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Aug 4, 2021
It's hard to write a review for this movie. There's nothing inherently bad about any aspect of it, in fact the concept and studio behind this should've have lead to a masterpiece. But there's something missing. It's hard to point out what that "thing" is that's keeping it from greatness but it's certainly apparent that something isn't right once you finish the movie.
The story itself sounds good on paper, it's a romance political thriller. And none of the plot beats would suede you to believe it would turn out mediocre. But problem comes with our two main characters and their relationship throughout the movie. Fuse
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and Kei and just two sides of the same coin. Fuse is stoic and aloof and Kei is stoic and aloof, just to a lesser extent. This means that they barely interact throughout the entirety of the movie, most conversations have Kei say something wistful and Fuse nod accordingly in agreement (I'm not kidding, you can practically count the number of words Fuse says to Kei on one hand). This led to a feeling of great awkwardness between them, as if nothing was there to tell me that they genuinely wanted to bond. *SPOILERS* This meant that the "emotional payoff" at the end left me feeling more shocked and surprised at such a sudden turn of events than saddened or upset at the death of someone you've grown connected to. I'm not saying you can't have two similar characters form a believable relationship; rather, you should attempt this in something longer like a series where you have the time to believably include both interactions and silent moments.
Another issue is the movies incessant use of "wolves" and "little red riding hood" as a metaphorical device. I'm not saying it was bad because it didn't make sense but rather because the movie decided to cram this symbolism down your throat at every avenue. The fact that every character has to speak in conspicuous allusions and vignettes involving "beasts" even when not referring to the character the metaphor applies to came across as overplayed and in poor taste. For the scenes where it logically made sense, like the hallucination, it was very well implemented.
I also wanted to add something that may be more of a personal nitpick but what is it with anime thinking that linking folklore to the story immediately makes it 100x deeper and more meaningful.
The animation was is this movies strong suit. It's incredibly well done and the art design is amazing, the Panzer suit being a particular highlight. It's all realistically proportioned and almost looks roto-scoped at certain points. Plus theres something about a 90s anime gore-fest like this which really appeals to the eyes. Personally, even if you don't like the story, the movie's worth it on its animation itself.
In conclusion, the faults lie more in wasted potential rather than any obviously poor decisions. It's incredible to look at but lacks the "special sauce" that other classics like Akira or Ghost in Shell have.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 3, 2021
I have to preface that I did not watch the entirety of this anime, only getting about 3/4 of the way through before giving up.
All you need to know is one thing. When this anime was pitched to the creator of og FLCL he said not to make it because he already felt as if FLCL had a conclusive ending and there was nothing else to be explored in that universe. And yet they continued.
The characters are boring, the art is generic, the story is overly sentimental, the soundtrack is virtually non-existent.
This anime is FLCL in name only; even Haruko, who should be this anime's
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one saving grace, is a fucking joke. What made OG Haruko (and FLCL as a whole for that matter) great was under her bizarre facade lay a highly nuanced and troubled character whom the audience could interpret in a multitude of ways. What do we get now? A pink haired alien girl who hangs around in the background, only to pop out when shes need to do something "cool" so that the viewers don't fall asleep from the shallow and god awful dialogue. Don't even get me started on some of her jokes. I understand that not all her lines in the original landed with a western audience but OH GOD, YOU DIDNT HAVE TO DO HER LIKE THIS. There's legitimately a rap scene she has that I had to skip because it was so difficult to watch, it wasn't even watchable in a "ironically bad" way, it was just straight up bad.
Then there's the protagonists. All of them are as generic anime protagonist as it gets except for one. The token "fat" kid found in western cartoons. Her entire character is that she's "fat". All her jokes are "haha look at fat person", I heard she doesn't grow to control her eating disorder or accept herself or hell, grow as a character at all! In fact I don't think any of the characters grow.
Basically, remove "alternative" and "progressive" from your memory and pretend 2000s FLCL is the only one that exists. If you want more FLCL after 2000s FLCL then go read the manga (it's a re-imagining of the events of FLCL). Plus its really cheap.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 3, 2021
The FLCL manga and anime is the quintessential "you just don't get it" duo.
This is a super odd manga read. It's FLCL targeted at only those who really enjoyed the anime (so people like me).
