Cossette no Shouzou

There are a lot of ways to frighten people and make them feel vulnerable in a primal way, and therefore there are a lot of ways to execute horror—outright screaming and slashing, psychological mind games, the appearance of the supernatural. And somewhere, buried under all of those, is a subset of horror which I internally refer to as “weird and atmospheric.” Not very professional, I know, but it's the sort of bin into which I throw things like Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, a three episode OVA that is just plain strange more so than anything else. Of course, you could also call it a ... romance, or a drama, or a mystery; Cossette is a very creative and ambitious work that plays leapfrog across genre boundaries, but unfortunately, so do its numerous flaws.

Cossette's story is relatively simple, but for whatever reason, its creators seem eager to make it as difficult to follow as possible. There are frequent changes in setting between the real world and a surrealistic hallucinatory world that the protagonist visits. These transitions take place with little tact, and they give the series a very warped sense of chronology which is only added to by the use of repetitive flashbacks to events that happened only minutes ago. There is little to no explanation offered as to what this surreal world actually represents, and the OVA seems to take it for granted that the audience will be able to interpret the significance (if there is any) of the events that transpire there without much help, a proposition that's dubious at best and downright foolish at worst. What's happening in the real world isn't very interesting, either; the protagonist's group of age-appropriate female friends are noticing that he's having a bit of a mental breakdown, they're all concerned with his well-being, and they take various actions to try to ensure his safety. This story thread ultimately serves very little purpose, and is more or less just a distraction from the central plot. To even understand that plot requires using tremendous amounts of speculation and assumption to fill in the gaping holes left by the writers. I'm confident that I'm a reasonably attentive viewer, and I don't feel at all embarrassed to say that on the first watch of Cossette, I could only guess at what was happening for at least forty percent of the OVA's running length. There's a fine line between minimalistic storytelling and poor storytelling. It gets crossed here, in spades.

I wish I could say that the characters swooped in and redeemed everything, but it wasn't to be. Our male lead, Eiri, an amateur artist who owns an antique shop, is a neat concept, but he has all the personality of a dishrag, and is little more than a tool used to push an overly obvious thematic agenda on the audience. The same can be said of Cossette, the doomed young daughter of foreign nobility whose soul is trapped in a decorative glass; what a great idea, and what a shockingly lackluster execution. Her lack of character might be explained away by the idea that she is supposed to represent an object of obsession rather than a person, but the fact that she responds in kind to Eiri's love sort of voids that entire train of thought. There's an attempt at romance, but I've said it before and I'll probably say it again—romance holds no meaning when neither character is even identifiable as an individual. Supporting roles, you ask? Welcome to the cast of cliches: A close female friend who is in love with Eiri but has difficulty showing it, two local psychics who give Eiri vague spiritual advice (such gems as “there's a soul in everything”), a hard-nosed doctor who notices Eiri's failing mental and physical state, a girl smitten with Eiri who works at a local restaurant. They're introduced haphazardly and, again, we're often left to make assumptions about who they even are and what their relationship is to Eiri. Most of them are cardboard cutouts graced with the privilege of about two or three lines of dialogue, and their role in the story as a whole is rather unnecessary. There's some kind of halfhearted harem drama between the overly zealous friend who is in love with Eiri and the rest of the cast. This element isn't very well thought out, nor does it have any place in the OVA, and it falls more or less flat.

Artistically, Cossette has a lot of merit. The production values are reasonably high. The character designs are inoffensive. The backgrounds are lovely, ranging from verdant forests to foggy city streets, and the atmosphere created in the bowels of Eiri's dusty antique store is suitably eerie. Somewhere along the line, though, Cossette trades all of that for a ridiculous amount of CGI, editing, and visual trickery that's really quite annoying. It turns into a regular slideshow of artistic tricks-of-the-trade. Name a strange camera angle, lighting or filtering choice, or visual distortion, and the odds are pretty good that it's here. Cossette just can't resist: A shot through stained glass here, a weird point-of-view through a digital camera there, an overlay of flickering static, an endless pan over a computer-generated landscape. Words cannot even describe the number of techniques in play here, most of which serve no purpose other than as a sort of directorial “hey, look what I can do!” In terms of the technical implementation, they might very well be flawless, but I'll be damned if I can see a reason for their awkward inclusion. The OVA is actually at its best when none of these are employed. The halls and darkened storage rooms of Eiri's store, with antiques stacked around him like tombstones, are a lot more unsettling than the tactless barrage of seizure-inducing effects.

