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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- Wow, this was a great movie. The rather light-hearted first half served as a good contrast to the drama in the second, with a focus on the life of Kayoko which makes for some very interesting take on the March 9th Tokyo Fire Bombings. Character design and some scenes (like the one where Kayoko says goodbye to her famiyl before she moves) felt very Ghibliesque and reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies. Never a bad thing, but imho GotF had a bit more impact. Torn between an 8/10 and a 9/10. This movie is underwatched. |
| Steel Ball Run anime when? |
| The movie spend too much time with the built up. the first half was only kids playing around.. and that in a war-drama anime. They wanted to make the drama more emotional and impacting with letting the audience know the characters better, but for me that failed (not only because you didnt see the characters dying but because i already had seen a lot of wardramas) What really was a good aspect and would have been more emotional for me, was the idea of her growing up without her family. The story should have shown at least a little bit about that. The movie had some history attached to it (with some dates and important places (like the weapon fabric)) which is more than most of the wardrama-anime got^^ I also really enjoyed the artstyle. reminded me of "grave of the firefly".. well not as good, but still a reminder. Soundtrack was good as well, and the idea with the play-song at the end was nice (the idea with talking to the ghost family kinda wasnt.. they felt like ghosts, not her imagination) Anyways.. nice movie, there are better war-drama anime, but there are also worse. 6/10 |
| Not that I don't understand the claims against its slow pacing, but I actually found it refreshing. I appreciate that it takes its time to develop the character of Kayoko properly to the point where every one of her actions is perfectly understandable and traceable, and her overall character arc makes a lot of sense and is really solid. I also liked the focus. There seems to be a trend in other war drama anime (Grave of the fireflies, Barefoot Gen) to not focus only on the tragedy itself but to develop side aspects of the Japanese society in a rather critical, or at the very least self-aware, way. This was the one that handled this specific aspect better for me because it managed to extract an emotional interpretation that is as strong as the effect of death and destruction caused by war. The characters cry and suffer the loss of their loved ones, but above all they look and act defeated. I think this is a very sharp and thoughtful commentary on the Japanese society that lived World War II. The film puts a lot of effort on depicting and putting in context the amount of patriotic exaltation the Japanese Government spoon-fed its citizens with, and later when the war events start to go wrong, it narrates the shock of experiencing defeat, which could be more devastating and unsettling than tragedy itself. There is a scene where Kayoko talks about her aunt. She doesn't say that her aunt is sad, or horrified. She talks about frustration. This caught my attention quite a lot, considering the scenario. I think the whole movie is a briliant look on the collective shock in a society that clearly did not expect any of that to happen because they never considered the scenario of losing the war. It is very solid, artistically and thematically, and indeed underwatched. Slow pace and maybe a couple overreactions here and there aside, very eloquent, carefully developed and overall easy to enjoy, quite intelligent and classy, and one that could compete in almost equal conditions with its Ghibli counterpart. 9/10 |
jal90Dec 14, 2016 11:50 AM
| I was surprised to see how few responses and votes were here. As others have said here, this is an underwatched movie and I quite agree. I don't even remember where I got the recommendation to watch this from. I've just finished watching it and honestly I haven't processed it completely. But a lot of things stood out to me in this film, especially the contrast between the idyllic, happy first half and the dramatic, tragedy-filled second half. It was sad to see, really. The thing that kept bugging me during the entire movie was "The real victims in a war are the common people." Kayoko and her family didn't do anything nor did they actively participate in the war. They just lived their lives. The difficult thing about war is that it hits both sides. When I saw the plane shooting at the road where Kayoko was running, I thought that was something cruel. Why are you targeting civilians? Turns out it was probably targeting the Japanese man (probably a soldier) who got killed. But still, it could've as easily accidentally shot her. But then I remembered that such things happened on the other side as well (the Allies) and that there's no real winner here. Another thing that really struck me here was how the people felt towards Japan. They were very patriotic and seemed to have complete confidence that the country would win. It feels like they were all brainwashed, honestly. Though I understand that at the time that was how Japanese society was from its highest echelons to the people on the streets. But it was still something striking to see, especially how Kayoko's brothers seemed to be happy that Japan was at war with America and England. Those are just some of the most prominent thoughts in my mind about this movie. There are a lot, but since I haven't fully processed it yet and I can't seem to find the words, that's all for this post. I'm not sure how I'm going to rate this. Honestly, I'm torn between a 7 or an 8 and I probably will take time to decide. All in all, it was a movie I don't regret watching. It showed the war from the side of the Japanese citizens, which is something I haven't seen before, and also its impact to families, children, people who didn't really have anything to do with it. Underwatched, yes, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone to watch. |
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Lockensocke said: Precisely this is what makes it one of the stronger anti-war movies. I couold have watched another hour of such a well observed slice of life from the 1940s. Also children are rarely shown this naturally and realistically. Hell, I'd watch that part even if they didn't make the last 1/3 anti-war.The movie spend too much time with the built up. the first half was only kids playing around.. and that in a war-drama anime. Ushiro no Shoumen Daare (Who's Left Behind?, 1991) Unagitated anti-war drama about a girl's childhood (6-11 y/o) in WW2. Violence happens off-screen, focus is on ordinary life. Millions of children lost childhood and loved ones like MC. A near perfect blend of slice of life, history, and tragedy. Strong. (8/10) |
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| The slice of life part felt like it offered an authentic insight in what life must've been like back in the early 40's in Japan. The emphasis on the mundane and characterisation made the tragedy feel genuine instead of just cry porn. Kayoko was a character you could empathize with easily which made the impact all the stronger. And damn, The "Who's left behind part" at the end hit hard. 8/10 sucker for bittersweet endings like this |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
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