Categories
August 4th, 2019
My 1,000th Completed Anime - Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!
Anime Relations: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!
Tonight, according to MyAnimeList, I've completed my 1,000th anime!!
I had noticed that I was sitting at 999 completed anime for a while and did kind of want to do something special (or at least not something throw-away like some random animated commercial or something) for my 1,000th. So, in honor of KyoAni, I thought I'd finally get back to watching Chuunibyou and finish off the first season. I'd watched the first 3 episodes a while back and got sidetracked, but my roommate was out at work tonight so I just watched the other 9 episodes in one sitting while I had the house to myself. For a little bit, I was worried that the gap between my viewing of the first three episodes and the rest might have a negative effect on my enjoyment of the series, but it all turned out pretty well. I ended up loving it and gave it a 10, currently sitting at #32 on my working Series list. I was able to connect with the characters and the themes pretty heavily and it was overall a wonderful and emotional experience. I look forward to watching more of the anime that has come out for the series over the years, and maybe I'll try to read the original light novels some day (surprised that the series is listed as being only 4 books long).
So yeah, 1,000 anime!! Really, that's not exactly saying all that much. I have a ton of really short things logged, from 2 episode OVAs (mostly hentai), stupidly short stupid shorts, a load of movies just recently from my little Movie Challenge thing.... But whatever! It's still a milestone, so I wanted to mark it here. And hey, I do at least show that I've watched over 10,000 episodes of anime, so that's something, yeah?? Well, I'd say that my next significant milestone (and one that would be much more telling of how much anime I've really watched) will be when I hit 200 Days of anime. Only 37.7 days to go!! And, I guess that's really all I have to say about that. Until next time!! ^_^
I had noticed that I was sitting at 999 completed anime for a while and did kind of want to do something special (or at least not something throw-away like some random animated commercial or something) for my 1,000th. So, in honor of KyoAni, I thought I'd finally get back to watching Chuunibyou and finish off the first season. I'd watched the first 3 episodes a while back and got sidetracked, but my roommate was out at work tonight so I just watched the other 9 episodes in one sitting while I had the house to myself. For a little bit, I was worried that the gap between my viewing of the first three episodes and the rest might have a negative effect on my enjoyment of the series, but it all turned out pretty well. I ended up loving it and gave it a 10, currently sitting at #32 on my working Series list. I was able to connect with the characters and the themes pretty heavily and it was overall a wonderful and emotional experience. I look forward to watching more of the anime that has come out for the series over the years, and maybe I'll try to read the original light novels some day (surprised that the series is listed as being only 4 books long).
So yeah, 1,000 anime!! Really, that's not exactly saying all that much. I have a ton of really short things logged, from 2 episode OVAs (mostly hentai), stupidly short stupid shorts, a load of movies just recently from my little Movie Challenge thing.... But whatever! It's still a milestone, so I wanted to mark it here. And hey, I do at least show that I've watched over 10,000 episodes of anime, so that's something, yeah?? Well, I'd say that my next significant milestone (and one that would be much more telling of how much anime I've really watched) will be when I hit 200 Days of anime. Only 37.7 days to go!! And, I guess that's really all I have to say about that. Until next time!! ^_^
Posted by pluvia33 | Aug 4, 2019 8:24 PM | 0 comments
July 19th, 2019
The Tragic Arson Attack Against Kyoto Animation
Anime Relations: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Clannad, K-On!, Koe no Katachi, Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon
On 18 July 2019, around 10:30am JST, Kyoto Animation was the victim of a devistating arson attack at their 1st Studio building. Initially 33 people were confirmed to have died in the fire with another 38 injured. However, out of the injured, a 34th, a 35th, and a 36th would die at later dates. In addition to the grievous loss of life and physical and psychological damage this is sure to cause for the survivors and families of the of the deceased and injured, Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta stated that all production materials housed at 1st Studio have been destroyed.
This is all just absolutely heartbreaking for me. While this may not include the death of a signature creative mind like when Satoshi Kon died, this is personally the most painful entertainment-based tragedy I have ever experienced. KyoAni created the anime adaptations for the Suzumiya Haruhi series and that is a large part of why it's been my favorite series of all time (across all mediums) for over a decade. Getting into Haruhi could even be seen as a second renaissance for me as an anime fan as I began to get much deeper into the medium and its related source materials after being exposed to it. They also went on to create other top favorites of mine such as A Silent Voice, Clannad, K-ON!, and Dragon Maid. The fact that many of the people who had a hand in creating these works are now gone is just soul crushing. I never thought that hearing "Hare Hare Yukai" come up on my randomized mp3 playlist would ever cause me to cry.
But in this darkness, there was at least a bit of light as an outpouring of donations went KyoAni's way, including a very successful fundraiser ran by Sentai Filmworks to help with the aftermath of the fire:
A number of general messages of support have also come through on behalf of KyoAni in the wake of this tragedy, including a campaign by Crunchyroll which allowed individuals to submit their own messages:
I wish the best for KyoAni, the staff, and the families affected by this tragedy, the best that can be expected at least. I hope they're able to stay strong and get through this. We love you, KyoAni.
Updates: In addition to making a few edits to the above, here is a list of additional news and sentiments which came out in the aftermath of the attack.
-ANN posted an article showing various messages from studios and fans.
-KyoAni president Hideaki Hatta is considering building a public park with a monument at the site of the 1st Studio fire instead of re-building there. I think this is a great idea and I would personally want to pay my respects there some day; actually, I'd like to do that regardless what happens to the site physically.
-The three main female voice actors of the Suzumiya Haruhi series made public comments and they were absolutely heart wrenching for me to read, being the big Haruhi fan that I am. The comments from Yuuko Gotou (voice of Mikuru) were especially impactful as she honestly described her comments as her "selfish desire to sort out my feelings." I can definitely relate to that.
-YouTuber Mother's Basement release a video called The Power of Anime which is largely in reaction to the KyoAni fire.
-ANN's Answerman column provided a detailed analysis of the situation.
-KyoAni opened an account to accept direct donations. Then, the Sentai GoFundMe campaign has past the $2M mark and direct donations to the KyoAni account raised 620 million yen in 2 days.
-Colorist Naomi Ishida has been the first individual officially named publicly as having died in the fire (with the information being released by her parents). This was very sad to read, for the first time putting an individual person's story and the work they have done to this tragedy. Of course, this is especially hard since she had a direct hand in the look of my favorite series of all time as the main color designer for all of the core Suzumiya Haruhi anime entries, as well as for A Silent Voice (Naomi Ishida's ANN Page has a much more detailed record of her work).
-The Japanese government is considering support measures for Kyoto Animation. This would include tax breaks on donations and other measures to make it easier for people and companies (domestic and overseas) to provide donations to KyoAni which I think is absolutely wonderful. Then they are also looking into helping with training animators which can go a long way to help KyoAni rebuild. It's great to see their government trying to step in to assist in a reasonable manner. With all of the donations that are coming their way and likely having insurance in place, KyoAni doesn't really need government handouts, but making it easier for donations to get through red tape (especially from an international perspective) can be a huge help.
-KyoAni has issued an official statement about the fire. This was really hard to read, but I am hopeful in their resolve to heal and rebuild.
-In some more good news (or as "good" as news can be concerning this tragedy), KyoAni was able to recover the server data from Studio 1 after the fire. It's good to know that a lot of the work that was done for their current projects was not lost in the end and hopefully they can eventually pick up where they left off.
-Kyoto Police have released the names of 10 of the individuals who have died in the fire. These 10 people are in addition to Naomi Ishida, so 11 people total have now been publicly named. This list does include confirmation of the death of Yasuhiro Takemoto who has long been suspected to have died since he had been missing ever since the fire.
-ANN has put together an obituary/memorial article for the 10 individuals officially identified by Japanese police so far, which of course was very hard for me to read, making me tear up over and over.... The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 1
-On 4 Oct 2019 another of the injured victims died in the hospital bringing the death toll to 36. Initially the victim was only described as a woman in her 20s, but it was later reported to be 24 year old production manager Anna Asano.
-On 18 Oct 2019, it was reported that 27 of the 33 injured staff members have returned to work. I hope everyone involved in this tragedy continues to heal and recover the best they can, even if they are not able to return to work.
-ANN put together an article reporting a staff member's experience at the KyoAni public memorial event. I wish I could have gone as well to pay my respects....
