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This movie was perfection.

The finest anime film I’ve seen to date.

I’m struggling to come up with things to say because it was so damn good.

The music was incredible, I’m lucky to have seen and heard it in theaters, aside from the dork sitting behind me making snarky comments.

The animation is a little different but it is smooth, and the basketball sequences looked sick as hell.

... If you just pretend its not an anime movie, then the art style and animation should not be a problem.

I’d only read a portion of the manga and I got lazy, but this movie made me love slam dunk, it’s characters and basketball.

I am inspired, and grateful to have encountered this film.

Suzume more like Snoozume

This movie was honestly fine but like all the other Shinkai films the plot makes zero sense and it is just musically manipulative with very pretty visuals.

The romantic aspect of the movie was hella random like they meet and she in love w him cuz he kinda pretty but bro is a chair for the whole movie like when is there a chance to develop feelings?

Its just basically your name or wearhering with you but a little worse in every aspect.
I found myself getting bored theoughout the movie wondering when the big climactic scene where they blast the nice ost ... and ramp up the animation budget comes but up to the wnd I never rlly felt like I got it. Whereas in weathering with you we got the cell tower sun scene and the falling through the skies scene, and your name was jusr filled with gorgeous visuals. Suzume didnt rly have that many very breathtaking parts and was very slow all throughout.

The movie was fine, it was good even. But its a downgrade compared to its predecessors.

Its a 6 but im adding one point cuz fhe visuals were nice and fhe music was pretty good sometimes.

From the point of view from someone who has never consumed an ounce of One Piece content, this movie was really quite good. It was like a musical film where they break into song every now and then.
But since I have no connection to these characters I didnt really feel anything and it got a bit confusing at times but not overwhelming.
The plot of the story was coherent and easy to follow. It's a very watchable movie for anyone, I just think one piece fans will like it a lot more than random watchers.
I did think the movie was a little slow ... at times and got a bit boring but not too bad.

ANIMATION/ART
Good Art, I think the One Piece artstyle is super cute, maybe will watch it someday.

SOUNDTRACK
The songs in this movie were so good, honestly I could totally see myself listening to these songs on their own. sescond to last Song in the ending was especially pretty. A song that really stood out was Backlight, it was so gas bruh sheesh

TL;DR
IT LITERALLY MAKES ME SICK TO MY FUCKING STOMACH HOW INCREDIBLY GODLY THE SOUNDTRACK OF THIS MOVIE IS. Coupled with the breathtakingly beautiful scenery and profound storytelling, this is a timeless tale that I think anyone, anime fans and non anime watchers alike should experience atleast once in their life. I am in awe, I want to give this an 11 but it's capped at 10.

STORY THEMES
Seems like the story is about the greed of humans and the spirit of evil and hatred and how humans bite the hand that feeds them and destroys ... the land that give them life. They are corrupt with greed and try to take things that are not of their creation. That's just what I took away from this film..

ART/ANIMATION/CHARACTER DESIGN
its a bit old but the visuals are still really breathtaking. San and Ashitaka both have great designs and so does Eboshi and the people of Irontown.
The Forest Spirit along with the other spirit gods are all very cool in design. The wolves look intimidating and scary, the boars look a little gross im not gon lie, and the forest spirit's design is very, forest spirity.. It kind of looks liek a monkey. but its good.

PERSONALITIES/LIKEABILITY
Our main character Ashitaka is a virtuous and righteous hero. Our princess mononoke harbors hatred for the humans because of what theyve done to the home and spirits that raised her. They are easy to root for as they are the main characters. But the humans, specifically Eboshi is not evil, it is known that she plucked these women whom work for her out of the brothels to help her create guns that will bring wealth and prosperity to their lands. It's hard to hate her, even if what she is doing is destroying the forest and spreading hate and corruption. She is supposed to be the antagonist but we arent supposed to hate her.

SOUNDTRACK + SETTING/WORLDBUILDING/IMMERSION

THE OST MAKES PRINCESS MONONOKE THE MASTERPIECE THAT IT IS, IT WOULD NOT BE THE SAME WITHOUT IT.

The OST to this film was actually so damn good. The scenery with the epic orchestral music playing rlly messed me up in a good way. Its so beautiful, this is peak anime OST for me.

