Shikioriori

I just finished This movie about 5 min ago and I think it was very poetic and heart warming, I think the first story was confusing at first. I couldn't figure out what it was about until a quarter way through the story, but i honestly think it was very moving by the end, it was short and sweet. Now the second one I didn't so much, I think the story was rushed as well as the character development but I thought it was cute in the end and I enjoyed it a little. The third one was very moving (probably cause I'm a sucker ... for cheesy romance) It had a lot of components to it that i felt the other two somewhat lacked, Its main focus was self discovery (witch was basically the same point of the other storys) but it also dived into romance as well as peer pressure. I digress, I think it was a good movie, if your in the mood for some slice of life this is defiantly a movie you should look into （ ´∀｀）☆

Ps I'm sorry if this is a bit sloppy this is my first review and tbh ive never been great at writing 흫_흫

Flavor of Youth, A box full of happiness wrapped in 1 hour with 3 different segments

This Spoiler Contains No spoilers,

Shikishiori/si shi qi chun / Flavor of Youth is like a bowl of "chicken soup" contains a lot of spices which makes it spicy and full of surprises. Shikishiori is a movie with 3 short stories in it, we do hope the short stories connect each other but sadly comix had a different plan for this one. In order to explain it in details, i've breaked down the story into 3 paragraphs.

The first story tells us about a story of a young man with all his ... life eating a Chinese Ramen for breakfast. What I love about this story is how you can tell someone life with a single ramen, how he eats the ramen every morning with his grandma during his childhood, how he found his first love through the ramen and how ramen at that time very much different from when he was a kid. The exposition director approached in this section is absolutely beautiful and of course, it brought me down to tears. The background music was much much much much awesome and struck me to the bone because of it synchronizes well with the animation.

The second story tells us a story about a successful model with her dilemmas which is from a newcomer competitor which she's aware and her 'strained' relationship with her sister. the story is composed well enough because how you build up that "dilemmas" and how it reached the peak, but sadly it lacks on the conclusion part of the story and a bit bland if I might say so. The BGM absolutely beautiful with strings and piano that can build the scene very well in this story.

The last part of this movie and my favorite part is a story about 2 childhood friends, sharing cassette as a method of conversation (considering at that time they don't have LINE chat it actually a good method communicating to each other), then things got complicated realizing they both in love. The last part of this movie totally has that "5 cm per Seconds" vibe, because it's about how you develop feelings for your friend and how it went bad and all sudden you realized that you actually messed up and it's too late to fix it because you all grown up. I am very much adored this story, how it reached the climax and how it concludes. The only bad part of this segment is how you fit a 1-hour movie into 30 mins and I think that a lot of details were skipped and the story feels like "jumped", other than that all good

The Music is the best part of this movie because it takes you to every scene very well. With a combination of Strings and piano, it surely has that "Garden of Words" vibe. unfortunately, the sound director made poor mistakes by some part of conversations feels bland and not suited or should be retaken. also, Vickeblanka really up to that standard set by Radwimps, Motohira Hata, and Yamazaki Masayoshi by delivering the same vibe for ending song. Its a bit play safe, but I think still acceptable and very much enjoyable.

Overall, its very much warm your soul by watching this movie. already a bit bland in the mid, but still a good movie you can get in 2018. 8/10

I will admit, I'm a Shinkai fanboy, though its probably obvious if you look at my scores and see my high scores for all of his movies. Something about his stories really strike a chord in me, even if he seemingly retells the same story over and over again. He could tell it probably a dozen more times and I'd still love them all. This is probably the biggest reason why I didn't dislike Flavors of Youth, despite it being a little bit lacking in the emotional investment department.

