Undead Girl Murder Farce has an exceptional first episode — one that promises a great cast, creative direction, and kick-ass fights. All those elements remain throughout the show, diluted somewhat. On top of that, it (being a novel adaptation) features impressive mystery writing… with one caveat.
The core cast is strong, and all have fun dynamics with each other. Oni MC Shinuchi Tsugaru has a fun comedic dynamic with both of the other leads. He and severed head/detective Aya have a Holmes and Watson type relationship, and constantly try to outwit each other with dad jokes (this is one of the many dynamics that make it
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Oct 23, 2024
Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!
(Anime)
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Recommended
MakeIne is not a harem anime. It’s not even really a romance anime. It is unique — the precise combination of vibes displayed in it isn't quite like anything else. Given that, I feel it deserves a thorough dissection. It has many flaws, and though I obviously come down on its side (the “recommended” should tell you that), a thorough case for its greatness ought to thoroughly explore those flaws. That’s my mission here — comprehensiveness. To paint a complete picture of this show, pull apart its complex inner workings, see exactly what does and does not work, and how those aspects come together to
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form a complete work.
Being a work of such complexity, this is going to run long. I am aware absolutely nobody will read it. I really write these for myself more than anybody else. That said, let’s go! While MakeIne bears all the aesthetic trappings of harem anime — it isn’t one, as becomes increasingly evident throughout its run. Presumably it swings in that direction later in the novels, but through this first cour, it does not — all of the three major heroines are still hung up on their old love by the end of the show (with the possible exception of Yanami). This initially comes off as a welcome subversion of harem convention, as a challenge to the male audience. Nukumizu is not the first love of any of the girls — they’re all into different, better people. That makes projecting yourself onto him meaningless from a straightforward escapist perspective (unless your idea of a perfect escapist fantasy is having cool friends). As the show progresses, this aspect changes character. The main character isn’t just not the center of a harem, he’s so undermined by the narrative that he comes off almost as an interloper. He can’t do anything more than provide the main heroines emotional support — and he’s not even all that good at that. He doesn’t get to do any cool light novel protagonist type shit, he doesn’t even guide conflicts to conclusions. That is the typical role of a light novel protagonist, they can guide people to solutions, but those people must ultimately solve their problems themselves. This is protagonist as therapist, essentially. Such an approach allows cool protagonist bullshit, and works from a character development perspective, as characters are forced to work through their issues themselves. Most great light novels take this approach (see Bunny Girl Senpai, Oregairu, and the Monogatari Series), and it seems like the obvious play here. MakeIne doesn’t do this though. The protagonist only ever accidentally guides arcs to their conclusions. He only helps the heroines by being a friend to them. Maybe this was intentional, maybe not, but the effect of this is problematic. The main character takes on not the role of therapist, but of interloper. He’s an almost entirely unrelated party involved in romances that are not his own for no apparent reason. He never does anything only he could do. You get the sense that these characters would otherwise have found the same solution without him. As I like to do, I will frame this as multiple choice, present a favorable and unfavorable view. Perhaps this represents a genuinely innovative approach, a more grounded, realistic kind of light novel protagonist. Maybe all one has to do to help their friends is be that — a friend. This is a kinder perspective on light novel protagonistdom, one real people can aspire to. Alternatively, you could view this as boring, a protagonist that is a passive participant in his own story. He just sits there and watches other people’s lives play out, powerless and unrelated. Perhaps a two-cour run would have served his character better, allowed him to take on a more active role in the back end, as he does in the last two episodes (though I’m sure lengthening it would significantly compromise the production quality). I normally get ticked off when people suggest a show would be better if it was longer, but that is genuinely the case here. Leaving us where this first cour does, it feels incomplete. Indeterminate and open ended to an annoying degree. I hope this gets a second season. Moving on, MakeIne is defined by a few major tones. The hand of the author is obvious throughout the work (the MC is a book otaku who loves light novels, all the main characters are in a lit club, the impact isn’t all that subtle). It’s clearly written by the kind of guy you’d expect to write a meta genre dissection light novel. This isn’t a corrosive influence though. It never gets so far as an author self insert, or anything of the sort. It’s just one of the tones that flavor the work. I don’t hate it. Another tone is comedy, which the show consistently pulls off. The genre subversion is a big part of that, and even as it becomes obvious a subversion is coming, the form that subversion will take stays unpredictable. Take the scene where Yanami wants a fake boyfriend for example, this is one of many bits that play with the cinematic conventions of romance anime to great effect. We enter slowmo and cut to behind Yanami, and as you anticipate a subversion, she asks the MC to convince someone else to fill the fake boyfriend role. My brain isn’t quick enough to anticipate the exact punchline in the few seconds it takes to hit. In my book, this is funny, even if it’s predictable a twist is coming. There’s a decent amount of eroticism and fanservice present, particularly in Lemon and the student council president. Shinkai (a major aesthetic influence on the show) commented on the indirect kiss fetish present in the opening scene, comparing it to an element of Suzume. This kind of light fetishism is well represented. Scenes containing more explicit, conventional fanservice are present too. These are restricted to certain characters, and come off as traits of them. It’s nice. There are also more realistic depictions of sexuality, and dirty jokes present throughout. By my standards, all this strikes a nice balance with the rest of the work. It never comes off as obtrusive or obnoxious (or at least, it shouldn’t if you aren’t an anti-fanservice absolutist). A major tone present throughout, but particularly at the end of each arc, is drama. This colors all of the major arc conclusions, and is executed fairly conventionally. This is where the strong production really comes in clutch. I will admit, I was progressively less and less moved by each of these resolutions. This seems like the intended effect, as the final of the three happens offscreen. There’s a bit of a problem with this structure. All of the heroines have lost, but they’ve lost in basically the same way. They were all in love, and that person loved someone else. They are all dealing with complex feelings, but they’re dealing with more or less the same complex feelings. Perhaps some variation could have helped here. Maybe one heroine loses to someone else, one simply gets rejected, and one finds out their crush is gay. I suppose that pokes a few holes in the losing heroines concept, but varying what each heroine has to think about may have made the drama more interesting. This is the least compelling vibe MakeIne forwards, and it appears the author was aware of that (and therefore compensates in the form of a truncated third arc). The final major tone I feel the need to enumerate is romance… but there’s shockingly little of that present here. No real heartracing scenes, at least none that don’t terminate in anticlimax. The most developed romance we see unfold is that between Ayano and Asagumo (these two are fairly compelling characters as I explain later), but that occupies relatively little screentime. This would probably be more of a presence in a second cour, but we don’t get there. Though I wouldn’t quite call it a flaw, the lack of romance is notable. While all of these elements work quite well in isolation, in combination, they