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6.5/10 ~ Disappointed but still fine

Man I really enjoy Hosoda, Mamoru work such as Belle and Summer Wars are really some of my favorites I just keep coming back and re-watching. Announcements for Scarlet were out as far back as 2021 I believe and man did it look good, and im always down for a re-interpretation for Shakespeare's work so this seemed like it was going to be a banger. Spoiler, it was not lol.

The hyper stylized visuals that Hosoda, Mamoru does is and usually is my cup of tea but I can understand when it is not for most people. However when making ... Scarlet there is a major problem that I haven't actually seen in too many anime to this existent, but I see in stuff like Gotcha games like Genshin impact. When the MC or only certain charecters are so hyper stylized, but everyone else just kinda exists it does make the MC stand out, which can be a good thing. But it just makes everyone else look drab and boring. The other main character that I will not go to much of detail is the most bland looking MF ive seen in an anime in a long time, his story arc also made no sense and honestly if it was not to just insert a generic romance into the anime I dont really see much of a point and if you cut him completely out it would probably make the movie better.

The movie also just has so many points in it that are just artsy for the sake of being artsy, its just weird and my brain just didnt like so many parts. The story yes based on Hamlet but felt like it was just 'Go-forward' and at so many parts just didnt make too much sense. It felt like he was just trying to make a 'vibes'-Ghibli-esk movie for most of it and it just didnt translate because 1/2 the characters didnt really make much sense. All the scenes in Demark needed to just be longer or probably removed all together, and man did we need MORE of the mystical parts that were so infrequent.

The good parts were good, but honestly the biggest problem was there wasnt enough story and the vibes were not strong enough. But hey atleast Scarlet was cute and the dragon was banging.

6/10 ~ Please just give us more IBO already

This was a very short episode that is either included with the 10th anniversary Blue Ray set or you could have seen it with the theatrical release of "Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans – Urdr Hunt Special Edition: Path of the Little Challenger" / the 30th Anniversary of Endless Waltz in January 2026 in select North American Theaters. This is very similar to the mini episode that was included in the Blueray remaster of 08th MS team Blue ray box set that came out a few years ago "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team - A ... Battle with the Third Dimension". Just another small episode that should have been included with the main series but was cut/added later for no real reason but I'm all here for it.

this is 100% skippable, but if you like IBO its just a nice little scene that builds to the world and the characters. IBO being one of my favorite Gundam series / Mechas I feel that this is now just part of the viewing experience. Its like 10 min, once it hits the High seas just go watch it!.

One day we will either get a IBO sequel with Mikazuki's child or more importantly a Prequal about the Calamity war in real time.

5/10 ~ just make this a full anime already.

This is a condensed and cut up movie consisting of cut scenes from a mobile game that no one played that has 'End Of Serviced'. It takes place between Season one and two of Iron Blooded orphans and its really a mess of a story that you have to put together yourself with out the game to use as glue. There's a ton of new characters and some returning ones. Going into this I thought this was a sequel because the MC looks so much like Mikazuki's child and his Gundam Frame he pilots looks so much ... like Barbatos... nope two diffrent people (Wistario) and two diffrent Gundam frames (Marchosias) that technically existed at the same time and could have fought one another.

Honestly if I wasn't so hungry for IBO and wanted MORE content I would have to objectively rate this like a 3.5/10, but it got a 1-2 point bump for filling a weird niche that just should be a either a full movie or OVA production if not just a entire show itself. This was available this month of January 2026 in select North American theaters as a duel feature with the 30th Aniv of Wing EW for only a few select days. I am extremely shocked they didn't give out either the Mikazuki Toyotarou art card or the Gundam Marchosias EX base cards for the new card game... would have had far more people at the theater if they did this one simple trick.

if you saw the theatrical version this included some small clips of extra footage from the 10th Aniv of IBO that was just released (Kidou Senshi Gundam: Tekketsu no Orphans - Makuai no Kusabi), very similar to the mini ep they added to 08th MS team when that got a Blue Ray remaster a few years ago (Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team - A Battle with the Third Dimension), this honestly was the best part. Along side this was some extra Intro-outro Mini music videos of very nice IBO 10th Aniv art that is actually being featured in the Premium Bandai box set (TCG) for the Gundam card game later this year.

