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Jan 4, 2013
Hmmmm....again, it doesn't make sense. I tend to open with this line a lot.
Let's try a catchier opening line: this movie approached the characters and plot almost existentially (and yes, like borrowing the ideas of existentialism).
This is clearly one of my favorites from Studio Ghibli. Perhaps I have a bad way of judging things, or I'm just seeing things differently from how most people see them, because I do not think this movie has any execution flaw. Yes, yes, I like Goro's father's works, but not all of them. As for Goro's,I don't remember Earthsea much, but I remember other studio ghibli
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films pretty well.
From my perspective, what makes studio ghibli's films stand out is their superb execution. Their films have down to earth stories and characters and some magical fantasy elements here and there, which makes things more enjoyable. However, I do not think what makes Totoro good is the setting and the naivety, or innocence if you prefer. I will ignore the animation and music and just talk about the plot and characters because I have no complaints on the quality of the studio's animation and sound. Since the plot and characters are nothing special and mostly kids, it's the way that the stories are told that, for me, determines the quality of most of their movies.
Let's see, what's wrong with this movie's execution again? Boys and Girls, please enlighten me on why it's poorly executed (if you know what you are talking about that is). Yes, yes, it's boring and not compelling enough. What else? The characters and setting aren't interesting enough for you?
Sorry to break it to you, but this movie isn't meant to be magical or emotional. If it moves you, it only means you are more sensitive than most people. If it doesn't move you, no worries, it doesn't have to move you because it's not intended to.
However, having a “nothing special” setting, theme, characters, and plot, there is still a way to reach somewhere. After all, what is fulfillment? The more extravagant things you have, the less fulfilling their after effects are. Every magic will wear off, and every kind of innocence will turn into naivety one day. I don't mind if you want to at least capture that one frame of innocence and magic on film, but this movie isn't intended to do that. Fulfillment is reached through subtraction, not addition. This movie scraped things to a bare minimum. When you reach the minimum point of having things and people simply existing, without trying to be anything or being labeled to be anything, you'll have found an existential starting place to reach somewhere. Similarly, this movie's intention is, the characters and plot have no need to be something. They are what they are by simply existing, and people are meaningful in themselves by being who they are. The movie stayed true to its intentions pretty well,
I know, I skipped on the whole reasoning on why this movie is flawlessly executed. But I guess by having this existential approach, it really cannot be wrongfully executed unless the characters or the plot tries to be anything it is not. If this is not a satisfactory explanation, then if you can tell me where it's badly executed without changing the intention behind this movie, then I'll consider my belief unsound. It'll be really hard though, because existentialists can argue their ways around things pretty well.
I like this movie for what it is. I see how it's intended, so I have no complaints on how it's played out.
Deep inside, I even believe Goro's work is beginning to surpass his father's.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 3, 2013
There is something wrong about Jormungand. I felt it in the first season, but I dismissed it as my lack of understanding of the characters and plot in general. I wanted to revisit the characters' psychology again in the second season. I wasn't expecting much more development out of Jormungand. I mean, there were tiny hints in the first season that showed the direction where this series is going, mainly from Koko's words, so the plot development in fact did not interest me much. I wanted to understand the characters more and the reasons behind their actions, but it turned out to be disappointing, along
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with the plot too.
Jormungand has complex characters and plot, but they are all pieced together. This is the most serious flaw of Jormungand. The people beside Koko all are pretty unique, but honestly their uniqueness tells nothing about themselves and most importantly, how it works in the big picture. In other words, their unique personalities don't drive one bit of the story. That's where a potentially character driven story becomes no longer so. What's more unfortunate is Jormungand was not designed to be plot driven but character driven. Of course, this can be saved by Koko. If Koko's character is strong enough to drive the plot and other characters, Jormungand can be saved.
I thought Koko's characterization is pretty strong since the very beginning, but I changed my mind after the second season. Even Koko is pieced together and lacks integrity as a character. She did not change throughout the series. In fact, I think she is probably the only one who stayed the same. I don't really mind it. Jonah is there so to put a leash on herself, but even in that respect, Koko did not change.Some of her comrades died too, but she did not change. I don't mind it. She has her beliefs and resolves, so she doesn't need to change.