Half of every great anime, but especially anime movies, comes from the visuals and soundtrack. It's an ... extremely rare occurrence when an anime movie can falter in one or both of these categories and still be considered decent. In the case of Flavors of Youth, it doesn't disappoint in either. The visuals are top notch, as expected from CoMix Wave, from which we got Your Name and Garden of Words, two of the most beautiful anime of all time. Also, big shout out to the San Xian noodles in the first story, Sunny Breakfast. Even now, I'm thinking back on those bad boys and getting hungry. The soundtrack for Flavors of Youth is really good, if not a little reserved. You'll not find anything quite as evocative as "Sparkle" from Your Name or as powerfully emotional as "A Rainy Morning" from the Garden of Words, but it's extremely hard to measure up to those masterful works anyway. The ending song, WALK by Vickeblanka is probably my favorite song on the soundtrack, but that's probably because it's the most memorable song.

Now I can talk about the stories, which is where the main issues lie. I've already alluded to the first story, Sunny Breakfast, a little bit. Character-wise, it's probably the weakest of the three, but that's to be expected. After all, its a story about one guy narrating his youth and how many of his most cherished memories were spent eating San Xian noodles with his loved ones. It's actually kind of beautiful in its own simplistic way. I've heard a lot that this is most people's least favorite story in Flavors of Youth, but it may just be my favorite. At least, favorite based on the story.
The second story, A Little Fashion Show, is probably the weakest in all aspects. I couldn't bring myself to like the characters very much and the story was really predictable. I'm not one to complain about simple stories, as is evidenced by my appreciation of the first story, but I'm a little less forgiving of the completely mundane story of A Little Fashion Show. It was just a mess of cliches with the message of....I'm really not sure actually. I guess you can say it was a coming of age story, but that just makes it sound even more generic and cliched.
The third story, Shanghai Love, is the story that is most Shinkai-esque. In fact, it kind of mirrors 5 Centimeters per Second perfectly until the ending. Personally, I really liked the story and characters outside of the main boy, Limo. I mean, that boy was basically a walking mistake, he deserved neither his best friend or best girl with his attitude. But that's a personal gripe, I suppose.

I feel like it's somewhat pointless to do a favorite character for this since there's only one character who got enough characterization to deserve the title, but oh well, I'll do it anyway.
Favorite Character: Mistuh- I mean Shao Yu

Yeah...Not much to add here, she was the best character by default, since she got the most development and actually has a personality. Also, she's Chinese Mitsuha, so bonus points.

Despite me not loving Flavors of Youth, I'd still recommend it to anyone. It's so short and such a pure story that, even if you have gripes with it, you can still appreciate it for being what it is, a contemplation of short stories that each lean heavily on a different theme. The first on the cherished memories of eating with loved ones, the second on coming to realize that beauty is not forever, and the third on communicating your feelings. Each of these themes are tackled really well, even if the surrounding story and characters aren't amazing. But if you have any appreciation for Mokoto Shinkai's work, then you'll probably enjoy the Flavors of Youth.

Each story has a beautiful ring to it.

The first story, depicts the story of the love towards food and shadowing the relationship between a grandmother and grandson behind it. It inspires us on how important it is to appreciate the moment while it lasts.

The second story, reflects on the relationship between two sisters, how their life influence each other and the beautiful they share, supporting each other despite the fights that they had.

The third story, has just shown how we all make mistakes and yet the time cannot be rewinded, what is done in the past has already gone. You could only continue your life, ... make a better tomorrow, either to fix your past mistakes or enjoy the present moment with your loved ones.

Slight note: There's an end-credit scene. Watch until the very end!

There are three parts, and all three fail to teach anything about Chinese culture at all. All three parts are generic to watch, though it does get better as it goes on. I particularly like that the first part is dedicated to past, the second to present and the third to the future. It is a nice touch. Though the story-telling was not executed very well.

Story: 5/10
1) 'A Sunny Breakfast'
You may as well just skip this part. There is nothing to it at all. The entire thing is a guy narrating about noodles. I honestly thought it would end up being a really long noodle ... advert. The pacing was awful, one moment he is a child who loves noodles and then he is a teenager who loves noodles. The only character traits of this guy is that he likes noodles and he likes a random girl he sees for about 5 seconds everyday.

