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I will base my rating on a few things: Story and World-building, Characters, Art and Animation, and Sound. ::Low spoiler review::

Synopsis:
Will (the MC) lives in the world that revolves around magic. Magic is almost all-powerful, and as far as people know, the magic of a few supreme mages (Magia Vander) is creating a sky barrier that keeps a heavenly host, that, for no reason, is hell-bent on destroying all worlds, away. Elves and dwarves exist, but came from other worlds as refugees after their worlds were destroyed by the heavenly host.
Will, like dwarves, can't use magic, but he is extremely strong, fast, and has the ... ability to cancel/block/erase magic by punching, kicking or slicing it with a sword.
Will has been bullied and tormented, even life-threateningly, by most others in the world because he can't use magic (somehow no adults interfered), but he has a dream, to become a Magia Vander and join his childhood friend and love interest Elfie (the most super-special-awesome girl ever, who became a Magia Vander at the age of 10, and had created multiple new forms of magic by the age of 2). To do so he needs to graduate with a high score, but he can't get any from magic exercises (which nets the most amount of points). Will is super smart and has the best grades on written exams and is an expert at fighting in the Dungeon (there's no explanation for the Dungeon's existence).
Despite Will's status he has several characters that constantly pine over him "because they no how special he is". Will Will manage his goal?

Story & World-building: 3,6/10
The main plot of the story is easy to understand, but the world-building is nonsensical and incoherent. The show introduces new stuff all the time with no consistency and without following any of the previously established rules (deus ex machina galore), Will just knows everything about the dungeon and never loses even once, and how most of the important parts of the lore works is never explained (a lazy way of trying pretend there's any depth, or just the writer not giving a shit).
Also the naming sense is so bad I cringe myself into menstruation cramps even though I'm a biological man. (The principal's name is Cauldron, so she has a giant cauldron in her office, etc.)

Characters: (minor spoilers) 4,8/10
Will is the same old, tired, trope of the clueless and timid boy who's actually incredibly kind, brave and competent. He, of course, never loses and has special powers even he doesn't know about.
Collette is one of the top students, but her character is purely a earth-mage who loves Will more than anything.
There are 2 professors, 1 edgy dark-mage who despises Will for not having magic, and 1 who is some special race and supports Will, but is strict.
Kiki is another annoying "cute animal companion", but at least serves a purpose by making magic shields for Will, and serving as a tracker and camera that his kind professor can use.
Elfie just sits and stares out the window thinking of Will and how much she wants him(both like a friend and a lover), yet somehow, by the age of 16, has made more new spells (a grand achievement) than any other mage in history, meaning she is the bestest ever...
The rest of the notable characters are just: Ice mage who is the stereotypical bratty noble bad guy, haughty and aggressive fire mage who bullied MC but actually wanted to be friends with him, racist and classist elf mage who is actually just like MC and needs a friend, and a lightning mage with and inferiority complex and a case of extreme gluttony.
The characters are generally incredibly shallow, but there is also a little growth for a couple of them over the course of the season...

Art & Animation: 7,8/10
The art is... interesting... with most characters having a kind of droplet shape to their faces. Will is overly effeminate in his design, but, of course, has a super muscular body with a lot of scars once he takes off his shirt.
Otherwise, the art is vibrant and pretty well drawn, and the animation is mostly smooth and slick, but also makes use of the normal "lines cross on a white background, then MC is behind the monster, having sliced it to pieces in an instant" trope, probably to save money.

Sound: 6,7/10
The sound design and voice acting is perfectly competent and mostly average, but sometimes voices that should be more distant will just be as if the character was right by the "camera", etc.

Conclusion: 5,8/10
The story, world-building and characters are a mess, but the show is somewhat saved by the art departments and audio tech. I didn't enjoy it, but if you can turn off your brain and critical thinking it's adequate to doze off to.

