*Series: Anime with 2 or more episodes**, and a total runtime of more than 40 minutes.
Film: A standalone feature or a feature consisting of combined episodes, with a runtime of more than 40 minutes.
Short: All other standalone anime of which the total runtime is less than 40 minutes, or which consists of combined features of which each feature has a runtime of less than 40 minutes.
**Episodes are to be consistent (in duration/setting/characters), continuous (in causality, when viewed chronologically) and related to each other (in story).
Favorite Characters
Anime Reviews
Before I watch an anime I almost always read a couple of reviews first, just to see whether it's good or bad. I don't necessarily read them to know whether it's my 'type' of anime, I'm basically open to anything and I myself will always have the best understanding of what I like and don't like. I don't need others to tell me what I should like or what the things are they like, I just want to make sure I'm not starting on an anime which looks promising but turns out to be terrible.
So I noticed a trend in reviews, mainly that many of them are basically a re-telling of the anime instead of commenting on it. They tell you what the anime is about, what the characters are like, how the story progresses and often even contain spoilers. In this process their criticism rarely contains more than personal arguments and only the critical remark every now and then.
So I decided to start reviewing the anime I've watched trying to avoid exactly that. I try to leave out any kind of descriptive sentences and limit myself to comments on the actual quality, not the content. I do this mainly for myself, to force myself to look at anime more attentively and learn about the art of animation in the process, but I do hope others might gain from it as well.
To maintain an objective view on the quality, trying not to have it intertwine too much with my personal preferences on the content, I categorized the quality-aspects into 10 categories. These generally cover almost all the things that require attention, and are filled in as follows:
Setting: The setting is about three things, place, time and the situation. Place and time are obvious; is the place where it happens well thought out, well visualised and do the various re-occuring locations make sense? When the anime's historical, is the setting historically correct, and when it's sci-fi, do developments and technologies make sense? When settings are pure fiction or contain a lot of fiction elements, does this make sense and feel right (think about a historical setting where there somehow exists advanced weaponry)?
Then there's situation, which is about the situation the main character is in, and the situation the world is in. So what society looks like, and does this make sense and feel right?
Plot: The plot is about what happens, and when it happens, nothing more. It's about whether events happen with a reason or it's way too random, and whether events occur at a time which makes sense. When there's made use of plot devices do these actually help the story or harm it, and whether they appear meaningful.
Characters: Characters need one important thing, credibility. When watching the anime the characters should appear natural, consistent and true to themselves, so that you can always tell it's the same character. Depth or realism of a character isn't as important, but mainly depends on the anime, a slice-of-life doesn't need complicated characters.
Development: This is mainly about the progression of the plot and characters mentioned above. If the plot is about the occurrence of events, the development is about how these events change the situation (or in extreme cases the setting) of the story. This is the same with characters; development is about how events change the personality of a character or how it changes the relationship between characters.
The main importance here is the same as with setting and characters; does it feel right, does it make sense and is it credible? Though also important is whether the development seems 'causally logical'; if a certain event occurs, would the resulting development be the logical effect.
Immersion: This is all about how interesting and captivating the anime is; wheter it manages to maintain your attention. This can be interrupted by many things, such as poor use of plot-devices or unrelateable characters, but it basically comes down to whether the anime becomes boring or uninteresting at points.
Emersion: It is somewhat the opposite of immersion, it's not about whether you get caught up in the anime, but whether the anime gets caught up in you. What I mean is mainly whether it not only manages to catch your interest, but also whether it triggers a response. This can be anything from tears, laughter, thought or self-reflection, as long as it invokes something in you which is not inherent to the anime itself. Simply put, it's about whether the anime 'moves' you and whether it manages to trigger emotion or thought of any kind.
Voice acting: This should be obvious, but it is about the acting-skill of the actors, their compatibility with the characters and overall whether they manage to give a certain character and personality to the cast. Dialogue is not principally a part of the acting but influences it heavily, so it is a part of this category as well as that of characters and that of immersion, but should be mainly that of plot.
Art: The art concerns the art style, animation and art directing. The style used should look right for the series, whether it's unique and different or not. Main focus here is about the quality of the drawings, the colouring and the backgrounds. It is also about the animation, whether it's fluid and smooth and whether movements are (anatomically) correct. Lastly the art-directing is important, looking at chosen camera-angles, the editing and things such as scene-transitions.
Sound: The sound is about sound-effects, sound-recordings and the music. Both sound-effects and music should have the correct timing, volume and duration. For sound effects it is also important which sounds were chosen and what the recordings sound like. The recording is also very important for the voice acting, and the music is generally concerned about the athmosphere of the scenes it's used in.
Overall personal experience: This serves not only more as a re-cap, but also a place for all other remarks and comments, including personal ones which may be important concerning the rest of the review.
you're kinda mistaken on some parts...
ok in order...
Every mage in Nasuverse (ye... this is how fans call it... -_- ) has a goal to reach the origin of all things aka the truth aka the Akasha. It is a goal of huge generations (some are 2000 y.o.).
