Shuumatsu no Valkyrie

TheWatcherMG

This adaptation makes me laugh at other 'Bad anime adaptations' Also, this contains spoilers, I will try to minimize them, but I can only do so much. __Please do send me your opinions on anilist private messages.__

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# First, About the manga. The manga of Record of Ragnarok was one of the first Manga I've ever read. Although it was very short and the read lasted a couple of hours only, I was completely mesmerized by it. The art is insanely addicting and beautiful. The dialogues pack a punch and leave an impact on you. Some of the character designs are weird ( compared to their mythological counterparts) but fit the Manga Perfectly. Keeps you at the edge of your seat when reading it and leaves you wanting more. __That was how the Manga left me feeling.__

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# How the Anime Compares Note: I've only watched 3 episodes in full, and speed-watched the rest, and haven't added them to the list since I don't consider speed-watching actual watching. The anime doesn't come close to the manga. The character designs were butchered, and do not portray the characters perfectly. The anime doesn't compare the many expressions that Brunhilde makes. img600(https://preview.redd.it/1u43ljm4x3071.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c130c9a528af586aa951d21648a47b56d895c6f0) The anime has bland faces. The Voice actor does a great character depicting Brunhilde's emotions, but that effort is wasted over expressionless faces. The anime also butchered the character designs. You just say Brunhilde above, and now you can see Brunhilde literally looking more like Baki than any Baki character. img420(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/835351910340231170/855122641837228082/Screenshot_2021-06-17_201316.png?width=961&height=567) Other than that, take a look at other fan-favourite characters. img370(https://i.redd.it/iur5wkr3mdn61.jpg) Poseidon (bottom left) used to be one of the best-looking characters in Record of Ragnarok. But they messed his design with a longer than usual nose which feels out of place, and Rigid hair, which is nowhere as good as the flowy hair he had. Similar issues with Adam (middle right). Too long of a nose and a chin which makes him look like a different character. His hair looks way too rigid, instead of the flowy hair feminine Adam, that we had in the Manga. Yeah, I agree that anime cant do the exact same designs as the manga but this is just a mess at this point. Let's talk about Sasaki Kojiro ( bottom right). His nose is longer than what the manga had which already makes him look off. Similar issues with the hair, but it's less noticeable in Sasaki. One HUGE, by huge I mean Really Huge thing they changed in the anime was his facial expressions. Sasaki in the anime always had an innocent smile, which depicted his beauty. While in the anime, he looks like one of the evil characters who lust for blood. One reason for this is the eyelashes and the forced smile that he has in the anime. The smile in the Manga Looks much more natural and just feels right. Thor and Lu Bu had issues as well. They were just too rigid in the anime and their expressions were restricted to their faces. They didn't capture the essence of the manga quite right in this fight. Zeus( middle left) is another thing they messed up huge. We still see the rigid hair, like in every character. Other than that, they didn't quite capture Zeus' comedic design. They changed his face structure which made him seem more 'normal' which he is everything other than. They just couldn't get him right. |

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__Pacing issues__ RoR is already pretty short, with barely 50 chapters as I'm writing this. And the chapters aren't extremely long, average around 50-60 pages. There isn't much dialogue between characters, but rather a lot of narration. The anime overuse reactions from the crowd and the gods, and only covers 3 fights (around 19 chapters) in 12 episodes. They use a lot of unnecessary reactions, especially from characters who weren't even of much importance in the Manga. Like aphrodite (who was only shown like 3 times at maximum in the Manga) img450(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-XC9KjW-foA/maxresdefault.jpg) Well, it's pretty clear why they use her too much in the anime. Simply, FANSERVICE. __Animation issues__ These are screenshots from the Asgard Arc(Thor's Backstory) from episode 2. img380(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/835351910340231170/855127593840672768/Screenshot_2021-06-17_222039.png?width=1187&height=567) img420(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/835351910340231170/855127594210820106/Screenshot_2021-06-17_222014.png?width=1157&height=567) On one look, it isn't too bad. This arc lasted 5 minutes, although it was only a few pages in the Manga. And this whole 5 minutes was a literal slideshow with a compilation of colored pictures (they aren't even colored, just brown) and whenever there is an animation, I'm being honest to god right now, It never crossed the 4 frames per second mark, I could literally look at every single frame those 5 minutes. https://tenor.com/view/record-of-ragnarok-ror-simp-lol-shuumatsu-no-valkyrie-gif-20913656 This gif ^^ showcases it well. https://tenor.com/view/adam-record-of-ragnarok-gif-22018119 https://tenor.com/view/record-of-ragnarok-good-animation-powerpoint-gif-22040439 This one too, ^^ please watch these gifs. They just look choppy, rough, unnatural, and in short, bad. Other issues are the whole anime being a CGI fest (I have nothing against CGI, except when it looks dogshit) Every moment they could use CGI, they did. img350(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/835351910340231170/855129347879075870/Screenshot_2021-06-17_164513.png?width=786&height=567) More issues are how th(e subs for the anime were 'censored' When I say censored, I mean like something as Vulgar as this above, was subbed as __"This is the perfect moment to smash their smug faces in as they scoff at humans".__ This isn't the only scene, there are countless remarks that got censored like this. Completely lost the impact. It's basically like 4kids censoring. Well, that's to be expected from a Netflix Exclusive.

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Overall, a completely dissatisfied watch. It was honestly shit. Couldn't compare to the Manga. Pains to see the first Manga that I've read get ruined like this. Hope it doesn't happen to your favorite manga. In the end, a shit adaptation that shouldn't even exist. A bad studio that shouldn't make anime.

