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- BirthdayJun 21, 1997
- LocationCluj-Napoca, Romania
- JoinedDec 6, 2018
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Mar 1, 2026
Media, lately, has got very good at making you feel things on demand. A lot of that comes from the global run of K/C/J/etc-dramas, each new Hallyu (or whatever the other countries' waves are called) being slicker, more cinematic, more emotionally precise than the last. Big beautiful feelings, perfectly crafted and timed, artificial. Ikoku Nikki knows that playbook. It just doesn’t use it. If anything, it pushes in the opposite direction. Minimalism influenced by the already-established Japanese domestic realism. Think Banana Yoshimoto or even Murakami minus the magical realism.
The premise is simple and familiar. Asa, a teenager, loses her parents and ends up living with
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her aunt Makio, a novelist who’s more comfortable alone than emotionally open. You can already see where a typical drama would go: tragedy, tension, gradual bonding, emotional payoff. Clean structure. Predictable story. I would have been fine with that to be honest.
But Ikoku Nikki keeps slipping away from the rules dramas "have" to respect. It is somewhere outside the boundaries of the imperial court, the office job, the uni or the shared living space.
The event at the center of the story, the loss, doesn’t drive the plot forward as much as it sits there, heavy and unresolved. The tension doesn’t come from big twists, dramatic confrontations or the person you've been rooting for being finally able to confess to main character#3 after 14 episodes of staring into the void. It comes from everyday friction. Ogling people eating awkward meals, eaves dropping conversations that stop halfway, witnessing (almost unwillingly) attempts at comfort that don’t quite land. There’s something almost voyeuristic about the way Ikoku Nikki positions the viewer, and that has a lot to do with Makio being a novelist.
Makio doesn’t move through the world like a heroine waiting for her cue. She moves through it like someone who watches first and speaks later, if at all. Writing has trained her to notice pauses or deflections, to register small gestures people think go unnoticed. That habit doesn’t dissolve just because she’s suddenly responsible for a grieving teenager. If anything, it intensifies. She doesn’t rush into the role of a guardian-with-a-soft-arc. She observes Asa. She processes. She edits herself before she speaks and the series adopts that same stance.
We’re not guided toward the “correct” emotional beat. We’re left looking at the awkward dinner table silence a second longer than comfort allows. We watch a well-meaning sentence land slightly off. We sit through conversations that taper out instead of resolving into insight. No swelling score. No cathartic confession. Just the slow accumulation of misalignment.
Makio isn’t cold, she’s withheld. Closed in the way people become when they’re wary of turning sincerity into performance. As a novelist, she knows how easily language can become contrived. So she hesitates. And that hesitation becomes the atmosphere of the show. It refuses to convert grief into spectacle. Makio’s novelist gaze is the show’s gaze and we’re placed in the position of someone who watches before speaking
If Makio’s novelist gaze structures the voyeurism formally, Asa deepens it from the inside because Asa doesn’t perform grief in a way that satisfies narrative expectation. She isn’t the ideal tragic heroine. She’s inconsistent. Petty at times. Self-absorbed in the way teenagers are allowed to be but rarely are when tragedy is involved. She wants comfort and resents needing it. She reaches out and then recoils. There’s no clean “broken to healed” arc. Just oscillation. And that makes watching her feel even more intimate.
The voyeurism intensifies because she doesn’t know she’s being narrativized. Makio might, to some regard, always be half-aware of the story. Asa isn’t. Her reactions are unpolished. She isn’t shaping them into something meaningful. That rawness makes the viewer feel almost intrusive, as if we are present for moments that aren’t meant to be aesthetically satisfying. The show doesn’t redeem her through spectacle. No grand speech about grief or the like.
In most contemporary melodrama, youth plus trauma equals heightened legibility. Tears are timed. The audience is guided toward empathy through spectacle. Asa refuses that clarity. Her grief doesn’t announce itself, it leaks sideways. In irritation, in silence, in stubbornness. Sometimes she seems almost fine. Sometimes she overreacts to something minor. The cause-and-effect chain remains partially obscured. We end up studying her the way Makio does. There's no symbolic breakthrough that reorganizes her identity. That matters because it resists a particularly neoliberal fantasy: that trauma is raw material for self-improvement. In many dramas, loss becomes the catalyst for growth, resilience, personal branding of the soul. Ikoku Nikki doesn’t fully buy into that, but it doesn't shy away completely either.
If they are about grief and coexistence, Emiri and Shingo are about something slightly different: the risk of being honest about what you want and the fear that honesty might cost you the fragile stability you already have (you go, Emiri, it's okay, sweetie, your feelings are perfectly normal and valid). There is a smoldering fire within every character. Small interactions that one would expect to turn into a potential conflict play out in an almost too realistic way like Emiri's mom being worried about Asa and her new guardian. The way that entire subplot played out - 10/10. Nobody’s the villain. The characters aren’t caricatures of what they’re supposed to represent, nor are they sugary coping devices meant to make the pain easier to swallow. They feel like people: sometimes uneven, sometimes frustrating, sometimes mean or unreasonable without meaning to be. Sometimes kind without meaning to be?!
Where a lot of modern dramas build toward big confessions and emotional crescendos, Ikoku Nikki stays quiet. Its key moments are small: a realization, a shift in tone, a sentence that lingers longer than expected. No dramatic speeches, no neat emotional release.
