- Last OnlineNov 9, 2021 6:19 AM
- JoinedMar 2, 2020
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Feb 26, 2021
Really nails the sombre, pessimistic atmosphere, and I don't think anyone can deny that it's central diagnosis of the de-facto continuum between peace and war in the post cold-war global political situation, the fact that the first pole simultaneously denies and profits from the second, stabilising the core at the cost of the periphery, is pretty much simply just correct. This general outlook and mood feels very pre-emptive of the later Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (despite that work not having been directed by Oshii). The comparison does though highlight what is probably this films key weakness. For whatever reason, Patlabor 2 feels the need to
...
wrap things up uncharacteristically neatly, and the simple resolution, concluding on an uneasy optimism, feels a bit out of place. I can imagine some people think that the even slower pace that Jin-Roh goes for is boring, and that the unflinching gut punch with which it ends is cheap, but I think the comparison with Patlabor 2 demonstrates that that is exactly the direction to take a film like this, one concerned morbid with criticism, and leaving hope to other projects. The alternative, if one does not take that path, is unsatisfying if left unexamined, and laughable if not — for what is the 'hope' that we can gleam from this film, if we are to take it seriously, and not discount these formal issues as mere cowardly conformity to commercial movie structure? To put blind faith in a few good cops, and similarly benevolent actors within the government? That suggestion is clearly ridiculous now, and I can't imagine that Oshii and Ito felt much reassured by the idea back in the 90's either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Feb 25, 2021
"'As I tracked down his past, it felt like time was passing me by. Places I used to know were just rotting away, or had become empty ruins. Look away for even an instant and it's all gone. And it happens before I can even consider what it all means. I guess the past is worthless in this city.'
'This spot was part of the ocean until recently. And in a few years, a huge city will rise up from the sea in front of us. But before you know it, that will become yesterday's junk too. It's like sitting through a sick joke.'"
This film feels
...
kind of awkwardly pulled between two polls. On the one hand you have some more slow, methodical, contemplative exchanges like the above which pre-empt the tone that supposedly characterises the second film (I haven't seen it yet), and then, on the other, you have the lighthearted low-key character interactions from the decidedly slice-of-light comedy from the OVA and/or anime, plus a smattering of more standard actiony set pieces. All rolled up together, it doesn't really manage to excel at any of them, and largely comes and goes like a very inoffensive beautifully produced and hand drawn appetiser -- it doesn't fill you up.
As a side note, I watched the OVA before this since I thought it would be good to get some context going into it. Now, I think that doing so probably isn't entirely necessary, you might find yourself confused at first by whoever the characters are and their relationships, but I don't think that's anything you wouldn't be able to work out in the viewing process.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Feb 25, 2021
I actually quite like the bait-and-switch idea of setting up the mecha thing and instead doing a lighthearted slice of life comedy instead, but I feel like the OVA doesn't really have the runtime to do the idea justice. I think to get that stuff to work you need to have a lot of space for characters to develop and play off of each other in a bunch of different scenarios and pairings. There just isn't enough time here to do that, but it does make me think the anime could well be pretty decent actually, as long as you go into it knowing what
...
you're getting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 24, 2021
The two seasons of this show communicate pretty well with each other. The first takes as it's main focus autotelic memetic processes, and the second then investigates how those same forces can be both manipulated and/or fabricated by agents of power like, for example, intelligence agencies. This kind of idea was obviously very sexy back in the 90's and 2000's, but the particular treatment given to it here, particularly in the second season, still feels pretty prescient and relevant today. There's definitely much more of a political focus here than in the first season too, and, though it can feel a bit hard to pin
...
down precisely at times, whilst also working within the usual problematics entailed by presenting such a political/conspiracy thrillers from the perspective of what are, essentially, cops engaged in the project of protecting the stability of the status quo, it's pretty clear the shows sentiment is not a reactionary one. Generally I think this political focus helps to elevate the second season slightly above the first, even if the first probably features slightly more compelling character work.
