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This beautifully poetic short is nothing less than a masterpiece.

The whole animation has an elegantly layered evolution to it. The story is delivered in several segments, or snapshots, where we watch as a photographer struggles to bring the smile out of a young child. Photography plays a major role in this anime.

The whole movie is void of any speech or talking. There are sublet background noises such as moans, laughs, and ones of nature. But this is all layered over with a classical soundtrack which if anything compliments the piece.

The styling reminds of the Professor Layton Games, especially with the coloring. As we are presented ... with a new snapshot, the time frame skips forwards a few years and we watch as the child grows up. The layering comes into play here as well. For instance, as the family descends the stairs to the photographers home, the landscape of neighboring houses is layered on top.

The setting was placed during the first world war, though that was more layered to the background. If you were to see family photos from that time, you'd have hinted that war was taking place but there would be nothing overwhelming nor obvious as to how bad it was. This is nothing short of genius as overall, the whole story is presented to us as a family album. If you were to flick through one of your parent's albums, you'd see years skip by before your eyes. You'll see a story play out as how family members come and go. This whole concept was clearly taken into consideration and folded into this nice little 16 minute short.

As it is short, it is well worth the watch and the story itself is heartwarming, to say the least. So if you have a few minutes to spare, if you need to take a little break. I suggest this is a nice way to do it.

This short stop-motion movie is a fun and enjoyable watch. Despite being rather old, the animation has aged well - like a fine bottle of 1960 red wine from the Shiraz Vineyards.

The jollity movements from the two hunters would probably be seen as "terrible workmanship" if this was created in this day and age. Though seeing as this is an anime from the late fifties it is understandable.

As our two hunters venture deeper into the story and the orchestral music begins to tune in, it reminds me of shows I grew up with. Such as the clangers and the magic roundabout, which would also ... turn to an orchestra or some sort of a flute/percussion band for it's OST.

Before long, our twitchy hunters are well within the restaurant and finding out how unordinary it is. The story progression is smooth yet quick - which is expected of such a short movie. Compared to other versions of this story, I would assume they have stayed true to the original story piece written by Kenji Miyazawa. I'm sure his story is translated online somewhere to read - so I should probably give it a look up.

By the end of the movie, the "real horrors" of the restaurant make themselves knows and our hunters... well you'll have to watch to find out what happens to them. The story is left as complete as can be and you won't even notice that 20/30 minutes have gone by.

I do suggest giving this fun little stop motion ago as it is well worth it as it can be considered a part of Japanese culture and history. If you have already seen the other two versions available this is another and original adaption that is a must see!

Another take on the Kaguya-hime (The tale of the Bamboo Cutter) this time using paper puppets and stop motion. I've been wanting to watch this adoption for quite a few years now - see as it is probably one of the first animated adaptations of this story.

The animation itself has a rustic feel to it, thanks to the use of the paper puppets and layout. I think this gave a nice aura to the story and felt visually pleasing while at the same time it felt like being thrown into a time machine viewing such, what would now be considered, a simple method of animation. ... Though when thinking about it, an anime of this quality being made back then would have taken up a lot of work and time. So if anything it adds to the value of this short movie.

The characters were all there, from the Bamboo cutter to the three princes...? (not too sure what to call them) and they all played their part well, staying true to the story. So I had no fault there. The voice acting fit very well for each of the characters as well.

The music used was very "classical". Only a few moments went without music. Majority of the adoption contained ongoing music piece which would change in tune and tempo to help set the mood.

The only "fault" that I could find is my lack in knowledge of the Japanese language. Thankfully, I know the tale quite well, so I knew what was going on. But it wouldn't hurt to find a version with subtitles - maybe in a couple of years one will pop up.

Overall I enjoyed this short little movie. I'm glad after so many years it is up for viewing. You'll really feel like you're back in your childhood watching really old school Disney shorts that would play before the actual movie. With a vibe of a children's puppet show. If you have 26 minutes to spare I suggest giving this a watch, it's an enjoyable view even with the lack of subtitles. Though I do suggest to watch one of the other adaptions first so you can grasp what is going on.

Active Raid! The show that will make you actively bash your head on the table as you watch it. This show is so dull and bland I feel like it's a metaphor for my love life!