Formally, the quiet is built through restraint rather than absence. The camera doesn’t push, it lingers. Shots often hold a little longer than expected, long enough for gestures to trail off awkwardly instead of resolving cleanly. People sit slightly apart in the frame, separated by tables, doorframes, the small geometry of ordinary rooms and so on. That space itself carries part of the distance between them. Conversations unfold in still compositions with very little cutting, letting silence gather between lines rather than smoothing it away. Everyday sounds stay present; footsteps somewhere out of sight are not atmosphere, but the texture of shared life. Even moments that might turn dramatic refuse escalation: no push-ins, no visual insistence, just a steady gaze that neither intrudes nor withdraws. The stillness here isn’t emptiness, it’s suspension as something unresolved continues to exist inside the frame.
One recurring image that further instills this quietness into the viewer is that frame of Asa walking alone through a wide, almost featureless desert. It’s one of the few openly symbolic gestures the series allows itself, and precisely for that reason it lands quietly rather than loudly. The frame opens up, the world thins out, sound drains back to footsteps, wind and a slightly melancholic, toned-down sometimes even antithetic OST. In everyday spaces, emotion takes shape through friction with others; in the desert there is no friction, no reply, no structure, only duration. Movement continues, but without the sense of arriving anywhere. These moments don’t explain her grief or turn it into revelation; they simply let it exist. And when the series returns to kitchens and hallways, those spaces feel slightly changed, as if the desert never really disappeared, only folded inward and kept walking with her.
In contrast, if Asa’s desert is grief without structure, Makio’s oasis is structure without exposure. Both landscapes externalize interior states, but in opposite directions: one stripped to absence, the other lush but closed. And in both cases, the camera refuses intrusion. It lets the space speak, and leaves the person partially inaccessible.
That quiet approach feels pointed in 2026. We’re living in an age of distraction politics and soft coercion through spectacle: endless culture-war flare-ups, outrage cycles that burn hot and vanish, symbolic skirmishes that dominate timelines, for media's whole raison is reflecting what we want to see and what we're drawn to. It's a mirror. Meanwhile, behind the mirror, we're slowly reverting to a state of serfdom to our tech overlords. It’s hard not to notice how convenient that noise can be, how effectively it keeps people busy arguing about women in video games or anime that don't look like real women because *checks notes* they're not feminine enough?!
The precision of contemporary melodrama isn’t only aesthetic, it’s industrial. Platform storytelling is shaped by retention curves, licensing deals, the quiet pressure to keep viewers emotionally hooked in ways that can be predicted and repeated. Feeling becomes something calibrated. Within that logic, spectacle does a kind of regulatory work: it captures attention. Against that backdrop, Ikoku Nikki feels almost like an act of refusal. It declines spectacle. It declines moral grandstanding. It declines to turn grief into content. Instead, it narrows its focus to the recapturing the means of keeping life going together.
There’s something quietly radical about that. Not because the show preaches, but because it doesn’t. It doesn’t flatter the viewer with dramatic vindication. It suggests that most relationships aren’t resolved, but maintained. Day-by-day, imperfectly. It’s drama with the volume turned down. And in a world that profits from keeping everything loud, that choice lands harder than any monologue could.
Or... this is just another flavour of the same coercion, specially tailored. After all, capitalism doesn't only sell spectacle, it also sells relief from spectacle. When loud, melodramatic pieces become commonplace, novelty lies in... quietness. Niche becomes just another aesthetic to be circulated and consumed. Anyways, if it is, they did a great job with it, for I declare myself entertained and won't be yapping about billionaires for the entirety of its 300-minute runtime upon a rewatch.
So perhaps the more precise claim isn’t that Ikoku Nikki escapes calibration, but that it introduces drag into it. It slows the circuit down. It replaces emotional spikes with emotional sediment. That’s not revolution. But it’s not pure compliance either and maybe that ambivalence is the most honest place to leave it. The show exists within the system, funded, distributed, consumed. Yet internally it resists the most aggressive demands of spectacle. It neither dismantles the culture industry nor fully capitulates to it. It occupies a contradiction. Which, fittingly, mirrors its characters: not transcendent, not broken, just negotiating coexistence inside structures they didn’t design.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 17, 2022
So... I did not expect this, but I didn't like Sing a Bit of Harmony as much as I've wanted to. Even now, I consider Time of Eve to be a quintessential cosy Sci-Fi and one of the better examples of playing with AI-related ideas (even transhumanist ones to some extent) in the medium. Harmonie and Aquatic Language were also really nice. And I tend to overrate everything slightly musical in nature too. Everything was looking favourable at first. Heck, if I were to compile my 10 favourite movies in a top, more than half would be musicals. But the main difference between those and
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our culprit is the fact that the formers couldn't be summed up by a reductionist as *drum roll, please*
'Platitudes: The Almost-Musical'
West Side Story was innovative, equally actual from a political POV today as it was back then, thought-provoking even, for it is not a simple LEFT good, RIGHT bad. La La Land's cinematography was on point, the songs were memorable and I still listen to them even now, almost 6 years later. And it had Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in there. Moulin Rouge? I remember it being the first movie that made me feel really emotional and it's 10 times cheesier, dumber and less natural when it comes to human interactions. But I don't hate it either. It's cute, it's nice, it's an adventure about a singing robot-waifu making friends with your average group of high-schoolers. It's not a bad movie by any means. Actually all of them had great music, besides Sing a Bit of Harmony.
Having given those 3 examples, I feel like I have created some sort of pattern for what makes a good musical in my book. I feel like this movie fails in these aspects. The message, despite being quite morally-heavy, is not that interesting and neither is it thought-provoking, for it doesn't bring anything new regarding the topic. However, I'll be fair: It's a nice message and raising awareness about the corporate-AI relationship won't get old anytime soon. It might also be someone else's first contact with the idea and it might change his life completely. Who knows? So... Let's say this part is serviceable.