IGOR

Netflix coming in hot with another trash ass anime. last time it was house of husband and then they gave us Yasuke now they hit us with Record of Ragnarok. I personally believe Record of Ragnarok is way worse than those 2 animes. img220(https://i.redd.it/3be972xt5hp61.png) Like most people who watch anime I love me some action packed anime with fluid fight scenes and Record of Ragnarok could've been exactly that but no, Netflix had to fuck it up. It blows my mind how a billion dollar company is okay with producing some trash anime like this. I first heard about Record of Ragnarok like 10 months ago when Adam and Zeus fight was happening but I didn't read the manga cause I heard it was getting an anime adaptation and just assumed that the fights were gonna be much cooler when its animated and now I'm regretting my decision. I should've just read the manga. __~~~~~~~~~Worth Watching?~~~__ For people who haven't seen the anime __I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS ANIME__. Why you may be asking? Lets begin with the terrible animation. 90% of time the anime isn't even animated its literally just a bunch of pictures put together to make a 23 minute long slide show. Did you know animation means "illusion of movement or the state of being full of life " and Record of Ragnarok has none of those. In Record of Ragnarok all you see is still images you see little to no movement and sometime you hear people talking even though they have their mouth completely shut. webm(https://i.imgur.com/eV9RHJR.mp4) Record of Ragnarok being a anime that is focused on one big tournament I was expecting the fights to be on same level as god of highschool and well that's not what we got here. Thanks to the appalling animation we get fight scenes that are god awful and its not just the animation that makes the fights bad its also the terrible and unnecessary commentary over the fight. The anime will throw in backstory in the middle of the fight which will take away your immersion, one moment you see two characters fighting next moment you see a 5 min long backstory about those characters. I like the backstory cause it adds more story and personality for characters but the execution is horrible.webm(https://i.imgur.com/lACTouB.mp4) webm(https://i.imgur.com/CjdGr45.mp4) Overall I think anime could've been so much better and way more enjoyable if the animation was great and they would actually fight in the fight scenes instead of just, throws one hit, crowd goes crazy, commentator says some dumb shit, and than they show a backstory for who ever is fighting. The worst part about this anime is how its a Netflix original and Netflix could've given it way more budget but instead we got this PowerPoint presentation. Cant wait to see what garbage Netflix gives us next.

AquaSenpai

~~~ I just want to start off by saying, I haven’t read the manga – I’m sure it’s better, it usually is. I don’t often write reviews like this; this is the first one I’ve felt the need to due to most of the existing ones being from manga fans who don’t like the adaption and the flurry of negative scores given by those who feel this opposes their religious views. I respect those opinions. This is for those of you who are anime watchers, especially for battle anime that know they probably won’t read the source. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/f39b19b9a8cea58388bf51388a1b4e21/3d85106920f1f41b-a6/s1280x1920/3170d2a3f82af7454c76502e74d90a3036acb99e.gifv) So battle anime, this is one in the purest form. As in, quite literally the show is a series of battles. Think of it as the tournament arc of your favourite shonen where every battle is the epic final bout of the season that highlights the character growth and development of both parties as it progresses in delightfully chaotic action. I think there is a place in the market for this; it isn’t something I see often yet definitely feels familiar to the viewer; I wouldn’t want a whole ton of anime like this – but its relatively simple concept is an enjoyable set piece that action fans will enjoy. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/8559ff9ce2b248af02d387f147ec7bd7/3d85106920f1f41b-39/s1280x1920/fb850e0dd65877e54a3f7881f46541b029563c74.gifv) The gist of the anime is, humanity fights for the right to live by selecting their strongest of the strong to fight in an arena with the strongest of the gods in the battle of Ragnarök. Pretty simple idea, but there’s a lot that’s done here that I really appreciate. The characters feel like they have depth, which is extremely hard to do when your entire anime takes place in an area in continuous battle after battle. During the fight, an extensive history of the person – be it god or man – is given to the audience, blending both historical fact with the author either extending the history with his own imagination or filling in the blanks. This is a feast for those who appreciate history, which is why this next point is so important. Many religions and cultures are represented here; this isn’t a solely Japanese history-based show, nor is it entirely based around Greek mythology. In a move that is reminiscent of Fate, this show gives you gods and heroes from all around the world; you may not recognize all of them, but you are without a doubt likely to recognize a few. This makes the ride extremely enjoyable overall, adding an extra layer of complexity to this rather simple battle premise. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/558e15e3030744c88ec702223fa62853/3d85106920f1f41b-ec/s1280x1920/b935c7c18a899896a27fede8861a4414cfc95137.gifv) The bad? Well, the thing I hate the most about this show is the OP – I could never actually make myself sit through the whole thing as it made me feel like I was getting a tumor. Maybe fans of metal will enjoy it but it made my entire existence want to end. On the bright side, the ED I found myself always sitting through as it was very pleasant to listen to. I don’t have that much to nitpick about it in all honesty, I really like the animation and art style that feel a little like JoJo; there is a bit of muddy animation in there but mixed with the visual style and what is going on, it just kind of works in a weird way. The pacing is probably something that could be improved, you wanted to see more fight and then you would get thrown into exposition then bit of fight, but it almost made it so that it all heightens the tension that you feel while watching – so overall even that aspect which annoyed me at first became something that kept me watching and engaged with the material. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/2c2f7ac5791fd582c78fd5c03cda687f/3d85106920f1f41b-7c/s400x600/d09c6603074994864fe08d6c539bc9e48a50d6a5.gifv) TLDR? It’s a good battle anime, it’s quite simple, doesn’t require too much brain power and achieves everything it sets out to. It has a very distinctive art style you will either love or hate. The boob jiggle physics are on the level of giga-brain. It rewards knowledge of history, while not alienating those who don’t know about it; creatively warping the past to create a new and worthwhile adventure. Just sit down, drink a beer and switch off for a few moments while these guys throw their punches. You really don’t have to think that hard. img400(https://i.imgur.com/5srQ2bU.gif) ~~~

CamTheCritic

*Record of Raganrock* revolves around the inherently engaging & awesome premise of humans fighting for their continued existence against Gods that, ironically, granted them their very existence. Not necessarily an original premise, but the concept itself instantly piques your interest and is perfect for the tournament format the show adopts. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/b5d7af70db03d5c43df611a6288dc7e8/a5308d6690b450f8-de/s1280x1920/452c699c09026815bbc7e7969fe6f432a41d6ca2.gifv) So, in spite of the groundwork being all there, an attractive central concept that appeals to a wide demographic, the manga hitting mainstream popularity as of recent, and the source material being critically acclaimed & commercially successful to a larger audience, how in the word does Netflix fuck this up? Well, I'll tell you how in this review! - - - **The Fights** This is the *most important* part to get right in a series such as this. For God's sake, the entire franchise revolves around essentially one huge tournament arc. You could literally fuck up every other facet of this anime -- as long as you get the fights right, people will be happy in the end. But, unfortunately, Netflix & Studio Graphinica fail miserably. The fights are lacking any meaningful dramatic tension & are horribly animated. img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/6e8c264bfbc48925c8cd6e4d5ef3e955/370eb4ca38ba1100-dc/s500x750/29178ada250e17aff6b79c1c5fb84877749af44f.gifv) With respect to the dramatic tension claim, the fights are way too long. As an illustration, it took over an hour for the first fight between Thor & Lu Bu to wrap up, and they exchanged maybe five blows in total amongst one another during this period. To further illustrate this point, in the buildup to the cathartic finish of this epic clash, we learn the true nature of Thor's fabled hammer and learn of Lu Bu's "ace up his sleeve" attack rumored to split the heavens. This is undeniably a promising buildup to a final engagement. Lu Bu & Thor then rush towards one another to unleash their most powerful attacks against one another to end the conflict and, then, *BOOM* flashback occurs to show Lu Bu training for the move. **What the hell, seriously?** Not only can it be inferred that Lu Bu obviously trained to develop the attack, the vast majority of your audience does not care how Lu Bu developed the attack to begin with. We just wanna see the attack itself! Granted, the manga does the same exact thing. But, this is adaptation for God's sake. The goal of any great adaption is to elevate the source material while simultaneously being faithful to it. There is nothing more immersion breaking than taking me out of the immediate action. So, I don't like criticizing something without mentioning how it could be better. So, I will explain how things *could have been better* & how things *ought to have been*. The actual fight between Lu Bu & Thor should have lasted maybe five minutes with the vast majority of the animation budget being dedicated to this segment and all other fighting segments. The blows should have been heavy, solid, and *most importantly* quick & powerful. We should see Thor & Lu Bu receiving noticeable physical damage over the course of this exchange of blows. An easy & cheap way to portray this phenomenon is to highlight bruising on the facial features of both characters and distinguishable tearing of each participant's clothing. Maybe even chipping of the weapons during this series of blows as well, just spitballing. As for the backstory nonsense, its fine, preferably I would have liked to seen it cut out entirely or downplayed to a large degree. But, if you are going to leave the backstory part in, put it at the beginning before the fight ever starts. For instance, the narrator, when mentioning the names of the participants to setup the upcoming fight, could have mentioned their nicknames & monikers so to speak. By this, I mean, the Narrator could have said something like this: "*Now, introducing, the SLAYER of the World Serpent, exectuioner of 66 Jotunns, weilder of Mjolnir, the perfect GOD OF THUNDER, THOOORRRRRR*". As the narrator exclaims Thor's introduction to the arena audience, the flashback sequence could be seamlessly initiated, which shows how Thor got these titles from his past exploits. The same could be done for the rest of the cast of characters. Overall, this method is just a much more coherent way of introducing backstory to develop these characters rather than *literally* stopping everything to commence a flashback at a rather inappropriate moment. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/e03e318c96f0e9123c1bbf14b136f8ed/10b248cfcb1fd78e-af/s540x810/0187d14f3107c2915f9ff6ee692484384844f456.gifv) *The Narrator* This is meant to be a sub-heading still within **The Fights** section of this review. The narrator is awful & immersion breaking. Here's why: Lu Bu and Thor in their final clash is narrated completely over. By this, I mean that the narrator does this "*oh, what's this move, is Lu Bu about to unleash his ace up his sleeve*" shtick. What would have been much better AND made more sense from a characterization perspective is the following: Lu Bu's legs break from the weight & might of Thor's legendary hammer attack. Thor demeans him saying something like "*oh, is that it? that is disappointing. to think that i found you a worthy opponent mere minutes ago ...