Shikioriori

Shikioriori or Flavours of Youth reaches out to Chinese and by extension Asian youths but ohh boy does has that tinge of pretentiousness in the mundanity as it's biggest obstacle.

Shikioriori is made up of 3 short stories spanning 25 minutes each to make this "movie", "Rice Noodles, "A Little Fashion Show" and "Shanghai Love" all of them covering different perspectives of the changing times of being a Chinese youth through differing aspects of their lives, be it noodles, fashion and sibling bonds and friendship.

Rice Noodles - "You know what...his inner monologue about noodles melds oddly well with Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san..they need to get together ... sometime". Rice Noodles follows Xiao Ming who grew up with rice noodles all his life. His tale is mostly consisting of his many flavours of noodles he had in his lifetime and how the changing of noodles from handmade to manufactured and processed is different and "doesn't taste the same". The change of rice noodles over his youth is telling of the Chinese before and after with how the noodles change with the times but still that Xiao Ming as an adult will always find his homemade rice noodles if he looks close enough.

A Little Fashion Show - "Sibling Love and Overworking". A Little Fashion show follows Li Yin a rising fashion model and an older sister to Lu Lu and her wanting to strive to have both of having a good job and making her younger sister happy. This tale is VERY obvious what the message is as LA said the first statements of this section and that is of Chinese's overworking ethnics (and by extension Asian work ethnics) and how doing too much will achieve nothing and this is easily manifested to Li Yin and her struggles of juggling of being a family member and older sister and her staying at the top.

Shanghai Love - "Your Name.....Lite". A love story spanning years. This tale follows Li Mo finding an old cassette of his childhood friend Xiao Yu which begins his reminisce of his youth and finding Xiao Yu. LA will get straight to the point with this one, it's the best of the three stories if not taking cues from Your Name, the similarities are there, friends through a link, now as adults they try to find each other, heck their character designs even look similar to Mitsuha and Taki. Anyways there is another layer to this love story and the more obvious one is of Xiao Yu's strict family and this links and affects to their love story, yes it's extremely cliche by this point of the "strict family" but it's predictable what happens as well, even if the message of Shanghai Love is showing the differing family values affects your life to compare Xiao Yu's strict family and the mess it causes with Xiao Yu wanting freedom with how Li Mo having that freedom becomes restricted from his friends and as an adult becomes jaded and disillusioned to get his goal that he's forgotten over the years.

Shikioriori's animation was done by CoMix Wave Films and if this studio sounds familiar they also did Your Name, Garden of Words and 5cm per Second (another words, alot of Makoto Shinkai works) and Shikioriori is no different with having the hallmarks of Your Name and Garden of Words for animation from the character designs, beautiful backgrounding and huge attention to detail, though Makoto Shinkai doesn't have his foot in this movie, Takayo Nishimura a key animator in Your Name and Animation Director of 5cm per Second makes sense to the animation quality. Nonetheless if there is a high point to Shikioriori then it's the animation.

Shikioriori for LA falls under the pretentiousness when it's trying to convey it's messages (maybe the exception to Shanghai Love but nonetheless). LA "gets" this is targeted towards a Chinese and Asian audience with all the struggles they go through on a daily basis but there are still many ways of at least making it seem genuine and LA just didn't see it especially from Rice Noodles. Shikioriori for the most part does it part of showing it's stories and the struggles of it's characters but making it's messages one blatant, two long winded and forced and finally three cliched in it's mundanity then you lose LA and with the exception of Shanghai Love, Rice Noodles and A Little Fashion Show shows these in spades one way or another.

With all that being said, Shikioriori is not a terrible interpretation of Chinese youths as it's messages of "changing times, sibling love and family values and freedom" was done to some good degree and LA isn't ignoring that as even blatant the messages comes out, the messages follow through each story nicely and solidifying it's themes. However it needed to do better in it's execution and maybe it's premise at times to make Shikioriori a bit more genuine in it's delivery, instead of the cliched plots and characters in giving us what we typically expected.