can feel more like a rough smattering of ideas than a complete synthesis of them. We’ll jump from a serious dramatic scene to a comedic run-in with the student council president; it jerks you around a little. How much you enjoy the show will depend somewhat on your tolerance for that. Our three main heroines, Lemon, Yanami, and Komari are all impossibly lovable in different ways. Lemon fills the genki girl/sports girl role, and is generally stupid and childish, with the added wrinkle that she has a serious side. That is the same wrinkle every show with this character archetype throws in, but it’s only so popular because it works. Yanami is a more unique character that’s difficult to describe in a couple tropes (if she does embody a particular archetype, I don’t have the language to describe it). She’s a childhood friend, and also eats a ton (while paradoxically always being on a diet), and she’s generally chill, but also concerned with how she appears to others. I love her, but can’t quite pin her down. Komari is my personal favorite, and fills in the short gremlin/komyushou/fujoshi/otaku role. She’s easier to describe in a list of tropes than Yanami, but that particular combo feels quite unique in practice. It also touches on a type of real person anime fans should be familiar with. Her personal growth hits the hardest in the drama department. She’s an impressively realized character. Moving on to the minor characters: Kaju fills in the imouto archetype, a nice inclusion in a romance anime landscape neglecting the imouto more and more over time (perhaps the oversaturation in the 2010s has created a rebound effect). She also has a friend who shows up in like two scenes. Amanatsu-sensei fills in the classic role of early-thirties teacher who can’t land a date to save her life (she’s one of many characters that clearly demonstrate the author’s appreciation for the harem genre). Her homie, school nurse/lit club advisor Konuki-sensei fills in the weird pervert archetype, though she’s significantly toned down from the type of weird pervert romance anime of previous eras would have presented. There’s also three characters from the student council, who only play bit roles but are delightful when present. One of them, literally named Basori Tiara, basically only exists to be cute and put on a catgirl outfit during the school festival. All of the student council are relegated to equivalent bit roles. I’m not complaining though, they serve their functions well. All the couples formed after our losing heroines lose remain minor presences throughout the story (a realistic twist I’m impressed with in a series like this), though they’re limited to bit roles outside of their respective arcs. The first pairing, Sousuke and Karen (which excluded Yanami), is decent. These two are basically: an attractive cool boy, and an impossibly bright and cheery girl. Both of them are pretty funny when they show up. The second pairing, Ayano and Asagumo (which excluded Lemon), is probably the best. They’re both fairly complete characters, who are explored thoroughly within their arc. Ayano is a diligent student, and also unbelievably dense, like, 2000s harem protagonist level dense. Asagumo is… kind of a weirdo? Would have to tread into spoiler territory to explain her further, but this couple really works. The third pairing, lit club president Tamaki and vice president Tsukinoki (which excluded Komari), is almost completely forgotten about. They remain a presence in the story, but their relationship is quiet in the background. As individual characters they’re pretty strong though (especially Tamaki). They’re both some variant of sociable otaku… I’m getting tired of listing traits. Tamaki and Nukumizu have strong chemistry though. All this listing is to say — not harem as it is, shoving cute girls in your face is an overriding value of MakeIne. Much of the writing is constructed to maximize that. Explain cat kohai otherwise. To me, that’s a wonderful thing, but your mileage may vary. There is an unusually large and well defined male cast as well, which is a welcome change of pace from anime in the genre. The production is outstanding, and that’s so self-evident I’ll resist the urge to harp on it for an entire page. The aesthetics are a combination between Shinkai and like… Kanojo mo Kanojo colorfulness. You get that vibe particularly strongly in the opening and ending. The animation is fluid, the direction is consistently good. It elevates everything around it. The voice performances are outstanding across the board. I’m puzzled as to how such a low-key light novel adaptation got this treatment, but I welcome it. To summarize all this in a few words, MakeIne is weird. It came out of nowhere, with incredible production, and unique vibes that immediately made it stand out. Those vibes can clash — the whole thing feels a bit like an adaptation of a web novel that hasn’t quite been pared down to light novel status by an editor. It can feel more like a chain of discrete scenes and episodes than a complete story. Still — the incredible production and good character writing elevate this to greatness. It's complex, the kind of thing you finish and then think about in the shower for forty minutes. I recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 27, 2024 Not Recommended
What if the weakest guy was actually the strongest? What if the least cool loser became the strongest due to his special ability? What if they made Arifureta again?
Weakest Hero with Low-Tier Shitty Skills answers those questions. And also answers: What if Arifureta had even worse CGI? What if Arifureta had an even uglier color palette? What if Arifureta was just, like, overall less fun? This is one of the most self-indulgent isekai LN adaptations ever produced. An absolutely unironic entry in a genre that’s impossible to take seriously. And (for a minute) almost beat for beat an Arifureta clone. The MC’s whole class is isekaied (like in ... Arifureta), and his goal is to kill a god (like in Arifureta), who was… mean to him and also tried to kill him by sending him to the depths of a dungeon (like in Arifureta), but then he finds out how to use his powers and levels up a whole bunch (like in Arifureta), then he finds a hot blond woman who wants to fuck him (like in Arifureta), etc. etc. Unlike Arifureta, the MC’s entire class is evil murderers, not just a couple of jerks. Except for three hot girls (who will presumably join bro’s harem at some point). It does diverge from the Arifureta once we leave the dungeon, but after that the whole plot is just edgy isekai boilerplate. There’s no levity, it has this boring, dark tone throughout. The show is awash in bizarre technical errors. Even leaving the atrocious visuals aside, the audio sucks. There’s one point in episode five (at about 8:13) where the audio levels randomly spike. I have no idea how that stayed in, that’s a mistake I’d be surprised to see an eleven-year-old with a YouTube channel make, let alone a whole ass anime studio. The protagonist is annoying as hell. He has an obnoxious habit of monologuing his plans to villains before killing them, he’s always a million steps ahead of everyone. His ability is essentially an instakill button, the only activation condition being that his enemy needs to be within range. When that’s how fights work, not even playing the opening can make them hype. The direction in some fights makes absolutely no sense. Since the MC’s ability depends on people being in range, the top directorial priority should be making the distance between him and his enemy clear. But no, in one pivotal scene his enemy seems to move away from him, then MC goes “they’re in range” and instakills them with the instakill button. When it comes to insane moments… there are a few. At one point there’s this big important meeting, and all the participants have big important names (that show up on title cards for half a second). One of those names is: Falkendotzine Miradiasordzit. The way this show does exposition is hilarious. In this one scene the protagonists overhear rumors about a cult in a bar, then they discuss the rumors, then a group of evil-looking hooded men enter and say “we are the evil magic cult”. Like bro we got it from the hoods you don’t need to announce yourselves. I could list off more of these moments, but that discussion could easily veer into spoiler territory, and doing so may give the false impression this show is more interesting than it actually is. So… don’t watch it. Unless you have the same exact type of isekai brain poisoning I do… but if that’s the case, you've already watched it. Uh… if you want to watch joyless Arifureta… this is the show for you!