Next, the songs. I'm sorry, but this is nowhere near Belle even, which has aired recently. I have watched it twice already and I don't think there has been a single song that managed to escape the 'generic musical' mould you'd see in a middle school recital. I get it, it's supposed to be about high schoolers so it's fitting, but I genuinely don't care. Anthem of the Heart was in exactly the same spot, yet I really liked its songs, I found them memorable - here only the martial arts sequence one was quite close; actually that was one of the best scenes in this movie and it also had a nice transition thrown in there. It has plenty of energy, it is vibrant, it was a great hook for me, even 40 mins into the movie. But everything was sort of thrown away when we switched to the next scene. The voice acting is nice and the sound design is not lacking in any aspects, but if a musical fails to deliver on songs, I'm not gonna be the biggest fan. This is, by far, my biggest issue with this movie. I mean.. I'd even go as far as claiming that I like Annie get your gun more just because it had a really, REALLY good song, in spite of the ideological garbage that that movie is.
How about the cinematography? Don't get me wrong. It looks good overall, the animation is solid and there are some nice catches here and there, but they are few and far between. Dune was good because it was very orange. Zhang Yimou's movies are good because they are very red and so on (obviously kidding). But this movie was neither orange, nor red. Heck, Belle played a lot with the shots, it made great use of stills and close-ups, of long-shots, of everything. They were a part of the story. This one's most memorable cinematographic achievement was the fact that the videocalls were low quality and pixelated. Just like in real life. The future is grim. It doesn't matter if we have AI close to passing the Turing or the Coffee test, we will still have shitty internet connection and FHD-only videocalls. A point could also be made in favour of blue in some sequences, but when the scene switches, the emotion meant to be felt remains the same, yet you have a vividly-coloured, unfiltered shot, I don't think the point stands.
Lastly... emotion. In essence, the first half of the movie is a human drama involving a group of high-schoolers. Great. It's just like Hibike Euphonium and I can't watch Hibike without bawling my eyes out every few eps. The main difference is that this one lacks the solid cast of characters and that affects the world in itself. You'll say 'but this is limited by its run time, you dummy'. Moulin Rouge is equally limited and it is a very simple story. Yet it makes an over-the-top setup presented in a similar way feel more tangible than a simple, every day one most of us have been a part of: high-school. A human drama is at its best when we can believe in the world and characters. It relies on keeping you high-key engaged emotionally or at least mentally. If a movie or a series lacks a hook and you never become truly engaged in the first place, it will be hard to fully appreciate it. Satine has this allure to her, she's very charismatic and you can understand everyone's obsession with her. It's easy to get charmed by a courtesan and that role fits Nicole Kidman like a glove. It all boils down to the fact that I couldn't care about what happened, and probably didn't like the movie that much overall because no matter how nice a world you build, I'd dock a few points if the inhabitants are uninteresting. And it's not all about charisma or the like. You can have a more 'supportive' personality steal the show like Kumiko in Hibike. I couldn't find an anchor - someone to care about. The interactions between said characters have much more depth than your average romcom tou (not to diminish the latter's value) and I appreciate that, but does that really matter if you don't care about the ones interacting? That would work for me in a non-character-driven drama where the story is top-notch or the world is very interesting in itself. I'm sure that I would have liked it so much more if there was at least one character I'd root for.
In spite of my random rambling, I don't hate it. I do, in fact, sort of like it. It is also a movie about a group of friends, one which happens to contain a not-so-sentient AI (more of them?). It's a pretty good human drama at times... and then the police gets involved and THEY'VE GOT A MOPED INSIDE THE BUILDING and the battery's dead. Timeout. A confession, which becomes one of the funniest scenes from the movie for some reason, being a prime example of the limitations Boolean logic suffers from. And then every AI around suddenly understands what's happened to one of their own and they decide to switch sides. It's The Terminator all over again, but with dance and music. And laser beams.
You get the point, it's a fun movie. But it fails as a musical in my book. And it also doesn't have either Ryan Gosling or Emma Stone in it. 6 out of OH YES OH YES OH YES WE BOTH OH YES WE BOTH OH YES WE BOTH REACHED FOR THE GUN THE GUN THE GUN THE GUN OH YES WE BOTH REACHED FOR THE GUN, a pretty good movie, but a pretty bad musical. Of course, if you take it as satire, it's another story. But you need to understand what makes a good musical in order to satirize it. If you don't, all you end up with is a pointless parody that should at least be funny.
Edit: was a 5 because I cannot count anything that goes beyond 1 hand, it gets complicated :V The individual scores given to each aspect reflected something else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 11, 2022
*Updated as scans are now available*
I feel like witches are some topic of sorts that never fails to catch at least some attention and this stands true with regards to this medium too. I've previously compared it to Witch Hat Atelier based on the first few chapters as that was the vibe it surrounding it, but I feel like the latter half of the story took a turn for the worst in some regards. It contains some of the usual tropes and themes you see in this type of stories: burn the heretics and so on. I thought it might go a bit of different
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way at first with the whole witches/Church dichotomy, but it didn't. That's not exactly a bad thing as it was... serviceable at worst. It has its limitations, It'd be pretty hard to craft a more complex world based on the aforementioned dual system in such a short span. Instead, we ended up with some standard themes like discrimination, some sort of 2nd hand theory of criminal liability that was presented as mind-blowing (got a bit triggered, -2 points), even some lowkey anti-xenophobic messages, but they aren't further explored. They're great in themselves, but the execution was a bit lackluster.