Story takes place in the mountains / forest ranges with a nearby town industrializing the lands creating iron and making guns, hurting the forest in return. Beautiful scenery and visuals.

IMPACT/MEMORABILITY
I have only seen a couple of Ghibli films but this one so far is my favorite. It is so beautiful, everything about it. I will definitely remember this for a long time, not only for the story, but the visuals, and the music.

PLOT SYNOPSIS ( for own future reference)
To my understanding this is how the story went. First introduced to Ashitaka who takes down a boar corrupt with some spirit of hatred, that then begins to corrupt ashitaka giving him great strength but also pain and an imminent death. He travels the far and wide lands and comes across a human girl living with wolves. He then finds some humans and saves them and brings them back to their home. He meets Eboshi the lady in charge of the place and finds out they are making iron to create guns in hopes of taking the forest away from the spirits and becoming rich. The Human girl, San, is the princess of the spirits of the forest, and she wants to kill Eboshi and avenge the forest, Ashitaka stops the fight and takes San back to the forest and is shot in the process. The Forest Spirit saves him and heals his wound. We then find out that the emperor of the land is trying to gain immortality by harnessing the head of the forest spirit, so the humans are trying to use their guns to take down the forest spirit and bring the head to the emperor, there is a battle between the forest spirits (wolves, boars) and the humans, and it led up to a point where the forest spirit made an appearance and Eboshi shot its head off and the spirit imploded into a growing mass of sludge that corrupts all that it touches, and it grows into the sky and spreads across their lands destroying their town and withering the forest into a wasteland. Ashitaka and San stop the men carrying the head of the forest spirit and returns it to him, and the forest spirit restores the land and heals the corrupting wounds on Ashitaka's body. In the end the humans of Irontown learn their lesson and acknowledge they were saved.

TL;DR : IF YOU ARE INTO SQUEAKER VOICE LOLIS AND CATGIRLS AND DEGENERATE FANSERVICE THIS SHOW IS PROBABLY FOR YOU, IF NOT THIS SHOW MIGHT BE HARD TO WATCH, I am pretty put off by those things so a lot of this show was hard to watch. I was confused as to why crunchyroll only included 12 episodes when everywhere else it is 15 episodes. After finishing the series I think maybe ending off on episode 12 wouldve been better. THe last three eps werent that good. For me the best episodes were 1, 2, and 12. I would be lying if I said this ... show was average, its fine for the most part, but Senjougahara makes it good. 7/10.

PLOT
We follow our main character arararagi as he goes around and helps eliminate apparitions from the people around him. And after each mini arc that character becomes like an NPC that will just show up from time to time in the story. Its fun.

ART/ANIMATION/CHARACTER DESIGN
The animation style is one of the weirder ones I've seen in anime, I dont think its a bad thing. It often flashes panels of text and real life imagery in between animations to provide exposition but it is often too fast to comprehend. It is very unique and adds style points for this show. The characters are distinguishable in design which is good. I like senjougahara she is pretty. I hate lolis.

PERSONALITIES/LIKEABILITY
For me the eccentric Hitagi Senjougahara was without a doubt the highlight of this series, I liked all her moments, the other characters aren't unlikeable but are just a little less intriguing to me. Our main character is also pretty funny and relatable, its weird when he gropes the loli tho.

SETTING/WORLDBUILDING/IMMERSION
Bakemonogatari never shows background extras, its only the characters in the current situation that are shown, there was a train and a couple cars that go by but never a person walking in the background who is irrelevant. It's different, and cool.

SOUNDTRACK
The music is pretty nice too but I wouldnt listen to it on its own, nothing super memorable or standout. Each arc has a different opening and there are often different OP animations which is a nice touch. The renai circulation OP is pretty gas. didnt know it came from this show.

IMPACT/MEMORABILITY
There are two moments that stood out to me. One was in episode 4 or 5 where senjougahara mentioned that she couldnt see something and it was so fascinating, and if you rewatch it it makes sense. Kind of blew my mind. Also there is also one point in episode 12 I believe where senjougahara breaks the 4th wall and mentions her voice actress I thought that was pretty funny. The show however wasn't too impactful I think, Ill likely forget about the storyline completely after a while.