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 27, 2024
Musaigen no Phantom World
(Anime)
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In episode one of Musaigen no Phantom World, a truly remarkable sequence occurs. The protagonist, a girl, and a fairy are talking on a set of stairs. The girl runs off and trips, so the protagonist dives to the bottom of the stairs, gets near where she’ll land, and turns his body around one eighty degrees midair so that she’ll land on his back. The fairy then lifts the girl slightly midair, causing her to front flip and land just in front of the protagonist, who then sees up her skirt. This really only comes across when you see it animated, it is shockingly difficult
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to describe in text. There are about three physically impossible things that happen in this sequence, coordinated perfectly to deliver a baffling, obnoxiously self-aware fanservice scene. If this were animated differently — by a studio that uses less realistically proportioned characters, and stretches realism more in action scenes — it could look good. I imagine Trigger could make this scene come off as natural. Kyoto Animation is the worst possible choice to animate this. It comes off as impossible, and only makes less sense the more you think about it. The result is glorious — a shameless celebration of fanservice bullshit, in an entirely original form. This is the most interesting thing that happens in Musaigen no Phantom World. The show this scene suggests is incredible, a truly original ecchi anime that leans into the unreality of the genre to deliver hilarious fanservice scenes. This anime is not that show. Anything like this scene only happens once again throughout the rest of the runtime — later in that same episode. After that, it turns into a standard ghost hunting/school club anime. That could have been good too, especially with animation of this caliber. Unfortunately, the writing is such a tangled mess that it can’t even accomplish that.
The premise is simple: a few years ago, a virus was released that caused the entire human population to begin perceiving “phantoms”, basically ghosts. At the same time, babies began being born with superpowers. We follow a school club comprised of these superpowered people, tasked with hunting trouble causing phantoms. That much is fine, but the show insists on placing this basic premise within walls of tortured flavortext. Like, the phantoms aren’t just ghosts, they’re manifestations conjured up by the brain, and may only exist in human perception. I’m here for some overcomplicated window dressing, but this show takes it too far, opening every episode by repeating this exposition, and having the main character spout off random Wikipedia-level anecdotes. These explanations are entirely detached from the narrative. One episode opens on an explanation of Jungian archetypes, suggesting phantoms may be manifestations of them. It then adds the fact that they actually can be literally anything. So why the fuck did we bring up Jung? To be fair, the author doesn’t seem to misunderstand these concepts. This is the one anime I’ve seen get Schrödinger's Cat right. But if they don’t mean anything for the plot and themes, why are they here to begin with? If this was just a quirk of the main character I could forgive it, but the entire show is drenched in this kind of nonsense. This is, at its core, a slice of life club anime. When the narrative leans into that, and fully leverages Kyoani’s great character animation, it’s pretty good. The mid-section is episodic, with each episode focusing on the main characters hunting a different phantom. During this, there are some good episode plots that dive into the characters' pasts and psychologies. Episode ten — in which that fairy I mentioned earlier becomes human for a day — is a particular standout. There are stretches where the show really works, but not all of these episode plots are built equal. In episode eight, a hot spring populated by horny monkeys appears in the middle of the school, so our main characters spend half of the episode trying to sexually appeal to the monkeys in order to lure them out… and eventually realize they need to paint their asses red to do that… then they find out the leader monkey is recently divorced. It's not all that funny, and it’s too niche and uncomfortable to even work as fanservice… this whole episode shouldn’t have happened. All of the main characters’ superpowers seem designed to be as lame and confusing as possible. The MC can trap phantoms in his sketchbook by drawing them, and also summon phantoms he’s trapped in the book, but then later he can also summon phantoms without the book for some reason. At first he can only use the trapping ability, but in episode one they introduce a character with an ability that does the same thing but better, rendering his ability completely useless. It doesn’t seem the author wrote these abilities to be complimentary, but rather just made up stuff as they went along. One character is said to be really strong. Her ability involves singing to summon beams of energy, kind of like a less cool version of Inumaki’s cursed speech. In practice, she can fire weak ass beams by doing a goofy ass hum, which is sometimes accompanied by a lame ass incantation. How this ability is strong, or how exactly it works remains murky for the entire season. The child character (who has weird bug antenna looking-ass front twin tails) can make her teddy bear blow up to monster-size and fight, but can also just make it do whatever the plot demands at any given moment. These abilities are overcomplicated, not complimentary, and what they can and cannot do changes constantly. And they don’t even look cool. They suck. The worst writing occurs in the shoehorned-in two-episode arc that ends the show, but I’ve done enough tedious listing in this review (and don’t want to add a spoiler tag), so I’ll leave it at that. The visuals don’t quite make up for all this. As anyone can tell from one glance at the abysmal poster and title card, this series is aesthetically confused. Kyoani’s style overrides this design sense in most scenes, but when it does poke through, it looks awful. When it comes to character animation, this show is a treat (like every Kyoani show). If you’re a Kyoani fan, that might make it worth watching, but be warned, this has a bad reputation for a reason. It is not a hidden gem, it does not deserve critical reevaluation. If there was a positive angle on this show I thought was reasonable, I would take it — there’s no studio I’m more deferential to than Kyoto Animation. I hate to say it, but this is just a bad show. The writing is a mess, the episode plots are iffy, the aesthetics are confused, and the animation isn’t good enough to compensate. Only watch this if you’re trying to one hundred percent Kyoani’s catalog. Otherwise, avoid it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 13, 2024
Karigurashi no Arrietty
(Anime)
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Arrietty may be Ghibli’s most England-coded effort to date. It is (like Howl’s Moving Castle) based on a series of English children’s novels (in this case The Borrowers). Say what you want about the British, they're good at writing quaint little tales, and on the plot front, that’s what Arrietty is.