-On 24 Nov 2019, it was confirmed that the 1st Studio building will be demolished and the demolition will start in early January and likely go through late April to complete. KyoAni has not yet set plans on what to do after the demolition is finished. Hopefully they are able to make the park and memorial mentioned before.
-On 7 Dec 2019, Sentai Filmworks had sent the final funds from their GoFundMe campaign.
-On 27 Dec 2019, ANN released the follow-up to their first obituary article, now honoring the remaining 25 named victims, covering everyone other than the 36th victim between the two articles.... The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 2
-Also on 27 Dec 2019, ANN reported that residents near the KyoAni 1st Studio are concerned about a potential memorial site there, worried that a memorial would bring too much traffic which "would affect the tranquility of the neighborhood".... I really hope these complaints don't go anywhere and that a memorial park will be create as I really would like to pay my respects there. And the thing is, I'll end up someday paying my respects there regardless, no matter what is done with the land. I don't think making it a park would cause much difference to the amount of traffic that comes to the area and these "concerns" sound rather disrespectful. In fact, if mourners had a structured place to come to, it could potentially be more peaceful than if they did something else (or nothing) with the land.
-On 25 Jan 2020, the KyoAni victims were honored in the 47th Annie Awards' "In Memoriam" segment.
-On 10 Dec 2020, Japanese prosecutors confirmed that they will indict the 42-year-old KyoAni Fire Suspect.
This is all just absolutely heartbreaking for me. While this may not include the death of a signature creative mind like when Satoshi Kon died, this is personally the most painful entertainment-based tragedy I have ever experienced. KyoAni created the anime adaptations for the Suzumiya Haruhi series and that is a large part of why it's been my favorite series of all time (across all mediums) for over a decade. Getting into Haruhi could even be seen as a second renaissance for me as an anime fan as I began to get much deeper into the medium and its related source materials after being exposed to it. They also went on to create other top favorites of mine such as A Silent Voice, Clannad, K-ON!, and Dragon Maid. The fact that many of the people who had a hand in creating these works are now gone is just soul crushing. I never thought that hearing "Hare Hare Yukai" come up on my randomized mp3 playlist would ever cause me to cry.
But in this darkness, there was at least a bit of light as an outpouring of donations went KyoAni's way, including a very successful fundraiser ran by Sentai Filmworks to help with the aftermath of the fire:
A number of general messages of support have also come through on behalf of KyoAni in the wake of this tragedy, including a campaign by Crunchyroll which allowed individuals to submit their own messages:
I wish the best for KyoAni, the staff, and the families affected by this tragedy, the best that can be expected at least. I hope they're able to stay strong and get through this. We love you, KyoAni.
Memorial Articles by Anime News Network
The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 1
The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 2
The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 1
The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 2
Updates: In addition to making a few edits to the above, here is a list of additional news and sentiments which came out in the aftermath of the attack.
-ANN posted an article showing various messages from studios and fans.
-KyoAni president Hideaki Hatta is considering building a public park with a monument at the site of the 1st Studio fire instead of re-building there. I think this is a great idea and I would personally want to pay my respects there some day; actually, I'd like to do that regardless what happens to the site physically.
-The three main female voice actors of the Suzumiya Haruhi series made public comments and they were absolutely heart wrenching for me to read, being the big Haruhi fan that I am. The comments from Yuuko Gotou (voice of Mikuru) were especially impactful as she honestly described her comments as her "selfish desire to sort out my feelings." I can definitely relate to that.
-YouTuber Mother's Basement release a video called The Power of Anime which is largely in reaction to the KyoAni fire.
-ANN's Answerman column provided a detailed analysis of the situation.
-KyoAni opened an account to accept direct donations. Then, the Sentai GoFundMe campaign has past the $2M mark and direct donations to the KyoAni account raised 620 million yen in 2 days.
-Colorist Naomi Ishida has been the first individual officially named publicly as having died in the fire (with the information being released by her parents). This was very sad to read, for the first time putting an individual person's story and the work they have done to this tragedy. Of course, this is especially hard since she had a direct hand in the look of my favorite series of all time as the main color designer for all of the core Suzumiya Haruhi anime entries, as well as for A Silent Voice (Naomi Ishida's ANN Page has a much more detailed record of her work).
-The Japanese government is considering support measures for Kyoto Animation. This would include tax breaks on donations and other measures to make it easier for people and companies (domestic and overseas) to provide donations to KyoAni which I think is absolutely wonderful. Then they are also looking into helping with training animators which can go a long way to help KyoAni rebuild. It's great to see their government trying to step in to assist in a reasonable manner. With all of the donations that are coming their way and likely having insurance in place, KyoAni doesn't really need government handouts, but making it easier for donations to get through red tape (especially from an international perspective) can be a huge help.
-KyoAni has issued an official statement about the fire. This was really hard to read, but I am hopeful in their resolve to heal and rebuild.
-In some more good news (or as "good" as news can be concerning this tragedy), KyoAni was able to recover the server data from Studio 1 after the fire. It's good to know that a lot of the work that was done for their current projects was not lost in the end and hopefully they can eventually pick up where they left off.
-Kyoto Police have released the names of 10 of the individuals who have died in the fire. These 10 people are in addition to Naomi Ishida, so 11 people total have now been publicly named. This list does include confirmation of the death of Yasuhiro Takemoto who has long been suspected to have died since he had been missing ever since the fire.
-ANN has put together an obituary/memorial article for the 10 individuals officially identified by Japanese police so far, which of course was very hard for me to read, making me tear up over and over.... The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 1
-On 4 Oct 2019 another of the injured victims died in the hospital bringing the death toll to 36. Initially the victim was only described as a woman in her 20s, but it was later reported to be 24 year old production manager Anna Asano.
-On 18 Oct 2019, it was reported that 27 of the 33 injured staff members have returned to work. I hope everyone involved in this tragedy continues to heal and recover the best they can, even if they are not able to return to work.
-ANN put together an article reporting a staff member's experience at the KyoAni public memorial event. I wish I could have gone as well to pay my respects....
-On 24 Nov 2019, it was confirmed that the 1st Studio building will be demolished and the demolition will start in early January and likely go through late April to complete. KyoAni has not yet set plans on what to do after the demolition is finished. Hopefully they are able to make the park and memorial mentioned before.
-On 7 Dec 2019, Sentai Filmworks had sent the final funds from their GoFundMe campaign.
-On 27 Dec 2019, ANN released the follow-up to their first obituary article, now honoring the remaining 25 named victims, covering everyone other than the 36th victim between the two articles.... The Incredible Artists of Kyoto Animation: Part 2
-Also on 27 Dec 2019, ANN reported that residents near the KyoAni 1st Studio are concerned about a potential memorial site there, worried that a memorial would bring too much traffic which "would affect the tranquility of the neighborhood".... I really hope these complaints don't go anywhere and that a memorial park will be create as I really would like to pay my respects there. And the thing is, I'll end up someday paying my respects there regardless, no matter what is done with the land. I don't think making it a park would cause much difference to the amount of traffic that comes to the area and these "concerns" sound rather disrespectful. In fact, if mourners had a structured place to come to, it could potentially be more peaceful than if they did something else (or nothing) with the land.
-On 25 Jan 2020, the KyoAni victims were honored in the 47th Annie Awards' "In Memoriam" segment.
-On 10 Dec 2020, Japanese prosecutors confirmed that they will indict the 42-year-old KyoAni Fire Suspect.
Posted by pluvia33 | Jul 19, 2019 8:05 AM | 0 comments
June 27th, 2019
2019 Manga Reading Challenge - Reflection Part 1
Anime Relations: Ouran Koukou Host Club, Bokura ga Ita, K-On!, Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni, Gakkougurashi!, Koe no Katachi, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, Houkago Saikoro Club
So this year I didn’t do the Anime Watching Challenge like I did in 2017 and 2018, but I am doing the 2019 Manga Reading Challenge instead. As I mentioned in my 2019 New Year’s Hobby Resolutions post, I’m doing this Challenge largely to help motivate me to read all (or at least most) of the un-read manga that’s sitting on my shelf. In that regard, it is going pretty well, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to read EVERYTHING on my shelf by the end of the year. But at the least, I was also wanting to do this to get me back into more of a manga-reading groove, similar to how I did the 2017 AWC as a way to get my anime groove back. And despite a few bumps, I’d say that’s been a resounding success!