But, it's not the fact she didn't change that failed to make Jormungand come together. It''s the fact that jonan did not change, and from this fact, you'll come to understand the biggest flaw. I can see how Jonah is struggling inside with his wavering beliefs, but Jormungand didn't convey in the end the change in Johah. Yes, he ended up accepting sacrificing a few to protect the mass, but how did that change take place inside of him? It seems to me that he simply ended up relying on Koko too much, accepting her way of doing things more than how others like her brother does the trade. If this is the case, what's the whole point of Jonah's character? Having a kid beside a powerful queen gives a nice picture, but the fact Jonah simply grew a habit but not growing or developing as a character made Jonah's existence pretty meaningless. This is even more obvious when you look at the other team members. We get a glimpse into their past, but what's even the meaning of showing the past when it makes no difference to the progression of present events? Are we to feel more attached to those characters? Honestly I did not feel any because they did not contribute anything to the story except helping Koko win all the gun fights.
You might say that it's more about the political mind of people rather than their emotional side. I agree if it's about the antagonists of the story. They are there to demonstrate the political sides of things. But the protagonists aren't intended that way.
The part that made me realize that even Koko doesn't have the depth to support this whole complicated story is the ending. This is also related to the theme of Jormungand. Koko hates the weapon trading world and weapons in general. Her belief is not very different from Jonah's. She knows just hating things won't change anything, so she took on the role she dislikes the most to change things from the inside. She doesn't even mind making sacrifices if necessary. This is all her motives and intentions, but what about her psychology? The fact that she thinks that giving people the original beauty of the world would bring out their shame and make them stop only showed me that Koko does not have a psychological depth. Why? Because this naive thinking contradicts her character in general. To put it bluntly, I didn't expect Koko to think that way considering her actions and words from the past. It disappointed me. If she were just a shallow thinking person in the beginning, this thought wouldn't bother me. But Koko isn't depicted as a shallow thinking person. You might say it's just her ideology, and ideologies are suppose to be naive. But Koko is not an ideological person. She is a very practical person who is more about actions than about words, and that's why she has the ability to carry out her grand plan.
OVerall, this made me realize that the concepts behind the characters, even in Koko's case, were not well planned out. I feel like the staff put together a whole variety of personalities and ideologies just to make the characters and story complex and engaging. For me, however, it failed to work because I don't believe you can ever reach the whole from connecting the pieces. It's a philosophical belief of mine based on the idea that you can never reach enough connections because there are limitless number of them. In other workds, Jormungand's characters and stories are designed from bottom up rather than top down, and this made the series fall flat at the end.
The reason I won't rate Jormungand any lower is because Jormungand is potentially a good story with a good theme. After finding the flaw in its set-up, I started to think it actually isn't too bad considering it could be much worse.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 1, 2013
um...this surprisingly didn't make any sense to me.
I usually love this kind of movies, but this is probably the biggest disappointment I have experienced in a ghibli type of story.
The first half of the movie is really sweet. Some people might not like the art so much, but for me it was okay. I can stand any style of art as long as the story and characters are good. The music too is pretty nice at the beginning.
But during somewhere in the middle, things just went downhill pretty rapidly. I don't even know how to describe that last half of the movie. The easiest way
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to start would be from the ending. That grandiose wrap-up was uncalled for. The music too only made things worse. It's like, you start with debussy and end with wagner. Even musically, it didn't make sense. Now going back a little in time, there was this weirdly placed time skip and total lack of explanation for what happened after the boy went back to his own time. Maybe the staff who worked on this didn't think it was necessary to explain it, but from my point of view, the gap left me pretty speechless. I haven't seen a worse executed progression and buildup of events.
The story too is really meaningless. I don't like stories with forced meanings either, but I hate being left with nothing to feel. Overall, I think what made me think the movie is a joke is the ending. It's really bad. I even like soap operas sometimes, but this kind of ending and music, it makes me cringe.
