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Mar 13, 2026
Season 2 should have been better.
I watched it when it came out, I enjoyed season 1, I went and read the books, and I've since watched all the way up to season 5 at time of writing.
So coming back and watching Danmachi again from the start has been a painful experience because the first two seasons just aren't that good, especially in comparison to the seasons that follow. But that also means I can't excuse any of it and it also shows that they could have done better if they had tried.
Season 2 quite simply is a mess, it has some really good moments, but
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it is let down by terrible pacing and everything that was wrong with Season 1 comes back again with a vengeance
Season 2 has two main story arcs, so it should have been tighter, more focused, but no, somehow once again it focuses on all the wrong things. This is exemplified with the Apollo War Game arc we have all the build up to it, and by the time we get to the main event, the War Game is done within an episode, I've read the books, I know it's a quick thing, but it's not that quick, and when this is the main event that everything has been building to, you can at least put time and effort into showing it properly.
It's the same with the end of the Haruhime arc, it just rushes through things, you have a massive build up to the pay-off and it just can't be bothered to do it justice, it instead wants to get it over and done with and it leaves you feeling unsatisfied.
Thing is, Season 2 has less of an excuse than Season 1 because while Season 1 felt like it needed more episodes Season 2 has those episodes to spare right at the end, we have two filler episodes just thrown on for no reason right at the end which makes the whole thing end in an unsatisfying way as the obvious end point was the Haruhime arc. So they could have closed the season at the obvious conclusion point and the time spent wasted on those filler episodes could have been better spent on the main two arcs, then just put those two filler episodes out as OVAs where they belong.
It's not all bad, because it has all the good stuff you come to expect from Danmachi, everything that was good about Season 1 is here in Season 2, except the setting has changed, Season 1 has more of a dungeon focus, Season 2 has more of a city focus.
But when you compare the earlier seasons to the later seasons, the difference is night and day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 13, 2026
I watched this when it first came out, I enjoyed it, I got the books, thought the books were amazing and contained so much more than was in the anime, I continued with the series as it has come out, and well, season 4 & 5 were game changers, having already read the books I knew what was going to happen but we had adaptations that were worthy of the books.
So, coming back to Season 1 it was a hard watch, seeing how poor the adaptation is, knowing that there is just no excuse for if as they have shown what they are capable of
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and that they can do a proper adaptation of Danmachi if they want, it was frustrating.
The good parts are still good, Bell's quest to become a hero and his desire to get stronger, the fact we don't have an OP main character in the form of Bell, but he instead has to struggle to overcome things that would be easy for high level adventurers to deal with, he is weak, but this is a story of his growth and desire to keep on going and to not give up when it would be easier to give up.
The world building, as well as the characters and their growth are where Danmachi shines, the anime gives a taste of this
Now for the bad,
The anime is focused on all the wrong things, and then amplifies them, Hestia becomes obnoxious and unlikable because they put her personality into overdrive. It also seems to focus on scenes that were small part of the books as background filler rather than the important parts that actually drive the story.
Which brings me to pacing, the pacing is bad, it needed a few extra episodes to do the content justice, significant events are rushed, and insignificant events are dwelled on, I wouldn't mind the latter if the main events were given the care and time that was needed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 13, 2026
It's no secret that I didn't like Season One of Campfire Cooking. I had more than a few issues with it (which I will get into) that affected my enjoyment of the series, but I am pleased to say that Season 2 addressed so many of those issues and is a lot more enjoyable as a result.
Firstly in S2 we see the inclusion of a new party member with Dora, this helps balance the party dynamic, one of my big issues with S1 was Fel and how annoying and obnoxious he was, with Fel having such a prominent role for so much of S1
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as it was mostly just Mukouda and Fel for quite a few episodes, Fel's personality began to grate real fast and it was a detriment to the series. Having Sui and Dora reduce Fel's prominence and actually slot into a proper cast dynamic improves things greatly.
