Mar 29, 2024
School Days
(Anime)
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In my ideal world, more anime would be like School Days. School Days is daring and deceptively intelligent. It disarms the viewer and builds to a crescendo rivalling that of a Greek tragedy, except that there are no heroes here. Instead, School Days is an exercise in unabashed nastiness: whenever you think that it couldn't possibly get any worse, it exceeds itself. It's mean-spirited, unpleasant and difficult to watch... and that's the entire point. I respect art that doesn't attempt to please, but instead, attempts to be unique: for better or worse, School Days is unique and that's why I hold it in high-esteem.
Oct 24, 2023
Boogiepop wa Warawanai
(Anime)
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"Not all confusion will ever be cleared up. Sometimes it will solidify, still confused, and attempt to judge the world. Like a curse, affecting the world with no rhyme or reason..." -Kirima Seiichi (Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 1, Chapter 6)
Madhouse's Boogiepop wa Warawanai: Boogiepop Phantom is a puzzle to be solved by the viewer. The chronology is non-linear, many important events are only briefly shown and, if you haven't read the light novel Boogiepop and Others, you'll be without context for much of the story. Still, many people (myself included) first watched this show without having read the light novel so don't feel as ... 
Sep 24, 2023
Haibane Renmei
(Anime)
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Yoshitoshi ABe's Haibane Renmei, at its core, is a stunning meditation on self-forgiveness, love and moving on. If you're at all familiar with ABe's oeuvre, you'll know that his works are always a feast for both the eyes and the mind: Haibane Renmei is the very embodiment of both. I'd go so far as to call this show his magnum opus.
This is not a fast-paced, action-oriented show: it's slow and deliberate, meditative. The first five episodes particularly explore the setting of the town of Glie as well as some lore about the Haibane themselves and their roles within the society. After that, the show ... |