No way is he interesting enough to be called a protagonist. He just talks about how the world is changing and how noodles are getting less and less care put into them. Nothing is actually developed on so there is no way I can be emotionally attached even in the slightest. Some people also die as a quick attempt to get some emotion as if it expects us to care about a random person we do not know. It fails to teach the audience anything about China's culture, and this is the most Chinese-related part of the whole film. At least this part is actually related to China though in some sense.

2) 'A Small Fashion Show'
This part was a lot better, more of an interesting story with more interesting characters with actual personalities, albeit not very good ones. I didn't hate it but it also wasn't something amazing. It also sends out a very bad message to people. It is about this model who is trying to come to terms with the fact that she is getting old, and proceeds to overexert herself through exercise and bulimia in order to try and stay pretty. What a great message to send to the audience. She completely contradicts herself throughout. Who thought this would be a good plot?

There is very forced drama between her and her sister for reasons I do not understand. When it was happening I really could not figure out why or what was happening. This entire part has absolutely zilch to do with China, and could have taken place literally anywhere in the world. Felt more like an American-based plot in fact.

3) 'Love in Shanghai'
I actually really enjoyed this part, definitely the strongest of them all, and has raised my score a lot. If this had been the only part, then I would give this show an 7/10. Nothing felt forced, and though it was a predictable plot, I still really liked it as it was done right. This guy is in love with this girl, to which they get separated due to his stubborness. Basically it is the plot of Byousoku 5 Centimeter, but arguably better. Though the ending of it made the entire plot kind of pointless, it is still worth watching and the best part of the entire movie.

Again, doesn't really have that much to do with Chinese culture, apart from the fact that is has a very Chinese structured family when it comes to school etc. However, like the second part, this could be placed anywhere in the world and still work the same.

Art: 6/10
Very nice. The background art was very pretty and I cannot fault it too much. The detailing on the backgrounds and the dreaded noodles were very very amazing and aesthetic. Actual character designs were pretty awful and bland, the best of them all would be the second part. The animation itself was choppy and poorly done.

Sound: 6/10
Not a lot to say about this. The music was pretty nice, the seiyuus performed their role nicely. There was no OP but the ED song was also quite good. Nothing was really outstanding enough to make this any higher.

Character: 4/10
There is nothing great about the characters. The first part had the most unrelatable and monotone protagonist I could ever dream of. Second part had a girl that is extremely unlikable and predictable. Third part had characters that looked as if they were literally stolen from Makoto Shinkai's works, but they were a lot more likable than the others. I liked the personalities, despite them being very unoriginal.

Overall: 4/10
I would not recommend this to people, and I will not be watching it again. I think possibly I may have missed the point of this entire movie but to me, it was pretty bad. Especially 'A Sunny Breakfast', skip that part. If it wasn't for that, then I could have scored a little higher. At least the other parts are actually interesting to watch. Me and my sister were basically falling asleep with that first part.

Flavours of Youth is a story not dedicated to literal food. Rather, a collection of three stories from a time of the early tastes of life. The taste of nostalgia if you like.

I can't say I relate to this movie, my life isn't very exciting or eventful compared to others. What I will say however is that it is a good representation of the many different stories people carry along with them and continue to write days, months, years into the future, until the halting of one's life comes. Picture yourself in a busy metropolitan area, with every person that passes you, a story, eventful, ... uneventful, exciting, unexciting, happy, unhappy, orthodox, unorthodox, interesting, uninteresting. A magnitude of adjectives can be used to describe an individual's sole story, and it is mind-boggling really. It probably isn't something you think about on a daily basis, but we forget that every person you pass by has this story that may or may not be worth your time, but an interesting timeline of events to share nonetheless. Flavours of Youth is just that reminder about this concept which makes it more interesting to watch, as I have said. You may get not out of the anime, or you might get one of the best anime you have seen in a while. But the fact reminds that it gives this idea of invisible crossroads with pretty much every human that you have seen in your life. It is a lovely representation of the connectivity of all of us.

