October 28th, 2021
My Thoughts on Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song
Anime Relations: Bakemonogatari, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Shingeki no Kyojin, Noragami, Haikyuu!!, Ballroom e Youkoso, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song
I was recommended Vivy by my wonderful MAL friend Blazingroze and definitely was intrigued at the small fanbase but the incredibly high ratings on MAL. Of course, anything that is themed music I am immediately intrigued by so I decided to give it a go.
And boy was I glad that I did.
Vivy...I don't even know how to describe it, it's just absolutely a mindfuck of an anime. At the end of each episode, I felt like my brain was completely shutting down because I couldn't process anything that was happening on screen because the plot was just so crazy. It is one of those anime that I probably need to rewatch a few times to fully appreciate in its full glory. I am currently incredibly busy since lockdown has been lifted in my city but I also wanted to say that part of me was putting off writing this blog because I just didn't even know where to begin. As a forward, I wanted to say that I will be drawing some major comparisons between Madoka☆Magica and 2006 Spanish dark fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth because I couldn't help but notice similar dark themes of destiny, identity and fate with Vivy. Any anime that I mention in this blogpost, THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS. These are my thoughts and this isn't a review for a reason because I tend to not hold back on my thoughts and just say whatever is on my mind.
PLOT AND CHARACTER
First of all, I just wanted to say, how the heck did they manage to fit so much in a 13ep series is beyond me. There are anime out there that literally go on for hundreds of episodes leading to nowhere with fillers and Vivy is the pure definition of EVERYTHING IS PACKED TO THE BRIM.
Again, Vivy is one of those anime that I think you kind of have to talk about plot and character together since Identity, destiny and fate are such core themes of the series.
Vivy our main MC, duality, core identity, redefined core
Vivy, at the heart of the series, I think is trying to say that what makes the AIs "human" is HOW they interpret their missions and HOW FAR they are willing to go to achieve their missions to the best of their abilities that is I guess, beyond their 'standard' job descriptions. There is a sense of innate goodness to all the AIs that are deemed human because of how selfless and kind they are towards humans, regardless of how humans treat them (which makes me actually really dislike humans in this show? Like of course, there are some good humans but overall, I'm like dayummm, we really be screwing the poor AIs over, they didn't ask for any of this!) So I guess what I am trying to say is that the characterisation of our main girl Vivy according to the DnD alignment system is that she is Lawful Good. Even though literally everything in the Singularity project actually favours her, favours the AIs, she wants a world where AIs and humans can coexist peacefully together and that's just so freaking pure man T_T
I find this sort of similar to Pan's Labyrinth because they both comment on the innate goodness of characters leading to somewhat of a happy fulfilling ending of those MCs. Vivy is sort of similar to Pan's Labyrinth where it also had the duality of identity of Princess Moanna being born as a mortal Ofelia and Ofelia having to prove herself in order to regain her status as the powerful all-encompassing Princess Moanna.
I find that in anime where there is fantastic character growth, they often adopt an initial CORE IDENTITY for our main MC that later on gets redefined (REDEFINED CORE). We see this especially in Welcome to the Ballroom as well as Haikyuu like with Kageyama for example is the "King of the Court" but that definition gets reinterpreted into something positive that benefits the entire volleyball team.
BUT WHAT I FIND TRULY FASCINATING IS THAT BOTH DUAL IDENTITIES Vivy and Diva actually undergo redefinitions and growth throughout the series. Vivy is a name bestowed to her by a human when she was still known as Diva. Diva and Vivy both undergo transformations and fuse into one because at their core, they have an innate goodness where they are WILLINGLY compassionate and caring towards others because it is what makes them truly happy (the "heart" part of them).
However, the slight downside of Vivy, at least to me, is that because the anime covers SUCH A WIDE timespan of 100 years and because we only really getting to interact with Vivy during singularity points where Matsumoto wakes up, we don't really get to savour in Vivy's gradual growth as a character. And I am a HUGE sucker for gradual character growth (this is however just personal taste). I know that we get heaps of growth in Episode 10-13 and I absolutely loved that, but I wish we saw more of that. Like there was that absolutely BRILLIANT ending of Episode 7, I think it was cool how Vivy went into completely shutdown and we got to see Diva again but 40 YEARS DOWN the line like WHATTTTT..... which I guess is kind of cool but MANNNN did I wish Ep 8 was a "short circuit" episode where Vivy experienced something similar to PTSD where she would still be Diva but be somewhat haunted by memories of Vivy or something like that, I would have found that to be a much more intriguing take.....Like I understand that Ep 8 was trying to illustrate that even with amnesia, Vivy is still by true nature, a Lawful Good character but I dunno, personally I feel like the execution could have been done a bit better so that the emotional proximity of the audience could be pulled a bit closer towards Vivy so we could REALLY feel her growth EVERY STEP of the WAY, not just in the last few episodes.
Nevertheless, she's incredibly endearing as a character, you can't help but root for her because she's just such a pure cinnamon roll which is also at the same time, so incredibly badass at fighting. She kind of also reminds me of Tanjiro from Demon Slayer, that same "fight them but with compassion and kindness behind your actions" kind of vibe which is so beautiful and heartbreaking to watch. The last episode was incredibly emotional when she's singing on the main stage while at the same time, she's fulfilling Diva's mission as well by making every happy with her singing by LITERALLY SAVING EVERYONE'S LIVES T_T. The ending is so much like the Pan's Labyrinth ending, the insecure emotional Vivy proved herself so that she can regain her REDEFINED CORE as DIVA where she can truly bring happiness to people where she can sing from the heart because she truly wants to, fulfilling her growth as a character. VERY WHOLESOME AND BEAUTIFUL.
Singularity Project and theme of inescapable Fate
The moment I realised that the war still broke out between humans and AI, it immediately made me think of Madoka☆Magica where no matter what Madoka wished, witches may be gone but were replaced by nightmares, that no matter what Madoka did, it seemed like there was this inescapable good/evil balance in the world that she couldn't shake. Here in Vivy, it was very similar where changes were made but Naming Law was replaced by a more favourable Law and while certain events were altered, the innate goodness of Vivy and her AI sisters unfortunately made AI seem even more favourable. It's this very contradiction that's quite fascinating about Vivy.
AND LMAO both shows pulled a full reverse uno card and gave the biggest plot twist of all time where in the second timeline, it was VIVY HERSELF and her growth that instigated AIs and Archive to find hope to rebel (honestly I wished they won, humans are terrible) and in Madoka☆Magica, the ultimate innate goodness of Madoka breaks Homura and Homura is basically driven to become evil. FASCINATING.
Interesting to mention that for Vivy, it takes 3 plays of history or 2 attempts for her to achieve her goal. I thought that was a nice touch because it gives a greater contrast and character growth when she finally is able to sing from her heart. So well done writers of the series! *applause*
Matsumoto
Omg, at first I gotta say, I really disliked Matsumoto as a character. Yes he is fun and quirky and the way he talks is really funny (a bit too fast for sub-readers) but I literally thought he was going to be another Kyubei from Madoka☆Magica (I hate Kyubei so much, I think Kyubei might be one of the most hated characters on Ani-List). Matsumoto started off being a regular AI so I guess I would categorise him as Lawful Neutral since he doesn't stray from his mission and sticks to the laws and morales programmed into him. It did make me so sad though that he stopped Vivy from saving Momoka. But I understand that if the timeline gets too unnecessarily altered, it could result in more tragic deaths. But man, that end of Ep 2 was devastating.....
But later on throughout the series, it he also undergoes character development as well which is so good to see, and he actually becomes the key support for Vivy and reminds her that she already has emotions in Ep 12 everytime she tried to rebel on her missions. So basically she had "heart" from the start! It's sort of interesting because Matsumoto is obviously engrained with the morales of human Matsumoto, so I guess in a sense, it could potentially be interpreted that Vivy had a memorialised version of human Matsumoto by her side all along the series to support her, even after the human Matsumoto dies (twice). It kind of brings up the interesting question, for me at least that maybe AIs are a good way of immortalising the human condition beyond the physical flesh AS A BIRTHING DEVICE and then once the AI gains some level of consciousness, they can REDEFINE their core like Vivy did! (I don't know if I'm making any sense at all at this stage...)
Toak
Toak I guess is our main "antagonist of the series". I liked that they made reappearances throughout the entire series and that Toak itself undergoes a transformation where it started off as an anti-AI terrorist group that then slowly aligned with Vivy's vision of the co-existance of mankind and AIs, that's really great to see. It was also good to get to know the bits of backstory of Yugo and why he hated AIs in the first place (the poor guy was just really hurt from his piano teacher dying T_T awwwww)
But, I did wish they went into a bit of a deeper dive into the other AI-hating humans' backgrounds. I felt like Vivy presented a morally grey issue where it is clear that AIs and humans clash, but.... to me.... that clash was never clearly defined. Also there was a bias of presentation of perspectives towards the innately good AIs > AI-hating humans....so now that I think about it...... no wonder we are going to root for the AIs OMG! There was an imbalanced presentation of perspectives IMO. Like yes the show did touch on how at least with the Sunrise event, AIs killed a bunch of people, but I wished that there was a more personal arc where potentially a "human"-ish AI did something really awful to a human, and that's why one of the Toak members really wanted AIs gone for good. It would have made for a more interesting and strengthened the morally grey aspect of the anime.
Side Characters and their effects on on Vivy
Incredibly endearing, I don't really have much to say but also at the same time I have too much to say...... I found the characters in each arc incredibly intriguing in their own way. My favourite side character is Grace, I felt SOOOO BADDDDD for her omg, her entire storyline is just so sad beyond words T_T
However, this is just a personal taste thing, I almost wished they cut out an arc so that they could include more emotional breathing space into the anime. What I mean by that is, sometimes I feel like so much is happening where I am gobsmacked with plotwists after plotwists, I haven't had the capacity to emotionally savour the deaths of characters or the fully emotional parts of the anime.
I'll draw an example about which anime does this really well, Attack on Titan. While there are literally plottwists left, right and centre and characters are basically forced to "suck it up" because they are now soldiers, you definitely feel this sense of LINGERING PAIN and DEEP OPEN WOUNDS on all the characters that have lost a loved one e.g. Eren and it takes him a long while to recover. This is why I say that Ep 8 is such a missed opportunity in Vivy. End of Ep 7, I was feeling SOOOO SAD for Vivy because she literally went into shutdown realising that her innate goodness actions only brought more blood on her hands but instead, in the next Ep8, we are plunged into confident Diva experiencing amnesia. I feel like rather than having Matsumoto reveal to Diva about Vivy, it would have been better if Diva was performing on stage and although she went through a "reboot", something "short circuits" and she goes through an AI version of PTSD on stage, that would have been absolutely incredibly heartbreaking but IMO interesting to see. And then we could go into the Ep 9 where the disappearance of Diva would have made a huge impact on Vivy because without Diva, Vivy could have been show to be completely helpless and in disarray. Which would have lead lead to the impact of the ending of Ep 10 a lot better I dunno...
Theme of Music
Music is quite interesting in this anime. It's a symbolism of both hope and true-self awareness because music is synonymous with emotions. Vivy is a composer and songwriter!! Yay she upgraded! That's really cool! Also really cool how it's human Matsumoto's baby that she held in her arms that gave her the final push to complete the song.
Sooooooo interesting that the anime used music in this way as a symbolism of hope for the AIs as well, music is often used as a form of patriotism and nationalism in the real world and literally composers get exiled for writing nationalistic music or trying to embed propaganda in their music! I thought that was a FANTASTIC plot device that they included in Vivy, very realistic aspect of the real world where music can literally give rise to a political movement. E.g. a good example is the song Jasmine or Muo Li Hua, that was originally a Chinese folk song but because of censorship and suppression under the Chinese government, in 2011 people started to circulate this song on the web in protest of censorship of information on the web (yeah youtube, facebook and a whole bunch of sites are blocked in China due to censorship, it's bad). So yeah, VERY INTERESTING that music was used in this manner, I haven't seen music used like that as a theme in a music anime before yet.
Theme of Family
What I also really enjoyed about the show was the strong sense of sisterhood or bond between the AIs. I LOVEDDDD the forehead to forehead transmission of information symbolism where in Ep 4, it's kind of funny but also very symbolic, Vivy headbutts Elizabeth to "knock some emotions into her" and you can see Elizabeth TOTALLY transformed after that singing with Estella till her dying breath.
Sound
MY GOD THE VIVY SOUNDTRACK is a freaking godsend. OP and ED are all bops, I am now absolutely obsessed with SING MY FUTURE, something about those opening verses and chords that just hits you in the feels.
I also really love all the osts and especially the one that goes _ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T that plays whenever anything becomes more intense, I love it so much.
At times, the music was a tiny tiny tiny bit emotionally prescriptive where I felt like a bit too much music was used but overall it was absolutely fantastic. So so so good.
Voice acting, I first thought that Matsumoto's voice was Yato's voice from Noragami because Yato also puts on this really annoying salesmen voice sometimes but of course it's koro-sensei's voice hahaha. It breathes a lot of life into the character, I find it so funny that Matsumoto is so different from the human Matsumoto hahah. Vivy's voice actor is just a freaking godsend, like to be able to portray vulnerability and confidence, sadness and happiness is just a skill that I cannot even begin to comprehend.
Animation
GOD-TIER. Like I don't even know how to process some of the animation in my brain sometimes because it's just so well done. I loved that we get close-ups of Vivy's eyes and we an see the beautiful rainbow that are her lens, SOOOO PRETTY!!!! I am also a huge sucker for Vivy with glasses in Ep 3, Vivy's different aesthetics throughout the different arcs literally gave me life <3 Vivy is adorable.
I sooooorttt of wished we saw Matsumoto return to the form of a teddy-bear because he's just so cute but a cute I guess is better for battle. There is just something so endearing about seeing an AI with a teddy-bear.
The interesting camera angles in the anime kind of remind me of Bakemonogatari where the audience is weirdly angled so that we can feel the emotional discomfort of a character without the character having to verbalise it, VERY CLEVER.
Another thing that I noticed was the clever use of different frame-rates of animation! In Ep 4 when Vivy and Elizabeth were fighting, I noticed that the background was moving at a higher framerate and the fight itself was moving at a lower framerate and allowing the residual greenlight to follow their movements so you can still feel the impact and flow of each punch and kick. I LOVED THAT, such a smart way of animating action that I don't think I've seen in many other anime before.
Overall, incredible! Really enjoyed it! Most definitely will rewatch it at some point and probably will make an updated thoughts about Vivy! That was such a great recommendation, loved it! Such a hidden jem!
And boy was I glad that I did.
Vivy...I don't even know how to describe it, it's just absolutely a mindfuck of an anime. At the end of each episode, I felt like my brain was completely shutting down because I couldn't process anything that was happening on screen because the plot was just so crazy. It is one of those anime that I probably need to rewatch a few times to fully appreciate in its full glory. I am currently incredibly busy since lockdown has been lifted in my city but I also wanted to say that part of me was putting off writing this blog because I just didn't even know where to begin. As a forward, I wanted to say that I will be drawing some major comparisons between Madoka☆Magica and 2006 Spanish dark fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth because I couldn't help but notice similar dark themes of destiny, identity and fate with Vivy. Any anime that I mention in this blogpost, THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS. These are my thoughts and this isn't a review for a reason because I tend to not hold back on my thoughts and just say whatever is on my mind.
PLOT AND CHARACTER
First of all, I just wanted to say, how the heck did they manage to fit so much in a 13ep series is beyond me. There are anime out there that literally go on for hundreds of episodes leading to nowhere with fillers and Vivy is the pure definition of EVERYTHING IS PACKED TO THE BRIM.
Again, Vivy is one of those anime that I think you kind of have to talk about plot and character together since Identity, destiny and fate are such core themes of the series.
Vivy our main MC, duality, core identity, redefined core
Vivy, at the heart of the series, I think is trying to say that what makes the AIs "human" is HOW they interpret their missions and HOW FAR they are willing to go to achieve their missions to the best of their abilities that is I guess, beyond their 'standard' job descriptions. There is a sense of innate goodness to all the AIs that are deemed human because of how selfless and kind they are towards humans, regardless of how humans treat them (which makes me actually really dislike humans in this show? Like of course, there are some good humans but overall, I'm like dayummm, we really be screwing the poor AIs over, they didn't ask for any of this!) So I guess what I am trying to say is that the characterisation of our main girl Vivy according to the DnD alignment system is that she is Lawful Good. Even though literally everything in the Singularity project actually favours her, favours the AIs, she wants a world where AIs and humans can coexist peacefully together and that's just so freaking pure man T_T
I find this sort of similar to Pan's Labyrinth because they both comment on the innate goodness of characters leading to somewhat of a happy fulfilling ending of those MCs. Vivy is sort of similar to Pan's Labyrinth where it also had the duality of identity of Princess Moanna being born as a mortal Ofelia and Ofelia having to prove herself in order to regain her status as the powerful all-encompassing Princess Moanna.
I find that in anime where there is fantastic character growth, they often adopt an initial CORE IDENTITY for our main MC that later on gets redefined (REDEFINED CORE). We see this especially in Welcome to the Ballroom as well as Haikyuu like with Kageyama for example is the "King of the Court" but that definition gets reinterpreted into something positive that benefits the entire volleyball team.
BUT WHAT I FIND TRULY FASCINATING IS THAT BOTH DUAL IDENTITIES Vivy and Diva actually undergo redefinitions and growth throughout the series. Vivy is a name bestowed to her by a human when she was still known as Diva. Diva and Vivy both undergo transformations and fuse into one because at their core, they have an innate goodness where they are WILLINGLY compassionate and caring towards others because it is what makes them truly happy (the "heart" part of them).
However, the slight downside of Vivy, at least to me, is that because the anime covers SUCH A WIDE timespan of 100 years and because we only really getting to interact with Vivy during singularity points where Matsumoto wakes up, we don't really get to savour in Vivy's gradual growth as a character. And I am a HUGE sucker for gradual character growth (this is however just personal taste). I know that we get heaps of growth in Episode 10-13 and I absolutely loved that, but I wish we saw more of that. Like there was that absolutely BRILLIANT ending of Episode 7, I think it was cool how Vivy went into completely shutdown and we got to see Diva again but 40 YEARS DOWN the line like WHATTTTT..... which I guess is kind of cool but MANNNN did I wish Ep 8 was a "short circuit" episode where Vivy experienced something similar to PTSD where she would still be Diva but be somewhat haunted by memories of Vivy or something like that, I would have found that to be a much more intriguing take.....Like I understand that Ep 8 was trying to illustrate that even with amnesia, Vivy is still by true nature, a Lawful Good character but I dunno, personally I feel like the execution could have been done a bit better so that the emotional proximity of the audience could be pulled a bit closer towards Vivy so we could REALLY feel her growth EVERY STEP of the WAY, not just in the last few episodes.
Nevertheless, she's incredibly endearing as a character, you can't help but root for her because she's just such a pure cinnamon roll which is also at the same time, so incredibly badass at fighting. She kind of also reminds me of Tanjiro from Demon Slayer, that same "fight them but with compassion and kindness behind your actions" kind of vibe which is so beautiful and heartbreaking to watch. The last episode was incredibly emotional when she's singing on the main stage while at the same time, she's fulfilling Diva's mission as well by making every happy with her singing by LITERALLY SAVING EVERYONE'S LIVES T_T. The ending is so much like the Pan's Labyrinth ending, the insecure emotional Vivy proved herself so that she can regain her REDEFINED CORE as DIVA where she can truly bring happiness to people where she can sing from the heart because she truly wants to, fulfilling her growth as a character. VERY WHOLESOME AND BEAUTIFUL.
Singularity Project and theme of inescapable Fate
The moment I realised that the war still broke out between humans and AI, it immediately made me think of Madoka☆Magica where no matter what Madoka wished, witches may be gone but were replaced by nightmares, that no matter what Madoka did, it seemed like there was this inescapable good/evil balance in the world that she couldn't shake. Here in Vivy, it was very similar where changes were made but Naming Law was replaced by a more favourable Law and while certain events were altered, the innate goodness of Vivy and her AI sisters unfortunately made AI seem even more favourable. It's this very contradiction that's quite fascinating about Vivy.
AND LMAO both shows pulled a full reverse uno card and gave the biggest plot twist of all time where in the second timeline, it was VIVY HERSELF and her growth that instigated AIs and Archive to find hope to rebel (honestly I wished they won, humans are terrible) and in Madoka☆Magica, the ultimate innate goodness of Madoka breaks Homura and Homura is basically driven to become evil. FASCINATING.
Interesting to mention that for Vivy, it takes 3 plays of history or 2 attempts for her to achieve her goal. I thought that was a nice touch because it gives a greater contrast and character growth when she finally is able to sing from her heart. So well done writers of the series! *applause*
Matsumoto
Omg, at first I gotta say, I really disliked Matsumoto as a character. Yes he is fun and quirky and the way he talks is really funny (a bit too fast for sub-readers) but I literally thought he was going to be another Kyubei from Madoka☆Magica (I hate Kyubei so much, I think Kyubei might be one of the most hated characters on Ani-List). Matsumoto started off being a regular AI so I guess I would categorise him as Lawful Neutral since he doesn't stray from his mission and sticks to the laws and morales programmed into him. It did make me so sad though that he stopped Vivy from saving Momoka. But I understand that if the timeline gets too unnecessarily altered, it could result in more tragic deaths. But man, that end of Ep 2 was devastating.....
But later on throughout the series, it he also undergoes character development as well which is so good to see, and he actually becomes the key support for Vivy and reminds her that she already has emotions in Ep 12 everytime she tried to rebel on her missions. So basically she had "heart" from the start! It's sort of interesting because Matsumoto is obviously engrained with the morales of human Matsumoto, so I guess in a sense, it could potentially be interpreted that Vivy had a memorialised version of human Matsumoto by her side all along the series to support her, even after the human Matsumoto dies (twice). It kind of brings up the interesting question, for me at least that maybe AIs are a good way of immortalising the human condition beyond the physical flesh AS A BIRTHING DEVICE and then once the AI gains some level of consciousness, they can REDEFINE their core like Vivy did! (I don't know if I'm making any sense at all at this stage...)
