Okite Kudasai, Kusakabe-san is a delightfully lovely piece of media like you rarely get the chance to experience twice. And that's not to say it's anything special either. In fact, it is the very opposite of that: it's simple beyond comprehension. And sometimes, the simplest, most naive stories make for the nicest reads ; why should we look for complexity when all there is, is a lovable cutesy of a story?
Kusakabe, Saneomi's girlfriend, accepted the latter's declaration at one condition: he should have to bare with the fact she wouldn't want to get out of bed easily. And so this is the story of all
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Apr 26, 2022
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Arc-V
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
After the fall of western yugioh comunity caused by Zexal (which is a good show by the way), Arc V is known as the generation that united everyone one more time for a ride into a massive adventure. Rather, it tried, and failed miserably.
I will try my best not to spoil too much here but there are some things I cannot review without spoiling so you'll be warned. I doubt anyone reading this haven't been spoiled already, but just in case. I believe Arc V is a series that should be rated in two times. One for how it looked at the beginning, and one ... at the end.because the show really just sank while on its way to greatness. Let us now begin. ╰──➤⊱Story: 10/10 (beginning) - literally 2/10 (end) Oh boy where do I start. Arc V probably had the best introduction to the series of any yugioh shows. This is entirely due to its incredible mastery of mystery. I believe what makes a show entertaining resides in three aspects : it's sense of mystery making us invested in the story, it's build up making us invested and interested in what was going to happen next, and it's pay-off, also known as the actual story itself. Arc V did the first two elements better than you could imagine, in fact, probably even too good. Because in truth, it lacked the essential: an actually good story at all. What we slowly learned of it in the beginning was completely captivating. A world separated into four dimensions : one for each summoning method, with different versions of both Yuya and Yuzu in each that slowly seemed to attract one another in an almost Lovecraftian fate horror type of way. The xyz dimension had been entirely decimated by the fusion dimension lead by Leo Akaba, the father of Reiji Akaba aka the rival, for we don't what reason, and the latter was about to invade every other in a similar fashion. Why did Leo do this, why was the world separated into four, what would happen if the four yu boys truly did reunite with one another, and what was their connection to the Yuzu counterparts? And what even is pendulum summoning, this mystical summoning mechanic we have been introduced to in this series? And later on, we are introduced to what is known as legacy characters, characters that originated in different series before this one. This was hype, and we were all excited to know what their link with the original series were (that's something that never was revealed though). And when all of this finally got revealed, I think we all regretted asking ourselves in the first place. The problem with arc v is that it tried to do too much out of something that wasn't even that good to begin with, and thus lead to the worst feeling anyone could experience while watching or reading something : disappointment. Had the series not made a whole lot about all of this, surely we wouldn't have been that interested in the story, but at least we wouldn't have been disappointed because we didn't expect much to begin with, and as such could have seen the good in this otherwise mediocre story. I will spoil everything from this point on, so skip to the next part if you don't want to know the answer to all these questions. Basically, the world once was whole, with every summoning methods in one place. Its link to previous generations in unknown and there probably isn't even any. An important aspect of this world however is real solid vision, a device that allowed duel monsters to appear physically in the world and interact with people. Zarc, a random boy who was good at dueling, got pushed to act brutal with his opponents by the crowd, and thus began to act violent. And one day he tried destroying the universe, blaming on the crowd for pushing him this far (I'll get to zarc when talking about the characters, don't worry...). The daughter of Leo Akaba, the inventor of real solid vision, takes on four cards invented specifically to defeat Zarc and goes to face him, and beats him, and separates the world into four. How, we don't know, why, we don't know. Thus Zarc is split into the four yu boys ans Ray is split into the four yu girls because why not. Leo Akaba is the only one who remembers the world as it once was (we dunno why) and thus invents real solid vison ONCE Again, as a pretext to save the world. Well that's a smart move, now we can be sure Zarc will kill us all once he gets reunited. Leo Akaba then gets convinced that to prevent the imminent end of the world, he must bring his daughter back to life, as if she was the only one capable of defeating Zarc, and then goes to kidnap all four yu girls, causing the four yu boys to chase after them and thus meet each other, and he also kills an entire dimension as sacrifice for his machine, thus causing the yu boys there to act to defeat him and thus, meet each other. Man if only you hadn't done all of this to prevent the revival of Zarc, Zarc would have never been reborned. And that's prettyuch the story of arc V, just a mix of lazy to bad writing, dumb characters and poorly used elements that could have been great. The story isn't even well reparted, because the writers tried to infuse too much of what is known as "nostalgia" in the main plot. Legacy characters didn't even need to be there, in my humble opinion they shouldn't even have been there, I'll get to that, but they were to make nostalgic fans scream in hype. This also