I might have people dislike this comment but I just going to speak my opinion. The animation and story really lured me into this anime. I did see the international film on Netflix which had it all together I suppose. I didn't really like the narration. It really got boring; I thought it was going to be like a film not just someone speaking about their life story. It really got boring for 8 minutes, so I dropped it. I felt really disappointed on how it led up. I was going to see it with my friends, but it just got boring for them too. ... If I could rate the animation from 1 to 10, it would automatically be a 10 plus with a great narrative story that fits the art style as well. Don't get me wrong if you're into a narrative storytelling, GO RIGHT AHEAD BECAUSE THIS IS THE STUFF TO SEE YA KNOW?! but if you don't then I wouldn't recommend it.

I must say, I found Flavors of Youth pretty disappointing. Firstly, I'm all for short films, but I felt like the second and third stories deserved their own full films. They were emotionally compelling, and I just wasn't given enough time to become emotionally invested. Especially with the third film, it progressed so quickly that everything became quite predictable. And, I found it really hard to sympathize with Li because, at the end of the day, there is no fucking way he deserves to be with Xiao Yu. At least not according to how he is portrayed in the movie.

Rewinding a bit, the first ... film just left me cold. The bits that could have been a bit emotional were just so melodramatic, like when he arrives just in time to see his grandmother before she passes. I credit this simply to the speedy pace of the story. Ultimately, I was left trying to figure out what at all the story was and what I was supposed to feel. It felt more like the first 20 minutes of a movie that was never completed. And, it could have been a great movie from what I did see. The short film on its own, however, just really did not impact me. I'm struggling to remember bits of it writing this review even though I saw it less than an hour ago.

The second film had a much more compelling story. My major qualm with it however is that it doesn't really stay true at all to the theme of the three films -- youth. It is entirely centered around the present-day lives of the two sisters; I'd honestly be surprised if more than three or four minutes were dedicated to discussing or mentioning their childhood. And, of course, the biggest disappointment is that it couldn't be a feature-length film. I would have loved to have seen more development of the younger sister especially. It's honestly tremendously sad because it's a great story.

As for the third film, most of what I have to say I said earlier. It was certainly the most emotionally compelling of the three, but, unfortunately, the emotion I felt throughout was honestly a bit angry. There are plenty of movies out there where the clueless guy ends up hurting the girl who loves him. And indeed, in many, they do end up together at the end of the film. But this is only after the guy's quest for redemption and his million apologies. Ultimately, the film would simply have to be longer to have a true emotional impact on me (and I'm sure it would if it was).

Truthfully, I have been absolutely spoiled recently, having watched A Silent Voice, Your Name, and Your Lie in April these past few weeks. I LOVED all of them, and I absolutely cried my eyes out at the end of Your Lie in April. Perhaps I set my expectations a bit high for Flavors of Youth, but then again, the film was marketed as "by the studio that produced Your Name". At the end of the day, it is no Your Name. It feels like some director thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if we have three stories and then they all meet in this airport at the end and the guy who eats noodles ties it all together with some cheesy line?"

The tragedy is, they are indeed three wonderful stories (the first; the beginning to one), and truly deserve their own full-length films. I don't think anyone could have combined the three any better, so I applaud the directors for their efforts. At the end of the day, there are some beautiful animations, and a few moments that may inspire emotion in a person who is more prone to that kind of thing. But then again, I am that kind of person and yet I was not. I do recommend you see it because fuck what I think, but I wouldn't rush to.

Just a film of three short stories that all worked well together. Such a sweet and easy watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

What I loved is that we were able to see such different parts of one country, and how all these different parts had such different stories, with such different settings and cultures, with such different characters and lifestyles.

It was a breath of fresh air, because the movie was so unique from other films. Something that I'd like to see a little bit more of.

But in saying that, it was also kind of mediocre in a way. It lacked any proper excitement, ... any big plot twists, which would've upped the score a bit more.

Status: Finished

Flavors of Youth - I swear, I didn’t just choose this anime because I had to fill out the list with something. The keyword is ‘just’.

Flavors of Youth is an anthology movie that consists of three segments. Each individual segment is about people reminisces their past in a way in their current situation. I watched the international version on Netflix, so if I miss anything that existed on the original version, let me know.

The first segment goes like this: Hi, I love noodles. Noodles was my food everyday when I was little. The noodles in city is stale and pricey, but the ones at ... my town are pretty good. My grandma loved noodles. Everybody should love noodles. The girl I had a crush on, had long noodle hair. Noodles are life. And if you reject noodles, life rejects your happiness.
Well, they got the flavors part right and it makes you hungry for noodles, even when I ate a pizza. Thank you noodle guy!

