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Only our most distant descendants will be able to decide whether we should be
praised or reproached for first working out our favourite amv before working out our
revolution.
-Brigitte Auber, probably

In the fading, blinding light of the first days of 2001, a very important question was set. to the people of France, Japan and beyond.

What if Françoise Sagan loved 'Le lundi commence le samedi' and Toei did an anime adaption of the hit novel she wrote as a tribute? Unfortunately, this is not what's answered when you see this Leiji Matsumoto collaboration with Daft Punk, maybe it's not even close but still it's ... a rather seminal work and music videos of tracks from Discovery pretty much swallowed MTV Airtime in the turn of the millennium, at least in Europe, making Daft Punk arguably the biggest French music stars of the past two decades, so the material undergrowth of the film it is what someone would expect from the glowing sunset of eurointegration.


It's a simple sf-themed Leiji Matsumoto film, but about the music industry and the glowing optimism may be off-putting for some younger viewers but Mitterand also said he was the last President de France and from now on there will be only bloodthirsty fascist sociopaths and so on, yes the social democrats blustered a lot but still they got things done, and France isn't really social democrat either, dirigisme was a bit different and now financially things aren't going so well either, I suppose, there's a line about that in Berubara and some things are a repeat, we know the French Revolution opened up History but there are other anime for that.

The music is a slightly edited version of Daft Punk's album Discovery but you're not discovering it here, for better or for worse anyone seeing this film has already an opinion of this album which is informed by far more hours of thought than I could hope to change with this review, watching videos from that a lot as a kid worked into getting me into anime, I didn't even like the music then but by now I've mellowed on it, pretty good music all around, now if someone could do the same for The Knife but unfortunately Satoshi Kon is dead.

Leiji Matsumoto is also a known quantity, at least at his more mature, nice touches here and there, blue chosen from La Planète sauvage I hope, the concert scenes are extremely well done and the afterthought of blobby design met the optimistic liberalism and the Roberts company with a strangely hammer and sickly looking R, blue person white person black person Bavarian person it doesn't matter, what matters is that it sells merchandise and brings viewers and listeners in, what you would expect from a classic storyteller of the late Showa

The subjective enjoyment factor is scattered throughout the film, everything we're ever shown about the characters is contained in less than about 10 seconds, 4 essentially character profile cards and some video footage of childhood memories that one could easily project from the demographic data contained in those profiles, the drummer must be such a cool guy, he's Ooyama Tochiro'us nephew I suppose and he goes to Wacken a lot and he may secretly think that people from places more northern than Kassel at the most are basically pack animals but we know he's such a gemütlich type of guy so he's really into the fantasy stuff not really sf but he struck a good gig and it's practically a space opera so what, he runs a bar in some Mediterranean beach at some point later in his life or maybe just a cabin in the woods of Estonia, there are other places too but he seems like the either too quiet or too loud guy, you think of the latter at first but it can be most surprising sometimes. Roughly so it goes for France Maetel, the imposing yet stylish keyboardist from Brooklyn, the elegantly handsome guitar player and also the poor fan who did the good thing, all in all it's just a nice piece of film to enjoy on a Friday night, if you're fans of either the music or the anime director you'll be sure to enjoy it, if not give it a try if only for the atmosphere, think of it as the last big commercial amv before youtube, it surely has archival value at the very least.

England and Germany get more obvious comparisons with Japan but France's missing place in that triangle manifests itself more openly in art, yes the technical staff is mostly Americanophile as we can see and let's not forget it was the early 2000s, yes the technical and bureaucratic side of stuff skews Saxon (take that Baryl! oh no we're cool don't worry, what's that for a Bavarian name anyway,) but there's the Japanophilies and Rose of Versailles and those collaborative manga volumes with French and Japanese artists about each others' countries , and Paris was the cultural capital of the world for such a long time that even when all the songs are sung in English, BD is also a thing , and the suble tributes here and there with a soccer match and whatnot surely are a charm done by Leiji Matsumoto yes, and even though, for example, the History Departments, for example, were flooded with Marxists, the smooth crystalline bobbly ambience of this film does the trick, creates a classic of the brief and maybe reviving artform of the music video, internet revived the video star

And now, Silent Shout gets a KyoAni adaptation

"Korokichi was having a happy war dream."