*" & begins to walk away with his back turned. This is meaningful as even the Gods in the audience explicitly remark that Thor is showing Lu Bu an immense amount of respect, which is the complete opposite of his otherworldly kin's attitude towards the *mere* humans. Then, Lu Bu unleashes a thunderous battle cry, mounting his horse and says something like "*out of respect for you, I will show you my ultimate move*". Then, both parties get revved up, excited for their final clash to play out in the ultimate display of chivalry, respect, and power. This is a much better and seamless exchange that play on the two characters' personalities as opposed to the narrator interjecting himself into the conflict, resulting in the imaginary exchange i laid out above to never occur. Ultimately, the existence of a narrator breeds missed opportunities to build up not only the fights but the underlying dramatic tension from the fights as well. The narrator needs only to introduce these characters and maybe provide some "play by play" but definitely not outshine the participants' during the fights most crucial moments. **Characterization** You don't necessarily have to devote a great degree of characterization to the cast as the audience is likely already familiar with these characters. For instance, we all have some preconceived knowledge of the Gods represented in this franchise and the legends surrounding them. For instance, *everyone* knows Zeus is the Big Boss of the mythological Gods, Thor is the dude with the thunder power & hammer, Buddha is the human elevated to a God, Hercules is *strong man*, Poseidon is the water chad, etc. Conversely, the same underlying notion applies to the human cast as well, represented by historical figures such as Jack the Ripper, Adam (from the fable of Adam & Eve), and to a lesser extent Lu Bu & Kojiro Sasaki. So, why the hell are you telling me the backstory of these characters? Why is so much time being devoted to the backstory of these characters? Worse yet, why are you interrupting the present fight to conceive a flashback of the participants' past? The vast majority of your audience **a)** *already knows this information* or **b)** *doesn't care in the slightest*. Personally, I am in the latter camp. Moving on to something I hinted at in the previous statement ... img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/861b24acbe4d41a28a280eea02a725d6/9f4af760d72d9452-82/s1280x1920/7f8f2bf6f2550e388d85d8938bd6a9cc75164a4e.gifv) **Art & Animation** Now, let's move on to the more technical stuff. As I alluded to before, the animation is awful. The over-reliance of smear frames to simulate movement or action is nauseating, the lack of actual movement in a high paced action packed series such as this is rather jarring, and it just generally doesn't hold a candle to similar fighting-oriented anime. Even other Netflix original anime properties that focus on fighting as a core element like Baki or Kengan Ashura look better from an animation perspective, which is disappointing considering the animation quality was a point of contention in the series aforementioned above. I'm not going to pretend that I have a technical knowledge of animation or how it fundamentally works, but I definitely know what looks good & what doesn't. I have also seen enough anime (you can look on my profile to confirm this if you doubt) to have a large body of work to use as a point of comparison. Point being, *this anime fundamentally looks bad*. It is just sad to see that more care & thought were put into the animation physics of Aphrodite's boobs than the actual fights and plot itself. img400(https://i.imgur.com/5srQ2bU.gif) This anime is *ugly*. From an aesthetic point-of-view and beyond. The facial expressions are lacking any meaningful details to actually *show* how the characters are feeling. Something that was hinted at in another review is how expressive the facial expressions of the cast are in the source material. Take one character alone as an illustration, Brunhilde. img400(https://preview.redd.it/1u43ljm4x3071.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c130c9a528af586aa951d21648a47b56d895c6f0) The expressions are extremely varied & easily convey how the character is feeling from a visual perspective alone. Now, juxtapose the vast amount of the expressions shown above to the resting bitchface Brunhilde has throughout the entire run of the anime series. img400(https://i2.wp.com/anitrendz.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/%E7%B5%82%E6%9C%AB%E3%81%AE%E3%83%AF%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AC_%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BCPV-01_c-1.jpg) What is she thinking here? What does this expression convey? Ultimately, it doesn't convey anything. Its just yet another missed opportunity to actually play into the medium's strength. The difference is night & day. And her expressions alongside the rest of the cast remain generally lifeless. With respect to the color palette of the show, it is visually unappealing, with every art asset including the characters, weapons, settings, etc. all having this "washed out aesthetic". It is really hard to elaborate further on this, but I hope many see where I am coming from. The show is particularly dark and is missing moments of brightness to highlight the contrast between the dark objects & perhaps even convey emotion or a change in tone. For instance, Thor's thunder/lightning power should be the brightest blue I have ever seen. This should be the most pure lightning imaginable; it should be damn near white. But instead, its this weird darker version of "sky blue". It's disappointing and yet another missed opportunity to do something visually interesting. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/a058087257aedc3dc5798b6c25b86a2d/bc95dc50606ebb50-f7/s1280x1920/76d5ca954842e03cf1b0334771f675b4e1972788.gifv) Of course, I don't expect the show to be something ungodly bright & colorful like *No Game No Life*, but the series would be so much better if it had bright sparks protruding from the participants weapons and armor during the high octane clash in the fight sequences. As I mentioned above, the sparkles of brightness could actually be used for narrative purpose, ranging from displaying the almost alien aspects to the god's weaponry to marking a shift in tone. Perhaps, the darker color palette was intentional to match the darker tone of the underlying narrative? Regardless, I think believing so would give the producers too much credit with respect to forethought, and my criticism of it being **too** dark is still valid. **Sound Design & Music** This is yet another category the mediocrity of this anime rears its ugly head. The sound design is awful. I am not expecting *Fire Force* levels of sound design, but the weapons sound generic. The sound effects are largely stock effects I have heard elsewhere many times before. And the audience cheers, boos, and anything in-between are just as common. I just want the producers of this anime to try a little harder. Think about this from a canonical perspective, the participants of the tournament are using mythical weapons far beyond any human comprehension. Yet, they ironically sound extremely human & familiar, so much so that it is immersion breaking. As an illustration, Thor’s hammer *should* sound like the coolest shit ever. It should be emanating the “Chidori” sound effect from Naruto to delineate the thunder & lighting at minimum, the metal clang it makes upon contact with Lu Bu *should* sound fundamentally alien to us as the audience, and it shouldn't even necessarily sound like metal once the true nature of Mjolnir being "alive" is revealed. Therefore, realistically, the weapon should have at least two different sound landscapes in essence as well as multiple sound effects. For instance, if Mjolnir were to clash with Lu Bu's spear, it should make a more metallic clang noise. It shouldn't make a more metallic clang noise upon hitting Lu Bu's body and should sound more *thumpy* if that makes any sense. img500(https://thecinemaholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Recordof-ragnorak-ghyuihiuk.jpg) Alternatively, let's discuss the Adam versus Zeus fight. With Adam's weapon of brass knuckles being a lot more standard and familiar, the sound effect of each connecting hit could remain similar. However, the bass of the sound effect could change depending on where Adam connects his punches with Zeus. As an illustration, a hit upon the chest of Zeus, which is more fleshy in nature, should sound more like a thump, whereas a hit upon the face of Zeus, which is more bony in nature, should sound more like a crack. But instead, we are left with yet again the same sound effect no matter what. Very simple basic stuff like this is how this anime pathetically falls short & just isn’t that immersive as an entertainment experience. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/1dad406df9fee0290bdd3c18abaa908d/6866c6e3e547202e-e5/s640x960/3387d562c17400ac9243a92cacf28a136c83bde8.gifv) With respect to the OST, the music of the series is just as generic as the sound effects. There is not a single memorable track, and all the music is stuff I feel like I have heard before in other franchises. A good soundtrack, ideally, should standout. It is hard to explain what makes Record of Raganrock’s OST bad without offering a point of reference. Take something from Death Note, universally regarded as having a fantastic OST. Any track from that anime is instantly recognizable – you know its from Death Note & nothing else. Beyond that, the music actually matches the tone of the series & the action happening on screen. Conversely, take something like Record of Raganrock during Adam’s death. This is explicitly stated to give humanity hope for the first time in the fight against the Gods. This is a moment of triumph. This is a loss, yes, yet also a massive victory for humanity. Humanity can actually do this now. So what do the producers do during this moment? They play generic sad music. The music doesn’t match the fundamental message the of what the on-screen events & dialogue are trying to get across. Yes, Adam’s death is sad. But his death is outshined by the hope it illuminates. So, in essence, this should be a happy fruitful moment for humanity. So, if it were me, I would change it to a more uplifting track. It shows the dissonance between the material being shown and the message the audience is supposed to take away, which is jarring as my experience with this event as a viewer doesn't match the experience the producer's are trying to convey. Another example of this dissonance is Brunhilde stress eating right after Adam's death to cope with the loss. This is meant to be a comedic moment. A source of brevity after a serious, hard fought, and emotional battle. And what music do they insert? An evil organ/piano musical score. Seriously, wtf?!?! Ultimately, this further illuminates the producers lack of understanding of the source material. **Final Thoughts & Closing Remarks** Fundamentally, this anime adaption is a *failure*. As aforementioned, the goal of any self-respecting adaption should be to *elevate* the source material while remaining *faithful* to it. This anime adaption remains faithful to a fault to the source material with misplaced backstory & an interrupting narrator. And doesn’t elevate the source material at all. In fact, it is worse. Much worse. img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/031b3a3aaf2f88905d06328785c314e6/1ddcd458c86e7c88-23/s1280x1920/832a57d2b26f46b99cdf417fe967b477f67fb908.gifv) There is just an underlying lack of care taken into the decisions made here from the production team. I alluded to them earlier in the segments above, but between the sound design, OST, art & animation, characterization, and the fights, there is not a single category I feel is better than the source material. Hell, I think I even made very valid suggestions on how to improve the series tremendously, and it took me about one hour of reflection & I am certainly not a paid professional. Ultimately, the production team doesn't understand the source material, the genre, or what makes fans resonate so strongly with this franchise. I think this anime is well below average comparing it amongst its contemporaries, and it