If you're the type to look at the staff listing, you might be able to guess that there's one aspect of Cossette that is tough to complain about, and that's the music. Yuki Kajiura does what she does best: Sweeping modern orchestral compositions backed by chanted vocals, intricate piano melodies, soft and haunting atmospheric noise. The soundtrack sounds great both in the context of the OVA and on its own. It doesn't sound as clear or as polished as her later work, but it's arguably as good as any other musical score she's been involved with, and that should say just about everything; it's grade-A, plain and simple. It's not terribly difficult to label the soundtrack as Cossette's strongest element. Imagine judging a dog show where the only contestants are a beautiful golden retriever and a dead possum. That's the choice I had to make.

Harsh words all around, and yet, that number does say five, which is far from the worst available score. Cossette might have inexcusably poor writing, but it does have some technical merits to fall back on, and I'll begrudgingly admit that it's a captivating watch even though the visuals are obnoxious. It's also a very creative idea, and while that idea ultimately isn't capitalized on, I can tell that it is trying to make an ambitious statement about art and the nature of human interaction with art. This thematic material isn't handled well at all, but the fact that there's even any thematic material worth mentioning in the first place is something. In a word, Cossette is a mess, and I really can't give it the most enthusiastic praise, but creativity and ambition are present, and if nothing else, it's certainly a unique piece of work.

The art in this anime is outstanding! But that's about all it has going for it. It's an anime that you just have to hate it or like it. The story line is confusing but as it goes on its a little bit more understandable. I definetly wouldn't recommend watching the dubbed version. I also dont get the fact that a French woman understands and speaks Japanese. Some of the characters are nerve racking and also not needed in the story line. Overall this isnt a terrible anime but no where near the best.

While working for his uncle at an antique shop. An art student named Eiri comes across a beautiful small goblet. He begins to see an image of a young girl in the reflection of the glass. Eiri soon learns that the girl inside of the glass named Cossette was brutally murdered 250 years ago. After Eiri makes a blood pact with Cossette. The spirits whom witnessed her murder seek vengeance on the murderer's soul, and their intentions are to use Eiri as their instrument. Eiri soon vows to help Cossette even though it may end his life.-

At first glance, when coming into this short OVA ... the viewer will find themselves in awe with the production values. Le Portrait de Petit Cossette aka Petite Cossette is a beautiful assault on all of the senses. The moving soundtrack was done by Noir composer Yuki Kajiura, so one whom is familiar with her work already knows to expect a quality soundtrack. The BGM compliments the dark and Gothic setting, with classical pieces consisting of eerie piano keys and chords. Visually, the series is a work of art and it's leaps beyond the usual short episode OVA format. The artwork is gorgeous with Cossette's character design being influenced by the Victorian Era of 1830's Europe.

The animation is a sight to see with fluid character movements, and the cinematography is also well used when displaying images, as well as character reflections through and off glass with amazing camera angles. This is also in combination with a vibrant color palette. The style of the series reminds me of both Soul Taker and Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. If I was the type of viewer whom prefered visuals over a story, then this would be among my favorites.

