My Neighbour Totoro begins with a cheerful ride of a family of three: two young girls and their father. The vast, watery fields, reflecting the morning light, as well as a distinct, towering forest pass by in a flash. Shortly after, the trio arrives at the steps of what's to become their new home.
Despite a bunch of rather large wooden pieces falling from the ceiling, dust covering the wooden panels and several dark, mysterious creatures scattering around the floors, this home is immediately filled with energy like no other. As the kids playfully traverse the insides and rummage through rooms, their sudden, over-the-top movements—animated with
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Aug 17, 2018
Zeonic Toyota Special Movie
(Anime)
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I do not trust you if you don't want to own this car.
This. This is the best commercial to ever exist. It's a car designed for Char motherfucking Aznable. He uses it to drive to his robot when he needs to get to it fast. This car actually exists. You better believe that this is the closest we'll ever get to actual Gundams. This is the only technology from the Gundam universe to appear in our lives. Cherish it, my brothers and sisters. It's worthy of celebration. Like, have you seen the photos of this beast? It's the most stupidly flashy car in existence. You know all those ... cringy photos of cars with anime stickers? You can actually get this one with anime stickers already on it! And not just any sticker, it's the Zeon sign, carefully painted onto the car. You can literally buy a car with a sign of Gundam's interpretation of the Nazis. How is this real? The absolute mad lads in Japan allowed for this. Hail Zeon my dudes! Also, there are apparently two colors. One's red for Char and one's green to look like the Zakus I guess. I just want to inform you, that if you ever even think about buying the green one instead of the red one, you're dead in my eyes. So yeah, if it wasn't clear enough, I want this car, the red one. I accept any donations toward this goal. PM me if you want to help the cause. Help I'm poor.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 25, 2018
Isekai Shokudou
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Everyone wants to get the most out of their moment. In an attempt to create new opportunities for their pursuit of bliss, humans seek out numerous things in order to avoid duties. After all, effort leads to fatigue, which is nothing else than a detriment for one's enjoyment, right?
In Restaurant to Another World the viewer follows beings from a typical fantastical setting. It's a world where dangerous foes, social inequalities, and incurable diseases are issues its inhabitants face on a daily basis. Weeks pass, but their demanding lives don't get easier. Be that a life of a gladiator, squaring off against countless enemies to earn ... his freedom, a sole survivor, enduring a solitary existence on a parlous island, or a stray demon, cast away by the society due to her origin, their lifestyles are far from ideal. Regardless of this, they can still find pleasure and comfort in their challenging, yet steady lives. All thanks to Nekoya: a magical eatery, whose doors appear throughout their universe only once a week, on the day of Satur. Nekoya by human standards, does not deviate from the norm. Simple dishes are served in simple ways; it's a typical western restaurant on the outskirts. The otherworldly creatures, however, perceive each course as a heavenly gift. Curry, ice cream, fried fish, steamed potatoes and many others provide intense experiences incomparable to any other. A meal—consumed countless of times before—brings forth a sense of joy and satisfaction on their rigid faces. An entire week's severe workload gone in a matter of minutes. Not much can compare to such gratification. The cook himself, however, sees the restaurant's menu as being anything but exceptional, understanding that despite the feelings it leaves in its patrons, its crudity can be noticed by anyone familiar with the real-life cuisine. Similarly, binge-watching Restaurant to Another World can lead to feeling blasé. The lack of intrigue, absorbing characters, worthwhile art or music leaves it with only its noncomplex emotional resonance, which relies purely on avoiding the aforementioned feeling. The show puts a high emphasis on the fact that, just like the food served at Nekoya, its simplicity is supposed to be enjoyed seldom, allowing for its message to persist longer, as well as give the person receiving it time to utilize it. Despite that effort, it still can't avoid the results of its bare-bones presentation. The always present redundancy will inevitably cause the viewer to grow bored, defeating the purpose entirely. Unfortunately, following the most popular anime format, it opted out for twelve episodes, rather than a one-shot OVA or a shorter season. The lengthiness damaged what could have been an uplifting and memorable story, turning it into a forgettable piece of animation. As such, although the show's messages are genuinely worth experiencing, it is hard to recommend—finishing it will grow gradually more tedious, which can suppress everything it's trying to convey. It knows about this, but doesn't attempt to create a captivating experience, instead settling on a monotonous repeat of everything that it already said. The strength its idea possesses is far from enough to carry a twelve episode show on its own. So ultimately, what you really need to know is that you should enjoy your morning sandwiches more, faggots.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 23, 2017
Bakemonogatari
(Anime)
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*Spoilers included*
Regret lives inside everyone: It's an unstoppable feeling that at times can drive some into a corner — make them stop progressing as they can't overcome the hurdle that is their past. But that doesn't have to weigh people down. They can't change their past, neither should they desire to. People are who they are because of all of their experiences. No matter how big of a hit a person takes, they can get back up and learn from it, find ways to utilize it and make their lives better in the future. In Bakemonogatari that regret is personified through "aberrations": gods and beings that ... take advantage of people when they're at their worst. Often times however, they do so with the consent of the "victims". People are given a chance to fix their situation with the help of inhuman powers, and so they take it without a second thought. While aberrations initially seem to just be a depiction of their pasts and regrets; they also symbolize the parts of them hidden deep in their hearts, waiting to be unleashed... With that in mind, one could see why Araragi is such a fitting protagonist for the Monogatari series. As I mentioned, the show is mostly about characters understanding their feelings and facing them to remove their inner demons; both figuratively and literally. In that case, the person that would interact with them would have to be someone who would allow for that process to be put in motion, and Araragi is exactly that. He's the show's catalyst thanks to his specific set of traits. The main one would be his empathy, which allows him to spot the problems in the first place. He himself is half vampire and has helped his friend get rid of an aberration before, so it's safe to say that he's at least knowledgeable enough to spot a similar issue, but that's not the only reason why he decides to help. Simply put: He's just like that. He really wants to help people, or how he puts it, allow others to help themselves. If the person wants to change but just can't do it, he will do anything in his power to allow for that to happen, often time without regard for his own well being, so not only is he empathetic, he's an altruist as well. That combination can prove to be all sorts of dangerous, as he pushes himself far more than any mortal can. He comes close to death numerous times for the sake of people he barely knows and doesn't really owe anything to. Again, he's just that type of a person. This attitude proves to be difficult not only to him, but to others that he interacts with. As Araragi develops bonds with other characters, he becomes a meaningful part of their lives; everyone sees him as someone special, be that their savior or their love interest. The first character we see Araragi push towards a better future is Senjougahara Hitagi: His mysterious and withdrawn classmate. Her tragic past is revealed in the second episode, and more importantly, so is the reason for her frigid persona. She doesn't want to get close to others because her trust has already been severely damaged. Her mother, who's been a part of a cult, brought home a person that attempted to rape young Senjougahara. The impact of that situation followed her around until she met the aberration that caused a massive change in her life. From there on out, her future started revolving only around getting rid of that creature, and after experiencing people failing at that and cheating her out of her money, her distrust in humanity kept progressing... until she met Araragi. Meeting him - the first person who offered help without a promise of a reward and came out with actual results - allows for a healing process to start. Senjougahara can once again believe in and get close to someone, not to mention that she was finally freed of her burden. A relationships starts to blossom between the two. That relationship technically comes out of nowhere. Senjougahara revealed her feelings all of a sudden and Araragi responded with a "yes". It could've been anyone else for both of them, but it just so happened that one had the courage to ask and the other had the courage to respond. There are a lot of things that "just happen" in Monogatari, as you'll notice. The main storyline focuses a lot on destiny and fate, things that just sort of happen and how that sets others in motion. Monogatari is structured in a way where every character gets their own arc or arcs, in which they take the main stage. In this instalment, we are presented with five smaller storylines, however they do create a cohesive and coherent plot for the season, mainly revolving around Araragi's and Senjougahara's relationship. Them beginning to date sets off a chain reaction, starting with Kanbaru Suruga's arc and culminating in Hanekawa Tsubasa's arc. One simple, on the spot decision caused major consequences for the rest of the cast, be that immediately or throughout the next seasons. Each event from the past gains more and more