Man Bandai really just hates Gundam, they refuse to give us good COMPLETE shows, games or products. Unless you LOVE IBO/Gundam as a whole this is a pass, and I imagine that the #1 reason anyone watched this in America is because they wanted to go so Endless waltz on the big screen. LOL

4/10 ~ taking the sol away from Digimon

This version of Digimon was just so mediocre, the stylistic choices the artist made were just so generic for all the charecters it was just kinda odd. The music overall was just not it and really didn't feel like Digimon to me (for reference ive watched everything from 01 to season 6, and played many of the games). Even the fights for the most part were not even that great.

Im not really sure why they made this a movie, iit just felt like when an anime airs now a day and has a super long episode to ... kick of a regular season. Im not really sure what I expected with a title like "reunion" but thats really all it was, there wasnt really a plot, or any real antagonist, the story was pretty non existent... and what happened to the 02 characters... just going to ignore that they are missing? Arnt they all friends? Are TK and Carrie not dating anymore? Alphamon, and the Omnimon Evo scene kinda lame... its just so watered down... Idk what I expected but this wasnt it. Also I hate when movies are not stand alone, part of a series or not, this was so clearly part of a whole so its hard to be objective on one of the 6 movies when Ive only seen one. And for this to no longer really be cannon is just so odd. hopefully the next movies are better but I wont hold my breath.

3.25/10 ~ what year is it lol

My statement above is both for the fact that this show feels rough out of 2001 with horrible nonsensical anime, but also for the fact that the best part of the show is the odd twist of, what year is it.

The first few episodes felt right out of "Mahou Senshi Louie" or "Rune soldier" for the few that got sucked into that hot garbage 25 years ago on promise that we were getting more Lodoss War... sorry if I wound up some old wounds there lol. then took a drastic turn and just started slowly turning into ... something closer to "Kiddy Grade", a few episodes latter it was just "Full Metal Panic!" and then at the end it turned back into "Rune Soldier", the plot for the most part was a bit of a mess but honestly a bit close to greatness if not for the so many flaws. (and I would not recommend any of these 3 anime I just mentioned so bad start)
- the humor was oddly close the humor in Demon slayer, which I both dont fully understand the Japanese historical context nor do I find it particularly funny. (all the mask people)
- over sexualization of everyone but especially the women, oddly enough the MC tries and fails to actually have sex with the other MC at the end which... that was an odd turn of events
- MC turning away women for being too "Lolli"... not sure if ive ever seen that before but was almost a moment of maturity for the show which I was extremely surprised which went literally nowhere as of the reason above.
- the plot is all over the place and the world DOES not feel lived in, just back drop after back drop
- the MC doesnt really have that much redeemable personality but every girl wants his dick for some reason, think Kirito but a bit silly.
- Fuck the space time continuum I guess, the main antagonist "having 2 memories of the protags" welp fuck the time line I guess.
- nearly all problems in their world could be solved with time travel, but no she wants the MC's dick for some reason and thats the reason of why they cant undo anything for any reason.
- the power scaling makes no sense, and how do people actually get powers, there's just sooo many questions because bad writing.
- I was mislead to believe this was a show about suedo pirates in the future that have a really neat power/level system that they can bet. Close but my god its nothing like that, the leveling and power just doesn't matter when everything is just made up ep-to-ep.
- this is on-going and I suspect it will not get a continuation as iits been almost 4 years -_-
- 100% a 1.25-1.33x speed anime, DO NOT WATCH this at 1.0 if you want to finish it

Few things I enjoyed:
- never knew what was going to happen, other then power of friendship this actually defied more tropes then it had
-- the subversion of what time period was good.
- the few moments the Main cast were not being horny or Kirto/simps it could be a bit endearing
- the power system for the first few episodes was interesting, but quickly went out the window
- unlike the early 2000's the English VA and animation for slop has come along way

I do not recommend this show and you could say just off the base that its "on-going" but I suspect its just canceled. and 90% of the time I do not recommend canceled shows unless they are true master pieces or the end is sufficient enough, this is just a cliff hanger. Past this its just early 2000's slop with bad writing, not deep characters, a nonsensical plot and world they reside in. However if you LOVE early 2000's anime that were all half finished, and that are overly horny and I'm sure you are out there this is for you.

