My Hero Academia

Shonen Jump's new front running anime has already made the halls of fame with a massive fan following, its own global conventions, and a couple of box office friendly movies. My Hero Academia is an instant classic that follows all shonen tropes the usual viewer loves, with an added spice of social commentary that makes us reflect on more than just the plot outcomes. The anime balances light and heavy elements well to create an action packed, adventurous show full of tasteful plot points and comedy. Not to mention, it does really well on character building and has some of this years most compelling protagonists. I think watching MHA is like making a new best friend, it gives you a happy and safe feeling, even though there are times when it can be annoying and steals your french fries (maybe that's just my friends).

The story is set in a world where a majority of the population is born with a quirk or a power. Society has reformed as a result of these abilities and new jobs have come into existence, a prominent one being professional super hero. We start by following Young Midoriya who was born quirk-less, but desperately wants to become a hero. On a faithful day he inherits a power called 'One For All' from the worlds greatest hero, All Might, who sees potential in Midoriya's future. From there he joins the world's top hero training academy UA High and is paired up with all kinds of aspiring heroes, each with their own backstories and intentions. He even comes face to face with his childhood bully Bakugo who has more to him than meets the eye. This is the story of how a class of ambitious yet problematic heroes face the world's toughest generation of villains, especially when they learn that not everything in the real world is black and white. 

My issue with MHA is that it was intentionally made to appeal to masses and become mainstream. Because of this you see many cliché shonen tropes and filler arcs that can offset an otherwise serious storyline. That being said, this is still one of my favorite shonen anime and it's a must watch for you.

     

My Personal Ratings Are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 4/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 3/5 
Enjoyment: 5/5 

Overall Recommendation: 20% Delaware Smash! 

Catch MHA on Hulu, Netflix and Crunchyroll across different regions. 

Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is, without a doubt, a bridge that shows us the way to the future of anime. This action Shonen series has visuals so stunning, you'll want to re watch every frame out of disbelief. With this plus Attack on Titan's final season, the production house - MAPPA basically knocked it out of the park. While the show's story itself isn't mind-blowingly special, the anime gets full points for execution and direction. You'll be so engaged by battle sequences, every droplet of sweat from a character's face becomes noticeable. Watching Jujutsu Kaisen is like watching a talented street artist spray graffiti on the wall, it just gives you an innate sense of satisfaction and amusement.   

The plot focuses on athletically gifted Yuji Itadori who inadvertently stumbles upon the hidden world of curses and supernatural phenomenon through an incident at school. To save his friends from danger, he gets himself cursed and obtains special powers, but also becomes a threat to all of humanity. In order to control his abilities, Yuji is enrolled into a school that teaches cursed techniques and is full of odd specimens. There's an interesting angle about the internal politics in the school that sway to and away from supporting Yuji across different levels of hierarchy. Jujutsu Kaisen does a great job in getting us involved with characters, battles and plot outcomes. The thrill of this anime stems from over powered character clashes, vibrant visuals and good old fashioned shonen sentimentality. 

The only negative I find with this anime is its slow story progression. I feel like episodes are too short and don't cover as much ground as I would have liked, but that being said, you can't rush great potentially long running anime.



My personal ratings are: 

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 4/5
Dialogue: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Enjoyment: 5/5 

Overall recommendation: One of sukunas fingers  

Jujutsu Kaisen in on Neflix Japan and on Crunchyroll in other regions, use a VPN to watch!

The Disastrous life of Saiki K.

Saiki K. is a slapstick shonen comedy anime that's all about the laughs. The show is full of unrestrained nonsensical humor that is guaranteed to put you through a fit of laughter. Saiki K is basically the anime equivalent of a fart bomb or a whoopy cushion, it's the most base form of comedy, but still undeniably effective and funny. Be prepared for unexpected gags, fast paced comedic dialogue, constant breaking of the fourth wall (something I'm guilty of too) and unapologetic jokes at the expense of other mainstream anime. Saiki K is a great way to shut off your mind and let laughter therapy take you to a happy place. 