We follow a sickly boy (Shou) who’s sent to his grandmother's house to relax before heart surgery. This borrows somewhat from the original novels, but changes the setting from mid-century England to current(ish) Japan (in the process sanitizing the narrative of colonialism). A family of borrowers also lives in the house, the youngest of whom ... is Arrietty. On top of that there’s a maid (Haru) who serves as a sort of casual antagonist. The plot is low-stakes, and focuses mostly on fleshing out the world. That’s where the film really succeeds. What makes this film is the atmosphere, the environment — the vibes. The film takes place in an old house (like, early Twentieth Century style), and Ghibli’s portrayal of it is perfect. Nowadays you might call the aesthetic this film embodies “cottagecore”, though it’s possible I’m misapplying that (I’m not familiar with the minutiae of Tumblr aesthetic definitions). The building seems to exist in harmony with nature; ivy grows up the walls and roof, grass pokes out from between the bricks of the back patio, flower fields surround it. It’s typically Ghibli-picturesque, and (to me at least) evokes a beautiful sense of nostalgia. The world of the borrowers, hidden behind the walls and beneath the floorboards, is just as detailed. Every aspect of it is rendered with loads of thought. Just examining the different ways things are fastened together reveals this, from the tiny button on Arrietty’s bag, to the velcro on her father’s, to the sticky pads he uses to climb flat surfaces. Even the physics are altered — water beads up at their size, and doesn’t soak into clothing as easily. Obviously it’s not completely scientifically accurate, but was crafted with clear consideration and intent. So too detailed is the miniature infrastructure they use to travel around the house. They walk along nails hammered into wooden beams, climb up staples, use hidden entrances to sneak in and out of the walls. One of the most impressive examples is an intricate rope elevator, which is rendered with incredible mechanical detail, the type of thing only Ghibli is capable of. This creates a feeling of lived-inness; clearly many generations of borrowers have lived in this house, each contributing to and relying on these structures. How might they have collected these nails? How recent an invention is the elevator? It conjures up ideas reaching much further than what we see on screen. It's environmental storytelling, to borrow a phrase from video game criticism. This approach extends to the tiny ecosystem the borrowers live in. Bugs seem completely different from their perspective; grasshoppers are about their size, while sugar ants appear more like rats, and pill bugs like cats. Mice are comparable to bears, while racoons and cats hardly have any comparison. Maybe elephants, or Pleistocene megafauna. Regular interactions with human sized bugs sounds horrifying, but the borrowers seem unbothered by it. That makes sense, they live in a completely different ecosystem, their fears and cultural associations would be completely different. Grasshoppers are more like deer than bugs, a target for hunting rather than pest. Given these different cultures, I questioned why borrowers speak the same language as humans (who they rarely interact with). It seems the filmmakers also thought of this, as, when we meet a borrower who doesn’t live in a human house, he doesn’t speak their language well. He also seems to finger count using a different base numbering system. Perhaps the house borrowers picked up on the humans’ language, while outside borrowers retained their original language. All of this, the cultural, ecological, architectural, and aesthetic detail adds up to one of Ghibli’s best realized worlds. We only get to see so many interactions in a ninety minute runtime, but the film creates the distinct feeling that what it shows us is just the tip of an iceberg. At about ninety minutes, it establishes all of this with dizzying efficiency. Thematically, it’s not too deep or shallow. While this wasn’t directed by either of Ghibli’s big names, Miyazaki is credited for the script (along with Keiko Niwa), and it plays with one of his typical themes — environmentalism. One conversation between Shou and Arrietty demonstrates this, as they discuss borrowers in an ecological context — as a species headed for extinction. Their numbers appear to be dwindling, as they’re continuously killed off and forced away from their habitat. Shou suggests they’re doomed, like the many other species humanity has destroyed. Arrietty doesn’t accept this, saying they’ll find a way to live independent from humans. Miyazaki exploits this premise to create a conversation between man and a species we’ve forced near extinction. On top of that, the scene serves a more basic function. Both Arrietty and Shou are uncertain about their futures (Shou due to his surgery, Arrietty due to potentially being forced from her home). Shou’s view of the borrowers’ future is a reflection of his dark outlook on his own future. Arrietty’s hope in spite of this inspires hope in Shou. In turn, Shou helps Arrietty materially. This scene serves dual roles, exploring deep ecological themes and advancing the basic conflict of the story. Deep political themes on top of basic messaging. Miyazaki is doing Miyazaki things. I won’t belabor this obvious point, but Ghibli’s animation is great here. All of what they do, from fabric animation, to character animation, to mechanical animation, is unparalleled in anime. They’re the only studio capable of this. They also nail the foley work, providing the world an additional layer of texture. The editing and direction are just as great, there’s hardly a wasted shot across the entire runtime. I struggle to even find nitpicks, there’s nothing about this film I’m confident would be better off different. I should, at the end here, provide a little context for my score. Some people view scoring as accounting for pros and cons. A work that only fills the pros column is a ten, and a work that only fills the cons column is a one (or zero). That framework has a fatal flaw, and films like Arrietty expose it. The project of Arrietty is not significant enough to reach that ten out of ten level, even with flawless execution. Executed without flaw, Arrietty is a good movie. It doesn’t have the capacity to produce incredible emotional highs, or incredible insight into the human condition or whatever. I can’t point out any flaws in this film, and the output of that flawless execution is a good movie. A quaint story with interesting themes, good characters, and great production. I wouldn’t argue with anyone ranking this higher in Ghibli’s catalog, though it is a seven for me. This is one of the most widely appealing and accessible Ghibli films, and I’d recommend it to most everyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 25, 2024
Star Wars: Visions
(Anime)
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Okay, Star Wars: Visions. An interesting experiment for Disney, and one that seems to have paid off. This features shorts from many of anime’s most exciting current studios, including Studio Colorido, Studio Trigger, and Science Saru. They also tapped some lesser, but still interesting studios like Geno Studio and Kamikaze Douga (the people behind the CG Jojo’s OPs and also that abysmal anime Batman movie). Production I.G. and Kinema Citrus also animated one short a piece.