Now, doing Challenge blog posts in the same style as my old AWC updates and my more recent Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge updates isn’t all that conducive to manga reading in my opinion. So instead of doing weekly-or-so updates, I’ve decided to just do 2 big “Reflection” posts. Since this year’s Challenge format split things into different difficulty Levels that have to be done in order, it works out as a pretty good way to divide things. So, for this first part I will be giving my (mostly brief) impressions of the first 25 items that I’ve read to complete my Novice and Apprentice levels. My second and final part will talk about the 20 items of my Intermediate level (currently in progress). And just a few quick notes about formatting for these impressions, links will be given to each item read and I went ahead and copy-and-pasted the exact Challenge item description before I’ll be talking about it. They’re just listed in item order and ones showing an “N” at the beginning were from the Novice level and ones with an “A” were from the Apprentice level. Also, I read a LOT of HENTAI for these levels (especially for Novice), so I included a (Hentai) label for any such items just in case you don’t want to click on the somewhat-NSFW MAL entry links or hear me talk about porn. =P Okay, sound good?! So on with my impressions:
-Happiness! (Hentai): (N.01) Read a collection of short stories. Various different stories focusing on girls with big boobs. Attractive art, some nice stories, etc. Got a 7 from me.
-Koe no Katachi: (N.02) Read an award-winning manga. This manga won first place in the Male Readers category of the 2015 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and the New Creator Prize in the 19th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. I say it was very well deserved. I already loved the movie version of A Silent Voice so I was going into this expecting to like it, and I wasn’t let down. It got a 10 just like the movie and will be one of the few items which will end up on both my Top 100 Series and my eventual Top Standalone Anime Movies lists, whenever I feel comfortable with updating those. It was just an incredibly touching story about bullying, anxiety, and redemption. Just love it.
-Ouran Koukou Host Club: (N.05) Read a manga serialized in a shoujo magazine. Oh boy. This was the biggest sticking point that I’ve had in my Manga Reading Challenge. It took me three and a half months to get through the 18 volumes in this series. Kind of ridiculous, especially when you consider that I had 60 total volumes worth of manga in my Apprentice level and I got through all of that in two months! While Ouran had its good points and was legitimately enjoyable, it was a bit of a drag to get through. I thought it was much more wordy than it needed to be for what it was, so each volume took longer than usual for me to read (as a slow reader). I still gave it a 7 because it was pretty enjoyable overall, but man. If you’re interested in my full thoughts, I wrote a review of the manga.
-Stringendo (Hentai): (N.07) Read a manga that started serialization before 2015. I really enjoy the style of this artist, both in the original manga and the various anime adaptations for the Accelerando/Stringendo franchise. But as far as porn goes, these stories can be a bit of a mixed bag. I knocked Accelerando and Allargando down to 7 scores due to a few too many near-boner-killer plot elements. However, Stringendo got a full 8 from me, what I consider to be the highest score hentai can usually hope to get from me. Everything was rather attractive and when things did get dark, they weren’t distracting enough to bring down the volume (or even working in the story’s favor). Good stuff!
-Fella Pure: Mitarashi-san Chi no Jijou (Hentai): (N.08) Read a manga that has been adapted to anime. I’m a big fan of blowjobs in porn and this book pulls everything off very well! Solid 8!
-The Sex Sweepers (Hentai): (N.09) Read a manga series you can finish in one day. This book has a bit more plot than I’m used to in my hentai. XD It was really good and attractive, but some of the story elements didn’t work all that well for me. A “good” 7.
-Hatsu Inu (Hentai): (N.10) Read a manga that is 1 to 5 volumes in length. Ah! I’ve been meaning to read through this for a really long time! I loved watching the anime version a while back and read just a few chapters of the manga. I started over for the Challenge (and since it’d been so long) and loved reading this. The characters are a ton of fun, the art is really attractive, and it is even funny and touching at times. Great hentai romance story. A definite 8 from me.
-Cast Aoi (Hentai): (N.12) Read a manga with less than 10,000 completed members. Generally, I’m not a big fan of the whole “fat ugly dude overpowering the girl” kind of stuff, but this book still has a lot of really attractive art and it kind of works. That said, my favorite story is the one made up of the last two chapters which DOESN’T focus on that trope. So yeah, got a 7 from me.
-Secret Journey (Hentai): (N.17) Read a Comedy or Slice of Life manga. Some good wholesome straight shota! XD This was a fun read with some funny moments and attractive art. It is a bit of a plot-focused hentai and the story kind of just “ends”, but aside from that, it was rather good. Another 7 for this porn!
-Houkago Play 2: (N.21) Read a manga with a number in the title. I really liked the first Houkago Play quite a bit, enough so that it was included in my first Top 100 List. Although the franchise has since fallen out of my top rankings, it still holds a nice little place in my heart and I figured I’d try to read all of the sequel entries as part of this Challenge (at least the ones that have been fully translated). So yeah, this is another item that I ended up writing a full review of, so check that out if you want to know why I personally gave it an 8 (my personal scores are always the same as my “Enjoyment” grade in my reviews).
-K-On!: (Ap.01) Read a web/4-koma manga. I’ve loved the K-ON! anime for a while and now I’ve finally read the original manga! Personally, I like the anime version more, but I still thought the manga was absolutely great, giving it a 9. It’s a lot of fun and there are a few gags and story elements that never got used in the anime, especially when it comes to the two sequel volumes....
-K-On! College: (Ap.03) Read a prequel/sequel to a manga that you've already read. So yeah, in addition to the core four volumes of K-On!, I also read the two sequel volumes (see further below for “Highschool”). It was just great to see the girls during their college years, something that is never explored in the anime. The new characters that they interact with are all a lot of fun with a major standout being Akira Wada. It’s really hard for me to decide if I like “College” or “Highschool” more, but I think both are on par with the core series, so all K-On! manga gets 9s from me.
-Kotonoba Drive: (Ap.05) Read a manga by one of your favorite authors/artists. So this is latest major work by Hitoshi Ashinano, creator of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (my favorite manga of all time). Now, to get this out of the way, no, like with his other major work Kabu no Isaki, this does not at all reach the heights of YKK for me. But that doesn’t mean that these aren’t still really good manga, and comparing them to YKK in the first place is probably unfair, especially for how much I personally love it. Kotonoba Drive still has some absolutely great moments and some interesting storytelling elements to it. The dream-like sequences are interesting and the characters are lovable. It got a solid 8 from me (just like Kabu no Isaki did) and I should look into adding the Japanese books to my collection to join the rest of Hitoshi Ashinano’s works on my shelf.
-Shimanami Tasogare: (Ap.06) Read a manga from a magazine with less than 150 titles listed in the database. This was a very touching, heartfelt, and down-to-earth story with some of the more realistic depictions of LGBTQ that you’re likely to find in anime/manga. While there are elements of queer life and relationships, you may notice that this series doesn’t include any of the “gay” tags. There is good reason for that as gay romance isn’t really the focus here. It’s more on the lives of the queer cast and it’s mainly a coming of age story about Tasuku coming to terms with his identity and place in the world. It’s a great story that I’ve given a 9 and will likely buy the English release from Seven Seas eventually (under the title Our Dreams of Dusk).
-Sabishisugite Lesbian Fuuzoku ni Ikimashita Report: (Ap.07) Read a manga by a female author/artist. Speaking of realistic depictions of the LGBTQ community, this is such a manga in the most literal sense as it is an autobiographical manga essay. However, while “Lesbian” is in the title, the focus of this and its sequel (see Hitori Koukan Nikki further below) is much more on the “Sabishi” (Loneliness) portion of the title. The author’s depiction of debilitating social anxiety and other mental health issues is heartbreaking, but also touching. You just want to root for her and give her a hug. Another 9 from me here.
-Kakukaku Shikajika: (Ap.08) Read a manga serialized in a josei magazine. So I’m a little conflicted about this series. It’s another autobiographical work, this time showing the journey into the world of art experienced by Akiko Higashimura (creator of Princess Jellyfish). While I really enjoyed the journey overall and the interactions with the different characters, various parts were a little hit-and-miss with me and the storytelling style was a bit jarring to me as it switched between the past and present at the drop of a hat. It was still overall very enjoyable and has made me interested in looking into more of her work. So yeah, it got a mostly solid 8 from me.
-Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni: (Ap.09) Read a manga serialized in a seinen magazine. Like with A Silent Voice, this is another manga that I’ve read after seeing and loving the anime movie adaptation. However, unlike A Silent Voice, I won’t be putting In This Corner of the World on both my Top Series and Top Standalone Anime Movie lists. Not because I didn’t absolutely love the manga (I did!); the manga is just so short at only three volumes that I didn’t feel like it was justified to have it on the series list as well as the movie one. So yeah, it will just be on the movie list. Anyway, again, I still loved the manga and gave it a 10! One of the few historical anime/manga works that I actually love. Just wonderful!
-Daisy! (Hentai): (Ap.10) Read a manga that started serialization before 2005. The main storyline of this hentai focuses on a fun love triangle with a rather possessive sister and another girl that the brother loves. Assertive girls is a pretty strong theme across all of the other stories as well and it’s all pretty good! Got a 7 from me.
-Bokura ga Ita: (Ap.12) Read a manga that has been adapted to live-action. Oh boy, such teen melodrama bullshit!! And I absolutely loved it! So this is pretty much the complete opposite of Ouran for me when it comes to long-ish running shoujo manga. It has a mostly dramatic (and tragic) focus to it with very little comedy and it was a very fast read for me. I read all 16 volumes over the course of 8 days, some of which I think I was too busy/tired to read any. On the final day, I actually read 7 volumes!! I just couldn’t put it down. And man, was this an emotional story. I totally bought into the melodrama here and absolutely cried buckets at parts. Now, this didn’t dethrone Kimi ni Todoke as my favorite shoujo manga, but Bokura ga Ita is a rather strong second, getting a 10 from me.
-Houkago Play 3: (Ap.15) Read a manga ranked BELOW 5,000. Continuing my reading of the Houkago Play franchise! I didn’t do a full review of this one, but this series is continuing to be a solid 8 material in my book! This time around, we’re primarily focusing on a third boy-girl pair. Like with HP2, this one shows the relationship as it develops instead of having it established in the beginning like with the first Houkago Play. HP3 is also different in that there is much more interaction with supporting characters than with the first two. There is even a bit of a love rival to contend with which provides some extremely intense interactions with our female lead as she is a very forceful girl (ever more forceful than “Girlfriend” from the first book). So yes, another great entry in the franchise and I’m really enjoying slowly consuming Houkago Play R right now.
-Inbi Temptation (Hentai): (Ap.16) Read a manga with less than 5,000 completed members. So story-wise, this hentai was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I’m not a big fan of sex slave creation and cucking and such, so the opening chapter in particular didn’t leave a very good first impression with me. But, the art was on point and some of the stories were pretty nice. The little office romance story in particular was a favorite of mine. So yeah, another 7 from me!
-Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: (Ap.19) Read an Action or Adventure manga. This was a rather interesting series to me. I’ve been thinking about Slice of Life as a genre a lot lately and am planning to write a blog post about it at some point. Typically, I would say that an Adventure story is not compatible with what I’d consider to be “true” slice of life. I consider slice of life to have something of a “plot threshold” which, if passed, it cannot be considered a true slice of life series. Usually, an adventure story by definition would break that plot threshold, but Girls’ Last Tour is very much both a true adventure story and a slice of life series. Anyway, weird genre discussions aside, I liked this series quite a bit. There were a few rough spots for me, but it ended up squeaking in with a 9 in the end. I’m interested to see if I’ll like the anime version a little more or not.
-Gakkougurashi!: (Ap.20) Read a Fantasy or Mystery manga. Speaking of subverting my expectations of what slice of life is and should be, School-Live! is something of a deconstruction of the “cute girls + activity” subgenre of slice of life, with the “activity” here being surviving the zombie apocalypse.... Yeah, so this definitely has a slice of life feel to it, as it’s essentially K-ON! meets Dawn of the Dead, but it also definitely breaks the “plot threshold” test for me when it comes to being a “true” slice of life series.... But whatever! I love this series! The anime got a 10 from me and the manga is pretty much matching that mark in reading the first 10 volumes of the series (reading the English releases by Yen Press, I was able to consider this “complete” for the purposes of the Challenge since volume 11 doesn’t come out until October). There are a few little differences between the anime and manga which were fun to spot, with some things done in the anime to just make it work a little better in that format. And the stuff that happened after the anime has been really interesting and sometimes really heart wrenching. I can’t wait to finish the series! It’s planned to finish up with the 12th volume.
-Hitori Koukan Nikki: (Ap.23) Read a manga with an adult main character. The sequel to “Lesbian Experience” talked about above, this goes much deeper into the main character’s mental health and it’s rather sad at times. But in a good way. Not much else to say about it. This holds the same 9 as the other part. I’d definitely be up for reading more if she writes more. Hang in there!! *hugs*
-K-On! Highschool: (Ap.24) Read a manga with a cast consisting of mostly one gender. And to finish off this block of things, we have the other side of the K-On! sequel. This actually takes place at the same time as “College”, but follows the girls who were left behind in high school when most of the old main cast left for college. While Akira was the standout new character for me in “College”, Sumire Saitou was my favorite in “Highschool”. As a big fan of Mugi, it was great to get a little more backstory through Sumire and see Mugi be a little “mean” to her adoptive little sister.
BONUS!!
I just wanted to talk about a couple of other new reads of mine outside of the MRC....
-Houkago Saikoro Club (After School Dice Club): Oh man! This series feels like it’s tailor made for me! It’s a “cute girls + activity” series in which the activity is BOARD GAMES!! Yeah, two of my favorite things have come together!! I found out about this series after the board game community caught wind of the PV to the upcoming anime adaptation. Sadly, since this is an ongoing manga with 14 volumes in Japan already, I have little hope that it will ever get a US release. Plus, the depiction of real tabletop games could cause some stupid issues with our stupid copyright/trademark laws. So I’ll most likely need to import the Japanese books at some point (I’ll wait a little for a miracle US license, though). But also sadly, the scanlations are pretty slow/far behind with only 2 volumes released so far.... (edit: Actually, the individual who released the first 2 volumes came out and said that they won’t be doing the series anymore; hopefully someone else picks it up if the anime gains some popularity for the series.) Anyway, I’ve actually written a full review of this manga if you’re interested in more of my thoughts!
-Do Chokkyuu Kareshi x Kanojo: Holy shit! This series is amazing! The title translates to “Extremely Straightforward Boyfriend x Girlfriend” and it’s pretty true to that title. The main couple of this series are two of the most stupidly (and loudly) honest people to have ever formed an anime/manga romance! The series gets very laugh-out-loud funny, but can also be very touching. I especially like the recent storyline involving Wakamiya Riko (Mako’s little sister) and a rather large first-year high school student (a guy who’s not in Mako or Shinichi’s class). They’re so cute together. I hope their relationship continues to be a thing. Man, I would love for this to get a good anime adaptation and a US manga release.
Now, doing Challenge blog posts in the same style as my old AWC updates and my more recent Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge updates isn’t all that conducive to manga reading in my opinion. So instead of doing weekly-or-so updates, I’ve decided to just do 2 big “Reflection” posts. Since this year’s Challenge format split things into different difficulty Levels that have to be done in order, it works out as a pretty good way to divide things. So, for this first part I will be giving my (mostly brief) impressions of the first 25 items that I’ve read to complete my Novice and Apprentice levels. My second and final part will talk about the 20 items of my Intermediate level (currently in progress). And just a few quick notes about formatting for these impressions, links will be given to each item read and I went ahead and copy-and-pasted the exact Challenge item description before I’ll be talking about it. They’re just listed in item order and ones showing an “N” at the beginning were from the Novice level and ones with an “A” were from the Apprentice level. Also, I read a LOT of HENTAI for these levels (especially for Novice), so I included a (Hentai) label for any such items just in case you don’t want to click on the somewhat-NSFW MAL entry links or hear me talk about porn. =P Okay, sound good?! So on with my impressions:
-Happiness! (Hentai): (N.01) Read a collection of short stories. Various different stories focusing on girls with big boobs. Attractive art, some nice stories, etc. Got a 7 from me.