Synopsis time:
MC really likes this game. MC dies and ressurects inside his favorite game as the son of a powerful noble, in a family that puts importance on sword skills (Sword-based classes). When MC gets his "awakening" ceremony, he finds himself with the Heavy Knight (tank) class, which was his favorite in the game, but it turns out it's seen as a defective and useless class, as it has very hard to reach requirements to become actually good. His father disowns, and considers killing MC, but MC's evil cousin, a girl literally named Malice turns out to get the Swordsmaster class. MC's father adopts Malice ... and banishes his son by the threat of torture and death if he even tells anyone his family name.
MC begins his journey as a tank with low damage going solo, but conveniently always stumble on what he needs to get stronk fast.

My current rating:
Story, characters and setting (6,5/10)
The story is a pretty average copy-paste isekai, but the stat and class system has some intrigue and complexity. Most of the characters are pretty barebones, and, obviously, Elymas (the MC) is the only one with a little more depth, using his previous gamer skills and knowledge to get stronger. The setting is ok, with new species of monsters that we don't usually see (if they exist anywhere else at all)
My complaints would be that things go a little to easy for Elymas. Whenever he needs something he gets it, and there's usually not too much challenge. He's always the most competent in the room thanks to playing the shit out of the game in his previous life. It annoys me that most of the time he just ups his defense, says: "Rampart Reflection" and then insta-wins.

Art, animation and sound (6,10/10)
The art for the show is one of the better aspects. A lot of the designs seems to borrow heavily from early Final Fantasy titles, which had pretty nice aesthetics. The sound is... average...
The animation was the most perplexing and standout part. The characters, especially Elymas, have hundreds of individual parts seperately animated, with what I am nearly 100% sure is AI. I'm writing this based on the fact I've seen dozens upon dozens of AI rendered videos or anime inspired animations, and the way the hair is being animated is exactly how that usually tends to look, blending in and out at random as if the hair is some spiky slime that melts back into itself randomly. It perplexes me, as I thought animation studios, like most artists, despised AI...

Current Overall Score (6,3/10)
There's reasons to watch the show, and I want to see how it turns out, whether it becomes better or worse, and what others think of it...........

Another season another show in the style of "My Happy Marriage" or "The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom". This season has seen more of these shit-shows than usual, and one of the worst is "A Livid Lady's Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires".
The show revolves around a Mary Sue girl that is "beautiful", has "perfect manners", who never did anything wrong, and who is the literal backbone of the country (just like in The Too.Perfect Saint). She singlehandedly runs the country, taking up the roles of nearly all important officials, whilst ... maintaining the royal treasury and all the country's finances through her own merchant company. She is also the most powerful magic wielder in the world, with a god-tier ability to summon 7 powerful grimoires, one of which allows her to instantly learn any spell or ability without any training and cast them infinitely without ever spending mana.
The classical villainness mess happens as usual (obviously heavily inspired by how it was in "I'll Tame The Last Boss") with the heroine being an evil schemer and the prince a malevolent, yet absolutely brainless, lazy and easily fooled, tard.
MC is arrested and placed in jail, and the king and MC's father, who are entirently reliant on her decide she'll have to find a way to clear her name and solve the problem, only for her feminist maid to tell her that she shouldn't care about her country seeing how they've treated her. The MC instantly decided to go the vengeful feminist girl-boss route and destroy the country, no matter what effect it would have on anyone within it as "they betrayed me first".
She then just immediately brainwashes the guard and leaves, uses illusions to take on the king's appearance and gains an audience with an ambassador from their rival country, making a deal with him for asylum and funds so she can innihilate her old country whilst rising in rank and influence in his.

The show is filled with flat, boring characters and girl-bosses. All men are incompetent and/or evil and corrupt.
There's never any problems as the MC and her maid are instantly successful and all they do goes according to plan, skipping all intrigue that might've been.
The MC's motivations are badly written nonsense and her powers are too great, without ever making any use of it for comedic or "wow"-factors, making the show mindnumbingly boring and stupid.
The only thing the show has got going for it is mediocre animation and character design, and good voice acting.

I can safely say that, if the show doesn't make a major shift in a few episodes, then this is absolute trash that should rot in the ashheap of history.

My rating:
3,1/10

As of writing there's 3 other reviews of this show, 2 with a rating of of 2/10 and 1 of 4/10, none of them recommending the show. All of these reviews are quite harsh, and unfairly so.