When I watched this, I personally enjoyed the parts in the order of (highest to lowest): 1, 3, 2. The 1st story - The Rice Noodles, just shows the nostalgia of the literal taste that comes with nostalgia, and what was being experienced at the time. It had pretty good narration which would make sense with flashbacking, personally why I enjoyed it a lot. The 2nd story - A Little Fashion Show, probably the most different of all three, revolve around fashion. The clever thing about the 2nd part was not the flashbacking to the past but rather, the little sister acting as a memoir for the past. The 3rd story - Love in Shanghai, is basically every drama romance you have seen, in saying that though, it is a good thing that it exists to show the "regular" lives that go on in this world. Basically, all three stories do pretty well in showing the norm and not the norm, connecting them at the very end to give an image of the connections we all have. It is done simplistically but it is to be expected from people who aren't exactly flying through the air at will, or have been isekai'd for the 36th time already. But don't be disheartened, the simple is sometimes the most beautiful, and Flavours of Youth is no exception.

The audiovisuals aren't exactly the best that CoMix Wave can give if I am honest, probably the worst I have seen from the studio, but that doesn't mean it is bad, it is just that you will find better. I would still say it is visually appealing and the ost is alright if you need some words that would best fit.

Overall - 7.2 (7)


TLDR Review:
Story - 7: Three-in-one, all stories have a good connection and theme of the past.
Art - 8: Not the best from CoMix Wave, by no means bad, however.
Sound - 7: Decent ost
Character - 7: Fine characters you would expect to see in stories of its kind
Enjoyment - 7: Worth the time. Can get a thing or two from the story to think on as well.

Overall - 7.2 (7)


This isn't the longest review I have made, I wanted to keep it more summarized, as well as the story didn't have a lot to offer than I could comment on. But what I really liked about this anime is that it goes to show that the people around you may be much more interesting than you think on the surface of things. You never know what story may keep you intrigued, and the people next to you are probably your best bet of finding such a thing. Online or in real life. We sometimes forget the best things are usually the closest.

Although Flavors of Youth might not have the same western appeal as the studios' other works, it is still a film worth experiencing with fantastic visuals, effective music and stories that are short yet sweet. Some might find this movie to be 'boring' as the concepts on paper are quite simple and not particularly interesting, however the artistic way that these stories are told makes them surprisingly engaging and really shows the talent of the studio behind this movie.

It might not be for everyone, however I can safely say I really enjoyed my time with this film and recommend people to give it a chance.

My initial reaction to the end of the movie was merely awe. I could not believe I had just sat though an hour and a half of nothing. I was attracted to the idea that this was an anime created by the creators of your name, a movie that is visually stunning and has an amazing story. When I saw the romance tag to this movie, I had a similar expectation. That expectation was entirely wrong. This is not a romance, it is 3 separate stories that mesh in inconsequential ways at the end of the film. The combination of the three stories as a ... single movie feels like a crime as the only similar trait between them is all of the characters are finding their 'meaning' in life and reflecting on their journeys. This is realign just in line with some of the other Netflix originals, throwing money at a shit idea and dressing it up to look nice.

Character:
As individual stories most of the characters felt very generic and dry. The only meaningful story in my eyes was the story of the two sisters a model and a fashion designer. Their "complex" relationship, if you could call it that, was the only redeeming plot point to this entire move.

Art and sound:
The art and sound design are what is to be expected from the studio responsible for a cinematic masterpiece like your name. I find that the only redeeming factor to this lack luster film is that at least I sat though an hour and a half of pretty nothingness.

Overall, I find this movie as a hard no as for someone who has the same reasons to watch as I did. Aside from my own ideals prior to beginning the film, I find that the entire film as a whole is a hobbled tougher amalgamation of half baked stories that the studio just had laying around and decided to pump 3 short films and tie them together for a quick buck.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW
This movie is awesome. Everyone will love it. I felt goosebumps after a long time. Last time I felt like that while I was watching Kimi no na wa (Your name). The best is art in this movie. You can feel the sound. This movie consists 3 stories together. All are very cute and heart warming story. 3 stories have 3 different flavours, flavours of youth. My personal most favourite is the 1st one but others are great too. This movie gives you satisfaction. And happiness.
In every story the protagonist presents their life stories in childhood and now with some nostalgia and ... every story has a little twist at the end.