The ending would be a decent way to start a review of this rare gem, recently brought to 1080p light by the admirable restoration efforts of the National Film Center, the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Just to get this out of the way, so that you know what that NFC mark at the bottom right of the screen means.
Don't get distracted, please.

Although this logo's presence leads us, albeit tangentially, to the first question this film poses, which is the most important.
Is it Propaganda?
The answer is, for better or for worse, yes. Of course yes, it ... couldn't be anything else. In its essence, this short film is spectacle.

The second question is, whose view is it propagating?
We don't really get any clear answer for the frame. The synopsis has the word 'Unfortunately', and you could say that it was unfortunately placed. Ha ha... Sorry

Anyway, the turn of phrase used in the synopsis could lead someone to think it is anti-war propaganda, one of the rare, and all the more braver, voices of dissent in Shouwa Japan. A liberal, or maybe even one of those elusive 'leftist' creatures, harshly but serenely condemning the bloodthirsty folly that was engulfing his beloved country.

On the other hand, the circumstances of its restoration, along with the prominence of the National image thingy at the corner would suggest a mildly nationalist approach. What with the Article 9 controversies and the general diplomatic situation in East Asia in the last few years, an artistic masterpiece would do just fine to lift the spirits a bit, no?

But even so, with these two versions already competing from the 3rd second of this film, I couldn't find a definitive answer to that question. A panoply of amazingly drawn and animated symbols, and a series of amazing plot twists, mostly in visual form, provide an incredible depth to this, so to say, shadow plot running in the background, concerning that very question.

The question of for which side is this film propaganda for.

"If the roles were reversed
You could have seen me sneaking up, sneaking up from behind. "

I will not give out these amazing presentations for the sake of avoiding spoilers. I also wouldn't want to give a strongly subjective view to any one of you who is tempted to watch this after reading this, it could ruin your experience.

The best thing about this artwork is how it lets you imagine an entire variety of trains of thought and burning questions. For example, I'm pretty sure that the political angle I chose to follow leaves a lot out and is a long, long way away from perfect.

Concerning the symbolism, aside from showing how important visual presentation is for a silent film, I will only not an example that is not worth noting, due to its obviousness.
On some scenes you can clearly see stars painted on the tails of the airplanes.
Especially in the 'Middle Finger, Peace Sign' section at about the 5-minute mark.

The scope of potential enjoyment that this sort of presentation implies are enormous, and I'd never stain them with my narrow imaginings any more than I've already did.
Suffice to say, they are unbelievable.

Only for this this anime gets an 8 and a very strong recommendation, and that concludes this very short preview. Better not get too specific, you know.

Now to get the specific parts out of the way:
Story(8/10), Art(9/10)
I treated art and story together and gave them a 8.5, with art taking the 9, it being the dominant motor of storytelling.

Music (7/10):
The film was silent, with no accompanying music. The reason for the 7 rating is that I watched it, and wrote this review, entirely while listening to The Front Bottoms, mostly Slow Dance to Soft Rock and the s/t album. As overwhelmingly all-encompassing this masterwork of 21st century literature is, the best I could give it is a 7, the anime not having any original sound and whatnot.
Standalone, The Front Bottoms are of course a 10, and they also serve to give another voice to the chorus of symbols making up the splendor of this spectacle.

Hearing the decadent poems coming out of a dying empire while watching the same empire being portrayed as a barely adult bully by the younger, adolescent empire where the film was produced.

Character(5/10):
Korokichi was quite interesting, and that is that, I guess.

Enjoyment was of course a 10.

I'll leave it at that, please enjoy this gem.

Rakugo(落語) had always been an art form that was considered untranslatable to an audience outside Japan, and even there its popularity has plummeted in the last decades, seeming to go the way of picture dramas.
In the past decade though, two mainstream anime have brought the medium to the attention of foreigners and more casual viewers, always carrying with them this quintessential Japanese sense.
While Joshiraku is genial, watching the subbed anime meant that most people felt left out of the jokes, mainly relying on the intricate wordplay usual of the author and references too obscure for ~90% percent of the people watching it.
Shouwa ... Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu managed to set the record straight for most , seeing as it actually featured some rakugo even if as a backdrop, had a human and relatable story and so on. It is especially good, for the one person reading this who hasn't already seen it, maybe you're the blessed one. Reading this before watching it will surely enhance your experience of the anime.