LOOSE ENDS/MAJOR PLOTHOLES
The show does leave a lot of things unanswered but I think that is the nature of the monogatari series and I gotta watch the other ones to understand.

TL;DR : I don't care about soccer one bit but this is GAS
I think out of the few sports anime I've watched (KnB, HQ, Slam Dunk, Yuri on Ice??) This is the best, although the teammate and classroom/school time banter is enjoyable at times, this show is just individual player based soccer. Every episode leaves you hungry for more, (I had to go and read the manga.) Show's pacing is super good, didn't get bored a single time, nothing gets unnecessarily dragged on. 9/10 Great show for anyone who likes sports.

PLOT
... A Different Take on Sports Shonen, out with the chummy teamwork and school banter, In with the pure unadulterated Soccer goodness. We follow an average joe main character who doesnt really stand out in any particular way (yet) and his journey in Blue Lock to become the greatest striker in Japan, on his way he encounters many exceptional players much better than him. He is foreced to adapt and improve to survive in Blue Lock.

ART/ANIMATION/CHARACTER DESIGN
Character designs are all great and memorable, animation is a little goofy at times but when its good, it really is super good.

PERSONALITIES/LIKEABILITY
Any player that is the slightest bit important gets atleast somewhat of a backstory and they are all likeable. The main characters are all super cool and likeable. Even the players we are supposed to be rooting against are likeable. Our main character Isagi is super inspirational. He is great. He isnt one of those stupid craccked dickhead overpowered main chracters. He is just kind of a regular guy, super relatable and its great to see his occasional triumphs and watch him slowly prosper into a great player.

SETTING/WORLDBUILDING/IMMERSION
The setting is fairly streamlined and takes place in a futuristic sterile looking sports facility, it doesnt take away from the story, the world isnt the focus of Blue Lock, the Soccer is.

SOUNDTRACK
OPs and EDs are average, I skip them.
OST is actually pretty good at times like the soundtrack I just experienced in ep 22 was so gas sheeeesh..

IMPACT/MEMORABILITY
There is one part in I believe it is episode 10 (Chigiri) that was super memorable. I've just completed episode 22 and that is still my most memorable scene. It had me so hyped and wanting to hop out of my chair and start sprinting. Around about episode 18 I got super impatient and went and read the manga and stopped religiously keeping up w the anime weekly, probably bc I already know what happens, but the show towards the end hasnt been as interesting as the beginning parts. But I believe I'd really enjoy rewatching this show like a few years down the line and have forgotten everything.

I would greatly suggest you watch this instead of episodes 1-10 of the second season. Episodes 1-10 are extremely slow and boring and pretty much nothing happens. If I had known about this and had foresight as to how absurdly boring episodes 1-10 would be, I wouldve watched this instead and had a much better experience of 86. If you are invested in the lena/shin storyline , just watch this to save time and finish with the last 2 episodes in the original TV 12 eps. The last 2 episodes in the normal 12 eps are truly a work of art, especially That one scene. ... You'll know.

TL;DR :It deeply hurts me to give this a 6/10 because episode 11 is like the finest most beautiful individual episode I’ve seen in my life.
*****SKIP EPISODES 1 - 10 WATCH SPECIAL RECAP EPISODES, FINISH WITH EPISODES 11 AND 12
Episodes 1-10 are a 3/10, Episode 11 brings it up 3 points.

That scene gave me goosebumps all over and shivers down to my core. If I was recommending this show to a friend, I would heavily suggest they skip the first 10 episodes and just go with the special recaps they made for season 2, which is ... 2 episodes that compacts the first 10 episodes, and then you can finish with the final 2 episodes which were a work of art.

The majority of this show was extremely boring and slow, I was considering it dropping it around the middle but I am glad I stuck through to the end, just watch the recaps and the final 2 episodes if you are mostly invested in the shin/lena storyline. Lena is the main character but she has pretty much no screentime until the final 2 episodes.


ANIMATION/ARTSTYLE/CHARACTER DESIGNS
Just like the first season the art is generic and bland, except for when they stepped up production in the last 2 episodes.
Really super not a fan of what they do for the legion people, the floating heads with the red eyes and the glitching facial features are horrendously dull and ugly to me, makes them a lot less intimidating. it is just cringe.