Now getting to the story, which is the soul of any form of visual entertainment in my view. The style of storytelling present in this short OVA may turn away plenty of viewers. Although the story itself is rather simple, in which it's a tale of blind love, utilizing the dark themes of obsession and revenge with a supernatural backdrop. The route taken seems almost as if the writers wanted to confuse the viewer. The story is delivered in flashbacks, visions, illusions, and dialogue, which makes it difficult to tell exactly what is going on. This really isn't a bad approach, however in the case of the less patient or action oriented. It will leave them with very little reason to care what's going on. Personally, I have nothing against this style of non linear storytelling, because it's actually a refreshing change once in awhile. I commend the screenwriter Mayori Sekijima and director Akiyuki Shimbo for taking a simple premise and turning it into a half way or so brain twister; but I've seen this done far better.

I liked the themes that the series works on, because it pretty much shows it can lead to a destructive path. However, the writing tip toes very close to the realm of horror. These darker themes are exploited through torture sequences and even murder; butI feel that these scenes along with the blood and gore are greatly exaggerated. It's nowhere near disturbing or brutal as others describe it from where I see it. To me, it kind of loses its effectiveness due to constant overuse.

I don't believe the characters were properly used. As it should be, the main characters Cossette and Eiri, are the only ones whom are focused on and actually developed; but in the case of Eiri, it's very hard to buy into him because I can't see someone falling in love with a girl he doesn't know, and is willing to give his life for her as well. There simply wasn't enough work put into this story element, and I feel it wasn't properly fleshed out. I think the character development was sloppy, and the disposable secondary cast could have used less screen time, because they were poorly developed and most served no purpose at all.

Even though personally I'm not bothered by it too much; others may be very disturbed by the Lolita thing going on between Eiri and Cossette. Eiri is obviously an adult over 18, while Cossette appears to be around 12 years old. I understand this is accepted in some parts but I'm not sure if I'll ever be completely use to that.

Petite Cossette is a series that had potential and could have been a lot better, but I don't praise things due to what it could have been. I will give credit in areas and that's about it. So the series isn't a failure from where I see it, but it's far from great. I do not for any reason recommend this to the action oriented. This is not an action themed series on any level, it's a drama using horror-ish elements. I think this will mainly appeal to those with patience, and die hard otakus who must see everything anime.

Highs: Outstanding visuals and soundtrack, cinematography

Lows: Undeveloped secondary characters, style will not appeal to many

This is the. Most. Disturbing. Anime. I. Have. Ever. Seen. I saw the first of this three-episode miniseries, and I'm NOT planning to watch the rest.

A young man falls in love...with a glass goblet? He can't explain just why. He carries it with him everywhere; looks at it, fondles it. But soon this goblet starts affecting him, giving him dreams. Is there a young girl's spirit trapped inside? What does she want from him? What plans remain unfulfilled from her life?

It seemed interesting at first, with the mystery surrounding the goblet. And the animation style was very ... artsy and interesting. (It was attractive enough that I raised my rating from, say, a 3 to a 5) But as the episode progressed, it became very disturbing. It entered surrealist scapes, littered with discolored human bones and body parts. Blood gushes, bodies mutate, imagery of death and fear seep and sop. The "weird" twists normalcy. By the end, I wanted to vomit.

So I'd only recommend this if you can stomach super-horror. The style was attractive at first. And the story could end up being interesting. But I'm not going to spend my time on it. I'd rather keep my cookies where they belong.

Story:
It's utterly and completely a satire. It's making fun of people who look at pretentious pieces of work by creating a character, Eire, who is absolutely infatuated with Cossette who has no depth, value, or substance. The only thing she has to offer is death, and for some ungodly reason, he still pursues her.

For instance, those who look at this work and see it as a work of art beyond itself are merely playing into the folly of its beauty. This statement is incredibly ironic due to the fact that Cossette no Shouzou in itself is filled with depth and meaning but not in the ... sense that most people may pick up on right away.

This is exactly what we do as an audience when we fall in love with something that is not worthy of its praise. We kill it, replace it with our own image, and then from then on out it's forever this new thing that isn't anything close to the original. It's something we do with all forms of media we love, but worst of all we do it with people.