It's story is a complete clusterfuck to an even greater extent than the anime. There's constant time skips back and fourth between different scenes making it really hard to comprehend if your only casually reading it. Stuff that had some explanation in the anime now goes unexplained and seems to occur at random. However, many things that were left ambiguous in the manga are now out right stated so it sorta
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works both ways. A lot of the plot has been changed, pretty much to the point wheres it's straight up a different story which only follows the same basic beats as the anime. It's also full of all sorts of fanservice (even the horny type, for better or for worse) like *SPOILERS* the bunny costume appearing right at the end, Haruko actually admitting to falling in love with Naota eventually (although this is skeptical) and a really out of place implied sex between characters which was super weird
The characters have also been changed quite significantly. Naota and Mamimi are similar to the anime (however, Mamimi's mental state is shown to be much worse and is explored to a much greater extent) but the biggest change is to Haruko who is less of an ambiguous space agent and more a sadistic god in the manga. She has no qualms with ending a person's life to further her own goals and even goes to the extent of almost executing Mamimi with a rifle for posing a threat to her plans. Amarao has a very insignificant role in the manga, only appearing for one panel. Eri also plays a much bigger role in the manga and has an extremely obvious crush on Naota unlike in the anime where it's more hinted that she has a liking for Naota. The biggest inclusion though is Naota's brother actually being given a face and personality, appearing in a few flashback pages to flesh out Mamimi's past.
The art is this manga's biggest strength. It's sketchy, hyper-stylized and looks purposefully unfinished, which isn't to everyone's taste, but perfectly captures the zany and creative nature of FLCL. The only problem with the art being the puzzling panel layout which paired with the mess of a story, makes this manga a confusing read.
Unfortunately, there are a few inherent drawback of adapting FLCL into a manga. Firstly is that you (obviously) can't have music which was one of FLCL's major selling points and is where a lot of the praise for the anime is directed at; many scenes that were lifted from the anime don't have the same impact in the manga due to losing such an integral element. Secondly, FLCL was a display of GAINAX's raw animating prowess after Evangelion. Adapting some of the manic scenes in the anime to fit onto paper is a neigh impossible task. What they do here is close enough but doesn't create nearly the same buzz as it's anime counterpart does.
This manga doesn't reach the heights of it's anime brethren but is a good supplemental read for those who enjoy and understand the insanity that is FLCL. It's a different interpretation which strips back some fluff to tell a more focused, character based story. If you want a slightly darker, more cruel FLCL as reprieve for the god awful FLCL sequels than this manga is probably for you.
Plus, FLCL Omnibus (a full collection of every volume) is a extremely cheap buy on amazon so it's pretty much a no brainer for anyone who really enjoyed FLCL.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 2, 2021
"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined" - TheReportOfTheWeek
The Great Pretender is 3/4 amazing and 1/4 exceptionally mediocre.
To sum it up, the first 3 arcs escalate from good to great to incredible. Each are used to cleverly explore a certain protagonists backstory and at the same time interweave that with the current arc's scam and each succeed in their respective departments, capping it off with satisfying (if not predictable) ending.
BUT THEY HAD TO GO RUIN IT ALL. The finale is baffling in it's wasted potential. It all starts at episode 18 when the big twist happens. *SPOILERS* The viewer is led through a
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tragic ordeal involving the main character offing his buddies. It's a powerful moment and makes the viewer contemplate that they might have the balls to pull a "Gurren Lagann" and take away someone who you've grown a connection to throughout the entire anime, especially since it would seem ridiculous to pull the same twist for the fifth time. We'll get back to this later.
So Edamura's just killed his friends and we get a whole flashback to Laurent's past. Turns out he had a girlfriend. Unfortunately, she "died" in the ocean as well; an attempt by the writers to make the douchey Laurent seem more tragic and sympathetic. Problem is, Dorothy isn't sympathetic. She wasn't suave or hard-edged like the other con-men but unabashedly goofy, like a 12 year old pretending to play "confidence girl". Her line's and line delivery was so corny that I had to switch the language back to japanese just so I could stomach some of it. How am I supposed to feel bad for her when I only knew her for one episode and during that episode all I wanted to see was her get off screen? The flashback is made even worse by how easily the conmen get caught making me think that these supposedly "genius" conmen are actually dawdling idiots who just get lucky 99% of the time.
