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Feb 22, 2022
Although Eve no Jikan is a work with elements of science fiction, and even uses some theories and themes about the coexistence of humans and machines in the near future, the anime actually seeks to develop this relationship in a more fanciful way with the theme – a kind of modern fantasy with futuristic elements.
The first scene in which the characters are introduced to the cafeteria space, a different reality is presented to that of the opening minutes. A reality that will oppose itself in relation to the daily life, both of humans and androids. Upon entering the cafeteria, the anime exhibits a freer tone,
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making the viewer's perspective on the characters, conversations and situations very personal in that place.
The very exterior of the cafeteria has a somewhat enigmatic light that surrounds that place, as if indicating that there is something abnormal there. Even the corridor where the characters pass from the outside to the inside of the cafeteria also presents elements that suggest a change in realities.
Yoshiura is the director who best uses the CGI technique to his advantage. It's not that CGI used as a kind of “ornament”. Like when the anime uses it without trying to look like it's actually CGI - how some anime seems to be afraid to make it appear in the middle of 2D. Here, Yoshiura not only uses it, but shows it almost explicitly. He really takes the technique as something concrete, as part of that reality. Some spaces in the scenarios gain a kind of “fake” dimensionality, but which has a very effective purpose within this more fanciful space that the anime creates.
Another good use besides scaling the objects and characters very well in these spaces, are some camera movements and shots from a more objective perspective. One of the great strengths of using 3D in animations is being able to move the image more freely, which in 2D is a more difficult result to achieve. This camera movement that observes things, almost as if it were some kind of entity. The anime for many phases makes plans in which the spectator is placed in the vision of some character that walks through that space. This objective and personal perspective of the shot takes on greater importance in the humanization of the characters, especially when the anime makes some more subtle shots.
The human characters have a distant relationship with the androids when not inside the cafeteria. Even in the first episodes, the anime presents a mixed look of these characters with the rest of the things - because until then, they are really objects. The androids' expressions and the way they dialogue when answering a question is always with a distanced tone. This relationship is gradually being deconstructed over time.
Their relationship outside the cafeteria sometimes takes on a more melancholy and dramatic tone. In the scene of Sakisaka walking in the rain with his android, Sammy, when soon after, some people appear right in front, and he leaves her in the rain to get wet out of shame. The android's reaction is to stare at him, and then look straight ahead, but without showing sadness, anger or any emotion at that moment. It's a very strong scene, and despite being simple, it carries the weight of that character, probably hiding or really not being able to express what he feels with that act. Or in the first episode, when the two main characters come across Akito's character while still at school. The anime intersperses two shots of both looking at each other (Sakisaka and Akito), switches to a shot in which we see the character from the protagonist's subjective perspective, and then in the same shot, there is a slight upward movement that reveals a halo, indicating that the character is also an android. And once again, we see a restrained and unfeeling reaction.
Developing a human identity and feelings in machines is not really new in science fiction. However, the difference with Eve in Jikan, and perhaps with the director's entire approach, is that the concepts approached by him only serve as a ladder to something greater that is built in his works.
All this humanized construction of androids does not necessarily have such a direct involvement with scientific theories. And yes, it is true that some things are mentioned, such as the 3 laws of robotics and other theories, but all this scientific logic is in the background, and is brilliantly subverted by this fanciful structure that the anime builds.
The anime actually ends without an explanation or justification for the androids to act like ordinary people. They can actually become or come closest to being human when they are inside the cafeteria; it could be that they have feelings like humans and just repress and hide it when they're out of the cafeteria. But these explanations or truths about what happens to androids inside and outside that place, in the end, don't matter. What really matters is that Yoshiura believes in the real charm that that place presents, even if in the end, he doesn't solve the mystery about him.
This way of solving his themes and approaches in a fanciful way, even starting from some scientific and theoretical ideas, is something already used by the director previously in other of his shorts, and it remains evident in his works after Eve no Jikan. It's a dangerous way to create and approach a theme, since currently, few people still have this sensitivity to connect with works that are based on fantasy, and imagine if this relationship starts from something scientific. (Makoto Shinkai and Shinichiro Watanabe say so).
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 13, 2022
Douluo Dalu demonstrates a form that calls for a direct relationship with MMORPG games. The main mediator of the anime is in how it tries to put the viewer in a kind of fascination for the whole spectacular technical apparatus that is presented.
