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Mar 6, 2024
In the trauma therapy business there's much talk about the nervous system activation. When we encounter a situation that is frightening, dangerous or emotionally painful, our nervous system activates the fight/flight response. If we are unable to resolve the situation we can go into a freeze response instead, completely shutting down either partly (such as not feeling emotions, stop feeling physical pain) or fully such as passing out. If we can resolve a dangerous situation somehow, we still need to downregulate our nervous system to "rest and digest", this takes time and focused effort. One problem in our world is a culture where we rather
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keep a high tension dysregulated nervous system (for example by chronic screen time) than taking the effort to heal.
Many good movies such as the works by Miyazaki Hayao works within the parameter of nervous system activation - downregulation. Chihiro experiences something painful, then she gets help by her friends to integrate the painful event. Tension, release, tension, release. The whole Natsume Yuujinchou can be seen as a story about a boy doing downregulation from a traumatic childhood.
So Kaze wo Mita Shounen is supposed to be a children's movie. From the perspective of trauma and nervous system dysregulation it is absolutely not suitable for children. The traumatic events are stacked on each other accompanied by graphic violence. The situations are never really resolved and there's never taken time for downregulation. The point isn't that children aren't capable of seeing some bad situations, but these situations needs time to be dealt with, to be resolved, just like good works for children does (or as in Naruto when a situation can't be resolved, take time to really process that).
That said, there's other problems with the movie as well, such as a very chaotic second half without any clear direction, the magic the MC has isn't really explained or utilized and comes across as a bad deus ex machina, and so forth. It was an interesting premise but for a children's movie it's not really well made.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 1, 2024
This review is on the 1:24 hour long blue ray release. It's unclear how much it differs from the original, there's been some scenes that has been removed and some scenes that has been sped up according to wikipedia, but it wasn't very obvious.
Imagine going into an elaborately decorated Taoist temple high on LSD and spending the trip watching the different paintings, statues and decorations come to life. It pretty much sums up how this movie feels. It is incredibly vibrant and fluidly animated. Every scene is eye candy, the backgrounds are full of details, and things like fire and clouds are done with precision
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that seems to have taken weeks to animate. The choreography is fantastic, it looks like they have been done by someone fluent in Qi Gong and martial arts. The traditional Chinese music really carries the movie as well, it's probably using many elements from Chinese opera or some similar tradition, it feels very integrated with the plot which is impressive for a movie this old.
What the movie is lacking is a coherent plot and a proper introduction to the characters, it seems like the crew expected the audience to be so well versed in "The Journey to the West" (a famous Chinese 16th century novel) that no proper introduction was needed. The Monkey King is still a very interesting character, as he is so chaotic. He's not portrayed as neither good or bad, he does both reasonable things and unreasonable things, and I'd say Kishimoto Masashi found lots of inspiration in him when making the character Naruto. There's also a funny homage to Sneezy from Snow White put in there which was a bit surprising.
For a movie this old it's a treasure. I recommend it for anyone with interest in a broader scope of East Asian culture. It's amazing to see something so inherently Chinese and yet appealing to a broader audience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 8, 2023
This is basically a covert isekai, with the difference that the protagonist was transported to another world a few blocks away from her home. You have all shoujo isekai tropes thrown in there, an over-knowledged MC is thrown into a new situation as an underdog, but she's quickly adapting because she can resolve anything and soon everything revolves around the genius. The whole series is wish-fullfillment 101, anything Maomao tries succeeds no matter what, and not a single person has thought of doing anything like she does it. Despite this the series has an engaging plot and the art is beautiful, it doesn't feel like
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a complete waste to watch it.