The ending helps solidify this notion by mentioning the fact that people cannot unite. This further iterates the notion mentioned above that we kill the things we love based solely on their outward expression and not on what they actually are. We've separated our ability to truly unite with that individual because we've already killed who they are from our perspective.

I could get into detail further about how this story repeats these themes, but I'll stop myself here. Now that you're aware of them, the excitement is looking around for these themes throughout the work.


Art:
Overcrowded yet sufficient. Since the art is trying to convey the above message by showing how our infatuation with visuals is far beyond what a work actually offers, it makes a lot of sense for it to be overly abundant. However, this is ironic due to the nature that it itself has grabbed hold of so many people due to visuals alone. I find this unfortunate, but also to be expected. There's a point in which I must wonder whether the work is self-aware of this or not. There are many points where I can say yes, but there are a few in which I can also say it is not.

There is an offensively high amount of repeated animations. This is ridiculous. With a work that puts so much effort into essentially bastardizing overly constructed visuals, I wonder why it couldn't create, you know, another overly abundant visual in place of these repeat animations. Perhaps there's something to be said about this in relation to the theme, but I'm coming up short on this end.

Some proportions are way off. Characters look pretty bad in a few scenes. It's laughable.

Sound:
The levels on this are atrocious. Sounds are sometimes WAY to loud and others WAY to quiet. I am 100% it is not due to something on my end, so whoever was in control of the Sound Production totally screwed up on this part.

Yuki Kajiura has no ability to write unique music. All of her soundtracks sound unbelievably similar. I could take this OST and place it in any of her other works (that have the same tone) and it wouldn't sound out of place at all. This is incredibly unfortunate. She has an ability to create pretty intricate orchestrations, but her music shouldn't sound similar to the point of identical in each work. I'm not buying Yuki Kajiura albums. If this were a Yuki Kajiura album, then yes I'd want relatively similar songs. I am watching an anime, however, and a visual art needs to have unique themes and melodies that cannot be swapped out with another productions music. I almost want to avoid any films or anime she's written music for.


Character:
Considering Eire is just a placeholder to represent the audience, I can't really say much of him. I can, however, explain a very early reason for why he is the audience. Within the first half of the first episode, you seldom see him when he talks. The characters around him are the main focus while his voice is off camera. The way the angle is set up is almost as if you are him. There's this sense that you are supposed to be him. I feel this is the first of many signs that imply what this entire project is about.

Cossette's character is a bitch. I don't understand why Eire loved her. There was no chemistry. I know I said this is a commentary and they are all placeholders but the truth still stands that characters need to be believable to create a solid story, and there are definitely ways these characters could have been believable.

There's a host of side characters that get very little screen time. I'm sure they each represent something but I felt they were nothing more than plot devices. A character should not feel like a plot device to the degree that I recognize it instantly.


Enjoyment:
Honestly, hated watching it. I found every character to be unlikeable and there was no urgency to save Cossette from limbo considering the only reason was Eire loved her. And that reason was unbelievable to me because I found his love to be superficial and ridiculous. This made it very difficult to watch and the only reason I continued is because I refuse to drop an anime. I will, at some point, watch all of the anime I have started.

However, as I wrote this review, I got to thinking about what I'd actually watched, the possible message that was told, and the themes mentioned over and over and I came to realize that the story is quite brilliant. I feel as though the execution is filled with flaws that could have easily been fixed, but all in all, I am not disappointed that I watched this anime. Despite the low score I gave it, I'm sure to suggest this to my friends.


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Worst love story with a lot of girls and no plot.
The characters have no depth or logic to them. They are all just like mmorpg classes and they all have random abilities for no particular reason. Characters pop in and out. The guy called Eiri in the anime is a pathetic loser like one of those guys who will do anything for a girl even though she wouldn’t even try to remember his name. The girl called Cossete sounds like a manipulative egocentric narcissist who believes the world turns around her or something.
The art is oke and it has some good music.