I’m not a big Star Wars guy. I’ve seen the original trilogy twice, the prequels once, and the sequels never. I am a weird nerd, but I’m not the type ... of weird nerd that’s weird about Star Wars. I’m writing mostly to give myself a platform to write: The Phantom Menace is an unbelievable piece of dogshit and the people who defend it should all burn in hell and also die and also I hope their favorite team doesn’t make the playoffs. Phew. That was nice to get off my chest. And don’t come at me with any of that billion IQ “but the Shakespere references” bullshit either, we both know that’s a terrible argument. Figure out how Jar Jar Binks is secretly a reference to Machieveli or whatever the fuck before you come at me talking about Shakespere. And the pod race scene isn’t even that good, people just gas it because the film sucks ballz. Uh, anyway. Star Wars: Visions. Since this is an anthology with the only shared theme being “Star Wars” I’m going to review the shorts separately. First I’ll review them in order, then rank them. I’ll rate each short zero to ten. I’ll also give a win-draw-loss record indicating how many shorts are good-mid-bad. And also, to be clear, I watched this in Japanese without subtitles. Apparently the original subtitle track was a CC track that wasn't even accurately translated, I didn't have to deal with any of that bullshit. If I did, I would probably rate this a point lower. If I had to watch the dub, I might rate it even lower than that. Okay, here goes: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Duel - Kamikaze Douga This one kicks ass. Basically a Star Wars/anime interpolation of Yojimbo. The entire thing is drenched in Kurosawa/jidaigeki aesthetics, which is nice to see given George Lucas apparently borrowed the name “Jedi” from that genre. Or at least, that’s what I see repeated everywhere, who knows if it’s true. The Yojimbo influence is evident in the design of the town, which is ripped straight from that film, as well as the plot (ronin wanders into town, inserts themselves into conflict between two factions, big battle happens in main street). Multiple aspects of the presentation evoke the films of Kurosawa, as well as early samurai films in general. The film is presented in black and white (which helps to highlight the red lightsabers), and a film grain filter is overlaid over the image. This filter is not static like those seen in Mushoku Tensei and Mononoke, but changing. This replicates the effect of a real aged film roll, they also work small flaws into the filter to enhance this effect. This preserves the printed on paper feel those other shows seek to emulate, while specifically emulating old samurai films. This filter also aids the composite, which is close to seamless. The cinematic aspect ratio also enhances the film feel, though all the other shorts also use this aspect ratio. There’s even a cool title card, they go all out. The film’s soundtrack and sound design contribute to this vibe. Evoking jidaigeki with Japanese instruments, and Star Wars with orchestral instrumentation (presumably borrowed from John Williams’ original score). The film cleverly uses its sound to build tension by intercutting the titular duel with a kettle boiling, with the kettle’s whistle signaling the repair of the ronin’s droid, which he implies is important to winning. These minute aspects of the presentation have the capacity to entrance the viewer, but the main focus is the fight, which kicks a ton of ass. In samurai film fashion, it is resolved with a clever trick. I can see why this is the first entry in the season, and the one that garnered the most awards attention. It’s great. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tatooine Rhapsody - Studio Colorido One more entry in my Studio Colorido completion quest, and also a pretty damn good short. Colorido typically sticks to one visual style; they've used some version of it in all of their feature films. I like this look, but it can get boring and certainly doesn’t suit a wacky plot like this. Thankfully, the team at Colorido thought the same, and created a different, more cartoonish style for this film. The plot is insane in a way that sounds impossible to not make fun. Basically, a member of the Hutt clan starts a band, and has to run from mercenaries sent by Jabba in order to perform. There’s a few things you need to do to make that premise work. First, it needs to be short. The longer a film runs, the less it can rely on its basic premise to keep the viewer engaged. I imagine the novelty of “Jabba the Hutt plus rock music” would wear off quickly over a longer runtime. Thankfully, this is one of Visions’ shorter shorts, clocking in at just twelve minutes. Second, you need a kick ass insert song. This has one, and the band’s performance of it is executed in a super creative way I won’t spoil here. Apparently the English version of this song is absolute garbage, which might explain why this short is so low in many people's rankings. The short’s one serious issue is its questionable CG, which is used for some spaceships and aerial shots of buildings. These cuts look bad, and didn’t need to exist. They could easily have just not used external shots of spaceships or an aerial panning shot if they had to use CG for them. I don’t mean to be too pedantic though, this is only an issue in a few cuts. This short is fun, and executes well on its premise, but doesn’t do much beyond that. It’s not going to stick in my mind like some of these other shorts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Twins - Studio Trigger The first of Trigger’s two contributions, and the only one directed by Imaishi. This one gets off to an unimpressive start visually. All the environments look flat and two dimensional, like a Roku screensaver or something. Once the action starts, you realize all these flat ass environments are actually goofy looking CG models. After that, it’s kinda all over the place. There are tons of blatantly shitty drawings, the camera sometimes holds on completely still images for too long, the composite is a mess. At sixteen minutes, Trigger should have been able to produce something at least as good as their full length ONAs, but they somehow managed to fall significantly short of that bar. It does have plenty of classically kickass Trigger moments. The protagonist ripping off his dark armor to reveal he’s a white haired bishounen femboy was awesome, as was the face reveal for his twin. The fights were cool. What’s so cool about Trigger fights is that they just do whatever would be coolest in the moment, without concern for plot mechanics or being clever. That fight from "The Duel” ends on a cool trick, this fight ends on one of the best slamming action figures together moments I’ve ever seen in anime. Like, I actually thought of the exact thing they do right before they do it and thought “no, that’s too dumb”, and then they just did it. It’s like the fights I imagined as a kid. This short is fun, but incomplete production-wise. There’s one more thing I have to mention here, since it’s a persistent point of focus in negative reviews. The characters in this short fight in space without helmets. Some dummies who’ve never heard of “suspension of disbelief” take issue with this. Basically every Imaishi Trigger show ends with a big fight in space, and the characters never wear helmets. The reason for this is that Imaishi presents wacky cartoon worlds in which real physical laws don’t apply, it would be weirder if they did. The entire studio didn’t forget people need to wear helmets in space, they decided not to have the characters wear helmets for stylistic reasons. I don’t think I need to explain this, most halfway intelligent people are willing to take works of fiction on their own terms, but this keeps coming up in reviews, so I kind of have to mention it. Other consistent points were lack of familiarity with the concept of an anthology, and “it should be longer” nonsense, so… not really smart criticisms generally. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Village Bride - Kinema Citrus The most impressive contribution here is no doubt Kevin Penkin’s score (that’s the most impressive part of most Kinema Citrus works, actually). He employs his trademark incoherent but beautiful vocals (the same trick he used on the Made in Abyss OST’s best track, Hanezeve Cardahina), and it works perfectly here. The plot is nothing special, one woman has volunteered herself to be captured by an enemy force in order to save her village from destruction. Two mysterious outsiders (our POV characters) are in the village at the same time. This progresses exactly as you’d expect, but Penkin’s score makes it all feel weighty and profound. That kind of power to alter the meaning of a work just with music is incredible. This is another solid piece in Penkin’s GOAT anime OST artist case. He actually composed over twenty minutes of music for this seventeen minute short, it's definitely going to be in rotation for me this week. The art direction is the best I’ve ever seen from a Kinema Citrus project. It’s bright, uses color effectively, and allows for character designs that fit the setting. It is a visual treat. My only issue is the CG, which is only used for droids, but looks pretty bad. There’s an interesting environmental theme at play here, though it’s left mostly vague and in the background. Also the native people of this planet call the force “magina”, sort of like how the people of Skypiea call haki “mantra”. It’s a nice little worldbuilding detail. A great entry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ninth Jedi - Production I.G. Production I.G.’s sole entry is quite different from the others, and has opposite strengths and weaknesses from them. They stick with their old school dark color palette and realistically proportioned characters. Characters, objects, and backgrounds are all quite detailed. That sort of style was dominant throughout action anime for a long time, it’s familiar territory for this studio, and they execute it perfectly. While I prefer brighter colors and simpler, easier to animate character designs, this style works so long as the action is well animated and directed. It is here. It does have some boof ass CG, but it integrates fairly well into the artstyle (better than the CG in the previous few shorts does). The plot is compelling, and has a few layers of twists hidden within it. That too separates it from the other shorts to this point. I can’t get into specifics since I’d then have to spoiler tag this review, but trust me, the twists are good. This, more than any other entry, feels like the first episode of a TV series. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I’m not sure. A solid entry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T0-B1 - Science Saru Science Saru’s first entry, directed by Abel Góngora (who would go on to direct Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) is an absolute treat. It's basically one big Tetsuwan Atom reference. It definitely inherits Masaaki Yuasa’s character design sensibilities and fluid animation, though he isn’t credited on this (or on the other episode by Science Saru). This, along with the bright colors and likable characters make for a fun episode. The plot is nothing too complicated, though the quest of a young droid becoming a Jedi is appealing. It tells this story by effectively placed montages; it never feels like it's wasting your time. The voice acting is great, with Masako Nozawa (voice of Goku) playing the titular T0-B1. This entry does have a fatal flaw, the action direction. The entire fight scene at the end is arranged messily such that every cut is disorienting, and none of the hits have any impact. I’ve seen worse action direction in anime (whoever storyboarded this scene at least knows about the 180 rule), but this is cleanly the worst fight across the entire anthology. This short is fun, but fails in the action department. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Elder - Studio Trigger This is Trigger’s second contribution, and a bizarre outlier for the studio. Trigger’s aggressive animation style and wild art direction are what the studio’s known for; to this point, they’d only deviated from that in their 2014 light novel adaptation InoBato. That show still looks good, this does not. The entire first half of this short looks straight ass cheeks. It starts with a three minute scene in which two of the blandest, grayest, most two dimensional looking, shittily drawn characters of all time sit in a Gmod looking ass CG cockpit and just talk to each other. Then they land on a gray, ugly planet, fight a guy, and leave. Credit where it’s due, the fight is cool. It’s well directed and choreographed. But aside from that, this short has absolutely nothing going for it. It’s the worst looking thing Trigger’s ever made, and yes, I am counting Inferno Cop. This is the first entry I’m comfortable calling bad. A strange disappointment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lop and Ochō - Geno Studio This one is animated by Geno Studio, by far the least notable studio tapped to work on this. Their record is just a bunch of mid nobody’s ever heard of and also Golden Kamuy. Why exactly Disney picked them is unclear, maybe they agreed to work for real cheap, who knows. What I do know is that they knocked it out of the park with this. The visual style is ambitious; it’s detailed, uses a wide range of colors, a film grain filter, and uses realistically proportioned characters. They went for a difficult to animate style, and also for the longest runtime of the entire anthology at nineteen minutes. All this should add up to a colossal disappointment, but this came out impossibly good. The animation holds up across the entire runtime, and is even good in climactic fights. The writing is a bit questionable. The world is too politically complex to adequately explore in nineteen minutes. Since those politics tie into character motivations, those can feel underdeveloped too. I’d really like to know what happened in that huge timeskip to make these characters feel the way they do. Still, I’m happy with where this left off. The character designs are great too. Good short. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Akakiri - Science Saru Science Saru’s second entry (and the final short in the anthology) is fantastic. It’s almost flawless visually, employing a deliberately messy style to make the animation as smooth as possible. The character designs are all interestingly out of proportion, they have a storybook quality to them (like Ousama Ranking). It uses a film grain filter to the same effect I mentioned in the section on “The Duel”. The use of color is fantastic, every location has a distinct color palette. Each of those locations is beautiful, and collectively they create a world I would love to know more about. It has a European medieval vibe, with a variety of biomes, and also Star Wars tech. Fascinating setting. The characters are all interesting and have a fun dynamic. I like the two goofy doofuses in particular, but the more serious characters are also entertaining. The plot is fantastic and progresses in unpredictable, unconventional ways. It’s one of only two, maybe three shorts here that don’t progress exactly as the viewer expects. In short films, it’s often difficult to have an engaging story that answers every question a viewer may have. They are, by nature, non-comprehensive. Creating interesting questions is often more effective than giving answers, and this film takes that approach. I have a ton of questions swirling around my head after watching this, that’s exactly what I want from a great short film. The music is fantastic, it has a kind of tribal energy to it. A wide variety of percussion instruments are used in it. It’s a lot more interesting than the original Star Wars OST a lot of these shorts rely on. This is the only short from Visions I would ever revisit, it’s fascinating. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, that’s all of them. Writing that, and watching all those took longer than I expected. Enjoyed most of them, the win-draw-loss record sits at a solid 8-0-1. Here’s my rankings: Akakiri (Episode 9) - Science Saru [9] The Duel (Episode 1) - Kamikaze Douga [8] Lop and Ochō (Episode 8) - Geno Studio [7] The Village Bride (Episode 4) - Kinema Citrus [7] The Ninth Jedi (Episode 5) - Production I.G. [7] T0-B1 (Episode 6) - Science Saru [6] The Twins (Episode 3) - Studio Trigger [6] Tatooine Rhapsody (Episode 2) - Studio Colorido [6] The Elder (Episode 7) - Studio Trigger [4] Okay, little side note here about the rankings. I didn't look at anyone else's rankings before writing this, and apparently the average rankings are super different from mine. Akakiri is ranked fourth lowest on IMDB, which is absolutely insane. The Elder, cleanly the worst short of the bunch, is in the top three. Tatooine Rhapsody is lowest by a mile and a half. I think how different these rankings are owes mostly to what audio track people are using, that explains Tatooine Rhapsody's ranking. Aside from that... maybe the people ranking on IMDB aren't as familiar with what exactly makes good and bad animation? That would explain how on earth Akakiri is well below The Elder, which looks like butt cheeks for eighty percent of the runtime. Anyway, glad I didn't look up rankings before going into this. Overall, this is a nice collection of shorts that is absolutely worth watching, whether or not you’re a Star Wars fan. This includes some of Science Saru’s best work to date, and mark my words, they will go down as one of the best anime studios of all time. It also includes some of Trigger’s worst work to date, so that’s interesting I guess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 24, 2024
Suki demo Kirai na Amanojaku
(Anime)
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My Oni Girl is the second release of Studio Colorido’s three film deal with Netflix, and it’s a moderate step up from the first. It is, as their previous few films have led me to expect, an exercise in convention. Its plot and themes are basic, and obvious. To briefly summarize, our MC is a pushover, and over the course of the film he grows to be more confident thanks to the help of an oni girl, who’s tied to supernatural phenomena that represent his character flaws and the film’s themes. It’s the type of story that’s unlikely to reveal additional depth on repeat viewings,
...
and is pretty predictable.
