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Merc StoriA: The Apathetic Boy and the Girl in a Bottle (2018)
An average 'kids show' that most people won't see.
Ahh yes, a show that was released in the Fall season of 2018 which most people avoided during the season. Is it worth watching, well let's find out? Spoilers may or may not be in here.
STORY: 4
When you think of a story, that story should (in theory) go through for the entire season for the story to make sense. Then again, there have been series that doesn't follow through this formula and go the story in only one episode format. A good example of this type of format is Pokemon with most of the plot is for that episode barring a few episodes here and there where it takes place over multiple episodes.
This series falls into the third category which is to have four different stories set in the world that this series does take place. The problem with this is the fact that other than Merc and Yuu in this short story, none of those really connect with each other in a way that you would think that they are all in the same world. From a story that takes place with fairies to angels that don't want to touch groundlings due to some tarnishing thing, they want no part in is just two of the five stories that this show tries to fit in a 12 episode show. Looking back on it, none of them really stood out to me as my favourite.
ANIMATION: 5
The animation here is something that isn't completely special that you want to head back and watch just for that alone. This might be because of the fact that the studio who created this (Encourage Films) isn't well known for their animation with properly the most well-known show being Senki Zesshou Symphogear (1st season only) and even still they properly ain't known at all for that.
SOUND: 5
Both of the songs that are played at the beginning and the ending of each episode is similar in terms of how good it is. But for me, I prefer the ED as it has a sense of calming with the song that is played as you see Merc and Yuu go through the ending with characters that they meet throughout the show.
The best song though for the show would have to be the insert in around the two-thirds of the show. For me, I don't why is this the case but compared to the other songs that are in this series, this is properly my favourite of the lot.
CHARACTER: 5
There are only two main characters to this. They are Merc and Yuu. Yuu is the male character in this story who at the start of the series is scared of the monsters that are all around the world. Yeah, this would be good to see how he would cope throughout the series, except that it doesn't. Mainly because this arc to say doesn't really exist as he heals the monsters and all that is done and dusted. Another problem is the fact that he could be able to heal them in one turn and not needing to have issues in healing. This wouldn't be an issue for the target audience that is 'kids'. But the fact of the matter is plot armour on his healing skills.
The other main character in this series is Merc who is a girl that doesn't remember much and is also stuck in a bottle. There isn't anything about where she came from and how she got to that state of mind. Not that it matters here as she is there to guide Yuu on the journey around the place that they called home (even if they have troubles with Episode 10 being an example of that).
The rest of the cast throughout the series doesn't really have much of a stay throughout the series but this goes back to the episodic format that this series has done in the twelve show run.
ENJOYMENT: 6
At the end of the day, this show is what is classified as a 'kids show'. Did I enjoy this 'kids show', well I sort of did from the twelve episode run that this had. Yeah, it did have issues in terms of plot progression with not having one story which covers 12 episodes but four different stories. But at the end of the day, I enjoyed the time watching this series from start to finish.
Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku (2018)
Average because well average
Incoming long review
Story: The story is another transported into another world type with the victim being game programmer Suzuki Ichirou. This is because of him falling asleep after a long work session on the game that his team is working on. After getting transported, he wipes a powerful lizard army using one of his meteors, which shoots him up around three hundred or so levels (If only it was that easy to level up in games). Now he has to hide those levels while trying to live.
This is another, of these shows that we are now so accused too, with the MC going to another world because of something in the real world. This wasn't like an instant go to another world sort of thing like some shows. This was because it took about half an episode for that to occur. During that time, we do see the struggle of where he worked to try and remove all those bugs before the public plays. This I felt was a good start to the series as it wasn't like going from the real world to the fantasy world in a time where you can go to the toilet and they would be in a different place.
From there, we see Suzuki trying to understand the world while trying to avoid telling other people that he is OP from the get go and no one questions it at all during this show which is worrying when you meet up with the rest of the characters that we get to see that I will talk later.
Art/Game: For me, this wasn't anything special as this was produced by Silver Link which also produced Mitsubishi Colours for this winter 2018 season. You might have noticed that I also put in the game in here as this is the RPG game comes in. The first problem here is the initial attacks that were given to the MC was completely overpowered which led to the destruction of the lizard army which had much higher levels than Suzuki and as I noted down in my notes, when did grenades become meteors attacks which would create those high levels.
This might be because of my inexperience in RPG games, but in a short amount of time, he shouldn't be getting that many titles to his name that as you usually grind until you get those titles that you actually deserve because of that. For the MC, that would be too easy to grind through. Much like using secret passages for advancing up the tree in Episode 8 to get to the elves that are on top. All in all, this did feel very blah for me.
OP/ED: This is going to be short and in my personal opinion, it's one of those yeah I listen but won't do that every single episode. The ED for this show for me is a better choice than the OP but neither did sell this show to me.
Characters: Ah, yes now it's for the characters of this show. To start with, we have Suzuki who like other people trapped in these worlds, is younger than when he was in our world and this doesn't bother me too much. What did bother me was the fact that they overdid his inside thoughts how he was going to do his next move. I don't mind thoughts here and there. But when it starts to feel like the same information that is trying to be forced to go to the audience, that is where the problem lies.
The rest of the characters doesn't help out the show in progressing forward. The only character, that is at least giving a go being Liza who actually does something to improve her stance of trying to improve her skills but even she seems to fall flat in some parts.
Enjoyment: After finishing Death March, this is a show that you need to a double think if you want to binge or not. I say this as it doesn't feel like a weekly show that I had to go through. This isn't a train wreck like some from this season, but its also not one of the best for the winter season of 2018.