It's a very short read tou and I'd say it's worth the time even for the art alone. It is amazing, even mesmerizing at times. It's not one of those works where there is a good panel and it hits you - 'Wow, this looks so cool!' and you prt sc it and share it over social media in exchange for 'based' and other extremely insightful comments. Instead, it is consistent, high-quality artwork, resembling a bit the art of Witch Hat Atelier and it also has some of the nicest-looking covers I've seen. In the latter half, it didn't feel as impactful, but it remained a pleasure to ogle at. And the setup is rather nice, taking place in an alternate modern-day Edinburgh.
You've got an aloof witch taking in an assistant whose magic affinity is too high for his own good. It starts off rather light-hearted, but it becomes a bit gritty towards the end. Nothing wrong with that, I'd say. The transition between these two is somewhat natural, but limited by its length and it feels like some middle chapters are missing. Some plot twists here and there, but that's about it.
Gave it initially a 7, as I've felt like it had a lot of potential to do great things, but in the end it fell a bit flat towards the end. It is still an ok manga, but it lacks that element that would make it stand out from the crowd. It brought nothing new and it didn't execute existing concepts flawlessly either.
TL;DR: At the end of the day, I've somewhat enjoyed it, despite the unexploited potential. Very nice art, serviceable story, likeable characters and a pretty enjoyable manga overall.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 24, 2022
It's unfair of me to review it so early on, but it's equally unfair for it to go unnoticed. Please check this one out if you feel like there's any hint that you might enjoy slice-of-life stories.
Let's talk about 'By the furnace of Miss Alice's house'... Or about furnaces in general. I'm not sure whether it's some sort of quirk, but I've always felt that standing by the fire is fascinating, mesmerizing, in the most primordial way. It is one of the cosiest activities I occasionally partake in. I'm not the biggest outdoor activities enthusiast or the like, but, sometimes, I just feel like heading
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into the wild, alone or with others. I grab something easy to cook that I can just throw into the open fire, pat myself on the back and call it a day. Potatoes usually suffice. This manga is reminiscent of that feeling: the warmth of the fire, the warmth of another person, contrasted by the solitude and the uneventfulness of wilderness.
Childhood sweethearts, moving to another town to follow a certain professional course, some people come back, others don't and so on. It's the natural course of life. I am from a relatively small town, whose citizens pride themselves in the picturesque countryside surrounding it, the somewhat simpler life, the ability to be in the middle of nature after a 20-minute ride from downtown. These kinds of places are becoming extinct as younger people tend to flock towards big cities and they end up uninhabited. Understandably so though, as the promise of a better life, of happiness, is bound with your financial well-being, but there are circumstances that might make you return. This is one such story: of a girl coming back to her home village to take over her grandma's traditional house. The heart, pun intended, of one such house is one small irori. Warmth. That's what furnaces are for, in part. This is what this manga is. A very warm and cosy place in the middle of nowhere for two childhood friends to reunite and start anew ten years later. However, what I really like about this one, in particular, is the fact that it doesn't feel like something being valuable because it's nostalgic, but as something being nostalgic because it's valuable.
There are not that many chapters out, but, oh boy, after reading the ones that were translated, I had to immediately order the first volume. It doesn't matter if I have to pay 3 times the price of the volume for shipping, I need it. (actually, I've already got it, the shipping's price is justified - great release, slightly bigger than your average Japanese manga release, but not by much, great cover art and Alice's on the spine).
It's a slice-of-life, it's got romance, it's awkward, there's such a nice tension between the two, it's a cooking manga (and the dishes look on-point, chef's kiss, don't read while hungry), the art is really nice, the panelling is on point and the worldbuilding is pretty damn good. That place feels real, the characters that inhabit said world are human-like, their awkward interactions are believable, the fact that the background is not static makes it believable. Add some grounded drama on top plus the fact that the characters are also really likeable and I'm sold. As a disclaimer, the FL is a slight bit older than the ML. That only makes it better I'd say.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 30, 2021
Revue Starlight was one of the series I skipped during summer 2018 and watched at a later date. I ended up really liking it: the pretentious allegory, the idea of life being a stage performance, the critique it brought upon revue (and theatre in general I'd add) and meritocracies to some extent. What's great about this last aspect is the fact that you can tell that it's critique coming from someone supporting the cause, but not agreeing on the means implied, unlike critique for the sake of critique. All in all, a great little series with a rather big cast of cute girls that felt
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a tad bit underdeveloped and that could do a bit better in terms of making its ideology clear. 8/10, there's space for improvement, mainly by getting closure.
And here's where the movie came into play: it served as a really nice conclusion to some of those characters' arcs. Moreover, I'd say it's the natural next stage for them. In the past few years I've been constantly switching between stages: hs to uni, uni to work, gaming to theatre and back to gaming, drawing to watching movies, series and the like to reading and so on and so forth. At times, I'm rather nostalgic about some of these moments, but looking back on it, I'd say it's a natural transition. It's sometimes tough to accept the fact that you have to move on, but by the time you do, you realize that you're already there and this procedure was, in fact, not that hard. Treasuring those memories is a fundamental aspect of moving on. Actually, not of moving on, but of finding meaning in your life. I could call it, pretentiously, the existentialism of Revue Starlight, pat myself on the shoulder and call it a day.