One little weird fact about me:

Most female characters that grab at my heart are either one of two things: They're either blonde, or haughty gothic Lolitas. So, I thought that just like Victorique from Gosick, Cossette would have a similar impact on me, especially if it's a complicated tragic love story, pretty much the only type of love story I can sit through. But... It's not that good. It really isn't.

Story - 7

It gets a 7 for a good premise.

But the story just doesn't go anywhere for the first two episodes, honestly. It could have been one episode. There was a MASSIVELY ... long introduction to the character of Cossette at first. Eiri just faffed around constantly, and it was annoying.

It has abysmal writing. The reasons for characters doing certain things don't make sense (like at the end of episode 2, both characters just mess around).

Art - 10

Pretty damn good. The animations, and the artistic quality was quite good. It used a bunch of visual effects and symbolism to SHOW instead of Tell, like most good Seinen do.

And it was just really pretty.

Sound - 6

Sound was fair. Fit with the atmosphere, but didn't do much to get me immersed or have me crumbling at sad moments.

Character - 2

I know, right? Shocking score. But it's just totally true.

The characters were abysmal. Absolutely shockingly bad. I couldn't stand any of them, and those that I could stand (like his three nobody friends) were pointless.

Honestly, Eiri is just a fool that has no reasoning for anything that he does. He falls in love, fine. Love is illogical, can't really control it, don't really know why I love Haughty Blonde Gothic Lolitas myself, so I could relate perfectly, actually.
But then he's just actively going out of his way to piss Cossette off throughout the second episode. And the first episode, he was just so passive. Nothing bothered him until Cossette starting moving around, then emotion would spread across his face.
And really, he's just the most one-dimensional fool ever. I couldn't bring myself to like him. A tuna fish flopping around on the ground would have more character than Eiri because at least IT can make up it's mind whether it's okay dying or not.

Cossette was alright, but the ending to Episode 2 just made no sense. Her change in character was out of nowhere. It really was.

And then there's his friend. Man, she annoyed the HELL out of me. First of all, she acts like Eiri is already her boyfriend. She flips out and screams at him whenever a mere NOTION of him having a girlfriend passes through her mind. Eiri, passive as always, doesn't even ask the obvious question. "Why the hell are you in my business like that anyway, hoe?"
She's also judgemental and really shallow. And just follows him around like a lost puppy when, really, it's clear he isn't interested in her ass. I just wanted go all Higurashi on this lady for popping up every five minutes to ask the same damn thing over and over again. I really did. "Has he got a girlfriend, has he got a girlfriend, has he got a girlfriend?"

In fact, she was the reason I wrote this review. I would've just deleted it from my computer and bounced on to the next anime, otherwise.

Enjoyment - 4

I enjoyed the symbolism, and when things really began to get heated, but what I mostly remember about this Anime was me sitting there wondering if anything was actually going to happen in the next five minutes.

Because really, I think this Anime was only slow paced because it had NOTHING to say. Like, get some character development in there, man. Do SOMETHING.

Overall - 5

I really wanted this to be good. A pure, tragic love story featuring a character that I was almost certain I'd be behind 110%, sitting on my couch like a 13 year old girl, ready to burst into tears.

But the whole thing was a mess, and that's sad.

AND THE AYES HAVE IT!!!!!
…....errrr rather I mean THE EYES HAVE IT. As in EYEBALLS. This anime is OBSESSED with closeup shots of eyeballs. You will see 100s by the end of the 3 films so get ready.
Think I'm exaggerating?

OVA 1 has (I counted for you) EIGHTY close up shots of eyeballs, eyesockets of skulls, eyeglasses reflecting another person talking, and random meaningless handrawn sketches of eyeballs, eyes with blood dripping out, egyptian OSIRIS style eyes, a cat with a letter A in the eyeball, and eyeball with a red heart for the pupil and a flythrough sequence of an human eye ... then a skull socket, then a screen of skulls, then another skull eyesockets to finally Cossette standing in the skull eyesockets.