To put this in general anime terms, the Tsundere character is normally balanced out by other supporting characters and it helps sell their charm points, if a series only had the Tsundere character and none of the supporting characters then the Tsundere act would get 'old' pretty fast and would just be seen as annoying.
This was the flaw of Season 1, there was often little to no supporting characters to balance out Fel's negative character traits.
Which brings me to the second good thing that Season 2 did
For much of S2 they spend their time in one local, staying in the dungeon city of Dolan for an extended time it gets to build up a supporting cast that we get to become familiar with.
A series is not just built on it's main characters but it's supporting characters, it helps infuse personality into the series and by spending time in one area and spending time getting familiarity built with supporting characters allows the viewer to get invested in the world.
If you don't spend much time in one location and keep moving on, and likewise potential supporting characters are quickly moved on from after just a short few episodes then there is no reason to get attached to any of the characters or to the world. That was an issue I had with S1, there was too much time travelling, too much time out in the wild when they did arrive at a place and not enough time actually at the places with potential supporting characters.
Season 2 not just allows us time with supporting characters, but even brings back a few from Season 1, and indicated that we will be visiting characters again, so they aren't just moved on from and forgotten.
The third difference is that Season 2 seemed more focused, S1 felt like it was throwing in several isekai tropes to try and find what it wanted to be, S2 streamlines much of it and instead we have more of a balance between Mukouda enjoying his relatively relaxed lifestyle that is focused on cooking and the occasional adventures, and balance feels like the key here as it feels a lot more balanced than S1.
As with Season One, cooking is where it's at its best, that is just as true for Season Two, however I personally found it to be a more complete experience with the changes that were made in it and overall more enjoyable.
I'm glad I gave Season Two a chance, I almost skipped it after how Season One went.
If I was to be critical I would say that yes there are better cooking focused anime out there, and likewise there are better isekai, I've never been enamoured with the art direction as visually it's not the best, the animation quality is fine however. It doesn't seek to develop the characters or engage in any real world building, and so much about this is squarely average to the point that it is undeniably in the generic isekai category.
But all of that seems an irrelevant detail when I consider that I found S2 to be an enjoyable watch and I know I would want to come back and watch it again and again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 9, 2026
Where to even begin with this?
While an enjoyable series it was ultimately a let down, it had set the bar so high for itself in the first few episodes, set itself apart as a great series and daring to be different and then quickly slipped into mediocrity as it then progressed.
The first episode opened in the typical Villainess style with the confrontation and annulment of an engagement by the prince, however that is where it stopped following the typical format as Scarlet did the one thing every other Villainess had only dreamed of doing, deliver a swift punch that wipes the smug look off the
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face from our antagonist.
At this point I was completely sold on the series and ready to fall in love with it, all it had to do was keep it up
So where did it fall apart? To be blunt it didn't do anything more, it didn't grow, it just held onto it's premise and repeated it to the point that it was formulaic, repetitive and swiftly became dull, it was a gimmick that became overused. The author behind this clearly forgot the mantra that less is more, which would have allowed it to focus on developing other aspects, allowing the series to actually grow, allowing characters to grow, let the relationship grow, and put some chemistry into it. Set up plotlines and use the 'clobbering' sparingly so it has more impact when it is used and is more rewarding.
Because this could have been better, it has the potential to be better, the first couple of episodes shows how this had the ability to stand out, right up until it ended up standing out in the wrong way.
As it is, none of it is that deep, none of it is that well developed, everything just exists for Scarlet to go around punching bad guys every episode, and because so much time is spent on Scarlet punching bad guys every episode nothing can be that deep or developed.
That's the problem in a nutshell, that's the TLDR, this series threw away all depth and development to focus on its core gimmick, which means there is no meat to the whole thing.
This could have been one of the greats, a truly memorable Villainess series, instead other Villainess titles end up running rings around it, there are several better series that I could easily recommend above this.