-Koe no Katachi: (N.02) Read an award-winning manga. This manga won first place in the Male Readers category of the 2015 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and the New Creator Prize in the 19th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. I say it was very well deserved. I already loved the movie version of A Silent Voice so I was going into this expecting to like it, and I wasn’t let down. It got a 10 just like the movie and will be one of the few items which will end up on both my Top 100 Series and my eventual Top Standalone Anime Movies lists, whenever I feel comfortable with updating those. It was just an incredibly touching story about bullying, anxiety, and redemption. Just love it.
-Ouran Koukou Host Club: (N.05) Read a manga serialized in a shoujo magazine. Oh boy. This was the biggest sticking point that I’ve had in my Manga Reading Challenge. It took me three and a half months to get through the 18 volumes in this series. Kind of ridiculous, especially when you consider that I had 60 total volumes worth of manga in my Apprentice level and I got through all of that in two months! While Ouran had its good points and was legitimately enjoyable, it was a bit of a drag to get through. I thought it was much more wordy than it needed to be for what it was, so each volume took longer than usual for me to read (as a slow reader). I still gave it a 7 because it was pretty enjoyable overall, but man. If you’re interested in my full thoughts, I wrote a review of the manga.
-Stringendo (Hentai): (N.07) Read a manga that started serialization before 2015. I really enjoy the style of this artist, both in the original manga and the various anime adaptations for the Accelerando/Stringendo franchise. But as far as porn goes, these stories can be a bit of a mixed bag. I knocked Accelerando and Allargando down to 7 scores due to a few too many near-boner-killer plot elements. However, Stringendo got a full 8 from me, what I consider to be the highest score hentai can usually hope to get from me. Everything was rather attractive and when things did get dark, they weren’t distracting enough to bring down the volume (or even working in the story’s favor). Good stuff!
-Fella Pure: Mitarashi-san Chi no Jijou (Hentai): (N.08) Read a manga that has been adapted to anime. I’m a big fan of blowjobs in porn and this book pulls everything off very well! Solid 8!
-The Sex Sweepers (Hentai): (N.09) Read a manga series you can finish in one day. This book has a bit more plot than I’m used to in my hentai. XD It was really good and attractive, but some of the story elements didn’t work all that well for me. A “good” 7.
-Hatsu Inu (Hentai): (N.10) Read a manga that is 1 to 5 volumes in length. Ah! I’ve been meaning to read through this for a really long time! I loved watching the anime version a while back and read just a few chapters of the manga. I started over for the Challenge (and since it’d been so long) and loved reading this. The characters are a ton of fun, the art is really attractive, and it is even funny and touching at times. Great hentai romance story. A definite 8 from me.
-Cast Aoi (Hentai): (N.12) Read a manga with less than 10,000 completed members. Generally, I’m not a big fan of the whole “fat ugly dude overpowering the girl” kind of stuff, but this book still has a lot of really attractive art and it kind of works. That said, my favorite story is the one made up of the last two chapters which DOESN’T focus on that trope. So yeah, got a 7 from me.
-Secret Journey (Hentai): (N.17) Read a Comedy or Slice of Life manga. Some good wholesome straight shota! XD This was a fun read with some funny moments and attractive art. It is a bit of a plot-focused hentai and the story kind of just “ends”, but aside from that, it was rather good. Another 7 for this porn!
-Houkago Play 2: (N.21) Read a manga with a number in the title. I really liked the first Houkago Play quite a bit, enough so that it was included in my first Top 100 List. Although the franchise has since fallen out of my top rankings, it still holds a nice little place in my heart and I figured I’d try to read all of the sequel entries as part of this Challenge (at least the ones that have been fully translated). So yeah, this is another item that I ended up writing a full review of, so check that out if you want to know why I personally gave it an 8 (my personal scores are always the same as my “Enjoyment” grade in my reviews).
-K-On!: (Ap.01) Read a web/4-koma manga. I’ve loved the K-ON! anime for a while and now I’ve finally read the original manga! Personally, I like the anime version more, but I still thought the manga was absolutely great, giving it a 9. It’s a lot of fun and there are a few gags and story elements that never got used in the anime, especially when it comes to the two sequel volumes....
-K-On! College: (Ap.03) Read a prequel/sequel to a manga that you've already read. So yeah, in addition to the core four volumes of K-On!, I also read the two sequel volumes (see further below for “Highschool”). It was just great to see the girls during their college years, something that is never explored in the anime. The new characters that they interact with are all a lot of fun with a major standout being Akira Wada. It’s really hard for me to decide if I like “College” or “Highschool” more, but I think both are on par with the core series, so all K-On! manga gets 9s from me.
-Kotonoba Drive: (Ap.05) Read a manga by one of your favorite authors/artists. So this is latest major work by Hitoshi Ashinano, creator of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (my favorite manga of all time). Now, to get this out of the way, no, like with his other major work Kabu no Isaki, this does not at all reach the heights of YKK for me. But that doesn’t mean that these aren’t still really good manga, and comparing them to YKK in the first place is probably unfair, especially for how much I personally love it. Kotonoba Drive still has some absolutely great moments and some interesting storytelling elements to it. The dream-like sequences are interesting and the characters are lovable. It got a solid 8 from me (just like Kabu no Isaki did) and I should look into adding the Japanese books to my collection to join the rest of Hitoshi Ashinano’s works on my shelf.
-Shimanami Tasogare: (Ap.06) Read a manga from a magazine with less than 150 titles listed in the database. This was a very touching, heartfelt, and down-to-earth story with some of the more realistic depictions of LGBTQ that you’re likely to find in anime/manga. While there are elements of queer life and relationships, you may notice that this series doesn’t include any of the “gay” tags. There is good reason for that as gay romance isn’t really the focus here. It’s more on the lives of the queer cast and it’s mainly a coming of age story about Tasuku coming to terms with his identity and place in the world. It’s a great story that I’ve given a 9 and will likely buy the English release from Seven Seas eventually (under the title Our Dreams of Dusk).
-Sabishisugite Lesbian Fuuzoku ni Ikimashita Report: (Ap.07) Read a manga by a female author/artist. Speaking of realistic depictions of the LGBTQ community, this is such a manga in the most literal sense as it is an autobiographical manga essay. However, while “Lesbian” is in the title, the focus of this and its sequel (see Hitori Koukan Nikki further below) is much more on the “Sabishi” (Loneliness) portion of the title. The author’s depiction of debilitating social anxiety and other mental health issues is heartbreaking, but also touching. You just want to root for her and give her a hug. Another 9 from me here.
-Kakukaku Shikajika: (Ap.08) Read a manga serialized in a josei magazine. So I’m a little conflicted about this series. It’s another autobiographical work, this time showing the journey into the world of art experienced by Akiko Higashimura (creator of Princess Jellyfish). While I really enjoyed the journey overall and the interactions with the different characters, various parts were a little hit-and-miss with me and the storytelling style was a bit jarring to me as it switched between the past and present at the drop of a hat. It was still overall very enjoyable and has made me interested in looking into more of her work. So yeah, it got a mostly solid 8 from me.
-Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni: (Ap.09) Read a manga serialized in a seinen magazine. Like with A Silent Voice, this is another manga that I’ve read after seeing and loving the anime movie adaptation. However, unlike A Silent Voice, I won’t be putting In This Corner of the World on both my Top Series and Top Standalone Anime Movie lists. Not because I didn’t absolutely love the manga (I did!); the manga is just so short at only three volumes that I didn’t feel like it was justified to have it on the series list as well as the movie one. So yeah, it will just be on the movie list. Anyway, again, I still loved the manga and gave it a 10! One of the few historical anime/manga works that I actually love. Just wonderful!
-Daisy! (Hentai): (Ap.10) Read a manga that started serialization before 2005. The main storyline of this hentai focuses on a fun love triangle with a rather possessive sister and another girl that the brother loves. Assertive girls is a pretty strong theme across all of the other stories as well and it’s all pretty good! Got a 7 from me.
-Bokura ga Ita: (Ap.12) Read a manga that has been adapted to live-action. Oh boy, such teen melodrama bullshit!! And I absolutely loved it! So this is pretty much the complete opposite of Ouran for me when it comes to long-ish running shoujo manga. It has a mostly dramatic (and tragic) focus to it with very little comedy and it was a very fast read for me. I read all 16 volumes over the course of 8 days, some of which I think I was too busy/tired to read any. On the final day, I actually read 7 volumes!! I just couldn’t put it down. And man, was this an emotional story. I totally bought into the melodrama here and absolutely cried buckets at parts. Now, this didn’t dethrone Kimi ni Todoke as my favorite shoujo manga, but Bokura ga Ita is a rather strong second, getting a 10 from me.