My biggest problem with the series is that it's supposedly set in China but from my very limited knowledge about Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese history this is a completely unrealistic depiction to the point where it's dumb. TCM is a massive body of knowledge. It's simply not possible to be trained as a herbalist in ancient China without talking about meridians, elements, qi gong, tiger penises and all that jazz. Maomao is behaving like if she was a modern herbalist who got isekai'd into China. Regarding the historical correctness one thing that stands out is that it doesn't contain anything regarding the conflict between Manchurians and Han. China was occupied by Manchurians and the palace was run by Manchurians as the ruling elites, the Han was second class citizens. There's probably a thousand more examples of the series incorrectness, and one can argue that it's not meant to be historical correct anyway, but this makes the whole premise extremely shallow. If you only want to sample the palace and the architecture from the extremely rich culture that China is then just make it an isekai instead. This is just lazy writing and (yes I'm going to say it....) cultural appropriation. Now I have said it and will collect the 25 points to my social credit score from the Department of Wokeness. Thank you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Apr 11, 2018
So this is a hentai parody, with the premise “what if everyone behaved like they do in hentai”. It takes all the tropes and antics found in hentai and puts them out of context. On the surface it seems like just a gag manga (literally), but as always with Douman Seiman he is questioning the human sexuality and fetishes in a broader perspective. Like why are some actions, even dangerous and violent, seen as rational and sane in an aroused state, but completely repulsive in a non-aroused state? It’s actually pretty courageous of a hentai magazine to publish this since it’s really undressing (!) and
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pokes fun at the endless loop of sexually stimulating narratives that’s being presented. A narrative that is turning more and more extreme and for each loop.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 19, 2017
Wow, this is so horrible I'm lacking words. The title should be Lame! the Movie, not Blame! Tsutomu Nihei have proven that he's more into moe girls than goth robots these days with Knights of Sidonia, but seriously? Turn Blame! into some stupid relationship drama?!
First of all, Killy. He talks five times through out the whole movie, and when he does he sounds like an uninspired robot. With his behavior so illogical and stupid, there should be some kind of explanation to why the young girl gets attached to him (like, was she raised by cold, feelingless robots herself and have some kind of
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parent issue? No! She's the daughter of the leader, just like Nausicaa!). The "goth hero with a secret"-image that was cool in the manga turns into some kind of over powered harem manga MC, intentionally made with no personality so one can focus on the girls.
Second, the rest of the cast. The first 15 minutes I was in total denial, like, "Oh, they'll die soon so Killy gets a good appearance", I just couldn't believe they'd puttogether the most unexciting, generic and boring characters imaginable. The person responsible probably did this on the subway on the way to work on the first day of production. Character 1: cute girl, big boobs, forward and heroic personality, but still moe, big boobs, blushes when she shows her face the first time since she's a tad tsundere. Character two: clumsy, moe, big boobs. Male characters: just like that kid in Claymore. See?! If they got the Automated Factory (or whatever the name was) to think up such generic characters they'd think it was malfunctioning. Lame!
Third - no monsters. SERIOUSLY!!! No mutants, no goth master monster robot whatever, no tubes and sharp teeth and floating things and shit. Like, the monsters were the coolest in Blame and Bio Mega, and here, they were all lame robots who walked just like that one funny titan in Attack on Titan, with no personalities and quirks, just boring robots.
The story is just as generic as the characters. The person who wrote it probably haven't even read the manga, instead just looked up a few Amazon reviews and took it from there. Hero, robots, boobs, explosions, bang bang, boobs, a tribe of starving people, how hard can it be? Very hard obviously, even if they didn't call it Blame! this would still suck.
So the art is cool, and compared to earlier attempts the animation worked pretty well, the bodies didn't move just as puppet like as they used to. The only thing really good is the incredible scenery which they really did justice to Tsutomu Nihei's original art, and I guess it's worth seeing it just because of it, but then again you can read the manga and actually get something out of it more than pretty industrialized landscape.
Soooo, seriously. This was a huge disappointment. I'm going to read the manga again, and forget this ever happened.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Mar 14, 2017
For someone with dissociative identity disorder there's some really mixed feelings to this. The series is filled with rampant sexist fanservice (and I dont use those words lightly) which feels out of place and unnecessary. The story is a continuation of some kind of franchise, and the characters never gets a proper introduction, so everything feels a bit random on why and how, and the story is kind of unorganized and hard to follow some places.