The entire staging of the anime has this kind of fascinating aspect due to the magic of its universe. The scenes are all very loaded: there are a lot of filters, details, things moving. Anime always has many pleasurable elements highlighted. Almost everything is spectacularly beautiful and detailed. And the anime makes several plans that allow the viewer to contemplate all this beauty.
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It's an anime made entirely in 3D, and it uses this style of animation very well to immerse the viewer in all this technical fascination.
The action scenes are divided into two very specific points. One that I like the most and one that I hate.
What I like the most is the one that lives up to this whole visual relationship of contemplation.
When the characters are about to activate a specific power, the anime always gives a very broad perspective of what is happening (image 1). When he uses the scenarios with that tone of discovery, it's also very gratifying (image 2). It is a very accepted way of looking at this technique. To sum up, they remind a bit of game cutscenes.
What I liked the most were some very expressive shots, from when the anime approaches to show some more evident gesture. (image 3). In the first episode in the chase scene, the anime shows Tang San's character up close making some hand gestures when performing an incantation. The dynamics of the scenes often arise from this agility of the camera in relation to what is happening around it, and the expressiveness in highlighting these minor details.
It is important to remember that this more contemplative, continuous and visual relationship of events reinforces this idea of MMORPG games that the anime tries to convey. This relationship speaks very well with the spectator's gamer imaginary. But, rather than a personal perspective, it is a more panoramic perspective of events.
For much of the anime, characters are given quests, objectives, participate in events. They even have that very basic background in games of the type, where a character, upon reaching a level, can use some different enchantment, weapon or skill.
On the other hand, it has a very serious problem that takes the viewer out of this more contemplative perspective with this game experience, which is when the anime cuts too much of these action plans. In almost all fights, the anime uses a more frantic montage, making several cuts of the same scene. And why is this a problem here?
As I explained a few paragraphs above, Douluo Dalu is a work with very visually loaded scenes. If, on the one hand, this is good when the anime leaves the viewer in a single perspective to contemplate these moments, highlight some detail or scenario, on the other hand, the viewer cannot process these same scenes when they are cut too fast. There are too many details to pay attention to at once. Instead of this more frantic montage taking the viewer along with the action, in reality it ends up confusing a little.
The problem here lies in the conflict between these two approaches.
In another text where I comment on Bing Zhu Qi Hun, I also talk about another feature that bothers me in both animes. By using this 3D animation, more detailed, where the characters have a more organic relationship, and even a more human movement than in a conventional 2D anime, some things don't work in them in a behavioral way. When characters try to act more cartoonish or blatant, it ends up sounding kind of weird. This seems to be directly inspired by a more humorous 2D animation, and in this 3D mold, it doesn't sound so natural.
I still think the choices that work in Douluo Dalu stand out over these issues. It's a very new experience, very different from what we're used to in Japanese animations, even those that are also made in 3D. I think it's a good anime to start entering the universe of Donghuas, especially those that are 3D.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 13, 2022
One of the foundations that supported and managed to balance the tawdry melodrama in the previous two seasons was the dark presence of Akito, one of the best anime antagonists of recent years. The presence of the character on the scene undermined (in a good way) the good relationships and good coexistence that is developed between the characters.
One of the biggest problems that exists in both seasons of the series is the way the anime tries to develop problems at all times through a very recurrent and abundant dramatic form.
The side that managed to hold and break this anime tie with this exaggerated way of
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dramatizing itself at all times is the character Akito, who in his presence, thoughts, memories and even when his name was mentioned, managed to come across whenever something began to look favorable for the characters of the Soma family. She practically acted like an anti-Tohru in that sense.
If Tohru's presence brings to the anime this climate of compassion, love, union and respect between the characters (even in an exaggerated way by the direction) the presence of Akito manages to distort and raise distressing moments in relation to what happens or can happen between the characters. characters, who like it or not, have their developments well done. Even if not subtly, the anime leaves the viewer so close to the dramas and problems of the characters, that it's kind of hard not to care about the condition they're going to be in.
The problem of this season begins when the character gradually loses this villain relationship in the plot, and becomes part of the same heaps of forced dramatic climates that the anime does with all the characters.
The conflict becomes part of the relationships between the characters, which may or may not revolve.
The reality is that subtlety is lacking in the way the dramas in Fruits Basket are constructed this season.
The end of the anime loses a lot of strength because the anime exposes itself a lot. Every character, being from the Soma family, or some other character that didn't matter until then needs to have a dramatic dramatic moment, in the sense of always having that sad music and some character crying. The anime abuses this formula so much that the most important moments of the end lose a lot of strength. In short, he exposes himself so much that the drama itself loses meaning.