Toak
Toak I guess is our main "antagonist of the series". I liked that they made reappearances throughout the entire series and that Toak itself undergoes a transformation where it started off as an anti-AI terrorist group that then slowly aligned with Vivy's vision of the co-existance of mankind and AIs, that's really great to see. It was also good to get to know the bits of backstory of Yugo and why he hated AIs in the first place (the poor guy was just really hurt from his piano teacher dying T_T awwwww)
But, I did wish they went into a bit of a deeper dive into the other AI-hating humans' backgrounds. I felt like Vivy presented a morally grey issue where it is clear that AIs and humans clash, but.... to me.... that clash was never clearly defined. Also there was a bias of presentation of perspectives towards the innately good AIs > AI-hating humans....so now that I think about it...... no wonder we are going to root for the AIs OMG! There was an imbalanced presentation of perspectives IMO. Like yes the show did touch on how at least with the Sunrise event, AIs killed a bunch of people, but I wished that there was a more personal arc where potentially a "human"-ish AI did something really awful to a human, and that's why one of the Toak members really wanted AIs gone for good. It would have made for a more interesting and strengthened the morally grey aspect of the anime.
Side Characters and their effects on on Vivy
Incredibly endearing, I don't really have much to say but also at the same time I have too much to say...... I found the characters in each arc incredibly intriguing in their own way. My favourite side character is Grace, I felt SOOOO BADDDDD for her omg, her entire storyline is just so sad beyond words T_T
However, this is just a personal taste thing, I almost wished they cut out an arc so that they could include more emotional breathing space into the anime. What I mean by that is, sometimes I feel like so much is happening where I am gobsmacked with plotwists after plotwists, I haven't had the capacity to emotionally savour the deaths of characters or the fully emotional parts of the anime.
I'll draw an example about which anime does this really well, Attack on Titan. While there are literally plottwists left, right and centre and characters are basically forced to "suck it up" because they are now soldiers, you definitely feel this sense of LINGERING PAIN and DEEP OPEN WOUNDS on all the characters that have lost a loved one e.g. Eren and it takes him a long while to recover. This is why I say that Ep 8 is such a missed opportunity in Vivy. End of Ep 7, I was feeling SOOOO SAD for Vivy because she literally went into shutdown realising that her innate goodness actions only brought more blood on her hands but instead, in the next Ep8, we are plunged into confident Diva experiencing amnesia. I feel like rather than having Matsumoto reveal to Diva about Vivy, it would have been better if Diva was performing on stage and although she went through a "reboot", something "short circuits" and she goes through an AI version of PTSD on stage, that would have been absolutely incredibly heartbreaking but IMO interesting to see. And then we could go into the Ep 9 where the disappearance of Diva would have made a huge impact on Vivy because without Diva, Vivy could have been show to be completely helpless and in disarray. Which would have lead lead to the impact of the ending of Ep 10 a lot better I dunno...
Theme of Music
Music is quite interesting in this anime. It's a symbolism of both hope and true-self awareness because music is synonymous with emotions. Vivy is a composer and songwriter!! Yay she upgraded! That's really cool! Also really cool how it's human Matsumoto's baby that she held in her arms that gave her the final push to complete the song.
Sooooooo interesting that the anime used music in this way as a symbolism of hope for the AIs as well, music is often used as a form of patriotism and nationalism in the real world and literally composers get exiled for writing nationalistic music or trying to embed propaganda in their music! I thought that was a FANTASTIC plot device that they included in Vivy, very realistic aspect of the real world where music can literally give rise to a political movement. E.g. a good example is the song Jasmine or Muo Li Hua, that was originally a Chinese folk song but because of censorship and suppression under the Chinese government, in 2011 people started to circulate this song on the web in protest of censorship of information on the web (yeah youtube, facebook and a whole bunch of sites are blocked in China due to censorship, it's bad). So yeah, VERY INTERESTING that music was used in this manner, I haven't seen music used like that as a theme in a music anime before yet.
Theme of Family
What I also really enjoyed about the show was the strong sense of sisterhood or bond between the AIs. I LOVEDDDD the forehead to forehead transmission of information symbolism where in Ep 4, it's kind of funny but also very symbolic, Vivy headbutts Elizabeth to "knock some emotions into her" and you can see Elizabeth TOTALLY transformed after that singing with Estella till her dying breath.
Sound
MY GOD THE VIVY SOUNDTRACK is a freaking godsend. OP and ED are all bops, I am now absolutely obsessed with SING MY FUTURE, something about those opening verses and chords that just hits you in the feels.
I also really love all the osts and especially the one that goes _ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T_ - ^ T that plays whenever anything becomes more intense, I love it so much.
At times, the music was a tiny tiny tiny bit emotionally prescriptive where I felt like a bit too much music was used but overall it was absolutely fantastic. So so so good.
Voice acting, I first thought that Matsumoto's voice was Yato's voice from Noragami because Yato also puts on this really annoying salesmen voice sometimes but of course it's koro-sensei's voice hahaha. It breathes a lot of life into the character, I find it so funny that Matsumoto is so different from the human Matsumoto hahah. Vivy's voice actor is just a freaking godsend, like to be able to portray vulnerability and confidence, sadness and happiness is just a skill that I cannot even begin to comprehend.
Animation
GOD-TIER. Like I don't even know how to process some of the animation in my brain sometimes because it's just so well done. I loved that we get close-ups of Vivy's eyes and we an see the beautiful rainbow that are her lens, SOOOO PRETTY!!!! I am also a huge sucker for Vivy with glasses in Ep 3, Vivy's different aesthetics throughout the different arcs literally gave me life <3 Vivy is adorable.
I sooooorttt of wished we saw Matsumoto return to the form of a teddy-bear because he's just so cute but a cute I guess is better for battle. There is just something so endearing about seeing an AI with a teddy-bear.
The interesting camera angles in the anime kind of remind me of Bakemonogatari where the audience is weirdly angled so that we can feel the emotional discomfort of a character without the character having to verbalise it, VERY CLEVER.
Another thing that I noticed was the clever use of different frame-rates of animation! In Ep 4 when Vivy and Elizabeth were fighting, I noticed that the background was moving at a higher framerate and the fight itself was moving at a lower framerate and allowing the residual greenlight to follow their movements so you can still feel the impact and flow of each punch and kick. I LOVED THAT, such a smart way of animating action that I don't think I've seen in many other anime before.
Overall, incredible! Really enjoyed it! Most definitely will rewatch it at some point and probably will make an updated thoughts about Vivy! That was such a great recommendation, loved it! Such a hidden jem!
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Oct 28, 2021 5:51 AM | 1 comments
October 25th, 2021
My Thoughts on Shiguang Dailiren (Link Click)
Anime Relations: Monster, Shingeki no Kyojin, Given, Umibe no Étranger, Shiguang Dailiren, Shiguang Dailiren Fanwai Pian: Biwu Zhaoqin
I came across this series really randomly on MAL and couldn't believe how small the fanbase was but how high the ratings and the reviews were for this ONA. I didn't really have any particular expectations going into it other than knowing that it's not a Japanese anime, it's a Chinese Donghua and that it's not based on any manga or written work. I don't know why I thought it was going to be about two dudes trying to become the best paparazzi and I was like "oh yeah like a fun heist-like sort of anime might be kind of cool to watch!"
Me and two other friends have a fortnightly anime night on Saturdays so one weekend, after watching the disappointing film that was Umibe no Etranger (god it was so uncomfortable, I heard that the manga is better tho), I suggested to them why not give one episode of Link Click a go?
By the end of Episode 1, magicpotato98.exe stopped working. Over the course of a month (two Saturday anime sessions), we binged Link Click. (This is also the anime that I told my mum about that got her into anime HAHAHAH.)
MY FRIENDS AND I ALL AGREE THAT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MINDBLOWINGLY THE MOST AMAZING ONA WE'VE EVER SEEN.
CHARACTER AND PLOT
The reason why it is so good is because it did what I THOUGHT was IMPOSSIBLE. It had the craziest, complex plot. But the plot didn't manage to compromise the emotional proximity that the audience feels towards the characters. I thought for anime such as Monster and even Attack on Titan, it was necessary to give the audience a psychological bird's eye view of the characters, as if you're seeing the characters on a chess board when you're dealing with a really complicated plot. I thought you had to, otherwise it's too hard to keep track of everyone and everything.
But Link Click proved me wrong. It had the most PERFECT balance of complex plot and character development that I've EVER seen. The plot has literally no plot-holes yet I feel SO INCREDIBLY deeply for our two main MCs, Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang AS WELL AS all the side characters!
This is because at its core, Link Click tells a simple story, a human story. Link Click is SO WONDERFULLY CONSTRUCTED because at the core of each arc, it presents SIMPLE HUMAN EMOTIONS that are incredibly relatable to basically anyone and everyone. It just highlights the simplicity of love and happiness that we often forget when we grow up into adults. These emotions are so relatable that you could possibly even explain this to a kid and they will relate.
Let me explain:
Ep 1 (break) Ep 9 10 11 EMMA's STORY - leaving home to go to a big city and chasing a dream only then to realise that home is where your loved ones are and happiness is to live with your loved ones. We don't need to chase anything.
Ep 2 noodle shop When adulthood and money stresses you out and you forget why your started your passion business with your best friend, FRIENDSHIP
Ep 3-5 Xi Chuan earthquake - True feelings need to be said in the moment is the best.
Ep 6-7 Child kidnapped - As long as we hold on to hope and never give up, we will find what we seek. For Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling, Don't feel guilty about mistakes you made in the past.
Ep 8 - 11 their friend and her uni crush - no matter what at the end of the day, true feelings need to be said to live a life of happiness and to live authentically.
AND THE CORE CORE CORE MESSAGE of the show is that although the past cannot be changed but because we live in the present, EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE IN THE FUTURE. By going into the past, what Cheng XiaoShi and Lu Guang essentially do is to provide a sense of peace for those living in the present, and they can then move on and live better lives in the FUTURE.
JUST HOW FUCKING TOUCHING IS THAT?
What Link Click does is that it tells us a very simple human moral that we may have forgotten, the moral is then presented and framed with a complex social issue:
Ep 1 (break) Ep 9 10 11 EMMA's STORY -
- Intra-cultural racism is a HUGE issue in China, where if you're from a small town, it's sooooo much more likely that you'll be discriminated against whether it is through work or socialising with others in the city.
- workplace harassment, especially something that so many women experience on a daily basis. YESSSS thank you a series male MCs but still addresses the issues that women face.
- the pressures of working in a black company where you know shifty things are going on but you don't know what to do.
Ep 2 noodle shop When adulthood and money stresses you out and you forget why your started your passion business with your best friend, FRIENDSHIP
- SOOOO many people are a bit too caught up in money and forget why they started a passion in the first place.
Ep 3-5 Xi Chuan earthquake
(THIS ARC I literally cried throughout 4-5 straight to the point where I was hyperventilating)
- Small town older generations often feel a sense of abandonment when youths want to go into the city and there is quite of a lot of small-town families that experience this sort of friction. Parents work really hard to establish a home in the small town only for the internet and their children to want to live in the big city.
- the Xi Chuan earthquake in 2008 is a real event and affected so many people and their livelihood. These stories in this arc were definitely inspired by real stories.
(that whole lullaby scene of the dying mum singing to the boy and then the grown up boy singing the lullaby to his son made me die inside OMG I was crying so so so much).
Ep 6-7 Child kidnapped
- overworked parents and abandoned child family structures
- that kid was LUCKY. Child trafficking and kidnapping of lower-middle class children is a HUGE BLACK market industry in China that the government refuses to address. Child traffickers kidnap these kids and then break their limbs so that passer-bys are more likely to feel sympathetic towards them and give them more money in which then the child traffickers take for themselves. IT'S A WHOLE THING and it's INCREDIBLY SAD and NO ONE TALKS about it due to Chinese censorship.
Ep 8 - 11 their friend and her uni crush
- torn between small town and big city, something that so many people experience
- the fast transmission of information and the overwhelming depression and hatred that comes from an individual that's being cyberbullied.
SIMPLE EMOTIONS/MORALS dressed in COMPLEX CULTURAL SOCIAL ISSUES (that the Chinese government refuses to address) and BRILLIANT BRILLIANT SUPERNATURAL PLOT DEVICES that stuck to the rules of those plot devices. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.
My friends and I were also saying how we can't really classify Link Click as any particular genre because each arc is a different genre, you have friendship, romance, catastrophe, thriller, crime, murder, slice of lifeetc. I'm not going to be able to talk about how brilliant I found everything about the plot because I simply cannot cover everything but I will inevitably rewatch the show and do an ep by ep review because it really is just that packed with brilliance.
MCs
Just a fun fact, Lu Guang is the name of a real life photographer that captured horrific images of Chinese homelessness, LGBTQIA+ violence and other harsh realities that the government refused to address.
Also, Xiaoshi means "hour". "Guang" means light.
I am such a sucker for these two main MCs. They have such amazing chemistry and their bromance feels incredibly genuine. I don't know if it's because of Given but I am currently just shipping any and every male lead together LOLLLLL. Nevertheless, you can really tell they care about each other.
Character development is absolutely fantastic and gutwrenchingly beautiful for Cheng Xianshi (CXS) and it's likely that because there is a second season, we will see more of Lu Guang's past. Cheng Xiaoshi's character development went from someone who seemed easygoing and aloof to us later on discovering just how absolutely heartbreakingly difficult his job of being the link click participant is because everything is at stake and then to see him fail absolutely miserably in the last few episodes before pulling the most amazing scheme in Ep 11 only to be completely set-backed by the antagonist in the last 10 minutes of Ep 11. This show literally stopped my brain from working because of how brilliant it paced the growth of its main characters.
Another thing that I loved about the show is that I will literally be snot-and-tears one second and the next second I'll be snot-and-tears but laughing my arse off because it balances gutwrenching and comedic moments incredibly well. My absolute favourite sequence is that CXS was literally feeling his absolute worst after finding out that EMMA had died because of him and really needed a self-esteem boost. When he first had to basically verbally abuse himself because he was in the body of his friend but then because he was in the body of his friend, he got to hear just how positively Qiao Ling actually thinks of him and how everyone thinks of him. And that moment was so sweet, it was exactly what he needed.
Lu Guang we didn't see too much development but we slowly got revealed just how difficult his job as the observer and the mastermind is. He is the one that carries the moral of the whole show, that the past cannot be changed but everything can change in the future and his logicality and consideration towards CXS is absolutely so caring throughout the entire show and you really start to see that from ep 4 onwards. Also the whole flashback about how they became friends through playing basketball was just so sweet. The cliffhanger at the end of Season 1, omg, I am so worried and I can't believe Season 2 is coming in 2023, that's soooooo long away. But I can understand since for such a top quality work to be completed, the time and effort for it to manifest must be long.
Another favourite scene of mine was when CSX asked Lu Guang in Ep 6 if he'll be turned into a security camera since normally the power of the link click is that CSX will become the person that takes the photo and what they received for that arc was security footage HAHAHAHAH.
Side Characters
I loved that they delved into Qiao Ling and the friendship group's other character's personality a little bit as well. Basically they are this one big family and it's all so sweet.
And of course, even of it's just for one arc, because CXS is in their body, you are experiencing that person's life in first person, so your emotional proximity to even the one episode-story arc side characters is incredibly close. WHAT A CLEVER CLEVER STORYTELLING SET-UP! So it can be done after all! Complex Plots just need a plot device where the MCs can enter the bodies of side characters so everything can be told in first-person-ception. WOWOWOWOW.
I personally felt so so so bad for Emma. Out of everyone, she was the only one that was aware in her last few seconds of her life that she was going to die, and in that moment, she didn't want to die. That's so fucking sad.
The antagonist is interesting! So it seems like they have the same powers as CXS and Lu Guang and Liu Ming was suffering from a serious case of hatred and cyberbullying that led him to become the hateful man that he is but not the actual antagonist because so far all we know is that when he possesses bodies, whoever he possesses their eyes turn red. I assume it's the detective's assistant because he's always late and the detective's case files are always missing. Someone I saw online said that it might be CXS in an alternate timeline, one where he didn't get adopted and he was completely abandoned, and that version of CXS became the ultimate antagonist. OOOOOHHH I do like the sound of the latter one.
SOUND
I need to give a huge applause to the voice actors for the side characters of each arc. Not only do they have to do a good job but all of them have to match the emotional energy of CXS since he is in their character's bodies. That's really hard to do! CSX's voice actor as well, he has to act like someone pretending like they are having a hard time knowing how to pretend to be in someone else's body! Like that is sooooo difficult to do!
OP and ED are RIDICULOUSLY and I mean absolutely ridiculously catchy and unskippable. The ED rap is incredibly well written and poetic. the ED rap intro tho omg, is so traumatic, because every episode ends in a cliffhanger basically so whenever you hear the intro, you're automatically like "OH SHITTTT something really bad or plot-twist wise is about to happen!!!" So sad that neither the OP or ED is on Spotify.
The OST background music however, they are great tracks by themselves individually, I'll give them that. At a baseline, they do what they should do, which is to support the scene they are used for. HOWEVER, it sounds like the OST was not composed by a composer but licensed through a sound library? It lacks a certain cohesiveness and it's not like it would be distracting to the average audience, but for me personally, it was just a tiny bit less coherent. AND SO FAR FROM RESEARCH, I THINK I AM RIGHT. it is sourced from a sound library.
The other thing is that I think the music is a tiny bit prescriptive, like it was a bit too much use of music all the way throughout the anime where the emotional music was trying to prescribe the emotions in a scene rather than let the scene speak for itself. I know I keep saying that in a lot of my reviews but if you do that even for the lowkey aspects of the anime, it makes it feel a bit melodramatic, that's just how I feel anyway. But it's a common thing in Chinese media to be a bit emotionally prescriptive with their music so idk, it didn't bother me too much.
ANIMATION
OH MY GOODNESS, the animation is so good. I don't know what kind of budget they had but literally every frame of the background, even a gross alleyway or the doorway to a crappy house looks aesthetic AF. I love the one crayon outline of the backgrounds, it really then makes the character outlines stand out.
The animation is sooooo incredibly smooth and the character designs of Lu Guang and CXS, as pointed out by my friend, is Ying and Yang! OMG! Loved the animation of the OP and ED, my friend actually tried to learn the finger tutting on the OP and it's actually really hard. The studio apparently got a professional finger tutting artist to freestyle in which they animated over his video. So cool.
Ep 7 and Ep 11 had scenes that really scare me which was the boy waking up his kidnapper. That scene was so traumatising omg. Loved the use of strange angles to highlight a sense of unease in many scenes.
Also the fist fight scene, omg, so so so cool and the red glow of the infra-red room, brilliant.
Mannnnnn, I still have so much more to say but it's so overwhelming how good this ONA is that I feel like I must rewatch it again just to appreciate it in more detail and write an episodic thoughts post about everything. SO BRILLIANTLY well done, I didn't think it was possible, to have a perfect plot and a wide cast of characters that the audience can cry for, but here we are.
Me and two other friends have a fortnightly anime night on Saturdays so one weekend, after watching the disappointing film that was Umibe no Etranger (god it was so uncomfortable, I heard that the manga is better tho), I suggested to them why not give one episode of Link Click a go?
By the end of Episode 1, magicpotato98.exe stopped working. Over the course of a month (two Saturday anime sessions), we binged Link Click. (This is also the anime that I told my mum about that got her into anime HAHAHAH.)
MY FRIENDS AND I ALL AGREE THAT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MINDBLOWINGLY THE MOST AMAZING ONA WE'VE EVER SEEN.
CHARACTER AND PLOT
The reason why it is so good is because it did what I THOUGHT was IMPOSSIBLE. It had the craziest, complex plot. But the plot didn't manage to compromise the emotional proximity that the audience feels towards the characters. I thought for anime such as Monster and even Attack on Titan, it was necessary to give the audience a psychological bird's eye view of the characters, as if you're seeing the characters on a chess board when you're dealing with a really complicated plot. I thought you had to, otherwise it's too hard to keep track of everyone and everything.
But Link Click proved me wrong. It had the most PERFECT balance of complex plot and character development that I've EVER seen. The plot has literally no plot-holes yet I feel SO INCREDIBLY deeply for our two main MCs, Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang AS WELL AS all the side characters!
This is because at its core, Link Click tells a simple story, a human story. Link Click is SO WONDERFULLY CONSTRUCTED because at the core of each arc, it presents SIMPLE HUMAN EMOTIONS that are incredibly relatable to basically anyone and everyone. It just highlights the simplicity of love and happiness that we often forget when we grow up into adults. These emotions are so relatable that you could possibly even explain this to a kid and they will relate.
Let me explain:
Ep 1 (break) Ep 9 10 11 EMMA's STORY - leaving home to go to a big city and chasing a dream only then to realise that home is where your loved ones are and happiness is to live with your loved ones. We don't need to chase anything.
Ep 2 noodle shop When adulthood and money stresses you out and you forget why your started your passion business with your best friend, FRIENDSHIP
Ep 3-5 Xi Chuan earthquake - True feelings need to be said in the moment is the best.
Ep 6-7 Child kidnapped - As long as we hold on to hope and never give up, we will find what we seek. For Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling, Don't feel guilty about mistakes you made in the past.
Ep 8 - 11 their friend and her uni crush - no matter what at the end of the day, true feelings need to be said to live a life of happiness and to live authentically.