-Houkago Play 3: (Ap.15) Read a manga ranked BELOW 5,000. Continuing my reading of the Houkago Play franchise! I didn’t do a full review of this one, but this series is continuing to be a solid 8 material in my book! This time around, we’re primarily focusing on a third boy-girl pair. Like with HP2, this one shows the relationship as it develops instead of having it established in the beginning like with the first Houkago Play. HP3 is also different in that there is much more interaction with supporting characters than with the first two. There is even a bit of a love rival to contend with which provides some extremely intense interactions with our female lead as she is a very forceful girl (ever more forceful than “Girlfriend” from the first book). So yes, another great entry in the franchise and I’m really enjoying slowly consuming Houkago Play R right now.
-Inbi Temptation (Hentai): (Ap.16) Read a manga with less than 5,000 completed members. So story-wise, this hentai was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I’m not a big fan of sex slave creation and cucking and such, so the opening chapter in particular didn’t leave a very good first impression with me. But, the art was on point and some of the stories were pretty nice. The little office romance story in particular was a favorite of mine. So yeah, another 7 from me!
-Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: (Ap.19) Read an Action or Adventure manga. This was a rather interesting series to me. I’ve been thinking about Slice of Life as a genre a lot lately and am planning to write a blog post about it at some point. Typically, I would say that an Adventure story is not compatible with what I’d consider to be “true” slice of life. I consider slice of life to have something of a “plot threshold” which, if passed, it cannot be considered a true slice of life series. Usually, an adventure story by definition would break that plot threshold, but Girls’ Last Tour is very much both a true adventure story and a slice of life series. Anyway, weird genre discussions aside, I liked this series quite a bit. There were a few rough spots for me, but it ended up squeaking in with a 9 in the end. I’m interested to see if I’ll like the anime version a little more or not.
-Gakkougurashi!: (Ap.20) Read a Fantasy or Mystery manga. Speaking of subverting my expectations of what slice of life is and should be, School-Live! is something of a deconstruction of the “cute girls + activity” subgenre of slice of life, with the “activity” here being surviving the zombie apocalypse.... Yeah, so this definitely has a slice of life feel to it, as it’s essentially K-ON! meets Dawn of the Dead, but it also definitely breaks the “plot threshold” test for me when it comes to being a “true” slice of life series.... But whatever! I love this series! The anime got a 10 from me and the manga is pretty much matching that mark in reading the first 10 volumes of the series (reading the English releases by Yen Press, I was able to consider this “complete” for the purposes of the Challenge since volume 11 doesn’t come out until October). There are a few little differences between the anime and manga which were fun to spot, with some things done in the anime to just make it work a little better in that format. And the stuff that happened after the anime has been really interesting and sometimes really heart wrenching. I can’t wait to finish the series! It’s planned to finish up with the 12th volume.
-Hitori Koukan Nikki: (Ap.23) Read a manga with an adult main character. The sequel to “Lesbian Experience” talked about above, this goes much deeper into the main character’s mental health and it’s rather sad at times. But in a good way. Not much else to say about it. This holds the same 9 as the other part. I’d definitely be up for reading more if she writes more. Hang in there!! *hugs*
-K-On! Highschool: (Ap.24) Read a manga with a cast consisting of mostly one gender. And to finish off this block of things, we have the other side of the K-On! sequel. This actually takes place at the same time as “College”, but follows the girls who were left behind in high school when most of the old main cast left for college. While Akira was the standout new character for me in “College”, Sumire Saitou was my favorite in “Highschool”. As a big fan of Mugi, it was great to get a little more backstory through Sumire and see Mugi be a little “mean” to her adoptive little sister.
BONUS!!
I just wanted to talk about a couple of other new reads of mine outside of the MRC....
-Houkago Saikoro Club (After School Dice Club): Oh man! This series feels like it’s tailor made for me! It’s a “cute girls + activity” series in which the activity is BOARD GAMES!! Yeah, two of my favorite things have come together!! I found out about this series after the board game community caught wind of the PV to the upcoming anime adaptation. Sadly, since this is an ongoing manga with 14 volumes in Japan already, I have little hope that it will ever get a US release. Plus, the depiction of real tabletop games could cause some stupid issues with our stupid copyright/trademark laws. So I’ll most likely need to import the Japanese books at some point (I’ll wait a little for a miracle US license, though). But also sadly, the scanlations are pretty slow/far behind with only 2 volumes released so far.... (edit: Actually, the individual who released the first 2 volumes came out and said that they won’t be doing the series anymore; hopefully someone else picks it up if the anime gains some popularity for the series.) Anyway, I’ve actually written a full review of this manga if you’re interested in more of my thoughts!
-Do Chokkyuu Kareshi x Kanojo: Holy shit! This series is amazing! The title translates to “Extremely Straightforward Boyfriend x Girlfriend” and it’s pretty true to that title. The main couple of this series are two of the most stupidly (and loudly) honest people to have ever formed an anime/manga romance! The series gets very laugh-out-loud funny, but can also be very touching. I especially like the recent storyline involving Wakamiya Riko (Mako’s little sister) and a rather large first-year high school student (a guy who’s not in Mako or Shinichi’s class). They’re so cute together. I hope their relationship continues to be a thing. Man, I would love for this to get a good anime adaptation and a US manga release.
Posted by pluvia33 | Jun 27, 2019 5:40 AM | 1 comments
June 13th, 2019
Getting Ready for the Summer 2019 Anime Season
Anime Relations: Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator, Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka?, Enen no Shouboutai, Cop Craft, Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?
So the light Spring 2019 Season of anime is wrapping up. With shows for Summer 2019 now mostly all listed and ready to start airing in less than a month, I figured I’d go through and see what I’m interested in.... And there’s a lot (19 shows total). So here’s everything that I at least want to check out the first episode of:
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. (Maidens of the Savage Season): A coming of age story triggered by girls thinking about sex for the first time. Heard good things about the original manga. Could be interesting.
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou: Potentially generic as fuck isekai anime, but I’m up for trying it.
Bem: Three ugly youkai fight for justice. Looks like a reimagining of an old 1960s anime series.
Cop Craft: The fantasy, sci-fi, police series with art by Range Murata.
Dr. Stone: Looks like this can be a fun shounen adventure. What the hell.
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru (How Many Kilograms are the Dumbbells You Lift?): Do you even lift, onee-chan?
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II (DanMachi 2nd Season): Well, I guess I’ll need to finally get around to finishing the first season! I really enjoyed the first few episodes, but got distracted. I’ll be sure to get that watched before this starts since I’ll be focusing on working through my stagnate “Watching” and “On-Hold” anime now that I’ve finished my Movie-Per-Day thing.
Enen no Shouboutai (Fire Force): The firefighter series by the same original creator as Soul Eater!
Isekai Cheat Magician: An isekai in which a boy and a girl get transported together? That could be interesting and the world looks nice.
Joshikousei no Mudazukai (Wasteful Days of High School Girl): Crazy school comedy type thing.
Kanata no Astra: A sci-fi space thing can be fun.
Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e (To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts): Dark magical shounen action stuff.
Machikado Mazoku: Magical girl slice of life comedy.
Sounan Desu ka? (Are You Lost?): A comedy about being stranded on a desert island.
Tejina-senpai: A half-length-episodes ecchi comedy about a girl with stage fright doing magic. Could be amusing.
Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator: After the disappointment of Index III, this could potentially be the last chance for this franchise with me. I might see if I can finally finish Railgun S before this starts.
Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki Desu ka? (Do You Like Your Mom? Her Normal Attack is Two Attacks at Full Power): Isekai Mama!! Might be dumb enough to be a lot of fun.
Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. (If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord): A fantasy story about an adventurer adopting a cute devil girl.
Vinland Saga: Historical drama anime can be a bit of a hard sell for me, but the original manga is highly regarded and it’d be interesting how Japanese storytelling handles a serious Viking story.
Shows Ordered by Start Date:
1 Jul
-To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts
2 Jul
-Are You Lost?
-Tejin-senpai
3 Jul
-Do you even lift?
