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Jul 11, 2020
The first think you should know before watching Japan Sinks 2020 is that it is NOT a Yuasa production. While it is animated by Saru Science, don't automatically assume that Yuasa is at the helm, but instead Pyeon-Gang Ho, making her series director debut. Lower your expectations if you are someone like me who even enjoys the most "divisive" Yuasa show (I will fight to the death defending Devilman Crybaby as a "remix" rather than a traditional adaption), because this Japan Sinks 2020 is not only a very different show than what you would expect from Science Saru, but it's also a show that has
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many, many, MANY more issues than any other full length show since the studio was founded.
You can tell that this show got screwed over by COVID right off the bat, with the show taking place after the 2020 Olympics. If you weren't paying attention to that tidbit, then you will get countless opportunities to see how coronavirus did more than just make the show dated barely five minutes in. The character designs and animation show classic signs of a troubled production schedule, where characters will look like they aged by 10+ years in many cuts (plus a shot of a child looking like a fat 40 year-old woman that was scaled down), especially in the second half, where several action sequences look choppy and incomplete. Again, since this is not Yuasa, there are no rare sparks of visual flare to be found. Forget out the drop-dead gorgeous coloring from Tatami Galaxy or Night is Short. Forget about Kaiba and Mind Game's wild-but-minimalist art, or even some of the more twisted, macabre scenes from Devilman Crybaby or Kemonozume, or even balls-to-the-wall sakuga like the water pillar in the Space Dandy episode Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Baby, or any of the cool scenes that Eizouken tirelessly cranks out.
The premise is fine, but Japan Sinks relies on cheap tricks that thud against the wall. Attempts to garner sympathy for the characters are merely attempts, and not very good ones at that. It's hard to feel anything when most of the cast are killed off so casually that I'm almost thankful that the audience isn't subjected to a hundred and one scenes of sobbing and mourning, because it would probably end up at least five episodes longer otherwise, even if it does feel cruel to brush off death of family, friends, or neighbors. Japan Sinks also has trouble keeping its themes in-line. A character exists almost solely to push a "xenophobia bad" message, but in the end, this same character is championed as a hero. There's a ham-fisted criticism of nationalism, but then there's a scene that lasts for almost three times longer than the stab at nationalists that glorifies Japan and its culture that is SUPPOSED to come across as patriotic, but it drags on for so long that it comes off as egotistical. There's even a cameo by everyone's favorite buzzword: Fake News™, in case your eyes haven't been rolling hard enough to make laps around your eyes yet. And then there's some real head-ass moments. The writing staff are extremely ignorant on drugs and incorporates some supernatural malarkey, even though the show leans on scientific phenomenon as a driving catalyst for everything that happens in the series.
I know that this has come under fire for being seen as a piece of critique on Japanese people, but I refrained from talking about it too much outside of this paragraph. Since I am not a native Japanese, I am not in the best position to address themes that are being labeled as "anti-Japanese", but I will say that it's not 100% "anti-Japan" since they do kinda puff out their chests in the epilogue by painting their culture (not the citizens) in a positive light. Now for the bad news: this show has another case of lazy LGBT "representation", where the demographic is treated as a checkmark in a box instead of actually being implemented into a character's personality or personal growth. I thought we were done with the J.K. Rowling Method of dropping "btw X is gay/trans/etc." out of the sky. The series is practically over by the time of the reveal, and it contributes to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, nor is it foreshadowed or even hinted at up to that point.
That's not to say that it doesn't have some good points. While the first three episodes are indeed complete and utter garbage, it does get better, or at the very least, more entertaining. It does some good job at foreshadowing, even if they do need to have a bit more faith in the audience to "show" instead of "tell", and several scenes in the second half have genuine tension to them, even if the tension results from subverting expectations brought along by conditioning the viewer for the first two-thirds of the series. Japan Sinks is at its strongest when it gets the rare opportunity to work on world-building, which is just as odd as it sounds considering that the core characters are the primary focus with everything else playing second fiddle. This is a bit of a problem because the cast has a bad case of mood whiplash, especially in those first three episodes that I heavily chastised at the start of this paragraph.