But as was said before, what managed to balance the two previous seasons was Akito's anticlimactic presence, and without such presence, what really remains to leverage the anime's conflict is the mystery, ties and fate of the Soma family characters. .
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 13, 2022
Mars Red creates a theatrical and chaotic universe, from the way it creates and positions the elements in the plan, to the way the story unfolds.
The anime's plan transforms the scenario into a kind of stage, leaving the characters or some object always located in some part of the scenario. These more fixed and direct shots always show something from more objective perspectives.
It's notable that even the anime's cinemascope helps make these shots even more asymmetrical. This wider window makes this centering of the plane even more important.
In some more specific moments (especially in the first episode), the anime assumes a freer relationship, especially in
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moments when the characters recreate plays. The image follows the movement of a character's hand, it moves in its own way, almost as if it had life.
They accustom us and position us in a more objective and asymmetrical perspective, and then invert that perspective to a freer one. The anime creates a kind of “chaos” between these two ways of building the plan.
The way the story develops also highlights this somewhat chaotic relationship. Until the middle of the work, what was being built was a perspective of that society in the fight against vampires, until this relationship is chaotically inverted, and we start to follow a survival relationship that is mostly superior to that of vampires.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 31, 2022
Gunsmith Cats at the same time is an anime that preserves a dynamic and flow of very engaging and comic events, but also manages to give a very revealing sense to some very small and subtle details, which are enhanced in the middle of the action and scenes.
The best quality of the anime is the way it solves itself in a very practical and direct way. All anime plans have this very agile and objective character, not only in action scenes, but also in their dialogues and more informative plans.
Although the anime is divided into 3 episodes, and both have their own "end", the main
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conflict exists and connects in both. This one, of course, will be more present until the last episode arrives. There's a scene in the first episode, when Rally goes to Jonathan for a deal. Before she enters the room, the anime does a very quick close-up of the website Jonathan is viewing, and then she enters. Apparently, it's just a scene with a comic intention (since the character appears to be watching a pornographic website), but that has its relevance in the following episodes. Or the scene where Bill is talking in Chief George's office. As Bill leaves the room, the Chief receives a phone call from the State Representative, who is above him. (Bill's own phrase as he leaves the room also reinforces this moment: “Being in such a high place, they keep him very busy.”)
All the important information in the anime communicates very well in a visual way.
The character Radinov, in the scene where she is sent to kill Jonathan, in addition to accomplishing her feat, she also kills the other officers who are there. In the confrontation, she gets shot, but is protected by her bulletproof vest (which is a cape), and comes out unscathed from the shooting and returns to her accommodation. In the car chase scene in the second episode, she gets a wound on her ear, and this makes her very angry – even vengeful in the next episode. All this shows that her physical integrity is something very important. It is even more relevant in the final episode, when the character is shot dead by the Rally, and the shot shows the bullets going through her body and being stopped by her cape.
Being visually informative is something that many animes, movies, series, etc. manage to do very well, but Gunsmith Cats has its very agile character and objective of informing. It won't stop precious seconds for the viewer to pay the most attention to that detail and wait for that one to be revealed later. Gunsmith Cats will frame one shot, and will already switch to another shot; shows something happening, corrects the framing and switches to another shot. It's an anime, which even when it's not in an action scene, it's always in constant motion. The continuity of the scenes has a very good sense and rhythm.
It is not an anime that will worry about a dramatization, history or future of the characters and the plot. Everything that is experienced in the anime begins and ends very quickly.
Even some character traits are more immediate and “obvious” with the intention of not having to specify too much about them. May has this more childlike appearance, a voice with a more spontaneous tone, and in action, in a comical way, she displays this more carefree and explosive side. Officer Bill can already be assumed, from his clothes and way of talking, that he is someone brazen and a little ham. Radinov is already this emotionless, rude, superior character.
The way that director Takeshi Mori used, composed and staged elements and characters in the scene, even if some small details, within a very frenetic and informative style worked very well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 9, 2021
Osamu Kobayashi reinterprets several values from Ai Yazawa's original work.
One of the most positive aspects of the work is how it manages to contrast this more extravagant and strange art, with the intimacy of the characters. In a way, the 2 are different, but they work within the anime's proposal.
The way the anime highlights the world, it's kind of like a real world farce. The characters have these very extravagant personalities, as if they ignore reality and the problems that exist in it. George's strong personality hides the concern and fears he has for those around him. Arashi acts like someone who takes the fuck
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out of everything, but hides his own jealousy and frailties. This choice of being stylists and different reflects their position in relation to the state in which they live.