Akuyaku Reijou wa Ringoku no Outaishi ni Dekiai sareru is by no means special. It is neither good nor awful, just average and basic.
The MC's design is pretty good, the male romantic interests are the usual exaggeratedly flashy style, with the main romantic interest being a more romance focused version of Kirito for SAO.
Basically everything about the show follows the stock standard formula to a tee, with, ... despite what the other current review state, slightly above average quality animation and a watercolor/sketch-kind of aesthetic to it. The MC is locked into the Bad End no matter what she does, but is instantly rescued from shame and romanced by a new prince, and contrary to most similar shows the original fiance pretty quickly comes to recognize his mistakes and realize that his "beloved" may have manipulated him, though that does not stop him from caring for her.
The "Heroine" acts like someone with bipolar disorder, going from evil, to a friendly school girl and fellow otome game lover, to villain who is willing to severely harm the MC to get with her new fiancee, to accepting defeat and wishing her well shortly after.
There isn't that much to the show currently, just standard, overly sweet, romance story, with a tinge of fear of the MC losing her newfound love. This show will never win any awards, and it will likely not be anything special to most people, but it is just sweet enough to use as a way of idling away time when you're bored.

5,4/10

Honestly, I'm astonished at how I actually watched this show all the way through.
I don't like these mediocre, woe is me-kind of stories. And that's exactly what this show is

***SPOILERS INCOMING***

Already at the start the MC is recognized as the "most powerful saint ever", capable of casually inventing cures for multiple "incurable diseases"every day, trample even the most powerful monster with ease, and is the smartest most capable person in anything she tries, to the point that she's despised by people of all walks of life for being too perfect and making them feel like they're no longer needed, including her parents and her fiance ... the prince. Hence, the prince and her parents plot to sell her to a neighboring country for a fortune, so the prince can marry her little sister instead (which is known for her beautiful smile and big tits).
The whole story is a pity trip about how perfect the MC is, and how hard she's worked for everyone else, only to seemingly be punished for it, but, of course, it turns out everyone in her new country fawns over and loves her, making her instantly comfortable and "teaching her to love herself".
A world ending threat resurfaces and, of course, the MC is the only one with a brain and/or any capabilities to do anything about it. Everything she tries works basically perfectly and immediately, but the the threat continues to escalate and she joins hands with other saints to neutralize the threat.
The story culminates in a battle against the resurrected demon lord, which simps over the MC and the soul inside her (which belongs to the legendary saint who sealed him away 400-ish years ago), but it's over almost instantly (she's completely out of power, then she says hi to her soul and instantly wipes away the demon lords spell, after which he just sits crying despite suffering no damage and still having tons of power to use, just screaming pathetically when she just out of the blue summons a holy sword and kills him permanently. It took around 1 minute of fighting for him to lose...) so the show can sprint into a rushed happy ending where the whole world recognizes and fawns over the MC.

The characters are bland as all hells annd one-note.
The MC's little sister loves her more than anything and instantly turns on her parents and new fiance, searching for the obvious signs of what happened to her older sister, then swearing revenge on them.
The MC's former fiance was known as a genious, excelling at everything under the sun, but as soon as the MC appeared he lost about 1000 IQ points and realized she was so much better than him that he had to designate her as his arch-enemy, hence why everything he did was to spite her and completely retarded.
Her parents are beyond comically evil, and turns out to have stolen her from her aunt, which is her real mother, only to throw her aside when they finally got a child of their own.
The prince of her new country instantly falls in love with her and makes it his lifegoal to keep har safe and happy.
The support cast are just, battle butler, battle maid, ninja girl... They have no personality or goals, only existing to fawn over the MC and deliver messages.
The big bad, the demon lord Asmodeus, just simps over the soul of the saint who sealed him previously, which reincarnated into the MC. He could've won multiple times but just let's her go or fawns over the MC until she does something to him. When she "discovers her true powers" he just waits and lets himself be killed while crying like a bitch.

I can't in good conscious recommend this crap. The art and sounds are lazy, voice acting mediocre, the story and characters are trash, and the world building is misguided and borderline incoherent.
4,1/10 is my rating, and that's me being generous.

