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May 19, 2024
Everybody knows the classic Brothers Grimm fairytales, twisted stories of dark minds - most people are probably familiar with a variety of medias that have attempted to adapt the fairytales. This anime is one such media in a long list, so what do they do different? These adaptations come from an Eastern perspective - something which comes through particularly strongly in the first and fourth episodes. The twists (at least to me) are fresh, with the settings being completely different from their original counterparts. This anime is less so a retelling of the original fairytales; it takes the moral message and the main characters then
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spins them into completely new and different worlds.
Whilst all the episodes tell strong stories of their own, the last one is what prompted me to make this review. The animation is fairly average for most of the episodes, with several moments where it ramps up - one such moment being the last half of the last episode. The animators took clear inspiration from studio Ghibli to create a truly beautiful looking spectacle. The sound fits the general old-European backdrop that presets the episodes - with the premise being each episode is the recounting of the brothers to their little sister.
It's only short with six episodes, each being around 40minutes long. And each episode is thoroughly entertaining, some being particularly thought provoking. Whilst it may not be everyone's cup of tea due to the mature and sensitive themes that are on display - I'd highly recommend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 17, 2024
I don't know what it is with anime's these days having such an intriguing plot and meaningful theme but then just completely butchering the specifics. On the surface, Drifting Home is a story of childhood friendships and maturing as you learn to move on. The kids in the film find themselves at an old apartment complex that is set to be torn down - only for it, and them, to be transported into the middle of the ocean.
You'd think that the characters with such a close proximity and nowhere to go, there'd be plenty of opportunity to explore the bonds between the children. And
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you'd be mistaken. Instead, it spends the majority of it's runtime inching towards any sort of character arc. The supernatural elements are explored instead, but in a rather incomplete manner that still leaves more questions than answers. It feels like the metaphor was lost and instead focused on too much practically rather than what could be implied with it.
There's a total of seven children who get stranded, two of which are the main focus of the show. I cannot for the life of me remember their names and I only took a 4 hour break after watching to begin writing this review. So yes they weren't memorable in the slightest. The boy is the mainmain character, we see the events through his eyes almost predominataly. His character arc is incredibly simple, goes in hand with the theme of the show of maturing, but specifically in terms of understanding others. He doesn't really feel like the main character though as the female lead goes through a more interesting arc in my opinion. She has to learn to overcome imposter syndrome, grief, guilt, and ultimately mature and move on by letting others share her burden - opening up. Her arc was more fleshed out but it only really became the focus, or even started during the final act of the film. There's another girl character who has to learn to stop being stuck up, and then her friend who just seems to be a vehicle for stuck-up-girls development. The other two boys are irrelevant and the show would be no different if they were gone. The final boy is just, weird. It goes with the supernatural stuff and the show could've done without it as this gets too much focus and serves as nothing other than a literal metaphor.
The animation and artstyle is incredibly pretty to look at, and the soundtrack was very well made - perfect music for a lot of moments that did make them quite moving.
Overall this movie doesn't really do anything or tell any story. It's should've decided to either keep the supernatural elements a metaphor or fully embrace them - rather than not committing to either resulting in this awkward mess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 16, 2024
I initially thought the main theme of this anime would be about growing up and how futile it is to resist the changes that come with growing into adulthood. It did well to set this up and it makes sense with the setting being a town where you are literally not allowed to change, but instead the story decided to go down a path Sigmund Freud would love with an elektra complex focus for god knows what reason.
To give the film some credit, it has an incredibly intriguing premise - I may have been confused at times but not once was I bored. I didn't
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read a summary other than glancing at the sypnosis which mentioned how people weren't allowed to change - I think if I didn't see that I would've been a whole lot more confused because I didn't understand this had supernatural elements and people literally weren't changing until the third exposition by the main character. These initial expositions clueing the viewer into the situation of the town were done well, it didn't feel like I was being ham fisted the backstory - but again it took a while for it to click with me and I don't think somebody going in blind would get it either until atleast halfway through the film.
The main character didn't really feel like a person to me, he felt very much like a vehicle for the audience to view the world. He has no distinguishable character traits other than...being good at drawing? That was quite literally the only trait he had, his personality was that of a discarded receipt that had fallen into a puddle on the sidewalk. Completely irrelevant and forgotten. This of course creates a problem when this anime is allegedly...a romance.
The main female lead, at least I believe she's supposed to be, is - I can't really say this nicely but she's genuinely an insufferable bitch? Pretty much every scene she's in she's just...being a bitch. No spoilers so I can't back these up but she's just a horrible person to everyone?