meaning as the time goes on, because you understand it's importance and what has it caused. The flow that it maintains is precisely what makes Monogatari's style of storytelling so impressive. Other than that, like a proper story would, Bakemonogatari's plot has a beginning, then proceeds to add crises along the way, raising the tension until the climax point, and finally resolving it, definitely or indefinitely in some cases. However, on top of that, it's also able to consistently introduce new characters; while also giving them proper exposition and develop their own storylines. Nothing really stands still in Monogatari. Each new element seems like it can't work, like there's too much for the writers to work with already, but the show handles it with such care and attention to detail, leaving subtle clues along the way so that no event will ever feel like it lacked meaning. Making the whole thing even more impressive is the fact that each addition is unlike anything we've seen before, they all bring in new traits, attitudes, gags, questions and ways of exploring Monogatari's thematic depth. All that and it still manages to maintain a good, steady flow and a clear idea of what it wants to do. There's no amount of words that could describe my respect for Bakemonogatari's writers upon a realization of the work they put into this and how great it truly ended up being. Thanks to a competent team, the show gets enough time and space to really dig deeper than most anime stories do. Unlike them, it has time to explore its values, not just rush through the story and leave no human emotions behind. Bakemonogatari takes time to look into most of the characters views on topics important to the show's thematic depth, giving the viewer an understanding of things such as Araragi's and Kanbaru's moral codes, Hanekawa's inner dilemmas, or Senjougahara's doubts and thoughts about people creates a certain image. That image responds directly to the viewer. It often holds very little importance to other characters, but to people watching, knowing the characters so well not only helps with a better comprehension of their future actions, but also provides dilemmas to think about. Nobody in Monogatari is inherently right about everything, their worldviews are twisted by their pasts, by the aberrations that dwell inside them. It's through the bits and pieces of happy moments that we see what's truly right. Araragi's and Senjougahara's first date is a prime example of a way things should be like. It's a pure moment, clear of any evil and doubt, as it replaces them with passion, trust and truth, all that wrapped inside a beautiful, heart grabbing conversation between two lovers. This is truly how it should be, and the show sells you on this idea by inserting it in episode twelve, amidst all the chaos that goes on in Araragi's life, after he's nearly been killed and just before he nearly gets killed again. And to think that this episode, as well as most of the show leading up to it, consists primarily of dialogues and monologues. Monogatari rarely gets flashy, if it does it's for a climax of an arc where the aberrations reveal themselves, which really requires a lot of tension and excitement given their fantastical nature, however besides that, the show is pure talk. Initially off-putting, this kind of storytelling supports the two pillars on which the story is built: Character interactions and exploration of their psyche. Despite the constant array of words, almost nothing is thrown in your face; each trait is showcased through individual decisions and actions, only being revealed at the end, for those who couldn't catch onto their meaning. Araragi choosing to help people constantly showcases his empathy. Hanekawa hiding her true feelings is a sign of her shyness and modesty. Senjougahara's obnoxious behaviour is a part of her defence mechanism. Hachikuji telling everyone that she hates them provides a clue to her real intentions. There's just almost no dialogue in which character relationships don't progress or the viewer doesn't learn something about said characters. Bakemonogatari is very dense in that aspect. It can get confusing at some points because of it, but if you pay close attention, there's something that should help with catching onto the most important aspects: It's the directing. Akiyuki Shinbou and his team utilized a few ways to both make the dialogue interesting visually and to emphasize the flow of a conversation. Undoubtedly their best idea was using silence when a discussion ends or stops to change to a different one, giving the viewer an easily noticeable sign of a change in topic or pace. This is often accompanied by an out of place shot, focusing on things like the outside of the place the scene is taking place in, an object inside the room, the characters eyes and so on. Due to the rather fast pace of the dialogue and the plot in general, those shots are a great way to give out fast bits of information, like the layout of a room or the current feelings of people included in the scene. Those types of shots are also often used for comedic effect, for example, during a conversation we switch between two perspectives of Araragi and Senjougahara talking, until at one point she casually throws a witty remark and as we cut back to Araragi, we can't see him, until the camera pans down and we see the defeated man lying on the floor. There's lots of stuff like that throughout the show, making it never feel like it's running out of steam. Lastly, the use of sound. The music isn't supposed to draw attention to itself, it serves as background for the characters as their tone of voice and their line delivery sets the tone and pace of a scene. For that reason most of the soundtrack is comprised of monotonous, steady sounds put on repeat, all of which are certainly pleasant to hear. Because the music isn't all that noticeable, the show uses sound in other ways: There are sudden burst or cut outs of sound accompanying the previously mentioned breaks in conversations. One of my personal favorite things is how the key lines are often highlighted by some sort of an effect mixed in with the characters voice, allowing for an easier watch for people paying attention. Those examples are only a few of the ways Bakemonogatari makes itself interesting. I think this shows how much passion and creativity was put into this project, as well as how fun it was to make it. There are so many little touches and so many big ideas in the show, it truly feels like it aimed for something more, like it was meant to nudge its viewers with certain ideas, to give them a sort of a lesson, not just an experience that will fade as time goes on. I believe it succeeded in that. Despite me needing a re-watch to give it a proper chance, once I did I came to a realization that Bakemonogatari does go that extra step. It dares to state an opinion about the world as a whole, about human cruelty and the faults that reside within our society. By giving them a physical form, their consequences become more than just thoughts inside of the victim's head. Crab Gods that take away people's weight, invisible snakes that squeeze your body or cat aberrations that take over your body to release stress may not exist, but you know what does? Problems such as people hating their body after being raped, leading to medical issues like anorexia, bullying leading to the bullied kids scarring themselves, uncontrollable fits of rage as a result of pathology and other issues in life. Bakemonogatari doesn't provide all the answers, it's only the first season of a long story. Slowly, episode after episode it analyses individual issues of each character, even adding some along the way, and eventually arrives at conclusions for each, giving off the author's overall look on the world, as cruel as it is. That's exactly why I believe watching Monogatari is worth it. You may not like it's style that I gushed about, you may not like the way the plot works, but if watched with enough attention it can really provide the viewer with something important, but finding that is something everyone has to do for themselves. After all, nobody can save you, you can only save yourself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 20, 2017
Uchuu Show e Youkoso
(Anime)
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When I think of the word "imagination", my thoughts immediately run towards my childhood and the experience of discovering and understanding new things on my own, without asking or needing an actual definition. It makes me remember the times when consuming any piece of media I had on my hands was immediately proceeded with imagining my own expansions for it.
Nowadays, that definition somewhat changed. I feel like with age, imagination attempts to turn itself away from inspiration, trying to get to a point where only the overarching ideas remain from anything you experience. It's a natural way of things, as you go through more and ... more there's less and less for you to find. But there's always room for something different, for exploration and experiencing the originality of others, for that childish feeling to emerge again and remind you of its existence. I feel like that's exactly what Welcome to the Space show aimed to do. It tried to take overarching ideas we've seen again and again, even as children, and put them in a reality, a realm that was always an inspiration to humans - the vast and unexplored space. Not only that, but through those means it seems to give its best shot at reviving the inspiration and the imagination of anyone who watches it, giving the viewers tons of assets to work with in every minute of its runtime. *Slight spoilers* The story begins on Earth, where a group of friends are on their break decide to spend a week in their school all alone. We quickly get to understand their rather simplistic characters and relationships thanks to the montage proceeding the events of the movie, and a couple of scenes afterwards. In summary: we have the main character Natsuki; who is somewhat of an energetic airhead and a tomboy and her young cousin Amane, who's very emotional and caring. Then there's Noriko, a rather stock up; trendy girl who dreams of being an idol. Koji, a bookworm passionate about space; the brains of the group, their leader Kiyoshi, who's the most grown up person in the group. And finally Pochi..... a talking alien dog. The children find him wounded in an alien-made crop shape, take him to their staying place and treat his wounds. Upon waking up they are greeted with a huge surprise. The dog that they thought is, well, a dog is actually an alien! As a reward