Anime 53428 Ayaka Reviews Filter Check 3

I've been waiting to write a review since the first episode came out. I just couldn't wait to tell you how much I hated this piece of garbage. boring art, more boring characters, typical plot about a nobody who finds out he was secretly awesome all along. There's nothing new here except maybe the level of awfulness.

Honestly, if you watched this and thought "hmm, this is acceptable level of quality", please tell how bad a show has to be for you to drop it.

• Totally unoriginal premise you've seen a million times before
• The art totally fits the story as both are extremely boring
• ... The characters are unlikable and unbelievable
• Whoever wrote these characters has probably never met a human before
• I don't see any reason why anyone would ever enjoy this garbage

Yeap...this was, and still is, hot garbage.

You would think that from the writing group of studio GoHands's most famed series, K Project, the anonymous GoRA would have another jewel on their hands. But this is 2023, not 2012, and what they had for the always risky anime original show that is Ayaka (or its full name - Ayaka: A Story of Bonds and Wounds), yeah sure, it was INDEED a story of bonds and wounds, but this somewhat simple story, to put it simply, is an absolute chore to sit through.

Just about the only thing that I appreciated about this show is the setting: similar ... to the Pokemon Adventures of FireRed and LeafGreen, there exists a range of islands that are all interconnected to each other, which make up the Ayaka Islands, along with the supernatural-backed mythology of the monsters and spirits they call "Mitama" and "Ara-Mitama" to separate between the good and evil. Especially those blue Mitama blobs that surround the island, they're such cute and adorable creatures that manifest life onto the islands.

But otherwise, this show is shitting the shat onto the trash all around, like a "wait for something to happen" scenario, because this show ultimately is driven balls to the wall with a simple premise that drags on and on until shit hits the fan, then literally, skate and die with emotions overflowing, thinking that it can win the people over by the now-infamous death flag.

Simply put, you have this boy who was wrangled off the Ayaka Islands due to the imbalance between the gods, and him not knowing of the rich history behind it, had to have a caretaker to accompany him...and then bring him back when the time is right. This is what is happening to Yukito Yanagi, growing from a child then to a young adult uneventfully, until the green jacket-laden Jingi Sagawa has to find him and escort him back to the Ayaka Islands, telling him that it's his duty to remain on the island and train up on their Ley Mastery magic system, and train until something bad happens to be able to put that training to use. Thereafter, with the others like caretaker Momoko Amamiya, Ley Mastery experts Haruaki Kurama and Aka Ibuki, and many more, Yukito's life begins to shake slowly as an innert feeling calls him from deep in the recesses of his heart, only to be told that he would be the key to determine the fate of the Ayaka Islands.

The TL;DR if you don't care about the story: it's simple, and simple stories can work well, but it's the execution that really counts, and this show is the embodiment of a sloth scratching its head and in its usual "question mark" brain of what to do next. It's just bad execution with a boring story and forgettable characters, even when given the death flag.

The same can easily be said about the animation, which coming from Studio Blanc, maybe you should change your name to Studio Bland, because it's not at all impressive. Though I could speculate the reason that the studio's pairing with director Nobuyoshi Nagayama on Winter's Saikyou Onmyouji no Isekai Tenseiki a.k.a The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World, was partially why they wanted to continue the good business relationship since he had secured a hit with the exact same studio for Uramichi Oniisan back in Summer 2021. And almost conspicously as everything was suspiciously in line, music artiste angela took the reins for the show's OP, which was decent at best, along with saji's ED.

Nevertheless, with each progressing episode, I was finding myself having to tune the anime up to 1.3x watching speed just so that there will be some plot progression, but I guess with the supposedly "succinct" writing that had limits placed all over the place, it isn't saying much that the anime basically had nothing going for it, and only showing its cards once everything falls into place as it should.

It's just really meh and boring, please don't waste your time watching this crap.

A Story of Boredom and Whining.

I think I’ve become desensitised to the action genre of anime that try to pull inspiration from or feel like an outright copy of Naruto. The story of an orphan boy with a secret power he can’t control, but makes him potentially the strongest or/and the most special magic power boy out of all the magic power boys, and who also has a dead dad who also had magic powers and was the strongerest out of all the strong magic power people has been done to death at this point, and Ayaka: A Story of Bonds and Wounds doesn’t bring ... anything new to the table.

Even so, I think there's potential in its setting. The seven chain islands that makeup Ayakashima and their supernatural inhabitants are pretty interesting. I like the strange blue blobs known as “Mitama” which are either small and cute or become in desperate need of a Snickers bar when hungry, and the power system is pretty interesting.

Despite that, there is nothing else of interest this original anime has to offer. The art is bland and the animation is ugly, the main character constantly whines and complains over either not being able to control his powers or over his incredibly irritating mentor who’s always fucking around and never answers any valid questions the protagonist or the audience, may have just so the story can be padded and overall, the show is tedious. I watched four episodes of this and I couldn’t tell you much apart from the green man getting drunk a lot and throwing his trash in the river which angers a Mitama, and even then I’m not sure if that is what happened because I spent half my view time zoned out or on my phone trying to stave off my boredom.

It’s hard to focus on a story that isn’t interested in telling itself and it’s hard to look at an anime with such a distractingly bland art style. It has some neat ideas but none of them are capitalised on.

3/10 Wasted Potential.

The first episode was presented with scenes that were difficult to understand, is this the past? Or for a preview of the future? And this makes me not really like it because it shown the climax. Despite all that it turns out it was just a mere dream of the main character, boring.

That's the first thing I don't like about this anime, which already presents the MC's dream to the audience at the very beginning, another thing is the many Flashbacks of the MC's past, not only dreams but when he wakes up he is still replaying his past.

In my opinion, the main character here ... is also very boring to watch, just because of the mistakes he made in the past, making him pessimistic, anti-social, and prefers not to interfere too much with other people, an example of a character who is always trapped in the past and not use the past as a lesson to be better in the future. Please, does anyone really want to see the daily life of the main character whose life is boring? Unlike other anime which uses the past to make it stronger and doesn't want it to happen again.

As for the storyline or background, I don't really like it, because it has a Japanese style feel, and of course this is only known by local people who understand their own culture, in my opinion it wouldn't be suitable if it circulated outside of Japan who don't understand this.