I wasn't sure about writing this review to be honest, but after watching the 9th episode (the latest at the time of writing this) I had to.
I'll write it with my usual structure, but there will be some heavy spoilers in this one, so be warned.

Story and characters: 2/10
The story revolves around Yamamoto Mito, a beautiful girl that "was never loved by anyone" and was rejected by her family because she was too beautiful. When her parents died in an accident she was passed around by relatives who all rejected her for being too beautiful, and she, for some reason, got into the habit of ... crossdressing and pretending to be a boy. When her last relative threw her out, she began working and living on her own under the guise of being a boy (a disguise that somehow fools anyone and everyone, despite her literally looking like a girl, never acting masculine, and never disguising her voice...). Mito is however always fired, not because she's a bad worker but because "he" is such a beautiful boy that it disrupts business...
Depressed, Mito stands on a bridge, contemplating suicide, but ultimately deciding not to, when a weak gust of wind somehow pushes her over the end. Then she's rescued during the fall by the heir to the vampire world, Ruka, who offers her, or "him" to become his blood bank slave, as he can't drink from women due to past trauma. Mito accepts and begins her/"his" life going to Ruka's school and workplace, as well as trying to love and be loved by Ruka, so that her blood can taste less disgusting (blood tastes bad in this story, but gains a delicious strawberry taste when the person have experienced being loved and cared for a lot). There she meets traumatized "bad boi dhampir" Ren, who's mother abandoned him at at the age of 4 or 5 to run off with his vampire daddy. Ren becomes the second love interest and things develop from there.
The story is a goddamned mess, and it and it's characters are all so stupid that I felt like a Bloodborne Brain Sucker was leeching off my brain while watching it. The pacing is bad, and the story takes the most cliched and stupid tropes from both the BL and romance genres and ramps it up to 11. Mito is quickly loved by everyone, despite constantly moaning and inner monologuing about how no one loves her, when Ruka finds his "Destined Partner" she will be alone again (yea, Vampires can only become true vampires in this world by finding and shacking up with their "destined partner" which they will love eternally), and that she has to please Ruka and make her blood better tasting for his sake... By episode 3 Ruka has already fallen for our MC(though he is in denial), and by the 2nd episode from Ren being introduced he is as well. Already in episode 5 or 6 Ren confesses to Mito, but convenient fireworks make her not hear him(the tropes...) and he is perturbed by how gay he is. Ren later finds out Mito's secret and both confesses again, as well as steals a kiss from her in episode 8, whilst Ruka is away at a vampire gathering to find out about his destined partner. After Ren's kiss, Mito runs off (dressed as a girl) and runs into Ruka, who just got back, and he finds her to be his destined partner, as well as the girl who traumatized him as a kid, when they were apparently BFs and he suddenly sucked her blood.
Episode 9 concludes with Ren turning 17 and suddenly gaining a special dhampir power... the power to make one wish come true, if he wishes whilst drinking the blood of the first person he ever loved (Mito obviously), and he uses this once in a lifetime, law of the universe bending power, by tricking Mito, to turn Mito into a real boy, because he already loved Mito before finding out that she was a girl, and by doing so he can both commit to being gay, and avoid Mito being taken away by Ruka as Ruka's destined partner (as destined partners have to be of the opposite sex), AND I QUIT!
Usually I would talk about the characters, but they're so bland as if to be non-existent in this shit-show. The only personality in this show is Mito's "woe is me, I need Ruka", Ruka's "I love magical girls", Ren's "I'm a sad boi, and my dad stole my mommy away", purple-hair's "I'm the cute girly guy and love atomic blonde", and atomic blonde's "girls, boobs!"...

Art and sound: 7/10
The only actually good thing about the show is the art and sound. The art is the regular shoujo, big eyed girls and pretty boy band bois deal. The voice acting is quite good, and the soundtrack and background noises are competently done.