The movie looked really good, some minor nitpicks here and there, but nonetheless a solid production. I absolutely loved the flashy nature of the series and the movie only adds up on that. Pair that with the fabulous OST and the almost memely-called 'Ikuharaesque' at times direction and I'm sold. As I've previously mentioned, the character arcs featured in those acts were great - a really nice combination of drama: on stage - interpersonal drama, conflicts we have at times with one another and drama as in theatre; backstage - intrapersonal drama, or this thing I like to call what-the-f*ck-am-I-doing-with-my-life-what-is-life drama. Ideologically speaking, this last type of drama is my personal favourite meaning of the word. It's probably because I can relate to some extent to this existential dread switching stages causes. Most of us should as it's the thing modern society agreed upon. Moreover, the postmodern society brought something new: the fact that we are connected which undeniably agravates this dread. We see people transitioning between stages faster or better. We see ourselves in an almost-deprecating light: we might think of ourselves as failures because we are not lawyers or doctors or engineers and so on. Our world is spanning for more than those 50 kilometres it used to. We can see those shameless influencers trying to make a living by making you feel shitty about yourself. We can see those flexers whose sole merit of being where they are is being born under better circumstances. We can see people living much better than ourselves, but we have no idea about the context those images were taken in, about how much work they've put into it, whether their image is just an image or not. Despite that, these last aspects are not something you think about first and foremost. This can lead to dread. This leads to dread. This is one of the reasons people claim that unhappiness has been on the rise for the past few decades among others. Truth is, it's difficult to be happy at all times. Heck, it's not even necessary. But being constantly under the weather would make my life, at least, more miserable. I hate motivational speeches. I absolutely detest reading those inspirational books like 'The Alchemist'. Yet here I am... preaching... in the same manner. (or rather calling something that might look similar at first glance a masterpiece)
Insert the movie in our context. It's not about 'Do more of what makes you happy', 'when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it' and all that bullshit. It's a simple, yet effective: find your own meaning and raison d'etre. I believe that most people are not 100% certain about the choices they make at various crossroads. Back in high school, someone might have thought that a certain profession was his calling, however, after ditching a few years in training that certain someone realizes how much he truly despises said profession. Don't hesitate.
We have acknowledged that life is kinda... dumb and meaningless at times, harsh even. For example, I find living to acquire some wealth I can for my descendants to inherit not that rewarding. I'll die, how will that help me? However, some people might set that as their goal and that's perfectly fine. It's a very noble one in fact. I'm not sure if that's exactly the way the parting sequences, trains and so on and so forth, which where predominant themes and motifs all throughout the movie are to be interpreted and that's great, works of fiction that are open to various interpretations are a blessing for some of us. To each, their own. You do you.
Revue Starlight's movie might not be for everyone, but as a sequel I absolutely loved it. It started as both critique and love letter to the meritocratic and the rather homophobic at times thing that Takarazuka is and it turned out as a really nice take on existentialism and living up to those expectations that we believe the society has from us. For me, it was a really nice belated Christmas gift. If you wonder what drugs I'm on, I'd like to know too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 7, 2021
Belle is a surprising anime. No, I'm not memeing. Yes, I'll further develop. Might be because I wasn't all that informed about it and I was expecting a standard take on Beauty and the Beast, basically a remake of the classic where the relationship between Belle and the beast is the focus of the movie... or maybe because I didn't expect to get invested in a story of how J-Pop could save the world. Of course, it's far from flawless, it juggles with too many ideas and concepts for its own good and, at times, I couldn't help but 'ugh' at the rather underdeveloped take
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on cyberbullying or other topics. I wouldn't call it tone-deaf tou. It is still a delicate one when it comes to these matters (plural here because I'm also talking about loss, parental abuse and the like) and despite the idea of making a martyr out of yourself not being something I'd get behind, it is done in a sensible manner and I can respect that.
If you are not moved by anything regarding the story (and I'll be honest, it's far from perfect, but when it comes to themes, motifs, messages and symbolism - basically how it chooses to convey the story - it shines), the OST is surely going to do that, being done in a paying-homage-to-the-original way. For me, the OST did it - I'd not disregard the story tou, it was more of a mixture of both - but I'm one of those people that still listen to various songs from the '91 movie on a daily basis. You know... no one's as well animated as Belle, no one's treating internet as nicely as Belle, no one's OST's as incredibly chic as Belle's, for there's no movie in town half as trendy. Perfect, a pure bombshell! You can ask any Kaho, Takeru or Ryou and they'll tell you what movie they'd prefer to be on. It was reminiscent of it, in classic Beauty and the Beast fashion, yet it was something completely new.
As mentioned, Belle is a gorgeous anime. The maximalism of Mamoru Hosoda's portrayal of the internet is mesmerizing and can be spotted even from the opening sequence, which is, plainly put, beautiful. The true charmer of this movie lies in the details and fully taking advantage of the cinematic experience. Even a single glance at the crowds would show that. Each and every spot is unique. Long shots, it is a huge world, a world where Belle can shine. In contrast, we have a rather locked camera, a 3-min static that gave terrible tummy aches to the more seasoned anime watchers. It genuinely beats me how the same shots are highly praised when they are done in an arthouse movie - see the likes of Mungiu or Bélla Tarr for example, yet they are horrendous in our case. Close-ups, painting up a small world, that is Suzu's real life. The latter slowly expands as Suzu overcomes her struggle. I believe that this movie has some of the finest compositing I've seen in the medium. It's obvious that the cg was a choice; planned from the very beginning, as the work put into it returned some great results.