The second segment is about models. We see a women dealing with it as her age is kicking in and as how she tries to spend time with her younger sister. We see how she is seems to be replaced by someone younger, releasing how she is replaceable. This is also about her younger sister, who wants to make cloths and cake. Okay, we got some flavour here..

And the third segment is about a man who discovers his old mixtape of conversation with his then best friend, who was a girl, but not really a girlfriend. We see how time passes between as they goes to school and trade their mixtape with each other as they go on their lives. This however changes as they are applying for the entry exam and the conversation becomes less and less. Why they don’t simply talk normally with each other? Because her father said fuck you. None of this has anything with flavour, except for the cookies in the opening.

I want to mention that this movie was a Chinese - Japanese project, which explains why most the locations are based on Chinese cities and culture. Showing these landscapes and having these establishing shot as we see time lapses is probably the best part of this movie. These time lapses makes you feel some kind of nostalgia for these places somehow.

Now my concerned about this movie except for how the character aren’t as detailed as the background, is regarding its subject. Only 1 of the 3 stories as anything relevant to flavours. Sure you can argue that flavours can be more than just food, but do mind that when we think of flavour, we think of stuff eatable!

Not about some kids recording their thoughts on a cassette tape! Okay? Nor how a woman turns into a granny! F.O.O.D! FOOD! I know the original title is Season to Season, yet this isn’t an excuse!

Alright, beside the title being kind of misleading, the plot of these doesn’t make me, that invested. With exception of the first one of course. I was more invested on the background than on the foreground. This goes both for animation and the story itself. The landscapes and the details of the noodles was amazing, yet the character animation was lacking times to times. The personalities and character interaction wasn’t interesting enough for me to not look at the background. The stories are too average for me.

Sorry, I’m just seeing the same problem on what most of these pretty background pictures has. Not a interesting story to back it up. Take it from me, stories ages less than art. What could look great back then might not look great now.

Now spoiler for the third and final segment. So if anyone who is interested, listen now.

So the manboy studies for the exam so that he could be in the same school as womgirl. He receives the mixtape but he doesn't have time to listen to it and his mother puts it away. Later turns out that only manboy passed to go to that school and womgirl didn’t. He moves away and completely forget that the mixtape even exists, even if he did the mixtape thing regularly. So year passed and she asks him if he heard the mixtape. He says no and she turns away. And now back to present, he finally listens to the mixtape and in it, she confesses that she didn’t want to pass the test because she wanted to stay with him. Wow! Way to go to handicape yourself with a goddamn cassette.

With that said, here is my summary. This movie is nice to have when eating food, but not that great. Nice background but that’s about it. Watch the first part for sudden craving of noodles.

Pease out Noodle man.

Shikioriori is comprised of three short vignettes that are entirely disconnected in plot and character, yet loosely fit together in terms of theme. All three explore different aspects of nostalgia and the difficulty of moving forward in life while reconciling oneself with missed opportunities of the past. As it is a classic example of slice of life, it should be appraised more for the way it evokes the feelings revolving around the theme and artistic decisions designed to evoke it rather than the plain mechanics of detailed characterizations with invigorating plot. Overall, it is moderately successful in its redolent aims, with the success very unevenly ... distributed among the short films.

Before saying much about the individual vignettes, inevitably since it is released by CoMix, the art style is so similar, and the third vignette is an homage to a 5 Centimeters, it surely will invite comparisons to Makoto Shinkai. This is really a bit of a strenuous comparison and Shikioriori really should be judged independent of any connection to Shinkai. Though the art style is similar, the directing style is totally different. It features less focus on background transitions and far more first-person and panoramic shots taken that are more reminiscent of Keischi Hara’s work (Colorful, Sarusuberi) than Shinkai. Overall, the artistic quality in terms of both camera angles, scene direction, and photorealistic animation are top-notch, as can be expected from anything produced by CoMix.