meant the story was going to be spent 50 episodes in the Synchro dimension, an arc that was almost filler seeing how little it brought to the story, but only to only be spent 10ish episodes in the xyz dimension, the arc that was built up since episode 8 of this show, because 5D's was more popular than Zexal. Arc V tried to do too much out of nothing really interesting or even worth developing this far, and it ended up as anyone could imagine : a disaster. The end of this show is the worst end I have ever witnessed in fiction. Zarc and Leo Akaba are forgiven without a single consequence to their war-crimes, half the cast is dead but nobody seems to care and everybody is happy in the horrifying drug that has become "smiles" at this point, and nothing even makes sense. Frankly this isn't even worth mentioning. Everything would have been better than this. ╰──➤⊱Art: 9/10⊰ If there is something Arc V did right though, it's artistic direction. Both in music, designs and animations. It went back to the "yugioh" style people missed in zexal, it had very pretty color schemes and character designs worth talking about, and perhaps the best animated series alongside the best animated 5D's and Zexal episodes. Maybe there was one or two questionable episodes, like every series has, but it was mostly consistent. But again, its color scheme is what made all it's charm. A colorful, well utilized and eye candy visualled Anime like we all like to see. ╰──➤⊱sound: 10/10⊰ Same here, nothing to say about the sound duels. While I prefer the type of soundtracks found in 5D's and Zexal, one just cannot deny the music in this series was phenomenal and perfectly utilized. Just for my zexal review, I will link a few tracks worth the listen, so hope YouTube doesn't strike them down. https://youtu.be/9RaztTuTKs8 https://youtu.be/DlGcoV6rvJA https://youtu.be/OWRLNmCy-Yg https://youtu.be/Re033lZPVFE https://youtu.be/KwIW8dlP8yA https://youtu.be/VFBCZlcjIDA https://youtu.be/3E97qxUGJ6U (especially this one... Chills) https://youtu.be/qdikLQTyDpc https://youtu.be/zdjEu7Ab5m0 It had an electronic, almost alternative way to it that fit, I think. ╰──➤⊱dueling action: 10/10 (beginning) - 7/10 (end) ⊰ The dueling is an aspect of Arc V done right too, or at least it was in the beginning. The fact they constantly use all four summoning methods helps to make largely diverse duels, and the action dueling on itself might have been the best addition to the dueling side of things in yugioh. But as most things, this kind of got scrapped. As time went on, everything that made it interesting kind of got lost. Action traps were lost, the action fields were always the same, and "evade" and "miracle" were the only action cards there seemed to exist. I don't mind Yuya basing his dueling style solely on action cards, because it's what his entire duel philosophy revolves around, but at least make it good. There wasn't any tension anymore. And the dueling quality on itself even worsened as time went on. One just looks at the infinite final duel against the vilain to realize how poor it was in the end. Now this doesn't mean there wasn't any good fights in the end, far from that, but the quality definitely went downhill after the Synchro dimension arc. And Yuya's smile ideology being forced stuff-fed to his opponents each duel was not only redundant, but also not very morally right, I feel. ╰──➤⊱characters: 9/10 (beginning) - 2 or 3/10(end) ⊰ ⚠️End of spoiler free zone. You have been warned. ⚠️ Oh boy where do I start... There was WAY too many characters. With Zexal, I could only concentrate on a few to illustrate the themes and overall idea, here, I can't, cause the themes aren't really well illustrated. So let's go bit by bit, and this will be long. o͟r͟i͟g͟i͟n͟a͟l͟ s͟u͟p͟p͟o͟r͟t͟i͟n͟g͟ c͟a͟s͟t͟: – Gongenzaka was a fun character in his beginning, and I liked his dueling style using defense for attacks kind of like a sumo. Whereas Sawatari was the "rival" of the first half, kind of like Manjoume but not as good. And their relationship with Yuya was a wholesome, entertaining one. However as the show progressed and became darker and darker, and more and more characters got introduced, they quickly found struggling to appear relevant. Gongenzaka was never supposed to react to drama, and he got Shafter for Crow in the friend archetype. Whereas Sawatari kept a small leading role, but didn't have any meaning, and never even won once onscreen. He could and should have been respected better in order to appear as relevant. – Sora was fantastic in the first 50 episodes. He was introduced as a cute, likable little boy who admired Yuya for his way of dueling, bug there... Something off about him, and, we could feel it. Alnd for once, the building up payed off like a train reck. His duel against Shin was the best in arc v, without a doubt. In it, his friendly person slowly falls off to reveal the insane and blood thirsty psychopath that he really was, trained by academia to invade and kill everyone in the xyz dimension. The animation, emotions passed, and characters here were... Beyond genius not only by yugioh standards, but by Anime standards in general. However he kinda faltered after that. Soon after his loss, he duels Yuya and starts to reconsider his ideals. Slowly he turns nice and that's it. His arc wasn't really emotional nor was it relaly focused on and appeared more bland than anything, as we didn't even got to see it in its entirety. After his flip in persona, he doesn't get much screentime either and sometimes gets replaced by Edo as the fusion user of the gang. – Shun was the best character in arc V, no question. He was badass ever since his introduction until the end, and played a big role until the end. As member of the resistence of the xyz dimension, he first held a grudge against every fusion summoner, even trying to attack Yuzu for it once. But soon he grows bonds with everyone and opens up more, ready to take down academia alongside his companions in a more reasonable way. He was even the only one to see through the absurdity that was the ending of this