In Touko's case something happened which made her abandon this idea (details expected in next... 10 years... lol... Mahoutsukai no Yoru will have 3 parts and the 1st is not even translated)
Her intentions were the same as of a simple mage. To find the truth.
The puppets part is your personal opinion, not a plothole. Theoretically it is very real. People are growing now organs in labs! I see no problem at all.
The next problem you bring is your personal taste and perception, so I think it is useless for us to talk on that topic.
Something can be flawless for someone, but it won't be for another. It is a matter of taste.
But you claimed there are plotholes in the movie, which is a different story )))
1. Designed, not constructed. Different things.It was only a project back then. It was constructed recently when Touko was already uninvloved with it. (simple, no?)
2. Ofc they were amazed. It ain't something impossible, but amazing. Araya wasn't THAT surprised tho if you noticed. Doesn't count as a plothole at all. If you also notice, in all the previous movies she had these jumps... sometimes she was nice and stuff and sometimes more... brutal lets say?
1. Touko was not always the one she is now. Back then she was also striving to find the 'truth', as well as almost every mage.
2. She DID NOT help to construct the building. It is your own assumption and it is wrong.
3. Clone herself. Why not? She's practically the best mage that uses puppets on the planet >_> I'm a med student and I can tell you that we're all practically machines... very well done ones =))
Man... Don't claim it has plot holes please... It doesn't have any.
well sorry man... but you dare to 6 the 5th movie of KnK...
Plotholes... Just name one damn freaking plothole... please...
Well... KnK is a hard stuff... it is useless to argue about tastes... but damn... your review hurts me.
xD het is ni echt vals, maar een ander mannier om te vechten ^_^. maar lazh kun :p op regelment mocht ge alles doen wat ge wilt XD. zoals uw zwaard op ander zijn kop smijten,
ge krijgt gewoong een punten voor.
recent in mijn dojo zijn we op gedan stijl aan het oefeninen >,<. ik vind het super moeilijk.
enige wat ge kunt doen is kote of tsuriyage
ik was gewoon aan het denken. gaan ze me dat toelaten XD?
ik bedoel mijn sensei is maar 5de dan.
en hij had ook ondervonden dat ik eigenlijk enkel katate doe, dus heeft hij mij dat aangeraden
pssst.
Lazh, eigenlijk vind ge dat het toegestaan is om uw tsuka kashira 3 cm korter te maken en een buble te maken op uw tsuka kashira van 1 cm.
win ik 4 cm bij het slagen.
Mijn sensei heeft het me aangeraden, omdat ik gewoon ben om een katana vast te pakken inplaats van een shinai.
De grip is wat anders. Ik trein ook met een katana :p, omdat daar kunt ge horen of je recht slaat of niet.
Het was ook aan te raden om een ovaal shinai te kopen.
maar daarvoor ben ik een beetje te blut :(
Takao was another weak male MC. Yukino was much better. Of course the backstory was better for her, she was 27 as opposed to Takao's 15. I think Shinkai-san was trying to get back to his views of "almost impossible relationships". Those always make for very good stories in general. Since most people in real life deal with at least one of those during their lives, we can identify with those relationships. However, this story is just too short to pull it off well. Good try, though.
I don't usually recognize male seiyuu as well as the female ones. I recognized Kana Hanazawa immediately because she is in so many anime. However, she is grossly overrated as a seiyuu, IMHO. This film is not the first one where she didn't fit the character. I remember a supposed time travel anime where she used a voice that was grating and irritating. She is not one of my favorite seiyuu.
Yeah, the violin in this film was good, but the rest just didn't fit the story. This film, now that I think about it, seemed rushed. If Shinkai-san had worked on it for another year It might have been terriffic!!!
Makoto Shinkai is a gifted writer and storyteller. His work, Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place has been my favorite anime movie for 9 years. I also think highly of Hoshi no Koe. 5cm/sec was a nice work as well, but not quite as good as the first 2. The long movie from 2 years ago, Children Who Chase Lost Voices , or however it is translated, was a disappointment for me. It was too complex and overly long. It also didn't seem like the movie knew what it wanted to be. Kotonoha no Niwa was a step in the right direction, but Shinkai-san still has a way to go to get back to his best.
I also had issue with the music in Kotonoha. In prior works, but not in Children, the music was written and mostly performed by Tenmon. This gifted musician can tell a deep emotional story with his simple music and very small ensemble, usually a violin, guitar and piano. The music in Kotonoha was mostly piano, but I knew immediately it was not Tenmon. The whole feel from the music was different than Tenmon's style. I hope the the two, Shinkai and Tenmon, work together in the future.
I think you summed up Kotonoha no Niwa quite well. I was immediately captivated by the artwork, but the story was just too rushed for the art to make up for that lack. This film should have been 90-100 minutes long. That would have given it much more impact as a romance, like The Place Promised did some 9 years ago. What I feel is happening to Shinaki-san is he is trying too hard to live up to his billing as the next Miyazaki. With the disaster of the lengthy movie from 2 years ago and now this too short film, I think Shinkai-san needs to sit down and really figure out what he really wants to do. His earlier efforts, up through 5cm/sec were fine works. But, he seems to have lost his direction and needs to figure that out again! Thanks for your review.