Overall, Japan Sinks 2020 was... kinda alright, despite me ragging on it nonstop. It's difficult to explain the good points in full without spoiling anything because it's hard to talk about anything without it sounding overly vague or just blabbing out "X DIES/DOESN'T DIE/WILL DIE/ETC. LOL". It's stupid and hella corny at a lot of points and definitely was the victim of production woes brought about unavoidable circumstances, but buried underneath all of that is a pretty okay show with a really bad start.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 25, 2015
Music videos don't really NEED a story. The point of a music video, first and foremost, is to look cool. I would worry more about it looking nice and flashy before trying to tie in a narrative. Narrative would only be a problem if it was trying to be political, and good news: 5555 isn't trying to push an agenda, so that's a green checkmark in my book. However, I am regretful to have to dish out big red X's from here on out.
The animation is really bad and janky as you would expect from Toei. If this was made in 2015, I would be
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laughing and would then ask to see the actual music video/movie made by a legit animation studio company and not some independently made anthology made by 25 people in a week and a h-wait a minute I just described the animation process at Toei fuck never mind
5555 has aged like milk and is a huge let down if you're watching it past 2005 in its entirety. Sure, we all got suckered in by Toonami playing Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger over a decade ago alongside The Gorillaz's Clint Eastwood, but the latter blew it away and time has only been making the comparison between the two even harsher. Even though Discovery has been out for two years by the time 5555 has rolled around, there are still many animation gripes that just kills the mood, especially any scene that involves any of the cast trying to lip sync to any songs with lyrics (it's especially bad in the case of Digital Love) with few chances later on to make amends. Since it's a music video, there very conservative about using sfx, which is a double edged sword which results in some portions feeling lifeless and empty, like watching a muted TV while blasting music through speakers (One More Time, Superheroes, and Face to Face get hit the worst by this if I remember correctly).
Discovery is a great album which is literally the only reason this isn't a 3/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 10, 2014
Does this show have any sense of tension? Hell no. Curveball plot-twists? Not any that aren't made meaningless in a near instant. Well written or developed characters? Not on your fucking life. So why the hell am I not flat out panning No Game No Life? The answer: It was a wild ride.
I would be lying if I said this show had anything resembling good writing in regards to story, characters, or humor (which is 90% anime/manga references anyhow). What it does have is a premise that gives everyone and their grandma in the universe the license to go full ham. A world where everything
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is decided by games, even criminal acts such as mugging, lends itself well to the spirit of, God help me for being so casual, "fun". The reason to watch is to see just how inane and stupid shit can get, and boy howdy, it doesn't disappoint in keeping an audience entertained. Chess turning into a real-time strategy game? Shiritori: Batshit Insane Version? Sign me up!
Tragically, NGNL does have its shortcomings, mostly character related. Sora and Shiro might as well be renamed Gary Stu and Mary Sue with how infallible they are despite their agoraphobia and separation anxieties. There's a difference between having a knack for something and being omnipotent, and they blaze off passing the latter as they vanish into the sunset. While Yami Yugi from the original Yu-Gi-oh! manga also had a very few number of losses to his name, the games were more dangerous, giving them more suspense despite the outcome being obvious. Meanwhile, at the end of every single big match played that MIGHT have looked close, the strat explanations of the Perfect Duo could be best summed up as "Close? Hell naw I will tell you all 108 reasons why this was actually a curbstomp". This is ESPECIALLY bad in the shiritori game where they in a mere 20 minutes managed to reinvert the metagame of a word association game. Jibril is not someone who is too terribly interesting on her own, but possible stories of her past in the later seasons (trust me, there will be since this averaged 9K+ sales and even breaking the Manabi Line is like Christmas for Madhouse) may prove for some interesting world-building. For the time being, Steph's purposes including acting as a punching bag first and a plot device second. I guess the big problem with the cast is that their personalities are, in a word, lacking, and you remember them for their gimmicks than any innate traits that aren't linked to a gag or a steadfast maintaining of status quo.