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.

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

The first story is perhaps the most East Asian thing I have ever watched. As someone who lived in both Japan and Vietnam and has travelled extensively through SE Asia, China and the two Koreas, I can honestly say that food is the central theme of East Asian life. Subtles differences in taste, memories and passions all centre around food. This reflects that.

The middle tale was less interesting. And ageing model worries about losing her looks, Disneyesque ending. Watchable but that's all.

The third story I enjoyed more. I liked the medium of cassette tapes to symbolise the passing of time.

The link of them all in ... the airport was a bit weak.

I really wish I could write a review for each of the different stories because I think they all were so different it's hard to give them an overall number score together. I didn't not like the story of any of them, but I think they all had varying levels of success and execution. Whether that was time, energy, funds, or a combination of all three, the last one was easily the best out of the three. I think they were smart to put it last because it was the story I connected with the emotions of the characters the most. The first was like ... hearing a story from a grandparent, it was nostalgic and heavily relied on the connection between food and memory. I love that idea and wish we saw more of it in Western media. The second story was, I think, much more successful in establishing the connection and emotion between the two characters. And the third had the most heartwarming and relatable characters. Either way, visually it was gorgeous as Kimi no na wa, and the soundtrack was alright. I think people are also underestimating the importance of this collaboration, but anyway. Definitely worth your time. Especially if you watched Fireworks.

So Flavors Of Youth is an anime mixed of 3 different stories. So let me explain each of them.

1st one. So the first story is about a guy named Xiao Ming and his grandmother. The whole story of the anime was about the moment's of Xiao childhood with his grandmother and some highschool memories of Xiao.

2nd story. The second story was about two sisters named Yi Lin and Lulu. So Yi Lin is a beautiful model and her little sister is a fashion designer. They both lost their parents in childhood. So they both live in an apartment together. But for some reason, the ... relationship between Yi Lin and her sister Lulu is not that good. One day Yin Lin had to quit her job ( I'm not saying the reason because it would be a spoiler). But Yin's sister Lulu doesn't want her sister to quit her job. So that's why Lulu tried to fill the gap between the relationship with her sister and encourage her to not quit the job.

And finally the last story.
The last story is one of the best stories of this anime. The last story is about a boy named Li Mo and his youthful days with his two friends Pan and Xiao Yu. So Xiao Yu was Li Mo's past lover. An exchange of tapes became their language of love and their words of encouragement for each other. But one day Xiao's father decided to send her daughter to a popular high school far away from her home. So that means she has to leave Li Mo. But Li Mo doesn't want to leave Xiao. So he studied day and night to get admission to the same school where Xiao going. So, as a result, he started to avoid everyone even his lover Li Mo and studied like crazy. But the fact is that Li also doesn't want to leave Xiao so she denied her father's idea. But one the other hand Xiao gets admission to the high school and leave his lover. But before leave Li gave the last tape to Xiao and describes how she feel about him.

So all three-story was really so enjoyable and the last story was totally heartwarming. I mean the last story was the best story of the whole anime. Overall the soundtracks and the animation were great. If you a big fan of anime like A Silent Voice, Your Name, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas so at last watch the last story of the anime.

Great movie that shows the story of 3 completely unrelated characters. All of the stories are completely different as well.

While watching the first part I was a bit confused but the art style of the food was making me drool and I seemingly enjoyed what I was seeing. The story was short and didn't seem anything extraordinary but was enjoyable.

Then came the second part, which in my opinion was quite boring. It was also longer than the first part, I wish that they had spent more time on the third part or even the first part, rather than dedicating the majority of the movie to ... this... The life of a boring model.

Finally the last part of the movie came, which brought a type of story that I was expecting when I read that this movie was made by the studio that made "Your name". This was a beautiful part but unfortunately too short.

In the end the movie is about portraying that every individual has his own story and that they end up on the background.

Due to the fact that 3 completely unrelated stories and main characters are jam packed in a 1 hour 15 minute movie, it is hard to get attached to them.