That will make or break the film for you; either you’ll find a comfortable sense of warmth in its familiarity, or boredom in its predictability. If you’re in that second camp, you probably already know it and aren’t expecting anything. If you’re in the first, you should absolutely watch this movie. I’m firmly in that first camp. I could watch a million films like this and never get bored. I have, almost; there’s hardly a conventional coming-of-age anime drama I haven’t watched, and in watching them I’ve become adept at identifying what exactly makes one good or bad. So, that said, how does this film stack up? It certainly passes in terms of animation, though its visuals aren’t perfect. This, like Colorido’s previous effort, makes heavy use of CGI, which looks good, but isn’t seamless. What is and isn’t CG falls exactly along the lines you’d expect (vehicles, environments in scenes with complex action, buildings), as do its issues. Moving CG objects sometimes appear to be moving at a lower framerate than 2D objects. Environments and 2D characters are not seamlessly composited. This is to say, it’s always obvious (sometimes distractingly obvious) what’s CG and what isn’t. The 2D animation is film quality, and is most impressive in moments of detailed character animation. The visual style is where the film runs into some issues. Some scenes are underlit (or at least, they look underlit on my display). Colorido’s usual style is as close to neutral anime film aesthetic as it gets, and this film employs that style without alteration. It’s nice to look at, but doesn’t have a unique identity. The filmmaking is competent, but never mind blowing. Like, in one scene the two main characters are working at a flea market stall. They’re under a tent, in shadows, while the customers are in sunlight. The main characters are lit like this to represent the MC’s lack of assertiveness — they’re only working here because he feels he owes a favor to the guy running the shop, if he was more confident he’d probably have turned him down. Across the market we see another character, also in shadows, implying she’s also not so enthusiastic about being here. Ideas like this are the fundamental building blocks of good filmmaking, and plenty are incorporated across the runtime. It’s a solid, well made film, but it’s only that. The score is never applied in a super interesting way, no cuts particularly impressed me (there is one aggressive sequence of match cuts at the very beginning, which kinda doesn’t work, but I’m a Kon fan so I’ll let it slide). Information is sometimes delivered in questionable ways. At the beginning, the film needs to establish that the main character isn’t assertive enough, and does so in five separate scenes. He wants to talk to someone, but doesn’t because they’re in a conversation; he can’t find a partner in class, so he ends up with the teacher; he offers to help clean up after class, but gets left with all the work; a girl asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend, and he goes along with it; some classmates didn't do their homework, so he lets them copy his. Later we see his dad forcing a decision on him without even considering his opinion, suggesting where he might have gotten this trait. All that’s fine, but could have been streamlined a bit. Just using one or two of those scenes would have had the same effect as showing all five. We even flash back to them less than twenty minutes later; even accounting for the slow kids in the back, the audience doesn’t need this spelled out a sixth time. It’s not as bloated as some other genre films (including Colorido’s last Netflix film), but isn’t perfect either. This is all to say, the filmmaking and overall visual style meet the demands of the conventional story, but don’t elevate it. A director like Shinkai (with Shinkai-level resources) could probably elevate this script to greatness, and indeed, a film with an identical plot structure by Shinkai (Suzume) did just that. The output of all this is a good film, one that’s worth watching if you’re into the genre, but doesn’t have much appeal outside of it. It’s comfortable. It’s competently produced. It’s not too heavy or emotional. It’s not too profound or thought provoking. It’s not too stylistically ambitious. It's a perfect movie to watch on a weeknight. If you need something to watch tonight, this isn’t a bad pick, though it’s one of a hundred “good picks” just like it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 29, 2024
Girls Bravo: First Season
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
It feels almost pointless to review Girls Bravo. It came out almost two decades ago, it’s not aged particularly well, and basically nobody cares about it. Answering the question “should you watch it” feels pointless, but for a surprising amount of people, that answer is yes.
Girls Bravo is not particularly groundbreaking, it’s not particularly… well, good. I enjoy it, but I only enjoy it because I enjoy fanservice and harem bullshit. What makes it remarkable now is just how easy it is to watch compared to its contemporaries. The first half of the 2000s was an awkward period for male-targeted romance anime, where Rumiko Takahashi copies ... had gone out of style, and boring Love Hina likes were dominant. This era produced almost nothing watchable, even fondly remembered shows like Shuffle! feel painfully boring now. Before now I’ve never been able to make it a single cour into one of these, and most are two cour. The sole exception to that is Gainax’s weird 2001 hidden gem Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden — itself a bit too original to explain the era’s conventions. What makes Girls Bravo so unique is its lack of originality in characterization and plot, and great production. Aspects of Girl’s Bravo’s production range from good — like its soundtrack and voice acting — to great — like its direction and animation. The only bit you might find annoying is Tomoko’s voice (I’ve watched enough anime that I find this kind of voice charming, but that’s unlikely to be anyone else’s experience). The direction is quietly fantastic, economically cutting around movement when needed, and going all out at other times. Oftentimes an episode will have an A and B plot, and sometimes they intersect in a single shot (character in B plot is in background, character in A plot is in foreground and such). The amount of animation in backgrounds here is kinda insane from a modern perspective; this technique’s mostly been abandoned in modern TV anime — especially trash harems. It’s refreshing to see here. The fanservice is quite good. This production came at the tail end of TV anime’s free nipple era, and most episodes start with a shower scene, so there’s that. It doesn’t leverage editing and direction to excite the viewer in the same way some modern anime do (think that one scene from Chainsaw Man); most fanservice is limited to showing the viewer a tiddie or implying the main character saw something, but it’s good for its time. There are occasionally moments where it gets impressively, hilariously shameless. Like, there's this one scene where the female MC just fellates a banana for almost a full minute, while the old man selling her that banana rants about his love of fruit. In moments like that the show is genuinely funny. The overarching plot and setting involve more fantasy themes than I expected. There’s space travel, ghosts, teleportation, and magic. It’s never exactly clear how any of this works, and in a comedy show like this, it doesn’t need to be. To briefly explain the plot, there’s two planets, Earth, and Seirin, a planet exclusively populated by women. It’s possible to move between these planets by teleportation using bathtubs (or something, don’t really understand how this works). Our MC is allergic to all women except the female MC Miharu, who has strange magic powers. Its individual episode plots are good enough, and as you’d expect of this era, occasionally delve into incoherence. Episode 7’s plot goes: the gang needs to find the main girl’s sister a husband, so they head outside with no plan. After being spotted by a rich girl stalking the MC, they walk by a show advertising Honda motorcycles, so the childhood friend character hatches a brilliant plan: the girls will go on stage to advertise the motorcycles, then leave, put on animal costumes, and just kinda walk around. Around this time, this show’s stock loli character is out luring men by sitting on a park bench and crying. Then all the men (one of which is a big yakuza dude) get a text message from