The anime is basically one long commentary on the life of its protagonist, Kusuo Saiki. I mean an actual commentary as we're always hearing the inner working of his mind throughout each episode. He's basically a boy born with psychic abilities and god tier levels of power. Saiki does not see himself as gifted because his powers come with many burdens and restrictions. He is good at heart and wants nothing but to be an ordinary high schooler and to be left alone. Unfortunately the world keeps introducing chaotic people into his life who always create impossibly messy scenarios, forcing him to use his powers while still trying to hide them from others. Nothing makes sense here, but it's all ridiculously funny and spoofs various anime cliches to make great content for seasoned anime watchers. I think of this one as an instant classic, it's great to binge with friends as well.    

The thing about this anime is...there's no real story. With the absence of an overarching plot, Saiki K becomes almost mindless, especially because it goes on for four seasons counting specials. Even though this is intentional, and works well for most viewers, I feel like a small main story line would give a little more direction to this otherwise brilliant comedy.     



My personal ratings are:

Story: 1/5
Character Development: 2/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 3/5
Enjoyment: 5/5    

Overall Recommendation: Yare Yare 

All seasons of The Disastrous life of Saiki K. are on Netflix, you can use a VPN if not in your region. 

Shokugeki no Soma

Shokugeki no Soma or Food Wars is a shonen anime series about the culinary world. It brings a lot of color to this otherwise sparsely explored genre and is a must watch for you anime food lovers! This mouth watering and brilliant show has a great balance of exciting plot points, vibrant visuals and entertaining characters. It also does a great job in involving comedic elements so that it's not just an intense food anime with no other focus. Although Food Wars sounds like an innocent cooking anime, beware as it's very ecchi (suggestive sexual content). And I mean overtly ecchi moments, that can be off-putting. Since this is a culinary show let me put it this way: think of Food Wars as an Oreo Milkshake. You're blending milk, oreos, chocolate, ice cream...but bam someone throws a handful of broccoli in there! The un-necessary ecchi hits just like that broccoli (at least for me), but the rest is so on point.

The plot of Food Wars is not complicated. We follow the story of Yukihira Soma, a chef at his own family diner. Soma has no formal cooking accolades or fancy training but is an undeniably amazing cook. One day his father sends him to a prestigious cooking academy called Totsuki where only elite chefs can survive. Soma decides that he will outperform everyone at this academy but is up for quite a challenge. You get to see really entertaining story arcs about how Soma and his friends train to become better and how the existing egotistical chefs challenge them, only to realize they aren't ordinary chefs. All viewers get pulled into an expertly crafted culinary universe that's fairly educational and full of heated cook-offs. The show is also full of motivational content and unexpected reveals. My favorite aspect is that Soma has no special abilities, he gets his victories through sheer hard work and practice. A quote said by Soma's dad really gets me pumped, "people tend to dislike Soma because he wins but isn't special. Recognizing him means, realizing your own shortcomings and lack of determination."

While I have mentioned the shows ecchi natured drawbacks, I do also want to point out that the format of cooking battle after cooking battle can get tiresome. Food Wars will explain the science behind every chef's cooking, which is great, but can also cause an information overload if you're binge watching. 

    

My personal ratings are:

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 4/5 
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall recommendation: One Yukihira special. Glad you liked it! 

Shokugeki no Soma/ Food Wars can be streamed on Netflix or on Crunchyroll based on your region. You can use a VPN to watch on either platform. 

   

Blue Exorcist

Blue Exorcist or 'Ao no Exorcist' is an action shonen series about the age old battle between demons and priests. The anime finds its own niche in depicting a word where the church maintains order on Earth by exorcising demons and covers it up to protect normal people. It has a good art style, nice flashy battle animations and decently built characters. But here's the deal, if Blue Exorcist was a type of food, it would be toast. Nothing wrong with toast, everyone likes toast... but its just so plain. Blue Exorcist has the makings of a hot and spicy anime, but falls short in leveraging its own premise to become something exciting. And that's why while it's a decent watch, that's all it will ever be.