The same cannot be said, however, of the writing, a fact that becomes very apparent in the first short called Hidamari no Choushoku. It tells the story of a man in the city who is struggling with loneliness and is reminiscing back to his childhood when he would eat rice noodles with his grandmother every morning in a smaller town. It is supposed to evoke and explore the loss of meaning in life and nostalgia that comes with rapid urbanization and modernization which has occurred in China in recent decades. The premise is simple and compelling enough, and the animation sequences of the noodles is mouth-watering, but it is marred by being almost entirely told through voice-over narration.

The whole point of a slice-of-life film is to evoke feelings by showing you the circumstances that lead to them very subtly, not spoon-feed the feelings by dictating to you how you should feel. Not only does it get mundane to basically spend fifteen minutes listening to a lecture about a story rather than actually telling it, it just kills any sense of immersion and subtlety that is the entire point of a vignette like this. The whole film would’ve been better off if this short were entirely left out, a shame since the metaphor of the flavor of the noodles is what gives the whole film its title. It might have been fine as a short story for a creative writing class, but not a screenplay for an anime.
The second short is a marked improvement on the first, although also the most out of place of the three. Chiisana Fashion Show is about a model who is beginning to age out of the peak of her career and her difficulties with balancing her struggling career with her relationship with her younger sister. Probably the most accessible and plot driven of the three, it is decently well-done. However, its thematic connection to the other two shorts is a bit tenuous: it does have to do with the feeling of loss of one’s past and confusion about the one’s future in the form of the memories of their childhood relationship, it just feels slightly out of place compared to the other two. Further, the plot itself is extremely predictable and slightly cliched. It’s perfectly fine short that is well-executed, but mostly predictable and forgettable.

The third and final vignette is by far the strongest of the three. Shanghai Koi is ostensibly an homage to Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters, but it is different enough to stand up on its own merits. It depicts a twenty-something in 2008 who is moving out of his parents’ house on a whim when he comes across an old cassette tape given to him by his first love. Most of the short is then a flashback to 1999 and the events that led to the making of a tape. At the end of their middle school, he found out his love interest was trying to get into a prestigious high school, he decides to start working hard academically to be accepted so he can be with her. All the while they exchange recordings of themselves on a cassette tape, and he was so busy studying he never listened to her final message. She winds up not getting accepted but he does, and they are separated left only with regrets about what could’ve been. It essentially explores the same subject matter and emotion of nostalgia of typical Shinkai fare, but gives a far more hopeful look at how to cope with it than he typically does. More time is taken to pay attention to emotional subtlety and detail than either of the two shorts, it is highly atmospheric, and very well written. It’s slightly soured by over the top music at key moments, but overall is a really stellar short.

At the end of the day, Shikioriori is worth a view just to see the stunning visuals and the great exploration of nostalgia for love that is Shanghai Koi. I cannot say it is particularly great film overall since the vignettes aren’t as cohesive as they could be and the quality between the three is inconsistent. The first is a frustrating, poorly executed missed opportunity, the second is decent but forgettable, but the third certainly makes up for the other two.

Story 6/10
Art 10/10
Sound 6/10
Character 6/10
Enjoyment 7/10
Total 6/10

My expectations going into this show weren't necessarily high, nor necessarily lower but i feel as though i got something a bit better than decent out of the experience, so to not waste people's time let me tell you that my score for this show is a 6.5/10 sense i have no way to do so using MALs rating system.

Now let me go into my thoughts on the show.


This show is comprised of 3 stories in 1 and we start off with Kyons (from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) voice actor talking about how china (of which all 3 of these stories take place in) ... is not looking to great in his eyes now that he's older and decides to attempt to reminisce about the good times of his youth while traveling back home to see his dying relative before she goes. Throughout his story we see him as he grows being happy than melancholy over aspects of his life that he found great fading away or disappearing from his life util there was nothing but grey skies and dreary china left for him, until the end of the story course.

Story 1: I thought this story wasn't bad but i feel focused too much on its food aspects (yes i grasp the show is called FLAVORS of Youth but that made no difference for the other 2 stories so i feel it wasn't necessary), however i wouldn't say it didn't have a purpose and came full circle at the end when he eat noodles after his beloved Grandmother passed away so i'd say this story was a 5.5/10 by itself.


Our next story follows a girl who grew up to tall but was thankful for her height because it along with her interest in wearing cute clothing helped her to become a fashion model while also taking in her sister a while after their parents died (dead parents in anime? Shocker...).