I'm a big studio ghibli fan and think every one of their work is brilliant. I'm very biased about this type of movies, but seriously, it disappointed me too much.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 30, 2012
This is my second time reviewing K. Why? Because my first review wasn't good enough to protect it.
First off, I will be writing some spoilers about the characters, especially Mikoto and Shiro. If you have not watched K, don't read the second half of my review. I won't review the plot, simply because I believe all plots should revolve around the characters and never the other way around. With a lot of mystery and action series, you are basically watching a puppet show with forced actions and personalities onto the characters just to keep the plot engaging. This will never work for me.
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Never.
K is different in that the plot is built around the characters. This is easily done in a slice of life series, but for a short action, fantasy, and mystery story, this is extremely hard. You have to build the characters the same time you build up the plot. This seems pretty easy in theory, but in reality, to prevent the plot from taking over the characters is a pretty hard task in a limited amount of time. The creators have to constantly keep in mind this cheesy idea: the “soul” of each character that tells them where they want to go.
Here comes the spoilers on the characters. I will focus on two only because others involve around them.
1. Mikoto. Yes, Mikoto. He isn't the main character, and no, I did not put him in the first place because he is my favorite. In fact, I dislike him. However, he is the most important character in K nonetheless. He is the foil, and actually I haven't seen in a long time this kind of fascinating foil. He is the foil that never truly interacted with the protagonist, Shiro, but it makes me excited just to think about them together. Oh, I should stop here for a second and comment something about the yaoi suggestions. I'm a fujoshi. But I'm not a fujoshi who drools over every boy love story. For example, I did not like Kuroshitsuji no matter how much I liked the boy and his butler. The beyond reasonable plot and cheap character development ruined it for me. Now back to K, if you are a person who is extremely sensitive to boy love suggestions, then K might not be a show for you. But truthfully K has very little boy love suggestions.
Now seriously back to Mikoto. Mikoto is the kind of tragic hero who is lost in his resolution from the beginning to the end. I wouldn't say he did what he did out of revenge. Of course, revenge is a part of it, but Mikoto is a much more complicated person. Let's say, if Johan Liebert from Monster and Kuroro from HxH sit at one extreme end and Luffy from One Piece sits on the other extreme end, Mikoto is the person in the middle. I don't like him exactly because he is in the middle, but that's just my personal taste. Mikoto could not abandon his sadness and anger and become monsters like Johan and Kuroro, and he also could not change the negative energies into positive forces like Luffy can. From the very beginning, he is already like a time bomb, both literally and abstractly speaking. Glass-kun tries to stop the bomb from killing himself and others around him. That's Glass-kun's role in the whole series, so essentially, Glass-kun is the foil to Mikoto. I won't get into other characters around them, but each major follower of Mikoto has his unique personality. Despite the differences in their personality, they still followed Mikoto till the end(except for that one particular person with his psycho voice. he is still interesting, don't get me wrong). So what made Mikoto so attractive for them? I think it's Mikoto's vulnerability that turned into strength for others, but not for himself unfortunately. And no, I don't mean they feel superior standing beside a more sensitive and vulnerable person that suffers alone. It's because they could feel the warmth from the fire he burns, so like Tatara said, Mikoto's power protects people, and his followers feel it. This whole set-up is symbolically consistent with Mikoto being the red king that wields fire that is a potential source of warmth and Glass-kun being the blue king that's cold in appearance but calms the fire when it goes wild.