But, they can't be like that when they're in a state of intimacy. When he needs to be personal and intimate with the characters, he approaches them more directly. The anime shows touches, gestures, positions. The characters' relationship when they are having sex has this impact. It's not an anime that sexualizes the scene, it makes it intimate.
These intimate relationships are proposed by the works of the original author in her work, but the way Kobayashi looks at these elements provides this intimacy with the contrast of her own work, which tends to be really strange.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 9, 2021
There has been a lot of debate these days “what makes a topic well addressed in an anime?”.
WEP's character development comes loaded by very heavy and subtle themes. The anime sets out to highlight these themes as its most obvious feature. Sexuality, prejudice, sexual abuse, bullying etc. It would be sensational if such themes ever mattered for anything other than the themes themselves.
Making it clear here that I have a huge passion for diversity, and I love to see this type of subject being discussed and debated in art (when done well of course). Some of my favorite works like Hourou Musuko, Rillakuma to Kaoru-san,
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Eureka Seven etc. But, I didn't fall in love with the themes, but with the way they were well approached and discussed. Both in its narrative question and in the great way to make the spectator feel this theme in the flesh. This theme being heavier or not.
This anime is the typical case of “interesting idea, important theme, beautiful animation and that's it”. Starting with the expository, evident and obvious way in which this relationship is evidenced. In the first 3 episodes, there even seems to be a good subtext that mixes the narrative well with the topics covered. The story is being told with the subject of submission to history. This unfortunately doesn't last very long. At a certain point, the whole theme starts to be played in a forced and appealing way, even when it doesn't involve the characters. For example, the pathetic scene at the beginning of the fifth episode, when the characters face a villain who represents capitalism. The anime obviously wouldn't let the spectator notice such ideological characteristics by itself and makes the characters release a “The great principle of capitalism is give and take” and problematize the character right after.
I could easily defend WEP from a perspective that wasn't itself ideological and say that the stylization in fascinated me, but no. The anime is pretty much just that. He seems to be more fascinated by beauty than tragedy. I also wanted to be fascinated by the themes themselves, but in addition to the terrible subtext, he makes staging choices that get in the way even in this. The good thing is that the anime managed to not impose a fetish on these themes, and that coming from Japan is already something very positive. But at the same time, he also doesn't try to approach me with these themes, and does just the opposite.
The ultra-stylized and loaded animation practically erases the importance of what the anime wants to address. Everything is so exceptionally beautiful and detailed that the real importance (which the characters should be) ends up practically mixing with this beauty of the scenery.
In reality, it doesn't really seem to me to be an anime that cares about these current topics and discussions. It's just a way of exposing an intention to force an idea on the viewer. A way of “imposing an idea” rather than “working on such an idea”.
The experience of watching Wonder Egg Priority is empty, while the anime tries to make the viewer swallow its importance as he himself doesn't approach it well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 24, 2021
In Bishounen Tanteidan, the real charm is in the mystery and beauty of the moments, not in their endings.
All this beauty and stylization does not have a purpose that goes beyond being beautiful and stylized. The anime empties everything that can be dramatic and logical, and focuses only on what the events themselves can provide. It is evident that the anime has an objective discourse and theme, but it also seeks to confuse the viewer about its real intention. Its narrative, logic and conclusion are empty, but the main theme is not.
If you think about some conventions and principles (or rules, as the more radical
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and limited ones insist on saying that they exist), Bishounen Tanteidan is an anime constructed in a “wrong” way. He proposes several mysteries and possibilities, but I haven't really completed any of them. The characters are not human, deep, complex or dramatized. Every anime relationship has a goal, and as he says, to be beautiful and exciting.
In this plastic and stylized construction proposed by the director, the sets, mysteries and characters are part of a very unique style that always seeks emptiness in relation to realism. So, there is no reason for the characters to have a deeper development or drama, in fact, they end up serving more as objects in this composition. Dehumanizing them makes more sense than making them human. The only personality that exists in them is the most illustrative one, which also distances them from reality.
The characters' vibrant color and color palette mix with those of the backdrops, making some interesting compositions. These plans also reinforce the idea of treating both the characters and the scenarios with a unique and stylized importance.
