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Mar 10, 2026
I used to see this comment made occasionally (still do) that would be something to the effect of, like, "you can't understand Japanese so you don't know how cringe voice acting tends to be" or "you don't understand the language so you don't notice bad voice acting." For the record, I think people who think all dubs are bad are generally pretty lame, I think it's kinda like a small-minded thought but I don't have anything against people who just have a preference.
The reason I open with that is because this show's voice direction is absolutely INSANE. It's genuinely insane, and that's to say nothing
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of the seiyuu's incredible performances. This comes across particularly often with Makio, the way she shows the way her voice becomes weak and breathless when she's emotionally exhausted, the harshness of her voice when she's angry, and the light but still somewhat reservedness of her tone when she's happy. She's a beautiful showcase for the stellar voice acting in this show, not just because of how well it illustrates her character, but also because of how easily she can transition between these things in a single line. This is such a constant thought for me when watching the show and almost every character showcases this well (especially Asa).
In fact I think the intentionality of that is kind of core to why this show works at all. It feels like every word, every motion, carries some sort of weight. There's this one scene where a character is leaving and they're asked what they want for dinner, to which they very hurriedly but unconcernedly look back and say "Pizza!" and then shut the door. It made me laugh a lot in the moment because it's not a joke or anything, but the light heartedness of that moment is so trapped around this intricate web of uncertainty and unfortunate feelings that you almost can't help but laugh. Even more, the relationship and comfort of the two characters in question is so precarious that something like this gives a little bit of insight, even if it's a bit uncertain.
More than that, however, are the moments where almost nothing is said at all. A character's silent reaction to someone's honest thought about themselves, their eyes locked onto them before wandering away, clearly lost in thought. Two pinkies softly wrestling with each other playfully. The wordless shock, or possibly anger, as one character realizes that more damage has been done to another than their blissful ignorance entails. While this is most certainly a show of monologues and personal conversations, it's what it often doesn't say that sells a character's personality so well. And moments that are just a family sitting on the couch, watching TV with a visible increase in comfort forming in real time as they shift to and fro or just cooking food in the kitchen gives you just such a detailed taste of what they're feeling and thinking.
I think this show's understanding of feelings is truly what makes me come back to it more than anything, though. The exploration of loneliness and what that idea means to one person vs. another. The value, and perhaps the necessity, of love. Whether you're worth it or if you would take it even if you knew it wasn't real. In a lot of ways, this is a coming of age story, but there's something about the relationship between Makio and Asa (the protagonists) that I can't help but be drawn too, I guess because I don't really see anything like it in anime but it's very real. And very touching. And scary.
Also, the character designs in this show are absolutely gorgeous. They're not complex, in fact they're generally pretty simple, but apart from their diversity for the fact that its a cast of mostly mundane, normal people is that the author really knows how to run the gambit between masculine and feminine designs and the fact that those aren't mutually exclusive ideas. Makio's design struck me right away, and how subtle changes in her hair or dress can completely mix up her whole vibe is really what sells this idea.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 28, 2025
The entire point of Danganronpa is that you end up in a setting where you get to know a bunch of other characters before (and while) you all end up killing each other. That's the entire point. The ENTIRE point.
So like, what the hell was this. What are we doing. A bunch of new character that we didn't really get to know at all dying and the only thing possibly keeping you interested is the fact that this has a 3 at the end of it. Half the time I just don't acknowledge this show, it just feels so pointless, but it feels worse knowing
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that most people who would watch in the current year won't watch it as it aired, where each week Mirai-hen and Zetsubou-hen would alternate. The first episode of Zetsubou-hen literally starts by showing events that happened in Mirai-hen, and the stories told in Zetsubou-hen often inform narrative plot points and characters in the upcoming Mirai-hen episodes. They're not meant to be watched apart.
Anyway, incredibly mediocre show. Two good things did come out of it, though. First, the ending is genuinely fantastic, one of my favorite endings of any anime. The second is a bit less enduring and isn't really something the show *does* so much as what it inspires, but it's that the theorycrafting from week to week was a TON of fun. The fact that an episode of this show effectively came out every two weeks actually helped that a lot because there would be a lot of discussion about the episode after it aired and then after Zetsubou-hen came out there would be theorycrafting about *that* and discussion about this would get bolstered by information from the Zetsu episodes. It's not really relevant to a current watch, and it's a bit worse in retrospect because most of the fun theories, however much sense they made, usually up ended either wrong or right but in the least exciting way possible. I think there was only like, one plot point that its roots showing early on that actually ended up being a fun reveal, and the character it's related to (one new to this show) I actually ended up liking a lot by the end. That didn't really save the show, though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Dec 28, 2025
I think it's pretty easy to both understand and get on board with what this show is in its entirety by the end of episode one. I went in knowing nothing, not even the name. Then I watched the whole thing.
Probably my favorite thing about this show is that it's a show made up almost entirely of a female cast but rarely (if ever) does it try to make them overtly cute or sexy. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen another anime that takes this in stride as well as Akiba Maid War does, and this is with it in mind that
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it's a show about maids. In Akibahara. From beginning to end they just feel like, well, people, and I can't begin to say how refreshing that is. It's something that just makes a show a lot more enjoyable for me, made the characters a lot more enjoyable too.