Overall: 4/10
This show is bad, not un-bearably bad, but enough that probably only those who truly needs to have that itch scratched can really enjoy it. I was on the fence about dropping the show up until episode 9, but when Ren suddenly, out of nowhere, uses a never-before-mentioned power to turn Mito from girl to guy, I just said: "Fuck this shit. I'm out".
Just to preface this, I am a guy. I am not gay, but I have found enjoyment in many shoujo manga and anime, both straight and BL ones, but this shit was just too much. I'm saying this having enjoyed things like Rosario Vampire and UraBoku.
Unless you really need to scratch that itch, you're probably better of not watching this absolute travesty of storytelling.

Gekai Elise, aka Elise the Surgeon, follows Elise, a formerly selfish noble woman from another, early renaissance period-ish world with some magic, that was reborn into our world after being executed for her crimes in her original world. Suddenly guilt-ridden, she spent her new life (as an unwanted orphan of course) training to become and becoming a world famous surgeon, saving lives to make up for her sins in her former life. She gets famous for the fact she never has made any mistake in any surgery or examination, being haled as a miracle.
On her way to an important conference and an important surgery on ... the other side of the world, her plane crashes, and she literally saves every passenger, despite her organs literally hanging out of her body, collapsing and dying just after saving the last other person, as the rescue personnel rushes towards her. She wakes up, having been reborn into her old life as Elise de Clorence in her original world, a few years before the events that led to her execution. She decides to change her fate, and that of the whole country, by becoming a surgeon there as well, continuing her work, instead of becoming empress/queen. She makes a wager with the King to this extent, and goes under-cover in a hospital as an assistant to prove her worth.

Story & Characters: 5,6/10
The story is fine enough, but there's really nothing special about it. It has an enjoyable, but not complex plot. Elise's world seems to fit an early renaissance, yet they have medical knowledge and tools, like those from the early 20th century, with medical terms picked straight out of our modern medical world.
Most of the problems with the story revolves around it's characters, despite there being several interesting characters, these characters are not fleshed out properly and are left un-finished (something I hope they remedy if there comes a second season). Some of these characters are relatively un-important, but some have major roles in the story (such as both the princes).
One of the most major character issues (to me at least) is the MC, Elise. To put it simply, she is a definite Mary Sue character. We are shown backflashes to her first life throughout the series, showing her behavior and "crimes", as well as often flashing back to the moment crown prince Linden executes her, yet, despite Linden in that moment explaining that her actions were so vile that her whole family had been executed and the country was in ruins, the crimes we are shown are mostly... her being friends with his younger brother Mikhail, leader of the noble faction (which opposes the royal faction, lead by Linden), and her being selfish. Elise is never shown as actually doing anything bad, other than being a spoiled brat. There is nothing to justify how she and her family was executed (she "did no wrong"). On top of that, Elise is literally stated to NEVER have made ANY mistake in ANYTHING medical. She is literally written as the "perfect miracle doctor/surgeon", being 100% correct in everything, to the point that all other characters in the medical field, in both worlds, basically bows to her as a goddess and sucks her metaphorical dick. Prince Linden, which had liked her when they were children, but who had grown to despise her (despite her unconditional and obsessive love for him), quickly fell in deep love with her after she started working in a hospital, as well as Mikhail loving her for some reason, the doctor she works with falling hard for her, the King adoring her, etc. etc. Basic Mary Sue trait, as literally everyone loves her except for the unredeemable bad guys. She is always the center of attention, being the smartest and most beautiful, etc., and her only faults are that she originally was spoiled and self-centered, but now only have a terrible handwriting and can't fight.

Art & Sound: 6,3/10
The visuals of the show are fine, with pretty, though a bit generic, character designs, but is dragged down by mediocre animation whenever there's action, which luckily is quite in-frequently.
The sounds and voice acting is fine. Not much more to say about that.

Overall: 5,9/10
Gekai Elise is an enjoyable show, but the character is an un-faultable Mary Sue in most situations, which makes the stakes feel shallow, and unimportant. Overall, I would still recommend it, but I would ask those about to watch it to lower their expectations of they're expecting a well-crafted, complex narrative. I hope there's a 2nd season and that it improves upon the 1st one and makes up for it's shortcomings.