AND THE CORE CORE CORE MESSAGE of the show is that although the past cannot be changed but because we live in the present, EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE IN THE FUTURE. By going into the past, what Cheng XiaoShi and Lu Guang essentially do is to provide a sense of peace for those living in the present, and they can then move on and live better lives in the FUTURE.
JUST HOW FUCKING TOUCHING IS THAT?
What Link Click does is that it tells us a very simple human moral that we may have forgotten, the moral is then presented and framed with a complex social issue:
Ep 1 (break) Ep 9 10 11 EMMA's STORY -
- Intra-cultural racism is a HUGE issue in China, where if you're from a small town, it's sooooo much more likely that you'll be discriminated against whether it is through work or socialising with others in the city.
- workplace harassment, especially something that so many women experience on a daily basis. YESSSS thank you a series male MCs but still addresses the issues that women face.
- the pressures of working in a black company where you know shifty things are going on but you don't know what to do.
Ep 2 noodle shop When adulthood and money stresses you out and you forget why your started your passion business with your best friend, FRIENDSHIP
- SOOOO many people are a bit too caught up in money and forget why they started a passion in the first place.
Ep 3-5 Xi Chuan earthquake
(THIS ARC I literally cried throughout 4-5 straight to the point where I was hyperventilating)
- Small town older generations often feel a sense of abandonment when youths want to go into the city and there is quite of a lot of small-town families that experience this sort of friction. Parents work really hard to establish a home in the small town only for the internet and their children to want to live in the big city.
- the Xi Chuan earthquake in 2008 is a real event and affected so many people and their livelihood. These stories in this arc were definitely inspired by real stories.
(that whole lullaby scene of the dying mum singing to the boy and then the grown up boy singing the lullaby to his son made me die inside OMG I was crying so so so much).
Ep 6-7 Child kidnapped
- overworked parents and abandoned child family structures
- that kid was LUCKY. Child trafficking and kidnapping of lower-middle class children is a HUGE BLACK market industry in China that the government refuses to address. Child traffickers kidnap these kids and then break their limbs so that passer-bys are more likely to feel sympathetic towards them and give them more money in which then the child traffickers take for themselves. IT'S A WHOLE THING and it's INCREDIBLY SAD and NO ONE TALKS about it due to Chinese censorship.
Ep 8 - 11 their friend and her uni crush
- torn between small town and big city, something that so many people experience
- the fast transmission of information and the overwhelming depression and hatred that comes from an individual that's being cyberbullied.
SIMPLE EMOTIONS/MORALS dressed in COMPLEX CULTURAL SOCIAL ISSUES (that the Chinese government refuses to address) and BRILLIANT BRILLIANT SUPERNATURAL PLOT DEVICES that stuck to the rules of those plot devices. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.
My friends and I were also saying how we can't really classify Link Click as any particular genre because each arc is a different genre, you have friendship, romance, catastrophe, thriller, crime, murder, slice of lifeetc. I'm not going to be able to talk about how brilliant I found everything about the plot because I simply cannot cover everything but I will inevitably rewatch the show and do an ep by ep review because it really is just that packed with brilliance.
MCs
Just a fun fact, Lu Guang is the name of a real life photographer that captured horrific images of Chinese homelessness, LGBTQIA+ violence and other harsh realities that the government refused to address.
Also, Xiaoshi means "hour". "Guang" means light.
I am such a sucker for these two main MCs. They have such amazing chemistry and their bromance feels incredibly genuine. I don't know if it's because of Given but I am currently just shipping any and every male lead together LOLLLLL. Nevertheless, you can really tell they care about each other.
Character development is absolutely fantastic and gutwrenchingly beautiful for Cheng Xianshi (CXS) and it's likely that because there is a second season, we will see more of Lu Guang's past. Cheng Xiaoshi's character development went from someone who seemed easygoing and aloof to us later on discovering just how absolutely heartbreakingly difficult his job of being the link click participant is because everything is at stake and then to see him fail absolutely miserably in the last few episodes before pulling the most amazing scheme in Ep 11 only to be completely set-backed by the antagonist in the last 10 minutes of Ep 11. This show literally stopped my brain from working because of how brilliant it paced the growth of its main characters.
Another thing that I loved about the show is that I will literally be snot-and-tears one second and the next second I'll be snot-and-tears but laughing my arse off because it balances gutwrenching and comedic moments incredibly well. My absolute favourite sequence is that CXS was literally feeling his absolute worst after finding out that EMMA had died because of him and really needed a self-esteem boost. When he first had to basically verbally abuse himself because he was in the body of his friend but then because he was in the body of his friend, he got to hear just how positively Qiao Ling actually thinks of him and how everyone thinks of him. And that moment was so sweet, it was exactly what he needed.
Lu Guang we didn't see too much development but we slowly got revealed just how difficult his job as the observer and the mastermind is. He is the one that carries the moral of the whole show, that the past cannot be changed but everything can change in the future and his logicality and consideration towards CXS is absolutely so caring throughout the entire show and you really start to see that from ep 4 onwards. Also the whole flashback about how they became friends through playing basketball was just so sweet. The cliffhanger at the end of Season 1, omg, I am so worried and I can't believe Season 2 is coming in 2023, that's soooooo long away. But I can understand since for such a top quality work to be completed, the time and effort for it to manifest must be long.
Another favourite scene of mine was when CSX asked Lu Guang in Ep 6 if he'll be turned into a security camera since normally the power of the link click is that CSX will become the person that takes the photo and what they received for that arc was security footage HAHAHAHAH.
Side Characters
I loved that they delved into Qiao Ling and the friendship group's other character's personality a little bit as well. Basically they are this one big family and it's all so sweet.
And of course, even of it's just for one arc, because CXS is in their body, you are experiencing that person's life in first person, so your emotional proximity to even the one episode-story arc side characters is incredibly close. WHAT A CLEVER CLEVER STORYTELLING SET-UP! So it can be done after all! Complex Plots just need a plot device where the MCs can enter the bodies of side characters so everything can be told in first-person-ception. WOWOWOWOW.
I personally felt so so so bad for Emma. Out of everyone, she was the only one that was aware in her last few seconds of her life that she was going to die, and in that moment, she didn't want to die. That's so fucking sad.
The antagonist is interesting! So it seems like they have the same powers as CXS and Lu Guang and Liu Ming was suffering from a serious case of hatred and cyberbullying that led him to become the hateful man that he is but not the actual antagonist because so far all we know is that when he possesses bodies, whoever he possesses their eyes turn red. I assume it's the detective's assistant because he's always late and the detective's case files are always missing. Someone I saw online said that it might be CXS in an alternate timeline, one where he didn't get adopted and he was completely abandoned, and that version of CXS became the ultimate antagonist. OOOOOHHH I do like the sound of the latter one.
SOUND
I need to give a huge applause to the voice actors for the side characters of each arc. Not only do they have to do a good job but all of them have to match the emotional energy of CXS since he is in their character's bodies. That's really hard to do! CSX's voice actor as well, he has to act like someone pretending like they are having a hard time knowing how to pretend to be in someone else's body! Like that is sooooo difficult to do!
OP and ED are RIDICULOUSLY and I mean absolutely ridiculously catchy and unskippable. The ED rap is incredibly well written and poetic. the ED rap intro tho omg, is so traumatic, because every episode ends in a cliffhanger basically so whenever you hear the intro, you're automatically like "OH SHITTTT something really bad or plot-twist wise is about to happen!!!" So sad that neither the OP or ED is on Spotify.
The OST background music however, they are great tracks by themselves individually, I'll give them that. At a baseline, they do what they should do, which is to support the scene they are used for. HOWEVER, it sounds like the OST was not composed by a composer but licensed through a sound library? It lacks a certain cohesiveness and it's not like it would be distracting to the average audience, but for me personally, it was just a tiny bit less coherent. AND SO FAR FROM RESEARCH, I THINK I AM RIGHT. it is sourced from a sound library.
The other thing is that I think the music is a tiny bit prescriptive, like it was a bit too much use of music all the way throughout the anime where the emotional music was trying to prescribe the emotions in a scene rather than let the scene speak for itself. I know I keep saying that in a lot of my reviews but if you do that even for the lowkey aspects of the anime, it makes it feel a bit melodramatic, that's just how I feel anyway. But it's a common thing in Chinese media to be a bit emotionally prescriptive with their music so idk, it didn't bother me too much.
ANIMATION
OH MY GOODNESS, the animation is so good. I don't know what kind of budget they had but literally every frame of the background, even a gross alleyway or the doorway to a crappy house looks aesthetic AF. I love the one crayon outline of the backgrounds, it really then makes the character outlines stand out.
The animation is sooooo incredibly smooth and the character designs of Lu Guang and CXS, as pointed out by my friend, is Ying and Yang! OMG! Loved the animation of the OP and ED, my friend actually tried to learn the finger tutting on the OP and it's actually really hard. The studio apparently got a professional finger tutting artist to freestyle in which they animated over his video. So cool.
Ep 7 and Ep 11 had scenes that really scare me which was the boy waking up his kidnapper. That scene was so traumatising omg. Loved the use of strange angles to highlight a sense of unease in many scenes.
Also the fist fight scene, omg, so so so cool and the red glow of the infra-red room, brilliant.
Mannnnnn, I still have so much more to say but it's so overwhelming how good this ONA is that I feel like I must rewatch it again just to appreciate it in more detail and write an episodic thoughts post about everything. SO BRILLIANTLY well done, I didn't think it was possible, to have a perfect plot and a wide cast of characters that the audience can cry for, but here we are.
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Oct 25, 2021 4:57 AM | 1 comments
October 8th, 2021
My Thoughts on SK8 the Infinity
Sk8 was recommended to me by a friend and I don't know why, I knew it was gonna be a good anime but I just hesitated on starting it for some weird reason and I think it's because I knew that parts of it wasn't going to be grounded in realism and for some reason that was offputing to me?
How wrong I was though! Sk8 is so incredibly entertaining! How I feel about SK8 is kind of how I feel about Demon Slayer. Like they aren't complicated or convoluted anime, they are simple yet feelsy, compelling and just have very lovable MCs.
PLOT
I liked how it was a clear and straightforward storyline from start to end of anime, everything ties in nicely. The idea that you should just do something because it's fun, and that's really all there is to it, don't overthink it is something that we often forget when we grow up into adults when pressure, societal pressures etc. cloud our judgement. I love that it was simple, and it was a good moral to put out there, no fluff, no questions, very easy to grasp. I also loved the emphasis on love of passion and the losing sight of passion due to pressure/loneliness from family.
On slightly deeper level, I loved that the anime touched on interesting themes of skateboarding and social classes and how it's seen as something that's shameful and underground, yet a place of self-expression and freedom. I just really love that, there is something really freeing and dangerous, yet a little sad about it all.
I really did enjoy all of the battles and challenges! I truly did! I thought it was cool that it was a combination of sports and battle anime themes but I would have preferred if it was a bit more grounded in realism. There were just some moments in the challenges where I was like, ok this isn't even a competition when the competitors are allowed to do whatever they want, and it sort of just kills the 'tricks of skateboarding' a bit. E.g. The fact that Adam just straight up abuses his participants with 'love hugs' gets slightly repetitive and annoying. Also the technological advantage that Cherry has over other contestants and Shadow using bombs just feel like they didn't have a lot of skills as skaters but were reliant on external tools. Personally I would have just liked a battle of skills and wit. But I guess the show was trying to illustrate that being a good skater also meant all these other things other than the skill of skating itself e.g. like when reki used the traction wheels because he had a background in skateboard making that allowed him to gain up on Adam a little bit. But yeah, personally, ever since watching Haikyuu!!, I just really like a bit more realism.
The final episode skate scene really reminded me of Yuri on Ice for some reason! I think because there was some poetic-ness to Adam and Langa paralleling each other and almost like sharing a routine haha.
CHARACTER
Reki and Langa, I can't help it. They are just really fucking cute together. Did I straight up go and search up scenes of them together on youtube straight after I finished the anime? Yes, yes I did. Can see why lots of people complain about this show being queer-bait and I'm in two minds about this. On one hand I see why people are annoyed, because people feel manipulated, but on the other hand, I really fucking enjoyed it, whether intentional or not, I really liked the main chemistry between the two and I don't care if they are actually together or not. They are just really cute. Additionally, I don't think it's really queer-bait, like there are hints of all the other characters being queer as well, because Adam and Cherry also displayed traits of being queer and it added to their drive and motivation to their character's actions. But that's good because if the main plot or characters had that as a primary motivation, I don't get how that's "bait"? Isn't that is part of characterisation and plot? Like what's actually queer bait is if it wasn't necessary but it was there purely for the viewers. That's what I think of queerbait as.
Reki does deserve a special mention. Reki's struggles are relatable, inferiority complex is actually quite interesting. I don't think Reki had such a fragile ego where he was jealous of Langa or anything like that. It's that he wanted to skate beside Langa because he was the one that taught him how to skate, and because now Langa is all of a sudden so far ahead, he feels like he can't keep up and not worthy to skate beside him. This is different from wanting to defeat or be better than someone. How I think about it is like when you introduce a show to someone and then you were supposed to watch the show together but all of a sudden somehow, they end up watching a few more episodes in front of you and they are ahead so of course you are annoyed. You wanted a shared experience together. So I commend the show in tackling THIS SORT OF inferiority complex rather than the traditional toxic kind that we see.
Adam is a very interesting complicated villain. I love that he is the way he is because he has a twisted view of love due to his upbringing and he get's some sort of relief from skateboarding and torturing his competitors but in the end, he was actually not skateboarding for fun but using it as an angry outlet. I REALLY loved how Langa is a foil of Adam, HAHAH they both have blue hair first of all, but they both had lost passion for life, each for different reasons and Langa, not only had a character growth arc, but was able to bring the villain, Adam out of his. I thought that was so simple yet clever, very nicely done in a mere 12 eps.
However of course, side characters were a bit underdeveloped and more as a support cast to the MCs which made me slightly sad because I do really like the side characters and I wish we get to know a bit more about them.
SOUND
OP and ED were bomb, unskippable, loved them. Music for the most part was really fitting
Reki's voice actor just has such a freaking cool voice, it sort of breaks into falsetto easily and it's just really pleasant to listen to with his accent as well. I can listen to a compilation of just Reki and Langa calling each other's names for 10 hours straight.
Background music for the most part was very fitting for the scenes, nice use of electronic, high intensity music during battle scenes. Ok note to ALL sound directors, DON'T use OVERRATED classical pieces. Adam's theme as Symphony No.5 by Beethoven? Just don't please haha. It's a bit of meme of a piece at this point so the desired effect of Adam coming across as grand and sadistic ends up not landing very well.
Music in some moments, very few moments, were a LITTLE BIT prescriptive. What I mean is that the music tried too hard to illustrate an emotion rather than just be a bit more chill and let the audience come to the emotion of the scene themselves. But for the most part, the music was really great in the anime.
ANIMATION
Gorgeous colours and animation, no CGI or anything, so exciting to watch the way the characters move and skate. I literally get anxiety whenever any of the characters try to pull a risky move because the animation is so smooth. Don't know the budget but could tell that so much care went into animating the movements well and character designs! I love the design of the character's eyes.
Ok hHAHAHA I love how in the last scene when Langa was in the zone with Adam, the rainbow gay energy was high in the air. Was that Langa being like, "oh yeah yes I am gay thanks for acknowledging?" I don't know ahahah.
I loved the attention to detail even in the set-design of the Skateboard shop or the final course.
Overall very consumable of an anime, very wholesome exciting. High rewatch value.
How wrong I was though! Sk8 is so incredibly entertaining! How I feel about SK8 is kind of how I feel about Demon Slayer. Like they aren't complicated or convoluted anime, they are simple yet feelsy, compelling and just have very lovable MCs.
PLOT
I liked how it was a clear and straightforward storyline from start to end of anime, everything ties in nicely. The idea that you should just do something because it's fun, and that's really all there is to it, don't overthink it is something that we often forget when we grow up into adults when pressure, societal pressures etc. cloud our judgement. I love that it was simple, and it was a good moral to put out there, no fluff, no questions, very easy to grasp. I also loved the emphasis on love of passion and the losing sight of passion due to pressure/loneliness from family.
On slightly deeper level, I loved that the anime touched on interesting themes of skateboarding and social classes and how it's seen as something that's shameful and underground, yet a place of self-expression and freedom. I just really love that, there is something really freeing and dangerous, yet a little sad about it all.
I really did enjoy all of the battles and challenges! I truly did! I thought it was cool that it was a combination of sports and battle anime themes but I would have preferred if it was a bit more grounded in realism. There were just some moments in the challenges where I was like, ok this isn't even a competition when the competitors are allowed to do whatever they want, and it sort of just kills the 'tricks of skateboarding' a bit. E.g. The fact that Adam just straight up abuses his participants with 'love hugs' gets slightly repetitive and annoying. Also the technological advantage that Cherry has over other contestants and Shadow using bombs just feel like they didn't have a lot of skills as skaters but were reliant on external tools. Personally I would have just liked a battle of skills and wit. But I guess the show was trying to illustrate that being a good skater also meant all these other things other than the skill of skating itself e.g. like when reki used the traction wheels because he had a background in skateboard making that allowed him to gain up on Adam a little bit. But yeah, personally, ever since watching Haikyuu!!, I just really like a bit more realism.
The final episode skate scene really reminded me of Yuri on Ice for some reason! I think because there was some poetic-ness to Adam and Langa paralleling each other and almost like sharing a routine haha.
CHARACTER
Reki and Langa, I can't help it. They are just really fucking cute together. Did I straight up go and search up scenes of them together on youtube straight after I finished the anime? Yes, yes I did. Can see why lots of people complain about this show being queer-bait and I'm in two minds about this. On one hand I see why people are annoyed, because people feel manipulated, but on the other hand, I really fucking enjoyed it, whether intentional or not, I really liked the main chemistry between the two and I don't care if they are actually together or not. They are just really cute. Additionally, I don't think it's really queer-bait, like there are hints of all the other characters being queer as well, because Adam and Cherry also displayed traits of being queer and it added to their drive and motivation to their character's actions. But that's good because if the main plot or characters had that as a primary motivation, I don't get how that's "bait"? Isn't that is part of characterisation and plot? Like what's actually queer bait is if it wasn't necessary but it was there purely for the viewers. That's what I think of queerbait as.
Reki does deserve a special mention. Reki's struggles are relatable, inferiority complex is actually quite interesting. I don't think Reki had such a fragile ego where he was jealous of Langa or anything like that. It's that he wanted to skate beside Langa because he was the one that taught him how to skate, and because now Langa is all of a sudden so far ahead, he feels like he can't keep up and not worthy to skate beside him. This is different from wanting to defeat or be better than someone. How I think about it is like when you introduce a show to someone and then you were supposed to watch the show together but all of a sudden somehow, they end up watching a few more episodes in front of you and they are ahead so of course you are annoyed. You wanted a shared experience together. So I commend the show in tackling THIS SORT OF inferiority complex rather than the traditional toxic kind that we see.
Adam is a very interesting complicated villain. I love that he is the way he is because he has a twisted view of love due to his upbringing and he get's some sort of relief from skateboarding and torturing his competitors but in the end, he was actually not skateboarding for fun but using it as an angry outlet. I REALLY loved how Langa is a foil of Adam, HAHAH they both have blue hair first of all, but they both had lost passion for life, each for different reasons and Langa, not only had a character growth arc, but was able to bring the villain, Adam out of his. I thought that was so simple yet clever, very nicely done in a mere 12 eps.
However of course, side characters were a bit underdeveloped and more as a support cast to the MCs which made me slightly sad because I do really like the side characters and I wish we get to know a bit more about them.
SOUND
OP and ED were bomb, unskippable, loved them. Music for the most part was really fitting
Reki's voice actor just has such a freaking cool voice, it sort of breaks into falsetto easily and it's just really pleasant to listen to with his accent as well. I can listen to a compilation of just Reki and Langa calling each other's names for 10 hours straight.
Background music for the most part was very fitting for the scenes, nice use of electronic, high intensity music during battle scenes. Ok note to ALL sound directors, DON'T use OVERRATED classical pieces. Adam's theme as Symphony No.5 by Beethoven? Just don't please haha. It's a bit of meme of a piece at this point so the desired effect of Adam coming across as grand and sadistic ends up not landing very well.
Music in some moments, very few moments, were a LITTLE BIT prescriptive. What I mean is that the music tried too hard to illustrate an emotion rather than just be a bit more chill and let the audience come to the emotion of the scene themselves. But for the most part, the music was really great in the anime.
ANIMATION
Gorgeous colours and animation, no CGI or anything, so exciting to watch the way the characters move and skate. I literally get anxiety whenever any of the characters try to pull a risky move because the animation is so smooth. Don't know the budget but could tell that so much care went into animating the movements well and character designs! I love the design of the character's eyes.
Ok hHAHAHA I love how in the last scene when Langa was in the zone with Adam, the rainbow gay energy was high in the air. Was that Langa being like, "oh yeah yes I am gay thanks for acknowledging?" I don't know ahahah.
I loved the attention to detail even in the set-design of the Skateboard shop or the final course.
Overall very consumable of an anime, very wholesome exciting. High rewatch value.
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Oct 8, 2021 1:51 PM | 0 comments
September 20th, 2021
My Thoughts on the Relife and Relife Final Arc
When I started watching Relife, I was still in my Given depression because Given just had such a huge emotional impact on me so I found myself inevitably picking apart anything that I disliked about Relife so I think I may have been a bit harsh with my thoughts on the 13 episode anime. However, I think the OVA did boost the series up for me and cleared some plotholes up.
Overall, I think Relife was definitely a good anime that gave a solid attempt at exploring the preciousness of youth and life, and what it means to live authentically. However, I feel like there were definitely some flaws with the way that it was been executed.