the rich girl, containing a picture of the stock shy girl character, so then all the men go after the main group. A bunch of men surround our characters, so they run away. Then the rich girl’s brother — this show’s stock weird pervert character — shows up and leads the stock loli back to the MC’s house, where he tackles the shy girl into a bathtub, causing all three of them to teleport directly into the main girl’s sister’s bath on Seirin, who reprimands them and sends them back. That explanation ran longer and sounded even more incoherent than I expected — but it doesn’t quite feel that weird as you watch it. Insane plots like this are a staple of this era’s comedy anime, and I love them here, even when they’re a vehicle for product placement. I should qualify this praise by once again stating, this just makes the show watchable. It does exactly the uncomfortable things other anime of its era do, including loli fanservice and joking treatment of sexual assault. There’s a stock pervert character whose entire personality is sexual assault, things can get real uncomfortable. Most of the characters aren’t developed past their basic archetypes, and the MC is exactly the annoying wimp you’d expect. Further explaining the girls’ personalities seems kind of pointless because they really are just: airhead mascot character, violent childhood friend, shy girl, rich girl, and child. You might also be able to count the weird shrimp thing in that… point is they’re conventional and boring. This all makes the show worse, but it also makes it valuable. Girls Bravo is a perfect encapsulation of its era, good and bad, in a uniquely watchable package. I didn’t always love it, but it never bored me. It never drew out will-they won’t-they tension beyond its welcome, it never bored me with an episode plot. It is — if nothing else — a history lesson. Maybe I’ve spent too many words advocating for a show I don’t even like that much, but to anyone interested in this era, or in better understanding current male-oriented romance anime, this is a must-watch. If you don't have that specific sort of academic interest in harem anime, and don't like trash harem generally… it’s probably a skip.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 16, 2024 Mixed Feelings
The trailer for Mari Okada’s latest project implied something amazing. Moody and high concept, with beautifully rendered backgrounds, smooth animation, and a killer soundtrack. It had the makings of a masterpiece, and a great studio to back it up.
When it quietly released on Netflix this January, I was excited to watch, though its score caused some trepidation. Indeed, all those elements the trailer promised are here in some form. If this film succeeds in any regard, it is aesthetically. Okada’s direction is sharp as ever here, as is every other aspect of the production. Its soundtrack is consistently strong, though misapplied occasionally. The voice ... actors all give good performances, and the sound editing is as good as any other theatrical release. While it doesn’t quite measure up to Ghibli and CoMix Waves’ latest offerings, it's an impressive achievement for a back boiler MAPPA project. Where the film falters is its script. Okada is a fairly consistent scriptwriter, and she’s shown both inventiveness (Maquia) and ability to execute on convention (A Whisker Away). This script is no doubt her most ambitious, and it falls short in a few key ways. The characters aren’t great, particularly the side characters. I couldn’t tell you their names. I’m an advocate for the fat comic relief side character, but this film’s is more annoying than funny. He cracks maybe one funny joke across the whole runtime. One side romance is bizarre and left completely unresolved. The villain is never a legitimate threat, he almost gets beat up by children more times than he thwarts the protagonists. Among our three leads, there’s one uncomfortable spoilery relationship I can’t get into. The female MC’s main character traits are lying all the time and refusing to disclose key information. She's frustrating to watch, though her arc eventually leaves her in a better place. To give credit where it’s due, the character designs are all great. I may not remember their names, but their faces will stick with me. The plot is extremely confusing. As far as I can tell, a town is trapped in a purgatory-like state of stagnation following a disaster at the town’s steel mill. None of the residents age, and time does not pass. That much isn’t hard to understand, but the film insists on burying this information forty minutes into the runtime, well past the time we should be invested in the story. I’m accustomed to strange plot structures, but this one creates a big problem. Rather than building emotional investment in the characters in the first hour, the audience is left grasping at straws trying to piece together what the hell is going on. Once we’re told directly, things only get more confusing. The climax is borderline incoherent, though speaking any further would get into spoiler territory. All of this confusion may work in a more abstract setting, but this film’s otherwise straightforward plot demands the audience understands the specifics. This confusion eventually reaches a breaking point. The audience realizes they’re not going to figure it out, and all emotional investment goes out the window. A particular recurring element unintentionally mirrored my experience. At the very beginning, we hear a radio DJ replying to viewer messages. The characters ignore the broadcast. This plays again at the very end, and the main character yells at the questioners about the joy of living. This was meant to hammer home the film’s themes, but instead served as a powerful moment of catharsis. I was yelling at my TV at this point, frustrated by the unanswered questions and strange writing decisions. Both I and the MC had arrived at the same point, yelling about the absurdity of the media we were consuming. At that point I just laughed. I wanted to like this, but the plot lost me. Even so, I can’t help but respect the attempt. Okada could have pulled back, written a conventional tearjerker script, and I’d have probably loved it. She chose an impossible challenge instead. Though it ended a glorious dumpster fire, I respect the effort. This is worth a watch if you care about Okada, just be prepared for disappointment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 26, 2023 Recommended
This special is pretty good. It's basically a normal municipality-promoting episode of Jashin-chan, plus a Fist of the North Star parody. The animation is a bit worse than that of X (as is directly pointed out by Jashin-chan at the start of the episode), but the art direction is still attractive. It looks worse than the show, but it's not enough of a downgrade to make the special bad. We get two new songs for the opening and ending, both of which are good, but lack proper visuals.
We get plenty of Jashin-chan’s typical fourth wall breaking humor, with some references to the Furano situation thrown ... in. If you're unaware, a few episodes of X raised funds by advertising municipalities, the idea being that fans might send those municipalities money through the hometown tax system. One of these cities, Furano, refused to hand over the money they'd agreed upon (after their episode had already aired), claiming its content was unacceptable. The City Council cited a joke about selling organs, confirming that they have the weakest sensibilities on the planet. It was a real shitty move, and it's nice to see the staff poking fun at it. The special follows a meandering travel plot, where Jashin-chan goes on a wacky adventure, meeting every character in the process. This time the city being promoted is Takamori, and they push the local specialties less than they did in previous promotional episodes. It's still not compelling on its own, but provides ample opportunity for entertaining character interactions. If you're still here after three seasons, that should be enough. Moderate your expectations if the plot synopsis misled you into thinking this was an alternate timeline. This is as much a status update as a new episode. The dialogue at the end implies we’re getting another season, I just hope the crowdfunding makes enough money that they can chill on the hometown tax episodes. I would sell my organs if it meant getting less of those. Watch this special. And if you're a true Jashin-chaner, don't send your taxes to Furano.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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