is rather insulting to think that a franchise with such strong source material gets a shit adaptation like this. **The Verdict** *Go read the manga*. Start from chapter one & pretend this anime was just a lucid dream. It is genuinely great, has excellent art, and includes one of the best fights in animanga history with the Jack the Ripper versus Hercules fight that was alluded to in the final episode of this garbage anime adaptation. Supporting the manga might even help to get it published over here in the West! *fingers crossed* img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/a74c42a909e4f6cbe917c7c9e139e51e/1ddcd458c86e7c88-96/s1280x1920/48d97b67402a964af95d61d38981fbbe8fc7a519.gifv) Anyways, if you made it to the end of this review, I would like to thank you for your time & reading this. Feel free to message me if you agree/disagree, whatever really, would love to discuss more. I generally follow back, so drop me a follow too! And I have some other reviews I plan on doing in the future, so maybe check out those on my profile when they drop. Thanks again. :)

Santt

__1. Introdução:__ Nesta _review_ eu irei abordar alguns tópicos referentes ao anime em questão. Todos os tópicos a serem abordados foram elaborados conforme a minha experiência e pontos que achei bons de serem colocados. Gostaria de lembrar que eu não li o mangá que dizem ser melhor que a adaptação para o anime. __2. Enredo:__ O enredo do anime é bastante simples. Se é criado um pretexto simples e rápido para colocar figuras de deuses mitológicos de diversas culturas contra alguns humanos que já passaram pela terra. Sendo assim, a obra não foca em nada além dos combates entre um deuses e um humanos. A obra ainda apresenta o passado dos personagens que estão se enfrentando, mostrando a história tanto dos deuses quanto dos humanos. __3. Personagens:__ O anime é repleto de deuses mitológicos e humanos que já passaram pela terra. Durante as lutas também é mostrado várias figuras na plateia que, dependendo da luta, eles tem uma pequena participação como torcida. De modo geral, apesar do anime ser repleto de figuras mitológicas e humanos que fizeram história na terra, a grande maioria deles são os integrantes da plateia, e eles não tem uma devida apresentação, sendo só, como já falei, apenas usados para torcida. Como as lutas são apenas um "1 X 1" e só há 3 lutas, no total são 6 personagens, sendo 3 deles deuses e outros 3 os humanos. Com isso, não há uma gama de personagens mesmo tendo uma plateia imensa repleta de figuras históricas. Nesse quesito a obra nos apresenta deuses e humanos interessantíssimos, o que faz disso um ponto positivo do anime. __3.1. Figuras mitológicas:__ O anime é repleto de deuses que estão presentes em diversas mitologias ao redor do mundo. Cada um tem sua própria personalidade condizente com o título que eles possuem, e claro, com suas habilidades especificas e únicas para cada. Apesar de não ter gostado dos designs que eles receberam, eu ainda gostei de ver o tipo de criatividade que o autor colocou para fazer uma imagem dessas figuras. __3.2. Humanos:__ Seguindo a mesma lógica dos deuses, os humanos também possuem suas características e habilidades condizente com o que fizeram em sua passagem pela terra. A representação deles foi bem feita e faz jus ao título que receberam. __4. História dos personagens:__ Durante as lutas se é mostrado quem são e a história dos personagens. A exploração do passado deles serve principalmente como um incentivo para mudar o ritmo da luta, algo que está presente em diversas outras obras onde o personagem em questão está perdendo e há uma amostra do passado deles, fazendo com que isso seja um fator para mudar o ritmo da batalha. Claro, também é algo que serva para conhecermos o passado e a história do personagem, seja ele um deus ou um humano. Isso é algo que se é apresentado de uma forma um tanto "OK" e rápida considerando que o foco principal da obra são as lutas. __5. Lutas__ O que esperar de um anime que não aborda praticamente nada a não ser as lutas entre os personagens? É claro que quando se trata de boas lutas logo relacionamos isso com uma boa animação, e é esse o principal defeito do anime. Por receber uma animação em sua maioria composta por quadros estáticos, as lutas se tornam extremamente desinteressantes e maçantes a ponto de dar sono. Isso é algo péssimo para uma obra que deveria transmitir agitação a quem assiste. As lutas, aparentemente, não são ruins em seu todo, mas é a animação que deixa esse quesito, que era para ser o maior potencia da obra, horrível. __6. Animação / produção:__ O projeto ficou nas mãos do estúdio Graphinica, que não é um estúdio que se possa esperar muita coisa, apesar de ter suas ressalvas. O principal fator para o anime ser composto em sua maioria por quadros estáticos ou com pouca movimentação foi os designs de personagens extremamente complexos, e isso já vem desde o mangá, que é a fonte original do anime. Por causa disso, algo que deveria ter recebido um tratamento bem movimentado para gerar empolgação acabou sendo o ponto crucial para o desastre da adaptação do anime. Mas com todos os problemas no quesito movimentação nas lutas, a equipe de produção fez um bom trabalho em explorar a animação de efeitos. __7. Pontos positivos e pontos negativos:__ Como o anime não apresenta mais nada além de lutas, uma boa animação é o que se espera para gerar uma boa experiência, mas isso foi totalmente estragado pelo tratamento dado à elas. Por isso, há um único ponto negativo, mas que é o principal e definitivo fator para o anime ser horrível. 7.1. Pontos positivos: - ideia interessante e legal de colocar deuses contra humanos; - apesar de ser "OK", as histórias contadas acerca dos personagens até tem seu potencial. 7.2. Pontos negativos: - animação das lutas compostas em sua maioria por quadros estáticos ou com pouco movimento. __8. Conclusão:__ Ver deuses contra humanos é uma proposta interessante e divertida se tiver uma boa produção para gerar empolgação nos momentos de lutas, mas o anime consegue ser ruim e desinteressante por pecar em sua animação. A obra não foca em muita coisa a não ser nas lutas, se caso o anime tivesse recebido uma animação melhor, ele acabaria se tornando um pouco mais interessante, ao menos não daria tanto sono.