PLOT
I think the plot had a really interesting premise, if you had a chance to spend one year back in highschool, would you do it? And would you do it even if after that one year, everyone is going to forget about you? How much of an impact should you make, how much should you interfere? Relife fundamentally is exploring the meaning of life itself: when we die, eventually people will forget about us, but it's our actions, our impact that gets left behind.
The plot definitely went in a way I didn't expect it to! I don't know why from the get go, I thought it was going to have a lot more supernatural elements such as finding out that nearly every character is an experiment but I think there were enough plot twists in the anime in general to keep the story interesting. the focus was a lot more on the relationships and conflicts between people, and I guess for once, I would actually commend on the anime for showcasing actual real-life highschooler issues on low-self esteem, miscommunication, broken friendships etc. that weren't too overly dramatised. I also thought that Arata's sempai who committed suicide was Hishiro for a second but it turns out that they just sort of looked similar. I don't know, that would have made for an interesting plot device though, like you think you are getting your life fixed but in fact you are given another chance to meet the person who died in highschool to change their life. I don't know.
Also I do think the set-up of having the test subjects memories be erased of other test subjects, I guess was necessary for privacy reasons, that set-up was fantastic in building the tension and pain in the lead up to the final episode, where both of the main characters are in love but in so much pain that because they know they are going to forget each other. There was no winning in that situation, if one of them was a test subject and the other was a highschooler, the age gap would be too large and the romance would take a few years to be considered 'appropriate' and it would be the test subject that would have to do the chasing with no garantee that the highschooler would reciprocate. In the case of the actual plot, both are test subjects, so although they will return to their old lives and appropriate ages, both of them will forget one another. At the same time, they are not really allowed to ask each other if they are test subjects otherwise the experiment will end right there and then. What an excruciating set-up! The conflicting emotions were well illustrated in the OVA in my opinion.
The Relife Program itself isn't a bad idea but I can't help but wonder if it will do more harm than good. Wouldn't some people get more depressed knowing that these connections they made with genuine people are forever lost, especially for NEETS? It's not easy for NEETS to make friends, so for a whole year they made friends, only for them to lose them, even if the Relife support workers say "See, you can do it now in real life!" Wouldn't they feel absolutely exhausted that they have to start all over? I know I would!
Also, I understood why the Relife support staff was there in the plot, it's actually a way to mirror the audience's reaction to everything that's happening, like for us, we can really relate to Onoya when she's hurting for our main characters. But some things that didn't quite sit right with me however were, why did they reveal to the test subjects that they were keeping an eye on them? If I knew that someone was keeping an eye on me 24/7, consciously/subconsciously, I would be acting different. So as heartwarming as the anime is, I can't help but question the complete authenticity of the main characters' actions.
This also brings me to say, if someone is watching me 24/7, my mental health would be so bad. The lack of privacy would actually drive me insane. So I feel like yes it's good that they told the test subjects, great that they were honest, but shouldn't there be any bounds that they are given some privacy if they ask for some?
CHARACTER
I personally found Arata kind of boring as a character because I thought his potential could have been further explored. What I mean is, he's not a total NEET. Of course, I think this is because then we are allowed to be introduced to a total NEET, Hishiro, and see how one NEET helps another NEET. But I guess what I don't get is, Arata made such a bad impression first day of school, somehow people just randomly ended up coming up to him and becoming friends with him. Having bad grades, getting caught for smoking, you'd think that Arata would have to try a little harder to make friends but from Ep 1, it seems like people were already eager to get to know him. It felt a bit unnatural.
What I do like about his character though is that he does have this inherent moral goodness to him and makes his friends face things rather than run away from them. Him fighting his conflicting desires for Hishiro and not to interfere too much with Hishiro youthful experience is conveyed well in the OVA.
Hishiro is cute but definitely reminds me of stereotyped shoujo shy girls such as from Kimi ni Todoke, and her struggles with communications sometimes feels a little too unrealistic. However, I think her directness is something I really admire about her character. If she doesn't understand, she'll ask and she'll try again until she understands. That's very admirable.
A special mention to their classroom teacher, I absolutely love her, she's so supportive. I could tell straight away that she was voiced by the same voice actor as Inaba from kokoro Connect haha.
Rena is an interesting one! In all three arcs in the 13-episode anime, she was involved! I think that's really interesting and I was almost hoping that she was a test subject or that we got to know a bit more about why she is so competitive or has a inferiority complex! But we never really got to fully find out which was kind of a shame.
Also I really wished there were more moments and insights into Onoya and Yoake, I thought they were quite interesting! The thing about Relife is that I think there would have been a lot more focus on characters that existed in Arata's real life, this is because once I think we return to his real life and age, everything from there feels like a downer even though he has grown, like as an audience member I can't help but feel depressed if things don't work out with Hishiro. They should have showed a balance of change in his real life and change in his highschool life.
SOUND
Music was such a disappointment mannnnnn. I literally don't know what else to say. At first I thought it was kind of cool how the majority of the ost was this piano solo jazz improv, I thought, hey they simplicity is kind of refreshing! But after a while, it got really annoying! I thought it didn't really fit some of the moods of some scenes that well, also the changing EDs isn't really up my alley. The music almost made me drop the anime tbh. The OP is ok and gives you this sort of nostalgic vibe so I don't mind it that much.
The voice acting was good. Of course Ooga was voiced by Uchida. I can now recognise that voice from a mile away now that I've watched Given.
ANIMATION
I don't know if the studio just had a low budget for this anime but the animation is so so. You can definitely see that they had to cut corners in some scenes such as during the school festivals where the bystanders were just literal pink silhouettes. I think it's disappointing especially considering that this is a coloured webtoon that you're adapting, and the art in the webtoon is absolutely gorgeous so to have the anime not done as welli is a bit of a downer.
Overall, I think the OVA is probably worth some rewatches but you can't really watch the OVA without watching the original 13-eps to get to know the characters. I think Relife is a series that takes a while to warm up to and is definitely not perfect but is interesting nevertheless. I've heard that the pacing and plot in the webtoon is a lot better, so I might go and check it out!
Overall, I think Relife was definitely a good anime that gave a solid attempt at exploring the preciousness of youth and life, and what it means to live authentically. However, I feel like there were definitely some flaws with the way that it was been executed.
PLOT
I think the plot had a really interesting premise, if you had a chance to spend one year back in highschool, would you do it? And would you do it even if after that one year, everyone is going to forget about you? How much of an impact should you make, how much should you interfere? Relife fundamentally is exploring the meaning of life itself: when we die, eventually people will forget about us, but it's our actions, our impact that gets left behind.
The plot definitely went in a way I didn't expect it to! I don't know why from the get go, I thought it was going to have a lot more supernatural elements such as finding out that nearly every character is an experiment but I think there were enough plot twists in the anime in general to keep the story interesting. the focus was a lot more on the relationships and conflicts between people, and I guess for once, I would actually commend on the anime for showcasing actual real-life highschooler issues on low-self esteem, miscommunication, broken friendships etc. that weren't too overly dramatised. I also thought that Arata's sempai who committed suicide was Hishiro for a second but it turns out that they just sort of looked similar. I don't know, that would have made for an interesting plot device though, like you think you are getting your life fixed but in fact you are given another chance to meet the person who died in highschool to change their life. I don't know.
Also I do think the set-up of having the test subjects memories be erased of other test subjects, I guess was necessary for privacy reasons, that set-up was fantastic in building the tension and pain in the lead up to the final episode, where both of the main characters are in love but in so much pain that because they know they are going to forget each other. There was no winning in that situation, if one of them was a test subject and the other was a highschooler, the age gap would be too large and the romance would take a few years to be considered 'appropriate' and it would be the test subject that would have to do the chasing with no garantee that the highschooler would reciprocate. In the case of the actual plot, both are test subjects, so although they will return to their old lives and appropriate ages, both of them will forget one another. At the same time, they are not really allowed to ask each other if they are test subjects otherwise the experiment will end right there and then. What an excruciating set-up! The conflicting emotions were well illustrated in the OVA in my opinion.
The Relife Program itself isn't a bad idea but I can't help but wonder if it will do more harm than good. Wouldn't some people get more depressed knowing that these connections they made with genuine people are forever lost, especially for NEETS? It's not easy for NEETS to make friends, so for a whole year they made friends, only for them to lose them, even if the Relife support workers say "See, you can do it now in real life!" Wouldn't they feel absolutely exhausted that they have to start all over? I know I would!
Also, I understood why the Relife support staff was there in the plot, it's actually a way to mirror the audience's reaction to everything that's happening, like for us, we can really relate to Onoya when she's hurting for our main characters. But some things that didn't quite sit right with me however were, why did they reveal to the test subjects that they were keeping an eye on them? If I knew that someone was keeping an eye on me 24/7, consciously/subconsciously, I would be acting different. So as heartwarming as the anime is, I can't help but question the complete authenticity of the main characters' actions.
This also brings me to say, if someone is watching me 24/7, my mental health would be so bad. The lack of privacy would actually drive me insane. So I feel like yes it's good that they told the test subjects, great that they were honest, but shouldn't there be any bounds that they are given some privacy if they ask for some?
CHARACTER
I personally found Arata kind of boring as a character because I thought his potential could have been further explored. What I mean is, he's not a total NEET. Of course, I think this is because then we are allowed to be introduced to a total NEET, Hishiro, and see how one NEET helps another NEET. But I guess what I don't get is, Arata made such a bad impression first day of school, somehow people just randomly ended up coming up to him and becoming friends with him. Having bad grades, getting caught for smoking, you'd think that Arata would have to try a little harder to make friends but from Ep 1, it seems like people were already eager to get to know him. It felt a bit unnatural.
What I do like about his character though is that he does have this inherent moral goodness to him and makes his friends face things rather than run away from them. Him fighting his conflicting desires for Hishiro and not to interfere too much with Hishiro youthful experience is conveyed well in the OVA.
Hishiro is cute but definitely reminds me of stereotyped shoujo shy girls such as from Kimi ni Todoke, and her struggles with communications sometimes feels a little too unrealistic. However, I think her directness is something I really admire about her character. If she doesn't understand, she'll ask and she'll try again until she understands. That's very admirable.
A special mention to their classroom teacher, I absolutely love her, she's so supportive. I could tell straight away that she was voiced by the same voice actor as Inaba from kokoro Connect haha.
Rena is an interesting one! In all three arcs in the 13-episode anime, she was involved! I think that's really interesting and I was almost hoping that she was a test subject or that we got to know a bit more about why she is so competitive or has a inferiority complex! But we never really got to fully find out which was kind of a shame.
Also I really wished there were more moments and insights into Onoya and Yoake, I thought they were quite interesting! The thing about Relife is that I think there would have been a lot more focus on characters that existed in Arata's real life, this is because once I think we return to his real life and age, everything from there feels like a downer even though he has grown, like as an audience member I can't help but feel depressed if things don't work out with Hishiro. They should have showed a balance of change in his real life and change in his highschool life.
SOUND
Music was such a disappointment mannnnnn. I literally don't know what else to say. At first I thought it was kind of cool how the majority of the ost was this piano solo jazz improv, I thought, hey they simplicity is kind of refreshing! But after a while, it got really annoying! I thought it didn't really fit some of the moods of some scenes that well, also the changing EDs isn't really up my alley. The music almost made me drop the anime tbh. The OP is ok and gives you this sort of nostalgic vibe so I don't mind it that much.
The voice acting was good. Of course Ooga was voiced by Uchida. I can now recognise that voice from a mile away now that I've watched Given.
ANIMATION
I don't know if the studio just had a low budget for this anime but the animation is so so. You can definitely see that they had to cut corners in some scenes such as during the school festivals where the bystanders were just literal pink silhouettes. I think it's disappointing especially considering that this is a coloured webtoon that you're adapting, and the art in the webtoon is absolutely gorgeous so to have the anime not done as welli is a bit of a downer.
Overall, I think the OVA is probably worth some rewatches but you can't really watch the OVA without watching the original 13-eps to get to know the characters. I think Relife is a series that takes a while to warm up to and is definitely not perfect but is interesting nevertheless. I've heard that the pacing and plot in the webtoon is a lot better, so I might go and check it out!
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Sep 20, 2021 6:37 PM | 0 comments
September 11th, 2021
My Thoughts on Given and Given Movie
Anime Relations: Full Moon wo Sagashite, Nana, Skip Beat!, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, Kono Oto Tomare!, Kono Oto Tomare! Part 2, Given, Given Movie 1
It's currently 11:46pm and I should be going to bed but I just got up to date with everything in Given and I know that I cannot sleep unless I got my thoughts down about this anime because holy fuck it might be an all time favourite. Also I'm currently listening to the entire OST as I'm writing this blog, this is how you know I'm too deep in the fandom.
This anime gave me so many feels. You see, this is why it's dangerous for a musician to watch a good music anime, it's too relatable, that's why I haven't even began to touch Your Lie In April , and not sure if I ever will. But I will say that Given is probably my favourite music-romance anime out of all the music-romance anime I have watched thus far and I will be drawing lots of comparison between Given and other music-romance anime that I've watched.
PLOT
This anime is for the most part, paced so perfectly. It leaves little clues for you to learn about a character's attributes and their past. There is just the perfect distribution of showing and telling, flashbacks feel natural rather than extended over elongated periods of time. This is where Kono Oto Tomare! paled in comparison. But I do want to talk about the two anime for a quick second. I did like how in Kono Oto Tomare!, music was the fore-theme and romance was secondary because we really got to dive deeper into the difficulties of rehearsals, practice, ensemble coordination etc. Given had romance as the fore-theme that utilised music as a metaphor for complexities of relationships and delved less into the specifics of music itself but relationships between the characters. The metaphors are so perfect though, especially the strings, especially now thinking back when Ue replaced the old snapped strings on the Gibson was symbolic of Mafuyu slowly being able to move on from Yuki.
Not gonna lie, I wished there were slightly more rehearsal scenes where we got to hear excerpts of the main songs leading up to their final epic performance but in the case of Given, I totally can see why the author/director held off on showing the audience any main parts of the musical performance until that final pivotal moment in Episode 9 and also 3/4 in the Given Movie. The musical performances in Given are PURE CATHARSIS, prioritising the emotional release of a everything that was pent-up for ages before it explodes. So in this case, I can respect them holding rehearsal music off until those epic moments. Of course, as a musician, I still wished maybe they still delved a little bit more into the technicalities of music itself, and maybe slightly less reliant on the theme of 'genius'. But for 11 episodes, for what it's worth, they packed so much that short space of time, I really don't have that many complaints.
What I am so absolutely in love with this anime is that it is just the perfect balance of funny, heartfelt, excitement and then amidst the youthfulness of band practise, there is this inherent darkness. I don't know how they do it. While anime like Nana has funny moments, there is a very serious undertone kind of from the get go and you sort of know you're going to be in for an emotional rollercoaster, but with Given it almost creeps up on you and the next thing you know is you are on the verge of tears by Episode 9.
Dialogue is just so brilliantly written in the show. One of my favourite lines is what they described about loneliness, I think it was "The name of the bus stop. The colour of the sweat shirt I was wearing that day. The phrases and words that was popular to our conversation at that time. They slowly fade away. Ahhh That's loneliness. For the first time that day, I felt it on the stage." Especially those bits in italics, oh my goodness, so true, you forget how you speak to a loved one overtime, this even applies to forgotten friendships. Fuck it hits me deep in the feels man.
CHARACTER
I literally have so much I want to say about every single character in this show, please pray that I'll get to sleep in the next hour. But oh my goodness, the deep and complex characterisation in Given is what makes it completely stand out from any other romance anime. It literally makes my heart physically ache so much.
Given
Let's start with Mafuyu, once again tying to my earlier point, he looks like such a harmless cinnamon roll that I was not emotionally prepared for the darkness that actually resided inside of him. He is such a well-written character, he is emotionally repressed due to his abusive father and every time he seemed to express his emotion, something bad happens, especially looking back at his outburst with Yuki. In a sense, I think he has anxious attachment style from experiencing abandonment and abuse from his father, hence he had that fight with Yuki. He started music because he couldn't let go of Yuki, because of grief, but then through music, he found himself and a safe space for him to express himself without negative consequences, he found joy under the stage lights. And he found Uenoyama, who supported him no matter what. The only thing I think I wished the anime included was just a short 10 second scene where he was by himself and maybe had a monologue with Yuki. For a childhood best friend turned ex that passed away, I felt like just one more scene between the two of them, just needed a bit more closure, not a flashback but something a bit more present, like Mafuyu instead of carrying the Gibson in front of his arms, he carries it on his back. It will not only show that he has overcome his lonliness, but it then becomes a much clearer sense of moving forward because I did feel like from Mafuyu wrapping up his grief with Yuki to him going out with Ue was a bit too quick. I'm just thinking back to Full Moon wo Sagashite where the main girl literally was in depression for so long when she found out that her loved one died (a little too long), but it's only natural though and then when she slowly realised her love for the main guy, it felt a lot more resolute and grounded. I also really love how although softspoken and introverted, Mafuyu is surprisingly bold, especially when asking Ue out and Ue to stay when he's sick. This boy has guts! Also this boy is surprisingly perceptive as well, especially in the movie!
MAFUYU revisited 16th September 2021 - ok ok ok I have a new revelation about Mafuyu. Mafuyu didn't get over Yuki. Mafuyu actually just started the grieving process in the Given anime with the help of Ue in ep 9 of the Given anime. He only just started his 5 stages of grief. Previously he was completely frozen and in denial and now he's for the first time starting to come to terms with Yuki's death. Also MafuYama is complicated, Mafuyu is finding familiarity in the intensity of Uenoyama's love, like there is a few clear panels of Yuki and Uenoyama making the same facial expressions and the "five more minutes" symbolism. Mafuyu is finding comfort in the familiarity....OMG.....wow holy shit this love story is painful, gotta follow-up on the manga ASAP.
Uenoyama, he's such a tsundere but in the most wholesome way possible. He's a very kind person which I think is what made Mafuyu like him. Also I love the subversion compared to most other BL anime where the more 'masculine guy' is more aloof and cold but Ue is just gay panicking throughout the entire anime and I honestly live for it. I love how he recognises his jealousy, helps Mafuyu finish the song that technically Mafuyu and Yuki started together to help give him some way to process his pain, Ue is really caring and really encouraging. We stan a healthy shounen-ai relationship. OMFG, that "It's mutual" scene was so freaking hilarious, it reminded me of all of the Kyoko demons making decisions from Skip Beat!
Ue's mental farewell party vs. Kyoko's demons
Yuki, oh my freaking goodness, my heart aches for that boy. I know we only have 11 episodes, but I really wanted to know more about how he became the way he did and how he got into music. He's definitely Robin Williams sort of character, sunshine on the outside and darkness on the inside and hints of mental illness were scattered throughout the flashbacks. To be honest, I really really loved Yuki and Mafuyu's dynamic, the little moments they shared are so incredibly precious but mental illness was the ultimate killer and it's just so sad because we see this happen way too much even in real life. I like their dynamic so much because they seem to be in their own little world but I think Ue brings a new fire in Mafuyu that can be shared with the rest of the world. But to be honest, if Yuki came back by some miracle of the divine, I honestly wouldn't know who I would ship more. But in my little memory bubble, in my little time capsule, I'd just want Yuki and Mafuyu to exist for a little longer.
Hiiragi also deserves a special mention even though he is a side character. I really enjoyed the author's/director's inclusion of the paralysis of a friend dealing with a someone going through mental illness and someone dealing with anxious attachment style. Him asking for forgiveness and resuming a friendship with Mafuyu is just the wholesome friendship we need more of in today's society. The thing is, it's hard, it's hard to support people with mental illness! It's even harder when they are in their own little world, it feels like there is not much one can say. I really commend on the author and director for tackling such complex topics.
Given Movie
Haruki is just a cinnamon roll, he just deserves the entire world. I don't care what anyone says. His kindness is boundless. He is literally mum. The scene where Akihiko made a coerced non-consensual move on Haruki honestly made me so uncomfortable. My heart absolutely ached for Haruki, when he ran away crying when Akihiko emotionally barred him away even when it was Haruki everytime that offer him a place to stay and formed the band with him when he was on the verge of quitting music. Haruki deserves a Nobel Peace Prize or something, there is no purer bean on the planet. Really great for him that things worked out but I swear in Aki hurts him in any way later on I SWEAR TO GOD....
Akihiko is interesting. At first, I really liked his character in the Given anime! He's such a great role model and helped Mafuyama get together. But then in the Given movie. I disliked his character. A clear womaniser, a character with a clear inferiority complex that literally was the main cause of the break-up between him and Ugetsu. And then I realised the reason I really disliked his character was because I saw a bit of myself in him. The moment the Given Movie started, I thought to myself "Oh No.... I'm really going to relate to the love Hate that comes from falling for someone that's in the music industry". This love-hate or I guess inferiority complex is so incredibly painful and so relatable. You admire someone so much but because you also love music so much and as a musician, the line between where you start and where music starts is very blurred, your identity and music is almost as one, your emotion is the emotion in your music so when someone's better than you in music, it's like someone repeatingly stabbing you in your heart but at the same time, music is something you love, so you feel so much awe and wonder when you hear someone play music so beautifully. This self-contradiction that Akihiko feels cannot be put into words. As annoyed as I am at him because he literally sort of caused Ugetsu to realised that Akihiko is losing his passion for music because of all these conflicting emotions, it's just such a relatable thing for me as a composer. Also the very fact that Ugetsu seems to travel alot for work probably also made Akihiko very lonely and things just got more and more toxic as they were unable to pull away from one another.
What I absolutely loved in the end was Akihiko's change, he hurt Haruki so much, he lashes out when he's hurt and acts selfish and I REALLY appreciated that he asked for consent before touching Haruki in the final confession scene. That was so brilliant. It's really great that he was able to find joy and love in music again. I'm currently also trying to find joy and love in music as well so I hope that I can also find someone who can be on this journey with me.