CHARACTER PERSONALITY/LIKEABILITY
We got a lot of screentime of the side characters this season since there was barely any Lena so I got to remembering what they look like and their personalities more, but their names are all so long I fr cant remember them except Anju bc its unique.
They introduced a new loli character that I did not really like, she doesnt really seem to have a purpose to the show, they flesh out her storyline but like I seriously couldnt care less about her motivations.
Lena is likeable as always, I ike how she dyed a strand of her red as a sign of rebellion to the republic.


SETTING/WORLDBUILDING/IMMERSION
I was just confused as to what it is exactly they are fighting against. The legion? What the hell even are they? Its not too well explained. takes me out of the immersion because I am just confused when they talk about it.
Concepts are not well explained. Shin can hear the legions voices, but can't the other 86 as well? or can they not? can they hear less of them? i dont understand.


SOUNDTRACK
Avid is the standout ost from this series. It is great, everything else is decent/average. Avid is really quite good though.
This opening is better than the first season opening but its not better than the first season ending. Season 2 ending is whatever
I feel like this show just milks the season 1 ending song Avid because whenever there is an emoitional/impactful scene involving our girl lena they just blast it and it works. That song is so gas.


PLOT
They show new characters on the side of the republic that are 86 but end up getting zero development. They show what the main crew are up to in their new lives. Then episodes 14-21 are so boring I could die.
I think the ending for the republic and federacy was fitting and satisfying.


IMPACT/MEMORABILITY/REWATCHABILITY
Episodes 1-10 I never want to lay my eyes on again, I cant stop rewatching that one scene though, it was a work of art, Ill definitely get goosebumps all over again each time I watch that scene.

tl;dr
HOT GARBAGE, DO NOT WATCH THIS SHIT

Animation/Artstyle/Character Design

Animation is average, artstyle is average, character design is decent, they tried to diversify the cast because its supposed to be several classes with different personalities from different backgrounds but the main character is so bland and I get thats the whole point he's supposed to look normal and boring but is secretly like some god.

Character personality/likeability

Horrible. Main character is extremely unlikeable and bland. He is just some OP mc who is better than everyone else but looks uninterested all the time bc he is " too cool " for the rest of the normal people. He ... is literally so fricken cringe bro like he looks like he doesnt wanna be there. I get its like some power fantasy and your power fantasy shouldnt have flaws but Ayanakoji's design is shit, his motivations are not fleshed out, he is boring, emotionless, unlikeable. I hate him. The girl who I think is the main female lead is also stupid boring. She does nothing Ayanakoji just does everything and she is literally useless. The purple hair dude Ryuuen was supposed to be the antagonist for this part I think but his character is also so ass bc the character designs all look so goofy. He is not intimidating I could def fuck him up.

I'm writing this before finishing the show Im on episode 8 and this show is literally so fucking bad, the short hair chick is so damn annoying and this show is making me fall asleep.

Soundtrack

I legit finished this show yesterday and I forgot all the songs, unmemorable, nothing special.

Overall Plot

This show is so shit Im watching it cuz I watched season 1 and kind of liked it and someone told me season 2 is a lot better. Hopefully it gets better by the end of the show. I hope they prove me wrong.

Update: This shit did not get better it was shit through and through to the end.

I guess it got more interesting when they brought in koji's dad and they mentioned the white room but the whole story is just so shit its just about our MC ayanakoji who is perfect in every way and was trained in some asylum to be perfectly efficient at everything ever, but that is so boring. and his character design is so borign and unlikeable I hate him so much.

Episode 12 is when some shit finally happens and our MC won a 1 v 3.5 fight and that shit pissed me off I dont wanna see him succeed. Ok at the end of the show Ryuuen like acknowledges ayanakoji or sometihng but hes a loser too so Idgaf.
Next season is prob gna be about dealing with the 2 faced short hair chick but I litearlly couldnt care less.

Show ended with internal monologue from koji about how all his relationships are no more than using people as pawns man fuck this show fr I hate this dude and I hate this show Im never watching classroom of the elite again on god.