So, here we have a collection of some classic rakugo stories, translated into gekiga(劇画) by the true master of the genre who coined the very name, the late Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This review is too small for me to a give a detailed intro to this man, but let me just give my opinion that he's the spiritual father of realistic, seinen drama. Urasawa Naoki seems to me to owe a lot to this man, and that should be enough.

Story:8/10
The story really is the main point of the work, and Tatsumi has done an excellent work conveying it. A big part of the flow of a rakugo play are misunderstandings and a big part of them is in turn timing. The film-like time and page space normally familiar to gekiga means that this is played out particularly well. The entire style of narrative reminds one of '50s or '60s Hollywood and Italian comedies, so even if the intricacies of the plot and dialogue are lost, they're all very enjoyable. One can easily like this without knowing or caring a tiny bit about rakugo. Especially if you like historical works, the feeling of the periods it depicts is portrayed well enough, with an underlying modern twist providing much of the comedy. While reading the English version surely spoils some of the peculiar turns of dialogue, the style of gekiga means that it's eminently more transferable to a Western readership than any other attempt at this kind of story.

Art: 7/10
Art is what may put off most readers of such works. The backgrounds are simplistic compared to what Inio or other modern artists have given us, and while there is a good sense of motion and space, most character designs seem crude and repetitive. I personally rate it high enough despite its lack of intricacy due to the service a simple, realistic way of drawing gives wings to the strengths of that artist.

Character: 6/10
Nothing special here, all tied in with the comedy. Most characters are meant to be symbols transparent enough for the viewer to understand and empathize with in the short space and time such a story affords. There are good bits of comedy and some moral lessons derived from their setting, so I rate that high as well.

Overall this is a good read, not something special, but charming in the way it manages to mix two media not so known or easily understood and create something more welcoming than the sum of its parts. It is a great starting point for both rakugo and gekiga and in this lies its real merit.
If the prominence of rakugo in anime makes you read this and then go on straight to Abandon the Old in Tokyo then it has really done its job, and a great one at that.

tl;dr: Product of two not so mainstream art forms, it reconciles them well and serves as a stepping stone for exploring both. Its standalone merits, while not bad in any way, are overshadowed by the great context it immerses one into.

"Supply and demand economics yielded exponential growth in panty expression, and panty flashing became omnipresent".
-Takekuma-sensei

In the distant,magical times of the 1980s, one of the best-selling books in Japan was 'Structure and Power:Beyond Semiotics', by Akira Asada, where he discussed simulacra, post-structuralism, historical psychoanalysis, Saussurean signals ,the New Left ,the desublimation of post-modern culture, and other impressive-sounding, obnoxious, sophomore Philosophy undergrad poppycock. In the turn of the millenium,psychiatrist Tamaki Saito and critical theorist Hiroki Azuma redefined otaku culture and introduced it a subject of sociological study with their books Psychopathology of the Beautiful Fighting Girl and Otaku:Japan's Database Animals, respectively. In those books we can see ... that Tsukino Usagi is a phallic girl, learn about the immensely fascinating history of Gainax, and touch on the supreme icon, and the industrial sex sale tailored on otaku psychology that is Rei Ayanami . Between these two phenomena however, almost twenty years elapsed, and editors don't like vacuums. That's where this work, out in 1990, comes in. Now, you can become a million-volume-selling manga artist and cultural phenomenon, if you just follow these simple instructions!

Character-Story (10/10): The story is about two aspiring manga authors, discussing their plans to become billionaires and conquering the world through manga, and their plans to do that, in the form of advice from the professor-character to the young man burning with guts. Deciding to follow the famous dictum of Anatole France ," if you find something written down, and it's written well, don't hesitate for a moment", most chapters dwell on a specific archetype/trope/cliche of manga in general or trash a particular genre, like shounen battle manga, mysteries, shoujo, mahjong etc. The characters are over the top to say the least, one of the most funny satires I've ever read, it's like combining the outrageousness of Furuya Minoru(I see that he's on the recommended list, that's good), with the somber tone of A Drifting Life, except when the main character has qualms with the artistic integrity of his work vs. loyalty to his friends and employers, and is shown gripping with depression on a long, starry night, you just have him excrete something, and dismiss all this seriousness as poppy...cock. Also, the fact that what they discussed about the '80s is more than perfectly valid now may send you into a mini-rampage against the garish, ludicrous guttural , copies of copies that rule the cultural landscape, devoured by mindless drones etc. etc. Really, the only two things they don't completely nail in amazing style and economy of expression are the moe boom and the angsty deconstruction, and you can consult the latter two books I mentioned in the intro for that.