show, staying the most realistic until the end. However even he was a bit mistreated. He quickly became fodder to lose to show how strong a new character was, like against Crow, against Kaito, against Zarc, even against Sora in their rematch. And I think it toned his cool attitude a bit. But still, let's give credit where credit is due, he was amazing. Next up is T͟h͟e͟ Y͟u͟ g͟i͟r͟l͟s͟: – Yuzu was part of the main group at first,and even played the role of a secondary protagonist during the first arc. She had an arc to get better at dueling where she faced against Masumi to show how much she had improved, and had a lot of personal story with Yuya and Yuto. She was promising, and represented the chance of a finally well treated female lead. And then she got screwed. She lost to Dennis, got ridiculed acting as a damsel in distress againts Yuri, lost to Sergey and got captured, and became a damsel in distress until the end. That's right, she did not duel once, nor did she really appear much of the last 70 or so episodes of this show. She became a MacGuffin for the characters to rescue, nothing more than an object to make the plot advance. I'm sorry, but this was the most disappointing aspect of this story. – Serena was perhaps the better utilized one, however she, like Yuzu, didn't appear after the 70 episode mark as herself. The only relevance she had later on was by being controlled, which is a Gimmick I absolutely hate in fiction. As for Ruri and Rin? They are, and I weight my words, non existent. Okay, Rin was heavily characterized thanks to Yugo, and even though she did so while being possessed, she still managed to beat Yugo in the endgame... So fair enough, she didn't appear once before that but still. But Ruri didn't even have a character design until the 100 episode mark, after which she only appeared while being possessed, and that's it. The girl treatment in this show is terrible. They are the key to defeating Zarc, so you'd think they'd be at least a little bit respected at least, but the show preferred to use them as driving forces and ideas (being damsels in distress) than as actual characters, and I hate it deeply. But before we continue, a quick thought for all those characters forgotten by the show itself. – The LDS trio was one of the major moving forces to the main characters of the first arc. Yaiba learning Synchro summoning to Gongenzaka, Masumi being a rival and eventually good friend to Yuzu in the first arc of the series, and Hokuto being a kind of Rival to Yuya, and was a great comic relief with an incredible deck. Moreover, they all had great chemistry with the characters we knew and had an ever lasting conflict with shun for cruelly carding members of their school. And you know how they got treated? Hokuto got killed by Serena offscreen, And the two others got forgotten never to make a single appearance ever again. Man, this was. Really. Disappointing. – a lot of characters introduced in the Synchro arc were, like, Shinji was a cool character introduced that served as an ideological conflict to Yuya, preferring to care about the problems in his own dimension than of what was happening outside. But he and others from the Synchro dimensions like Chojiro are left behind, and same goes for the vilain. Jean-Michel Roget was the antagonist of the Synchro dimension, and he wasn't anything deep or even likable, in fact he was deeply hatable, and intentionally so. Most people will agree on the fact they hated this character, but that he played a great antagonistic force overall and were glad he was the vilain of this part. At the end of the arc, he is absorbed by a random dimension and is said to have appeared somewhere else, hyping up for an eventual return, return that obviously never happened. – most characters from the maiami championship, like Mieru, Yuu, and dozens of others, are either killed or forgotten. That's a lot. A lot from the xyz dimension too. T͟h͟e͟ l͟e͟g͟a͟c͟y͟ c͟h͟a͟r͟a͟c͟t͟e͟r͟s͟: I think I have expressed my disappointment and disdain in these quite a few times here already, but I think I gotta do it again. They introduced them as a way for older fans to get reinvested in the franchise, and surprisingly it worked, but that also meant the show was now only working because of nostalgia reasons and close to nothing more,so they had to make these guys as relevant as possible in order not to lose their newly acquired audiance. What's even worst is that they aren't even remotely similar, for the most part, to the characters they were based on and is therefore a very unbalanced reason for people to stay, a reason that could break at any moment. These characters ruined the show. – Jack and Crow were the only legitimately good,who made the show progress. Jack was introduced as a badass, Trashing Yuya's ideal and making him understand nothing about it was his, but both His father's ideal and duel style rather than his own. Plus, he had a very interesting story in the Synchro arc and had something no other legacy characters had: relevance. Even so, that didn't prevent him from replacing Yugo at the last moment in the duel against Sergey, a guy he had no reason for fighting other than "signers vs dark signers is nostalgic", and eventually replacing Yugo in the finals of the tournament which would have been great for both characters. Crow was just exactly the same as his 5D's counterpart, and he is quite literally the only character who can be proud of that. He was cool, even if he replaced Gongenzaka and Sawatari somewhat... Before he gets carded out of nowhere. But still, they were two very good characters that served the plot in their own way. – Edo was the top duelist of Academia, and he fell to the egao propaganda after losing to Yuya. He was fine, but he didn't need to be Edo nor did he need to exist at all. He wasn't even treated well despite his existed being shoved in our throats for no good reason. As for Asuka, she was there, then she wasn't, then she died. Moving on. – Kaito... Was introduced way too late to even feel like he deserved in this story. Since the beginning, when