The fact that it could have been amazing, that it started off amazing, it is just so disappointing that it ended up being a just above average series. Nothing disappoints me more than a series that has so much potential and fails to live up to it.
As I said right at the start, it is enjoyable, how could it not be? I would probably watch this again sometime, but I will always be thinking about other better series as I do so.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 22, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this, I was ready to say "it's not that bad" but it kind of is that bad
JCStaff and Bandai didn't care about this season, there was no one working on it until the last minute, episodes were outsourced and it shows in the total lack of quality.
The first few episodes are 'okay' yes the animation is bad but when it's more based around Saitama and everyone in his apartment it is able to get away with it a bit more, scenes look bad, there are inconsistencies with animated scenes and there are parts that are barely animated, but at this
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point it's the average to mediocre low effort anime that you often see but with somewhat snappy dialogue
Most of the time you can live with bad animation, unless it's an action series, and that's where things really fall apart in OPM, especially as we move forward into the season and it becomes more action focused.
The problem with bad animation in an action series is that poorly animated fight scenes feel lacking, they don't have the energy needed to 'sell' the scene and too many repetitive frames, still shots, shots away from the action and overly simplified animation tends to make it feel lifeless and dull, fight scenes that are supposed to be exciting become boring and uninteresting .
But it's not just bad animation.
The pacing is terrible, maybe it's because the fights are dull, but I think it's more than that, through the whole season you spend a lot of time waiting for events to progress, it goes at such a slow pace that you feel like you hardly get anywhere, there were times I felt bored there were times I wished it would just get on with it.
I still have mixed feelings over it because it didn't start off terrible.
The first few episodes were focused around Saitama and other characters we know and love from the previous seasons, the flawed animation didn't matter too much as it was relatively light on action, instead they were more character focused episodes, we had the wit, the banter, the dialogue we expect, and while there were issues, it was at that point average.
The fact that the Hotpot scene is the most memorable part of the season for me over any of the fights says a lot, the absurdity the banter, the way it is classic OPM
It's just after those first 4-5 episodes that everything goes downhill, or rather further downhill as it was never good to begin with but it went from mediocre to poor.
It was still watchable, but should there be a season 4 and I ever feel the need to watch this again, I'd probably just stick to those first 5 episodes and skip the rest.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 4, 2026
For the most part I liked this series as it 'mostly' did something different within the Isekai genre, I say 'mostly' as we have familiar plot points and character archetypes, but the premise sets it apart and it is able to 'feel' different to the majority of the isekai that are out there.
The twist with the spirits and the spirit world are what allowed this to stand out, I just wish they explored that more and focused on it more than they did as that was the best aspect to all of this.
This anime however should have been titled 'Everyone Loves Ellen-chan' because that is
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what it is majority of the time, it overplays the card to the point that it is not so much humorous as it is obnoxious, and while I'm glad it would later lead to inevitable consequences, it doesn't make it less annoying.
This series is mainly cute and fluffy and focuses in that direction, the animation is also aimed towards that with the art direction and colour tones, even it's more serious and darker moments don't last for long to not ruin its aesthetic
It is heavy on it's humour and is generally entertaining.
It is mostly a good series but would have been better if it had focused on its main plotline and had less "Ellen-chan is so cute", Fluffy Paradise is a series that is similar in tone, and was able to pull off a better execution in terms of walking that line.
I definitely would say that this isn't for everyone, and it is not your average isekai (which isn't a bad thing)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 4, 2026
This is yet another average trash isekai anime, and while I like isekai, especially trash isekai, this misses the mark.
The animation is average, but the animation and character design is bad, which makes it look subpar, it's ugly and there is no escaping that.
When it comes to the story, early plotlines are predictable and characters are bland, the pacing is slightly 'off' and as a result this series struggled to hold my interest and about half way through I did find myself watching some more enjoyable series as a palate cleanser until I forced myself to finish it.
Somehow it's just a bit dull and I
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don't know how they managed to achieve that.