Now you can probably imagine why it's hard to believe a romance when the people who are meant to be at the centre of it are a wet wipe and an asshole. Maybe they are suited to each other...but no accidental puns aside the romance is horrifically forced and at no point did I feel like it made sense. I can think of one possible justification as to why they're meant to be the romance partners of this anime which is revealed about halfway through but if that is genuinely meant to be the reason they're in love then it simply creates more questions than answers and doesn't give across the right message in my opinion.
Then there's the child. I can't say all too much because again, spoilers but just...why. They could have genuinely removed this character completely and the anime would have been better, which clearly shouldn't be the case considering she's a vital character towards the premise but it really is. She's meant to facilitate the two main characters arcs but they don't go through an arc so she is literally redundant. Her own...developments are just weird. So weird. It seems the only reason she's there is so they can add the theme of 'love between boys and girls' into the description but this theme just serves to the detriment of the anime.
Spirit wolf, sacred wolf, whatever it is is incredibly confusing and convoluted, I didn't fully understand it either by the end - the film had a solid enough premise without it. Nothing would really have changed if they just did away with that layer of the not-changing world.
Another over-the-top two dimensional so evil he's evil wow evil, villain. What's new, not surprised just disappointed that we continue to get these boring antagonists who are just plot points and serve as anticlimactic stake makers for the main characters.
It's a shame this sucked so bad because I always look forward to watching these stories told by women as typically romances written by men fail to capture any nuance especially with the women characters - here the woman character does have nuance I'll give her that but the plot surrounding her just diminishes it all to nothing. The more I think about this anime the worse it appears to me because it had potential but overall it got lost in what message it was trying to tell.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 14, 2024
Writing this with tears still in my eyes, so clearly it was an extremely emotionally moving experience for me. Suzume is a tale of grief and how a person is supposed to move on from such a life altering event. I didn't know until I read some other reviews that this was about the 3/11 disaster in Japan that left many children without a parent. I can't properly talk about this film as the core themes can only be explored by talking about spoilers so this will be a short review.
Suzume is a young girl who lives with her aunt due to the passing of
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her mother when she was young, we're first introduced to her - or her dreams more specifically in which it is made clear that she still very much grieves for her mother. Yet this is not shown outwardly from her character, instead she puts forwards a face of a head strong girl. Throughout the film we see her personality shine through, she truly is a charming character and gives us the perfect viewpoint from the adventure she is going on. To avoid spoilers I can't say much on her character arc but it has an incredibly satisfying end and really teaches the lesson that we are the ones to save ourselves, and carry ourselves into tomorrow.
Souta, the male lead, is a gentle soul. He takes a backstep to Suzume, aiding her in her journey rather than having his own - but he serves his purpose very well. Not to mention he is just a beautiful character in personality as well as looks. This goes for the majority of the cast, they're all people who aid Suzume on her journey - but this shouldn't diminish the fact that they are characters in their own right and feel like real people. The voice acting for everyone is fantastic - standout roles were definitely the va's for Suzume and Souta, it's a breath of fresh air hearing new voices in animated films and they were fantastic.
It's a Makoto Shinkai film so of course the visuals are the standout. CGI and 2d animation are seamlessly woven together to create some stunning sequences that really go to show just how far technology for animation has come these past few years. The camera movements along with the animation created so many well done shots that are harder to do traditionally and create some memorable moments. I don't think I need to gush too much, it's just a visually stunning work, every shot is a piece of art, it's just so breathtaking.
The music was well chosen, especially for some car sequences where the music was put on by the characters in the car for the drive. The ending song only had me crying harder because of how moving it was. Sound as a whole only aided the experience, no qualms there.
In case you couldn't tell I really enjoyed this film. It had a message to tell and it told it, a lesson to teach and it taught it. An empowering one at that. I would highly recommend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 11, 2024
Aico is an anime about what it means to be human. I'd like to say it tackles this question quite well - generally speaking, when it comes to being an interesting piece of media though it really fails to be anything other than mediocre.