Akihiko revisited 16th September 2021 - Ok I've come up with a new revelation and I don't want to excuse Akihiko for what he did but in one scene, akihiko actually says that whenever he stayed over at other people houses other people always “asked for something in return.” He “slept around and did things he couldn’t even joke about.” So new interpretation was that when he came over the haruki’s, what he did was awful, but for a second he thought it was what Haruki wanted because he knew that Haruki liked him so he thought that Haruki wanted something in return but then he was still hurting from the previous fight with Ugetsu so that’s why he was basically acting on angry impulse with Haruki and wasn’t listening to Haruki when Haruki was telling him to stop because clearly Haruki didn’t want things to happen this way because he saw how much pain Akihiko was in. So yes it was still an awful scene, but it gives a new level of insight that it’s not really actually super out of character for Akihiko, he always never felt like he had a place to call home becasue people always asked for potentially sexual favours in return so in that moment of hurt, he was like oh, "I might as well just be a sex doll to Haruki too since that’s all I am to ugetsu and other people".
And I think another interesting aspect is that Akihiko’s love language is touch. Like how he and ugetsu got together was also he hugs ugetsu and in the given anime when he’s flirting with haruki, he expresses it through touch. And as we see in the final confession scene, he confesses while hugging haruki. This is why when Ugetsu sleeps with other people, it hurts him so much so he lashes out and covers his own pain by sleep with other people too. This playboy part of him he tries to actually hide from haruki because it’s something that he needs but also he hates about himself.
I think what’s complex about akihikos character is that he discovers that haruki’s love language is actually words of validation, like Akihiko actually says some really insightful things sometimes and brings harukis self esteem up (like in the scene where Haruki feels inferior to the other band members). Also akihiko through living with haruki discovers that acts of service and other forms of love language are equally valuable and beautiful so I think it’s so powerful that in the given movie, we see this «physical scene » as an uncomfortable one but the rest of it is scenes of haruki and akihiko and their relationship blossoming in other love languages. So I actually really appreciated the mangaka's/directorial choice of them just hugging at the end and nothing more. Haruki and Akihiko, as shown in the anime are fantastic friends first and foremost that grew to understand each other on a deeper level in the movie.
And finally we have Ugetsu. My heart aches for him so so so much. This success and brilliance of a great musician is a tier of loneliness that very few will understand. Ugetsu loves Akihiko and music but he saw that his very presence was causing so much pain for Akihiko's self-esteem so he tried to tear away. But he didn't have the guts to completely do so which is why they just keep hurting each other even post-break up. Even though he acts aloof, this boy just wants what was best for Akihiko but when he finally left, it hurt like hell, but Mafuyu's song made him realise that he'll be ok. Fuck man, this is unfortunately the life of many musicians, music is such a large part of our livelihood, we chase it and chase it until all of our loved ones can no longer keep up with us so we let them go and watch them from afar with a soft smile. Our memories of those times spent together become memorialised in the music that we create. And in turn, it inspires and brings joy to others while we watch from afar. That's how it feels like to me to be a musician sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if the sacrifice is really worth it.
Sound
OP and ED grew on me. By the end of the anime I really liked them. But of course the stand out music is the entire OST of the anime. Once again I think Given is the perfect example of "simple is perfect", like if you carefully listen to some of the tracks, it's so simple but it allows your to really focus on the dialogue and the pacing and what the characters are trying to tell you rather than Kono Oto Tomare! where the music often felt too dramatic and emotionally prescriptive. But I hear a few violin harmonics and careful treatment of certain main themes so Given's music is definitely well carefully thought out crafted provides such a relaxing yet sometimes hauntingly nostalgic and painful atmosphere.
The voice acting of Uenoyama and Haruki are so adorable when they gay panic and I've got to give it to Mafuyu for wonderfully showing the progression of an amateur to a good singer.
ANIMATION
Gorgeous gorgeous colours. Especially all of the scenes of the band practice rooms and the stage performances, the night scenes. I don't know the budget for this anime but I could definitely tell a lot of care went into any musical performances whether on the violin or on stage.
Sometimes I saw a bit of inconsistency with the linework in some close-up and far-away shots of characters but this is so minute I literally don't even care.
This anime is I seriously believe, revolutionary in its genre. I've never seen such realistic shounen-ai representation in an anime before and such wonderfully complex characters. This will be a top favourite, I know I'll be rewatching this alot and referring a lot of my friends to watch this. What an incredibly underrated anime.
This anime gave me so many feels. You see, this is why it's dangerous for a musician to watch a good music anime, it's too relatable, that's why I haven't even began to touch Your Lie In April , and not sure if I ever will. But I will say that Given is probably my favourite music-romance anime out of all the music-romance anime I have watched thus far and I will be drawing lots of comparison between Given and other music-romance anime that I've watched.
PLOT
This anime is for the most part, paced so perfectly. It leaves little clues for you to learn about a character's attributes and their past. There is just the perfect distribution of showing and telling, flashbacks feel natural rather than extended over elongated periods of time. This is where Kono Oto Tomare! paled in comparison. But I do want to talk about the two anime for a quick second. I did like how in Kono Oto Tomare!, music was the fore-theme and romance was secondary because we really got to dive deeper into the difficulties of rehearsals, practice, ensemble coordination etc. Given had romance as the fore-theme that utilised music as a metaphor for complexities of relationships and delved less into the specifics of music itself but relationships between the characters. The metaphors are so perfect though, especially the strings, especially now thinking back when Ue replaced the old snapped strings on the Gibson was symbolic of Mafuyu slowly being able to move on from Yuki.
Not gonna lie, I wished there were slightly more rehearsal scenes where we got to hear excerpts of the main songs leading up to their final epic performance but in the case of Given, I totally can see why the author/director held off on showing the audience any main parts of the musical performance until that final pivotal moment in Episode 9 and also 3/4 in the Given Movie. The musical performances in Given are PURE CATHARSIS, prioritising the emotional release of a everything that was pent-up for ages before it explodes. So in this case, I can respect them holding rehearsal music off until those epic moments. Of course, as a musician, I still wished maybe they still delved a little bit more into the technicalities of music itself, and maybe slightly less reliant on the theme of 'genius'. But for 11 episodes, for what it's worth, they packed so much that short space of time, I really don't have that many complaints.
What I am so absolutely in love with this anime is that it is just the perfect balance of funny, heartfelt, excitement and then amidst the youthfulness of band practise, there is this inherent darkness. I don't know how they do it. While anime like Nana has funny moments, there is a very serious undertone kind of from the get go and you sort of know you're going to be in for an emotional rollercoaster, but with Given it almost creeps up on you and the next thing you know is you are on the verge of tears by Episode 9.
Dialogue is just so brilliantly written in the show. One of my favourite lines is what they described about loneliness, I think it was "The name of the bus stop. The colour of the sweat shirt I was wearing that day. The phrases and words that was popular to our conversation at that time. They slowly fade away. Ahhh That's loneliness. For the first time that day, I felt it on the stage." Especially those bits in italics, oh my goodness, so true, you forget how you speak to a loved one overtime, this even applies to forgotten friendships. Fuck it hits me deep in the feels man.
CHARACTER
I literally have so much I want to say about every single character in this show, please pray that I'll get to sleep in the next hour. But oh my goodness, the deep and complex characterisation in Given is what makes it completely stand out from any other romance anime. It literally makes my heart physically ache so much.
Given
Let's start with Mafuyu, once again tying to my earlier point, he looks like such a harmless cinnamon roll that I was not emotionally prepared for the darkness that actually resided inside of him. He is such a well-written character, he is emotionally repressed due to his abusive father and every time he seemed to express his emotion, something bad happens, especially looking back at his outburst with Yuki. In a sense, I think he has anxious attachment style from experiencing abandonment and abuse from his father, hence he had that fight with Yuki. He started music because he couldn't let go of Yuki, because of grief, but then through music, he found himself and a safe space for him to express himself without negative consequences, he found joy under the stage lights. And he found Uenoyama, who supported him no matter what. The only thing I think I wished the anime included was just a short 10 second scene where he was by himself and maybe had a monologue with Yuki. For a childhood best friend turned ex that passed away, I felt like just one more scene between the two of them, just needed a bit more closure, not a flashback but something a bit more present, like Mafuyu instead of carrying the Gibson in front of his arms, he carries it on his back. It will not only show that he has overcome his lonliness, but it then becomes a much clearer sense of moving forward because I did feel like from Mafuyu wrapping up his grief with Yuki to him going out with Ue was a bit too quick. I'm just thinking back to Full Moon wo Sagashite where the main girl literally was in depression for so long when she found out that her loved one died (a little too long), but it's only natural though and then when she slowly realised her love for the main guy, it felt a lot more resolute and grounded. I also really love how although softspoken and introverted, Mafuyu is surprisingly bold, especially when asking Ue out and Ue to stay when he's sick. This boy has guts! Also this boy is surprisingly perceptive as well, especially in the movie!
MAFUYU revisited 16th September 2021 - ok ok ok I have a new revelation about Mafuyu. Mafuyu didn't get over Yuki. Mafuyu actually just started the grieving process in the Given anime with the help of Ue in ep 9 of the Given anime. He only just started his 5 stages of grief. Previously he was completely frozen and in denial and now he's for the first time starting to come to terms with Yuki's death. Also MafuYama is complicated, Mafuyu is finding familiarity in the intensity of Uenoyama's love, like there is a few clear panels of Yuki and Uenoyama making the same facial expressions and the "five more minutes" symbolism. Mafuyu is finding comfort in the familiarity....OMG.....wow holy shit this love story is painful, gotta follow-up on the manga ASAP.
Uenoyama, he's such a tsundere but in the most wholesome way possible. He's a very kind person which I think is what made Mafuyu like him. Also I love the subversion compared to most other BL anime where the more 'masculine guy' is more aloof and cold but Ue is just gay panicking throughout the entire anime and I honestly live for it. I love how he recognises his jealousy, helps Mafuyu finish the song that technically Mafuyu and Yuki started together to help give him some way to process his pain, Ue is really caring and really encouraging. We stan a healthy shounen-ai relationship. OMFG, that "It's mutual" scene was so freaking hilarious, it reminded me of all of the Kyoko demons making decisions from Skip Beat!
Ue's mental farewell party vs. Kyoko's demons
Yuki, oh my freaking goodness, my heart aches for that boy. I know we only have 11 episodes, but I really wanted to know more about how he became the way he did and how he got into music. He's definitely Robin Williams sort of character, sunshine on the outside and darkness on the inside and hints of mental illness were scattered throughout the flashbacks. To be honest, I really really loved Yuki and Mafuyu's dynamic, the little moments they shared are so incredibly precious but mental illness was the ultimate killer and it's just so sad because we see this happen way too much even in real life. I like their dynamic so much because they seem to be in their own little world but I think Ue brings a new fire in Mafuyu that can be shared with the rest of the world. But to be honest, if Yuki came back by some miracle of the divine, I honestly wouldn't know who I would ship more. But in my little memory bubble, in my little time capsule, I'd just want Yuki and Mafuyu to exist for a little longer.
Hiiragi also deserves a special mention even though he is a side character. I really enjoyed the author's/director's inclusion of the paralysis of a friend dealing with a someone going through mental illness and someone dealing with anxious attachment style. Him asking for forgiveness and resuming a friendship with Mafuyu is just the wholesome friendship we need more of in today's society. The thing is, it's hard, it's hard to support people with mental illness! It's even harder when they are in their own little world, it feels like there is not much one can say. I really commend on the author and director for tackling such complex topics.
Given Movie
Haruki is just a cinnamon roll, he just deserves the entire world. I don't care what anyone says. His kindness is boundless. He is literally mum. The scene where Akihiko made a coerced non-consensual move on Haruki honestly made me so uncomfortable. My heart absolutely ached for Haruki, when he ran away crying when Akihiko emotionally barred him away even when it was Haruki everytime that offer him a place to stay and formed the band with him when he was on the verge of quitting music. Haruki deserves a Nobel Peace Prize or something, there is no purer bean on the planet. Really great for him that things worked out but I swear in Aki hurts him in any way later on I SWEAR TO GOD....
Akihiko is interesting. At first, I really liked his character in the Given anime! He's such a great role model and helped Mafuyama get together. But then in the Given movie. I disliked his character. A clear womaniser, a character with a clear inferiority complex that literally was the main cause of the break-up between him and Ugetsu. And then I realised the reason I really disliked his character was because I saw a bit of myself in him. The moment the Given Movie started, I thought to myself "Oh No.... I'm really going to relate to the love Hate that comes from falling for someone that's in the music industry". This love-hate or I guess inferiority complex is so incredibly painful and so relatable. You admire someone so much but because you also love music so much and as a musician, the line between where you start and where music starts is very blurred, your identity and music is almost as one, your emotion is the emotion in your music so when someone's better than you in music, it's like someone repeatingly stabbing you in your heart but at the same time, music is something you love, so you feel so much awe and wonder when you hear someone play music so beautifully. This self-contradiction that Akihiko feels cannot be put into words. As annoyed as I am at him because he literally sort of caused Ugetsu to realised that Akihiko is losing his passion for music because of all these conflicting emotions, it's just such a relatable thing for me as a composer. Also the very fact that Ugetsu seems to travel alot for work probably also made Akihiko very lonely and things just got more and more toxic as they were unable to pull away from one another.
What I absolutely loved in the end was Akihiko's change, he hurt Haruki so much, he lashes out when he's hurt and acts selfish and I REALLY appreciated that he asked for consent before touching Haruki in the final confession scene. That was so brilliant. It's really great that he was able to find joy and love in music again. I'm currently also trying to find joy and love in music as well so I hope that I can also find someone who can be on this journey with me.
Akihiko revisited 16th September 2021 - Ok I've come up with a new revelation and I don't want to excuse Akihiko for what he did but in one scene, akihiko actually says that whenever he stayed over at other people houses other people always “asked for something in return.” He “slept around and did things he couldn’t even joke about.” So new interpretation was that when he came over the haruki’s, what he did was awful, but for a second he thought it was what Haruki wanted because he knew that Haruki liked him so he thought that Haruki wanted something in return but then he was still hurting from the previous fight with Ugetsu so that’s why he was basically acting on angry impulse with Haruki and wasn’t listening to Haruki when Haruki was telling him to stop because clearly Haruki didn’t want things to happen this way because he saw how much pain Akihiko was in. So yes it was still an awful scene, but it gives a new level of insight that it’s not really actually super out of character for Akihiko, he always never felt like he had a place to call home becasue people always asked for potentially sexual favours in return so in that moment of hurt, he was like oh, "I might as well just be a sex doll to Haruki too since that’s all I am to ugetsu and other people".
And I think another interesting aspect is that Akihiko’s love language is touch. Like how he and ugetsu got together was also he hugs ugetsu and in the given anime when he’s flirting with haruki, he expresses it through touch. And as we see in the final confession scene, he confesses while hugging haruki. This is why when Ugetsu sleeps with other people, it hurts him so much so he lashes out and covers his own pain by sleep with other people too. This playboy part of him he tries to actually hide from haruki because it’s something that he needs but also he hates about himself.
I think what’s complex about akihikos character is that he discovers that haruki’s love language is actually words of validation, like Akihiko actually says some really insightful things sometimes and brings harukis self esteem up (like in the scene where Haruki feels inferior to the other band members). Also akihiko through living with haruki discovers that acts of service and other forms of love language are equally valuable and beautiful so I think it’s so powerful that in the given movie, we see this «physical scene » as an uncomfortable one but the rest of it is scenes of haruki and akihiko and their relationship blossoming in other love languages. So I actually really appreciated the mangaka's/directorial choice of them just hugging at the end and nothing more. Haruki and Akihiko, as shown in the anime are fantastic friends first and foremost that grew to understand each other on a deeper level in the movie.
And finally we have Ugetsu. My heart aches for him so so so much. This success and brilliance of a great musician is a tier of loneliness that very few will understand. Ugetsu loves Akihiko and music but he saw that his very presence was causing so much pain for Akihiko's self-esteem so he tried to tear away. But he didn't have the guts to completely do so which is why they just keep hurting each other even post-break up. Even though he acts aloof, this boy just wants what was best for Akihiko but when he finally left, it hurt like hell, but Mafuyu's song made him realise that he'll be ok. Fuck man, this is unfortunately the life of many musicians, music is such a large part of our livelihood, we chase it and chase it until all of our loved ones can no longer keep up with us so we let them go and watch them from afar with a soft smile. Our memories of those times spent together become memorialised in the music that we create. And in turn, it inspires and brings joy to others while we watch from afar. That's how it feels like to me to be a musician sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if the sacrifice is really worth it.
Sound
OP and ED grew on me. By the end of the anime I really liked them. But of course the stand out music is the entire OST of the anime. Once again I think Given is the perfect example of "simple is perfect", like if you carefully listen to some of the tracks, it's so simple but it allows your to really focus on the dialogue and the pacing and what the characters are trying to tell you rather than Kono Oto Tomare! where the music often felt too dramatic and emotionally prescriptive. But I hear a few violin harmonics and careful treatment of certain main themes so Given's music is definitely well carefully thought out crafted provides such a relaxing yet sometimes hauntingly nostalgic and painful atmosphere.
The voice acting of Uenoyama and Haruki are so adorable when they gay panic and I've got to give it to Mafuyu for wonderfully showing the progression of an amateur to a good singer.
ANIMATION
Gorgeous gorgeous colours. Especially all of the scenes of the band practice rooms and the stage performances, the night scenes. I don't know the budget for this anime but I could definitely tell a lot of care went into any musical performances whether on the violin or on stage.
Sometimes I saw a bit of inconsistency with the linework in some close-up and far-away shots of characters but this is so minute I literally don't even care.
This anime is I seriously believe, revolutionary in its genre. I've never seen such realistic shounen-ai representation in an anime before and such wonderfully complex characters. This will be a top favourite, I know I'll be rewatching this alot and referring a lot of my friends to watch this. What an incredibly underrated anime.
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Sep 11, 2021 8:33 AM | 0 comments
September 9th, 2021
My Thoughts on Jujutsu Kaisen (Sorcery Fight)
Anime Relations: Shingeki no Kyojin, Ansatsu Kyoushitsu, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Great Pretender, Kimetsu no Yaiba Movie: Mugen Ressha-hen, Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen was a very entertaining series to watch. I was a bit adversed to watching this series because the main character looked like Fairytail and I don't know why, I just didn't want to watch it. But I'm very glad that I gave it a go because I think it was worth a watch!
But how I feel about Jujutsu Kaisen is close to how I feel about Great Pretender, a joyful ride but I feel like they could have leaned a lot more into the potential that they had set-up for themselves.
The other recent shounen anime that I've watched Demon Slayer that I guess gives off a similar vibe and quite possibly on the same god-tier level of animation and music. BUT, I think it is better than Jujutsu Kaisen overall and there are a few reasons why so I will be making comparisons between the two quite a bit.
PLOT
There are many things that I find quite fun about Jujutsu Kaisen. I think the world-building in this anime is pretty well-done, I liked that different sorcerers are of different grades and that the grades of the cursed spirits can change actually quite quickly with each updated reassessments of each situation. I absolutely loved how strategic the fights were, the world-building is wonderfully clear and for the most-part, easy to follow and fight scenes were well strategised rather than just blatant fighting. This was so extremely well-done I cannot stress enough how amazing that was. In this particular arena, I think I enjoyed the strategy of the action more in Jujutsu Kaisen than Demon Slayer. However I must say that the emotional weight that I felt after watching each arc in Demon Slayer was a lot deeper. Jujutsu Kaisen I just really enjoyed the fighting and the characters' intellect and abilities while Demon Slayer I was rooting for someone or something to happen, I was emotionally invested.
I think that it was kind of cool to have recurring villains coming back in different forms and different settings, I think it is smart for general world building to have a few characters to focus on and therefore really savour in their growth and it's really exciting to see how battles evolve with different villains and sorcerers. There were many times I was in fact physically jawdroppingly reacting to what was happening on the screen which really goes to show that there are many epic moments in this anime.
I also think it's really fun to have it in an educational setting and the potential corruption within the educational setting itself. It sort of reminds me a little like Assassination Classroom in that respect. Jujutsu Kaisen was quite interesting because when Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event arc, I literally thought it was going to be a bit of a filler arc since we just wrapped up on such a crazy battle with Mahito, but then for that to turn into a killing mission then hijacked by the cursed spirits, it was plot twists after plot twists.
But I think this is something that I didn't quite like about the show. I felt like moments that held great potential for deeper developments were glossed over. How interesting that the there was corruption in the school? Why not keep going with that for a few episodes? Why was it interrupted by the cursed spirits as much as it was a plot twist? Looking back, it felt like me listening to something I was just getting myself into on radio and then someone changing the channel to something else that's good and then just as I am about to get into that, someone is changing the channel again. It's a bit frustrating. I feel like many moments they had such a good set-up of interesting themes and concepts, why not lean more into them?
I know that potentially the overall vibe of the show wasn't trying to be too serious or a deep-dive into certain themes but they just had such a good set-up, I would have really enjoyed it if they did.
CHARACTER
I like the duality of an antagonist and a protagonist in the same body although that's not something that hasn't been done before but nevertheless I was curious to see where it goes. I don't know if the show intended to have a birds-eye view of characterisation rather than us being drawn to any particular character but I found Yuji Itadori really unexciting. Like I know he's supposed to be more of a chill, care-free sort of guy but he's main drive a lot of the time is "he wants to lead people to their right deaths", which is literally just another way of saying he wants people to live long fulfilling lives. Once again, they had such an interesting set-up in that cursed womb arc where Megumi mentioned "what if you saved someone who later killed someone else?" and then that was touched on once at the end of the season. This could have been something that gave more character growth to Yuji Itadori rather than simply 'having to kill on the job' as his growth point. I don't know, I just personally found that point to be more interesting.