This toast is all about a boy called Rin Okumura and his brother Yukio. Their guardian is a priest called Fujimoto who wants them to live normal lives and loves them like a real father (pun intended). One faithful day Rin learns that he is actually the spawn of Satan, and has massive demonic powers sealed inside of him. Rin's emotional turbulence puts stress on his relationship with father Fujimoto, and before he can make amends, he witnesses Fujomoto being killed by Satan himself. Determined to get revenge, Rin goes to the True Cross school of exorcists and tries to master his own abilities, only to find that his brother is an instructor there. He faces a lot of resentment from others for being Satan's son but still tries to prove himself to his exorcist peers. It's interesting to see how these relationships develop, and it helps that the show keeps things pretty light and funny when portraying his life at True Cross. Furthermore, the anime has good action sequences with many power ups and flashy sword play, so definitely give it a watch if you usually enjoy action and humor combinations. 

One massive annoyance about Blue Exorcist is that season two resets the events that take place in the second half of season one. They just decided that they didn't like the ending and re wrote a season two, which completely changes the character's traits and relationships. Why destroy what you've already built? I could not be more irritated by how badly this was done. It also has a god awful English dub, but you shouldn't be watching dubs anyways. 

     

My personal ratings are:

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 1/5
Dialogue: 2/5
Music: 2/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall recommendation: Severe Daddy Issues 

Blue Exorcist is on Netflix and Amazon Prime in selective regions. You can use a VPN to stream it online.         

Mob Psycho 100

Mob Psycho 100 is a diamond in the rough that doesn't look like one at first. While initial thoughts for most people will be that it's strangely animated and looks too odd to continue watching, you'll regret not continuing. This anime is pure comedic gold and its vibe begins to suit the animation style very well. If you aren't sent into a fit of laughter over how the show builds up intense situations and immediately introduces levity to defuse it, I'll change my name. Mob Psycho 100 is so refreshingly hilarious and exciting- It's the anime equivalent of getting comically punched in the stomach so hard that you can't breathe (but like, in a good way).   

I see Mob Psycho 100 drawing a few similarities to One Punch Man and I mean that in a really good way. You'll see an OP protagonist who's pretty likable and is somewhat oblivious to how ridiculously strong they are, which makes for great laughs. The story follows young Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed Mob, who's a powerful psychic despite looking like a weak school boy. Real psychic's are rare in the world which is why his master Reigen, who's about as real as Tsunade's boobs, employees Mob as an assistant (yes I meant Tsunade from Naruto and before anyone argues with me please remember that she changes her appearance using her creation rebirth, aka boob job jutsu). He pretends to be a know-it-all psychic guru, but is really just a glib con man. Mob however looks up to Reigen and actually learns to control his powers through his master's fake but somehow still relevant advice. Over time even you begin to think that Reigen is just amazing. The anime progresses to explore the limits of Mob's powers, that erupt into unstoppable carnage when he gets too emotional about something. There are many delightful side stories and supporting characters like Mob's friends and family that add flavor to this anime, which has a steady progression over two seasons and hopefully more. 

Mob Psycho 100 is unapologetically a comedy. This means that it frivolously plays around with story progression and uses any means to tie in loose ends. While that's generally entertaining, it puts me off just a little because they actually build those plot points really well. 

                    

My personal ratings are:

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 4/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Recommendation: hilarious 100% outburst 

Catch Mob Psycho 100 on Cruncyroll with subscription and Netflix. 