I'm not going to do a summary of the plot, but I might dwell into some spoilers further on, so beware. I won't spoil you too much tou, but I can guarantee that it makes for an enjoyable experience of new meets old, of 'a tale as old as time' meets near-future tech. You have the mandatory ballroom sequence and the cheesy, heartfelt (and a tad bit subversive, 'tad bit' being an understatement; it's not another Beauty and the Beast, it's a standalone movie; heck, I wouldn't even consider it a romance and that's good) finale I cannot help, but enjoy each time I see done. Of course, it's not your standard Belle getting her beast, but it's Suzu getting her mother, as in she finally understood why she did what she did for a stranger. At the same time, you have a crazed search for a virtual persona's RL identity, dodgy crowd-funders, 'ENHANCE!' software, and a story about fixing the internet (to some extent at least). It is a lot to take in. It's a fairly standard Hosoda work, but it strikes home for me. I am big on both SF and fairy tales, thus I had some hints that I might end up liking it.
It is a story portraying the ugliness of the online world, but with a twist and this twist is the main reason why I'd easily overlook the flaws this series might have: a sincere belief in the potential and beauty of the internet. Most series that are remotely related to the wired share a common trait: they are made by technophobes, for technophobes, for those people are genuinely scared that Bill Gates will steal their personal data and do evil things with it. What will he do? Beats me. But at least Belle has the decency to portray the internet in a positive light, a moderate take, with ups and downs, how it should be, for the internet has been, in part, one of the leading actors of the rapid technological growth we've seen in the past 30 or so years. Of course, it's much more fun to watch a dystopic take, with all the implications, but at the same time, it gets tiring to watch the same bs again and again. Sometimes, I just want to see people do great things on the internet. I just want to see people finding happiness on the internet, for it definitely played a part in mine. I just want to see people being nice to strangers on the internet, just the way Suzu was to Ryuu, and I think this is the reason why I feel that their relationship was developed well enough, for they are strangers... being kind to strangers.
Of course, not everything's pink and nice and so on regarding the internet. There are downsides to it, but if I were to make an analogy to human interactions for example, I'd go for this one. Everybody might seem like a jerk, for it is really difficult to express our thoughts perfectly unless we wrote a whole novel on it. Misunderstandings on top of misunderstandings lead to some rather interesting conversations for the voyeuristic third parties. I want to believe that most people on the internet or outside of it are rather nice and it isn't their intent to harass others, but it's rather difficult when someone just says that 'X anime is bad, why did you like it?'. It's hard for the virtual to be as close a portrayal as the genuine, but, at the same time, it creates a possibility that didn't even exist in the first place: being able to connect to the person you're interacting with. Your world is no longer spanning 30 kilometers. Back to interacting with people, I'm not saying that you should be looking for excuses for everyone - some people are genuine jerks - plus that takes some effort and energy. But maybe that person was just trying to start a friendly debate with you or he was genuinely curious about it and he didn't pay enough attention to how he might come across to others. Just... let it go. I feel like the same is true for the internet, for it's more common and much easier for it to be portrayed as a genuine source of negativity instead of the amazing concept that it is, especially because the underlying tones of a conversation are hard to pick up in written format.
Such is the internet stories paradigm, it's much easier to write a one about the internet being the big bad wolf without the risk of seeming overly idealistic. Belle dodged this pitfall imo. That 'mask off' sequence among others might seem like something out of High School Musical the cynics would laugh at uncontrollably and brand it as cringe-worthy or utter garbage. I loved it. I'd rather be cringe if that's what's deemed cringe nowadays by the lowest common denominator.
It is a story of acceptance of others and yourself, of coming to terms with reality told through a virtual one, of self-actualization. U is another reality. AS is another you. You can live as another you. You can start a new life. You can change the world. But is it truly another you or just a means for you to further develop, to better express yourself?
Overall, I'd say it's an experience that draws a part of its beauty from its flaws. It's not for everybody. It requires something more than surface-level watching in order to be enjoyed. It requires you to start from a simple premise: everything happening in a movie is deliberate, meant to be there. A certain camera movement means something, certain compositing means something, a certain action means something, a certain omission means something. Why do we belittle people so much that we start from the idea that if it doesn't make sense for us, they've probably forgotten something/they're dumb/they couldn't figure out how to create a story like the one in our delusions, what I expected to happen vs what happens? By CinemaSins-like critique standards, this is trash. But so is Return of the Jedi. Do what you want - it's an individual choice how people want to perceive art and obviously, no one else should have a say in that. Neither you nor I.
PS: by far, the best thing Belle does is being a good engine for the train that is anime globalization, especially as it is not that bound by the standard tropes your usual western movie watcher might expect out of anime + it's dropping in A LOT of places right as the metaverse's got kinda mainstream, but why that's bs is a story for another time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 23, 2021
I came here for yuri smut and the manga delivered exactly that. I found it fairly standard in terms of story and characters, but it lived up to its name so there are no complaints about it from me. The art is very 'moe SoL-ish' for lack of a better term to describe it. This is a story about lust (mostly ours, but the characters' too).
Is it the next queer masterpiece when it comes to depicting a real relationship between two human beings? No.
Is it mostly fetish satisfaction? Yes, and there also some perfectly normal extra fetishes thrown in for the same price
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like catgirls, maids, bunny girls, hs uniforms, TEACHERS, bloomers, school swimsuits, various school setups and a lot of baths among others. Nothing unorthodox. It's a feast.
Do you need a priest to visit your house with Holy Water and the likes after reading this? No, I don't think so. Despite its lusty plot, it tends to be on the rather wholesome end of the smut spectrum. It is explicit tou, so you might have to call one for that reason alone.