For such a theme based around being human, you'd think there would be a focus on making the characters believable people with motivations you can understand and stories you can relate to. Unfortunately it does not do this. Almost every character is forgettable, I only remembered two of their names (the two leads). The two leads do have a fairly interesting relationship,
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I can't say much because that's spoiler territory but they grow well together - my only gripe being the weird 'love interests' thing that seemed to be hinted at. Only Aico was an engaging protagonist. Not enough to make up for the lack of personality with everything else but she was a very good character. She comes across as a more gentle soul, but the show immediately shows that she has a strong will - something that keeps up throughout the entirety, as well as a lot of empathy and protection for others. Her arc is fairly small, she doesn't develop all that much as every choice she makes stays true to who her character is, she may seem like she believe one thing at some points but she does stay steadfast in her beliefs for what she truly wants and chooses to do.
No time is given for any of the other characters really, we're given an exposition dump for a couple of their backstories (exposition dumps are another problem with this) but that's about it. We go on their journey with them, we see how they work well together as a team and how they all do care for each other - but it's just not enough to actually care about them. The main villain is a little bit too cartoony, they're set up fairly well but when they come to the spotlight it is a bit too dramatic, as if they're saying 'look I'm the villain' to really show that they're not a good guy, rather than having any build up to justify their actions.
To understand the plot and what's going on you really do have to be paying full attention to the show. It's only 12 episodes so there are some scenes that are short but a major change occurs, if you weren't paying attention then you're just going to be lost. The latter half definitely picks up the pace, whereas the first half slogs on quite a bit with nothing much happening.
Overall it was an enjoyable watch, it lost my interest in parts and the sad moments didn't elicit any reaction at all out of me due to this feeling of detachment I had towards the characters. But I liked the message and I believe it did quite well exploring it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 10, 2024
screaming, crying, eating my pillow, hurling, doing a 100m sprint, oml finishing this has left me with that feeling when you finish something that is just so godamn good that you get that sadness its over and the despair that you'll never find something like it again. This is going to be one of my less critical reviews because gosh I am simply gushing over this one. I binged it all in one (with a dinner break) sitting and it captured my full attention the entire time.
I went into this knowing absolutely nothing, never heard of it or the manga - I simply thought it
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was going to be another romance anime with a 'quirky' lead like toradora, but oh boy was I in for a ride: Romantic Killer is a parody of the romance genre, it takes the reverse harem trope and puts a unique spin onto it. All with it's own protagonist who, despite being quite stereotypical, still hits it out of the park with her characterisation.
Anzu is pretty much your basic 'not like other girls' girl. She likes video games, hung out with boys over girls growing up, isn't 'conventionally' attractive (in terms of the world), is blunt and stubborn, most importantly: she doesn't want to get into a relationship. But this is out of spite for the pull point of this anime - Riri. It's clear at first that Anzu does find the ikemen attractive, she tries her best to resist their natural charms and fails on many occasions. Moments like these really make her character all the more relatable and pulled me into the anime more: these guys are attractive but she has a solid goal to not fall for them, it's believable for her to turn them down. What stood out the most to me is just how steadfast she is in her beliefs, she unconditionally supports her friends and never fails to show up for them. She also gets along with a lot of people - she's not your loner-loser protag that a lot of these 'quirky mc' romances tend to go.
The animation and artstyle is what really sold this show - the constant references to other pop media like Jojo's and Ace Attorney had me reeling when the comedic timing was perfect, it doesn't take itself seriously for the majority of the time - and it's serious when it needs to be for the actual plot. These types of shows usually have a problem with pacing and pulling together a real story, but this show has no faults in that department, again thanks to Riri. Bonus points for literally no fanservice either, this show was really made for the girls and the gays.
Riri grew on me so much, first off we love enby/genderfluid rep but their character had the most growth by far out of the whole main cast. And they have a very satisfying character arc. The other characters hold their own in their own right: Kazuki and Junta obviously being the main male leads are developed the most (with Kazuki taking the lead), but we're given a decent amount of time to learn about all of the harem participants. I did just wish for the throuple tho im ngl it wouldve been perfect and the vibes were THERE.
Anyway...Kenjiro Tsuda voicing tsuchiya???? hello??? need i say more (they should've made his character a dilf please he deserved more)
My only gripes with the show is that it was too short, I would've preferred more time with each Li but that's just a nitpick because it's satisfying enough with what's there.
I'm also hard coping right now because it appears the creator of the manga has dropped the series which finishes off pretty much the same time as where s1 has ended so...no season 2 and no concrete ending! hopefully in 8 years I can come back to this review and see myself proven wrong :')
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 24, 2024
If you want to just turn your brain off, sit giggling n kicking your feet for the better half of the day; then this anime is for you. But the second you start actually thinking about it, the problems start to arise.
Every character is incredibly two dimensional. For a shoujo romance this is fairly standard, but considering this one features a disabled lead you'd expect it to be handled with a bit more care.