for helping him, he takes kids to the furthest place humanity has reached - the Moon! Turns out though, that we haven't really seen the true moon. On the other, unexplored side of it lies a huge city, and the kids get the chance to explore it. From there, everything so great about the movie begins to show its head, one by one, although it's biggest strength can be noticed even before that. Beginning with an intense, action packed scene where aliens jump around mountains and shoot each other with lasers, the movie wastes no time to flaunt it's main asset - the visuals. A-1 Pictures may have garnered quite a bad reputation as of late when it comes to character designs or lazy animation, but it goes to show that when enough talent and passion (and most likely money) is put into a project, it doesn't matter what studio makes it. Welcome to the Space Show is more than 2 hours long, and at no point does it not impress me. No matter if it's the grassy plains of Earth, the overwhelming city on the Moon, or the grand, bright finale of epic proportions, the movie manages to find its style for each place it decides to showcase, feeling truly unique and inspiring at every angle, switching up the color pallet, the style of architecture and the alien races. This on the other hand directly ties to what is my personal favorite thing about the movie - it's structure and how it correlates with the places the characters are at. As mentioned, the time spent on Earth is mostly used as exposition and the set up. The true fun begins on the Moon. The experience of watching the characters explore the Moon for the first time can only be explained as a total clusterfuck of ideas and designs. Every shot feels completely ridiculous, the aliens walking around look even crazier and weirder than the ones we see in the first minutes of the movie, the place makes no sense whatsoever and wrapping your head around it is not even eligible, because most disappear as soon as they appear. This hecticness makes sense however if you think of the context of kids exploring the space civilization for the first time. Also worth noting that this is the place where the kids see the Space Show for the first time. That cut was made completely by Yuasa Masaaki. After a while everything settles down a bit, as the kids find jobs their dreams and plans face reality, giving them a more mature feeling before we're taken on a ride to another planet inside of a big space worm. There we witness about the same amount of new things, but at this point, we as the audience, as well as the kids are more familiar with space, making for a much more concentrated experience. This is also the point where a lot of foreshadowing takes place, as well as kids planning their nearest future. Proceeding onward they arrive on the dog planet, which heavily resembles Earth. That fact Allows for a breather. Giving a sense of familiarity, be that with the designs, seeing Pochi's family, his backstory on his own planet and the events that take place there, directly ties to the topics discussed at that time, those being relationships between the characters and the strive to help others, be that as doctors, heroes or normal people. And finally, the big ending. Much more collected and much more focused, we follow few perspectives at once, we see new designs, but this is the point after we saw so many similarly weird things, had the time to digest it and take it in as a normality, making for a finale that, just as the rest of the places we've seen, introduces new elements to the galaxy and gives the viewer more things to work with, but at the same time is a clear picture, something you can get behind because you understand the world dynamics, the character dynamics, the themes, the ideas, and everything the movie has thrown at you, making for a fun and interesting conclusion, wrapping the story of the kids and the movie's themes up, but leaving out a lot for the viewer to just delve in it on his own. Nothing that was necessary has been left alone, that's for sure. And isn't this the same feeling as finishing, for example, WALL-E or The Incredibles? There's a good reason for that, it was meant to be that way, stories for children live by different rules. While narratively this could be a legit claim that I can understand, the vast amounts of unnecessary information is not a good thing, of course, but I don't believe it's an actual negative when looking into the movie's themes, especially the one of the Space Show itself, the mindless aliens taking their entertainment for granted, not giving a care about how its made, not wanting anything new. If there was a particular flaw with the movie, I would say it is the directing in the first half. The very first scene has massive problems with establishing space, the camera is often too close to the action. Later, on the Moon, while I defended it, the hecticness could've been contained more, randomness is often distracting and the weirdness factor wears off faster than it should. Luckily, the show gains its footings afterwards and is able to form a much better idea of space and weight of movement. The action can still be a bit confusing, but it’s never really hard to follow. My final thoughts about Space Show won't be long, because they don't need to be. You're out of Disney movies? You're out of inspiration? You're running low on energy? Space Show has you covered on all sides. Everyone deserves a little kiddie movie once in a while, and one as good as this is a rarity nowadays. Pure, exciting and fresh, Welcome to the Space Show is a movie that has a huge chance to get everyone's brains going again. If you're interested, sit down, and enjoy the show, but don't forget to do so actively. You don't want to turn into a mindless alien, do you now? As always, this is purely my opinion, I highly recommend you to develop your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 28, 2017
Love Live! School Idol Project
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Memes. You love them or you hate them. You live by them and die with them, or just simply don't care. So you can say... you either Love (and) Live or you don't.
Thank you everyone, you can leave the death threats in my comment section. I put a surprisingly large amount of time into thinking about why do I like Love Live's first season. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind, but overtime all the overthinking bullshit, I realized it's as simple as "I had fun". Not everyone's going to agree with me, but I think watching happy people be happy and achieve their goals is ... rewarding. Honoka wanting to save her school, finding people to do that with and all of them becoming more open with themselves and other people evokes exactly that. Love Live is very much capable of creating happy characters and scenarios. There's the dumb and passionate people like Honoka, Rin and Nico, the collected but silly ones like Eri, Umi, Maki and Nozomi, and the shy but cheerful ones like Hanayo and Kotori, and they all find themselves digging into the stereotypes of a happy school life and being an idol, providing for a bunch of rather calming and relaxing episodes. There's a distinct progression to it all too, with more members and the growing happy, somewhat loud atmosphere of a group of friends overtaking the show more and more. It was happy at the start, but it's the middle where all of the characters get to really showcase themselves in casual situations and embrace that happiness to its fullest. Aside from that, I also think Love Live's first season has strong moments of characterization for most of the girls, giving them enough personality to be worth following. There's Honoka with her strong resolve that captured me during the first concert of the group at which any normal person would probably give up. There's Eri looking down on idols as a whole due to their lack of actual skill, but after some time understanding that the most important part of being one is the atmosphere and the fun that comes with it. There's Nico and Hanayo with their life-long dreams of becoming idols, with their own reasons as to why those dreams couldn't become reality sooner. Maki with her enclosed style of life opening up due to the passion for music and friendship she develops throughout this season. Unfortunately there's also Umi, Rin, Nozomi and Kotori. In comparison to the others, they feel empty, and that's really meaningful when you understand that the others aren't really "full" either. Umi suffers from being sidelined by Honoka, who's always with her, despite having a rather strong presence in the show it's always easy to forget about her. The opposite goes for Rin, who's basically nonexistent. Like, Rin does not exist. And yes, it is annoying to see her still be around despite being nothing. She has one scene to herself, but then she disappears, doesn't contribute to anything meaningful, any jokes, any cute scenes, anything whatsoever. Nozomi on the other hand, has too many scenes. Too many boob grabbing scenes to be exact. I think the idea of her as a hidden mentor, giving backup when needed, was good. That surely helped with turning Maki and Eri into somewhat realized characters. But on the other hand, we have every scene where she tries to be herself. Those scenes consist of: A. Grabbing boobs B. Threatening to grab boobs That would be about it. And finally, there's Kotori. Kotori, whose arc was supposed to be the closing one. And oh boy it sure closed with a bang. A bang that would kill the show for a lot of people, that's for sure. Kotori's arc is bad. It is REALLY bad. Admittedly, it's not only her arc, and that's what makes it even worse. Even before her confession about leaving, we get Honoka pushing herself too hard and getting sick, leading to a gloomy atmosphere in the group. Making Kotori confess her decision in that situation sidetracks both of those seemingly important issues, creates now ones, and making a one huge mess in general. Visibly forced one at that. I mean, this show was so happy before all this, it's like they force all of the drama they had left in their arsenal. Outside of creating a few cool connections to the second season and the movie, which could've been mentioned in a normal, less dramatic ways too, it has very little purpose. At best, it'll make you sad for the characters that you like, but at worst it'll make you hate numerous characters or the show in general. I'd say that's a pretty poor choice to make there to say the least. And with that being said, I think it's safe to assume that Love Live: The School Idol Project isn't a good show. But do I care? As if. Love Live was