 

Demon Slayer

                     

Demon Slayer or Kimetsu No Yaiba is a stellar recommendation for you shonen lovers. This critically acclaimed series won the 'Anime Of The Year' award during Crunchyroll's 2020 Anime Awards and also uses special CGI technology to make its visuals more stunning (kudos to you animators at UFOtable). Demon Slayer becomes an immediate classic and fan favorite as it brings to life a heart-rendingly touching story that takes viewers through a roller-coaster of emotions. You'll feel all sides of the spectrum, from empathetic character development to exciting action sequences, all balanced by light comedy that's done very tastefully. 

Demon Slayer's plot starts off dark unlike most of its shonen peers. It's a period anime set in the Taisho-era that follows the story of young Tanjiro who loses his entire family, except his sister in a gruesome demon attack. While attempting to rescue his sister he realizes that she is slowly transforming into a demon herself and has now become the target of demon hunter, Giyu. In an emotional display of faith the sister, Nezuko shows that she is different from other demons and is able to control her blood lust, giving reason for Giyu to recruit them into the Demon Slayer Corps instead of killing the siblings. The story progresses with Tanjiro training to become a powerful demon slayer who vows to find a way to restore Nezuko's humanity. The journey of transforming from weak to strong, for both siblings, is very entertaining. Even side characters introduced as companions play vital roles in setting an interesting structure to prevent the anime from getting monotonous. Setting story aside, Demon Slayer's visuals are enough to rope you in for the long haul. Expect beautifully choreographed battles, creative attacks and vibrant environments. 

The anime doesn't really leave much for anyone to complain about. I just think that season one spent too much time focusing on Tanjiro's training. I would have liked to see more of him unleashing hell on enemies with his new found abilities, but that being said I'm sure the Demon Slayer movie set to release in October 2020 and season two in 2021 will cover this in due time. 

      

My personal ratings are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 4/5
Enjoyment: 5/5 

Overall recommendation: 5 Total Concentration breaths! 

Demon Slayer is available to stream on Netflix. 

Haikyuu!!

Have you ever come across something that's impossible to dislike? If you haven't, Haikyuu will be a definite first. It's like looking at a cute and fluffy puppy that's yawning, no sane human being can resist falling in love with it. I think Haikyuu is the best sports anime that exists today, and I don't say that lightly because there are so many brilliant options out there. Even though I was an uninterested volleyball novice, this anime immediately roped me in with its flair and passion for the sport. If you ever thought that volleyball was just a non-complicated and chill beach game, be prepared to get blown away. 

Like most sports anime, Haikyuu's story is very straightforward. It follows an ambitions underdog volleyball team from Karasuno High that wants to compete seriously. While watching we explore the various dynamics of the people in the team, as well as the sport itself. Don't worry if you aren't familiar with volleyball because the anime will explain this to you pretty well over time. The show is extremely realistic without any fancy powers or over-the-top animations, but still gripping and exciting. What really sets Haikyuu apart is that even though it has a strong central protagonist, Shoyo Hinata, every single character is still detailed perfectly. I mean each and every one because there is nobody who gets sidelined or who isn't complex with unique characteristics, counting players on other teams. It's done so well that I think each player in the anime has enough backstory for a spin-off season of their own. This is also where the danger lies, as Haikyuu gets you attached, and you won't let go without going all in emotionally. Be prepared to binge so hard and fast that you won't even realize when you've finished five seasons (counting specials) and four movies. What else do you really need in a great sports anime: Get's you fired up (check), has amazing visuals (check), great characters (check), does justice to the sport (check). So what are you waiting for to watch this?

While Haikuu's animation style is really great, I've noticed that they repeat the exact same animations for certain actions like volleyball services and receives pretty often. This, for me, is a slight put off because everything else is so damn perfect. Watching those few frequently reanimated scenes makes me feel uncomfortable, like I'm driving a Lamborghini with a play mobile steering wheel. 



My personal ratings are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 5/5 

Overall recommendation: Nice Kill!

Catch Haikyuu!! on Netflix.