Overall, I'm not really sure why it took me so long to get around to watching this, I think I somehow thought they wouldn't stand up compared the original film. That's really not the case though - they're very good! Also, big ups to the Tachikoma. I thought they'd just be annoying, but at some point I realised they'd become my favourite characters in the entire franchise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 14, 2021
Spectacularly stupid and sublimely dumb, this is definitely a complete waste of time UNLESS you can derive second-order humour from it's stunning lack of success. In respect to that though, it was honestly very entertaining. Almost everything here so transparently attempts to be smart, twisty, and gripping, and all of those attempts fail so completely that just seeing it all unravel was enough to keep me watching. Stupid pop-philosophy concepts are paraded about in dialogue that ranges from offensively trite, to hilariously essentialist/reductivist, to what basically amounts to the script-writers talking to each other about their ideas at the pub transplanted directly into the show.
...
I have to assume that the plot is trying to surprise the viewer with all it's twists, reveals, and non-sequiturs, but anyone watching with even half a brain will see basically the whole trajectory of the story from the fourth episode at the latest, and the non-sequiturs achieve a remarkable state of being /so/ contrived and stupid that, once you get the right attitude in your mind, you can see them all coming too. The result is actually a not too awful experience, if a bit surreal, akin to watching a failed magician try and surprise you with bungled slight of hand - the desired affect is certainly not achieved, but it really is very funny. There is a scene here, not to far into the runtime, where a character shoots at a man who was had two trepanning holes drilled into his head. Even by this early stage in your studentship at this shows feet you should know what to expect next, but that correct expectation only elevates the deranged giddiness you will feel when you see, in slow motion, the bullet fly harmlessly into one of the holes and out of the other.
Honestly, if you're a certain kind of person it might be worth watching this show for that scene alone, and the experience of having everything fall into place exactly as you knew it would happen is a fun one. I do feel quite bad for whoever made this though, because they were clearly trying very hard to be intelligent, and they ended up making something for which stupidity was it's only merit. Slightly more concerning is the fact that other, real life people, neither directly involved in making the show, nor related to those who were, seem to think it is genuinely smart/deep/compelling. I'm not quite sure what to say to such people, but I guess I can see how they would maybe make that mistake. This is a dumb anime draping itself in the facade of a smart one, aping things it's seen elsewhere in some of the most rightfully lauded exemplars of the medium, and not understanding how they work, how to execute them, or in what context they should be deployed. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but surely we at least have a right to hope for more competent imitators?
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Dec 9, 2020
A peculiar but very good film, I thought. For most of it's run time I was worried it might cop out and end up settling on a wishy washy humanistic pandering, ultimately trying to redeem the fascistic mindset it focuses on, but the ending resolutely dispels any such feelings. This is a psychological portrait of the mindset of the lapdogs of Control, and how such an apparatus can recapture any piece beneath it that shows even the slightest hint of straying loose. It's bleak, it's cynical, and it doesn't fall into the cliché trap of offering something so simple as "movie love" as the universal
...
panacea to the repressive cop mindset. This is brute conservative power and the people drawn to exercising it, with the spectre of negation ever, it turns out by the end, pre-negated.
Honestly, this could easily be a 10/10 on a rewatch, because the only real thing irking me whilst viewing was my, ultimately unfounded, lack of faith that the movie could follow through on the above without capitulating to the normal narratives around such things. But this is a film that does deserve your faith -- it knows what it's doing, it isn't stupid.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 8, 2020
Finally got around to finishing this today after having watched the bulk of it several months ago. I really think the story arc nature of this lends itself to being watched in a few discrete sessions rather than trying to binge it all as I did initially. Anyway, it's really good. I went into it expecting something like a more avant-garde Mushishi, but, besides the premise, the overall feeling of the two anime's is very different. Mononoke functions much better as a horror anime, and the longer run-time of each narrative arc lets it linger long enough on each beat of the mystery formula long
...
enough to let you really drink in the gorgeous art.
There is a certain school that would tell you animation is all about motion. There is certainly some truth to this, and the greatness of many animations lies in their fidelity to flow and movement (for examples in the world of anime, look at anything by Masaaki Yuasa), but Mononoke truly demonstrates that there are alternative aesthetic paradigms under which animation can function. Here each still is so rich with detail, and so excellently composed, that almost all are beautiful outside of their animated context. The power of montage is in full force as each still can then be cut between, producing an almost hypnotic effect based on discontinuity of visuals rather than one grounded in their seamless interconnection. Motion then enters in service of this primary aesthetic affect, usually in very limited and specific ways, drawing attention to small parts of the visual field or further contrasting two elements previously introduced independently.
