the first episode because it was great fun.

Number 5: 18if

After going to sleep like normal, Haruto Tsukishiro wakes up to discover something unbelievable—he’s stuck in dream world! Here, witches plague the dreamscape and are more than dreamy figments—they’re the trapped souls of young women who’ve rejected reality and are afflicted by the “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”

This is 18if and this is one anime of summer 2017 that sounded pretty terrible.

The above is the Crunchyroll synopsis and reading that it just screams that this is something to be avoided. Stuck in a dream world? Okay, here’s another chance for a writer to just be totally random for no reason. Oh, there are witches who are actually the trapped souls of young women?

Suffering from a syndrome named after a fairy tale character. It all just seemed far too much like a desperate cry for attention and to be honest with each episode featuring a unique art style and tone you could be forgiven for thinking this entire story is just a project being made by an over-zealous art class full of students that all just want their turn at creating someone for Haruto to rescue. Despite that, it actually hasn’t been a bad watch.

There’s been quite a bit of heart in some of the stories and there’s been enough cohesion with Haruto to carry us from story to story without too much confusion. Admittedly, this could still end very badly or not at all if they don’t bother to get to some sort of more definitive point before the season draws to a close.

Number 4: Gamers

“Would you like to be with me… in the Gamers Club?” Amano Keita is a perfectly mediocre loner with no particular distinguishing features other than his love for games. One day, his school’s prettiest girl and Gamer Club President Tendo Karen suddenly calls out to him. That moment changes Keita’s life forever, as he now finds himself in the midst of a romcom with beautiful girl gamers… or, well, that’s how it usually goes. Not with him, however.

And here is Gamers.

As much as I like games and gaming, this anime didn’t exactly scream that it was something I wanted to watch. Everything about the synopsis is cliché and high school, club anime about loner boy getting targeted by the school’s ‘prettiest girl’ to join a club just didn’t seem like something I was going to get into. And the first episode more or less confirmed those fears and then it didn’t.

Gamers managed to turn the trite and overused scenario on its head and admittedly it has marched us through a lot of tropes and clichés the way it manages to continue to defy audience expectations while remaining watchable is pretty amazing. The narrative is completely shot at this point because of all the twists they keep building in but it doesn’t really matter because I’m just caught up with these odd characters and their odd but charming interactions.

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Number 3: Fastest Finger First

Bunzou High School is welcoming its new first-year students. One of them, Koshiyama Shiki, is chosen to participate against his will in an impromptu fast-buzzing quiz meet by the president of the Quiz Bowl Circle. As a quiet boy who loves reading and doesn’t want to stand out, Shiki is overwhelmed, but his classmate, Fukami Mari, is able to hit the buzzer and answer questions before the full question is given.

Welcome to Fastest Finger First.

Once again, high school club with quiet boy getting dragged into things. What actually drew me to this one is that it was about quizzes and I really enjoy them so I ignored all my trepidations and took on the first episode. While I can’t say that this has truly defied any of my expectations, it is really quite watchable and mostly that is because of Koshiyama as the protagonist.

He might be a quiet kid who doesn’t like standing out but there’s more to him than just that and he’s actually proving to be a reasonably well rounded protagonist.

Does that make the show particularly good? Not really. Unless you like quizzes there really isn’t a lot to get into with the story. However, given what my initial thoughts were when reading that synopsis I’ve ended up finding this fairly okay.

Number 2: Clean Freak Aoyama-Kun

Aoyama kun is a hot, young soccer prodigy who plays midfielder for the National U-16 Soccer Team. But he’s also an extreme germaphobe! The TV anime adaptation of “Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama kun!” (Clean Freak!! Aoyama kun) portrays the friendships he forms and the challenges he overcomes in a “spotless” coming-of-age story!

Yep, this is Clean Freak Ayoama-Kun.

Seriously? It is a story about a ‘hot’ soccer player who is a germaphobe and in case that isn’t enough to make your eyes roll right out your head at the sheer gimmicky nature of that match up we then get an incredibly tacky pun dropped into the synopsis just for fun.

There was absolutely nothing about that write up that made this seem like it would appeal and to be honest, there’s nothing about the show that really should given its basically an episodic comedy that has a cast of overly zany characters that each seem to get one episode in the spotlight where their extreme dysfunction takes centre stage as we circle around Aoyama and then we move on. Despite that, I’ve been finding this anime oddly charming.

Not every joke is a winner and some episodes are more tiresome than others, but overall, Aoyama has been kind of interesting and part of that is probably because despite the cheap jokes and gimmicks, for the most part it seems to respect people with conditions. There are a lot of tacky jokes in the series but Aoyama’s need to clean has for the most part been treated as a setting rather than the target of the humour.



Number 1: In Another World With My Smartphone

After dying as a result of God’s mistake, the main character finds himself in a parallel world, where he begins his second life. His only possessions are the body that God gave back to him and a smartphone that works even in this new world. As he meets all kinds of new people and forges new friendships, he ends up learning the secret to this world. He inherits the legacy of an ancient civilization and works together with the kings of some very laid-back countries on his carefree travels through this new world.