Story 2: If you've seen other concepts like this involving a relatively older fashion model in different media it’s not hard to see where most of the story is going from the very beginning so it’s weak point for me at least is its predictability. But i have to give credit to how the show flows and makes you care at least a bit about our main 3 characters (let's call them oblivious, inspiration, and nice guy) and their interactions with one another albeit Nice Guy being a bit to idealistic for what he actually is. The points this story tries to get across are clearly conveyed to the watcher; be aware of what you have and treasure it, nothing lasts forever, don't sacrifice your health for your career and of course girls are cutthroat and jealous as hell (that last one is real important). Overall this story i felt was more impactful, albeit predictable, than our first story so i give it a 6/10.


Our last story is when we get real anime-like and get closer to what Netflix (via this shows preview) wants you to compare it too, Your Name. Our new lead (let's call him Idiot), is just moving into a new apparent with the help of his childhood friend that he doesn't act like a friend towards when in the process of unpacking he finds a tape (that has a series of messages on it that he and his childhood crush listened to and recorded when they were young) that he didn't know he had received a new message on or even had in his possession (despite being reminded 3 times) and now wants to hear it because everything has done up until this point was to make it so her, his childhood friend and him could live together of which he told her in one of the messages he recorded to her way back when (that was a mouth full).

Story 3: This story made me cringe a bit from how Idiot was acting. One moment he’s carrying his crush home and spouting cheesy lines like "if it will make you smile i'll do it", the next he's mad at her for choices she felt were beyond her control, than he doesn't tell her he’s trying for the same school as her to be with her and this ends up in a miscommunication after receiving the tape but not listening to it that had her fail her entrance exam so she could be with him and get beaten by her father for it.

Oh but it doesn't stop there! Than when they meet again after being in different schools he almost completely ignores her and lies AGAIN about his reasons for going to the school on top of being told about the tape AGAIN to once again not know about it... At this point if i wasn't aware of his desperation to find the tape and only aware he accomplished his goals and became an architect while just reminiscing of what could have been i would have like the character more but sense i'm aware of the situation ahead of time he just seems like an idiot to me and his life goal came at the cost of the people he wanted it to involve. When he builds the place he wants all of them to live in (a motel apparently?), WHAT DO YOU KNOW she comes walking in out of frame and he smiles ending the last of the 3 stories.

Yeah... I wasn't a fan of this one. They story could have been better, the characters i didn't care about the characters (Idiot also admits he was acting childish which i think is an understatement), and the real lesson is if you love somebody DON'T IGNORE THEM! This one gets a 4/10 for me cause it annoyed me.


That adds up to a grand total of 5.5/10 for overall story which i'll put as a 6 sense the first 2 weren't as bad and MAL doesn't do .5 ratings...


The Art: In current year there's a LOT of bland art in the series that come out but sense this is considered a movie i intend to judge it by movie standards. As a movie this animation isn't the best i've seen and sense the trailer wants to shove the fabled legend "Your Name" in YOUR face to let you know it was made by the same group i would have to say it was fine, just fine. 6/10.


Sound: This one is relatively hard for me despite enjoying music quite a bit sense i don't usually hear the songs in these anime unless they really stand out like in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, Carol and Tuesday or Made in Abyss. I can't say i had an issue with what i was hearing but nothing stood out to me so take this with a grain of salt but 5/10.


Characters: I'm gonna be honest, none of these guys left a lasting impression on me (i hope you could tell when i couldn't be bothered to get their actual names to use in the review). I can't say as though i had an issue with them but we get maybe 30 minutes with each set and though we learn more than we really learn about characters like the two in Garden of Words IMO, we still don't have a lot to go on. If i had to give an MVP award to better group of characters i'd say Story 2 wins sense i didn't care whatsoever about story 3s group and story 1 we focus on one guys being melancholy (he should have stuck with Haruhi for that). Overall they weren't remarkable but not terrible so 5.5/10 which will be 5.


Despite my griping about certain parts of this show i did enjoy the experience of all 3 stories combine more than i expected i would so i'll give it a 6.5/10 or a 6 in MAL terms cause it wasn't THAT good.