Long before Solo Levelling got animated, I had already heard tons about how good the LN/manhwa was, but no specifics, to the point that phrases like "inferior Solo Levelling" and "Solo Levelling lite" and the like was common place.
So, did the show live up to the hype?
Simply put... no.
I haven't yet read the manhwa/LN, so I can't give any definite statements about that, but based the anime, it's not that great, and I don't get how it got such a good score (8,41/10 at the time of writing). I'll break the review up into categories, as usual, before summarizing. I will be spoiling some of ... the story as of yet, but not much, and most of it can be found in the Synopsis anyways.

Story & Characters: 5/10
The story follows an event several years ago, where magical "Gates" to other pocket dimensions started opening all around the world, containing new, special and world changing, resources, and monster hordes that guard the resources and treasures, and will enter our world to wreak havoc if they aren't culled in time. Due to some sort of energy leaking from the Gates (or something. It's not explained at all, just, gates appear, people get powers), some people are born with, and others are "awakened" to, having gained special abilities that allow them to fight the monsters. Apparently only these people, now dubbed "Hunters", can damage monsters (which is incredibly contrived, as rifles, sniper rifles, missiles, etc. can't do anything to the monsters, yet a weak person with a normal kitchen knife can, as long as they are a Hunter).
A short time after the Gates first appeared, humanity manage to create machines able to determine the danger/difficulty level of the Gates (E, D, C, B, A, S, with E being the lowest and S the highest) and predict where they'll spawn, and similar equipment to determine if someone is a Hunter, as well as the strength of the Hunters and their classes (just like in games, and with a similar ranking system as to the Gates). To the public, a Hunter's strength cannot be increased and is fixed after their awakening, and the only way they can grow is by altering their tactics/strategies, thinking and reaction, and by working on their martial arts skills (but unbeknownst to the public there are a select few that have a "second awakening", which is the only way to become a S rank Hunter, but is incredibly rare). The resources found inside Gates have become an integral part of world society, both to create better weapons to fight the monsters and as incredibly dense energy sources (which are also completely eco friendly), and Hunters have thereby become an important part as well (to the point the Hunters that become murderers and serial killers, etc. are never killed or locked away, but can work off their prison time by entering Gates).
The story manly follows our MC, Jinwoo, a South-Korean Hunter, dubbed the "Weakest Hunter of all mankind" as he's so weak he doesn't have any skills, and can barely even stab a goblin. No matter how much he works out he doesn't gain muscles, don't get faster or stronger, and he basically always comes back from even the easiest Gates severely injured. Still, he continues his work as a Hunter, in order to pay for his little sister's education and his mother's medical bills (she's afflicted by a disease that appeared with the Gates, which causes people to fall into endless sleep).
One day Jinwoo and a group of other Hunters are exploring an E ranked Gate, only to find a Double Dungeon (another, higher level, dungeon, hidden inside the Gate's main dungeon). They decide to enter, to disastrous results, as they are trapped inside a giant kill box. Some survive, due to Jinwoo's skills at deciphering the riddles in the Double Dungeon, only to leave him for dead. Jinwoo also barely survives (through pure plot armor, as he gets his legs and a arm chopped off, and literally gets his whole body crushed to much and sliced in bits by giant golems) because he completes the Double Dungeons challenge. Time stops right as he dies and a hologram pop-up screen appears, telling him he has 0,01 seconds left to live, unless he says Yes to becoming a "Player", which he obviously does.
Jinwoo awakens in the hospital, completely un-injured and gets another pop-up (which only he can see), telling him the "System" wants him to do obligatory strength training, or face a penalty (which nearly kills him when he doesn't complete the daily challenge the first day). He begins completing the daily challenges, gaining Stat Points and other rewards that make him stronger, and after a few weeks he's released, now much taller, stronger, faster and more handsome. He decides to use the System to become the strongest Hunter ever.
The characters range from pretty ok to blank papers and tropes, and the story reeks of the normal, weak guy is actually, or becomes, the strongest in the world trope from the first episode (scratch that, as you get it even from the cover art), and there is no surprise how the plot unravels. Jinwoo literally wins basically every major fight through pure plot armor and going "I'm not gonna give up! I'm gonna get stronger!", and just winning it, which is very frustrating, as some of the fights start pretty interesting...