A whole synopsis in just the title, this is In Another World With My Smartphone.

Right from the title you know what this show is giving you. It is another self-aware isekai story about an overpowered protagonist trapped in another world. Gimmick to throw in is he gets to take his phone with him and somehow it works. There’s really no reason at all this anime should have appealed to me and yet there’s just something about how it delivers its tropes that manages to entertain.

It seldom crosses into overly cringe worthy territory and even though the last couple of episodes have started to become a little repetitive, due to Touya being all but an unstoppable force of nature at this point, there’s still plenty to make me smile about this show. Nope, it has no depth and it isn’t trying to actually make itself distinct or a satire on the genre or anything else.

What it does is simply remember why these clichés became cliches and what makes them fun. It delivers lines that in most shows would all but be followed with a nudge to the audience to let us know that they are aware it is an overused line in an absolutely serious manner.

Just as it delivers cloth dissolving slimes without a hint of shame. All and all, of all the shows I tried without really expecting anything from them, this one is the one I’ve ended up having the most fun with. Again, not exactly the best anime of the season but nowhere near as terrible as it could have been from that synopsis.

Which anime of Summer 2017 did you find to be oddly not terrible after reading a synopsis that kind of made you wonder why you were even pressing play?


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Karandi James


Fastest Finger First Episode 9: Way To Make A Character We Hate

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Review:

The final group of the second round have their go and of course Koshiyama ends up paired with the girl (who is actually a guy) from the arcade who really is just a jerk. There’s no other way to describe someone who treats others with that much disdain. Really, really wishing, that his team leader had actually sent him home after that round.

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Despite really hating that character, the quiz was still fun and because of the format of needing two people to buzz in I was actually hearing enough of most of the questions to guess an answer which was entertaining. The outcome of the round is pretty much what you would expect at this point in the season, but I’m just not sure adding that character was a good idea. The characters so far have been relatively benign and then adding one truly irritating individual to the mix does not seem like a good plan.

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I guess it did mix things up a bit, but this was probably my least favourite episode so far of this show.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 8: No Reward Without Risk

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Review Episode 8:

And the competition has begun. There’s not a lot to say about this episode other than I had a lot of fun watching the team take a paper quiz and then two rounds of buzzing. There’s some character stuff going on with the girl they met at the arcade and the whole potential rivalry thing between Koshiyama and the guy from that other school, but basically if you’ve been enjoying the quiz element of this show, that’s what you get this episode.

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Though, I have to wonder how often this guy actually adjusts his glasses. It is getting to the point where I have to assume they are a fashion statement and not needed because no one who wears glasses for actual sight purposes would play with them that much.

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I really enjoyed the two answers thing as it gave another spin on the buzz and answer format. So this show isn’t the stand out of the season or the show you should definitely jump on board with if you haven’t already started it, but if you like quizzes then it might be a relaxing bit of viewing this season.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 7: New Rivals, New Brothers, New Buzzers?

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Review Episode 7:

This was interesting in that it felt like lots happened during the episode and you could list off a lot of stuff, but in terms of moving the plot forward we started with them preparing for the regular meet and we end with them still in preparation for the regular meet. Points for not letting an episode with almost zero plot progression drag and a lot of that has to do with the different character interactions.

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At the same time though, I just kept kind of wanting them to move this along a bit. As much fun as the quizzes have been, and learning new facts, and watching the characters stumble their way toward being competitive, as a series the show is leaving a lot of room for improvement. We get small hints at character development and relationship building but these haven’t amounted to a lot yet so it is hard to know if the payoff will ultimately be enough to carry the show to its conclusion.

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Still, there are worse ways I could spend twenty minutes of my week than catching the next episode of a show that isn’t exactly brilliant but has managed to remain pretty even in its delivery throughout the season.


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Fastest Finger First Episode 6: Have Phone = Have Social Life, Maybe

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Review:

Koshiyama is on an outing with a friend, or at least a classmate in the same club as him so that kind of counts. And he is armed with a smartphone gifted to him by his parents so now he’s out to collect your contact info. Unfortunately, making friends isn’t exactly covered within the phone manual.

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I found this sequence kind of adorable given I always used to love reading the manuals that came with new devices. Saddest thing ever was when they stopped including anything more than basic specs and part guides and made you go online to actually find out how to use the device. Even the Kindle guide only tells you how to open the user manual on the Kindle – tragic but not relevant to the show.

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This episode sees our budding quiz bowl players in an arcade playing a quiz game and of course rival boy is there as well. There’s some back and fourth, some new quiz formats and discussion of how to get faster or better, and some general quizzing before your cliché bullies show up and then get taken out by another character that looks too distinct to be a random one episode character so my bet is they are showing up at a quiz meet later.

Outside of this we get the brief side story of technology girl and the club leader shopping for parts to make the buzzers, and the quiz obsessed girl helping her friend at a maid cafe for reasons that only the word ‘anime’ can explain.

I’ll be honest, this is not such a great episode. Barely anything happens and while there are some laughs to be had with less quizzes and very little narrative going on the characters were left to carry the bulk of the episode and they just aren’t up to the task, despite my finding the main character adorable in an incredibly geeky way.


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