Considering i've already said the rating it may be confusing as to why looking back on my other scorings but let me explain: This show despite my gripes once again did make me think about my life and my youth in some way and i had more connections with the second story than i was expecting to have sense i'm sure as hell no model and not a girl. That experience is part of what reviewing a show is all about (despite being illogical), how one feels about a show after watching needs to take into consideration but NOT sway your thoughts of the show so much that your rating end up like the new Lions Kings audience ratings. So though i did give a bit higher of a rating than my scoring suggests, i did so with another factor involved that many people of today seems to think solely with but i will not, After-feeling: 6.5/10.

With the cover of this anime boasting "from the creators of 'Your Name'", I had some high hopes, but unfortunately, I didn't get nearly as much out of if as I think was intended.

This "anime" is three short stories, about three different people, focusing on three different things that they are dealing with. These people have nothing to do with each other except for a point where they all board the same plane, but otherwise they literally have nothing to do with each other, and by the end, the random plane boarding feels forced just to make the connection between them apparent.

Story one is ... "Man talks to audience about how noodles impacted his life", in which, a man monologues about how he ate noodles in the mornings most days of his life.

Story two is "Women in modeling starts to doubt herself because she didn't get a job", in which a woman with a modeling job shows up late to a job she was scheduled for, and doesn't get the position, then throws herself into a series of self destructive behaviors to try to regain what she lost.

Story three is "Dude runs across city to listen to a tape recording", in which this dude flashes back to when he was a kid and worked really hard to get into a good high school to be with the girl he liked, only to have the whole plan backfire and him being alone because he was so focused on school he didn't listen to a tape recording, and didn't tell the girl he liked that he was applying to surprise her. It's the best one because it actually has some plot.

The art is obviously pretty good, except for some parts where there were some pretty jarring switches between hand drawn animation and CG.

for characters, the third story is the only one that really does anything. the first one is literally a guy monologuing about noodles. The second one has people thinking it has character, just to have people make a 180 for the sake of the "plot". Though my favorite is squint eye blond guy in story two that you know is a jerk before he even talks and he lives up to your expectations.

If you watch this, be honest with yourself and just watch the second two, the first one isn't worth your time.

Overall, this anime tastes really machine made, 6/10.
Don't watch first story while hungry

I watched the netflix version of this, which just sort of mushes the three stories together to make a feature length film. The story is as the MAL description says. It has three parts that do not really have much to do with each other. Each story is sweet and features about 80% voice over to tell it. Your enjoyment of the three may vary. I personally feel that the middle story is the weakest and kind of played out. However, the characters are solid. The first is my favorite for the visuals and the voice acting (which we'll get into later) but lacks any ... kind of story. The third is the only one with a real story line. However, the characters are bland and the voice acting is terrible. No one part has everything.

The art is absolutely spectacular. While the character design is lacking, the background and and settings are very deep and dazzling. There was a shot of a puddle in the opening minutes that made me mark out hard. The art is pretty consistent throughout the three stories, but the first is where the most animation time went into.

The sound and music are not very noticeable. Aside from a few good tape recording and cooking effects there is not much to talk about. The dubbing is a bit rough. It is a little noticeable in the second story with not awkwardly read, but awkwardly translated lines. Then, in the third story we get to listen to captain no charisma do the main character.

The characters are where this movie takes a hit. Outside of the second story there are not any noteworthy characters. Some kids, some grandparents etc.

Overall, it is a very easy and fast watch. The movie likes to try to trigger nostalgia and in some cases may do so effectively. I would recommend watching it with the dub if only to be able to focus on the beautiful artwork as it is one of the few saving graces of the work.

Here's what I've observed from the reviews thus far. There seems to be a spectrum of enjoyment of the show, and the reason why is because of how "unrelatable" the plot is, especially to Westerners. There's nothing wrong with that, I just wished people would be more conscious about the fact that Asian stories go beyond generic, plain Asian stereotypes portrayed in Western shows and truly evaluate the show based on it's cultural relevance, and how the stories have been true to life.

So, as a Chinese, here's what I thought about the film. There's 3 short stories, and I will review them separately, or ... at least, the storyline. HEAVY SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen it, you've been warned.

"Sunny Breakfast" Overall: 6/10
Much of the plot revolves around the main character and his inner dwellings and reminiscence of his hometown, and of his feelings towards San Xian noodles.