Over all I feel like I wasted my time with this one, and the only thing keepiing me goiing was the odd subversion of plot/tropes.
[ Also F*** who ever had this in their top 10 anime and recommended it to me lololol]

3.5/10 ~ Light Yagami plays a Death game while Rimuru cries in the corner

I will start by saying that I do not recommend to watch this as it was canceled over 10 years ago, and the show doesn't even end on a cliff hanger, its just half finished, so its a bit hard to be objective when this is the case, but ill try my best.

Being released in 2012 this was a different time: sword art online was just airing, death games were a new and up coming thing and not beaten to death like they are in 2025, it was socially unacceptable ... to watch dubbings from most of the community so no one cared if the ENG dub was bad, In your face fan service was necessary for mid anime to make its way over to the states, and most smaller anime never knew if they were going to get a part 2 or a continuation, it was a bit of a "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks".

- BTOM's Dubbing was simply horrid, and the script was almost as bad
- the action scenes were so-so
- infinite plot holes, and story arcs left to rot from the show being half done
- not sure about 2012, but in 2025 the NEET MC that is Light Yagami clone makes me just want to puke
- whoever wrote this has a weird look at Sexual PTSD, but honestly the way it was done was a bit hard to watch which might actually be weirdly the point so this is a subjective +/-
- hearing Rimuru's ENG VA be in the role of a winey 16yo was odd to say the least, obviously years prior to Slime coming out lol
- the MC out smarting everyone was so lame every time
- the death game didn't make any sense
- the video game the death game was based off of was poorly explained
- amnesia to exposition drop was old in 2012
- I spent the first 5 episodes contemplating just turning it off, but I being sick while watching this just needed something on in the background and I already started
- 100% a 1.25x speed Anime

I watched this because several people talking to me on here had this anime in their top 10 favorite anime of all time, first of all not to yuck anyone yum, but my god what is wrong with you if this is your creme de La Creme. I'm assuming just omega nostalgia or extreme lack of variety of things watched. But this anime in 2025 is about as obscure as it gets at this point so exposure doesn't really make sense for more then a few people lol

Honestly tho the biggest demerit this show gets is being unfinished, if this continued at the upward trajectory it was slowly having it would probably be anywhere from a 4/10 to possibly a 5/10, so for that assumption ill give this anime the extremely rare round up of score here on MAL. This show really showcases my grading system vs the general community, where my average tries to be around a 5/10 (because you know that's how averages work) but ends up really being about a 5.5/10. Where the average MAL user has their average score at about a 7/10 which always baffled me. so if you just add +2 points /10 to any of my scores up to about a 8.5/10 then I am usually in line with the community and anything from 9+ is truly just subjective on peak/perfect.

we cannot simply grade this show based on how it sat in 2012 frozen in time, as the anime bar gets raised higher and higher year after year this must come down if the ceiling stays at a 10/10. Even back in 2012 this objectively was probably a 6/10 at best if it was finished, but it was not and we've come along way especially with ENG Dubs. but at the end of the day scores are all completely opinion based and this was just my two copper. with that I wholeheartedly do not recommend you watch this.

7/10 ~ Talking the anime lol

So I did enjoy this show that I binged in 1 tattoo session. each season at two diffrent sessions lol. This was the perfect kinda show to watch as it was almost entirely talking and the story for the most part was fairly easy to follow. Funny tidbit about when I was watching this, several people came over to see the work being done to see me just zoned out watching this. And several of the people asked me if this was anything like "Solo Leveling" or "seven deadly sins", it was really hard to keep a straight face when ... I told them "yes" lmfao.