Interestingly, compared to western animation, lots of anime always already functioned more in this manner than the aforementioned alternative, but Mononoke really doubles down on this aesthetic style to an intensity greater than anything else I've ever seen. The result is an entrancing, beautiful, and very unique work that is probably a must see if you love animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
May 27, 2020
I finished this show a while back, but it's taken me awhile to write this review, in part because, despite all its flaws and to its enormous credit, Zeta Gundam really emotionally affected me. Overall, Zeta manages to both build upon the formula, characters, and themes, of the original series whilst also underwriting most of its few optimistic aspects - and nowhere is this more clear than how the series chooses to end. The first Gundam at least ends with most characters alive, albeit horrifically scarred by war, and the central conflict ended, albeit at great cost. Despite all the trauma there is a possibility
...
of recuperation left open. The final stretch of Zeta in comparison solemnly feeds character after character - who have had ample time to develop in meaningful ways - into the meat grinder of senseless conflict. As such the story of the show - of the characters we were largely concerned with - comes to and end, despite the fact that the larger conflict they were caught up in is nowhere near its conclusion. The only room for optimism, for a future where friends and lovers aren't forced to watch each other die (or even find themselves having to try and kill each other), is displaced onto the newtypes and the emergent collective subjectivity they are shown to represent. But even this hope of an emancipated future is pretty bleak, the implication being that as long as humans remain human meaningless conflicts will continue to produce meaningless suffering - and newtypes, like Four and Kamille, will always be caught up in this torment, until eventually the human is completely overcome. Note that that process of overcoming is itself necessarily dependent on the meaningless suffering - the newtype collective consciousness is, afterall, full of dead people chewed up and spat out by the war - the shows shimmer of hope is, then, that, eventually, at some long off unspecified point, enough collective dead trauma might weigh heavily enough on the present to get people to stop hurting each other. It really is unrelentingly bleak, and I can't say I want to watch another Gundam series, or another Tomino work, any time soon - but you can't say its not more compelling, and more accurate, than lots of other media you'd watch, especially those that take war as their subject, which can easily slip into propagandistic justification even whilst they try to be 'serious' and 'raw'.
One big advantage the show has over its predecessor is that it can lift many characters out of it, ready made. The show is hugely successful here, especially with the choice to make Char/Quattro something like a lead character. Many of the best moments involve interactions either between two old characters - Chars relationships with both Amuro and Bright particularly standing out - or between old and new - as with Char and Kamille or Reccoa (both also great). (As should be clear from this, Char's character remains incredibly compelling). Add to this the fact that almost all the new characters are excellent, and Tomino's characteristic dialogue - which never exposes anyone's insides too much, leaving you to engage with everyone as something like real people, with obscure hangups, desires, and torments - and you get an ensemble of conflicting figures, on almost all sides, that feel real enough to sell the feeling helplessness in the face of the inescapable conflict they get drawn into. As the new characters go, Four, Emma, Reccoa (despite her characterisation feeling a bit dated), and Fa are great, and, for reasons I can't quite explain, I find Kamille to be a far superior protagonist to Amuro, perhaps because he feels a little less cynical and a little more caring. The only real weak point here is the lack of an antagonist quite as compelling as Char was in the original series - Haman Karn comes close (despite only really appearing in the latter third of the series), but everyone on the Titans side feels quite weak in comparison. Other than this minor flaw, the only other problems are to do with the shows length. It really didn't need to be 50 episodes long, and some arcs and characters probably could have been cut completely (Rosamia, for example).
People tend to call Evangelion a depressing show - but, ultimately, it ends with an explicit, optimistic, nod to the possibility of affirming existence (yes, even in the movie, although the optimism there is much reduced). Zeta does no such thing. But, despite the fact it left me feeling like shit for about a week, I'd absolutely recommend it - just maybe take a few breaks between the last 15 episodes rather than watching them all in one go like I did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Apr 30, 2020
This anime has defeated me. As of watching the last episode (I haven't seen the film yet), I really cannot tell to what extend this anime has substance to back up the simulacra of effective avant-garde meaningfulness it presents. One thing's for sure, the show definitely functions a lot better as just one season (I should clarify I watched in air order). Due to the non-linear presentation order the show manages to have a clear development of intensities and concepts whilst also jumping around an incomplete narrative. The resulting combination is a very satisfying watch, and elevates what would otherwise be routine moments into instances
...
where you recognise a deeper emotional or intellectual significance. As a self-encapsulated thing then the first season is actually pretty good. The second season though, whilst not bad, just seems superfluous and unnecessary. Endless 8 may be very controversial, but the real problem with the season is that is can only play within the timeframe established by the first. We've already seen all the important points on that narrative curve, and so the resulting season can't possess that aforementioned quality that made the first season so good.