2. Next is about Shiro. Personally, he is my favorite, along with Kuroh and Neko. I won't reveal his real identity here, but honestly, whoever Isana Yashiro is, Shiro is Shiro. That's why I like him the most. His warmth, unlike Mikoto's, doesn't come from self-sacrificial burning, but from his smiles. Shiro is a playful character that smiles a lot, even in dangerous and sad situation. His unfitting smiles are not satirical, unlike most people's when they want to feign confidence. Shiro is a person who believes in people around him and allows others to believe in him. His foil Mikoto can also do this, but again, they do it differently. That's why I feel so excited about this setup between Shiro and Mikoto. In appearance, Mikoto is a dying person while Shiro is an immortal, but they suffer the same loneliness. Mikoto self-sacrifices while Shiro smiles but they do it for the same reason. Kuroh and Neko are essential for the development of Shiro as a character. They are there so that Shiro has someone to smile at, especially when he smiles out of sadness. The cliché way of putting those three would be, they complete each other. Unfortunately for Mikoto, the person who completes him died. Their fate consequently changed because of this development. I feel in a way, Shiro and Mikoto switched their places in many respects.The most obvious one is Mikoto who had a special friend ends up losing that person while Shiro who had no one gains kuroh and neko. This situational switch triggered much of the character development.
In summary, K is a story about gaining and losing important people around us, and also learning from them about ourselves. I think it carries a very beautiful message.
I don't understand where K is confusing, how K is superficial, and why it deserves the low ratings and harsh reviews. From my point of view, I saw great characters and witnessed their stories. It's been so long since I can write so much on anime characters. Mikoto and Shiro are so well planned out characters, and I promise you, even if you have already watched K and deemed it not good, give the characters and their roles, even their power, more thoughts. You'll end up finding a lot of interesting surprises.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 20, 2012
I'm sorry, but I found nothing special about this series. Things are pretty lackluster and nothing in particular is stunning. But I don't dislike it.
First, the theme...what is it again? Well, it doesn't seem to have one.
Then the romance....oh wait, when was the last time I checked that romance turned out to be better cute than heartfelt?
Now moving on to the characters... what can I say, they speak for themselves, just too much at times.
how about character growth....that thing is indeed a disease. after a good night's sleep, it'll be gone, along with a total character transformation.
Lastly the plot.....I totally missed it.
Moving on
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to why I don't dislike this series:
t doesn't have any bullying sarcasm
doesn't have a true harem
I like all the characters and their personalities
Overall, if you want some cuteness and quirkiness, this series suffices. But if you want the extreme kind, this show is too ordinary.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 23, 2012
I get excited when I come across a story that's perfect enough on its own that it doesn't need extravagant animation, mindblowing music, complicated human relationships, or cryptic plots.
This kind of thing to me is like the work of magic. When you strip away all the modern extravagance, most of the time the leftovers will leave you pretty much appalled.
But for a good story, even if you animate it with stick figures, you'll be able to savor it for a long time.
That's what kind of story horimiya tells. I enjoyed the 20 minutes of it more than I enjoyed the hours I
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spent on most other series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 28, 2012
This is my favorite one piece special so far. I wish they make five hour long one piece specials, because to me the longer one piece is, the less I'll be checking on the clock.
Compared to other one piece specials, this is simply funnier and more well told. Under 50 minutes, it felt like a complete movie. During the first part, you get to see luffy and his nakama on stage acting and toward the end you see them fighting the marines. One piece usually don't have light hearted stories where you can just sit back and enjoy the show without knowing something bad is
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going to happen soon or some annoying villain would pop up. Remember the rainbow arc on the spa island? That's what I mean. Even though this too has a pretty annoying villain, the atmosphere remained "friendly". I mean the kind where you don't want to throw a hack at the clamoring crowd or at the villain. The story has a good beginning and a good wrap up too, and nothing felt rushed or extraneous. It's not too boring either.
If you've watched other one piece specials and aren't a big fan of them, I suggest give this one a try. At least I liked it a lot better than the other ones.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 28, 2012
I watched all the one piece movies in the past before I picked up this movie and the arabasta one. Both are recaps mostly, but this movie is considerably better. I thought this movie did a even better job at telling chopper's story than the tv series. I rewatched one piece plenty of times, but every time, I couldn't really get into this story arc that much. Don't get me wrong, I love Chopper and how Luffy invited him to be his nakama. The background story about chopper is also very touching. But this is probably the only main arc where luffy is the only
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one fighting against the bad guys, and actually, those bad guys are so weak that I wouldn't consider it a real fight.