shun or Yuto talked about the xyz dimension, they were always a group of 3: Yuto, Shun and Ruri. Then they introduce Kaito and expect us to believe he was there since the beginning because "he's Kaito, and people love some Kaito". His existence only meant less screentime for actually relevant characters like Shun, and this doesn't work. He took the place of Yusho in the very expected Yusho vs Dennis duel hyped up for a very long time... When he didn't even know the first thing about Dennis as a person, and then he interrupted the EXTREMELY built up and awaited duel between Yugo and Yuri, and effectively made it terrible, making it one of the most disappointing duels there was. Then he fights Zarc, loses, and doesn't have anything more to do until the end. Nothing about him justified the first thing about his existence in this show. And lastly, T͟h͟e͟ Y͟u͟ b͟o͟y͟s͟: They're the driving force of this series, so you'd expect them to be at least well integrated, but... That's not really true either. Yuto was a good character, but he gets introduced in episode 8, and doesn't do much until he dies in episode 32 never to be Reborn for the rest of the show, Narrowing his appearances to short interactions in yuya's mind 50 episodes later onward. Yugo was a fun character, but he really does not get a lot. He doesn't have his built up duel against Sergey to avenge yuzu, he loses to Rin and fails to bring her back, his most important duel against Yuri is constantly interrupted and never really reaches the level it should have, then he dies and never returns. Yuri was an imposing and charismatic vilain, but we never really get to know why he's evil outside of "professor told me so". I think it would have been way more interesting to see his actual psychology behind, and to see if he's actually evil or not... And he becomes all nice and is forgiven by everyone at the end anyway so it doesn't even matter. And then... Comes Yuya. – Yuya was a great character until the ending came, being a very anxious and negative boy who forced himself to act joyful and full of excitement just to entertain like his father told him, but this also meant he had lost all idea of personal identity and of uniqueness. This made him go through intense period of depression and doubt, trying to get better. And in a world where four versions of him existed, you guess how hard it must have been. It fits in Arc V's messages and themes perfectly. And his slow decent into madness as he gradually lost control to Zarc was amazing, crazily entertaining. But then the ending happened, and he gets fused with the four other versions of himself and forgets about depression, wanting to forgive anyone because egao. And I'll repeat this to you: where is the originality here. what in this ending, makes Yuya "unique"? When he shares his body with four other versions of himself, where he continues to use the toxic goals his father ungulfed into his own existence, when he continues to use cards, dueling style and summoning conditions that aren't even his? Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing would have been worse for his character than this ending the show gave us. His character is burnt to ashes, never to be completed and instead is waisted and thrown away for no reason at all. And even then, he is built on an idea of toxic positivity that I really don't agree with: to try to be happy and smile even when you are sad and going through hard time. This is extremely unhealthy, as sadness is very useful and you shouldn't try to bury your feelings under a fake smile. And the way he forcingly ingulfed his flawed ideology to others through the whole show... Made it hard for me to like him. – And... Zarc, the original version of them four. Zarc is the worst vilain in yugioh, no content. He was built up and showed in mystery for more than 60% of the show, appearing as a kind of Lovecraftian horror monster, driving all the yu boys to him and pulling the strings from behind. And then his backstory got revealed in an awful exposition moment. So basically, he used to be a good guy, pro dueling for fun, but the crowd wanted more violence. They cheered for him to hurt his opponents more, and it twisted his mind... So he fused with his four dragons, attempted to destroy the universe, blamed it on humans and got stopped by Reira. The fact he actually blames it on people is what makes him so terrible to me... If your mom told you to break a glass of water, would you burn the whole house down because he told you to be violent? If you do so, then you better not blame her for that. That's Zarc, and the show actually wants us to care, and even better, to feel bad for him. I won't, because he's hatable. He also has the worst presence as a vilain... He is terribly ugly, very standard and unoriginal in personality, and has the worst, most boring conclusion duel to any series. Then he gets trapped in the body of a baby, and the end, moving on. Berserk Yuya was a better antagonist than him... It's quite possibly the most disappointing turn of events in any yugioh shows ever. And this truly impacts the series... How can I care about a story centered entirely around a character and a story that I personally hate? ╰──➤⊱Conclusion: 3/10 Arc V is a show I desperately wanted to like, but I ultimately cannot. It is built around a story that doesn't make sense based on a character I hate, on an ideology I find to be wrong in all sense of the terms, on a story with awful pacing and a conclusion worst than anything I saw so far, and on characters that get disrespected through the whole show... It's an anime built around nostalgia, and it really prevents it from developing as it should. The more I think about it, the more I became disappointed in arc v and it's very promising introduction... And I feel very bad about that. In conclusion, I wanted to like this show, but it really isn't possible for me. Feel free to like it if you find elements to like in it... But I can't, and I promise you, I tried.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 21, 2022
Kimi no Na wa.