But once again, things that could be good are not leaned into very well. Gojo says he wants to reform the system but we hardly see him teach, he kind of just comes in and then leaves on missions. The three special grade just randomly dies at the end when we literally didn't hear about them at all until the last few episodes. Special grades just don't feel that special, it feels like anyone with some ounce of power can kind of reach there is sort of what I got from the 24 eps.
Character growth throughout the show is definitely there but a bit scattered I must say and I don't know if it's because the studio is trying to pack like all the characters growth into one 24-ep series but it was kind of poorly paced. We got some development of Nobara in the 3rd episode which I felt I was smacked with too early but then we got every other side student characters' development at the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event arc which was cool but then I was just like, I don't really care about these characters, why am I getting background info on them? Like don't get me wrong, they were great characters, I loved the duality between the sisters, the fights between the women characters especially. I personally wished that character development were more slowly revealed to us with a few interesting truth bombs. I loved that Nobara had some moments of epicness towards the end though, that was really awesome.
Characters that I think were such missed opportunities were Junpei, he would have been so interesting as a recurring character, doesn't matter on which side he exists on but so sad that he passed. Once again, I wished his passing affected Itadori more. Mahito is my favourite villain, even more than Sukuna, he's so playful and cunning. Sukuna, unless we get more sequels, hasn't really made me feel any particular way about him other than that he seems really obnoxious. This is where I feel like Demon Slayer really shined through. the Demons, especially with each arc, and that one particular scene where Michael Jackson slaughter a bunch of his lower moon demons, oh my goodness, it made me really scared for our cinnamon roll Tanjirou! While in Jujutsu Kaisen, nothing really feels like at stake. Yes, Itadori's life is always at stake, people are being affected by the curses in each arc but literally the only character I sort of kind of cared about was Junpei. That whole set-up dynamic between Mahito being evil but also kind of a mentor, Junpei a lost individual, his friendship with Itadori (which feels like the most organic friendship out of any other character btw) and the Itadori having to decide whether to kill him.....that could have been a whole anime altogether and I would have loved that.
A lot of the humour is slapstick, which is not really my kind of humor, but I see how it could be appealing to the general shounen masses. It's just a bit slapstick for the realistic artstyle. Also Aoi Todo, I get that him asking "what kind of woman are you into?" is part of his characterisation, but it got way too much screentime. I get that his bond with Itadori was pivotal in Itadori's elevation in abilities but in general, if this is part of a character's personality, it sort of taints that character for me. Like without it, Aoi Todo would have still been such a badass sorcerer. Demon Slayer's humour wasn't really my cup of tea until maybe the training episodes at Rose Mansion, I thought those were hilarious.
SOUND
Opening and Ending music is absolutely fantastic. All four OP and EDs are so catchy and fun to listen to, especially the 1st ED. OMG, it just makes me want to dance, it feels like one of those animated tiktok dance feels. I definitely did want to say that the general vibe of the OPs and EDs give the anime a bit of a contemporary Kpop vibe????
The background music is well constructed and pairs with the fighting scenes quite nicely. It is usually also what I noticed to be the first thing used to reset the mood of a new scene e.g. from a funny tone to a serious one. I can hear that the music is well thought through, the main theme of the opening (I think?) is interweaved in pivotal moments of battle scenes and the overall musical aesthetics blends well with the visual aesthetics of the anime. Genres of rap and hip-pop can be heard as influences in some of the tracks!
Voice acting is pretty good, I highly enjoyed Mahito's voice, I think it's so wonderfully sadistic. I think the voice actor did actually get some recognition or awards over that role I think!
Inumaki Toge's voice actor must have had the time of his life reading out ramen ingredients and getting paid.
ANIMATION
Is god-tier. I'm not usually one to be into action sequences, but I was honestly mesmerised by the action scenes in this anime. The pacing is so perfect and perfectly synced with moments of dialogue where we get to understand the intentions and thoughts behind the characters. If it were all action, I would have gotten bored easily but the pacing is just so perfect. I think it may have been Attack on Titan that revolutionised this CGI and camera angle with 2D animation but now we are seeing Jujutsu Kaisen perfecting it. It's truly absolutely incredible the impact that you feel of every move, every punch, every land, every wound. It would also make a hell of a drinking game for every time the camera shakes from impact haha.
I wanted to point out that I really enjoyed the use of negative colours in the colour pallets of the anime and the overall blue-ish hue. It gave such a cool, badass vibe to the anime.
I'm just gonna get this out there, Gojo Satoru is incredibly handsome and that's just a fact. I am also a huge fan of Megumi's eyelashes.
All in all, I think Jujutsu Kaisen is a very fun anime, I think it's for people who enjoys a lot of good action, good animation, good music and just something enjoyable and consumable. But like Great Pretender, I felt like there were just a few too many missed opportunities. If there are later sequels, I am interested to see how the characters develop and how the villains also develop.
But how I feel about Jujutsu Kaisen is close to how I feel about Great Pretender, a joyful ride but I feel like they could have leaned a lot more into the potential that they had set-up for themselves.
The other recent shounen anime that I've watched Demon Slayer that I guess gives off a similar vibe and quite possibly on the same god-tier level of animation and music. BUT, I think it is better than Jujutsu Kaisen overall and there are a few reasons why so I will be making comparisons between the two quite a bit.
PLOT
There are many things that I find quite fun about Jujutsu Kaisen. I think the world-building in this anime is pretty well-done, I liked that different sorcerers are of different grades and that the grades of the cursed spirits can change actually quite quickly with each updated reassessments of each situation. I absolutely loved how strategic the fights were, the world-building is wonderfully clear and for the most-part, easy to follow and fight scenes were well strategised rather than just blatant fighting. This was so extremely well-done I cannot stress enough how amazing that was. In this particular arena, I think I enjoyed the strategy of the action more in Jujutsu Kaisen than Demon Slayer. However I must say that the emotional weight that I felt after watching each arc in Demon Slayer was a lot deeper. Jujutsu Kaisen I just really enjoyed the fighting and the characters' intellect and abilities while Demon Slayer I was rooting for someone or something to happen, I was emotionally invested.
I think that it was kind of cool to have recurring villains coming back in different forms and different settings, I think it is smart for general world building to have a few characters to focus on and therefore really savour in their growth and it's really exciting to see how battles evolve with different villains and sorcerers. There were many times I was in fact physically jawdroppingly reacting to what was happening on the screen which really goes to show that there are many epic moments in this anime.
I also think it's really fun to have it in an educational setting and the potential corruption within the educational setting itself. It sort of reminds me a little like Assassination Classroom in that respect. Jujutsu Kaisen was quite interesting because when Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event arc, I literally thought it was going to be a bit of a filler arc since we just wrapped up on such a crazy battle with Mahito, but then for that to turn into a killing mission then hijacked by the cursed spirits, it was plot twists after plot twists.
But I think this is something that I didn't quite like about the show. I felt like moments that held great potential for deeper developments were glossed over. How interesting that the there was corruption in the school? Why not keep going with that for a few episodes? Why was it interrupted by the cursed spirits as much as it was a plot twist? Looking back, it felt like me listening to something I was just getting myself into on radio and then someone changing the channel to something else that's good and then just as I am about to get into that, someone is changing the channel again. It's a bit frustrating. I feel like many moments they had such a good set-up of interesting themes and concepts, why not lean more into them?
I know that potentially the overall vibe of the show wasn't trying to be too serious or a deep-dive into certain themes but they just had such a good set-up, I would have really enjoyed it if they did.
CHARACTER
I like the duality of an antagonist and a protagonist in the same body although that's not something that hasn't been done before but nevertheless I was curious to see where it goes. I don't know if the show intended to have a birds-eye view of characterisation rather than us being drawn to any particular character but I found Yuji Itadori really unexciting. Like I know he's supposed to be more of a chill, care-free sort of guy but he's main drive a lot of the time is "he wants to lead people to their right deaths", which is literally just another way of saying he wants people to live long fulfilling lives. Once again, they had such an interesting set-up in that cursed womb arc where Megumi mentioned "what if you saved someone who later killed someone else?" and then that was touched on once at the end of the season. This could have been something that gave more character growth to Yuji Itadori rather than simply 'having to kill on the job' as his growth point. I don't know, I just personally found that point to be more interesting.
But once again, things that could be good are not leaned into very well. Gojo says he wants to reform the system but we hardly see him teach, he kind of just comes in and then leaves on missions. The three special grade just randomly dies at the end when we literally didn't hear about them at all until the last few episodes. Special grades just don't feel that special, it feels like anyone with some ounce of power can kind of reach there is sort of what I got from the 24 eps.
Character growth throughout the show is definitely there but a bit scattered I must say and I don't know if it's because the studio is trying to pack like all the characters growth into one 24-ep series but it was kind of poorly paced. We got some development of Nobara in the 3rd episode which I felt I was smacked with too early but then we got every other side student characters' development at the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event arc which was cool but then I was just like, I don't really care about these characters, why am I getting background info on them? Like don't get me wrong, they were great characters, I loved the duality between the sisters, the fights between the women characters especially. I personally wished that character development were more slowly revealed to us with a few interesting truth bombs. I loved that Nobara had some moments of epicness towards the end though, that was really awesome.
Characters that I think were such missed opportunities were Junpei, he would have been so interesting as a recurring character, doesn't matter on which side he exists on but so sad that he passed. Once again, I wished his passing affected Itadori more. Mahito is my favourite villain, even more than Sukuna, he's so playful and cunning. Sukuna, unless we get more sequels, hasn't really made me feel any particular way about him other than that he seems really obnoxious. This is where I feel like Demon Slayer really shined through. the Demons, especially with each arc, and that one particular scene where Michael Jackson slaughter a bunch of his lower moon demons, oh my goodness, it made me really scared for our cinnamon roll Tanjirou! While in Jujutsu Kaisen, nothing really feels like at stake. Yes, Itadori's life is always at stake, people are being affected by the curses in each arc but literally the only character I sort of kind of cared about was Junpei. That whole set-up dynamic between Mahito being evil but also kind of a mentor, Junpei a lost individual, his friendship with Itadori (which feels like the most organic friendship out of any other character btw) and the Itadori having to decide whether to kill him.....that could have been a whole anime altogether and I would have loved that.
A lot of the humour is slapstick, which is not really my kind of humor, but I see how it could be appealing to the general shounen masses. It's just a bit slapstick for the realistic artstyle. Also Aoi Todo, I get that him asking "what kind of woman are you into?" is part of his characterisation, but it got way too much screentime. I get that his bond with Itadori was pivotal in Itadori's elevation in abilities but in general, if this is part of a character's personality, it sort of taints that character for me. Like without it, Aoi Todo would have still been such a badass sorcerer. Demon Slayer's humour wasn't really my cup of tea until maybe the training episodes at Rose Mansion, I thought those were hilarious.
SOUND
Opening and Ending music is absolutely fantastic. All four OP and EDs are so catchy and fun to listen to, especially the 1st ED. OMG, it just makes me want to dance, it feels like one of those animated tiktok dance feels. I definitely did want to say that the general vibe of the OPs and EDs give the anime a bit of a contemporary Kpop vibe????
The background music is well constructed and pairs with the fighting scenes quite nicely. It is usually also what I noticed to be the first thing used to reset the mood of a new scene e.g. from a funny tone to a serious one. I can hear that the music is well thought through, the main theme of the opening (I think?) is interweaved in pivotal moments of battle scenes and the overall musical aesthetics blends well with the visual aesthetics of the anime. Genres of rap and hip-pop can be heard as influences in some of the tracks!
Voice acting is pretty good, I highly enjoyed Mahito's voice, I think it's so wonderfully sadistic. I think the voice actor did actually get some recognition or awards over that role I think!
Inumaki Toge's voice actor must have had the time of his life reading out ramen ingredients and getting paid.
ANIMATION
Is god-tier. I'm not usually one to be into action sequences, but I was honestly mesmerised by the action scenes in this anime. The pacing is so perfect and perfectly synced with moments of dialogue where we get to understand the intentions and thoughts behind the characters. If it were all action, I would have gotten bored easily but the pacing is just so perfect. I think it may have been Attack on Titan that revolutionised this CGI and camera angle with 2D animation but now we are seeing Jujutsu Kaisen perfecting it. It's truly absolutely incredible the impact that you feel of every move, every punch, every land, every wound. It would also make a hell of a drinking game for every time the camera shakes from impact haha.
I wanted to point out that I really enjoyed the use of negative colours in the colour pallets of the anime and the overall blue-ish hue. It gave such a cool, badass vibe to the anime.
I'm just gonna get this out there, Gojo Satoru is incredibly handsome and that's just a fact. I am also a huge fan of Megumi's eyelashes.
All in all, I think Jujutsu Kaisen is a very fun anime, I think it's for people who enjoys a lot of good action, good animation, good music and just something enjoyable and consumable. But like Great Pretender, I felt like there were just a few too many missed opportunities. If there are later sequels, I am interested to see how the characters develop and how the villains also develop.
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Sep 9, 2021 3:04 AM | 0 comments
September 2nd, 2021
My Thoughts on Death Billiards and Death Parade
Anime Relations: Death Billiards, Death Parade
3rd September 2021 Death Billiards
I never actually realised that Death Parade was the fully fleshed out series of Death Billiards! Even though it was just a short 25 minute episode and although I had already seen Death Parade, it was still incredibly gripping and still I was gasping at certain plot twists and displays of human emotions. The camera work, the colours, the animation, even in this early version are absolutely stunning! I did like how later in Death Parade, they did decide to slowly reveal memories of the living throughout the game rather than all together towards the end, I think that paces things a lot better. Also, they definitely got sense of music for Death Parade but it's still so cool to see the high standard and amazing work in Death Billiards. Fantastic!
18th June 2015 Death Parade Thoughts
I finished Death Parade over two days, because it is a masterpiece!
Plot is so interesting, but don't watch it if you are not paying attention or about to fall asleep (guilty), there are so many plot twists, and each game that the dead play builds up with intensity, some heartwarming, some downright horrifying and the rules of the games are seriously so crazy. I love the atmosphere that the story is built around, the dead being judged in a bar is so chilled, but chillingly horrifying, and horrifyingly feelsy. Some bits are strangely hilarious, some bits seriously tugs on the heartstrings (ahemmmm Ep 11 and 12) I love it, and the ending is just.....ohoohohohoh man...!!
The characters are really really well developed, at first Decim seemed to give off a very emotionless and naive air about him, and then the gradual build-up to him showing his human emotions is seriously heartwarming. I also really liked how episodically, we get to know each of the dead that were being judged, you sympathise with them, laugh and cry with them. The one character that I felt was a little underdeveloped was the elevator guy, he seemed pretty happy as an arbiter, but I kinda want to know why???
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the music, the opening is just hilariously grand and funny, and the ending is strangely hauntingly sad. The piano BG music is just perfection, every music insertion throughout fitted the scene perfectly, making it either seriously hilarious, suspenseful or downright feelsy. The voice actors did a great job especially the one who did Decim's (he also voiced Hak for Yona of the Dawn and many others) who was amazing at controlling the amount of emotion shown in each episode. I also commend on each guest voice actor of the dead people (some went crazy so acting that out must be pretty tiring XD)
And the animation was absolute perfection, colours were so beautiful, the details of the bar and the character designs were so pretty, it's also pretty unique, which I like. I adore the eyes of the arbiters and the game designs, very intricately done. AS EXPECTED OF MADHOUSE!!!
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, love it! A true masterpiece!
I never actually realised that Death Parade was the fully fleshed out series of Death Billiards! Even though it was just a short 25 minute episode and although I had already seen Death Parade, it was still incredibly gripping and still I was gasping at certain plot twists and displays of human emotions. The camera work, the colours, the animation, even in this early version are absolutely stunning! I did like how later in Death Parade, they did decide to slowly reveal memories of the living throughout the game rather than all together towards the end, I think that paces things a lot better. Also, they definitely got sense of music for Death Parade but it's still so cool to see the high standard and amazing work in Death Billiards. Fantastic!
18th June 2015 Death Parade Thoughts
I finished Death Parade over two days, because it is a masterpiece!
Plot is so interesting, but don't watch it if you are not paying attention or about to fall asleep (guilty), there are so many plot twists, and each game that the dead play builds up with intensity, some heartwarming, some downright horrifying and the rules of the games are seriously so crazy. I love the atmosphere that the story is built around, the dead being judged in a bar is so chilled, but chillingly horrifying, and horrifyingly feelsy. Some bits are strangely hilarious, some bits seriously tugs on the heartstrings (ahemmmm Ep 11 and 12) I love it, and the ending is just.....ohoohohohoh man...!!
The characters are really really well developed, at first Decim seemed to give off a very emotionless and naive air about him, and then the gradual build-up to him showing his human emotions is seriously heartwarming. I also really liked how episodically, we get to know each of the dead that were being judged, you sympathise with them, laugh and cry with them. The one character that I felt was a little underdeveloped was the elevator guy, he seemed pretty happy as an arbiter, but I kinda want to know why???
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the music, the opening is just hilariously grand and funny, and the ending is strangely hauntingly sad. The piano BG music is just perfection, every music insertion throughout fitted the scene perfectly, making it either seriously hilarious, suspenseful or downright feelsy. The voice actors did a great job especially the one who did Decim's (he also voiced Hak for Yona of the Dawn and many others) who was amazing at controlling the amount of emotion shown in each episode. I also commend on each guest voice actor of the dead people (some went crazy so acting that out must be pretty tiring XD)
And the animation was absolute perfection, colours were so beautiful, the details of the bar and the character designs were so pretty, it's also pretty unique, which I like. I adore the eyes of the arbiters and the game designs, very intricately done. AS EXPECTED OF MADHOUSE!!!
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, love it! A true masterpiece!
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Sep 2, 2021 5:16 PM | 1 comments
September 1st, 2021
My Thoughts on the Ancient Magnus' Bride
Anime Relations: Natsume Yuujinchou, Haikyuu!!, Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu, Akatsuki no Yona, Mahoutsukai no Yome: Hoshi Matsu Hito, Mahoutsukai no Yome
After watching several school-club/passion-themed anime, I knew that I wanted a bit of a change of pace. Since being godforsakenly addicted to Yona of the Dawn, I have always been searching for other red-haired MCs that could give me the same vibrancy and vigor that Yona gave me. So when I came across Ancient Magnus' Bride, I was intrigued by Chise and Elias and was curious to see their development as characters.
PLOT AND CHARACTER
Once again, I feel like for a slice of life anime, the primary focus is on the characters and character development is a core of the plot so combining these categories is appropriate. I'm also gonna be making lots of comparisons between this anime and Natsume's Book of Friends because I truly do think Natsume is peak slice of life and fantasy.
Ancient Magnus' Bride is that it's....very consumable for a slice of life anime. Let me explain why I say this, I think with the outstandingly amazing animation and music (no doubt so I'm just gonna list it as straight facts) and the small cliffhangers at the ends of episodes, the combination of all that definitely tipped me over to eagerly click on the next episode, more so than for Natsume, which I could felt like I could actively decide "ok that's enough for today, I'm going to bed". I think Ancient Magnus' Bride balances the of slice of life and the pacing of the plot well enough to make the watching experience both relaxing and exciting.
I also like the palindromic feel of the story plot, we began with Chise, Elias and the Dragons, and the final arc was about the Dragons and side-characters made reappearances in later story-arcs as a core feature as well, per-say the vampire and the old man. I thought that was interesting (in not a good or bad way, just something I noticed) that I actually haven't previously witnessed in many other anime before. Recurring side characters may appear but less in an episodic focus sort of way. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well.
However, this is where the deep-dive.....is going to get a bit complicated for me to fully explain my thoughts so bear with me.
The anime takes on a rather serious tone most of the way throughout with some funny chibi moments scattered throughout. There are moments that are surprisingly dark and brutal so sometimes I feel like the funny moments seem poorly timed or nothing that I felt was incredibly memorable?
SIDE-CHARACTER-EPISODIC-STORY arcs
Ancient Magnus' Bride takes a sort of episodic story arc approach where they focus on a particular issue of a kingdom or side-character and the issue is usually resolved by Chise, which in turn slowly aids her character development (I'll talk about her in a second). There are some episodic story arcs that I thought were absolutely beautiful such as the dragons and the cats kingdom, but for the most part, I just couldn't for the life of me feel connected to the side characters. I honestly think there were a bit too many characters and it was kind of hard to keep track of in the end and yes, we did get some flashbacks into a lot of the side-character's past, but predominantly it was through 'telling' not 'showing' like for the most part, I didn't understand why I should care about so and so character. After seeing the flashbacks, I was like "oh that's sad or oh that's cool" but since they mostly turned up in Chise's life purely because they were curious about her as a sleigh beggy, because she can see them or "word travels fast she's the mage's apprentice", it feels like more of a 'circumstantial' bond than a deeper bond, therefore I just didn't really care that much about those characters.
So I thought a lot about this point and I remember there is also Death Parade which also has an PURELY episodic focus on side-characters as they play a bar game to determine their fate, I think what makes Death Parade much more of a gold-winner in that department is consistently, we see such a tremendous shift in the side-characters by the end of the episodes to the point that I've cried in a few episodes. Ancient Magnus' Bride for the most part, the only characters with notable development is maybe Joseph, Matthew and Ruth, Joseph probably being the most interesting character/foil to Chise out of all.