The story is... well it's a lot like psycho pass! A young rookie girl (for some reason a 16-year-old in Active Raid...?) gets sent to work at the main police branch and is placed in a team of... Well... blatant rip off of the psycho-pass characters.

There's an old man that's like the father of the group, a "badass" who isn't really a badass just more annoying and lazy really, ... a serious guy that likes to work by the books, and a cold girl that doesn't talk much though there is more to her than meets the eye... well not that much but a little bit, and then some other characters but no one really remembers them anyway.

Quite honestly, the character development is lacking so much that they all just feel rather dull and ordinary. Which in some cases could work, but in this it failed. Badly. At most you'll feel for them as much as you feel for a random cashier in target that makes small talk with you while you pay for your items.

The designs of the characters themselves are rather generic as well. The only good part is the transformation scenes into their... gatcha-suits? The men strip down into these tight little briefs and it doesn't leave much to the eye. Shame they didn't make their packages any bigger. I might have given an extra point for the artwork then...

(Oh and the obviously the women strip down to their underwear too. Though I personally don't care for that.)

The artwork, in general, is nice. The scenes are bright and colorful and I personally enjoy the umm... gatcha-suits... cgi scenes. So I can't shun them for that!

What I can shun them for is their blatant ripoff of other shows!! I've already mention Psycho-Pass but when you watch the first episode alone you'll notice more.

Like I have mentioned. There is Gatchaman Crowds - You have the CGI mecha suits!! Those are cool and nifty! But are a lot like Gatcha. Though, to be fair, this can be said for any anime with Mehca suits... Though diving into it a little more, you'll notice the antagonist is a lot like the antagonist in Gatchaman Crowds. He some sort of Neet shut in that's for some reason or another set on destroying the police force. And he has an obsession of using the members of society to do his bidding.

Then it has some traits to Black Bullet - In Black Bullet there was some sort of disaster and caused parts of Japan to shut down. In inactive raid there was something mentioned about quicksand sinking a load of Japan... but thanks to the poor story telling, they only mention that now and again and don't really focus on it, nor does it seem to play an important part in the series? It's not till episode 9 till they go to these areas...

Though most obviously it is a lot like that one train anime, Rail Wars. Becuase they both... well they both have trains...

There is more it seems to rip-off, but I will leave that to you to decide.

Overall this series is a total lackluster. I ended up watching each episode at 2x speed just because I wanted to get through it quicker. I didn't want to drop it as I felt like I couldn't give it a good and fair review until I watched it to the end. So I forced myself to do so! Oh I do enjoy torturing myself.~

So if you're like me, and are a bit of an "M" then watch this show and destroy your soul in the process.~

After years of searching and waiting, this fun little adaption of a classic tale is finally available online!

The story follows two men as they come upon a restaurant; peculiarly located in the middle of the woods. Without a second thought, they decided to step in and see what's to offer - but what's being served up isn't something they'd expect.

The animation is very nice, smooth and childlike, which gives it a fresh feel compared to the original version, which is drawn more roughly and aimed towards an older audience. The soundtrack compliments each scene rightfully and the story progresses quickly and smoothly.

Overall, this short little ... movie is a good fun watch. Even with the lack of English subtitles, I do suggest giving it a go and seeing what the restaurant has to order!

Ojisan no Lamp is a short movie, only at 24 minutes long but is a real simplistic story that can leave you with a bittersweet feeling at the end.

The story follows a young boy who comes across a lamp, which turns out to be his Grandfathers. His Grandfather then sits his Grandson down to tell him a story about when he, himself, came across an oil lamp for the very first time.

The Grandfather then takes the center point in the movie, as it depicts his life. Where he has good fortune as a young boy, and struggles as a grown man, while coping with a ... cultural shift that affects the whole of Japan.

The grandfather is really the only character you'll get to know throughout this movie, there are a few others but they are really there just to help the plot move along rather than be of any importance on their own.

The art style of the characters, and in general, is simplistic. Yet this gives the whole movie a pleasant clean feeling. Making it all the more natural with no obscene colouring, or bright-haired cast.

The soundtrack, or lack of with it being so short, does the movie justice. Each piece adds to the scene and helps lay out the setting and fits in with the environment.

