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Apr 29, 2024
Adapting light novels to other forms of media, such as anime, has always been a challenge due to the descriptive nature of the storytelling. This is evident in the fact that there are very few examples of successful light novel adaptations. Animes like Studio Shaft's Monogatari, Ufotable's Garden of Sinners, A.C.G.T's Kino's Journey, and the recently trending Jobless Reincarnation are among the few successful adaptations. My today's subject of review is Apothecary Diaries, which may show the same qualities as Monogatari or Garden of Sinners, but is definitely a shining example of a successful light novel adaptation.
The tale starts with a particularly unique and refreshing
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concept and in a very minimalist manner. Maomao, an ordinary, impulsive, yet curious and incredibly brilliant girl, is our story's central character. As she grew up with her apothecary father, she developed an immense fascination for poisons, herbs and other drugs and, as a result, attained great mastery in that field. One day, Parenthetically, on her way home, she got kidnapped and lodged at that period's Chinese inner palace. Eventually, by slowly getting entangled with a myriad of political and encircling mysteries, her story come the story of the Apothecary Diaries begins. Among the ensemble of all characters throughout the entire screenplay, her character serves as the pivotal driving force of the story. The excellent amalgamation of exceptional character design with sincerely done characterization renders her an easily likeable character; her eccentric personality and interactions with surroundings and other characters ensure the screenplay with an engaging viewing experience in the span of 24 episodes. Notable among other characters was Jinsi, the overseer of all the decisions that take place in the palace. His and Maomao's playful relationship provided me with some great entertainment this anime had to offer. As described, I found Maomao's character to be enjoyable for the majority of the time, but her dominating the entire screen time and overshadowing other characters was a lingering issue, which at times caused me frustration because there were some characters with good prospects but they remained underutilized.
As a content that focuses on mystery, the atmosphere is the most vital element to me for immersing in its world. Luckily, Apothecary Diaries excels in this aspect, providing a captivating and immersive experience. One of the most appealing aspects of its ambience was its detailed and natural depiction of that Era, which adds a layer of realism and authenticity to the story. The show illustrates the brothels of that period without shying away from the sensitive topics. Moreover, it vividly showcases the lifestyle of womens of that time and boldly incorporates many sensitive cultural and customary practices of the inner palace. With these, the mysterious events that unfold throughout the series are presented with a combination of soft colour palettes and slightly eerie music. All these things created a very memorable and captivating ambience, which was the primary element that kept me engaged with the show.
The purpose of a well-constructed atmosphere and a compelling main character with a lovable personality is only truly fulfilled when the core story is good. Apothecary Diaries succeeds in this regard for the most part. As the anime narrates its story primarily through short tales due to its episodic nature, it's natural for me to not enjoy every one of those tales. There were a few episodes that didn't meet my standards. However, the way the author connected the plotlines and characters introduced previously to construct a well-organized storyline in the grand scheme of things is applaudable. I am really looking forward to seeing its future for what it unfolds. It's frank to assume that the future seasons are going to appear with bigger surprises to uncover and thicker conspiracies to unfold.
Throughout my review, I predominantly praised the show for its noteworthy qualities, which it undoubtedly possesses. However, when it comes to my personal feelings, my expectation from the anime was to show a bit more ambitious nature. But anyway, It has an immense potential to deliver an unforgettable narrative in the upcoming seasons.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 2, 2024
Imagine a locked room with all windows and doors closed and filled with old, dusty air. Now think of the room as the genre of fantasy and those old airs as Isekai. What I am trying to say is that, in the past decade, Isekai has oversaturated the fantasy genre. While a small percentage of them are trying new things, most of them are just lazy structural copy-paste, repeating the same formula over and over again. In a time when the industry is suffering from the shortness of fresh air, Studio Madhouse releases Freiren, which smashes the room's windows and comes in with a gust
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of new air.