(Anime)
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Recommended
𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮: 9/10
𝘼𝙧𝙩: 10/10 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙: 6/10 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨: 6/10 𝙀𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩: 10/10 𝙊𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙡: 8/10 Your name is overrated. I will start this review with that, not because I wish to be hateful, but because it truly mean it. People have, in the past, compared this movie – as well as its writer, Makoto Shinkai – to the greatness of Miyazaki and its movies. After all, Your name DID beat spirited away at the box office... But this is, in my humble opinion, far from nearly the case. Makoto Shinkai isn't Miyazaki, and for numerous reasons. First of all, the characters aren't good. I mean, they're not bad either; ... they're likable... At best. None of them really have debth nor insane caracterization, and most of them fall under your typical cliché characteristics without ever really exceeding them. Mitsuha is,well,she's an anime girl. Nothing more to it than that. She's girly and shy despite her strong personality, she gets over excited over food, she blushes 2/3 of the movie. We get I don't know how many jokes related to her chest, because what can you do she's an anime girl!, and oh yeah, she cuts her hair mid movie... She's the least original a character can get. She has some personal characterization, such as how she hates her life where she lives, or how her family's relationship with her father isn't doing well, but unfortunately the movie doesn't do a lot to develop those aspects of her character, and I believe it's a shame. Taki, on the other hand is surprisingly even more flat. He's... A boy, I guess. And he loves Mitsuha. I think the show did a grand mistake when focusing on the characterization of these two characters, because instead of actually developing the characters themselves, they instead chose to render what would, according to them, happen if a teenage boy ended up in a teenage girl's body and vice versa, and not what would happen if those two specific characters switched place: instead of writing good characters, they wrote a good situation. And that goes for the side characters as well. We've got the "mature, gorgeous senpai" who is loved by the main character in the beginning, your typical "male friends", and your typical "childhood friends duo". Granted, these characters don't ruin the movie in any way, but they certainly aren't what makes it so adulated worldwide. It's something completely different. Maybe is it because of its story. I don't think it is only because of that, I don't even think it plays such a big role in people's appreciation overall... But I believe it does impact the overall opinion. The story is dream-like. It's a lovely love story between two chosen people separated by distance, and eventually we learn, by time itself... And by death. It's the story of finding back something you feel is missing from your life, it's a wonderful tale of how, if love there is, there will always be a path, a link. I guess this too, is musubi. The surnatural elements also play a massive role in this movie's story, where reality itself seems to arrange itself the way the plot wants it to be. Because no, nothing really makes sense in this movie. Why did they swap bodies in the first place? Because... Links and bonds leap through time and pass beyond reality, I guess. How did they meet on the Rocky hill despite literally being timelines appart from one another? Because twilight is the magic hour of the day, where miracles can happen or something. How did Saki witness all of mistuha's life? Because he drank her sake! Everything is vaguely explained at a point or another, but nothing really makes sense. It's magical, and supposed to stay that way, but that's just another way to name plot conveniences. And speaking of that, there's a lot. How could they never have seen the date written anywhere in town, in Tokyo, or at school? I don't know about you, but I used to write everyday on my notebook or at the top of assignments, just because that's how you're supposed to do. The same way, the fact mistuha's friends accept to literally bomb the city to make everyone evacuate just because she came to you one day, and said that you were all going to die without any proof whatsoever... Is beyond me. I get it, they're good friends, but there is a limit to credulity. The same way, how was mitsuha able to convince her dad in the end? It should have been an important scene, the scene where she finally stands up to her father after all this time, where she convinces him to, for once, believe her, his daughter. And it's skipped. And we're lead to believe she managed to convince him the comet was going to kill all of them, despite professionnals repeatedly telling you there was no danger. It's... Very unfortunate, and if you ask me, that should have been one of the most important scenes of the movie. But it