The way this story was told reminded me very much of those kinds of essays we used to write in school, those that would use descriptions and recounts that would lead to an ultimate reflection to some aspect of life, or of values.

The noodles were the subject matter that connected the main character to a)his kind grandmother who raised him, b) his first crush he would see when he ate the noodles, c) the different incidents of the family who ran the noodleshop. Also, those shots of making noodles, pouring the soup and everything was just pure bliss. They were such a highlight. Anyway. The noodles hold sentimental value to him, and as he grew up, the taste slowly disappears, which symbolises the passing of time, the changing of tastes and letting go or even forgetting what used to be.

I think the storytelling was beautifully written, and I do think the nature of English was unable to emulate the same weight of words as it would be in Japanese, or in Chinese. I do feel that the plot was predictable, but it was a good attempt at the iconic Shinkai-esque storytelling.

"A Small Fashion Show" 4/10
I really wanted to like this show. I really did. But, something about the main character, or the storyline, just didn't impact me the way it intended to.

Yes, it's a pretty realistic story about two sisters relying on each other for survival, and unspoken feelings and conflicts because one of them has been so caught up on life that she failed to notice her sister's growth. There is some sort of closure to the story that gives a nice, pleasant feelings. But it was... weak.

By the time it reached the halftime mark I felt beyond bored. Besides the rare shots and closeups with spectacular rendering and detail to animation, nothing impressed me. Even the model walks weren't as dynamic or detailed as I would have wanted it.

Probably the weakest short amongst the three.

"Shanghai Love" 8/10
I came from Shanghai. And my grandparents and my dad still live there, so I do go back every year. This personal experience may have played a part in pulling my heartstrings, but I do genuinely think this story was the strongest out of the three.

For one, the story was true to life. The changing of times as Shanghai develops into a bigger, more bustling city--- that's what I see every time I go back. The old house in the film, my grandmother's family grew up in the house like that. Narrow alleyways, really dangerously steep staircases, like four floors of small rooms on each one, and the furnishing of the rooms were exactly like my grandmother's, it made me really nostalgic.

Okay, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked. But, the characters were really endearing to me. Growing friendships, communicating through cassettes, working hard for one another--- those actions really evoked sympathy in me. I felt happy for them, I felt sad for them, and my heart ached when they fell apart. Sweet, simple. Which is more than enough in films sometimes. No need for dramatic actions, for exaggerated witty words. This was reality for many Shanghainese millenials, and that alone spoke volumes.

Next, I really liked the fact that it tried to intermingle past and present. Going back to the old, worn house for the old, outdated cassette player; the contrast with the modern skyscrapers that dominate Shanghai today--- these are subtle touches that make the story that much better. The settings were beautifully done, they definitely did their research, and I really appreciate that.

As for culture, a good portion of the plot revolved around how the main characters were trying to study to get into this elite school. A lot of panels about studying, no fun, and about being a hermit at home. That's also very true to life. The study culture is such a deeply entrenched concept in China that it can totally consume our entire childhood. Those violent methods would also be reality to many, and shouting to wake up neighbours isn't uncommon.

Probably the closest to 5cm per second, and I appreciated the film a lot. Made me miss Shanghai.

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The after credits scene was a little forced and extra but okay I'll tolerate it. Gives closure I guess.
Also that ending song is a BOP it was such a refreshing piece to compensate for the extremely uninteresting OST of the entire film.

I'm a sucker for good art, especially the "Shinkai filters". Watching the PV, the only reason I wanted to watch this movie was because the studio created Kimi no Nawa.

I started to watch the film and I was bored. Very bored.

The third story was entertaining enough that it didn't manage to distract me thinking, "when is this movie going to be over?" because, for the first 2 part of the film, it did.

Hopefully, many people would agree that the third part of the film was the most entertaining and would wish that it took up the whole film's length.

If I was to make a list of all the things entertainment-wise that disappointed me this year ( and there are quite a few contenders; Han Solo movie, Stephen King’s Sleeping Beauties finale and most episodes of Citrus anime for example) one thing will be clear from the beginning – Flavors of Youth will definitely claim a top spot. And I really wish I won’t experience a bigger let-down by the end of this year, cause this movie was enough to last me for some time.