very enjoyable for 10 episodes or so out of 13. You think I'm going to give it a low score because of two or three episodes? I've always felt weird when people tell me "I liked the show, but the ending is why I have it low". Sure, if it's the artistic quality we're talking about, then by all means, think about it in that context. But this? This is Love Live. It is a meme, it is relaxing fun with cute girls, where would I try to get this value out of? I watch a 13 episodes fun, cute girls show, which was always just that, and then I get both the fun and the cute girls that I think are fun to follow in good doses and so I like it. On top of that, it is crafted pretty well. The designs for the girls are cute enough, varying in figure, faces, movement, making for fun interactions on the screen. The show looks very pleasant, with tons of bright colors and the nicely fitting uniforms to complement that. The colors just bounced off of each other so nicely that I honestly couldn't stop looking at it. Then there's the CGI during performances. In all honesty, I'm very glad that the studio decided to do it the way it did. It allowed for much more freedom in the choreography of the performances, and it really shows, there's a lot of movement and the performances look realistic and coordinated. I hear the issue that the jumps between 2D and 3D faces can be jarring, but I never went through that problem, it's pretty clear and obvious that this is how it's going to be, so I took it in pretty fast. And lastly, the music. The OST is absolutely forgettable background music contributing very little to what's going on. The actual idol songs on the other hand, should be satisfying for anyone new to idols. It's basic stuff, music that you can jump to and wave at a concert. I don't think there were any standouts in particular, but each performance, together with the choreography, made for an entertaining moment in the show, and the songs fit well, especially given their context each time. It gave them that little extra weight. And with all that, I feel safe in stating that Love Live does its job pretty well, setting up a decent foundation for the second season. It's far from being anything more than satisfying. The ending is just an ending, undermines an entire character for the sake of a finish and can definitely throw people off, giving them low expectations and even making them give up on the series in general, but if that's the case, then I just want to point towards the parts that I believe can be genuinely fun - the first 10 episodes. That's some well crafted cute girls stuff, and if that's what you're looking, then it's waiting for you. And then there's the second season, but that's a different story. As always, this is purely my opinion. I recommend you to develop your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 10, 2017
Hourou Musuko
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
*For this review, I'll be referring to the Nitori, Mako and Yuki as she, and Takatsuki as he*
*Spoilers for the first episode* What's the point of Wandering Son? What is it trying to do? It clearly doesn't want to tell a complete, perfectly rounded story, seeing as it begins around volume five of the manga its based, and doesn't end where its source material does. If that's the case, then it's not the best manga promo as well, you aren't getting a good enough grip on the source material after all. So the question remains... Well, Wandering Son feels like it was crafted to become a documentary ... instead of an adaptation. Beginning at the start of junior high, it closely follows a group of friends, all with complicated relationships and confusing lives. The main character - Nitori - is a transgender girl that's been dressing up as one for a while. She already met the pain and suffering that acting so differently brings, but thanks to Tatsumaki (a transgender boy who she has a crush on), Mako (who's also been trying to be seen as a girl), Chiba (a girl who has a crush on Nitori) and Kanaba (everyone's friend), she managed to get through. Towards the end of primary school, they get into a huge fight, as Nitori confesses her love to Tatsumaki and gets rejected, which also pushes Chiba and Tatsumaki into a conflict. With this setup, episode one starts. We see this normal, uninterrupted flow of what appears to be Nitori's and Tatsumaki's daily life, as well as their first day in junior high. While someone like the viewer, looking from the outside, wouldn't call this day particularly normal, seeing as a girl in their class comes in wearing a boy's uniform and we get to see Nitori dress up as a girl and walk around town, it definitely feels like an ordinary day to those kids. The episode flows through beautifully, jumping from scene to scene, place to place, eventually ending up in Nitori's house. After her sister and her model friends leave, Nitori is left all alone in his room. There's a beautiful, pink dress hanging on the wall. Without much hesitation, Nitori dresses up. A relaxing, charming track begins to play as we see her happily looking at herself. Just another day... The music cuts off in an instant. Nitori's sister enters the room. She starts ripping the dress off of her, screaming. Nitori pushes her onto the table She runs out, wearing nothing but boxers and a tank top. Running through the middle of the street, she thinks about how she must look to all those people. Nitori isn't cute in their eyes. Nitori surely isn't pretty in their eyes. Nitori definitely isn't a girl in their eyes. Episode one of Wandering Son is powerful. It takes you from heaven to hell in an instant. Seeing broken Nitori run through the dimly lit streets left me stunned. But then, just like that, he runs past Tatsumaki who stops him, and they start talking again, him just wanting to help her by covering her with his jacket. And we end up in Nitori's house again, her smiling, going to sleep, as if nothing ever happened. Truly, what we know as normal, isn't normal to her. As the show progresses, we get to see more and more of what's "normal" to Nitori, we see her blushing when someone says she's cute or girly, and the same thing goes for Mako and Tatsumaki. While they're both more secretive about the whole idea, they identify as a different gender already, they want that to be something normal for them. That's their end goal. At the same time, Chiba wants Nitori to be a "normal boy", and does see him as such even at the end of the series. The idea of Wandering Son is very novel, and it works out in the series' favor. This exploration of normality for those people, seen as weirdness by others, proves rather effective, thanks to the mix of some well put together, typical slice of life elements and the awkwardness and tension during the moments when the scenes handling that topic are presented. It's paced well enough so that I got both of those in measures that satisfied my interests and need for progression while keeping the steady flow of character exposition at all times. The problems arise in another department. Simply put, the show feels like a big, emotional dump. Its style ends up being on this feeling of melancholy and overwhelming sadness. And it never leaves. Ever. Even when something silly happens, the voice actors explicitly keep talking or even screaming quietly. It almost feels unnatural at points, tends to take away from the actual emotional scenes, seeing as they all feel the same, monotonous, and it's incredibly draining to watch on top of all that. I understand that a style is a style, but it's not just the fault of the script. The audiovisuals are what truly makes the whole package too hard to handle. Let me describe the feeling of watching Wandering Son: Imagine a beautifully crafted piano, and someone playing a nice, but rather boring tune on it. Then imagine you being inside that piano, but with headphones. Sure the tune is nice, it isn't loud and the inside of the piano looks marvelous, but at the same time it's really overwhelming to know that you're trapped inside it, and you can feel a pressure over something that surely was never meant to be digested this way. On top of that this song keeps on playing for who knows how long, feeling samey, with only occasional bursts of freshness that end up being a prelude to the monotonous melody once again. How do I know that the show isn't supposed to make you feel like this? Well, maybe because Ei Aoki stated in an interview, that he "didn't want to put the major focus on transgender as an issue, but more as a way to draw out these characters". Do you think making the whole show look and feel sad doesn't seem like it puts it as an issue? The color pallet makes the show feel like an oil painting, but the character designs are very dark and don't correlate well if they were going for a natural-feeling look, creating an even more depressing and hard-hitting picture. Someone screwed up, it feels like the director and the artists didn't follow each other's intentions at all. While this grating feeling persists throughout every second of it, the sheer strength of the writing and the novelty of its idea makes Wandering Son quite a nice journey, highlighting some of the most interesting takes on the topic of transgender people growing up, especially during puberty. Things like self-realization, romantic relationships, personal growth, developing social abilities, planning out the future and understanding adolescence become completely new talking points when viewed from the eyes of such a person. While it isn't a particularly pleasant experience all around, Wandering Son is certainly an unique and interesting piece of art, worth indulging in for numerous reasons, primary one being understanding the world around us more in a interesting way, by indulging in an interesting work that makes you want to see it to the end (just in small doses). Well worth a recommendation, there surely will be many people who will find more to like, or perhaps more to grab onto, than I ever could. As always, this is purely my opinion, I recommend you to develop your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 16, 2017
Re:Creators
(Anime)
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Anime community has been berated for many years now. I've seen it, you've seen it, everyone's seen it. I think it's safe to say that, while certain individuals are to blame as well, the major fault lays in the thing that we're gathered around. Anime isn't particularly subtle about its tropes or its origin. Stuff that's acceptable in Japan is often times seen as weird, unnaturally obscure or even morally wrong in other parts of the world.