was skipped. So to summarize, the story is beyond magical as long as you don't think too hard about it. Or, as long as you don't think about it at all... That's even better. But as I said, I don't even think that's the major reason why people like this movie. Instead, it's because of something much more sinister. People like kimi no na wa because of its animation. That's literally it. Anyone mentioning this movie will, at least once, mention how great it looks, because it's this animation that made them turn off their brain on the span of nearly two hours in order to appreciate this movie without thinking about anything other than "the animation". And yes, it's gorgeous, it's a free wallpaper-worth exposition of pictures all along, but that's just not the way you should judge a movie. You can't say a movie is good just because it's pretty, you shouldn't judge anything on looks alone... Yet in this case, I'm convinced this movie wouldn't nearly have done as well as it did without it's curse of an animation, and it's a fact I'm sure most of you will agree with. And similar to that, the music was perfectly fine and catchy, in fact, I think the songs in it are some of my favorites of the genre, but just because the music is good doesn't mean it's a good soundtrack. They put a catchy J-Pop rock song during the scene where a giant meteorite crashes upon earth and... Destroys an entire city. Well yes, it made the scene even more good-looking, but was that the best choice of music? I doubt so. Princess monoke has, according to me, the best original soundtrack of any movie I have ever seen, and it's because of how much you can tell about this movie just by listening to it's tracks. Music says more than words in these cases, but in the case of your name? All it leaves the viewer with is a dreadful feeling of blind joy upon how pretty what they saw was. And this is how you diferenciate a masterpiece from "a movie you simply love". This, is what kimi no na wa really is. Everyone's guilty pleasure, until it becomes widely acknowledged as "great" to the eyes of everyone, when it really isn't on the level of other, true masterpieces out there. But I'm not in a good place to criticize this mindset. I have watched this movie more times that it takes to know it by heart, and I can guarantee I, too, was blinded by it's divine looking. And, in a way, I still am. What I find interesting is that Makoto Shinkai himself admitted it was a flawed movie he didn't have the time to finish the way he wanted it to. He didn't want an Oscar for a movie that he personally didn't think as "complete", he didn't want to be called the next Miyazaki for a movie that he judged unworthy of being watched. Makoto Shinkai is a great animator, and I can guarantee you 5cm per second, she and her cat, weathering with you, and almost all of his movies/short stories are great, better than your name in some regards. But your name... Was unfinished. Everything that they managed to pull off of this movie, is the animation, the story, and the emotions. In the end, it makes for a truly shallow movie that you like because you like it, but not because it's good. And in the end, if this is all there is to the movie, isn't this what you should judge it on? Characters are essential, but if there isn't anything to see in the characters, what can you say about it? To prove that: you can more than love this movie without great characters. And you can re-watch it as many times as you want and still fall in love with it despite it's lack of interesting characters. So who am I to complain? Sure, I would have loved for your name to be finished in the end, but if we can love it despite its flaws, it should be fine right? Your name is not a good movie. It's a movie you love,and it's two very distinct things. Therefore,it's overrated, but is it overliked? No, it's not. This is what makoto shinkai's movies generally aspire to be. Sure, most of them have more than entertainment value to them, but they're generally movies you appreciate, rather than movies you find well written. This is why makoto shinkai will never be Miyazaki: because he isn't, in fact, Miyazaki. He aspires to another kind of movies, and I'm all up for it. In the case of your name? It's only good for what it is. Like it as much as you want, because this is all it will ever allow you to.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 16, 2022
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Zexal
(Anime)
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Having grown up watching 5D's and the original, as well as now being a huge fan of GX, I Really didn't expect this series to be as good as it was. I didn't like it as a child, not because I had watched it and disliked it, but because everyone around me said it was trash, and thus believed it was trash. This is where most of the criticism from zexal comes from: nostalgic kids who can't let go of 5D's, who didn't watch a single episode of Zexal (or watched the terrible 4Kids dub) and decided it was bad because it looks childish... But
...