So, what's the problem with Yuki? Yuki seems like a self insert in every worst way; she's small, pretty, timid, shy, naive. None of these are inherently bad, I personally am just
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sick and tired of this trope of women in anime. Basically the perfect girl with absolutely zero flaws, but also enough of a blank slate for the viewer to be able to insert themselves into her shoes. She has basically no visible family, hardly a past, no memorable life events - it's like she just popped into existence as soon as the first episode started for the viewer to begin vicariously living through her. And that's ignoring the pull point for this anime, the fact that she's deaf. Now I'm not deaf so I can't speak for anyone, these are just my own opinions; but it just feels like she's infatalised because of her disability, not only by the people in the show but by the creators of it. Her disability is only used to give reasons for the men around her to jump in and make themselves appear in a better light.
That brings me onto the male love interests. Itsuomi is, much like Yuki, the perfect guy with absolutely zero flaws. He's tall, pretty, conscientious, considerate, loving, (all things I wish real men would be) he travels, speaks 4(?) languages, is incredibly popular. Despite this anime toeing the love triangle line, it's just so painstakingly obvious he is made to be for Yuki - and by extension, for the viewer. Him having no flaws is such a problem as it just makes him an incredibly boring character; it seemed at times like they were hinting at him having more depth that was waiting to be revealed, but nothing ever happened? Lost opportunity I say.
Oshi is the childhood best friend, the sorry excuse for a part of the love triangle. It is very obvious that Yuki has zero interest in him so to me, he was never perceived as a threat. His only contribution to the story was to infantalise Yuki and pine for her. I'd argue that he was the most fleshed out character in the show, to me it seemed like the only reason he liked her was because he could (and did) learn sign language to communicate with her, something which the vast majority - in fact everyone other than Itsuomi, didn't do. It felt like he had a saviour complex, a flaw! Unprecedented, I know. But it was interesting, it just wasn't explored at all which is an incredible shame.
I can understand that the general theme of the anime was Itsuomi taking this sheltered girl with a barrier to the world, and helping her overcome that - but that again just seems incredibly infantalising (sorry this is becoming a buzz word), why does it take a man to 'save' her and teach her these things? Their relationship just didn't feel real to me, it always felt like they were just kind of pushed together without knowing each other? It really made me struggle to believe they actually went well together, the lack of connection was palpable.
I don't have much to say about the other side characters, the pessimist in me doesn't enjoy how idealistic it all is but that's just the type of anime this is.
Animation is beautiful, I see the art style is devisive but I thought it was incredibly pretty and I didn't think anything else of it a couple episodes in.
The sound is fine, op is okay, no stand out there. Voice acting performances are good, despite the poor international languages which is all too common.
Overall it was an enjoyable watch, just a lot of missed potential that could have been fixed with some better characterisation and even pacing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 24, 2024
Blue Exorcist was one of my favourite animes when the first season came out, so much so I immediately started collecting the manga - which I haven't read so my review is based soley on the anime. I can also safely say I am not blinded by nostalgia as I rewatched all the (canon) media prior to starting s3 - that really set the tone for what I was about to experience.
Season 3 perfectly encapsulates everything there is that is wrong with this anime: boring exposition, confusing character motivations, eye rolling amounts of twists, reliance on shock factor and trying to 1-up the last
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deception in order to keep things interesting. All of these are ever present throughout the 12 episodes. A lot of my problems are very specific, but for the sake of keeping this spoiler free I'm going to talk very vaguely - so my apologies if this is confusing.
Starting with what annoyed me the most; the plot twists. There's around five of them which all happen fairly early on - 2 of them are excusable and contribute positively to the story as they make sense and have been foreshadowed in the prior seasons. The others however seem to only exist to add shock value and provide the characters with something to do. Not only are there far too many of them but they just make no sense, there's no build up or hints as to what the twist is - they just happen completely out of nowhere? To avoid spoilers I'm not going to break these down but oh boy are these revelations handled poorly and significantly degrade the quality as there affects continue to disrupt the following episodes.
Exposition dumps is another feature that, to this seasons credit, isn't used all that frequently - there was just one particular episode that was entirely and exposition dump that irked me the most. It piled 1 characters entire backstory and motivations into 20 minutes, then expected me to care for them? The way it was done was incredibly poor and did absolutely nothing, I did not empathise or feel anything in particular as the way the information was delivered seemed much to like it was telling me how to feel. "Here's this poor character, look at their misfortune, isn't it so sad? are you feeling sad yet?" Overdone.