-Kanata no Astra
4 Jul
-For My Daughter
5 Jul
-Wasteful Days of High School Girl
-Dr. Stone
6 Jul
-Fire Force
-Maidens of the Savage Season
8 Jul
-Bem
-Arifureta
-Vinland Saga
9 Jul
-Cop Craft
10 Jul
-Isekai Cheat Magician
12 Jul
-Machikado Mazoku
-Accelerator
13 Jul
-Isekai Mama
-DanMachi II
MAL Summer 2019 Preview Ordered List
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. (Maidens of the Savage Season): A coming of age story triggered by girls thinking about sex for the first time. Heard good things about the original manga. Could be interesting.
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou: Potentially generic as fuck isekai anime, but I’m up for trying it.
Bem: Three ugly youkai fight for justice. Looks like a reimagining of an old 1960s anime series.
Cop Craft: The fantasy, sci-fi, police series with art by Range Murata.
Dr. Stone: Looks like this can be a fun shounen adventure. What the hell.
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru (How Many Kilograms are the Dumbbells You Lift?): Do you even lift, onee-chan?
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II (DanMachi 2nd Season): Well, I guess I’ll need to finally get around to finishing the first season! I really enjoyed the first few episodes, but got distracted. I’ll be sure to get that watched before this starts since I’ll be focusing on working through my stagnate “Watching” and “On-Hold” anime now that I’ve finished my Movie-Per-Day thing.
Enen no Shouboutai (Fire Force): The firefighter series by the same original creator as Soul Eater!
Isekai Cheat Magician: An isekai in which a boy and a girl get transported together? That could be interesting and the world looks nice.
Joshikousei no Mudazukai (Wasteful Days of High School Girl): Crazy school comedy type thing.
Kanata no Astra: A sci-fi space thing can be fun.
Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e (To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts): Dark magical shounen action stuff.
Machikado Mazoku: Magical girl slice of life comedy.
Sounan Desu ka? (Are You Lost?): A comedy about being stranded on a desert island.
Tejina-senpai: A half-length-episodes ecchi comedy about a girl with stage fright doing magic. Could be amusing.
Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator: After the disappointment of Index III, this could potentially be the last chance for this franchise with me. I might see if I can finally finish Railgun S before this starts.
Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki Desu ka? (Do You Like Your Mom? Her Normal Attack is Two Attacks at Full Power): Isekai Mama!! Might be dumb enough to be a lot of fun.
Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. (If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord): A fantasy story about an adventurer adopting a cute devil girl.
Vinland Saga: Historical drama anime can be a bit of a hard sell for me, but the original manga is highly regarded and it’d be interesting how Japanese storytelling handles a serious Viking story.
Shows Ordered by Start Date:
1 Jul
-To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts
2 Jul
-Are You Lost?
-Tejin-senpai
3 Jul
-Do you even lift?
-Kanata no Astra
4 Jul
-For My Daughter
5 Jul
-Wasteful Days of High School Girl
-Dr. Stone
6 Jul
-Fire Force
-Maidens of the Savage Season
8 Jul
-Bem
-Arifureta
-Vinland Saga
9 Jul
-Cop Craft
10 Jul
-Isekai Cheat Magician
12 Jul
-Machikado Mazoku
-Accelerator
13 Jul
-Isekai Mama
-DanMachi II
MAL Summer 2019 Preview Ordered List
Posted by pluvia33 | Jun 13, 2019 1:25 PM | 0 comments
June 11th, 2019
Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge (Update 8) FINAL!!
Anime Relations: Mimi wo Sumaseba, Flanders no Inu (Movie), Doubutsu no Mori, Arve Rezzle: Kikaijikake no Yousei-tachi, Ryo, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. Movie
So it's time! I've spent 60 days watching a new anime movie every day! And with this last batch of 6 movies, it's time to end my little Self-Challenge. Well, it's been a nice experience and I've found a number of new favorites in the process. I now have a rather solid Top 50 Standalone Anime Movies favorites list. I'll have the current state of said list at the bottom of this post. I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing an official posting of the list and update of my Top 100 Series list with standalone movies taken out.... Maybe around May 2020?? We'll see! Anyway, I don't plan to stop watching anime movies; I just won't be forcing myself to watch one a day. I might go a few days without watching any, or I might watch more than one in a day! Who knows?! But for now, I think I'll be taking a little break and try to work on clearing out some of the stagnate anime series in my Watching and On-Hold lists. Well, here's my final batch of movie challenge impressions:
Doubutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing): (6 Jun 2019) This was a cute little movie. I never got super into the Animal Crossing games, only ever played a little on the DS, so I think I probably didn't get as much out of this movie as I probably could have. But it was still a nice and cute kids movie, getting a 7 from me.
Arve Rezzle: Kikaijikake no Yousei-tachi: (7 Jun 2019) I figured I'd watch the rest of the Anime Mirai 2012 pieces. This one was a somewhat interesting cyberpunk story, but it was pretty dry in the end. It could have been a setup for a TV series, but I didn't really care all that much. I gave it a 6 in the end.
AnoHana Movie: (8 Jun 2019) I finally watched the AnoHana movie! Man, I love this series. This works as a prequel to, a recap of, and an epilogue to the TV series. It kind of sounds like it should be an absolute mess, but it works rather well! I gave it a 10 just like the core series. And since I let me ex take the old NIS America release of the TV series (since I technically bought it for her for XMas one year), I went ahead and ordered Aniplex USA's release of both the TV series and the movie after finishing this. Doing this Challenge has gotten me to spend a good amount of money.... XD
Flanders no Inu (The Dog of Flanders): (9 Jun 2019) So the characters in the AnoHana movie mentioned The Dog of Flanders, so I figured, what the hell! I'll watch this! And man, was it pretty damn sad, and kind of infuriating. I mean, it didn't piss me off like Grave of the Fireflies did. I love the kids in this story! But man, Hans needs to get fucked in the ass with a rusty pitchfork and die slowly of tetanus. Fuck that guy. Anyway, some of the religious stuff was a little weird for me (mainly the end with the paintings), but all around I really liked it and gave it an 8.
Ryo: (10 Jun 2019) And here's the last of the Anime Mirai 2012 shorts! And, easily the worst of the four. I originally gave this a 6 like I did with Arve Rezzle, but the more I think about it, the more I realize just how bad it was and therefore switching it to a 4. The story should have been rather simple, but it was an absolute mess just going all over the place. The characters were pretty damn flat and being in a historical setting didn't help it for me either. It just simply felt bad.
Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart): (11 Jun 2019) And I ended my little Challenge with a movie that I missed when I was going through unwatched DVDs on my shelf! And this ends my challenge on a decently high note. This simple little coming of age story about young love and finding something that makes you special was just charming. The only major thing that I'd really knock it for is that even for something that came out in 1995, the production values are rather low for a Ghibli film. Probably the worst looking movie I've seen from the studio. But despite that, I loved the characters and the simple story, so it got a high-level 8 from me. Good stuff!
And here are my Top 50 Standalone Anime Movies as they currently rank. This is likely to change around a bit by the time I do the official list, but I'd like to post it now just because. Everything here is stuff that I've scored an 8 or higher:
1 Kimi no Na wa. (your name.)
2. Uchuu Show e Youkoso (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW)
3. Paprika
4. Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World)
5. Sennen Joyuu (Millennium Actress)
6. Tokyo Godfathers
7. Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)
8. Penguin Highway
9. Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda. (The Anthem of the Heart)
10. Eve no Jikan
11. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
12. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children)
13. Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words)
14. Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou (Maquia)
15. Mind Game
16. Colorful
17. Hotarubi no Mori e
18. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
19. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (The Place Promised in Our Early Days)
20. Patema Inverted
21. Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second)
22. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
23. Piano no Mori
24. Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta (Lu Over the Wall)
25. Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)
26. Mirai no Mirai
27. Gake no Ue no Ponyo
28. Pale Cocoon
29. Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)
30. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star)
31. Kurenai no Buta
32. Redline
33. Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast)
34. Majo no Takkyuubin
35. Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari (Napping Princess)
36. Tsumiki no Ie
37. Tonari no Totoro
38. Steamboy
39. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
40. Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns)
41. Flanders no Inu (The Dog of Flanders)
42. Omae Umasou da na
43. Mononoke Hime
44. Tekkon Kinkreet
45. Harmonie
46. Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai (Your Voice -KIMIKOE-)
47. Vampire Hunter D (2000)
48. Doukyuusei
49. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
50. Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken
Doubutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing): (6 Jun 2019) This was a cute little movie. I never got super into the Animal Crossing games, only ever played a little on the DS, so I think I probably didn't get as much out of this movie as I probably could have. But it was still a nice and cute kids movie, getting a 7 from me.