Impact and memorability

Yeah the impacdt is that I fuciing hate the MC and this series and Ill remember this shit forever for the pile of garbage that it is.

tl;dr
Great plot and general concept but boring character design and artstyle, bland characters decently likeable not too impactful. Setting similar to AOT but not as immersive. Soundtrack is mostly decent. Good show but would not rewatch.

edit after rewatching season 2: Ok this first season is an 8/10 but the last 2 episodes brings it down to a 7 cuz it was boring. The ending song "Avid" is beautiful, and that is made more apparent in episode 22 (s2 episode 11) . Season 2 episodes 1-10 arent worth watching, watch special edition summary episodes instead, they cut off just before the last 2 episodes ... which are beautiful and worth your time.

Animation, Artstyle, Character Design

I think the animation was just fine but nothing too special, but I truly felt that the artstyle and character design was extremely bland and uninteresting. Our main character Shin looks very generic, along with his whole crew, the main girl's design is slightly better I think but thats just cuz she has white hair and white eyes, but overall extremely average. Maybe its bc I've been watching too much weird stylized shows like Jojos but the artstyle is just so very ugly to me it resembles any run of the mill show released after like 2016. I believe that Shin's brother was supposed to be a cool character and his design was fine but what they did with the legion with his glitching floating head made it all pretty goofy to me. I feel like it made the idea of the legions taking the brains of 86 and using them a lot less intimidating bc it looked so silly. The spider esque robot things they used were also ugly and boring looking.

Character Personality/Likeability

The characters are really not that memorable. Main girl Lena, shin, Lena's other white hair bestie, and shin's tall homie w the scars are the only characters that remotely stand out, maybe also Anju, she looks like maybe she could be part white haired whatever they are called. The rest of the characters in spearhead just seemed llike fodder waiting to die. The main girl was very sweet as to contrast the average white-haired racist characters, but it did seem by the end that the white haired characters we got to see slightly developed, Lena, her bestie, and her uncle all are very aware of the truth and aren't happy about it but feel helpless to do anything about it.

Setting/World Building/Immersion (spoilers for Attack on Titan)

The setting of 86 was quite reminiscent of AOT but far more futuristic. Unless I got something wrong, the 86's brains are harvested by the legion and then they become the legion, which is like how only the eldians can become Titans. The geography with the white haired living in the inside 85 regions and the 86 living outside closer to the battle is like that of AOT as well with the "king" and wealthy living further inside the walls and the poor lived on the edges. Though I did find the explanation of how the legion worked and what it meant for them to take the 86 brains to not make all that much sense, it was confusing. Could be that I didn't pay enough attention but it also makes sense because it is a short series and they dont have as much time to flesh out the small details.

Soundtrack

Some of the OST that was played during emotional impactful moments were pretty damn good, the Opening was average, the Ending song (I think there were 2), the one by Hiroyuki Sawano was pretty darn good. Music was decent.

Overall Plot

The story was good, maybe great at times. It kept me deeply invested almost from start to finish. The main girl was such a sweetheart and it was sad and shocking to find out the truth about the morbid system they lived in alongside her. It was cool to see how the spearhead squadron were used to racist and careless handlers and just expected Lena to be just like the rest but slowly came to realize that she is different and is not a bad person, but even with that they still harbored some ill feelings towards her saying she is naive and too pure for this job.

Impact / Memorability

This honest to god seems like a show I would forget after a few months and completely forget after a year or 2 unfortunately. Hopefully the second season will be able to change that. But from what I hear the second season is not all that much better. I think episodes 1-9 were great, and captivating and kept me on my toes but after their last mission the last 2 episodes were extremely boring with the remnants of the spearhead legion just fishing and hiking around the land. Eventually they got into a fight with some legions and tehre were some humanoid legions running at them that I don't believe had been introduced up to that point, it seemed like at the end they all croaked but since theres a second season with the same characters, they must be alive. Then it ended with lena going to their barracks and finding the cat they talked about and their notes written to her and it was supposed to be touching and emotional but honestly it made me fall asleep bruh.

7/10, was mostly good, fell off towards the end, but i suppose they had to give season 1 some form of closure, hope season 2 is better.