Pros:
- first 1/2 or so of the show is extremely good and hooks you in
- the MC despite being a know it all is a very likeable character
--I enjoyed most of the supporting cast
- the story taking place in Ancient China is always a good setting, cant wait for more Kingdom!
- English dub was good
- I got waay too invested in all the dumb stories for the first 1/2

Cons:
- not sure if its translations, or they expect you to have an understanding of Ancient China/ Chinese general culture but alot of the terms and what conspired were very confusing...
- The MC being a "Mary Sue" gets old, shes like 17 with WAAAAY too much knowledge
- I understand that the sex district is just one of the main settings but whollyboobs, that was distracting in a 'hard to take you seriously' kinda way
- sherlock type mysteries were very poorly done
- I enjoyed the light romances but I can see them being to light for most people
- music score was pretty meh
- pacing in the 2nd half was so bad

This show had an extremely good start with the first 10 or so episodes of season 1, until it quickly becomes "mystery of the week" which was an extreme low of the show as it was executed pretty poorly imo. Luckily it does all kinda come together as a mini reward for getting to the end of the season. Which is always satisfying when you feel "paid off" for making it through something. Tho if I wasn't literally confided to a table with nothing else downloaded on my tablet I probably would have not continued when it hit that low low point. I am very shocked how well rated this show is, and similar to Frieren I am so confused how the general public finds these really niche shows to be legendary.

Season 2 takes a somewhat diffrent turn of mood and ditches the monster of the week vibe which is very appreciated. The ending plot wise all came together pretty nicely and was pretty dark. But my god the last episode was just so cramped full of loose plot threads to tie up it was a bit jarring.

I would only recommend this to people who are fine with shows about low tier political intrigue, romance and bullshit science fiction mixed in, bit too much of "dont worry about it bro" and "trust me" going on with this one lol, but I enjoyed it well enough.
7/10 is actually quite high of a rating for me as my average rating is right on the mark of 5/10, This is also quite hard for me to seriously recommend to anyone that I know as it doesn't do the romance thing well enough, and its too romanc-y for the Shonen crowd.

6.25/10 ~ a canceled show that could have been so much more

The best way to describe The heroic Legend of Arslan is what if you animated an RTS game that features prominent charecters as more powerful 'heroes' (much like Battle for middle earth), made each side quest secretly a way to obtain a new hero or party member much like a wifiu collector all culminating to your MC living his dream of becoming someone akin to Daenerys Targaryen (minus the dragons), all set in a historical fiction that mixes myth with legend (much like Vinland saga or 3 kingdoms).

I really enjoy the use of ... language, always a fan of using religion as a story telling medium as controlling the masses, low fantasy is my favorite setting.

Now that sounds like a hook that would make me love this series, but its plagued with so so many problems.
- After the first major problem the MC encounters there doesn't feel like there are ANY stakes, his party is so OVERLY equipped to handle literally any situation no matter how big or small it eliminates any fear he WONT achieve his goal which slowly just turns this into a historical fiction power fantasy lol.
- The power scaling of the myth part is very non-sensical and not consistent.
- I honestly only like a few characters, the rest seem too cardboard cut-outish
- wholly bad CGI batman
- can we talk about how silver mask is just a Char clone lol
- the show is canceled and on a huge hiatus...

Part 2 is a bit more of the same with a good plot twist right off the bat making a bit of a character reset if we keep with the video game analogy. I did enjoy what little of season 2 we got but my god to get to the end of episode 33 to find there is just no more just makes me feel like I wasted my time.

Because the show is canceled I probably wouldn't recommend this at all. But if you don't care about that kinda stuff and just want to watch an animated RTS game or something like Dynasty warriors, or are a fan of 3 kingdoms then sure I guess you are already use to disappointment and bad CGI so welcome.