The central character of the story is an elven mage named Freiren. As elves are nigh immortal, she has seen countless deaths and wars, the extinction of many royal families, and the rise and fall of great civilizations, making an average human's lifespan just a mere moment to her. Thus reasonably making her incapable of understanding humans and their emotions. At one point, she joins the party of heroes to defeat the demon king. Throughout the expedition of 10 years, their travelling together left a mark on Freiren, especially Himmel The Hero. After his heartfelt funeral, Freire embarks on a journey to understand Himmel and his deeds. She takes on Fren and Shtark as companions who were students of her previous confidants. Their grand journey begins to unfold the tales of human feelings. It sheds light on the purpose and the meaning behind human life and the value of someone's existence in the grand scope of time. Through immortality, it evaluates mortal accomplishments and identifies what it means to live. After watching Freiren, I began to appreciate the simplest things and learned to find joy in doing the silliest tasks even more.
Freiren will remain one of the awe-inspiring achievements of Studio Madhouse. It must have been a challenge to create something both grand and simple. But under the talented Mr. Keiichirou Saitou, the team handled everything masterfully. From brilliant water-coloured slushy background art to crisp fighting animation that can easily rival any battle shonen. The animation team put care and love into every frame, from important character expressions to the silliest bit of cloth and hair movement. All these visually pleasing ambiences were accompanied by brilliant musical scores that encapsulated every frame to its fullest and evoked raw emotion within me. Studio Madhouse's astonishing audio-visual execution made Frieren my favourite mood poem of this decade.
I started my review by saying Freiren is a gust of new air, but in a sense, Freiren is not a gust of new air; rather, it can be comparable to the serene breeze of a green grizzled valley, a reminiscence of the past, reminding me of the carefree days of my life, my childhood. Back when I used to read the stories of kings and queens, stories of Captain Sindbad navigating through treacherous oceans, and stories of princes journeying through a vast desert to save their princesses, Freiren furnished me with the same feelings as those; it is fantasy in its purest form.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 3, 2023
Suzume is a seesaw full of admirable highs and disappointing lows.
"Suzume" is exactly what you expect from Makoto Shinkai's narrative, with characters having shallow personalities and poor character development resulting from the non-existence of dimensional depth. Anything they do feels sudden and forced, lacking proper motivation. Because of this, it plagues itself with melodramatic scenes in the climactic act. And like every other Shinkai film Suzume has a bucket load of irritating plotholes.
But Suzume is something more than that, The problems aside Suzume is Shinkai's most masterful film to date. This film is full of gorgeous frames, artistic visuals, creative camera pans and ingeniously done
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animated sequences. It has eye-glazing camera composition, tasteful music and skillfully done cinematography. Suzume is the token of Shinkai's trademark direction which he has slowly perfected over the years. I always believed Shinkai is very good at creating moments and Suzume just strengthened my belief more. It has these narratively rich detours involving various side characters and stylised road trip scenes. Getting enhanced by these moments' chemistry between the characters works despite them having zero-dimensional depth.
Anyway, Did I enjoy Suzume? the answer is yes. But it's sad. Suzume had many emotionally compelling moments, yet it falls short of evoking my emotions when it really needed to. It really made me sad that despite loving about many things I did not care about the moments this film wanted me to care most about. But I think we are getting there, It's not so far for Shinkai to make something really amazing and Suzume is the first step of that. I am waiting for that day to come.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 25, 2021
This isn't a review tbh, this is just my admiration towards Spirited Away.
Every time I watch Spirited Away, I found something new. Even after watching for the 4th time, I figured out so many new things. Spirited Away is something that tells many stories, that reflects many themes. This movie can be interpreted in so many ways still will be left you with more thoughts. You can think spirited away as a Story of a child forced to involve in child labor because of uncontrollably growing capitalism and ultimately journey to self-realization. Or You can think of its story as a representation of our
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own life living in a city and effects of that. Or maybe it's a story about how youths have the ability to save this world from the problems caused by industrialism.
No matter which way you interpret, Spirited Away is a feast of metaphors and themes about the economic bubble, environmental pollution, child prostitution, industrialism, cultural co-existence, greed and bad parenting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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