What I always believed was the major issue however, was the way anime itself has been presenting its fans over the past couple of years. How many characters that ... that are anime fans were shown in a clearly positive and acceptable way in the last couple of years? Most of them are hikkikomoris, shut-ins, socially awkward or straight up mad people. While I know that this sort of stuff has mostly been portrayed as an example of what you shouldn't become, I always noticed the distinct lack of people like us, people who watch anime in their free time, who still have a social life, who go to school and study like normal human beings. Perhaps some that already go to work and watch anime as a way to spend their free time. How about people that are passionate about creating their own work based on anime? We had Shirobako, but besides that? I don't think I remember someone who wasn't a somewhat negative example of a passionate fan. Anime has inspired many to create art and to write. So many in fact that nowadays we see the growth of people from overseas who work in the anime industry. There was always a distinct lack of representation of those types of people as well! Until... In summer of 2017, a new original anime from studio TROYCA has started its 22 episode run. It received a fairly mixed feedback with several reasonable arguments on both sides of the spectrum. Fast forward to the 26th of May, same year. Mother's Basement releases a video by the name "Re:Creators is a Classic Anime in the Making", and at that point, all hell breaks loose. People who wholeheartedly believed that Re:Creators is simply a bad anime get louder and louder around the internet, negative reviews start to flood in and in almost every single one of them, a word "classic" can be found, most notably in the context of that Re:Creators is the opposite of that, something that's forgettable and won't be remembered upon its finish. So, what is it really? Was it truly a classic in the making? What are the arguments that both sides voice out in their attempt to defend their opinion? Did the show portray anime fans better than any other show? Is Re:Creators something that will fade out, or stay in my head for a while? Let's get right into answering those questions, shall we? *Spoilers included* The show starts off when Souta Mizushino, who's an artist and an otaku, gets transported into the world of an anime that he's watching. Few moments later and he, alongside the main character from that anime by the name of Selesia Upitiria, teleport back to the real world. Turns out that she's not the only one who has appeared. They get into a big brawl with a mysterious, unknown character that they call "Military Uniform Princess", and later on meet other characters who have been ripped out straight from their story. Two camps end up being born, one that is set on destroying the world of the creators that caused great suffering the worlds of the creations, and one that wants to protect it, for one reason or another. The most important thing to know going into Re:Creators is that your expectations will most likely not be met, and I don't mean it in the "Oh, it's not that good" sort of way, but instead I want to tell you that this series is not quite what it markets itself to be, or what it looks like in the first episode. While you may expect a Battle Royale type of story, or an action oriented one, you'll be disappointed with how those things are done. Re:Creators is a show that transcribes itself through dialogue, and culminates through action. Most of its time is spent on set up, exposition and theme exploration, done using a set of strongly identifiable individuals, that are the anime characters, and their creators. The dialogue itself is written very well, with powerful messages getting delivered, clear rules being set and deeper understanding of the narrative or the characters is provided with each set of discussions. You might not be happy with the way the show does it, but it does it really well. Take a look at few conversations from the show, even the ones that didn't take place during anything important. Meteora explaining her idea of Altair's plan in episode 2 makes you immediately understand the threat she poses to not only individuals, but reality itself, it gives Meteora a smart, cool and collected vibe, and on top of that it gives you a clear understanding of how the show outline's will work out, that being big events containing the most important moments from the narrative standpoint will be followed up by both sides figuring stuff out and creating future plans. To establish its characters faster and give the viewer a better understanding of their personalities early on, this show simply relies on the fact that most of it's characters are stereotypical. They're really, and I mean REALLY easy to read if you've seen the genres they're a part of, or anything similar to the product they come from. The one exception is of course Altair, who's a compilation of fanart, thus she's an unknown and has a mysterious presence to her for a long time. What gives those characters actual personalities in general are, more often than not, their creators, with the exception of Mamika. The passion, care, love and attention to detail you see them put into their characters reflects on the stance of the characters themselves, as they are being ripped straight from their world and their story. All of them are characters that the audience respect and care for deeply, those that are popular and are able to touch people, so it's safe to say that all of them are established and characterized well enough to adapt to new circumstances. If a character, at the point they are in their plot, is willing to kill their Gods or have some personal vendetta to attend to against the other character that was summoned, they will most likely side with Altair. If a character isn't established properly as a character that would be able to live outside it's world, they will have problems adapting and understanding other's reasoning for defending their beliefs. This right here is probably one of my favorite ideas I've seen in anime, and it's executed extremely well too. As I mentioned, this show uses it's strongly defined, stereotypical characters to create a narrative, that being fictional characters judging the real world based on their own worlds. It's the base of the entire plot, most of the time is spent on understanding it and taking things away from it. Alicetaria not understanding why her world cannot be changed, Mamika's belief of a perfect world or Magane's twisted image of using the real world for fun are all views that the world would never experience otherwise, and it's clear that people that get in contact with them undergo severe changes by doing so, especially Souta, the protagonist of the story. I can't imagine a guy who would need to meet characters from anime and manga more than this guy. I'm saying that because Souta is an artist, inspired by gaming, anime, manga and all the other parts of otaku culture. He's been undergoing a stagnation as a creator for a long time, ever since Setsuna committed suicide. He believes that by not reaching out to her, he is essentially one of the reasons she ended up dying. Of course it was a combination of the online hate and the lack of support, but nevertheless, as a close friend back in the day, realising he was overtaken by jealousy, he takes the blame upon himself, since he's most likely the only one that could stop it. Seeing her creation wrecking havoc on the world must've been a hell of an experience for an already destroyed Souta, but he can find comfort in all the heroes he's admired throughout the years. Those characters for him, stand for everything that he couldn't reach, so confessing his story in front of them, and more importantly finding their approval to go on, is the turning point of his life. He comes back to drawing, and even becomes the key to saving the world because of his work, which he created after that. But Souta is only one of many otaku's that this show presents. In fact, this show's all about them, but unlike most shows in recent memory, it doesn't do anything grand with them. They're all normal people, both students and working adults, living their lives and finding comfort by engaging in the culture as a hobby. Painting them in such a light becomes especially important during the last few episodes, which are all about viewer's acceptance. All of those people, all of them different and watching anime for different reasons, gather to watch something that they love on a big screen, with numerous other passionate fans, who are also invested in those stories, standing right besides them. The show paints this beautiful picture of a giant crowd cheering their favorites on and wondering how will the event go. something like that can be compared to sport events or concerts, and Re:Creators doesn't make it seem weird or out of place, it shows passion at its purest, just like it did throughout the entire show, showing creators and an aspiring artist that is Souta grow an understanding of their work and why do they make it. This entire show at times feels like it's a love letter to us, the fans, the people writing about anime, people inspired by it and everyone else involved in the topic, and I don't even doubt that it is one. You may call it gratification, but it feels so nice to see that the people who create for us, actually appreciate us, and believe that we appreciate them. Let's switch it up for a bit and talk about the negatives though. First one would be the fact that we never truly learn how does Altair move characters and people throughout worlds. It's something that bugged me for the entire time. Sure, it's not necessary, but it's quite a plot hole and definitely something that could influence one's experience. The best thing I can come up with is that her omnipotent Holopsicon allowed her to do that, but quite frankly, that would be bullshit. You can't just say that if a creator wrote into the story: "a character can move between worlds and take others with her" and make that a thing without establishing the fact that the "real world" isn't actually completely "real". Second, the show's visuals seem to take a small dip in the middle, and the last few especially have quite... mixed results in that field. The usually crispy clean designs become more blocky and begin to look less detailed. I'm sure this is something that will be fixed in the official release, like it always is, but that's how it was while it was airing. Thirdly, the show markets itself as an action show, while most of it's time is spent on dialogues or monologues. While I love how it turned out, the talks took quite some time to get used to initially. Giving a viewer a taste of the great action directing, just to take it away from him as it goes on can be frustrating, and it surely was for me until I really got into the narrative and the characterization. Back to the positives, let's talk about the visuals and the music! The director working on Re:Creators was Ei Aoki, who's mostly known for his work on Fate/Zero, the script was written by Rei Hiroe, the creator of Black Lagoon (if you wondered who helped on those awesome points of the show, he's most likely the one, and Aoki just made it flashier and prettier I'd bet), and the music was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who you might know for composing the OST's of Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist and Guilty Crown, among many others. Ei Aoki is quite an interesting figure, in that he himself stated that he's inspired by Hollywood, and especially Christopher Nolan. You can definitely see that influence in the ending, which is grandiose and mind-blowing, completely out of the scale of anything that happened before it, but still believable to a degree. They both achieve that without sacrificing much of any other parts of their project. The Hollywood influence can also be seen just in the fight scenes. Nobody's going to tell me that the last fight with Altair wasn't influenced at least a tiny bit by superhero movies, those all vs one scenarios, which usually diverge into multiple smaller storylines during a big fight. It's definitely clear that this is Aoki's style, and he's not bad at it. I'm glad that he's brining both Hollywood-esque ideas into anime, and brining some Nolan into it too. He did a great job at directing the talking scenes, he seems to have had quite a few ideas for them, like Blitz's talk with Altair after which the viewer realizes that they've been hiding inside a church after a zoom out, or any talk with Magane and her movement during her speeches. The art as well is of high quality, especially the designs of the characters. They bring out the most recognizable, stereotypical, yet cool and fancy attires for each of them. They all look completely different as well, with different figures, a lot of variations of facial shapes, and different color pallet fitting them all in their own ways (Selesia's boldness = red, Alicetaria's knighthood and strive for justice = gold and so on). The mechas' look very interesting and fresh as well, Selesia's smaller, white robot contrasting with Rui's Giant Robo and all the idea of how they fight, one with a sword and the other one with this big laser coming from his elbow combined with the sheer mass of the machine itself. Even more importantly, Sawano's back and he's got drops for days! Nothing gets me quite as excited as a good Sawano soundtrack to be honest, and hearing Re:Creators alongside Attack on Titan's Second Season in Spring was just the best. In Re:Creators, we hear a good mix of his tamer side, as well as a good few tracks that can get you pumped for what's coming next. The electronic tracks can be cheesy, but that's Sawano, and he knows how to use that cheesiness and make it amazing. If you digged any of his other projects, no doubt you'll enjoy him here, there's no better praise I can give him, he's just this consistent at making things real. And on that high note, I'm going to sum this up. Re:Creators is a hell of an anime. Hell of a flawed anime too. It's definitely quite a task to suspend your disbelief for a lot of its stronger moments, but the explanations, the payoff, the eye candy, the ear candy, it's all there if you can give it a shot. I can't say it enough, but it's definitely worth a try, for some of you it might even be a favorite contender, and in time the show itself might grow into an obscure classic that you might be inclined to watch anyway. It has enough Nolan-ism in it that I think some will consider it as one at least. I know I had a blast with Re:Creators, quite frankly I simply enjoyed it. It's a fun show to both watch for me, and a fun one to think about, it tackles things that I'd never thought of and pleases me greatly at the same time. Again, I can't recommend giving it a shot quite enough, if you think you might like it, please do attempt to watch it, even if it'll be a risky move. Seriously, do it. As always, this is purely my opinion, I highly recommend you to develop your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 13, 2017
Sakurada Reset
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Hey, do you know that show called Monogatari? If you do, try to remember what Monogatari is like for a second. It's a show which is full of dialogues. It's a show which has most of its big moments resolved through dialogues. It's a show that was able to focus both on telling and showing at the same time, proving to many that "show don't tell" really isn't the be all end all for visual media like anime. Now take every person from the staff that worked on it, anyone that had any creative input in it, and give it to people who can't comprehend
...
how to make it interesting at all. Oh, and don't forget to also get Takayama Katsuhiko to do the series composition. You know, the guy who wrote the script for Boku No Pico, and whose last big project was Big Order.