Now that we've covered eyeballs and eyeball close-ups …
…..Howdy folks, Greetings from Bullibaby. This review is a more PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VIEWING what is kinda an anime confus-a-thon.

First things first….
I'm definitely 100% positively sort of entirely not completely sure you should watch this OVA 3 part series but I highly recommend you probably watch it if for nothing else...but to say you did and LIVED TO TELL.

And it's got some really cool graphics IF AND ONLY IF imho you do the following:
---->>slow the whole movie down to 0.8 or 80% speed. Hopefully your using an app that can do this without destroying the audio. The movie should slow down, while audio sounds normal (just FYI case ya didn't know that tech exists.)

Why slow it down??? because the movie is a sequence of 100’s and 100s of still shots of buildings, chairs, lamps, candles, antique lights, Paintings, Venetian goblets dangling chains and of course TONS of eyeballs with animation sequences mixed in. But even the animation chooses to cut scene changes and viewing perspectives way too often. It's not very fluid so SLOW IT DOWN or you will honestly get dizzy. Warning:. Daume studios was kind ENUF to include lots of REPEAT REUSE sequences as well mostly of eyeballs etc etc. (Lame)

2nd viewing instruction:. If you take my 100% positively ambiguous recommendation and watch the series...you should avoid at all cost the English dub UNLESS...
**you enjoy a romance horror where Cossette the most desirable woman on Earth recites her lines like reading a Denny's menu or phonebook and almost no feeling or mood, nearly monotone mostly.
**Eiri the boy madly in love with a painting that wants to kill him narrated with an overtone of complete disinterest like a complacent 8th grader talking about US history. Nevermind how MADLY in love he is, you wouldn't know it by his tone.

ANSWER:. Go Japanese with subs and the actual mood of the movie is conveyed EXCELLENTLY. The diff between Japanese and English is profound.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS. if you slow it down you'll have a chance to ACTUALLY SEE some very well done scenes and animation. It's really a paradox, there's beauty to be found in this OVA and there's plenty of issues.

I personally had a favorite scene where Eire is speaking to a co-worker and your vantage point is as if you put a stained glass window up to your eye and rotated it slowly observing the characters as they talked in a kaleidoscope of colors and textures. BEAUTIFUL. 1 of 100s of incredibly detailed complex animations definitely worth seeing for artistry sake.

So about the story. First ya gotta understand the eyeballs obsession. I believe the reason everything is EYES and EYEBALLS is 4-fold, maybe 5-fold depending.

1--The story is about marchello Orlando an artist/painter who is obsessed with the beauty in the EYE of the beholder (namely his eye) of Cossette his girlfriend. He so obsessed he wants to freeze her beauty in time by killing her. Hence the EVIL EYE of the beholder.

2--a SINGLE 3 SECOND frame shot of a psychic entering the antique store where Cossette painting is says one line “all these objects must have souls.” Per Wikipedia this is referring to Japanese culture that any antique abandoned and forgotten for a 100 years or more spawns it's own soul due to TRAGIC loneliness. An ANGRY LONELY antique per se with souls and the EYE is the window on the soul.

3--With the angry antique theory, it would seem that ALL the antiques, glassware, furniture etc present in the house where Cossette was murdered has now spawned angry souls who not only WITNESSES her murder but wish to avenge what they SAW WITH THEIR implied EYEBALLS. (If u follow).

4--Take this idea one step further you'll WILL (I promise) see scenes with 100s of eyeballs and big globular floating eyes thru out the movies. Where did all these eyeballs come from u may ask??? Well, if the eye is the window on the soul then the SOULS of all the ANTIQUES that witnessed her death are represented by the eyes in these scenes and they are all going to kill Eiri.

5--Finally, Marchello Orlando believed As KRUNCHYMAN so eloquently wrote in his review describing Cossette:

She is Essential. She is Beautiful. She is Perfection. She is a Muse.
Marchello only forgot SHE IS HUMAN in that list. So it's entirely possible the eyeballs are a reference to his objectifying of cossetes VISUAL BEAUTY and they will now have THEIR revenge on machellos soul reincarnated in Eiri.