Otherwise, I think the show just manages to be a really fun over-the-top but at the same time very earnest period parody (of sorts) about gang warfare and maid cafe rivalry in the 80s. That sentence in itself has me genuinely curious about how the idea even came up, but it's how well the marriage of ideas works that makes it just so bizarre and enjoyable. But I think that, more than that, what really helps make the show stick is how seriously it takes itself, which is about as much as it doesn't. There's situations where the characters will end up in "death traps" or waving guns around with a rain of bullets that seem incredibly silly but then in another scene you'll see a character get shot and the weight of that body really pulls you back to...reality, I guess.
Such a good time, one of the most memorable watches I've had in years, honestly. Huge fan of the ending, too, it's the perfect culmination of the entire show's vibe.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 27, 2025
I watched this show two times. The first time was back in 2018 when it came out, and the second was about a year or two ago.
I feel like, in the context of when it was released, this show had a rough time making a positive impression because of the hype built up around it. You had a change in art style, the music group that worked on the series had shuffled and now the overall vibe of the lyrical parts of the OST was different, and in general the way the special moves were presented was different. This season hit or miss for a
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lot of fans, and for me initially it was sort of a miss.
I've always blamed a lot of the problems this show has on the fact that the game it was going to be released as was designed in a way that simply did not fit the format of the show. The game was to be a 3 protagonist journey, following 3 characters from 3 different teams. The show does this...kind of. This is completely to its detriment, too, because not only does splitting the focus also split how much focus can be given to individual teams and events, but it also didn't really do much for the protagonists in question. For one of them, Nosaka, this REALLY brought the show down for me because he also takes on the role of an antagonist but most of his story is told either through recycled plot points from other series (but told worse) or him just being generally boring or unlikeable.
Having said all of this, I really like this show. The second watch of this show was so, SO fun, and a lot of the reason for that came from just knowing what to expect, I guess. One criticism I've always had of its older sibling, Inazuma Eleven GO (and Chrono Stone) is that a lot of the characters feel one note. They feel like they're there to represent this personality type or this element or create/solve this plot conflict and then that's all there is to them. This was never a problem with the original series, as even though there were characters back then that felt that way it tended to be balanced out by (and they tended to have decent dynamics with) other characters that were more layered and nuanced. It wasn't that deep, it's a show for kids, but it was enough. When Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy came out, it made a controversial change to introduce an almost completely new cast of characters, and this ended up working out really well because after doing this it immediately focused on their personalities and how that influences not only how they play the game but also how they interact with each other. It's a huge part of why that season is so enjoyable.
Ares carries the torch that Galaxy lit, and while this is most obviously noticeable with Raimon, that same ideology is found on most teams, even the ones that show up only once. The character interactions in this show are just so fun and at times it even had me laughing, not something that this show is really known for doing. Speaking about Raimon further, though, I really enjoy this iteration of them. This is the first iteration of the series where the main character is a forward, and considering how they handled Tenma in GO I didn't figure that I would enjoy this shift, but in reality it worked out really well.
A large part of what made Endou Mamoru's role as protagonist so engaging was that despite being the front man for the show, he was the goalkeeper. Narratively this game them a LOT of room to develop the characters in other roles on the field without diminishing Endou's presence, and him being this motivating force that literally had his team's back not only cemented his place as protagonist but also created a dynamic that's hard to find in a soccer/football anime. Tenma ended up being the exact opposite of this, where he would get tons of power boosts and learn tons of moves of all types, they essentially turned him into Jesus. I think what made this boring, though, was less that he was so good and more that it didn't really do anything to support or elevate the other members of his team. If anything, he simply capitalized on his team's successes or just broke through whatever was giving them trouble. Asuto feels sort of like a mix of the two and it works really well. Without getting into spoiler territory, what works about Asuto (and why he's one of my favorite characters in this show) is that his success comes DIRECTLY from his interactions with the team. He has a strong relationship with the people around him and so a lot of how he plays and the plays he makes comes from that, which I find a lot more interesting to watch compared to Tenma mostly because he usually emulated Endou's "let the others shine while I have their backs" sort of mindset that works really well.
And y'know, would work better if it didn't decide to divide up the time so much.
Ultimately, though, the reason why I like this show as much as I do is because of the characters and character interactions which are some of the best in the series. I don't think it's as good as the original series or even really comes close to it, but I did enjoy it a lot more than I did GO. I do wish the music was better, though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 27, 2025
I'd kind of been hoping for a Christmas show for years and I always figured that any sort of Christmas series would be mostly unfeasible unless it was of a particular genre. Sanda manages to be exactly that, though, and it surprised me when it popped up.
I enjoyed this show a lot and a good part of that was because of Paru's very striking character designs. This is one of those shows where you can simultaneously tell that it's both animated by SARU and drawn by Paru Itagaki within minutes of watching and most of the time it makes this show an absolute blast to
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watch. Fuyumura in particular REALLY stands out (partially because she's really tall but) and, for me and I think a lot of others, ends up being quite a relatable character as the show progresses.
Towards the end, I was a bit worried because it felt like the seasonal nature of the show might've been working against it. It didn't feel rushed, necessarily, but it did feel like it was rush*ing* to keep up the pace so that it could reach the conclusion it wanted by episode 12. This isn't really a problem for most of the show (Only really maybe the last two episodes), and it could just be me overanalyzing. But I think other than that it manages to be a wonderful Christmas show that's really easy to watch with a ton of likeable characters in a mostly an uncanny setting. Really enjoyed my time with it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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