Through trying to develop characters, this season just butchers them instead. Each character is given something to work with, but every time it just falls flat. By the end of the season there's practically no difference as to how they were at the start - with one exception of differing character relations. Their motivations for their actions made absolutely no sense to me, they just seem like completely different people - or at least watered down versions of how they were in previous seasons. They have barely any actual depth, despite the things they go through that very so should affect them! They act no different and their morals are just up in the air, who knows what they value because they seem to change it every episode.
Rin's character is one I have a very big problem with as well. Having the main character also be the comic relief can work - if handled with care. As you can probably tell by now, Rin is not. I understand that this is a shonen, and me being very much not the demographic I might be expecting too much, but there are plenty of other shonens out there that explore deep themes whilst also balancing light hearted scenes to even out the tension. Season 3 bats you around like a tennis ball with no regard for subtlety or care. One second Rin will be battling with what it means to be half-demon then the next he'll just crack an immature joke. I understand that comedy is his way of coping - that's what I love about his character, he prioritises everyone else's comfort above his own and is such a kind and loving guy who cherishes friends, and he's also literally just a kid who has been through so much trauma...but it's just not handled well. The tonal shifts are like a slap in the face, I don't know whether I'm supposed to be feeling tense during the tense moments when a stupid joke that is about to ruin everything is hovering just a few seconds away. It really ruins a lot of pivotal moments.
Technically that is a separate point I got a bit carried away with, but it's most prevalent through Rin's character - but the tone of the anime is another downside. On paper it very much seems like they're going for a more serious feel with strong themes of generational trauma and familial betrayal, but the fail to ever stick to this. The strong moments are undermined by comedic jokes right after, with no breathing room to let whatever big impactful event sink in. I also think the stakes are non-existent this season, there just isn't an overwhelming threat that feels like it's actually going to cause an real significant long lasting damage.
In terms of animation, it's all been said before. I agree with the majority that the anatomy on the new artstyle makes a lot of the characters look off. but the colouring is gorgeous and somebody really loves Bon because he looked so fine in practically every scene he was in. Bon stans ate.
The sound didn't stand out to me at all, the op and ed are fine nothing special. The effects and background tracks do feel a little corny in places but are unremarkable at best. Voice performances are also fine, on par with the previous seasons and again, nothing special.
Overall I'm incredibly disappointed with what we got, it feels rushed which is incredibly sad considering just how long we had to wait for this. I'm definitely going to go read the manga now because it feels like a lot was left out/underdeveloped, and I really do love this series so I don't want to leave it like this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 8, 2024
It's good in terms of; a well written B-plot (with the kid), beautiful art and animation, great music, well written in terms of the words being very pretty and dialogue flowing extremely well.
But the story...god it sucks.
It just continues upending Violet's character from the last episode of the show by reverting her right back to square one. A dependent robot who only lives for one person. She has no personality of her own by the end of the show, no growth, no nothing. It has no message, no story or deeper meaning to it - it's just wow girls dependency is back.
If they
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just removed the second half and kept it as B-plot then Violet living for herself it would've been perfect. But no, it's intent on destroying what it built up.
Overall though I can't give it a bad rating because the B-plot had me sobbing my eyes out almost every scene of it, as well as the other positives I stated in my first paragraph. But I would not recommend it to anyone unless they're okay with just turning their brain off and pretending Violet hasn't just lost all her development.
As a side note I am glad that they didn't have any explicit romance in this, I've always hated the idea of Violet - the literal child getting with a literal adult man who literally has to raise her. So it is easy to interpret this as a platonic love which I very much do.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 8, 2024
I want to love Violet Evergarden so much. It has beautiful art, animation, music, and writing - it's core themes are about a girl discovering who she is and what her place is in the world. And more importantly, it's about learning how to live.
So what's wrong? The entire last episode, (and the pedo part with the princess but i don't think I need to elaborate on that)
Violet's entire character development is thrown away with one simple revelation: she will continue living...for Gilbert.
Huh.
The entire show was about her learning who she is *without* him, how to live *without* him...how does she just go a
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complete full circle to centering him in her life? It makes no sense and completely destroys everything. This series is a solid 9 if the last episode didn't end how it did. I was sobbing literally the entire time because of how profound and emotionally impactful the messages were, the character stories are so beautifully written and they feel real!
I'm still giving it a high rating purely because my only negative is that one line at the end but it is such a disappointment to an otherwise masterful show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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