that's not how you judge a show. It's fair to dislike zexal if you have what it takes to criticize it, because I truly believe it to be a hit or miss series especially with its slow start, but don't make assumptions without watching it, and believe me, you should watch it. (reviewing zexal 1 and 2 here)
╰──➤⊱Story: 10/10⊰ I'm gonna try to get this straight without spoiling too much, but if you really want to discover everything from A to Z, you have been warned. Zexal has the best utilized overall story of any generation. It's about a young boy who believes everyone can be better today than they will be tomorrow, and thus giving it his all in life to improve into a better, stronger person. This is his "kattobingu spirit", it basically means to never give up, because there is always a solution to any problems. And it's with this very childish, optimistic state of mind that he gets involved in the crazy plot that is zexal. He will in the first act face the conflict between the arclight family and Dr Faker, leading him to take place in the larger scale conflict between the Astral and barian world in season 2. Zexal is all about Conflict and how useless fighting is, yes, it sounds childish and overly optimistic - - that's the point. But I'll get to the themes later. The story on itself starts slow, and it's a fair criticism that isn't neglectible. This is also one of the reasons why people gave up on zexal after watching the first 5 episodes or so, because let's face it, while the beginning isn't that horrendous on re-watch knowing everything that happens afterwards, it's really hard to get through the first time. But just as you may have already heard many times until now: it gets better, and just as every yugioh fans said at least once: it gets dark (really dark). Slowly, the plot becomes more and more focused and you realize how serious the stakes actually are, and get seriously invested in the show. And that's one of the qualities to zexal: it's Focused. Unlike arc V which loses itself on different occasions, GX which almost doesn't have any link between each seasons whatsoever or DM which gets criminally lost in filler, Zexal picks a good narrative, and actually keeps it until the end, developing it in the best way possible. And while the Pacing might be quite awful for the first twenty episodes or so, it weirdly speeds up through the entire show and has one of the best, most fast-paced finale of any season. ╰──➤⊱Art: 9/10⊰ Now what makes good art is very subjective and I get it may feel a bit offbeat for old times yugioh fans, so I won't really dive into that. However in terms of animation, this series easily gets a solid 9. Again, the first 20 episodes are very weak in that regard... It just catches up afterwards, and keeps a constantly wonderful animation until the end. DM's animation became very ugly starting from season 4, Gx's animation, while not ugly, wasn't anything special either, and 5D's was half of the time the best looking one, and half of the time close to the ugliest. Zexal is Consistent. The important moments get an incredibly fluid flow and it always looks relatively pretty. One criticism I hear a lot is the average CGI, which isn' T wrong, but it does look better than the one from 5D's, and even better than Arc V's at times. Even that gets better with time ╰──➤⊱sound: 10/10⊰ Music too is subjective, but all I can say is that the sound duels are everything I love in an original soundtrack. I'll link a few memorable osts for you to get your opinion (hope they won't get removed by youtube) https://youtu.be/Ft8sP53HN-E https://youtu.be/3EW_WBCet6U https://youtu.be/B_uBAvULhNM https://youtu.be/oeC1cMBYLXQ https://youtu.be/twzbIjS4BVM https://youtu.be/mUnD7D7LYTk It's mostly orchestral, and it has a certain charm ╰──➤⊱dueling action: 8/10⊰ Now the one thing I have to give to zexal duels is that they weren't really that strategic. The best way to describe them would be over the top. Dueling in space with a monster the size of the planet, having your monsters reach hundreds of thousands attack point, and having a million effects revealed throughout the duel in a flashy way... Zexal has it all. And I don't say that as a problem, the zexal duels were so entertaining because of that, but it did lack a bit of tension and strategy because of that. ╰──➤⊱characters: 10/10⊰ Aand this is where I can't continue without spoiling, so... Massive spoilers ahead. Zexal makes perfect use of its important characters. The only "irrelevant" characters are his school friends, who aren't supposed to play any role in the story whatsoever outside of slice of life interactions anyway, I'm fine with that. In terms of relevant characters... There's a lot to talk about. – Shark: the one thing I wanted to point out is the fact that Zexal doesn't have a central vilain. Vector is kind of the one behind everything happening in season 1, and he plays a fundamental role in the barian onslaught arc to a point where we're even left to believe he might be the bad guy. Don Thousand plays the role of the overarching nemesis who has been manipulating everyone all along, but the sole reason he and the barians exist is because of Eliphas, the purist dictator of the Astral world so focused on the ideology of purity and order that he rejects any form of chaos whatsoever. But the true final antagonist of this series, leader of the Barians, is Nash, also know as Kamishiro Ryoga, Shark. This guy gets introduced in season 1 as the stereotypical "bully" character, cunning and not so nice. He was in reality very desperate, his sister, the only family he had, being in a deep comma at the time and needing money to pay the operation. However, his reputation had already been tarnished by the arclight family as they very intentionally made him cheat in a duel tournament, and ruined his reputation alongside his life. This lead him to take part in gang activities and become a bully to reach his once noble goals. Until Yuma came in his life and took him out of this situation, essentially believing in him when no one else did. From that point on, Shark and Yuma become Friends. Yes, they do share a rivalry with one another, but what is important is the fact that they are Friends before anything else. So in the end when he is revealed to be great vilain of the series, ancient leader of the barians granted a second life by a god who cared for him, a fact he himself ignored... It seriously hurts. Seeing him being forced to cut ties with his friends and with his own humanity to try to save his own world is beyond painful, because