I like slow life anime, I think if it stuck to the core premise of the MC being a gatherer and just did a slow life series focused around that and did it well, I would have enjoyed it.
But this went down the generic average path where the MC is actually an adventurer who is so self-less and plays down his abilities to the degree that it is annoying (other series have done this and it is annoying when they do it too) with characters you really just don't care about as they are only given character development at the point we're supposed to care about them which makes it just feel forced, rather than develop the character first so we care about them before we hit their 'story arc'
Even though they went for the generic option this could have been enjoyable as a trash Isekai, the kind you switch your brain off for and just enjoy its over the top non-stop hijinks.
All the piece are here, it's just ineptly put together
I think this is what is so annoying about this series, it's not bad per say, it's just mediocre and as such manages to become dull at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 3, 2026
I watched this when it came out and at the time and after re-watching it over a year later I finally feel like I can take on this mess of a series.
I don't blame people for saying this series is bad, and in a way they are right, but the studio is to blame for that, but underneath a terrible adaptation there is promising potential.
A quick TLDR, on a technical and objective level this is a bad anime, the studio absolutely butchered it, but aside from horrible animation in the first half and pacing issues there are plenty of good moments and good points to
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be found and the series does improve around the second half.
This is a tale of two anime
The first half of this series is terrible, the studio did an atrocious job of handling the adaptation, it's not so much that it seems like they just phoned it in as it seems that most of them were MIA and let the guy who normally handles the coffee do the animation so they could get work experience.
Most of the time it looks like a bad cheap visual novel, characters aren't individually drawn and animated, instead they are small groups drawn as a single entity given a looping idle animation and slapped on top a background with zero effort made to blend them into it.
Right at the start we had a white room scene with god and the selection of skills, this could have been played out as a proper scene, but the studio made a choice, it was their CHOICE to not do that, and just have the MC narrate the whole thing showing the god and not voicing him, not doing a normal scene, so it just feels awkward and feels like it is done on a budget.
The animated scenes tend to be close ups of the MC with either simple backgrounds or no background, and we get plenty of still frame shots that linger and are panned across.
You can really tell that the studio didn't care about this adaptation and that comes across in how they handled it with the animation, the characters and the pacing.
But I said this is a tale of two anime, because something happens around the mid point, maybe someone who was supposed to be in charge of things actually watched an episode and then fired who had been behind the abomination that was the first few episodes and actually got some half-way decent staff in, or this was the part of the series they wanted to adapt and they just farmed out most of the first half to some cheap outside studio, I'm not saying good, I'm just saying decent because while it does improve from being terrible it only manages to achieve what is Isekai's 'average' complete with bad CGI, but I'll take it as it is 100x better than what had gone before.
The pacing is still a bit inconsistent, but you can tell this is the point of the series that the studio wanted to actually do the adaptation of it and where the effort went, they got to Angelica and finally woke up.
So lets talk about the series proper, because while this is mostly a bad series (thanks to the studio) there is still quite a bit of good to be found here.
The time he was on his own in the woods surviving and experimenting with his skills was one of its better moments and it needed more of that
The time spent with the other students falls flat as we don't get any development from them and they are just treated as nameless side characters who we don't care about, again this is the problem with the first half of the adaptation, which also results in the first storyline falling flat as we don't care about any of the characters, so it all feels like a waste of our time.
Likewise with the town things are so rushed through we don't get to know or care about any of the characters.
The Class Rep is just used as an obstacle to get in the MC's way and stop him from doing what he wants, and their 'concern' makes no sense as they know he's stronger than they are and can handle pretty much anything.
The only character who is given time and depth is Angelica, Angelica is allowed to have personality and screen time, and she in it late on.
Something I liked is right at the start, when they were being summoned and he thought "no I don't want to be a part of this" and tries to escape.
I also like how he isn't instantly OP, he has bad skills that have to be used in smart ways to become OP, rather than OP skills that can be used in brainless ways, as I said, seeing him experiment with his skills is one of the better moments.