I wanted to love Flavors of Youth, I really did. I was excitedly waiting for its release ever since ... its announcement and I ended up watching it as soon as it premiered on Netflix. I adore anthology stories, I love watching as the lives of different people become somehow interconnected, I love not having to sit through a 1,5-hour long movie but three 30 minutes long movies. There is nothing about the premise of this movie that doesn't apeal to me.
Plus, I am still so, so needy after Your Name, and I craved a Shinkai movie, with gorgeous animation, subtle, compelling stories about every-day life and a conclusion that will break my heart.

But because it’s just a ComicWave movie, not a Shinkai movie, I got only one of those things – Flavors of Youth surely look pretty ( especially the first story – those rice noodles were straight-up food porn) but there’s really not much there besides that. In all three stories, characters feel shallow and artificial, with no real depth or a way we can relate to them; the character writing itself is very cheap. Even our mains are only characterized by a few qualities, if at all and I’m not even going to talk about the secondary cast. The narration is used excessively and what’s even worse, it’s used in a way it isn’t supposed to be used. The writers clearly did not remember about the golden rule of storytelling – show, not tell- because through the whole movie I felt as if somebody was telling me these stories, not as if I watching them, and let me just tell you, this was probably the worst thing about this movie for me. It felt horrible. We, as the audience, only know how characters feel, because they tell us that and we see no real emotions, we are not given a chance to think for our self and develop our own conclusions, but instead of that, we are spoon-feed everything.

About the plot itself... Let me start with Sunny Breakfast and A Little Fashion Show - I really think these stories had some potential, but it was all lost in some very early part of the production process. There is not an ounce of substance here, nothing to latch onto, nowhere to find some hidden layer or depth. They are all so straightforward that it hurts. I can’t even count how many times during this movie I was thinking to myself how I’d love to be watching a Garden of Words in this very moment. There’s nothing wrong with showing little scenes from an ordinary life, small snapshots of reality – I’ll be the first person to defend this kind of filmmaking. But not like this! Again, too much talking, too much leading the audience by their hand to follow blindly what the creators are telling us. No space to analyze the stuff happening, because well – either nothing really happens or the things that happen are so painfully simple and dull that it hurts.

And the conclusions! Oh god, don’t get me started on this topic. While Rice Noodles had some kind of a semi-satisfying ending ( although, again, boring as hell), A little fashion show almost killed me on a spot. How can you take such an interesting premise – an aging model trying to figure out what she wants from life as her options become more and more limited, a family love between two so different sisters, the gap that they can never really close- and just butcher it completely? Everything about this second story makes me mad and especially the thought about all this wasted potential, this idea that could be developed in so many interesting ways instead of – this.

And I’m not saying they’re terrible – because they are not. Sunny Breakfast had me smiling and, again, the food animation was just so gorgeous that I had to marvel at it, it actually made me truly hungry which rarely happens when I’m watching something. The parts about the childhood and first crush and how his favorite meal kinda linked different parts of his life together were all sweet and charming. And A Little Fashion Show had some nice moments too, especially at the moment when sisters quarrel and the watcher is finally given some freedom to analyze what’s happening on the screen. But overall, I think I’m so mad at them precisely because they were not all bad, there were little elements that worked while the whole stories didn’t.

And about Shanghai Love.. well. It’s quite amazing for me because I remember times, not long ago, when Makoto Shinkai was the one to copy others – namely and mostly, Miyazaki – and now we’ve come to the times when he is the one being copied. Shanghai Love really is a tribute to 5 centimeters and maybe that’s why it comes out a little bit better than the other two. There is a complete story there, the one with things unsaid, less narration and a pretty nice ending. Of course, I think it would be much nicer if it was turned into a longer movie – the story would just flow better if certain parts were more developed. But all in all, it’s definitely the best out of three, the one with most believable characters, best storyline and overall quite decent execution ( however, I think the animation was definitely the best in Rice Noodles story. In Shanghai Love, well, characters sometimes doesn’t look as polished as they’re supposed too).

To sum up this angry rant – Flavors of Youth is not a bad anime or a bad movie per se. But it is a textbook definition of wasted potential, and its overuse of narration and shallow writing drove me mad while watching and I think if I ever come back to it for a re-watch, I’ll settle for Shanghai Love only.