Tonari no Yamada-kun

QUICKREVIEW
Story: 10 (Refreshing family story thats not cliche)
Art: 8 (Very unique, take on the comedy style)
Sound: 7 (Average slice of life/comedy effects)
Character: 10 (resembles my family almost perfectly)
Enjoyment: 10 (everything in this movie i can relate to)
Overall: 45/50 = 9.0 (Excellent anime for family time)



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::Full Review::
I managed to stumble upon this gem of a show simply by walking in the wrong film room at the Anime Expo. Man, if i didn't walk in that room I would have never discovered how great of a show this was. It's not your typical movie style movie, instead, its told in a dozen or so situations all involving one family: the Yamadas.

Theres no deep evolving plot or intriguing storyline to look forward too. It's simply a nice slice of life movie about the daily lives of the five members in this household. It's main highlights of the show is how they tell portray common situations that occur in a majority of average households. Things like how parents use swindle their kids into doing chores, or manage to convince someone going to the store to get things for you because you're too lazy. All these situations are average everyday things that we normally don't find humorous (and they usually piss us off). But when watching it from a different viewpoint, we realize that such things are so ridiculous yet true that we have no choice but to laugh because we know those situations all too well.

The art work is something else as well. In typical ghibli fashion, it goes for its own unique style and manages to make the super simple in to something that one can only call it a masterpiece. You can see the pen strokes, and watercolors and errors everywhere, it almost looks like someone just scratched it together out of someones notebook. But there are some scenes that run amazingly smooth (aka high frame rate). A good example are the TV shows they end up watching. It looks so simple yet, it moves with a fluidity that is only comparable to real TV broadcasts. Of course some people will think the art is the worst they've ever seen and say that they can even do a better job. But theres something about the simplicity that just makes it so wonderful. I just can't pinpoint that exact reason why.

The sound effects are all standard fare. Nothing wrong with them at all. Most of the sound consists of household sound effects and such. But where the sound effects gets its most use is from the voice acting.

Since I was living in a pretty full household (grandparents, mom, her brother and two sisters, and 1 cousin) I can easily relate to how this family interacts with each other. It's comical how exactly their emotions and how they talk to each other emulate my family. Including the grunts and groans and such and backtalk all make it so wonderful and interesting to watch.

Just like any Studio Ghibli film, this is a perfect movie to watch with the whole family. As a matter of fact I highly recommend watching this with the whole family, and point out things that they do just like the Yamada's. This isn't a show to watch just for the sake of watching. After watching it twice its clear that this show has the potential of bringing families together with all the conversation and interaction that can be happening while viewing this movie.

I hate the visual style but if you're a fan of greeting card illustrations, maybe you'll dig it. There's some traditional family value messages in there but not to the point where it's a big problem. Just a little boring and cheesy.

I think this movie is for the more family-oriented crowd; those of you who like curling up with a big mug of tea and vibing with the very grounded but nostalgia-drenched fuzzy love memories of your own family.

It's got a gentle sort of charm but, like, it's not overly charming. Not a bad film, but, in the end, just kind of... whatever.

Biggest Disappointment from the Studio Ghibli.....I just watched this movie and I'm so frustated and disappointed that I can't keep the feeling limited to me. I just have to express my feelings about this movie in this review. I never expected this from Studio Ghibli.

This movie is so pathetic that I have rated it as 4/10. This is the lowest I have ever rated to an anime or movie. Even the OVAs float around 5/10 or 6/10 which are largely junk.

The only thing worth appreciating is the different art style. Though this art style doesn't inspire one to watch the movie/anime but still ... feels refreshing. I am a bit open about the art style and don't complaint much about it.

Apart from that everything feels way below the standards of Ghibli. There is no proper story at all just bunch of random events happening in the life of the Yamadas. The sound effect is quite bad in comparison to Studio Ghibli masterpieces released before and after this movie.

The characters could be said to be somewhat believable but not much. This is another area where I don't complaint about the choice of the storywriter and the production team. But this time around, I am not at all pleased with the characters either.

Well direction doesn't felt to be good either. I know I have no understanding of how direction works and all but what I know is that it is equally important as story. This movie failed in this also. The movie was so relaxing to watch that I was nearly asleep till the mid of story. I felt other tasks like filling up bottles for cold water more interesting than this movie. While watching the movie, I did several such tasks and just was waiting for the movie to end.

One may ask if I was so bored then why continue with this movie. Well its simple, it was the last Studio Ghibli movie that I haven't watched yet. Also, I once stalled the movie for later after watching for first 10 minutes.