If this adaptation had been handled properly this could have potentially been a good series
I like this series, I do, it's enjoyable, I wouldn't re-watch it if I didn't enjoy it, but objectively it is a bad anime, and if I had to score Arifureta poorly because of how the studio messed up that adaptation, then I will have to do it here too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 30, 2025
This series had potential, it could have been better it should have been better it started well and quickly drifted into mediocrity.
It's a shame because this does have some good moments, and it also looks good, the art style feels like it's from 15-20 years ago but given a modern take, this allows it to visually differentiate itself from a lot of the standard isekai, so this puts you in the mindset of expecting something different and for it to stand out. Unfortunately it didn't deliver in terms of substance, it quickly became clear that it wasn't going to do anything special and it just
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followed standard plot lines.
It didn't have to be that way, there were opportunities to do something different, to do the unexpected.
The opening scene and the animation also gives the impression that this series would lean towards being more of an action series, but the reality is this is a standard isekai, so the action is lacking (compared to action focused series) and you get plenty of scenes where nothing really happens.
Where this fell short
The MC is OP and while that is to be expected he is given a skill that acts as a deus ex machina that he has no apparent control over and has no apparent rules beyond triggering to save the day when needed. This is the kind of thing you expect from a trash level isekai.
Certain plot events are entirely avoidable but seem to happen only because smart characters act uncharacteristically dense, episode 2 and allowing the other curse objects to remain is a good example of this.
And the most infuriating part is that the MC and supporting characters all push the notion that he shouldn't kill people because it will affect who he is... This is infuriating because every other fantasy / isekai is able to quickly realise that the characters are in a different world where holding onto those ideals is a fast way to get yourself and those you care about killed.
It's dumb because while it is presenting it as some kind of moral crisis, what it really comes down to is a kill or be killed scenario as the bad guys have no qualms about trying to kill him, so no, it doesn't work as some kind of moral thing because it is about survival, and it is beyond dumb for the writing to try and dress it up otherwise.
It tries to create depth and 'growth' with its characters but those attempts are clumsy and fail to deliver any real depth, the same can also be said about the world building, there are attempts at world building but it is generic, lacking in key areas and fails to properly engage the audience as it is rather scattershot.
If this was just a trash isekai I would be happy with it, saying it is an enjoyable watch as it is entertaining enough. The problem is that this clearly wanted to be more than a trash isekai, it gives me the impression that it wanted to be the next 'Shield Hero S1' that it wanted to raise the bar and stand out above the crowd, yet it didn't so much raise the bar as it did drop the bar on its own foot, you can't stand out above the crowd when you aren't doing anything different.
In conclusion, this is an above average isekai, but it's nothing special, even though it clearly wanted to be
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 26, 2025
I'll be honest, I expected more from this although I probably shouldn't have.
The premise is simple and it's actually where things first fall apart, people get blessings where they gain a class and with that the skills needed to go with it come into their head making it easy for them to be strong with pretty much no effort.
So enter the MC who is classless and is able to overcome this issue and gain skills by... applying himself and repeated training... no that's it, nothing special nothing amazing, no hidden class or trial or anything, he just goes about things what we'd consider the 'normal'
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way and trains to be good and everyone is shocked by this.
So there are quite a few issues here as soon as you start to think about this and pick it apart, so I have to chalk this up to bad writing, but the bad writing doesn't end there.
The plot is simplistic and predictable, and the characters are underdeveloped stereotypes, the MC is often disinterested in events which in turn often means the viewer is less likely to be interested and engaged in events.
Repeatedly changing locations, leaving a cast of characters behind to cycle them out for a new cast of characters means you are less likely to get attached to those characters.
In the end the series comes off as rather bland and average, dull and rather forgettable, which is a shame as it had promise, it had its good moments, mostly Reiner, I also liked Farah as a character,
I have to be clear, this isn't an outright bad series, but the flipside is that its not good either, it sits in the middle in a place that is possibly worse, it is forgettable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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