So ok, there is nothing wrong with not feeling attached to the side characters, like I don't particularly feel anything for any side characters in Natsume's Book of Friends, however side characters function in that anime as a support system for Natsume, like Chise, sees weird things and basically feels abandoned for most of his life but slowly because of his current strong HUMAN and YOKAI support system, he slowly opens up and allows himself to depend on others. One thing that Natsume's Book of Friends does really well is showing that even NORMAL HUMANS accept Natsume like his adoptive parents and his two male friends, the chick who crushes on him and that they accept him as who he is and give him the space to go and talk to them when he's ready on his own terms. This is one of the core issues I had with Ancient Magnus' Bride, Chise is accepted by magical creatures and by humans with magic, but we don't ever see her being accepted by a normal human. Of course, maybe that's not a core value that this anime is trying to embody, maybe the show is trying to say "hang out with those who share the same experiences as you" but then it felt conflicting because a core quote of the show seemed to be "we use words not to understand but to talk" and Elias said "those who hurt are humans, those who accepted me are also humans". So if humanity is such a core part of the show, I think they should have really honed in on the Stella arc, because that arc was wayyyy too skimmed over and could have really elevated this core study on humanity.
CHISE AND ELIAS
My feelings about our two main leads are kind of complicated but I'll say what I like about those two.
I don't know if this was an intent of the mangaka/studio, but Chise and Elias "romantic interactions" came across as somewhat of a good representation of ace-romantic relationships. Their hugs, their rubbing faces, them sleeping in the same bed without the allusion to otherwise gross-activity, I think is actually kind of refreshing! In anime, we often see either the frustratingly lack of romantic interactions between a definitively hetero-normative couple (I am looking at the majority of early 2000s shoujo anime) or we see way too much sexual content without good reason. Ancient Magnus' Bride does that well to provide a real strong sense of bond without it needing to dive into sexual declarations of love. It also illustrates that within a romantic relationship, the role of teacher-student shifts depending on what each partner is good at and can offer to help the other partner. I think often in relationships, partners often switches between the roles of caretaker and care-receiver depending on what stage of life, depression, circumstances, health etc. It was really nice to see these different facets of love presented in the one anime.
Ok, so the main purpose of the slice of life is the focus on the characters and what you are getting is that 'slice' of their lives so I think a key purpose for a successful slice of life is to present characters that are engaging and makes the audience fully want to be invested in those characters' lives.
I guess I was invested, I think largely because of the combination of the animation and music. The biggest problem I have with Chise and Elias we are held at a psychic distance from our main characters the whole way through the show. Chise seems to be the only one able to read Elias and anime gave no explanations on what Chise notices about Elias or how she could tell that Elias is feeling a certain emotion. We as audience just kind of have to take her word for it. Even though a huge part of the development is focused on Elia's vulnerability and learning to recognise human emotions, we literally (other than his angry/jealous outbursts), we as audience cannot tell when he's feeling happy or sad or relieved. There is no vulnerability that we can see, but only be told through Chise. Hahahha, it's not that I don't trust Chise but hear me out. So here is already a character that we find hard to establish emotional connection with because of how stoic he seems and now with Chise, as much as I loved a nihilistic quiet girl that turned into a hopeful quiet girl, a stoic character and a quiet girl just isn't a very engaging pairing to me. But with Natsume's Book of Friends, we have a quiet Natsume and a very funny and fiesty and sometimes extremely serious demeanor, making him a really nice contrast and bringing out a fiestier aspect of Natsume. The pairing with Chise and Elias just feels a bit boring. If we also take Beauty and the Beast which features a similar couple dynamic, the audience can really love and connect with the beast because of how animated his expression is.
But I feel like I'm observing Chise and Elias while I feel like I'm part of the squad in Natsume
To be honest, I think I do appreciate the character development of Chise, from becoming unwilling to live to sacrificing herself too easily (which foils nicely with Joseph, I really liked the final arc), and then coming to a compromise with Elias where they will discuss things together if they encounter problems. I think that's a really nice healthy relationship ending. But I do (after reading online comments) think that they really rushed past the whole Elias sacrificing Stella thing getting a slap on the wrist and the marriage thing in the end.
ANIMATION
Really have nothing to say here other than that it is absolutely breathtakingly spectacular. Literally every frame could be a background wallpaper and the way creatures transform or dissolve. I don't know why it's so satisfying watching Lindel's two loose pigtails flowing in the wind, it's just so satisfying. Gorgeous blend of the modern world with the historical/fantasy old-european world, it's quite rare to see that in an anime. Some of the side character designs kind of remind me of the parasyte-humans from parasyte the maxim, just something I noticed.
MUSIC
Don't really mind OP 1 & 2 and ED 1 but ED 2 I actually grew to really like. I LOVED the use of songs in this anime, magic has a long history with chants and songs so I think it was beautiful that they had gorgeous songs and lullabies sang by the characters.
I LOVED the main theme of the anime that I could hear was reorchestrated many times to fit the mood of each scene it was used in. The Background music was a gorgeous blend of celtic and electronic influences, really really nice.
Oh my goodness, I felt so much joy finding out that Chise's voice actress was also Hozoki's from LITERALLY the anime I watched before this one.
Also the amount of Haikyuu!! cast:
- Elias is Ushijima
- Ruth is Tsukishima
- Lindel is Oikawa
But the absolute standout was Cartiphilis/Joseph is freaking Hinata! Murase Ayumu did such a wonderful job acting as a villain and portrayed his pain beautifully.
Ancient Magnus' Bride was a fun ride but it's one of those anime that I'll probably just watch once. MUSIC and ANIMATION absolutely made this anime and made it enjoyable, however it's definitely not one of those anime that will be particularly memorable to me. I am aware that the two is very different, but I think that's why Yona of the Dawn has almost double the amount of MAL favourites in comparison to Ancient Magnus Bride, despite them being both on roughly 700000 MAL members' radars. Yona does character development in a way that makes you physically hurt for the characters when they hurt and comedic moments are fantastically timed. Ahhhh, guess just because they are redheads doesn't mean that they are all memorable (from an anime character perspective haha).
This is why I think there should be a rating for how much you enjoyed an anime in the moment and how much you rate it for its rewatch value.
PLOT AND CHARACTER
Once again, I feel like for a slice of life anime, the primary focus is on the characters and character development is a core of the plot so combining these categories is appropriate. I'm also gonna be making lots of comparisons between this anime and Natsume's Book of Friends because I truly do think Natsume is peak slice of life and fantasy.
Ancient Magnus' Bride is that it's....very consumable for a slice of life anime. Let me explain why I say this, I think with the outstandingly amazing animation and music (no doubt so I'm just gonna list it as straight facts) and the small cliffhangers at the ends of episodes, the combination of all that definitely tipped me over to eagerly click on the next episode, more so than for Natsume, which I could felt like I could actively decide "ok that's enough for today, I'm going to bed". I think Ancient Magnus' Bride balances the of slice of life and the pacing of the plot well enough to make the watching experience both relaxing and exciting.
I also like the palindromic feel of the story plot, we began with Chise, Elias and the Dragons, and the final arc was about the Dragons and side-characters made reappearances in later story-arcs as a core feature as well, per-say the vampire and the old man. I thought that was interesting (in not a good or bad way, just something I noticed) that I actually haven't previously witnessed in many other anime before. Recurring side characters may appear but less in an episodic focus sort of way. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well.
However, this is where the deep-dive.....is going to get a bit complicated for me to fully explain my thoughts so bear with me.
The anime takes on a rather serious tone most of the way throughout with some funny chibi moments scattered throughout. There are moments that are surprisingly dark and brutal so sometimes I feel like the funny moments seem poorly timed or nothing that I felt was incredibly memorable?
SIDE-CHARACTER-EPISODIC-STORY arcs
Ancient Magnus' Bride takes a sort of episodic story arc approach where they focus on a particular issue of a kingdom or side-character and the issue is usually resolved by Chise, which in turn slowly aids her character development (I'll talk about her in a second). There are some episodic story arcs that I thought were absolutely beautiful such as the dragons and the cats kingdom, but for the most part, I just couldn't for the life of me feel connected to the side characters. I honestly think there were a bit too many characters and it was kind of hard to keep track of in the end and yes, we did get some flashbacks into a lot of the side-character's past, but predominantly it was through 'telling' not 'showing' like for the most part, I didn't understand why I should care about so and so character. After seeing the flashbacks, I was like "oh that's sad or oh that's cool" but since they mostly turned up in Chise's life purely because they were curious about her as a sleigh beggy, because she can see them or "word travels fast she's the mage's apprentice", it feels like more of a 'circumstantial' bond than a deeper bond, therefore I just didn't really care that much about those characters.
So I thought a lot about this point and I remember there is also Death Parade which also has an PURELY episodic focus on side-characters as they play a bar game to determine their fate, I think what makes Death Parade much more of a gold-winner in that department is consistently, we see such a tremendous shift in the side-characters by the end of the episodes to the point that I've cried in a few episodes. Ancient Magnus' Bride for the most part, the only characters with notable development is maybe Joseph, Matthew and Ruth, Joseph probably being the most interesting character/foil to Chise out of all.
So ok, there is nothing wrong with not feeling attached to the side characters, like I don't particularly feel anything for any side characters in Natsume's Book of Friends, however side characters function in that anime as a support system for Natsume, like Chise, sees weird things and basically feels abandoned for most of his life but slowly because of his current strong HUMAN and YOKAI support system, he slowly opens up and allows himself to depend on others. One thing that Natsume's Book of Friends does really well is showing that even NORMAL HUMANS accept Natsume like his adoptive parents and his two male friends, the chick who crushes on him and that they accept him as who he is and give him the space to go and talk to them when he's ready on his own terms. This is one of the core issues I had with Ancient Magnus' Bride, Chise is accepted by magical creatures and by humans with magic, but we don't ever see her being accepted by a normal human. Of course, maybe that's not a core value that this anime is trying to embody, maybe the show is trying to say "hang out with those who share the same experiences as you" but then it felt conflicting because a core quote of the show seemed to be "we use words not to understand but to talk" and Elias said "those who hurt are humans, those who accepted me are also humans". So if humanity is such a core part of the show, I think they should have really honed in on the Stella arc, because that arc was wayyyy too skimmed over and could have really elevated this core study on humanity.
CHISE AND ELIAS
My feelings about our two main leads are kind of complicated but I'll say what I like about those two.
I don't know if this was an intent of the mangaka/studio, but Chise and Elias "romantic interactions" came across as somewhat of a good representation of ace-romantic relationships. Their hugs, their rubbing faces, them sleeping in the same bed without the allusion to otherwise gross-activity, I think is actually kind of refreshing! In anime, we often see either the frustratingly lack of romantic interactions between a definitively hetero-normative couple (I am looking at the majority of early 2000s shoujo anime) or we see way too much sexual content without good reason. Ancient Magnus' Bride does that well to provide a real strong sense of bond without it needing to dive into sexual declarations of love. It also illustrates that within a romantic relationship, the role of teacher-student shifts depending on what each partner is good at and can offer to help the other partner. I think often in relationships, partners often switches between the roles of caretaker and care-receiver depending on what stage of life, depression, circumstances, health etc. It was really nice to see these different facets of love presented in the one anime.
Ok, so the main purpose of the slice of life is the focus on the characters and what you are getting is that 'slice' of their lives so I think a key purpose for a successful slice of life is to present characters that are engaging and makes the audience fully want to be invested in those characters' lives.
I guess I was invested, I think largely because of the combination of the animation and music. The biggest problem I have with Chise and Elias we are held at a psychic distance from our main characters the whole way through the show. Chise seems to be the only one able to read Elias and anime gave no explanations on what Chise notices about Elias or how she could tell that Elias is feeling a certain emotion. We as audience just kind of have to take her word for it. Even though a huge part of the development is focused on Elia's vulnerability and learning to recognise human emotions, we literally (other than his angry/jealous outbursts), we as audience cannot tell when he's feeling happy or sad or relieved. There is no vulnerability that we can see, but only be told through Chise. Hahahha, it's not that I don't trust Chise but hear me out. So here is already a character that we find hard to establish emotional connection with because of how stoic he seems and now with Chise, as much as I loved a nihilistic quiet girl that turned into a hopeful quiet girl, a stoic character and a quiet girl just isn't a very engaging pairing to me. But with Natsume's Book of Friends, we have a quiet Natsume and a very funny and fiesty and sometimes extremely serious demeanor, making him a really nice contrast and bringing out a fiestier aspect of Natsume. The pairing with Chise and Elias just feels a bit boring. If we also take Beauty and the Beast which features a similar couple dynamic, the audience can really love and connect with the beast because of how animated his expression is.
But I feel like I'm observing Chise and Elias while I feel like I'm part of the squad in Natsume
To be honest, I think I do appreciate the character development of Chise, from becoming unwilling to live to sacrificing herself too easily (which foils nicely with Joseph, I really liked the final arc), and then coming to a compromise with Elias where they will discuss things together if they encounter problems. I think that's a really nice healthy relationship ending. But I do (after reading online comments) think that they really rushed past the whole Elias sacrificing Stella thing getting a slap on the wrist and the marriage thing in the end.
ANIMATION
Really have nothing to say here other than that it is absolutely breathtakingly spectacular. Literally every frame could be a background wallpaper and the way creatures transform or dissolve. I don't know why it's so satisfying watching Lindel's two loose pigtails flowing in the wind, it's just so satisfying. Gorgeous blend of the modern world with the historical/fantasy old-european world, it's quite rare to see that in an anime. Some of the side character designs kind of remind me of the parasyte-humans from parasyte the maxim, just something I noticed.
Elias as a human vs. Parasyte made me scared that he was going to randomly rip people into shreds (-_-")
MUSIC
Don't really mind OP 1 & 2 and ED 1 but ED 2 I actually grew to really like. I LOVED the use of songs in this anime, magic has a long history with chants and songs so I think it was beautiful that they had gorgeous songs and lullabies sang by the characters.
I LOVED the main theme of the anime that I could hear was reorchestrated many times to fit the mood of each scene it was used in. The Background music was a gorgeous blend of celtic and electronic influences, really really nice.
Oh my goodness, I felt so much joy finding out that Chise's voice actress was also Hozoki's from LITERALLY the anime I watched before this one.
Also the amount of Haikyuu!! cast:
- Elias is Ushijima
- Ruth is Tsukishima
- Lindel is Oikawa
But the absolute standout was Cartiphilis/Joseph is freaking Hinata! Murase Ayumu did such a wonderful job acting as a villain and portrayed his pain beautifully.
Ancient Magnus' Bride was a fun ride but it's one of those anime that I'll probably just watch once. MUSIC and ANIMATION absolutely made this anime and made it enjoyable, however it's definitely not one of those anime that will be particularly memorable to me. I am aware that the two is very different, but I think that's why Yona of the Dawn has almost double the amount of MAL favourites in comparison to Ancient Magnus Bride, despite them being both on roughly 700000 MAL members' radars. Yona does character development in a way that makes you physically hurt for the characters when they hurt and comedic moments are fantastically timed. Ahhhh, guess just because they are redheads doesn't mean that they are all memorable (from an anime character perspective haha).
This is why I think there should be a rating for how much you enjoyed an anime in the moment and how much you rate it for its rewatch value.
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Sep 1, 2021 7:01 PM | 0 comments
August 27th, 2021
My Thoughts on Kono Oto Tomare!
Anime Relations: Nana, Natsume Yuujinchou, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000%, Chihayafuru, Haikyuu!!, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, Yuri!!! on Ice, Made in Abyss, Ballroom e Youkoso, Kono Oto Tomare!, Kono Oto Tomare! Part 2
I don't know why as a musician/composer, I have so many PTW music-themed anime but I always feel to some degree a bit too scared to start them. But somehow after coming across Kono Oto Tomare! on a funny anime moments compilation video on youtube, I decided to give this series a try. I was curious about this series because of a few reasons:
1) I saw a noticeable difference between MAL score for the first and second seasons
2) the art looked so clean and beautiful, similar to that Chihayafuru, one of my favourite josei series. I was so surprised to also find out that Kono Oto Tomare! was in fact labelled as shounen so I was curious as to see how a club-focused anime on a traditional instrument such as the koto would play out.
After completing both seasons I have to say, I'm really glad I gave this series a go! But I do have quite a bit of mixed feelings around it. And I think partially that comes from my background in music.
I want to talk about music in this anime as three separate things:
1) Music as a plot and thematic device, now be labelled as "Musical Practice"
2) Diegetic music any music that the characters play and hear that are the "Koto music"
3) Non-diegetic music that enhance the drama of the story that the characters can't hear which are the bgm "background music"
THEME - MUSICAL PRACTICE
Musical Practice in this anime is dealt with absolutely fantastically. To be honest, I was nervous for this anime because it is something quite complicated and might not able to be well-illustrated or explained to someone without formal musical training, but this anime actually does this quite well. Kono Oto Tomare! was able to cover quite complex issues such as:
a) Teaching and Performing are different things
b) trust between duet partners
c) watching someone play and explaining music works differently for people (Chika is 100% a visual learner)
d) Performance anxiety and how to overcome it
e) Ensemble dynamics on and off-stage, how to recover on-stage
f) cues (Houzuki giving a louder downbeat and Kouta helping everyone mentally recover
g) the importance of focusing on polishing the basics and even one note
h) difference between classical and modern repertoires
i) difference between what judges value in competitions
j) composition and arrangement and the relationship between the creator and performer
h) roles within the ensemble and how to bring out the abilities of your other players
I am so incredibly impressed at the vastness of issues that the managed to cover in a mere 26 episodes of 2 seasons. I think it was a huge feat that the mangaka/studio tried to incorporate all of that on top of trying to get the audience comfortable with the koto, which I presume alot of people actually won't know much about or even heard about. Tackling Musical Practice and especially one that is instrumental, rather than vocal (like in NANA), without words it's quite hard to explain music. I felt like they managed to explain the key aspects of musical playing and ensemble work quite well.
Of course as a composer, I liked the focus on composition and arranging, I wished there was even more of a focus on that, I wished more music anime focused on the art of composition.
I also really enjoyed their tackling of the Festival Arc performance, when someone makes a mistake, people spiralling and then them recovering mid-performance and it changes the mood of the performance. That's absolutely something that happens in real life and that Episode 13 Season 1 was really well written. Another highlight was when Touka couldn't understand the upbeats and the club advisor helped him (kinaesthetically) to remove a sticky-note. Changes in ways of teaching really changes the results of how well students receive the knowledge!
PLOT AND CHARACTER
Since the story is so inherently tied to character growth and dynamics, I think it's inevitable that I talk about these two categories together. This is also the section of the blog where my feelings for this anime gets a bit murky.
Once again, I wanted to say, I think it's really interesting just how much character development they tried to pack into 26 episodes. Not only did we get background and flashbacks on all of our main characters but also our rival school teams as well as the the teachers and I really liked the consistent highlight of the relationship between the elderly and the youth. It's really adorable that the old grandma and Chika's grandpa made constant appearances and definitely are shown to have had a huge positive impact on Chika and the other characters. I think it's really refreshing to see that in an anime, especially also when dealing with a traditional instrument such as the Koto, the threads between historical and modern worlds are strongly tied.
I also enjoyed the foil of Houzuki and Akira, both were in a way rivals to begin with but they were equally sustaining pressures from the older generation and music became less fun. As a musician, I really related to that.
I did absolutely adore about the anime are:
a) the humour moments between the characters
b) THANK GOODNESS, no fan-service!
c) The amazing amount of focus on the female characters. I loved the focus on all the main female leads and their struggles. This is why even after watching it, it felt so much like a Josei anime to me.
d) the show has amazing dialogue and quotes that were extremely profound and actually
However, the focus on the sheer LARGE number of characters and their growth was certainly, at least in my opinion, a double-edged sword for Kono Oto Tomare! Each of the character's focus/flashbacks are episodic and in some ways, heart-felt moments are glossed over too quickly while some moments felt too dramaticised....A whole 10 minutes dedicated to flashbacks feel really off. It maybe got slightly better in the second season but generally speaking, this vast focus on many characters made me feel like I was playing a role-playing game like Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ because there was character growth don't get me wrong, they feel interrupted or could have slowly been revealed over several episodes.
I don't know if the studio was trying to take an approach similar to Haikyuu!!, but I think the reason why Haikyuu works well in the later seasons by episodically focusing on the other characters is because the other teams are well assigned in a prescribed role on the court, there are already pre-established lovable foils of them in the Kurasuno team. This is why I think the audience loves them straight away and that small episodic flashback enhances the love that we already feel for them while also highlighting the small quirks that makes them unique. Take Atsumu and Osumu, immediately looking at them for two seconds, their competitiveness feel akeen to Hinata and Kageyama's. Kono Oto Tomare! doesn't quite work because in ensembles, roles change as with each piece and the characters in the rival schools are incredibly different from our Tokise High School. But that's not to say they weren't cool characters, they were, but I wished the studio were more selective about which characters to focus on and TAKE THEIR TIME in allowing us as the audience to form a genuine and strong bond with our characters.
MUSIC
Another incredibly murky category. The thing that frustrates me about this anime is that there are things that are done SO INCREDIBLY WELL and then there are things that are subpar in comparison.
The Koto Music in this anime is absolutely stunning. I know nothing about koto music or the instrument.Every single koto piece that was showcased in this anime was so beautiful. It was such a delight for me to find out that actually Migiwa Hashimoto, the sister of the mangaka actually wrote Tenkyu and some of the other pieces. At first, I didn't really care for Tenkyu when I heard the opening, but the arrangement, despite it being similar to a 4-chord modern song, is actually quite complicated and beautiful. I was incredibly impressed at how touching that piece is. I very much enjoyed the wealth of repertoires from the other schools as well as Tenkyu's transformation from a 'desperate scream' into a 'warm-cry'. I loved how each time, I could hear the Koto club levelling up in their skill-level in each subsequent repertoire that they performed.
HOWEVER, the background music....especially for a music anime....was mediocre to say the least and the treatment of it was so disappointing at its worst. I don't really like any of the OP and ED themes, I enjoyed the cool Koto arrangement of the first OP theme and that's it. BUT, the biggest let-down isn't the background music itself, it's the poor placement, editing and directing of the music.