Did it present itself as something else at any point? Not actually. At least not for me, I knew exactly what I was getting into when I've decided to read this manga.
Scissors sort of look like two 7s put together so this gets a 7, standard, it delivered on what it promised the way I expected it to do.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 23, 2021
*This review is for 5 seconds before the Witch falls in love / falling in love with a Witch. I'm not that big of a fan of Demons Harem.*
To be honest, there's not much to review about this one. It's a one-shot + short prequel that can be read in 3 to 4 minutes, so if you are here, reading this, why not give it a go?
It's on the wholesome/cute/funny side. It's sort of... what if we made Tonikawa a fantasy one-shot, but we make it so queer a turtleneck would look good on it. It portrays a classic dense goofball unaware of/unwilling to
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accept her feelings, thinking she's under the spell of some charm from a witch. Well, she actually was charmed by the witch, but... Moving on, the only downside of this series besides the rather standard narrative is the fact that we don't get to see more of it. I need more of this fluff, especially after the hints of that last panel. Oh, worth mentioning, I also liked the interactions between our lead and the boy from the shop and getting a decent supporting cast that emphasizes your main cast's characteristics is worthy of praise in one-shots.
If you enjoyed it, you could also check out the Mage & Demon Queen webtoon. It's got the same vibe.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 6, 2021
Crazy Food Truck... Is probably one of the most American experiences in the medium (the most stereotypical way possible, resembling a 90s eastern European sitcom that got cancelled half-way through season 2, but that's not exactly a bad thing if you're into borderline campy stuff). It is a comedy, but I did not feel like laughing, instead I felt like smirking all along. As such, I'm trying to convince you, the potential reader, to give it a shot. You have guns, you have good looking food in industrial quantities, some over-the-top occurrences, tits and a manly man mc. Disgusting. If you're not sold, keep reading.
The
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character design is fine overall. I like Gordon's tbh, because despite being the most cliché middle-aged badass daddy character, the mangaka managed to create a very solid, recognizable and likeable one. He's basically the manga version of a Harley-owning dad.
The set-up could be summed up as Mad Max meets Gordon Ramsay's food truck (if this were a thing). It is a post-apocalyptic scenario, and the backgrounds depict that quite well. They are not very detailed, but the art, despite being a bit rough, is nice. Even though it's only 6 chapters long at the time of the preview, we've already got some nice panels and spreads. I still remember the 'Blue Lake City' one as it somehow managed to build upon the idea of desolation, despite its simplicity. Oh and there are also some good action panels and the coloured pages we get are a treat. Plus the food is looking fine too (especially that BLT.. It stuck with me).
Paneling is pretty good, it's a well-done series and I didn't manage to find any instance that'd disrupt my reading experience, but at the same time, it's nothing to write home about tbh.
What stood out for me first in this series: the worldbuilding as the way it's done is rather interesting, using all means available. We see some settlements and the life of those people, what professions are in demand, the fact that fish are meant to fly or swim through the sand and that there are carnivorous trees that use water as bait. It starts as an rather eccentric food-action manga and it keeps that up, more questions being asked each chapter. Who is 'I'm hungry'? Where did she come from? Why is she healing so fast? And then it slams in an Onsen episode. I'd say it's a really hectic series (in a good way). At times, it has some realist moments, but in the next few pages it 180s and we have people bringing spoons to a katana fight. Maybe I've exaggerated a bit, it's not that eccentric, but it is definitely a really fun experience.
Moreover, I really liked the pace this was going at. It's really easy to follow, it doesn't get boring and it's not too fast either. If it were to be faster-paced, there is a chance the world would fall apart and the plot would have to suffer. However, we haven't seen that much of the plot, besides collecting more and more questions with each chapter. I need to see more chapters of this to get a better grasp of the story, but so far I'd say it's been a solid start and it was at least an intriguing world and story that managed to pull me in.
When it comes to characters, we have Gordon, a runaway from the army in his 40s who's quite a man-of-action I'd say. Behaviour-wise... Everyone's making the Gordon Ramsay jokes for a reason. I mean even to 'I'm hungry' he behaves in a similar manner Gordon does with kids. Oh.. You precious little thing, are you hungry? I mean both being badass daddies that cook and named Gordon is already enough to make those jokes, right? Putting that aside, I really like his character. He's cool, collected, mysterious and I can't help, but wonder what his background is.
And then we have 'I'm hungry!' which Gordon picks up after almost running her over while she was sleeping in the middle of the road. She's a 19 year old gourmet, human or not as her origin is quite foggy at the moment. She's the main addresser of the ecchi, but I'd argue it's rather mild, well-done and tasteful. In case you're worried about the age gap, as he could be her father, at the moment Gordon doesn't even care that much about it and he's not flustered, but uncomfortable if she's naked, and I really liked this aspect.
Moreover, I loved the fact that the characters portrayed as antagonists actually try solving the problem peacefully, instead of taking a kill-on-sight approach. For an over-the-top premise and story as this, they actually are shockingly humane. We don't even know if they are the 'bad guys' in the first place and they don't feel like a mean to further the plot. It's just so early into the series, but we've even got some development for the characters. I didn't expect there to be any, as I feel like eccentric manga works without it quite well, but it was definitely a welcome surprise.