I have no legitimate idea who thought that this is the team that can be creative enough, to turn a light novel story, that's really heavy on exposition, slow and hard to consume on its own for sure, into a story inside of a visual medium, but let me tell you, they were wrong in all the worst ways imaginable. Ladies, gentlemen, I present this review which I humbly wrote about a series, that I'm pretty sure had less passion while being developed, than I had while writing this analysis. *Spoilers past this section* Superpowers aren't a new idea, neither is one of them being controlled by the government, but there are titles coming out each year that are able to do some good with such topics. My Hero Academia, Captain America: Winter Soldier and the X-Men comics are just a few that immediately come to my mind. All of them have found a way to create worlds around such ideas and adapt their plot to play to its strengths. Sakurada Reset attempts to do it, but it fumbles at every point and every corner, creating a huge jumble of ultimate nothingness. The story takes place in Sakurada, that has been a place where all sorts of powers have sprouted out of nowhere and have been taking the place by storm. The things have been calmed down and controlled by the Administration Bureau, that has been controlling and ministering over the area. Thanks to that, Sakurada is able to continue with its everyday flow and the abilities become a common thing, a part of everyday life. However, the trick is, the abilities do not spread, they're contained within Sakurada and everyone who walks outside of its boundary immediately loses all memories of them even existing. One day, a boy by the name Asai Kei enters Sakurada, and it turns out that his ability is ultimate memory, which allows him to remember everything no matter how his memories are altered. Years pass, and one day, during school, he meets a girl - Haruki Misora - that can reset the world to the state at the time when she has last "saved". Combined, they are able to do great things, as Kei is able to plan out and fix problems that arise due to his perfect memory. Their story leads them to a lot of pain, a death of a friend, a fight against those who despise powers, but also the joy that they see through helping the community and the happiness they find in each other. This show's problems are somewhat weird, especially pacing-wise. It begins two years before the actual events, when Kei, Haruki, and Sumire Souma meet and solve their first case together, which later one becomes a basis for them helping other people out. The pacing in those first episodes is extremely fast and unapologetic, it doesn't care if you didn't catch something, you're just supposed to have understood everything in between the stupidly fast transitions. Considering that those beginning moments of the show are supposed to introduce you to the concept of powers and set up the entire drama later on, I don't think I need to say much more about why that is a bad thing. But to add salt to the injury, every problem that the show struggles with in general is present this early on as well, which is both weird and sort of funny at the same time. That's because despite the fast transitions and scenes generally passing by like flies, the show is surprisingly slow in the delivery of each line. You can spot awkward pauses everywhere, there are those empty, 5-10 seconds breaks during dialogues. They really become apparent in the third and fourth arc, but they're there from the beginning, and they're quite hurtful to the flow of the conversation and the general pace of the anime. It feels like they're there to sort of fill out the time instead of doing something meaningful. You might ask "How is it possible that the early scenes go by so fast if the scenes themselves are so slow?". It's simple, the scenes are slow, but they're just short early on, and it's only later that it becomes a serious issue, as they start becoming longer. And what makes it worse, there's a distinct lack of anything interesting going on with the show's visuals. At the very beginning of this review, I mentioned Monogatari, and I did that for the purpose of making you, the reader of this review understand something. If you've watched Monogatari you've obviously noticed its style, its distinct way with visuals and how it enhances dialogue that would normally feel dreadful and boring. There are tons of visual gags, characters screw around in the background, the art style changes on a lot of occasions, most metaphors are visualized and generally, the show is just interesting to look at, even though most of the information you get is through the characters talking. Despite the silliness, however, it's still able to maintain the seriousness and groundedness that Sakurada tries so hard to achieve with its "serious conversations" or the "focused visuals". Do you know why that is? Because its writing is good enough so that it's able to create those serious scenes whenever it wants to. Sakurada Reset feels like it doesn't believe in its writing or characterization enough for the viewer to continue following them through if there's something else going on on the screen. That wouldn't even be that bad, but the show looks horrendous. Everything is plain, the designs are boring and have absolutely nothing to them, the background art is often nonexistent or cut out due to the camera placement. The animation for what I'd say is over 60% of the show consists of still shots and characters with their moving mouths. If the show's so boring to look at, my question is: why is it an anime? Why did this story have to be recreated in this medium? If the director has no inspiration to add any personality, humanity or individuality to the show, if the background artists are doing only what's necessary, if the show doesn't have anything special going for it visually, then what's the point of LOOKING at the show? Hell, this adaptation goes even further, as it HURTS the plot with the previously mentioned awkward, soundless pauses, the lack of emotions on character's faces, and the mostly uninspired designs of everything you look at. It just throws you off from the start and never draws you in again. But those are technical things, those don't matter, right? Let's talk about... NO! People! Stop undervaluing the influence of the things you look at in anime. If the thing you're looking at does nothing to even attempt to adapt to the medium that IT CHOSE, then why should you, as a viewer, adapt to the way it's presented to even digest it? Goddamn Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979, freaking Serial Experiments Lain from 1998, name any other show from god knows how long ago, and all of them, despite looking like they're drawn in Microsoft Paint at times, are able to create style, atmosphere, and designs that integrate into the experience, creating a distinct feeling to them. Sakurada Reset is content with being the most limited and basic version of itself imaginable. It's fine with the bare minimum if it just means it can tell a story. Where's the passion? Where's the love for the project that you're working on? This show feels like it was more of a chore to make rather than something that anyone wanted to work on. It's disgusting, repulsive even. While watching, you can basically feel as if nobody wanted this project to work out. Well, maybe there's someone... I'd argue that if someone feels like they tried it's the original creator. This is light novel writing through and through, and every amateur mistake is there. The lazy exposition where Kei or others go out of their character to explain things to the viewer; the lack of proper explanation of the powers, that leaves up countless possibilities, which end up feeling like conveniences; and the clear struggles of the author as he tries to get from point A to point B, desperately setting things so his vision can finally take place. He clearly had ideas and did some research, but he's just not a good writer. He lacks subtlety and understanding of the people he's catering to. He believes that if he didn't understand something before writing about it, then we also won't, so he forces explanation into the plot, be that either some storytelling term or a psychological one. He doesn't use those dialogues to contextualize the world or the characters, the most you'll get is that Kei reads philosophy, apparently. The author also ends up making the characters, especially the side cast, feel like devices to fit the finale rather than the fully realized ones. He gives them those mini-arcs that, he thinks, are enough to justify the characters' existence, but that's not true. It's hard to say if it's a case of lackluster experience, lack of time, or anything else, but even though the plot is a mess, you can't say it lacks ideas or creativity in what it ended up being. It's just the execution that sucks. Nobody thought about working out those issues. Let me go back a little bit and talk about the way this show uses its characters. What I mentioned is unfortunately true to the core. Characters end up feeling like they exist just so that their power can be in the story, and the writer gave them interactions and moments so they won't be considered as plot devices. Bad news: they are still plot devices. Despite quite a few characters that the show attempts to get through something, there are pretty much no implications for them before, during, or after they're done with the things they need to do. Their shown only when they're absolutely needed, in situations where it's necessary for them or their powers to exist. When Haruka needs to express emotions that she can't show to Kei, she talks with the cat girl that she met before. She never really seems to have any internalized monologues, none of the characters do, they have to express it out unless it's something that has to be explained to the viewer. Most lack stances on the world, they lack personalities and reasons to exist, it's impossible to see them actually live inside that world, outside of the events that the show presents. They're puppets, moving when they are picked up and put down when another puppet has to step in. Can you tell me what life does Ukawa lead? Can you tell me what personality does she showcase in conversations? What about Murase? Oka Eri? You can't. As I said, they are puppets, they're not characters, but the show pushes in this bullshit narrative and character arcs for each of them as if they were meant to be. They exist so that their powers can be used in the finale, that's it. I said that the characters don't feel like they couldn't fit in casual situations, but are there situations like that in this show? To be honest, not at all, but the show tries to hide that fact. The problem is, it does it really poorly. I'd compare it to someone who's really fat trying to hide behind a pole. There's obviously a large part of his body sticking out. same goes for those "casual" conversations in Sakurada. They try to showcase those dialogues between Kei