The realism in Bishounen Tanteidan is seen as something ugly and frightening. The last episode brings realism as something to be feared. An existence that tries to subdue what is pleasurable by itself. That which explains; who reveals the truth – the ultimate meaning – in this last episode, he is a villain. An existence that explains how the mystery of the accident actually happened, and takes away the beauty that the mystery brought. The beauty is in the mystery, in the doubt, in the various visions and interpretations that may or may not be right, but what really matters is that they are beautiful. And in Bishounen Tanteidan, the truth doesn't matter. Truth and logic take the beauty out of the mystery of the universe. The magic is in enjoying the moments, not in actually understanding them.
By emptying what the characters are into a dramatic and human matter – and transforming them into objects in the scene, he removes the moral of the events and their characters. The last episode is also about that. Find and search for a star; investigate the secret of a casino; decipher the riddle of art paintings and a possible crime later; and all the other mysteries in the anime are fanciful, thought-provoking and beautiful, but when it comes to directly involved with something real and dangerous like death, no. If we go to see how all the mysteries happen, this last one of trampling is the one that comes closest to being a real crime, and therefore, its “morality” is realistically confronted. But it shouldn't.
Sounds like a very similar idea to Ortega's about art. S.S. describes: “Ultimately, 'style' is art. And art is nothing more or nothing less than various forms of stylized, dehumanized representation”. As if art were a disassociated view of the world, and unique in its own right. A view with which I don't 100% agree (not even Sontag itself), but which I appreciate here in the way it was confronted in the anime.
This can also be a very specific and direct comment on Shinbou's work in general (especially in relation to Monogatari). While some try to say what it is, and how it should be watched – in what order it should be watched – to understand what happens, they end up forgetting to enjoy the events for themselves. As if his anime didn't have a moral with reality, and in fact were ambiguous on this issue. A new universe that is apart from ours. So, bringing reality or a limiting interpretation to his work is the same as emptying his world – it's making him ugly and futile. As if: his real experience is in what happens, not why and how they happen. I am not here defending the moral and ambiguity of his works, but rather giving a possible interpretation of what he might be trying to express.
However, I don't think the purpose is to prevent possible interpretation, but rather “how” it should be interpreted. As the work makes clear, the mystery deduction must be beautiful and make sense, and not necessarily the truth, and that's what matters in the end. While some try to deplete the artistic potential of their work, few are really interested in preserving this mystery that so captivates the public.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 26, 2021
Animentary: Ketsudan shows the war and its real impacts in a dramatic, documentary (and fictional), raw, symbolic and even experimental way at times.
It's not just an anime that will tell real events that took place during the Second World War, it will create a narrative that travels through several layers very well orchestrated by the direction of Ippei Kuri. Also, if we analyze Kurenai Sanshirou, 1969 and make a brief comparison between the director's two works, it is already possible to find some aspects in the way he works with a “similarity” to the real world from a fictional story. As when anime takes advantage
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of a narration to introduce this informative part of what is happening, and also with real images of what happened.
Of course, in Ketsudan it is possible to see a huge evolution in the form and expressiveness with which such an approach is used. Not because of the weight of the theme itself, but because of the direct relationship with how the director approaches the theme. An approach that is very practical, and at the same time formal.
The formal and practical that I talk about here is directly related to how the anime was produced. It is a work that impresses even for its technical virtuosity, which for the time, is very impressive.
The whole characterization of the anime takes this very raw and human approach. He maintains some very physiognomic features of a human face, trying to achieve a very strong and expressive resemblance to the real world. And even released in 1971, the anime does not carry those more cartoonish traits inherited from a formation of Japanese animation proposed by Tezuka.
A humanization in the characterization of both the characters and the spaces. The ships and scenery (all inspired by and featured on World War II ships and landscapes) are all very well detailed and functionally complex. You see a cannon working, a torpedo coming out of a submarine, planes exploding.
The anime also mixes some imagery and symbolic moments that fit very well with this cruder approach that the work calls for. In one of the episodes, a soldier is watching a moth heading towards the light. This moth dies and the anime intersperses this image of the moth falling with a Japanese army attack plane. In this episode in question, the soldiers would sacrifice themselves and die in favor of an attack that was already planned. And many already knew they were going to die.
Not only events and situations, but some objects and gestures also gain a very high expressive value, such as flags, ships and swords. In the episode () one of the Japanese army characters dies. The anime shows this soldier's sword breaking in the clash, and then a fallen flag on the ground. Soon after, an image of the broken sword beside the soldier. In the episode of the death of Isoroku Yamamoto (important Japanese admiral in World War II), who is shot dead in an ambush, and found with his sword in hand (a true event). A symbol of endurance and pride at the same time. The sword in Ketsudan is always shown and extolled in several scenes as an important and very representative symbol. In both moments mentioned above, there is a very strong relationship between these objects and the lives of soldiers as soldiers, who live and die for their country.