Many of the gags are of the aforementioned sandbagging of Steph, and references to anime, manga, and video games, ranging from JoJo to Yu-Gi-Oh! to Hyouka to Phoenix Wright along with many more. However, they are hit or miss, with the Castle in the Sky reference being the crowning jewel. Aside from that, the rest are pervy jokes with occasional metahumor. Visually, this anime has more bloom than a 7th+ gen FPS title, which is a tragedy as Madhouse is on the high-end when it comes to visually appealing anime. It flattens out everything on the screen, making nothing pop out at you or leave a lasting impression. It's almost a sin to have so much of the background details hidden and drowned out behind an abundance of effects and filters.
One's ability to enjoy the series hinges ENTIRELY on how much they can put up with characters that wear 50 suits of plot armor before going to bed at night. If wish-fulfillment characters with flaws that fail to attempt to balance them out is enough for you to make you drop a series in an episode or two, stay the hell away from No Game No Life. If you are willing to put up with the asspulls for the concept, sit back, relax, and have fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 10, 2014
While I give the story, sound, and characters 6+s, it really doesn't mean much. A theoretically good story doesn't promise that the execution of the plot is well done. While the manga got it right, the anime screwed the pooch.
Aku no Hana is one of manga fairly decent manga that get an anime adaption so aggressive shitty that it should be filed under as a hate crime. I'm not even going to harp on the character designs as a sole reason as to why the anime is so bad since there are many other issues, such as pacing, Saeki herself being a mediocre character, and
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Nakamura essentially carrying the entire series.
The average length of a chapter in the manga is about 35 pages. Even though it's almost double the length of your typical manga chapter, you can burn through the three dozen pages at breakneck speeds due to the numerous one-panel pages and stretches of little to no dialog. The anime takes away this quick read and slams the brakes on the pacing. While the urban scenery is beautifully done, it's not enough to compensate for NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENING for long stretches of time, which creates a new problem: we are treated to characters who are not named Nakamura for more time. Takao Kasuga's inner monologues drone on for ages, taking the feeling of his internal anxieties and turning it into a chore for the viewer to shift through to get to the next scene. For most of the material the anime covers, Saeki functions more as a plot device than an actual character with little to no aura, functioning more as a trophy or an object of desire than a human being. Nakamura, in contrast, has so much stage presence she honestly makes the rest of the cast look bad in comparison, especially with Ise at the helm, giving an A+ grade performance. With a core cast of a mere three, having one being so unanimously dominant results in a horrible balance where every scene of which she is absent from is torturously boring to sit through.
While it's not the main reason why this adaption is shit, the animation (or lack thereof) is salt on the wound. As we all know, Zexcs is a shitty studio that has NO FUCKING MONEY WHATSOEVER. When you are a studio that has little budget and capital, the last thing you should do is opt to experiment with an expensive and difficult animation style, like rotoscoping. You know what happens when you try something hard like rotoscoping when you're a broke company who makes Godawful shit like Sister Princess, H2O, and Cuticle Tantei Inaba? It looks like GARBAGE. In an animated work that's supposed to have a more realistic appearance, characters having no details is inexcusable. A person's face can tell you about a lot of what is going through their heads. They can tell stories just from their appearance. There are some words or thoughts that are best conveyed through the face of a person. A show that prides itself on being a more "serious" show with an art gimmick should not have faceless characters, or at least have them not look like they have Down's while they're breaking into a cold sweat, panicing trying to remember what number comes before "potato".
The animation was already unimpressive in episode one, so to see it get worse as the series went on felt like they were spiting Oshimi by making it look bad on purpose. All of the sensuality and youth of the characters has been castrated in this adaption, replaced by a fifth-finished character details and 16/17 year-olds looking like they're hitting their mid-late 20s and suffering from birth defects, breaking atmosphere and immersion in record-setting time thanks to the characters being set against the wonderfully done backgrounds. Rusty bent metal has never looked so pretty. Nice backgrounds are the only thing that the Mushishi director has seemed to carry over into this series, and it's not nearly enough to pardon the numerous flaws it has in regards to both the directing and the source material.