That being said, I enjoyed the movie and the art style was great... But don't expect a masterpiece, it's nowhere near the level of Your name and A silent voice.

*NOT TOO MANY SPOILERS BUT BE WARNED*

Story: 8/10
A lot of people didn't enjoy the first episode. I get that there was barely anything going on, but that's also the reason why the director put it there. In reality, not every story is going to be dramatic or as interesting as some other stories do. The director wants you to relate to the characters somehow, not just show anything enjoyable. A story doesn't always have to be intriguing. I think the director wanted to remind us that there's not always going to be people with big events happening in their life. There's going to be people ... where they have a neutral life, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be interesting later. The director just wanted to show us reality that things don't go the way people always want, like the noodles and the girl he liked (in the first episode). The story line in the second episode was a little too straightforward and fast paced, but it wasn't supposed to be that long, so I get it. They didn't really finish with the boyfriend issue, so I wanted to see what happened there. In the third episode was where most of this rating came from. I'm not a fan of romance, especially in anime because for me, personally, they're just the same story over and over again. I also don't like hopeless romance, especially in 5 Centimeters Per Second (If you haven't watched 5 Centimeters Per Second, then you won't know what I'm talking about). The ending in that movie was good, but the director didn't make it good. But the third episode, it was a little bit of hopeless romance, but not too hopeless for the lovers to get too depressed about. It nice and pure, wasn't too lovey dovey in a way, either. For people who don't like too much romance, this episode was the perfect one. The one thing I wasn't quite satisfied about was the ending where the girl suddenly showed up and they're all happy again. It was a little too rushed, but the nice scene where everybody joins up at the end made me ignore the bad little detail right away.

Art: 8/10
I'm not going to say much; it's already beautiful. It's the same director from Your Name. I took two points off because I'm not a fan of the people, but everything else is amazing.

Sound: 10/10
This is my first review, so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about the opening/ending for this. I watched the music video and it was fantastic. I don't remember if that's the same music for the opening/ending, but if it is, this deserves a perfect score.

Character: 7/10
In the first episode, he didn't really have much character, but it's not entirely his fault as the episode was supposed to be like that way. In the second episode, I really love family relationships, so it was nice to see two siblings living together and not separated like anime usually does. The third episode was pretty interesting; all the characters had good character development and not keeping the same personality as when they were little.

Enjoyment: 7/10
This could have gotten a 6, but if you're the type into emotional stuff like this, it's not so bad. I really enjoyed how neutral the first episode is even though a lot of people disliked the fact it was so boring. It really showed how real it was, and really just showing an ordinary life of an ordinary person. I'm not saying the other two episodes were not as good, but I love when it's unique and different what you see in anime in general.

Overall: 8/10
I wanted to give this a 9, but it wasn't very powerful as some of the popular movies. Personally, I really like to find deep meanings after finishing a movie. Not that this movie didn't have any meaning, but I think this movie just wanted to remind us our youthful days and how that impacts our future. And if not, some day.

This film comprises three shorter, independent stories, with the common premise of the inevitable loss of the things, people and places that used to make us happy. I think it is targeted at a certain demographic starting at late 20s to early 30s, when one begins to realize the extent of this loss. It is an emotional experience for those of us who can relate to it, but to those who not it may be boring, since all three stories are built on a feeling more than a plot: In that aspect, it reminds me of Jiro Taniguchi's works. Let's say as well that I ... don't agree with other reviewers in the point that it is a product for an Asian audience specifically: I am Spanish and I can fully relate to the themes presented.

When giving a score to it, the problem is that I'd give a different score to the three shorts: 7 to the first one, 6 to the second and 8 to the third; therefore, by average I give it a 7 (plus an extra point because overall I enjoyed it quite a lot and felt touched). I feel though that the themes could have been better executed, specially in the first and second stories.

Keep in mind that this is not something you watch for the story, but for the shared feeling of nostalgia between the film and your own experience. If you haven't felt that experience of seeing the things that mean your younger days disappear, you'll probably find this boring.

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.

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.