Say what you will, as I said THE EYES HAVE IT.

Overall, the concept was strong, the implementation was VERY weak. I personally didnt FEEL the connection between Eire and cossette. Eire seemed just like a total moron whose too dumb to know a bad thing when he's got iT and I thot Cossette came across as a stone cold bitch hell bent on revenge. Imho there just wasn't ENUF character development for me to feel her loving side.

Soooooo, At some point in movie 2, the REAL COSSETTE who wants to punish marchellos soul and all the EYEBALLS want to punish him as well seem to mellow and RELENT in battle. They no longer wants to torture this innocent reincarnation, at which point, Eire appears to NOW have to wage battle with The ACTUAL MYRIAD OF PAINTINGS.

Now,

I'm not telling you this as a spoiler, but I had to rewind it three times to just understand why COSSETTE was NO LONGER Cossette, but an IMPOSTER which was the PAINTINGS THEMSELVES. you see the IMAGES of Cossette had now begun to FIGHT for their rightful place. You are NOT I repeat NOT told or even implied of this switch. But to relieve your mind, I'm telling you.

I guess, since Marchello had exchanged Cossettes life for the life of the portraits, they had become living souls and quite frankly weren't happy with Cossette and Eiri making peace for cossettes soul. This would have legitimized her as a human rather than a living IMAGE.

So the LIVING IMAGE of Cossette, which there are 100s of in marchellos studio, becomes personified and tries to deceive Eiri and trap him in some special CLOSED ZONE in the underworld that only they can occupy.

But Eire sees thru the plot by the paintings and rejects the LIVING IMAGE IMPOSTER and proceeds to paint with his own blood a final PENANCE for his crime. This final act of contrition sets Cossette soul free, ends the INVASION OF THE EYEBALLS, and sets all the LIVING IMAGE IMPOSTERS on fire.

HONORABLE MENTION:. Yuki Kajiura's soundtrack is amazing,

For a perfect description of the actual storyline the writer probably intended...read krunchymans review.

For a practical viewing guide I humbly submit mine.

Best of luck and btw ask yourself occasionallY JUST FOR FUN, where in the name of God does Eire store ALL THOSE GALLONS AND GALLONS OF BLOOD spraying everywhere. :-).

Let me start by saying it took me a week to finish this, or more like make myself finish it. There were some details and scenes I liked, but most of the time I simply wasn't invested enough in the story to actually care.

I don't claim it's bad, because it actually isn't.But it's not that good either. It's more of a 50/50 watch. You either like it, or you don't.

Compared to some anime titles I've wasted my time on and regret ever touching, this was actually a fair watch. The soundtrack is definitely something you wouldn't want to miss out on.

Another anime I rewatched after many years. Its one who's content I had forgotten about but it always remained in the back of my head. So I decided to rewatch it ..

This anime is a feast for the senses. The visuals are stunning, the accompanying music is magical and almost haunting. I could say with confidence that the opening is one of my fav in anime. The enigma of Cosette herself is captivating. It really felt like watching a painting come to life at times.

Now I would say that the anime isn't amazing, plus I think there were too many side characters that felt ... unnecessary for such a short anime. Like, the story could have been told with just the main 2 people plus maybe 1 other person to witness the downfall of the main character slowly deteriorating

Personally I wouldn't recommend this anime for the sole reason of not disappointing people who mag be looking for a more straightforward story. But I would mention it in passing conversation and let the person discover it themselves if they so feel.

It's a visual mess, shot much a indie film. A non linear timeline, a bit of a confusing story with non fleshed out characters. But in it's shortness, it does captivate the watcher, it's interesting to say the least. The aesthetic, the characters, the plot, the way its shot, it's an interesting piece. I ended up crying in the last 10 minutes, and for that, I think it deserves praise. However, would I recommend it? Not neccessarily. This a bit of a laborous watch due to it's non-linear storyline, but it really DRAWS out emotion ;)

I would only recommend this to those who enjoy art ... and analyzing it, which is quite fitting considering the plot.