Aku no Hana could have been one of the crowning gems of 2013, but instead gets treated as a 3rd class citizen and practice grounds for Zexcs failed animation experimentation. On the bright side, the anime bombed, but encouraged people to buy the manga, with hopes that they can filter out this disastrous adaption from their consciousness, resting easy that a season two is out of the question.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 29, 2014
At the start of the season, Sakura Trick came in strong. While there has been tons of yuri undertones in anime, characters with physically intimate relationships are still pretty rare, so seeing two high school girls locking fingers and making out was what one would consider "the bees knees", and animation segues in vain of Hidamari Sketch, and even the same DIRECTOR? Hell yeah. Sign me up. This could never get tiring, right?
Turns out, it takes a mere half a season for it to go from a novelty to a daily routine. After a dozen and half make out sessions, they stop meaning anything and
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begin to seem like a time filler. Beyond LESBIANS~, you are stuck with a cast of characters who are, quite frankly, dull as dishwater. Too much time is squandered away on Haruka, Yuu, and Mitsuki, and the rest of the supporting cast don't get enough individual screen time for themselves or to even get a chance to develop their own side-stories that aren't resolved instantaneously.
While the OP and ED are high energy, the actual OST is rather serene, giving scenes that require a higher tempo BG no punch, and at times, comes off as dissonant with the activities and dialogs being exchanged. Even if backed by a proper OST, it still wouldn't help because gags are too seldom and too few warrant a chuckle.
The visuals are fine, but mostly because it's similar to Hidamari Sketch, except heavily indentured. Part of Hidamark Sketch's charm was the odd animation segues, cutaways, and minimalism. The SHAFTisms separated it from its other SoL peers. Unfortunately, Studio Deen isn't SHAFT. They're a poor company who make low budget garbage like Hetalia, Higurashi, and Pupa, so we're left with the most basic fragments of Hidamari-esque cutaways. Instead of attempting to reinvent Hidamari's SHAFTisms, it's more than content to copycat them very, very poorly. Aside from those little touches, the coloring, while a nice change from many shows that use bright hues, can contribute to the malaise I was feeling as I powered through each episode week after week. The animation is what you would expect from a low-tier studio: most average, but spotty. In terms of quality, it's pretty high end for Studio Deen, so I guess congrats on not making something that looks like complete pigshit for once?
By the end of the season, watching Sakura Trick went from how I kicked off waking up at God-knows-what-hour on Friday mornings to go to college into a chore that I would hold off for several days, finished only out of obligation for coming so far. I really did want the novelty to never die. I really did want to like the characters and find them interesting, but as episode 12 was coming to a close, I had my epiphany: This show is boring as shit.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 22, 2013
Comedy and drama are hard to write. No surprise, it's even harder to strike a balance between the two, especially if it turns out that you're not so hot at either. At the very least, if you are going to incorporate both, you should know how to set one aside so you can give the other a chance to flex its muscles. Kotoura-san completely disregards the dynamic. In fact, it takes the masks of Sock and Buskin and tries to piece them together through aggressive reckless force with galvanized nails.
For Futurama fans out there, remember the episode when Zoidberg's uncle came out of retirement and
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made a movie out of his screenplay "The Magnificent Three", G-Grade melodrama with out-of-place humor shoehorned into every scene? Now you know what it's like if you bothered to watch past the first episode, where they give you the impression of a heavily dramatic series about a mind-reader who is abandoned by everyone she loved, only for it to perk up by the end. While misleading, it's not entirely a "bait-and-switch" debut since it still tries its hand at drama, but that leads to a new problem: It's bad at comedy, but it's even worse at drama.
Even late into the series where it becomes more dramatic, we are still treated to pervy jokes while in the MIDDLE of dramatic scenes. Even if it was done straight-faced, it would not pardon the gaping plotholes and the unsatisfying last-minute epilogues. It squanders too much time on recycling gags for any sort of story to develop, and the way it puts lead-ins into the next episode after the ED makes the series a massive Ham at best or gives it an air of pretension at worst.
If it stayed the drama route, Kotoura-san could have been a pretty average, albeit forgettable, series. If it ran out the gates as a slice of life, then it would have been just another sub par high school comedy. Instead, it marriages both together with a relationship as healthy as The Lockhorns'. The result is like that of multiplying fractions >1: you ultimately get a smaller number.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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