So we return to the present and guess who we see, Abbie, Cynthia and Edamura's dad. Great, so they actually did the same twist for the fifth time. Now I hate Laurent even more because not only did his flashback feel like a waste of time but his plan also just robbed me of a good emotional payoff.
Fast forward to the climax. Edamura loses it with Laurent and we see him hold up a knife to his throat. Was I the only one who wanted that smug look wiped off of Laurent's face? I genuinely thought it was going to turn out that Edamura was going to scam everyone in that room, it would make sense since from the beginning he's always been trying to one-up Laurent. But no, unsurprisingly it's the same as it always was, Laurent wins again. yipeeeeee. Those kids from the beginning of the arc? Who cares! We just successfully completed one of the most contrived of cons ever created (I'm not kidding, they build an entire goddamn copy of the yakuza headquarters on a remote island and none of the gang leaders noticed that something was up when they landed?).
And one final F you by the creators, turns out Dorothy wasn't dead this whole time and just forgot her memories or something like that idk, who cares at this point?
What was the point in this ending? Was it to make me feel stupid? An idiot for believing that these arcs were more than just games to these characters? Maybe they wanted me to be like Edamura, believing things to be important than they actually are. Maybe they wanted an ending that was meant to aggravate you just like Edamura was aggravated by his colleagues.
Maybe i'm a goddamn idiot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 17, 2021
Welcome to NHK is one of the most interesting animes of all time. From the MAL description and poster, I was expecting an FLCL-esque romp with zany characters and nothing much else. I was wholly wrong. The atypical story has a rather unique structure that will have you crying, laughing and generally having an overwhelming sense of melancholy throughout it's course.
The story feels rather episodic with the main character coming up with different schemes to solve his isolation every few episodes with most of the schemes failing in one way or another. Even though this can make the anime feel purposeless and meandering at times,
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it serves to emphasise the shows greater themes of futility and the suffering of life which overall give the anime a deeper sense of meaning. However, where this purposeless becomes somewhat inexcusable is when it comes to the main character and his relationship with Misaki. The anime has what feels like a story crescendo right around the middle, with huge reveals about some of the character's relationships. However, afterwards we see our main character take actions that completely contradict his beliefs beforehand. *Spoilers* Tatsuhiro's neglectful attitude towards Misaki afterwards wasn't explained thoroughly enough leading to me becoming frustrated with Tatsuhiro who seemed to be willfully ignoring his chances of happiness without good reason, like he was purposefully torturing himself until the shows finale. However, near the end of the show, this suspicion and general aloofness towards Misaki is explored in a more satisfying way; leaving me wishing that it was explored like that in the first place. As for other character arcs, the show prides itself in kicking you in the gut. All the characters except one fail to get what they want. There's a scene in particular which I found quite gut wrenchingly hard to watch. In it we see another character have the love of his life confess she still has feelings for him, even after he shows her his grotesque and perverted side. Most other animes would stop here, using this scene as an appeal to the average otakus viewer's fantasies of having his own crush confess her love despite the viewers deplorable nature. But NHK doesn't stop there because just after she confesses, our character goes even further out of his way to purposefully jeopardise his relationship by suggesting she gets "turned on" by his perverted antics. Watching this character destroy his own chances of happiness for a cheap and selfish gag was simultaneously one of the funniest and saddest moments in the entire anime. This scene really encapsulated the shows emphasis on how human nature and its unreasonableness and irrationality often leads to us throwing away true longterm fulfilment in service of cheap thrills.
As for the art, it's good. The show isn't action packed so it's hard to comment on the technicalities or faults of the animation when most scenes consist of two characters walking and talking or sitting and talking. However, I noticed that when it needs to be fast paced and frantic it reverts to a slightly more simplistic art style which I personally enjoy but I can see how it might come off as cheap and low-effort to others.
In terms of sound, the ost is great! In particular there's an acoustic track which I personally love. However, I prefer many of the songs instrumental versions as I feel that the lyrics can get in the way and even remove some of the impact of the song itself. Voice acting is good and to be expected from the modern anime. The sound effects are fine as well, nothing out of place or noticable like a recognisable royalty free sound (Id like to add that the Purrurin ringtone in particular was really bloody catchy and had me humming it even when I wasn't watching NHK).
Overall, I believe that NHK is a must watch anime, not because it's a masterpiece but because it subverts so many common anime storytelling tropes to tell such a human story that I believe will leave an impact on every viewer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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