Overall I found this a really enjoyable movie to watch. I really would recommend it to anyone and everyone. With it being so short I don't see why you wouldn't want to watch this. By the end of the movie, it will leave you thinking about small businesses, and how these big corporations, that seem to be best for us, will be hurting people down the line, mainly family run businesses.

Another thing to think about is how we are with technology. These days at most and for many of us, the biggest changes we face with technology is a new iPhone every year, or a new layout on MAL to deal with. Yet for them back then, and in many rural counties, there are many little changes, such as a lamp, that can have a drastic impact on one persons life.

What do you get when you have good characters, a basic but interesting concept, pretty good art style, yet poor and cruddy writing? You have Re: Hamatora.

Re: Hamatora is best compared to drinking a lukewarm cup of tea. It's not very pleasant, yet you still drink it. Though, with every few sips, you’ll find yourself pulling out a long grey hair from between your teeth, you look up to see the old sweaty man who made your tea, only to realise that this is, in fact, his hair. Yet you carry on drinking... and god knows why!

That is Re: Hamatora in a nutshell!!

Art 5/10:
The ... art style and direction in Re: hamatora, well the whole franchise isn't anything too special. It's nice, bright and colourful but when it needed to it would dim down the mood and do a good job at laying out a nice and dark setting.

The general style of it is pretty unique, yet the character designs themselves are rather... "anime generic". Nothing really diverse about them at all.

This would have probably had a higher score, nothing more than a six, but it lost points mainly because of the transition scenes. Between each scene, they decided to place in this little one-second clip, where they show a brick-wall. Yep, quite literally, a brick wall. To be honest, you might as well stare at a brick wall in real life and find more enjoyment from that.

Along with it being boring it can also kill off the mood in some parts. At times this could have been something that works to their advantage, going from a dark scene to a happy go lucky one, but they didn't take that into consideration and placed these moments in as much as they could.

Probably trying to fill up time in the anime seeing as nothing else can fill up that void. Why give us a few moments with characters when we can look at a brick wall.

Music 4/10:
The opening song is probably the best thing you will see from this anime. So props to them on that!

The soundtrack in the show is pretty good though in some parts the music felt a bit too much and could have done with a more subtle tune.

Overall the soundtrack in the show felt rather basic, with that in mind it should have come out with rounded five out of ten. Though it lost points because of, yet again, the god-awful transition scenes. During these scenes where the lovely brick wall is presented to us, it is accompanied by this annoying... screeching track.

They could have played us some nice music, perhaps bach cello suite 1. Nooooo... They clearly wanted to annoy us during these parts and placed the... screech. So they lost points for that.

Character 4/10: Where do I begin with the cast. The characters are rather basic and mediocre. Yet for me, the biggest downfall was the lack of character development and the off-placed reactions they had.

During moments in the show, something 'dramatic' would happen. After something like this, you'd expect a reaction from the characters involved. Yet their reactions tend to be... off or nonexistent in some cases. It will have you sitting there going. "the heck is wrong with you? Why aren't you mad? Why are you okay with this?" for the most part.

Along with that comes the lack of character development. Once again, in certain moments, they could have had some really good character development. There were perfect chances to create some real tension between the cast, yet they decided to not bother with this at all and pretend nothing had ever happened.

Then was the random character backstory we had, this was something that should have happened during season one, but they deiced to try and tie it in someone in this season. It felt out of place and unneeded like they had nothing better to show us.

~CoughCough~brickwall~Cough~

The only interesting character for me would have to be Art, a good guy gone bad. Yet half way through he just became plain annoying and I lost all interest in him.

Enjoyment 4/10: I would have enjoyed the show, but the lack of development, the unnatural reactions and the god damn transition scenes have made me knock a lot of points off.

If this show had a different director, or writers or just anyone it would have probably come out a lot better than it has.

At best this will be an enjoyable series for someone that is new to anime, if you're not, it may be a waste of time. It's just another generic shounen yet it lacks heavily in a lot of areas.

Overall 4/10: I kind of feel like I have wasted my time on this series, thankfully it is over now. I think I will pretend it never really happened and I might stare off at a brick wall for a while.