Art(10/10): The art , while on its own merit fine, including the hysterical/constipated faces, mostly while dealing with some sort of excretion or erogenous zone (or the characters' DREAM), acquires an elevated, special connection to the story in two ways. Firstly , while doing a brutal takedown of a specific aspect of the industry, the manga will cannibalize the prevalent art-style of the niche in question with a Spinal Tap aesthetic , while having the third-best facial expressions I've ever seen in manga ( after Boku to Issho and Otokojuku). More important than that(and the way I found out about this manga), are the all-encompassing, source-citing, two-page infographics provided for a greater understanding. Whether examining the plot-lines of shonen manga (it's all about FIGHTS) , or poring over the marketing intricacies of children's entertainment (it's the mother that buys it), they are all important , timeless frames of introspective , hard hitting cultural analysis and should be part of the curriculum for any self-respecting Humanities major ever.

Enjoyment(10/10): Can't compare it with normal manga, the 10 is a cop-out. If you disagree, you're not meta enough.

Overall(10/10): A hard copy of this deserves its place between One Dimensional Man and the Haruhi Suzumiya LN series on a mahogany bookshelf.

Finally read Monster after countless years, and it's an amazingly good manga,free from most traps that make especially seinen manga a dreadful cornucopia of blandness, and managing to claw its way to classic status.

Story : 9/10
Easily Monster's strong suit, the storyline is extremely, be it plot , dialogue, and even the translated text holds some literary value in parts. Naoki Urasawa here, as he does with Pluto later, sets his story mostly in Germany , something unusual for a manga but I reckon even more close to the affections and experiences of most Western readers. He masterfully weaves long, seemingly totally disconnected threads ... , of different characters in different cities , countries, and decades, and then proceeds to masterfully weave them into an ever more closely knit patchwork of vastly different expressions of the human condition. Maybe the best part of the story is the multitude of well thought-out characters with all sort of different motives , backgrounds and modus operandi starting to arrive to the same place through totally different leads, although this starts to wear itself thin by the last 4 volumes . As for the characters , surely some of them exhibit different tropes and stereotypes, but they're for the most part some of the most multi-faceted I've come across in this medium. Another element that sees strong use here is the non-linearity ,both in storytelling and character presentation, done in such a matter that different tidbits of action or reflection from mostly unaware characters , and flashbacks and retellings of the same encounters or memories from many different angles , serve to masterfully reduce and delineate a seemingly chaotic plot into a lucid raconte.


Art : 8/10
The art plays second fiddle in this work, and while it is certainly way above average, its most striking characteristic is how accurately it manages to portray a different setting from what we're used to in manga, the very realistic and grotesque in their humanity characters, and the alteration of light and shadow that fits the story's frantic bursts of action and long reflections and searches, as well as the overall work's gritty feel.

Character : 9/10
The main characters make a very interesting cast , with the extremely smart do-gooder who presses ahead regardless of difficutlies, and the twins , given an extra tinge of ambiguity by their frequent change of roles, the different approaches they chose to follow after being exposed to a traumatic experience, and the way their past is uncovered to each of them through themselves or others help give the story its edge. The supporting cast is very well chosen from across a spectrum of society , given varying roles, and seeing the various things inside man that can turn everyman into a monster.


Overall , this is the best slice of life shoujo manga I've ever read. Be it desensetized violence, edgy and improbable plot twists, a misunderstood and enigmatic prodigy, brutally cruel or heart-rendingly humane , played out in different portions and themes across the cast, dark pseudo-slavic, communist exploitation , and truly insane bishies, this manga is a perfect match for the teen getting bored with the industrial scale repetition of standardized tropes. Nah, just kidding, it's awesome, one of the best I've read in a long time.