paradigm

Dear anime industry, Can we, one day, stop releasing entire seasons of anime when we know that they are not ready to be released? Can the animators/directors/studios unionize, choose to do in-house animation, or just stop taking up jobs with hellish schedules? There's a limited amount of time that we have to live, and if we're going to be idiots who waste our 11% of our lives watching anime could we at the very least get some quality in return? I'm not asking for anime to look and feel like Akira, Redline, or a KyoAni work 100% of the time. In fact, it shouldn't, since I believe that having a tiny margin of terrible anime would be beneficial in the long run, but not when that terrible anime comes as a result of poorly payed, overworked animators who are being coerced into animating just because of their passion for the medium. I would want for every 30 amazing shows airing each season, at least 5 of them could be absolute dog-trash. I wish that we had a sweet ratio of 85% AoTY contenders airing each season, for every 15% ironic and unintetntionally funny terrible anime. But no. Instead, the numbers are reversed – and if I were to be even more pesimistic and “elitist”, I would say that we don’t even have 5 amazing shows airing each season, most of the time there’s barely anything that’s above watchable – so that we are constantly bombarded with visual mediocrity from a medium that gave us Akira, Nausicaa, or Riding Beam, all in the 80s. Nowadays, we get generic, under-animated isekais that milk the worm infested carcass of a cow. And isekais wouldn’t even be a problem, if they all had the level of animation and actual good writing of Mushoku Tensei, an isekai that does what the genre is supposed to be doing: actually address the MC’s previous screwed-up life and then have him grow into his new life by acknowledging his shortcomings. But no, every isekai is just the same uninteresting Kirito copy that does the same uninteresting hero’s journey and gets a harem. Nowadays, we get the same reused stock animation and art-style for 99% of seasonals, the same reused character designs but with minor twists. Where’s the originality in a medium that should not follow any rules of “this is how you anime 101”? Where’s the freedom of expression of artists that have grown up wanting to work in the same industry that gave them Gundam when they were kids? They are replaced by inhumane working conditions and exploitation that makes them collapse from overwork. And sure, there are exceptions. Great Pretender was, aside from the ending, a fantastic show last year. It was visually/aesthetically pleasing enough in order to attract the more avid anime fans, while also being engaging and fun enough in order to appeal to other audiences. It also had the “Great Pretender” by Freddie Mercury as the show’s ED, so some fans of the artist would be incentivized to give the show a try, especially since it was on Netflix. Hmm, this reminds of that time when another anime had an interesting visual style that pleased older fans, an engaging story that would attract new fans, and an ED song by a famous artist. Too bad that people glorified the last 2 episodes of Evangelion and completely missed the point of the show. I can accept having to waste almost 4 hours of my day just to get 36 minutes of amazing fighting from an anime. But when even those 36 minutes of what should be Yutaka Nakamura levels of animation are instead some of the most boring and uninteresting camera panning and bare minimum of effort, that’s when I have a problem. Record of Ragnarok is among the worst things I’ve wasted my time on. Hey, anime, remember when you told a coherent and poignant story through Gon and Hisoka’s fight? A fight that dragged you in with every punch thrown by Gon as he struggled to reach Hisoka. A fight that was the pay-off of episodes of build-up You clearly seem to have forgotten, since Record of Ragnarok uses all of the cheapest tricks of animation in order to deliver some of the most cheap-looking fights put to screen. “How do we make this fight feel fast and devastating?” Record of Ragnarok answers that by incorporating those oh-so-fabulous lines that make it seem that there is a lot of movement going on, when in fact there is nothing moving. Don’t get me started on the times that the show downloaded a .png from Google, booted Photoshop, selected “Free Transform”, held Shift and just rotated it around. And even when there’s the slightest hope of a watchable fight, the show just has to cut away to some random characters just standing and commenting the fight, giving us information that even a 5 year old can pick up from the fight. Maybe I’m not even harsh enough on how this show delivers under-mediocrity on a plate when it comes to the fights. Maybe I should be since the fights are - or should be – the only saving grace of this series, since the story is utter garbage, and if you can’t tell that it is terrible from the beginning of the first episode, then maybe you should stop just consuming and start thinking about your media. I am convinced that this is how God of High-school would have looked like if it didn’t have Mappa’s talented workforce behind it. At least GoH’s fights at the very least were animated in a way that was above average, which roughly made up for the terrible writing. RoR has neither the animation to cover for the writing, nor the writing to cover for the animation. I am tired. Tired of having to watch my favourite medium of visual-audio storytelling undermine itself by constantly shooting itself in the foot. Tired of witnessing the legacy of talented animators be watered down by corporate greed, underpaid and overworked staff. The medium that gave me Gurren Lagann, the anime that told me that the impossible it’s possible by digging its cast on the surface. The medium that gave me K-On, the anime that made me cope with ending the chapter of my life called “High-school”. The medium that gave me Millennium Actress, the anime that showed me that I should pay more attention to the journey, rather than the destination. The medium that gave me Angel’s Egg, the anime that made me see anime as a fully-fledged art form capable of questioning the essence of existence. That medium is the same medium that now gave me Record of Ragnarok, the anime that had to use CGI in order to animate some dudes beating the drums, and that made me waste 4 hours of my life. I love anime, I sincerely do. I think it’s the most unique and ambitious art forms out there. But I completely despise the current state that anime has been in for the past couple of years. But it boggles the mind that this medium that has become readily available at the press of a button continues to handicap itself by still abiding to the same rules as 30 years ago. I hope that one day will come when the industry will realise that the current business model is in a terminal phase, but one that drags itself down. Sincerely yours, Just an anime fan. ___ Edit: As of 23rd of October 2021, I have removed the "We Have Accepted Mediocrity" video since Trixie has mentioned on her Twitter that she doesn't share the same feelings as she did back in that video.

Vacilion

~~~__~ ANIME REVIEW WITH NO SPOILERS! ~__~~~ __Record of Ragnarok__ (_Shuutmatsu no Walküre_) is the anime with one of the best plots I've seen in an anime. Who wouldn't be curious to see the 13 most notable humans across history (with the help of the Valkyries) fighting against 13 of the most powerful gods in a duel to death? It makes literally everyone curious to know: which humans will fight, what their abilities are, against which god they'll fight and most important, who will win. What I lacked in the anime was a better story development instead of only the fights and some flashbacks in the middle of them. Many things are missing in the story, that's the first problem for me. Another topic that I'd like to talk about is the animation. I feel like the fights could have more choreography instead of being: "one punch, cut; a random movement, cut". I wish the fights had been more fluid. I also got a bit upset with a excerpt of the end of one fight (about 20s) because instead of having animated punches, there were images of it. That's why many people call it the _'Powerpoint'_ fight. The mouth movement while the characters are talking could've been also better in my opinion, the facial expressions in general, because they are a bit weird... I mean, the anime is only about fights, I would expect at least a good or average animation. Though the art is very good, having in almost every frame a crowd in a sort of stadium in the background is pretty impressive. The characters are also well designed, at least most of them. One good thing about _RoR_ is that the fights are very unpredictable, we're never sure who will win because sometimes the fight is tending to someone and then there is a turning point and then another one... That's something I really enjoyed about this anime. Another thing that I like is the mid-fight character development. With the flashbacks you can get to know more about the fighters and their story. Not to mention the tention to see who is gonna win. Principally the human fighters that are there to fight against the end of mankind. One of my only disappointments while watching the anime was with a result of a fight, where they spend almost 5 episodes fighting against each other equal to equal and in the end one ends up winning, but was left with only a scratch. I was hoping to see the winner at least hardly hurt, but I can understand the reason of the result being like this, I still don't enjoy it though. I guess we shouldn't be expecting much from Netflix at this point, they literally made a great manga turn into a mediocre anime because of their bad animation and adaptation. I wish this anime had been in Ufotable or MAPPA's hands.