Looking now at a more moral issue. Ketsudan doesn't just show a heroic patriarchal relationship of Japanese soldiers, but also of Americans (even though it weighs a little more towards Japan – which is not a problem, as the US portrayed these clashes in art with the same particularity). In the episode of Isoroku Yamamoto's death, the anime shows how the US intercepts and steals information from the Japanese army, which helped the Americans take their revenge for Pearl Harbor.
Kind of strange to reflect that Ketsudan not only criticizes this horror of the War (mainly in the final episode), but at the same time, he is also fascinated and enchanted by all these happenings – it makes the viewer fascinated with the theme. The relationship between the real, the imagery, the symbolisms, etc. This is all very well harmonized.
real images
Annimentary is not a “documentary” per se, but a narrative story that imitates the real. It starts from real events, turning them into a kind of fiction, as in Midway: Battle on the High Seas, 2019. But at the same time, it still has documentary attributes to tell this story, and this is not limited only to narration that describe the events in more detail.
If not enough a whole scheme of anime to associate itself with the real (departing from the cartoonish, obviously) director Ippei Kuri still uses real images and records from World War II. And like his entire approach, he intersperses these images with narrative moments, managing to refer more directly this expressiveness of the narrative real, with the real itself. As I said in Kurenai Sanshirou – where he also uses some real footage in the first episode, and associates it with the narrative – he's evolved a lot in how he fits that into his staging. In Sanshirou, for having a more pop culture-oriented relation to Bruce Lee's action films, the images chosen by him (the various explosions), end up sounding a bit Camp (which is not a bad thing). The images he has chosen now (such as planes crashing into the sea, soldiers arriving ashore or saying goodbye to their lands before fighting) have a colder and more painful weight. A weight that will directly interact with our subconscious in relation to events.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 26, 2021
Gridman's point of appreciation is not in this "deeper" relationship of important themes that anime tries to work on, but in a more vulgar way in which he treats the most objective subject of anime - this one that refers to a nostalgia for the moments of action.
I like how the anime works with this more vulgar and objective plot relationship that exists on the surface. Vulgar not in a negative sense, but in this well assumed visual relationship with a heroic, destructive and nostalgic charge.
Even though it has a continuous story, the focus is on the immediate resolution of each episode – it progresses
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by giving more focus to isolated events of each episode, and that's very gratifying. This structure with the main events ended in a more episodic way also reminds me of this form of the tokusatsu’s.
The vibrant colors of the Gridman, the robots' movements that follow a more choreographed logic and the way in which the connections made with the other robots are shown have this more enchanting characteristic. The way they show the cgi of robots and monsters as elements that are more distant from that reality. This relationship fits more with the face of the studio, which normally seeks this intensity of scenes and movement. It all goes together very well.
I've gotten used to the fact that there's always been a reference to the old works of the Gainax studio. Which in Gridman's case wasn't bad, since the work has this more ridiculous approach. And these kind of obvious personalities also have that intensity that the anime positions itself to have.
Unfortunately, once again the studio tries to work with a poorly articulated deep theme, making some parts very superficial. This more contemplative relationship does not match the intensity that the anime presents.
Not that having the theme itself is the problem, as it intentionally seems to exist just for that. But the way in which director Akira Amemiya works with this relationship in a more “subtle” way ends up separating and isolating his theme from everything else.
What I mean is, Gridman can't bind these two properties. It seems that the two exist in dissociated ways. An example of something that works very well within this logic is Trigger's own Kill la Kill. It is a work that has the same intensity of scenes and movement, at the same time, a subtle theme present in the work. But, Hiroyuki Imaishi integrates its theme within this intensity of work. Not that I mean this is THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT, but rather that he came up with an idea that makes this approach unique.
But, the job itself isn't bad. Even though he couldn't articulate an idea that would provide a unique experience for the viewer, there are still many things that work. The difference between the two is that: this deep relationship is developed in an illustrative, obvious and boring way; and this heroic, destructive and nostalgic relationship is practically the best thing about anime.
It works much better as a direct allegory to the tokusatsu’s themselves than this more immobile and expressionless form that sometimes makes you sleepy.
The final stretch of the anime has the best/worst moments. Better because the anime arrives at the apex of this more intense and nostalgic relationship with the final battle against the main villain. And worse, since the anime ends with a sobriety that tries to put an end to its most delicate and underdeveloped theme.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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