and Haruka, but all they or anyone for that matter talk about are psychological scenarios and terms. Let me show you two supposedly laid-back conversations from this show: "Hey, what are you thinking about" "Have you heard of the Swampman?" "No, what is that?" Proceeds to explain the entire idea of the Swampman "Your notebook was new today" "Yeah" "It's almost like as if a new world was born today" "You mean like the Five-minute Hypothesis?" "Yes. It's a thought experiment...." Both of them are clear and lazy attempts at explaining the viewer a concept that will appear or has already appeared in the story, NOT casual conversations that those two characters would have. I heard so many times that this show is good at foreshadowing or that it requires lots of thought to understand, but I can't fathom anyone thinking that this is well written in. The main character explains everything before you can even think, like that time when a monster appeared representing some character, and the MC just, straight up, explained his design. That design was probably the most creative thing that happened in this show ever since they introduced the concept of powers, but nope, you don't get to understand it, the show understands it for you. It's aggravating to me as the viewer, the show doesn't have to implement those explanations into the narrative, nobody needs to hear about what they're called unless the characters can develop perspectives on them, which in turn can lead to several narrative uses or make for interesting character studies. Of course, this show doesn't use them that way. Ever. So if the casual conversations are ruined, and you can't enjoy thinking about the show since it's done for you, can you at least follow the mystery properly? No. The powers haven't been explored or given enough room for that to be available. Can you at least look at the things as they uncover, since the plot has some heart? Well, seems like you forgot that looking at it isn't fun at all too. Well, I think I can say this show is worthless now. I said all that I needed to about Sakurada Reset in the last paragraph alone, there's very little that I can add to it. If something, I guess I have to commend it that it capitalizes off of the characters and lets them grow with the story, but again, that's only noticeable because the show decides "Oh well, they're different people now", not because it's something that comes naturally, that you can see for yourself through their choices and interactions. There's nothing in their behavior or thought process that changes, even though they underwent this "big" change. The same tone, the same facial expressions, the same mannerisms, the same thinking process, all remains just as it was. It's just that now, they apparently have a different opinion on something. Overall this show lacks any sort of real value, both as an experience and as a piece of art. And I'm done. As always this is purely my opinion, but I can't encourage you to develop your own. Watch at your own risk.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Aug 31, 2017
Kidou Senshi Gundam
(Anime)
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*Slight spoilers ahead*
The White Base steadily approaches its destination point. What the crew doesn't know, is that there's a trap laid down by the forces of Zeon right around the corner of the mountain. A sudden hit to the starboard puts everyone back on their feet. Bright quickly yells orders as Mirai turns the main ship towards the enemy. Sayla quickly informs Amuro, Kai, and Hayato and asks them to get into their respective machines and launch. As soon as they get out they're barraged by the enemy mobile suits. And so begins another battle, another day on board the White Base, and another episode ... of a legend, that is Mobile Suit Gundam. 1. Teenage struggles portrayed through war experience Mobile Suit Gundam is a tale of a bunch of survivors from a space colony that incidentally held a new ship and a new machine that were created by the scientists of the Earth Federation. In the first episode, the colony gets attacked by the forces of the Principality of Zeon. Amuro Ray, one of the main scientists' son, attempts to escape amidst the death and chaos that the Zeon soldiers created using their machines. He finds the very first Federation mobile suit - Gundam - and takes it upon himself to drive away the opposing forces. He's forced to retreat and escape his home alongside a few of his peers and some adults inside the White Base, a new, technologically advanced spaceship, with a plan to find help and safety. The main theme for more than a half of the show is that those kids aren't real soldiers, they are inexperienced escapees, who have to learn how to properly adapt to their new roles while escaping from danger that follows them wherever they go. A few of them have military training, but most find themselves in a situation they've never been in before. As so, Noa Bright, the most experienced out of all the survivors, takes command of White Base and assigns people to certain roles: Sayla Mass communicates with the crew on the ship through the communication system, Mirai Yashima steers the spaceship, and so on. The most important role ends up being given to Amuro, who will pilot the Gundam, as he is the only one with any resemblance of experience in that regard. On the ship itself, we also find out that the White Base was storing two other mobile suits: The Guntank, which can be piloted by two people at once, and the Guncannon. They end up being piloted by Hayato Kobayashi, Ryu Jose, and Kai Shiden respectively. Out of those four pilots, the only adult one is Ryu, while the others are teenagers that didn't have the chance to overcome their rebellious phases in the peace and comfort of their daily lives, like most of us did. A sudden and drastic change appears to have sped up the process, as both Kai and Amuro initially act like pompous brats that haven't experienced life before, but they aren't the only ones to act immaturely. Despite their age, most of the people aboard the White Base are pretty bad at what they're doing. I'm not saying that they aren't smart, far from it, but they have troubles utilizing their strengths and most importantly, can't quite overcome the obstacle of sudden adaptation to their new reality. The further away they get from home, they begin to grow as both individuals and as companions. Despite numerous quarrels and severe casualties, the White Base is able to overcome each trap laid down by the Zeon forces, as well as their own negative mentalities. Bright, who starts off as a loud and thoughtless leader, becomes acquainted with the ways to handle his crew. Kai finds the strive to fight despite always being the most reluctant and skeptic towards the idea. Sayla comes to terms with her past and her future as she collects all the pieces that end up creating her true self. With each character and the cast as whole overcoming different phases to uncover their true purpose, you can easily compare them to a teen who's undergoing puberty. The characterization is obviously skewed in a certain direction to properly underline that comparison, and the structure of the plot itself feels like it was put together with that thought in mind. The episodic nature of the show allows for a much clearer, short and direct messages, like "trust in your own abilities", "uncover the things that you're good at", "let people see your true talent", "don't hide your true thoughts", and many other moral lessons that could prove useful someone with a teenage-like mentality. Another thing that's worth remembering, is that the cast is in a constant state of danger, right in the middle of an ongoing war. They are quite literally, at the turning point of history. They hold the strongest weapons of the Federation, their most talented, skilled and experienced mobile suit pilots, and they travel in the most innovative and powerful spaceship out there. It's not easy being in a center of attention of your allies, but it's the enemies that actually disrupt your sleep, and you can see that weight being put on them as time goes on. Those people don't have time to rest, not with the constant array of death that they have to face. You could almost say that Death travels alongside them at all times, just so it won't have to move too far to collect each soul that they will unavoidably provide to it sooner or later. So not only have they been thrust into a new reality without any warning, but they never have the time to properly collect themselves in the midst of what's been going on. They can't adapt appropriately to their current situation and each other's personalities. That's the thing that creates the chaos aboard the ship and the huge amount of misunderstandings and conflict among them, however, after all the fighting and madness, they're able to develop a bond and a stable relationship with each other, becoming a proper team, where everyone's considered a worthy comrade. But why is all that actually important? I'll tell you: because it creates a stable connection between the viewer and the cast despite massive barriers that divide them. If you look at the world of Mobile Suit Gundam, you'll realize that it is nothing like ours. Technological advancement far beyond our reach, political systems that we can't imagine coming back, and the sheer idea of traveling in space would normally create a huge disconnect between our world and the one that is presented to the viewer, but thanks to the show's ability to portray problems that all of us went through, without breaking the immersion or turning any characters into obvious mouthpieces, it's able to make the cast seem believable, realistic and worth following. This is definitely one of the biggest strengths of original Gundam, but what's more, it is able to perfectly represent those ideals through its main character. 