Still, the positive part, the manga does a REALLY GOOD JOB portraying multiplicity, both in the characters Maika/Maito and Po/Ai. When a movie like Split can portray multiples
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as murdering psychos without anyone raising an eyebrow (which shows how deep the stigma is, try to do the same thing with another group, like left handed people or even bipolar disorder and you'll get an outrage), it's really refreshing to read something that actually does get a nuanced portrait of a complex psychological phenomenon. Just to read a story where the main character is switching without anyone raising an eyebrow and it's completely accepted is fantastic. In that aspect this is kind of like the multiple's equivalent to LGBTQ-anthems like Shimanami Tasogare and suchs manga. I'm obviously exaggerating, but just as how the korean drama Kill Me Heal Me is the best representation of multiplicity in drama to this date - even it promotes integration as the only viable choice for multiples, one unfortunately can't be picky...
Another positive thing is the art which is great really fits the story. The characters have great expressions and I love how the artist managed to draw Maika/Maito so similar but yet so different.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 16, 2015
Being a big fan of Bokura no hentai I wasn't sure of what to expect from this. Aaaand, well, no matter what I write will prepare you for the sight of pre teen girls dancing and singing "Dicky dicks!" on an alien planet. And seriously this is a non hentai work, made by a female author who's other work I mentioned is a serious take on transsexuality. So anyway, the first volume is incredibly funny, surrealistic, cute, and a bit sad. What impresses me the most is the art. In Bokura no hentai the art fills it's purpose, but it's very "female author slice of
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life seinen x josei crossover" - which isn't a bad thing mind you. Here she really widens the palette from super cute chibi to her beautiful semi-realistic faces. And it works great by making the manga both funny, cute and serious at the same time.
As for the plot I'm not sure which direction it will take, but for the first volume I've really enjoyed the ride. Surrealistic sci-fi is a great genre, it seems very inspired by The French animation classic "Fantastic Planet". For anyone hoping for another Bokura no hentai I'm sure this first volume will be a bit disappointing, this is a completely different genre, and I'm looking forward for more of this from Fumiko-sensei.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 12, 2015
*Mod Note: This review was originally written for Yuri Suki Kanojo wa Yuri Kanojo ga Dekinai*
For a hentai this is actually quite interesting. It's about a very feminine boy and a girl who loves GL-mangas. It's unique in the way it's completely free from hentai cliches, and instead we get a story about an insecure boy and a girl who can't decide if she's a lesbian. It focuses alot on the boys feelings and the interactions between the two, the story is way beyond the mechanical porn that most hentai consists of.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 2, 2015
If you've followed Mangabox for a while, either through the app or via the website, you've probably discovered that most their manga are like cheap candy. It's cheap, you know you can get better elsewhere, but hey, it does the job and you get more every week.
Shion of the dead was one of those that I followed with very low expectations. I was pretty sure it would be one of those situation comedy manga that follows a standard gag scheme with little or no surprises. Well then, I started to notice that I actually enjoyed this title. And even better, character development started to
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happen. The main characters have moved from flat to actually have some content, and the story is actually having a direction. Nothing about the manga is fantastic, but considering my low expectations it's actually not that bad. Together with a few other mixed titles, like Peephole, Love and lies, Dolly Kill Kill, High rise invasion, and Old Man Frog, it makes it worth to return to Mangabox, week after week.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 31, 2014
Mangabox has it's fair share of crappy run of the mill mangas, but this one actually stand out as one of the more enjoyable. Even with the kind of generic kawaisploitation theme (that's a conjugating i-adjective mind you) the plot is well written enough to keep your attention through the way-too-short chapters. What I especially enjoy is the pacing and how the mangaka manages to convey the feeling of speed and action to the reader, both through art and storytelling. Since the manga is quite new we can only hope that it won't get drastically axed like a few others promising ones on mangabox. Oh
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and it's free via the mangabox website or the iOS/android app, the app is actually good once you get the hang of it, so that's a plus too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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