Visuals & Sounds: 8/10
The visuals are definitely where the show shines. The frames and drawings are crisp, clear, and the effects and battles are engaging and cool to look at. All the characters and backgrounds are well drawn and visually succinct. The only real flaw visually is the fact that they make use of some, slightly above average, CGI sometimes, which doesn't jell with the rest of the art.
The sounds and voice acting is well above average, but nowhere near top quality.

Summary: 6,8/10
Solo Levelling is an ok to good show, if you want an edgy power fantasy, but suffers from mediocre writing and an extreme case of over-hype. It's a perfectly fine show for those not looking for a convoluted or complex plot, and I would definitely recommend Solo Levelling to those looking for a kinda fun power fantasy, but it is definitely not as good as many are saying.

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken: Coleus no Yume is... bad. I'll make this a short one.

I have seen all of Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken as of writing this review (1st of November 2023) and I have thoroughly enjoyed most of it. The MC may be a bit OP, and most problems are solved too easily, but there's much enjoyment to be found in the series, wether it's the humor or just relaxing to a likable main character fixing problems and fighting spectacular battles. Coleus no Yume, however, is just not good on an objective level. The plot is not only cliche, but also badly ... written with a cop-out happy ending where everything is resolved perfectly in an instant by character who just show up at the end, and even Rimuru (the MC) is just standing in place as if frozen in time for almost half the last episode while everything else is resolved, and it is treated as if nothing is wrong. Everything about the writing and characters in this special is weak as an 80-year-old with late-stage terminal cancer. Both princes adored their little sister and each other, but was instantly ready to kill each other without even saying a word to each other. The sister knew the truth of everything all along, but just didn't say anything. The sister was severely ill and blind, but literally a teaspoon of honey in her tea cured her. Oracle kept warning Rimuru that the "archdemons" were such bad business that he might not stand a chance, but he easily crushed them, only to stand by for several minutes. All the characters from the rest of the series has been dumbed down to mentally challenged (retard) levels or worse.
Worst of all, the pasing was so atrocious that I almost dropped it halfway, despite there only being 3 episodes in this OVA.
Given more episodes, better pasing and a more interesting andin-depth background for the Royal Family, their supporting character and the investigation plot, this could've been great, but it seems we were given a 2 minute plot outline stretched nanometer thin on a dirty road instead.
Not recommended.

Dark Gathering is... very mediocre.
As of writing the review I'm 11 episodes into the anime, and I can't see any special reason to keep watching. If you don't like spoilers, don't read my review, 'cause I'll be spoiling a few plot points (nothing especially major though)

Story & Characters:
Synopsis: The story revolves around 3 characters, Keitaro, Eiko and Yayoi, as they travel around, defeating and capturing evil spirits for the purpose of finding and saving Yayoi's mother from a really powerful evil spirit, the "Spirit of Death", which caused Yayoi's parents to crash their car, killing her father, injuring Yayoi and kidnapping Yayoi's mother ... (yes, the spirit kidnapped the mother and no one seems to have noticed outside Yayoi). At the same time the group is searching for a way to lift the curse inflicted on both Keitaro and Eiko when they were young.
Keitaro: He is the MC and the world revolves somewhat around him. He has a natural ability to attract spirits and has a very strong spiritual sense, but can't see them (except when the story wants him to see them, which is never explained and a big plot hole). Keitaro is a pathetic wimp who cowers and cries over everything. He is weak, but somehow has fought off hordes of ghosts through his life. He's supposed to have serious social anxiety and problems talking to others (which is basically never shown), yet he's popular (and apparently somewhat handsome, though he looks like a stupid kid). He has a fear of getting others involved in the fact he's being constantly chased by ghosts because of the incident that left him and Eiko cursed (which he feels real bad for), but backflashes show young Keitaro as confident and able to handle almost anything supernatural with ease. He is literally useless unless the story needs him to not be, constantly being overshadowed by the other 2 main characters. He stayed shut-in in his room for more than 3 years, not studying and losing his conversational skills, but somehow he's easily at top of his class when he rejoins at the end of highschool (because he's apparently very smart, though he never shows it)