Of course, one piece isn't about fighting, but in the tv series, the arc took too many episodes and the other characters played too little role. This movie, however, I felt was really well paced and told the whole story in the right amount of time. Plus, you get to see franky and robin there too, so that's refreshing.
Out of all the older one piece movies, I feel this one is probably the most well planned and worth watching. Even as a retold story, I find it interesting. So I recommend the fans out there who haven't watched this to give it a try.
I'm about to watch the new one about nami too, so hopefully it can be much better than the arabasta movie and as good as this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 2, 2012
Kids On the Slope is a solid piece of work, but it pales in comparison with other works of the same or similar genres. What's wrong with it in my opinion? It feels unnatural.
In other words, the progression of events and the interaction of characters make me feel like they are what they are for the sake of the storyline and overall atmosphere. It's like, you first create an unchangeable backdrop and lot of things to be done and then make some characters fit in some roles to do those things. I didn't feel any deeper traits that actually defined each character, so consequently,
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whether or not the characters are what they are doesnt really matter to the story anymore, since the story would nevertheless progress the way it was written. This type of progression might work fine for horror or mystery, but definitely not for drama or slice of life. I believe that the importance of each characters foremost must surpass the importance of the storyline in order for a drama to be successful. Otherwise, there is no point in watching it since it would be too trivial.
Another thing about this series is that the story lacks anything that pops. You can say that's the way Josie series are. However, for me this can only mean the Josie genre needs a breakthrough. Anyways, for me, no matter you use which genre to define this show, it doesn't live up to the potential in any of the genres.
However, it is a solid piece of work. From the music to the animation, there is nothing one can really complain about. The big picture is perfect, but too perfect for the characters to shine through. That's why I couldn't bring myself to like it as much as I wanted to.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 13, 2012
At first, I really wasnt impressed. The characters, especially the two guys, talk as if they are hinting the deeper theme to each episode. That was a little unnecessary. I didn't mind the plot though. The trivialized version of mysteries interested me more than the big mysteries that are either too fake or too unreal. I understand that this might be disappointing for mystery fans, but I feel like hyouka is a breeze that can change the stagnant mystery genre.
I honestly look forward to this a lot each week. I got used to the talkative characters and the lack of character development. There are
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some changes in the main character so far, but I wouldn't say it's development. However, the literacy club itself is developing and moving forward as a whole. The club grew on me, so I began to see the characters less individualistically and probably accepted their way of talking.
The animation and sound are pretty impressive. I like the animation style, especially when the main guy starts to solve the cases. It makes even the most trivial case interesting. The background music approprately fits each scene, and I find the ending especially cute. I understand this animation style has been used before in the past, and sometimes I even feel like its an act of stealing. I wouldn't forgive it if it's been used badly or didn't improve on it. However, it did improve on it, not in terms of style though, but in terms of where and how it's used. I don't like the idea of using creativity for its own sake. Some people may like it though, but I do not. Randomness, uniqueness, or craziness for me cannot stand alone. They are only for enhancement, not for the real substance. (Im excluding comedy on this one) I've offended some people and their love, but thats my belief.
Having said that rather irrelevant detail, I want to talk lastly about the plot that made me fell in love with hyouka. Beside the obvious downplay, I think as a consequence, you can detect a trace of elegance in mystery solving. The art and sound helped too, but I think the elegance would have been lost if the cases were big scale murder cases or a national crisis because they would usually give away obvious hints, some distracting, and you would be too busy guessing the culprit. Hyouka involves the audience in another way. Hyouka makes sure that you can't guess logically until the guy solves it. Yes, you'll realize how stupid or trivial the solution turns pout to be and the story becomes anticlimactic, but isn't exactly this anticlimactic feeling telling you that it's reality? People like to cook things up, and the bigger the scandal, the bigger the followers. Reality is often trivial, grand in scale only in how trivially detailed it is. The elegance of hyouka is therefore how trivially detailed it makes the cases to be. In the anticlimactic conclusion, you might start to find the trivially detailed reality more interesting on its own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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