All in all, in case it wasn't obvious, I really like this manga and I think others would do too. It's not a convoluted story or anything among those lines, but it is pure entertainment at the moment. I'd say the first chapter's the only one with a bit more ecchi in it, so even if you dislike that, but like fiction that doesn't take itself too seriously and ends up being plain boring or a history book, go for it. I mean... I'd argue there are series that don't have the tag that have more fan service, but this doesn't shy away from displaying boobs so it's understandable why the tag's there. I'm starting to get the gist of manga and I'd call it unique. I haven't come across a similar one so far. Probably not being what I tend to read plays a part in that, but if someone who's not that big into this type of manga recommends it, I'd say it's worth a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 5, 2021
I made 2 big mistakes I'll never forget in this lifetime: first was when I first-picked Sona in my last promo game and second... when I thought of Precure as a series that is for welp young girls or really hardcore mahou shoujo fans only.
As a disclaimer, I've watched to the end Heartcatch only (and I'll be probably looked down upon by the true fans for that), tried a few other random seasons (ended up postponing them), started Hugtto recently (and I'm loving it), got the gist regarding how the series works and plan to watch a few more. I'm rather new to the
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franchise, but there's something I find really charming about it. It is like a return to the roots so to speak. Every Sunday I wake up (or before I go to sleep sometimes as I'm not that functional) and watch THE episode. Now, I'm not thirteen, but that's exactly how I feel. It's got this rather fanciful atmosphere surrounding it and I want more people to give it a shot.
Production 2.1/3
I really like the character design (especially Asuka). I feel like they are really well done and each and every one of them has got some peculiarities that make it shine brighter. Moreover, even the supporting cast's looking pretty good. Now, when it comes to a staple in the genre, the transformation scenes, they were pretty damn solid (despite being a bit stiff), especially Asuka's with that Trigger vibe going on. They are vivid and full of energy plus that 'Let's make-up!' catchphrase has somehow... Caught me in.
The art style is very suitable. Even watching a scene out of context, you'd know this is a magical girls show. It's really colourful and pleasant, as long as you don't mind a more tropical palette. Composition-wise the series is doing fine too, as the 3dcg (which is quite well done) is not that blatant and it blends in really well with the other elements of the show. The framing's been pretty good too. What stood out the most for me were maybe some of the shots from the fight scenes and those 'cool guys don't look at explosions' poses after each victory, which I found rather quirky and unique. I'm not used to seeing those in an anime, but I don't mind them at all. They actually kind of remind me of some video games.
Story 1.2/2
What you have to understand is that Precure is aimed at kids. As such it follows a format that is easy to watch and doesn't require some 200iq charts to remember what's going on. Kids don't mind the episodic format (at least in the early parts from what I've seen + they fit together quite nicely). Don't expect to find a masterpiece of a story that you'll dissect with dem bois on a 2005 forum, each coming with a new theory for what Manatsu meant when she said she wants to tropica-shine, especially as the series' focal point is the relationship between its cast and how they interact with each other, not the plot. However, you can expect a really fun light-hearted adventure that even the villains don't take that seriously. Even though Precure can really do drama, so far this feels like a more fun and energetic season. Moreover, for the aforementioned reason the pacing of each episode's been really good so far. If it were too slow, kids would easily get bored, while if it were too fast they wouldn't follow it.
The show is pretty action packed, but it is a bit too early to make too many remarks regarding other aspects of it, as I have no idea what path this will take. However, from what I've seen so far, the first episode after introductions was a pleasant surprise.
Characters 0.6/1
They are likeable and, despite the black-and-white morality (Laura's is a bit questionable at times and that's perfect, I'd add^^) that's pretty strong within this series, they've all got their own personalities. They have their strengths and obviously their weaknesses. The precures are fun to watch while interacting with each other as they are well-balanced as a cast and Laura's banter is pretty good. The only thing I'm not the biggest fan of is Manatsu's overbearing at times personality. That's pretty standard for pink cures (or so I'm told), but she's still a bit too much. To be fair, even the rest are pretty standard Precure deal when it comes to characters/backstories and that's exactly why this can work as a starting point into the series. On the other hand, Asuka's cool chara's a really nice addition.
Another thing I really liked is that the villains are not that serious about their job. I've always felt like life, in general, shouldn't be treated too formally as you'll miss on a lot of things. The 'it is what it is' attitude is pretty healthy I'd say, as long as you can keep it in check. Same thing can be said about them, as they don't seem that motivated (quite ironically) to dry everyone's motivation.
Sound 0.7/1
I like the op and I find it to be quite a good match for the overall tone of the show. The ed's nice too and the overall sound design was good. The voice acting is really good and I'm glad that Eripiyo's getting so many big roles lately, as she totally killed it in Oshi ga Budo. I'm quite shocked to see her fit so many different roles so well.
Enjoyment 2.4/3
This is what Precure is: a really enjoyable experience that every anime fan should at least try. I feel like this would be a great starting point as watching this on a weekly basis adds quite a few to the series' fanciful feel (at least for me it does), instead of binging it in a few days when it's over. At the moment, it doesn't look like the best Precure season to be completely honest, but this can change easily. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, as it is a mixture of light-hearted comedy, drama and action aimed at kids, but please give this a chance. Don't disregard it because of its premise, as you might end up actually liking it. I didn't grow up with it or anything like that, as such you can't blame it on nostalgia, but I feel like Precure overall is a series that's done dirty by the west.
I haven't seen that much Precure. I'm not a hardcore fan and maybe my thoughts about this season and series are not on-point, but I feel like the opinion of a newcomer might matter to potential newcomers mainly because there are people that feel disheartened when a huge fan of a show recommends it and discard it as bias. As an anime, I wouldn't say it's the second coming of Jesus, but as an experience, this is definitely worth every second.
T= 7
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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