Like I said though, I cannot decide whether there's any real intellectual meat to the bones behind this - and it was Season 2 in particular that really made me confused here. In its concluding few episodes it seems to want to call into question certain fundamental notions of what has even been going on in the show for the entire runtime, but it just ends up, seemingly completely deliberately, descending into total nonsense (and you know it knows its doing it because it calls attention to it - the characters trying to work out 'how to show Haruhi her film is total nonsense' being one blatant example. But Is that really that interesting a thing to do? Is the show even doing that at all? Is it even thinking about the fact that it might accidentally be doing this kind of thing? At season 2's end, I had no idea of the answer to any of those questions, and as a result the show stands as something I can comfortably say I reasonably enjoyed, but feel somehow that I maybe shouldn't have (or maybe even I should have more).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Apr 30, 2020
I was very impressed by the original Gundam trilogy. I haven’t seen the series, but these films managed to be much more coherent than I had expected, considering they had to condense something like 20 hours of footage into about 7. Even more surprising is that at least two of them - the first and last - manage to be totally functionable movies in their own right, both of them featuring something like a distinct beginning, middle, and end rather than the general homogeneous ‘this thing happened then that thing happened’ that can easily emerge from turning a tv series into a film. This makes
...
sense, because the first film couldn’t have not had a beginning nor could the last not have had an end, but beyond this both these films also display a clear conceptual movement across their runtime. The first film starts in something approximating peace and quiet and moves into the exploration and exposure of the horrific effects of the war (Amuro's mother telling him, upon their first encounter in over 10 years, that the war has made him a killer, standing out in particular from the last third); the second in the standard intensity of war that has been established thus far and ramping it up to critical intensities - weapons of mass destruction, senseless slaughter, patricide, fratricide (it is worth noting the film has no epilogue, we end right on the post-climax apprehension of the destructive consequences of the climactic battle. The period afterwards, of trying to pack the horror up and establish again a veneer of normality, the film does not concern itself with at all). The second film lacks any movement like this, and, at a not-even-that-high resolution, any point in it is much like any other. The result is something that, rather than something capable of standing on its own, feels very much like watching 15 episodes from the middle part of a tv show.
One of things Gundam made very clear to me is that Evangelion is excellent and remarkable for reasons other than the one that is often given - that it “subverts” its genre by taking seriously both the characters emotions and the traumas that would inevitably result from the events they’re forced to bear. That feature is in fact absolutely core to the ‘real robot’ genre itself, and it's right here at its genesis with these movies and the series. Evangelion even seems to be in direct communication with in Gundam at many points regarding which parts of this conceptual space it explores; compare the opening 15 minutes of both and you’ll see multiple points where Evangelion seems to have positioned itself as a complete inverse of Gundam - the relationship between the father, the protagonist, and the conflict being one particularly obvious example. In the few psychedelic sequences that pop up in the last film, Gundam even has something of the supremely confident weirdness that elevates Eva to the level of masterpiece, although admittedly to a much much lesser extent.
Other than this somewhat-lacking element of confident weirdness (which I really is necessary for the peaks of artistic greatness), the only other real weakness of the film is how much development of secondary characters that was presumably in the series had to be cut. You can really feel this in the third film, as characters who have spoken as little as 3 lines die or suffer in weighty moments. It’s testament to the success of the film that these moments still feel reasonably significant, even when you can barely remember the names of the characters involved.
Taken as a whole then, the trilogy is mostly very good and interesting, with a slight dip across the middle. Probably a must-watch for anyone who even vaguely thought Eva was good. Also - make sure to watch till the epigraph after the last film's credits. It might be even weirder than the telepathic psychedelic visions/communications/death-experiences that feature in the first half of the movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