Much love.

To the degree that you have a logical mind and like things that make sense and are explicable in some sort of way, Le Portrait de Petit Cossette will exhaust you.

It would not be in the realm of hyperbole to suggest that the entire story could have been told in 5 minutes. The basic premise is that a kid working in an antique store finds a Venetian glass among the shop’s newly delivered merchandise. Unbelievable as though it may sound, whenever he looks inside the glass, as if spying through a looking glass, he sees the daily life of a mysterious blonde girl living in ... a strange world. Though doubting his own sanity, as he is the only one who can see her, he finds himself unable to relinquish the glass and ends up falling in love with the maiden. Weird shit happens. If the first episode didn’t grab you, then please don’t think twice about skipping the rest. For what it’s worth, some vague light is shed on some issues in episode 2, but on the whole, the anime doesn’t really ever get less weird or pretentious.

Then again, much like porn, if you’re watching Le Portrait de Petit Cossette for the plot, you’re missing the point. It’s just not that kind of content. I’ll make this simple for you. The likelihood that you will leave frustrated is overwhelming. If you enjoy David Lynch’s works, then you’re probably gonna enjoy this. Otherwise, move on.

While the anime was produced by studio Daume, an irrelevant studio mostly known for cute girl moe shlock, it was directed by Akiyuki Shinbou. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, then think about anything from the Monogatari franchise, Fate/Extra: Last Encore, Nisekoi, or indeed, pretty much anything by studio Shaft and you’ll understand his style. That is to say that dramatic visual metaphors and unconventional video editing are very much his bread and butter, and when you think about Cossette from that angle, it suddenly doesn’t seem that weird at all. Au contraire, it all feels rather par for the course.

Remember how I said that if the show didn’t speak to you early on and/or if you have a particular kind of personality type, the show isn’t for you? On the off-chance that I haven’t been transparent enough thus far, I’m talking about myself. That’s me. I’m that guy. I am clearly not the target audience – not of Cossette in particular, but of Akiyuki Shinbou’s works in general. I have enjoyed many of his creations, but always in spite of the visual presentation, not because of it. I would be tempted to give him some credit for some of the entries in the Monogatari franchise, Koimonogatari in particular, but I would be forced to take that credit right back because Nisemonogatari was one of the most obnoxious viewing experiences of my life. It’s just not my thing.

The reason I gave Le Portrait de Petit Cossette a try is because of a recommendation made by DigiBro on a Halloween edition of the WeebCast podcast. Several anime YouTubers were giving their top pick recommendation for a spooky show that would fit the holiday’s theme. This was Conrad’s. The general consensus seems to be that Cossette is horror – among other things, to be sure. I have a fairly weak stomach when it comes to horror, so you would think this would have given me nightmares, wouldn’t you. Verdict? Yeah, I just don’t… get it, bro. Like I said, Shinbou-sensei’s visual presentation is just not my brand of whiskey. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t amused. I wasn’t entertained. I was just exhausted and confused. I’m not being funny when I say I (unironically) fell asleep some 20 minutes into the first episode (each episode is little over 30 minutes long).

I suppose I intuited much of this from the surface level information I’d already gained about the show, seeing as I put off seeing this 3-episode OVA for years. You may call it a self-fulfilling prophecy if you like and say that I ruined my own experience by making up my mind in beforehand. I just call it good sense and an educated guess.

For what it’s worth, Yuki Kajiura composed some really cool OSTs that I found deftly set the mood in a select few climactic moments, but I would hardly call that a good enough reason to spend an hour and a half on this. Truly, unless you generally have a taste for arthouse films, would-be horror anime, Akiyuki Shinbou’s personal directing style, or let’s be real, Cossette’s main selling point (and 99.99% of the reason DigiBro liked it), goth lolis, then there really isn’t anything for you here, traveler.