6.25/10 ~ a canceled show that could have been so much more

The best way to describe The heroic Legend of Arslan is what if you animated an RTS game that features prominent charecters as more powerful 'heroes' (much like Battle for middle earth), made each side quest secretly a way to obtain a new hero or party member much like a wifiu collector all culminating to your MC living his dream of becoming someone akin to Daenerys Targaryen (minus the dragons), all set in a historical fiction that mixes myth with legend (much like Vinland saga or 3 kingdoms).

I really enjoy the use of ... language, always a fan of using religion as a story telling medium as controlling the masses, low fantasy is my favorite setting.

Now that sounds like a hook that would make me love this series, but its plagued with so so many problems.
- After the first major problem the MC encounters there doesn't feel like there are ANY stakes, his party is so OVERLY equipped to handle literally any situation no matter how big or small it eliminates any fear he WONT achieve his goal which slowly just turns this into a historical fiction power fantasy lol.
- The power scaling of the myth part is very non-sensical and not consistent.
- I honestly only like a few characters, the rest seem too cardboard cut-outish
- wholly bad CGI batman
- can we talk about how silver mask is just a Char clone lol
- the show is canceled and on a huge hiatus...

Because the show is canceled I probably wouldn't recommend this at all. But if you don't care about that kiinda stuff and just want to watch an animated RTS game or something like Dynasty warriors, or are a fan of 3 kingdoms then sure I guess you are already use to disappointment and bad CGI so welcome.

6/10 ~ So close to greatness

This is a review for both season 1 and 2: This Gundam knock-off clone of a show was actually decent and sits up there amongst some of itis peers as a not horrible standalone. If you watch it in English Dub you will immediately recognize many of the charecters from Iron Blood orphans, SEED, and Build, such as Kira Yamato (also as the MC in this), Uno Takaki (IBO), Flay (Seed), Lafter (IBO), Echo (IBO, Naze and many many more. The plot and how the store was originally started was a bit interesting but at the end of the day ... was a bit of an underdog story (that didn't last too long that way). The powers of the boss monsters was interesting, the music was alight. The show atleast in the begining wasn't afraid to kill off characters, show trauma and have built up reasons/ motives of why each character is doing what and why. Past this it felt like ALOT of CTRL-V for Gundam tropes.

My largest grip with the show is the pacing, the first few episodes of season 1 and two were perfect pacing, then it would slow down from ep 3-10ish, then the last 1-2 episodes of both seasons were a blitz to the end with very very questionable endings to both seasons. To the point where the first 2-3 episodes of season 2 didn't make any sense until they revealed several "plot twists" that honestly just felt like bad/sloppy writing because they didn't think they would get this far.

I really don't like the heavily 3D animation style unless its for very specifically to contrast 2 things (Example would be IRL is 2D, and cyber space is 3D) or when its exclusively for Machines and mechs to stand out from the organic. When either of these artistic choices are done 3D is not only a good choice but sometimes the objective best choice. So here it is a plus!

Nearly everything I said in the beginning of this review is completely town out at some point, The Boss's powers start to kinda get lame, it quickly became a power fantasy and not an underdog story, they refuse to really kill anyone in season 2 until nothing matters, The music fades to the background, the trauma is left behind, motives make nearly no sense in season 2. Its really all just a mess. and the ending of the show... my god, the loose ends and plot holes are enormous its kinda hilarious. AND THE NTR, can we talk about the NTR? my god that made me mad lmfao

Its hard to articulate why I enjoyed it despite it having so many problems when I look back, I think the poor writing made it for me never knowing how any plot point was going to resolve. A strange place to be honestly. I would rank this as a 6/10, right beside Gundam SEED Destiny. So take that as you will. This was not awful, but I wouldn't not recommend this unless you LOVE mecha as a sub-genre. Other wise its a easy pass for me.

**I do think season 1 is significantly better, 6/10 is the average of the 2 seasons, I would have to say:
Season 1: 6.5/10 ( I could see it maybe getting a standalone 7 prior to season 2 coming out, but that ending of S1 is suspect)
Season 2: 5.5/10
so this review is a bit shafted by watching both seasons in essentially 1 sitting lol