NamitaMoon

Netflix has a reputation among anime fans that could be summarized as mixed. On one hand, they are infamous for licensing succesful anime franchises in order to make adaptations that, usually, not only don't make the original any justice but even feel like a mockery. There is the case of the Death Note film. On the other hand, they're more or less appreciated because with their licensing of anime they contribute to make it more watched and known across many sectors. Some of those anime fall under the Netflix Original brand which, despite what it might indicate, it doesn't mean Netflix produced it but merely licensed it for simultaneous worldwide distribution. Some titles have been excellently received like Violet Evergarden (made by Kyoto Animation) while others have had a more mixed reception like Yasuke (made by MAPPA). Sadly, Record of Ragnarok seems to fall in the latter category. It's a fairly entertaining anime with excellent characters, setting, story and themes but that is sadly brought down by the awful PowerPointer-esque animation. It's a sad wasted chance because it had the potential of being the next One Punch Man, but regrettably, it seems fated to be the next Berserk 2016. __Setting__: RoR could essentially be described as a battle seinen. The Gods are tired of humanity and their sins so they decide to wipe them out in a council. But at the last second, a Valkyrie named Brunhilde using a special clause convinces them to instead organize a huge tournament pitting 13 champions that represent humanity against 13 champions that will fight for the Gods. Throughout the tournament, called the Ragnarok, Brunhilde and her Valkyrie sisters do the job of selecting humans to fight and then coach them as part of their inner plot of revenge against the Gods. The entire first season happens inside the arena and consists of the fights, commentary from spectators (both Gods and humans) and some backstage conversations as well as flashbacks. It's a pretty simple and straightforward premise but it still works. __Characters__: Probably the biggest highlight. The characters from RoR are taken from both mythology and history. In this aspect, RoR reminds me a lot of Fate Stay/Night with each Servant being slowly revealed and inserted into the story. Every character has a lot of in-depth and characterization, which is helped by the extensive flashback segments during the fights that explain their backstories, motivations, dreams and why they act the way they do. These sequences, while they might seem like a hassle to some viewers, are fundamental in making us actually __care__ for the fighters. This aspect was probably the best executed. __Sound and visuals__: The music is overall quite good. Yasuharu Takanashi, famous for composing the OST of anime like Naruto or Fairy Tail, has done a good job at creating music that enhances the tone and increases the impact of certain scenes. However, so far I can't really recall a specific soundtrack that I could describe as memorable, unlike in other anime like Attack on Titan, Bleach or Death Note which are full of memorable songs. Visually, it's also fairly good. The anatomy of the fighters is very well designed and the visual effects are also fine, although I feel like the facial expressions are lacking at some times, especially compared to the manga. Overall, not bad but also could be better. __Animation__: Alright, what's the most important aspect of an ANIMATED series? The ANIMATION. Excellent and memorable animation is what made the first season of One Punch Man so memorable. And Demon Slayer. And Attack on Titan. And so on. One would think that for a seinen anime and, worse, a battle seinen, Graphinica would put a lot of emphasis on the animation. After all, the truly central aspect of a battle anime are the battles, aren't they? But sadly they didn't. The PowerPoint animation meme is sadly real. Some fights feel more like still shots than fluid ones. This isn't me being nitpicky and saying "It sucks because it's not ufotable/MAPPA/Madhouse-tier", but rather me saying "It sucks because it doesn't feel like a fight". For as much as people slam on "generic" battle shonen, at least Pierrot or Toei Animation know perfectly that the moment Goku or Naruto start fighting it's the moment the animation quality should increase. Graphinica is not a particularily bad studio; they made the final OVAs of the beautifully animated Hellsing Ultimate and some movies like Hello World. I don't know the particular reasons Graphinica missed on this fundamental aspect (maybe it's the usual deadline issues, in which case maybe Netflix and Warner Bros. Japan have a lot to explain) but it definitely pushes the anime down. Many times I was watching the Powerpoint fights and thinking "What's the difference between this and reading the manga?". Considering Graphinica seems to especialize on 3DCG animation I would have honestly taken CGI-influenced fights or even a whole CGI anime (like God Eater) over...this constant slideshow. Yes, not all the anime is a slideshow but its presence in many fights that should be impactful drags down the entire experience. It's even funny how selective Graphinica seemed to be, because, for example, Aphrodite's breasts were perfectly animated. One could even say it feels like the studio was directly making fun of us. In a nutshell, Record of Ragnarok is a flawed yet enjoyable anime. It has excellent story, characters, good music and visuals but sadly they all get nullified by the headscratchingly bad animation that just ruin all the other aspects. It has recently been announced a second season that will also feature Graphinica. Part of me hopes Graphinica steps up their game and actually gives us a well animated show, hopefully redeeming an anime with so much potential. But honestly, I'd rather just read the manga.