Eiko: She is Keitaro's childhood friend and Yayoi's older cousin. She's 1 or 2 years older than Keitaor. Eiko has always loved the supernatural as she can't completely understand it, though she cares about little else as she's a "literal super genius" and therefor understands everything else, therefor finding it boring. When they were young Keitaro saved her from a spirit that standing by the road (she can't see or sense spirits btw, unless the plot suddenly needs her to) by telling her not to go close to a certain spot. the next day another girl was hit by a car and killed in the same spot he told her not to go close to. After that she would drag him around to haunted places to have him save her from spirits (and fell in love with him saving her), even though he said he didn't like it (why did he keep being friends with her? not explained. plot hole.) Eiko was the one that got the two cursed, but somehow the show makes it so it's Keitaro's fault, making him beat himself up about it, and making Eiko "so gracious and kind-hearted" for not blaming him for it. The show quickly reveals that Eiko is obsessed with Keitaro, to the point of stalking him in various ways and wanting to be "just hers" (did I mention that Eiko is a super genius, making industry breaking surveillance systems and much more just to spy on Keitaro?). The show tries to both make her the "cool, brave, handy and beautiful super genius" and at the same time "creepyyyy", supposed to send chills down your spine, but she falls flat in all regards. Eiko's genious is the type that only work in gag comedy, and her "creepiness" just falls flat and feels stupid (especially the forced, black-eyed smiley face bs). She overshadows the MC through being just so "awesome", and is apparently famous for her genius and beauty all over the country and some places outside it.

Yayoi: She is the driving character. She is a 10 year old Mary Sue. She was born special, having skull shaped pupils and red irises, as well as the ability to see the real world and spirit world as a constant split screen show. After the car crash caused by "The Spirit of Death" her eyes aligned, merging the spirit and real world for her, making both clearer, granting her superhuman strength, speed and agility, as well as making her a super genius rivalling Eiko and giving her knowledge straight out of her arse about things she should know nothing about. Yayoi literally just goes around beating up spirits with a crowbar (sometimes a baseball bat) and storing them in her collection of teddy bears as an army. She has resistance to damage and plot armor aplenty (except for the few times the show suddenly needs Keitaro to bail her out). Her plan is to collect spirits in her dolls and make them her servants, then get them to eat each other until only a few strong ones remain, then use those to capture even stronger ones (like some stupid horror parody of Pokemon), until she has a strong enough army to face down "The Spirit of Death" and save her mother (who has been gone for at least 2-3 years, which means she really should be dead...). Despite having no training, never having read up on it or gotten advice on it, Yayoi always knows exactly how to deal with spirits, and can do thing no real spirit hunter/specialist or exorcist has figured out... that all evil spirits' weakness is getting a crowbar to the head and some salt sprinkled in their eyes, which in her case immediately forces the spirits into one of her dolls (which she fills with pieces of herself and those she cares about so the spirit can't attack them, though in all other mythology that would make it a doll that curses them, not protects them). Yayoi always comes out on top. She eventually challenges an ancient, evil god. The next day she says she fucked up challenging a god, before literally seconds later suddenly stating she's already killed a god before...


Art & Sound:
Art: The art in Dark Gathering is a bad attempt at mixing the art from Mieruko-chan with a generic shounen anime. The characters are generally bland, the backgrounds are stale as old bread, but sometimes the Mieruko-chan-ness bleeds in, though not enough.

Sound: The sounds in the show are ok, but Keitaro's voice is gnawing at the ear drums, and nothing stands as good in any way. It's all just... standard...


Overall:
The show is supposed to be a horror and adds some humor, but is pretty terrible at both. The show just ends up as a contrived monster battler. The characters are bad and would've fit much better in other shows. Dark Gathering plays very lose with it's rules, and the rules mostly follows Yayoi's convenience.
If you want horror, look somewhere else. If you want comedy it's a pretty bland dish.
The show is one of those that are just annoyingly mediocre. It's not good, but it's not bad enough to outright hate or to really make you want to quit it. It's just there. I probably could've kept watching to the end, but I decided I have better show to watch and better things to do.