he isn't evil, and it's important to get that: the barians aren't evil. They only want to destroy the Astral world so that the barian world and their friends living there-survive. It's nothing more than a need to live, and nothing about that is evil. In the end, he's beaten by Yuma not because he was weaker, but because the latter had something no one else in this series, Astral like barian like human had: an optimistic desire of peace. Shark deserves happiness – Vector: Vector is pretty much the only evil barian there is. He gets introduced in the series as an adorable ally who doesn't want anything more than the happiest for everyone... Only for it to be geniusly revealed 30 episode later to have been a huge lie. He's the biggest a-hole there is, having trolled everyone with the greatest pleasure he could find there, mocking not only the characters but also us, the viewers, for having believed in his dumb lies. However what's important to see here is that Vector WAS initially a kind individual who desired peace before anything else. His memories had been altered by Don Thousand all along, making believe he had killed his parents and forcing the idea he was a psychopath into his mind. But when he hears this fact, he doesn't care. Instead, he trolls everyone again by making it seem like he cares, and uses it to his own advantage. To Vector, the fact he was once a good person before being manipulated just isn't important, it's not what's going to turn him into a better individual, because the one he is right now isn't that. He was one of the most fun vilains I have seen in Anime, not only being very threatening and interesting, but also actually being very funny, having a very messed up and quite honestly mature humor. And the fact he stayed evil doesn't mean he didn't have a tearjerker, satisfying conclusion to his character. – Astral: Astral is an interesting character, because he is a being made of nothing more than order, the creation of the Astral world to destroy the Barian world... But he loses his memory because of Yuma's father trying to protect him. What is compelling about Astral is seeing how this character builds himself based on the informations he witnesses and how he makes his own vision of things through the show. It's a brilliant example of nature vs Nurture like in Vector's case, -he has been created to destroy the barian world, so is he going to do it in the end, despite everything he has learned with Yuma? This character of order slowly learns chaos thanks to Yuma and is faced with the realization of what is known as feelings, and how it can mean both pleasure and pain. He's definitely more than an Atem rip-off. – Yuma: what people usually don't understand about Yuma is that he doesn't have a character arc, because he's not supposed to. Yes, he does emotially grow and gets better at the card game, but his character stays the same through the entire show, and it's a fundamental element. In episode 1,this loser kid opens the door of destiny, releasing Astral in his world, but also being presented with the idea that eventually, this power he obtains will make him lose the most important person to him. And for about 140 episodes, we are left wondering who that person might be, only for it to finally be revealed in his duel with Nash. The person he was going to lose wasn't Shark, it wasn't Astral, nor was it anyone around him: it was him, himself and he alone. Throughout the entire show, he is told that the interdimensional war that no matter the result, one side has to be eradicated in the end. The idea that one world strictly cannot, and will not exist while the other one is around is almost pushed down his throat at multiple occasions and it messes with his already damaged brain at this point... So much that, in the very end, he believes it. In his duel with Nash to decide of the outcome of the universe, he was about to kill his best friend in order to save the Astral world. This is what it really meant to "lose himself", the person who always did what needed to be done to avoid conflict. And through this duel, he manages to realize his failure and does what he always would have done : he cancels his attack despite the drastic turn this duel had taken and tries to think of a better way. In other words, he's like a Judai that managed to stand back up before he actually fell. In the end, he managed to pull himself together and stay the happy and naive child he always was, because that's what's best for him. Why do people want him to change when his entire development is that he shouldn't? And remember, he's nothing more than a little pure child taken in the interdimensional war that is zexal, it's... Pretty much normal he cries at the death of his friends, and that he's lost for pretty much the entirety of the final arc. Even more considering how caring and emotional he is. And the message zexal is trying to give is very deep; there is always a better solution than conflict and hatred. If Yuma didn't negate his attack at that moment, Nash would have activated his trap and Yuma would have lost. Yuma tried to find a better solution, and even if that meant the Astral world had to accept chaos once more and by that, be in danger at all times, it doesn't really matter because everyone is safe and everything is fine. That's why the ending of zexal felt too simple for most people, it's because it is. They make us understand that things don't have to be complicated to be fine, and that a happy ending is possible even in the darkest stories. It's a perfect conclusion for such a series. ╰──➤⊱enjoyment: 9/10⊰ This series, not taking in account it's first share of episodes and it's few uninteresting filler episodes, was very entertaining for the most part. This is mostly due to the animation, the music, the story and the characters, so nothing much to say here. If you like it, it will be entertaining. If you don't, it will probably be a drag. ╰──➤⊱overall: 9/10⊰ If I was ranking the first act alone, I would probably give it a 7. If I was to rank the second half... Honestly a 10 although I might be biased. I think a 9 fits the overall series well, and for good reasons. It's probably the most emotional I have ever been about a yugioh series, and I'm a huge fan of the franchise. I guess it wouldn't please everyone, like I said it's a big hit or a big miss, but for me, it's only a few details away from perfection and I hope more people will be able to appreciate it in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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