Firstly, background music was playing at least 95% of the time. The overuse of music means that the audience don't have enough time to gather their own emotions. Emotions are prescribed to them and they can distract from the wonderful dialogue that we actually have in the show.
Secondly, the background music feels like it came straight out of a music library and transitions weren't carefully considered at all. Take for example, in certain scenes, Chika would say something profound that was heartwarming for another character and then all of a sudden it was back to humour but there is literally no fade or anything sort of harmonic transition that made the background music in this anime cohesive at all. But take Made in Abyss where the background music is seamlessly weaved together and the transition from creeping dread to devastating dread is gorgeously illustrated. Or take any episode of Natsume's Book of Friends and listen to how seamless the final piano track melts into the ED credits of each episode. Natsume doesn't even have a mindblowing ost at all but you can definitely tell that the music editting was carefully considered to allow emotions to be paced well and flow comfortably from one scene to another. Kono Oto Tomare! made me disappointed in the music department because for a music-themed anime, I guess my expectations were set higher than most anime when listening out for the music and I feel so conflicted because the standards between the Koto music and the background music are worlds apart.
Voice acting was good! I didn't have much to comment about it! I think the female voice actors portrayed the females really well, especially Houzoki slowly becoming less cold and warmer.
ANIMATION
Art style is really clean and beautiful! The colours and really soft and pleasant on the eyes, which is another reason why I thought this anime was josei or shoujo! It kind of makes me wonder why we have these categories in the first place for club-themed/passion-themed animes, I think we shouldn't categorise them based on gendered demographic since they are really similar!
So much of the anime kind of reminded of other anime, which I guess is not a good thing or a bad thing, like I think that's why in the first place it sort of drew me to watching the anime. Like the three idiots in this anime reminded of of the three idiots in Maid Sama, some of the character designs reminded of Your Lie in April. However, I feel like the character designs were a bit plain, I wished there were something small aesthetically about them that were added to make them stand out from all the other school-based anime.
But ok, what is up with their school uniform pants? I am not a fan of their school uniform pants hahhahah...
I don't know the budget for this anime but I can 100% tell that the studio spent all their budget on Ep 5, Ep 13 S1 and Ep 12 of S2, which are all the main Koto Performances sequences. The animation of the Koto performances are absolutely breathtaking, the camera angles, the smoothness of the hand movements, the vibration of the strings, the body movements of the players, the visualisations of the notes and the score, everything is superbly done. So therefore, it saddens me to say that therefore the other episodes just felt a bit underwhelming because there was a lot of still-pan shots. But I think they got away with a lot of it because of how pretty the colours and the clean look of the art-style is.
I wished, and this is in relation to the story, music and animation categories, that they just showed the rehearsal koto pieces for a bit longer. This is what I noticed a lot with other "arts/sports-related" anime, (I also gave Welcome to the Ballroom this feedback) that because I think the studios are scared that showing us the final product multiple times because they think that multiple showings could lose our reaction to the final stage performance, we get like literally 1 second snapshots of characters rehearsing the piece or demonstrating a piece in rehearsals. I don't think so! Academic research shows that familiarity of a piece/work through repetition actually enhances how much we like a work! I don't think they needed to show an entire performance, but literally we got max 10 seconds of a piece during rehearsals and that's simply not enough. An anime I think that does this well to show the evolution of a work improving is Yuri!! on Ice where we see a few repetitions of the same work, Eros, first danced by Victor, then subtle improvements from Yuri as the series progresses. I think that was so superbly well done and one of the most memorable performances according to that anime's fandom.
Kono Oto Tomare! is such an interesting anime because I don't think a music anime has really made me think this hard about 'music' in an anime before and how it's treated and utilised or how it's addressed as a story device. All in all, I am really glad I watched it and i want to commend on Platinum Vision for giving this a really good crack! I am aware that this studio has only been operating for 5 years (3 if you consider when this anime was released!) and they decided to take many risks with this anime, they tried to pack so much into 26 episodes. Also LOVE the amount of FEMALE development in this anime! This studio has a lot of potential! I will be expecting a lot more from them in the coming years and I know that they will get up there with the big names like Madhouse and Kyoto Animation and create some truly amazing works!
1) I saw a noticeable difference between MAL score for the first and second seasons
2) the art looked so clean and beautiful, similar to that Chihayafuru, one of my favourite josei series. I was so surprised to also find out that Kono Oto Tomare! was in fact labelled as shounen so I was curious as to see how a club-focused anime on a traditional instrument such as the koto would play out.
After completing both seasons I have to say, I'm really glad I gave this series a go! But I do have quite a bit of mixed feelings around it. And I think partially that comes from my background in music.
I want to talk about music in this anime as three separate things:
1) Music as a plot and thematic device, now be labelled as "Musical Practice"
2) Diegetic music any music that the characters play and hear that are the "Koto music"
3) Non-diegetic music that enhance the drama of the story that the characters can't hear which are the bgm "background music"
THEME - MUSICAL PRACTICE
Musical Practice in this anime is dealt with absolutely fantastically. To be honest, I was nervous for this anime because it is something quite complicated and might not able to be well-illustrated or explained to someone without formal musical training, but this anime actually does this quite well. Kono Oto Tomare! was able to cover quite complex issues such as:
a) Teaching and Performing are different things
b) trust between duet partners
c) watching someone play and explaining music works differently for people (Chika is 100% a visual learner)
d) Performance anxiety and how to overcome it
e) Ensemble dynamics on and off-stage, how to recover on-stage
f) cues (Houzuki giving a louder downbeat and Kouta helping everyone mentally recover
g) the importance of focusing on polishing the basics and even one note
h) difference between classical and modern repertoires
i) difference between what judges value in competitions
j) composition and arrangement and the relationship between the creator and performer
h) roles within the ensemble and how to bring out the abilities of your other players
I am so incredibly impressed at the vastness of issues that the managed to cover in a mere 26 episodes of 2 seasons. I think it was a huge feat that the mangaka/studio tried to incorporate all of that on top of trying to get the audience comfortable with the koto, which I presume alot of people actually won't know much about or even heard about. Tackling Musical Practice and especially one that is instrumental, rather than vocal (like in NANA), without words it's quite hard to explain music. I felt like they managed to explain the key aspects of musical playing and ensemble work quite well.
Of course as a composer, I liked the focus on composition and arranging, I wished there was even more of a focus on that, I wished more music anime focused on the art of composition.
I also really enjoyed their tackling of the Festival Arc performance, when someone makes a mistake, people spiralling and then them recovering mid-performance and it changes the mood of the performance. That's absolutely something that happens in real life and that Episode 13 Season 1 was really well written. Another highlight was when Touka couldn't understand the upbeats and the club advisor helped him (kinaesthetically) to remove a sticky-note. Changes in ways of teaching really changes the results of how well students receive the knowledge!
PLOT AND CHARACTER
Since the story is so inherently tied to character growth and dynamics, I think it's inevitable that I talk about these two categories together. This is also the section of the blog where my feelings for this anime gets a bit murky.
Once again, I wanted to say, I think it's really interesting just how much character development they tried to pack into 26 episodes. Not only did we get background and flashbacks on all of our main characters but also our rival school teams as well as the the teachers and I really liked the consistent highlight of the relationship between the elderly and the youth. It's really adorable that the old grandma and Chika's grandpa made constant appearances and definitely are shown to have had a huge positive impact on Chika and the other characters. I think it's really refreshing to see that in an anime, especially also when dealing with a traditional instrument such as the Koto, the threads between historical and modern worlds are strongly tied.
I also enjoyed the foil of Houzuki and Akira, both were in a way rivals to begin with but they were equally sustaining pressures from the older generation and music became less fun. As a musician, I really related to that.
I did absolutely adore about the anime are:
a) the humour moments between the characters
b) THANK GOODNESS, no fan-service!
c) The amazing amount of focus on the female characters. I loved the focus on all the main female leads and their struggles. This is why even after watching it, it felt so much like a Josei anime to me.
d) the show has amazing dialogue and quotes that were extremely profound and actually
However, the focus on the sheer LARGE number of characters and their growth was certainly, at least in my opinion, a double-edged sword for Kono Oto Tomare! Each of the character's focus/flashbacks are episodic and in some ways, heart-felt moments are glossed over too quickly while some moments felt too dramaticised....A whole 10 minutes dedicated to flashbacks feel really off. It maybe got slightly better in the second season but generally speaking, this vast focus on many characters made me feel like I was playing a role-playing game like Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ because there was character growth don't get me wrong, they feel interrupted or could have slowly been revealed over several episodes.
I don't know if the studio was trying to take an approach similar to Haikyuu!!, but I think the reason why Haikyuu works well in the later seasons by episodically focusing on the other characters is because the other teams are well assigned in a prescribed role on the court, there are already pre-established lovable foils of them in the Kurasuno team. This is why I think the audience loves them straight away and that small episodic flashback enhances the love that we already feel for them while also highlighting the small quirks that makes them unique. Take Atsumu and Osumu, immediately looking at them for two seconds, their competitiveness feel akeen to Hinata and Kageyama's. Kono Oto Tomare! doesn't quite work because in ensembles, roles change as with each piece and the characters in the rival schools are incredibly different from our Tokise High School. But that's not to say they weren't cool characters, they were, but I wished the studio were more selective about which characters to focus on and TAKE THEIR TIME in allowing us as the audience to form a genuine and strong bond with our characters.
MUSIC
Another incredibly murky category. The thing that frustrates me about this anime is that there are things that are done SO INCREDIBLY WELL and then there are things that are subpar in comparison.
The Koto Music in this anime is absolutely stunning. I know nothing about koto music or the instrument.Every single koto piece that was showcased in this anime was so beautiful. It was such a delight for me to find out that actually Migiwa Hashimoto, the sister of the mangaka actually wrote Tenkyu and some of the other pieces. At first, I didn't really care for Tenkyu when I heard the opening, but the arrangement, despite it being similar to a 4-chord modern song, is actually quite complicated and beautiful. I was incredibly impressed at how touching that piece is. I very much enjoyed the wealth of repertoires from the other schools as well as Tenkyu's transformation from a 'desperate scream' into a 'warm-cry'. I loved how each time, I could hear the Koto club levelling up in their skill-level in each subsequent repertoire that they performed.
HOWEVER, the background music....especially for a music anime....was mediocre to say the least and the treatment of it was so disappointing at its worst. I don't really like any of the OP and ED themes, I enjoyed the cool Koto arrangement of the first OP theme and that's it. BUT, the biggest let-down isn't the background music itself, it's the poor placement, editing and directing of the music.
Firstly, background music was playing at least 95% of the time. The overuse of music means that the audience don't have enough time to gather their own emotions. Emotions are prescribed to them and they can distract from the wonderful dialogue that we actually have in the show.
Secondly, the background music feels like it came straight out of a music library and transitions weren't carefully considered at all. Take for example, in certain scenes, Chika would say something profound that was heartwarming for another character and then all of a sudden it was back to humour but there is literally no fade or anything sort of harmonic transition that made the background music in this anime cohesive at all. But take Made in Abyss where the background music is seamlessly weaved together and the transition from creeping dread to devastating dread is gorgeously illustrated. Or take any episode of Natsume's Book of Friends and listen to how seamless the final piano track melts into the ED credits of each episode. Natsume doesn't even have a mindblowing ost at all but you can definitely tell that the music editting was carefully considered to allow emotions to be paced well and flow comfortably from one scene to another. Kono Oto Tomare! made me disappointed in the music department because for a music-themed anime, I guess my expectations were set higher than most anime when listening out for the music and I feel so conflicted because the standards between the Koto music and the background music are worlds apart.
Voice acting was good! I didn't have much to comment about it! I think the female voice actors portrayed the females really well, especially Houzoki slowly becoming less cold and warmer.
ANIMATION
Art style is really clean and beautiful! The colours and really soft and pleasant on the eyes, which is another reason why I thought this anime was josei or shoujo! It kind of makes me wonder why we have these categories in the first place for club-themed/passion-themed animes, I think we shouldn't categorise them based on gendered demographic since they are really similar!
So much of the anime kind of reminded of other anime, which I guess is not a good thing or a bad thing, like I think that's why in the first place it sort of drew me to watching the anime. Like the three idiots in this anime reminded of of the three idiots in Maid Sama, some of the character designs reminded of Your Lie in April. However, I feel like the character designs were a bit plain, I wished there were something small aesthetically about them that were added to make them stand out from all the other school-based anime.
The three idiots from this anime and Maid Sama
Kurata and Kazusa from this anime and Your Lie in April MC
But ok, what is up with their school uniform pants? I am not a fan of their school uniform pants hahhahah...
I don't know the budget for this anime but I can 100% tell that the studio spent all their budget on Ep 5, Ep 13 S1 and Ep 12 of S2, which are all the main Koto Performances sequences. The animation of the Koto performances are absolutely breathtaking, the camera angles, the smoothness of the hand movements, the vibration of the strings, the body movements of the players, the visualisations of the notes and the score, everything is superbly done. So therefore, it saddens me to say that therefore the other episodes just felt a bit underwhelming because there was a lot of still-pan shots. But I think they got away with a lot of it because of how pretty the colours and the clean look of the art-style is.
I wished, and this is in relation to the story, music and animation categories, that they just showed the rehearsal koto pieces for a bit longer. This is what I noticed a lot with other "arts/sports-related" anime, (I also gave Welcome to the Ballroom this feedback) that because I think the studios are scared that showing us the final product multiple times because they think that multiple showings could lose our reaction to the final stage performance, we get like literally 1 second snapshots of characters rehearsing the piece or demonstrating a piece in rehearsals. I don't think so! Academic research shows that familiarity of a piece/work through repetition actually enhances how much we like a work! I don't think they needed to show an entire performance, but literally we got max 10 seconds of a piece during rehearsals and that's simply not enough. An anime I think that does this well to show the evolution of a work improving is Yuri!! on Ice where we see a few repetitions of the same work, Eros, first danced by Victor, then subtle improvements from Yuri as the series progresses. I think that was so superbly well done and one of the most memorable performances according to that anime's fandom.
Kono Oto Tomare! is such an interesting anime because I don't think a music anime has really made me think this hard about 'music' in an anime before and how it's treated and utilised or how it's addressed as a story device. All in all, I am really glad I watched it and i want to commend on Platinum Vision for giving this a really good crack! I am aware that this studio has only been operating for 5 years (3 if you consider when this anime was released!) and they decided to take many risks with this anime, they tried to pack so much into 26 episodes. Also LOVE the amount of FEMALE development in this anime! This studio has a lot of potential! I will be expecting a lot more from them in the coming years and I know that they will get up there with the big names like Madhouse and Kyoto Animation and create some truly amazing works!
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Aug 27, 2021 1:56 AM | 0 comments
August 23rd, 2021
My Thoughts on Demon Slayer
Anime Relations: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Shingeki no Kyojin, Haikyuu!!, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kimetsu no Yaiba Movie: Mugen Ressha-hen
I don't think I have much to say about Demon Slayer other than that it's simple, all components are extremely well done, making it incredibly entertaining!
PLOT
Simple story, straight forward goal. I think each of the arcs are well developed, each demon's backstory and strengths feels unique and grows more surprising and powerful each time. Story was also easy to follow. Flashbacks were very well placed and felt natural when they came in without disrupting the pace of the story.
Only thing I would say is a few minor things:
-Tanjirou wasn't he supposed to collect the blood of the higher-up demons? Did they forget about that or something in the later episodes?
-Didn't need to be so many ranks in the Demon Slayer Corps, ranks amongst the Demons made more sense according to their abilities
-fighting moves I wished they explained it a bit more and the differences between the different breathing techniques as well as why different characters prefer to use different ones.
CHARACTER
Just gonna get it out there. Tanjirou is a cinnamon roll, a pure bean. Extremely adorable. I enjoyed a bit more depth to his kindness towards the end of the series and in the movies where he had to commit suicide in his dreams multiple times to wake himself up to keep fighting. Although this is just personal taste but I would have liked to see him struggle a bit more during his battles. I like it when shounen stories go deeper into the specifics of the challenges that the characters are facing. Like in Haikyuu, they went into the specifics of each volleyball attack and the philosophy behind the coaches or Attack on Titan where they went into the military strategies and changes in strategies mid-battle. It made sense and it was really intelligent writing. But that's what I enjoy and I understand not everyone likes the gritty details and just enjoys the action.
Personally, I also prefer people to struggle a bit more, in the first training arc, his 2 years of training seemed to be quickly glossed over and it was sort of made-up for in the last 3 episodes during rehab training at the butterfly mansion but personally I really enjoy a slow struggle of a character.
Loved the demon backstories, i thought it added a nice layer of depth to the series, espsecially Rui's. I wish in the Mugen Train Movie, they went into a bit more detail about Enmu's personal story and background, I really wanted to know whey he became so sadistic and joker-like. But I actually liked the Mugen Train arc more because for the rest of the characters, there were less unnecessary filler comedy but more story-telling and background character dive, the pacing was well-controlled, but if I was to pick a more powerful demon, I still would say Rui scares me more than Enmu.
The supporting characters were funny but not really that memorable. Zenitsu and Inosuke were funny but kind of annoying sometimes, maybe a bit too silly for my taste but I can see how it would be entertaining for the general shounen crowd.
SOUND
Music is just so freaking amazing. I am so obsessed with the OP Gurenge by LiSA, I literally tear up everytime I hear it, it's so fitting for Tanjirou's character. Homura from the Movie is good too.
The ost music is just well-done, interesting blend of traditional Japanese instruments and electronics as well as traditional Japanese theatre vocals that underpin the opening of all the episode numbers at the start of each episode. I got kind of curious and realised that one of the composers Yuki Kajiura also worked on Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica which is fascinating because the styles between the two animes could not be more different. One is more gothic and the other is more badass-samurai-esque.
ANIMATION
Ok before I comment on the animation, whoever planned the camera work needs a fucking raise. That episode where Kibutsuji had a meeting with the lower 12 demons in the spinning labyrinth of a meeting room was so awesome. Also the texture of the water, of the demon train, looks CGI'ed but strangely doesn't look out of place.
Animation is incredibly clean and sharp. I wouldn't say that it's artistically groundbreaking or unique, it's just well done.
Demon Slayer is not exactly what I'd call mindblowing, it's one of those anime that's like the bright happy popular kid in school who also somehow aces at most things they do. It's just well-done. I'm definitely curious about the next movie!
PLOT
Simple story, straight forward goal. I think each of the arcs are well developed, each demon's backstory and strengths feels unique and grows more surprising and powerful each time. Story was also easy to follow. Flashbacks were very well placed and felt natural when they came in without disrupting the pace of the story.
Only thing I would say is a few minor things:
-Tanjirou wasn't he supposed to collect the blood of the higher-up demons? Did they forget about that or something in the later episodes?
-Didn't need to be so many ranks in the Demon Slayer Corps, ranks amongst the Demons made more sense according to their abilities
-fighting moves I wished they explained it a bit more and the differences between the different breathing techniques as well as why different characters prefer to use different ones.
CHARACTER
Just gonna get it out there. Tanjirou is a cinnamon roll, a pure bean. Extremely adorable. I enjoyed a bit more depth to his kindness towards the end of the series and in the movies where he had to commit suicide in his dreams multiple times to wake himself up to keep fighting. Although this is just personal taste but I would have liked to see him struggle a bit more during his battles. I like it when shounen stories go deeper into the specifics of the challenges that the characters are facing. Like in Haikyuu, they went into the specifics of each volleyball attack and the philosophy behind the coaches or Attack on Titan where they went into the military strategies and changes in strategies mid-battle. It made sense and it was really intelligent writing. But that's what I enjoy and I understand not everyone likes the gritty details and just enjoys the action.
Personally, I also prefer people to struggle a bit more, in the first training arc, his 2 years of training seemed to be quickly glossed over and it was sort of made-up for in the last 3 episodes during rehab training at the butterfly mansion but personally I really enjoy a slow struggle of a character.
Loved the demon backstories, i thought it added a nice layer of depth to the series, espsecially Rui's. I wish in the Mugen Train Movie, they went into a bit more detail about Enmu's personal story and background, I really wanted to know whey he became so sadistic and joker-like. But I actually liked the Mugen Train arc more because for the rest of the characters, there were less unnecessary filler comedy but more story-telling and background character dive, the pacing was well-controlled, but if I was to pick a more powerful demon, I still would say Rui scares me more than Enmu.
The supporting characters were funny but not really that memorable. Zenitsu and Inosuke were funny but kind of annoying sometimes, maybe a bit too silly for my taste but I can see how it would be entertaining for the general shounen crowd.
SOUND
Music is just so freaking amazing. I am so obsessed with the OP Gurenge by LiSA, I literally tear up everytime I hear it, it's so fitting for Tanjirou's character. Homura from the Movie is good too.
The ost music is just well-done, interesting blend of traditional Japanese instruments and electronics as well as traditional Japanese theatre vocals that underpin the opening of all the episode numbers at the start of each episode. I got kind of curious and realised that one of the composers Yuki Kajiura also worked on Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica which is fascinating because the styles between the two animes could not be more different. One is more gothic and the other is more badass-samurai-esque.
ANIMATION
Ok before I comment on the animation, whoever planned the camera work needs a fucking raise. That episode where Kibutsuji had a meeting with the lower 12 demons in the spinning labyrinth of a meeting room was so awesome. Also the texture of the water, of the demon train, looks CGI'ed but strangely doesn't look out of place.
Animation is incredibly clean and sharp. I wouldn't say that it's artistically groundbreaking or unique, it's just well done.
Demon Slayer is not exactly what I'd call mindblowing, it's one of those anime that's like the bright happy popular kid in school who also somehow aces at most things they do. It's just well-done. I'm definitely curious about the next movie!
Posted by MagicPotato98 | Aug 23, 2021 4:17 PM | 0 comments