2. Amuro Ray is a perfect Gundam protagonist Take all the ideas that I've presented before and mix them up into one person, and you will inevitably end up with Amuro Ray, and if you couldn't tell, that is really damn good. Amuro, at the start, is an indecisive, impulsive, egoistic brat that perfectly represents the stereotypical puberty stage. Not to say that he's not smart, far from it, he is quite capable when it comes to robotics, Gundam repairs and adapting to the battlefield, so his biggest enemy often ends up being his own rebellious side, as seen when he's arguing with Bright; his feeling of undervaluation, especially noticeable when he's monologuing to himself about how a woman gives him orders or how he think Bright is an idiot; and sexual frustration, which you can spot on numerous occasions when he gets to be around mature women like Mirai or Matlida. All of it cumulates and explodes when he decides to leave the ship along with Gundam, eventually returning and deciding to fight out of his own volition. He decided on it after meeting a true man, Ramba Ral, and noticing his desire to become manlier and stronger. And he does, as the series progresses, we see Amuro turn into a true warrior, who, instead of blindly charging into the battle blinded by the need for violence, calmly dissects each battle and trusts in his abilities to carry him to victory. He becomes more comfortable and each life experience appears to make him stronger and more reliable, which resonates with the rest of the crew as they begin to respect and value him. Amuro's progress teaches the viewer, which I assume was intended to be around 15 while watching it, that simply working hard and not complaining will turn you into a great, respectable man. It's a tale that we all know but done well enough to not feel boring, especially since we see it being presented in such a manly setting. War is a place where true heroes and true men arise to present themselves onto the pages of history, and the show is all about it. Not to mention that there are some truly beautiful women around Amuro. All around, you can really see how a teenager like him could end up with his hormones almost bursting out. *Ekhm* Moving on. But that's not the end of his story. Amuro is actually so much more than just a skilled teenager. He's actually a staple of the next generation of humanity, and in a way, you might not expect. 3. The new era of humanity Normally, when someone writes about the idea of a "new generation of humanity" in fiction, they try to simplify it as just one generation going away, and a new one stepping in to change the flow things. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, especially in something as grounded as, let's say, Legend of The Galactic Heroes, but watching Mobile Suit Gundam really opened up my eyes to possibilities of just going for that extra step, pushing the suspension of disbelief further to include a certain thing that would easily help the viewer with both the understanding of the topic and with the entertainment factor: evolution. In the last arc of Mobile Suit Gundam, we find out that Amuro, as well as his main rival Char and a bunch of other people, are Newtypes. Newtypes are people that evolved an ability to adapt to living in space, which comes with higher mental awareness, as well as better perception, which naturally comes with better military potential. Now, you may say that such a turn completely undervalues the effort that all the characters underwent throughout the series, but I don't think that's true. Despite the problems that the crew that worked behind Gundam had to face with the last episodes, I feel like they did a good enough job at setting down their stance on the topic. Despite having the same advantage, Amuro is better than Char at piloting Mobile Suits, despite Char's clear technological advantage. That's purely because Amuro is better at utilizing his potential, coming to terms with it and building off of it. Char has problems with coming to terms whether or not he is a Newtype and whether he has the same potential as others, while Amuro never cared about that. He just pushed on, learned in a lot of different ways and evolved not only as a human but also as an individual. It's important to really understand how well crafted this storyline is, or perhaps how well thought out would be the better term, because the execution turned out to be very minimal due to the production issues. The idea that even if we can get on some sort of a higher plane of humanity, people who will worry about it will never catch up to people who continue striving even further to better themselves. It honestly boils down to "no matter how far we go, the humanity's problem will remain the same", which can also be said about the war that's been going on in the Gundam universe, but it's done within an already thematically complete show, as Amuro's story almost came to a halt at the point of introducing it. Not to mention how filled to the brim with awesome action scenes the show is, making it so that it rarely gets boring. Speaking of not being boring... 4. Old but gold: Gundam's visuals and music You may be surprised when I say it, but one of Mobile Suit Gundam's strongest advantage is the visuals. The character designs are great, very distinguishable and surprisingly detailed with their faces, especially for the time. They all feel different due to their postures, face shapes or hair. There's clearly a lot of effort put into this area. Same goes for the Mobile Suits, which have become a staple for one of the most expensive and popular toys, especially in Japan. Such a nationwide phenomenon couldn't be achieved if not for their brilliant designs. The Gundam is white and easily reminiscent of a hero when stepping on the gloomy battlefield, the darker designs of the Zeon mobile suits that just scream "that's an enemy" from the first moment we see them, and those are only a few examples. They really get creative with some of them. Another asset that it has in this area are the fights. The show has possibly some of the most systematically high-quality fight scripts in all of anime. There's a fight in pretty much every episode, but each one is truly different, the pilots pull off different moves and even if there are some reused shots, there's always a lot of variety that makes it fresh. Of course, a lot of it goes to the setup, where there are different enemies to fight and different terrain, but there are long stretches of time where those don't change, and yet the show can still feel refined in that area. It's a huge achievement that really won over my heart while watching. That's not to say that the animation doesn't have its fair share of problems. I already mentioned the reused shots, which during fights can just be seen as using the same move again and that being somewhat of a trademark of the show, same can't be said about others that take place onboard the White Base, most notably Bright picking up his phone which is ingrained in my mind ever since I finished it. Even worse are the clearly repeated backgrounds. Imagine if backgrounds in anime were just an image on a conveyor belt, which restarted whenever the picture was shown in its entirety. It's really silly and embarrassing, but even that can't take out from the rest of the show's visual strengths. As for the music, there's almost nothing more to say than that it's a classic. The wide range of emotions throughout the show is perfectly embodied in the variety of the tracks on the soundtrack. From the ambient, creepy ones, to the grandiose and louder ones, it keeps being consistent with the militaristic feel, the usage of trumpets and drums that are used in military bands bring it out especially well. While the soundtrack isn't large, it doesn't have to be. It makes it so each track becomes more recognizable and specific. You can understand what scene's about to go down when you hear it, like "Oh, it's time for Char to strike!", or "finally, the battle is over". With that, the repetition proves to be an asset, especially when the show is pretty episodic and it has a somewhat consistent outline. I don't believe I need to mention how amazing the opening "Tobe! Gundam" is, or how majestic the ending "Eien Ni Amuro" is, but I'm just going to leave it here. All in all, Mobile Suit Gundam, despite not aging particularly well, works because of the effort put into it even back then. There were some cut corners occasionally, but you can't dispute the sheer magic of watching Gundam. There are really very few things that can rival it in some of its areas even to this day. 5. The impact of Gundam Last but not least, I feel it's only fair to talk about the impact that Gundam had on the industry, even though it was mostly the movies that truly got the ball rolling. Mobile Suit Gundam is easily one of the most influential works for all of anime. It's considered to be a "father" of the "true mecha genre", without which we would never see the birth of shows such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Escaflowne or Code Geass. It is also one of the first anime ever to humanize villains, giving them a clear sense of morality, Char being the prime example of that. It was also innovative for its use of "Minovsky Physics", which rationalized the normally completely fictional systems of a world, helping it become even more grounded than it already was and creating a world that truly felt like it was just our future, where a next big step in technology occurred. It's something that series such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes used later to a similar effect. In Japan, it spawned multiple sequels and sold thousands of toys, it became engraved in Japanese culture so much that there are numerous statues and other tributes to the show all around the country. As for some trivia to see how much the people in Japan care about the show, the Japanese military's code name for their underdevelopment advanced personal combat equipment is "Gundam", the series’ robot designer Kunio Okawara has begun designing real-world electric cars, and there's even a project to build a real-life, functional Gundam with the budget being around a billion dollars, funded by the government. I think that last fact alone is enough to make people understand, but what I said here is just the bare-bones of all that it did, and if you're interested, you can surely find more if you do your own research. 6. Overall thoughts Mobile Suit Gundam is a true classic, a must-watch for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the history of anime, but also a damn good watch as a piece of media. Perhaps on the outside, it didn't stand the test of the time as much as some would've liked, but on the inside, it can still be influential and its themes can be applied to any era of humanity. As we evolved and changed, as we fought and died, as we tried to understand everything around us and the passage of time only made it harder, humanity always remained the same on the outside. That's what Mobile Suit Gundam exemplifies, and does so through a really cool, action-packed, relatable, animated TV series. If you want to learn more, I can only implore you to check it out for yourself, be that either through this TV series or the movie trilogy. I know that after this I became a serious Gundam fan, and I will surely be checking out more, more of this legendary series that, to me, lived up to the status that it holds. All that it has done has been done better by the time I'm writing this review, it's storyline ends up becoming pretty basic and the forcefully rushed last stretch is easily visible, there's nothing that I can say to refute that. However, I wholeheartedly believe that any viewer will be able to look past that and truly enjoy it to the fullest if they truly want to, and an ability to make the show overlook mistakes is not something to be undervalued. So if you haven't checked out the original Gundam yet, you should. I'll leave it at that. As always, this is purely my opinion. I recommend you to develop your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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