Arve Rezzle: Kikaijikake no Yousei-tachi: (7 Jun 2019) I figured I'd watch the rest of the Anime Mirai 2012 pieces. This one was a somewhat interesting cyberpunk story, but it was pretty dry in the end. It could have been a setup for a TV series, but I didn't really care all that much. I gave it a 6 in the end.
AnoHana Movie: (8 Jun 2019) I finally watched the AnoHana movie! Man, I love this series. This works as a prequel to, a recap of, and an epilogue to the TV series. It kind of sounds like it should be an absolute mess, but it works rather well! I gave it a 10 just like the core series. And since I let me ex take the old NIS America release of the TV series (since I technically bought it for her for XMas one year), I went ahead and ordered Aniplex USA's release of both the TV series and the movie after finishing this. Doing this Challenge has gotten me to spend a good amount of money.... XD
Flanders no Inu (The Dog of Flanders): (9 Jun 2019) So the characters in the AnoHana movie mentioned The Dog of Flanders, so I figured, what the hell! I'll watch this! And man, was it pretty damn sad, and kind of infuriating. I mean, it didn't piss me off like Grave of the Fireflies did. I love the kids in this story! But man, Hans needs to get fucked in the ass with a rusty pitchfork and die slowly of tetanus. Fuck that guy. Anyway, some of the religious stuff was a little weird for me (mainly the end with the paintings), but all around I really liked it and gave it an 8.
Ryo: (10 Jun 2019) And here's the last of the Anime Mirai 2012 shorts! And, easily the worst of the four. I originally gave this a 6 like I did with Arve Rezzle, but the more I think about it, the more I realize just how bad it was and therefore switching it to a 4. The story should have been rather simple, but it was an absolute mess just going all over the place. The characters were pretty damn flat and being in a historical setting didn't help it for me either. It just simply felt bad.
Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart): (11 Jun 2019) And I ended my little Challenge with a movie that I missed when I was going through unwatched DVDs on my shelf! And this ends my challenge on a decently high note. This simple little coming of age story about young love and finding something that makes you special was just charming. The only major thing that I'd really knock it for is that even for something that came out in 1995, the production values are rather low for a Ghibli film. Probably the worst looking movie I've seen from the studio. But despite that, I loved the characters and the simple story, so it got a high-level 8 from me. Good stuff!
And here are my Top 50 Standalone Anime Movies as they currently rank. This is likely to change around a bit by the time I do the official list, but I'd like to post it now just because. Everything here is stuff that I've scored an 8 or higher:
1 Kimi no Na wa. (your name.)
2. Uchuu Show e Youkoso (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW)
3. Paprika
4. Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World)
5. Sennen Joyuu (Millennium Actress)
6. Tokyo Godfathers
7. Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)
8. Penguin Highway
9. Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda. (The Anthem of the Heart)
10. Eve no Jikan
11. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
12. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children)
13. Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words)
14. Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou (Maquia)
15. Mind Game
16. Colorful
17. Hotarubi no Mori e
18. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
19. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (The Place Promised in Our Early Days)
20. Patema Inverted
21. Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second)
22. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
23. Piano no Mori
24. Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta (Lu Over the Wall)
25. Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)
26. Mirai no Mirai
27. Gake no Ue no Ponyo
28. Pale Cocoon
29. Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)
30. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star)
31. Kurenai no Buta
32. Redline
33. Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast)
34. Majo no Takkyuubin
35. Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari (Napping Princess)
36. Tsumiki no Ie
37. Tonari no Totoro
38. Steamboy
39. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
40. Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns)
41. Flanders no Inu (The Dog of Flanders)
42. Omae Umasou da na
43. Mononoke Hime
44. Tekkon Kinkreet
45. Harmonie
46. Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai (Your Voice -KIMIKOE-)
47. Vampire Hunter D (2000)
48. Doukyuusei
49. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
50. Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken
Posted by pluvia33 | Jun 11, 2019 10:49 PM | 0 comments
June 5th, 2019
Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge (Update 7)
Anime Relations: Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru, Piano no Mori, Ibara no Ou, Death Billiards, Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda., Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari, Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai, No Game No Life: Zero, Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta
Hello. Time to talk about 9 more movies that I watched for this little self-challenge. This brings me to 54 movies watched, so since I decided to do this until I reach 60, I have less than a week left! I wonder if I should be particularly selective of what I make these final movies be? Well, I do plan to continue to watch more anime movies regularly from now on, just not "forcing" myself to do it every day, and maybe actually watching more than one in a single day! *gasp* I'm not going to mention the ranks of where some of these place in my current working standalone anime movie list this time around, but I do have a pretty solid Top 50 at this point and will probably post it as part of my final update next week. Anyway, here's this batch of impressions:
Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru (Night on the Galactic Railroad): (28 May 2019) So this is a rather old anime. Having come out in 1985, it's almost as old as me! While this had its interesting points (such as the Titanic people), I was kind of bored through most of it. The 6 that I gave it might be a little generous going off of my personal enjoyment, but I felt that it didn't really deserve to be rated any lower than that.
Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari (Napping Princess): (29 May 2019) I enjoyed this. I thought the lead character was delightful and the supporting cast was also largely a lot of fun. However, while the story was pretty good, its structure was a bit of a mess. It's a bit unfair to make this comparison, but the transitions between the real world and the fantasy/dream world in Napping Princess just doesn't hold up next to Satoshi Kon works like Paprika and Millennium Actress. But I still enjoyed the movie quite a bit and gave it an 8, so the awkward transitions didn't distract too much.
Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai (Your Voice -KIMIKOE-): (30 May 2019) This was another delightful little movie which got a mostly solid 8 from me. Honestly, I don't really know what the heck is up with the reviews on MAL for this, especially the current "most helpful" review. The assumption that the producers were trying to create "something as succefull [sic] as" your name. and A Silent Voice just because of the similarities in titles is simply asinine. I suppose The Princess and the Pilot was just trying to be something as successful as A Certain Magical Index because the original Japanese titles both have "Toaru" and "no" in them, right?! So stupid. Anyway, this is a nice simple slice of life movie with a bit of a gimmick. While not the greatest thing ever, I found it to be rather touching and a nice watch. I feel like the bad reviewers were expecting this to be something that it was never trying to be. Whatever.
Ibara no Ou (King of Thorn): (31 May 2019) This movie was a bit of a mess, but it had enough interesting stuff going on to keep me engaged enough throughout its runtime to squeak by with a 7 from me. I think part of it was just that it was nice to see a bit of a mindless, violent action movie! This seems like a bit of a rarity in more recent anime movies. And although the CGI was a bit awkward (I kind of wish they would have stuck with traditional 2D or the CGI throughout), the action was generally well done.
Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta (Lu Over the Wall): (1 Jun 2019) Oh man, speaking of delightful, this was a joy to watch! Yes, the art style is a bit silly at times, but I found that to be part of the charm. During some segments (mostly the dancing parts) it goes into a very stylized old-school cartoon style. This could probably be a bit jarring, but it just put a big smile on my face. I approve of this film with a heart-felt 9-score!
No Game No Life: Zero: (2 Jun 2019) Okay, so I loved the main No Game No Life, but the "end" of that season kind of bugged me and kept it from ranking a bit higher. I usually don't mind an ending that isn't very conclusive, but this ending felt less like an "and the adventure continues" ending and more like an "and the adventure is just starting" ending, to the point that it kind of felt like very little actually happened in those 12 episodes. The key word being "felt" here, as a good amount of stuff actually did happen.... Anyway, so I finally watched this movie and I have to say that I really loved it! It was a touching story that can almost stand on its own, but it also enhanced my love for the series overall. I ended up giving this the same 9 that I gave the TV series, but it did help bump the franchise overall up a few spots on my working Top 100 Series list. Be nice if we can get more anime, but I feel like I might have to just get around to reading the novels to continue the story....
Piano no Mori: (3 Jun 2019) This movie was a lot of fun and was pretty interesting. At first, it kind of felt like a less fun version of Nodame Cantabile, and I expected it to at best get an 8 from me. But then the "Wendy" stuff happened and gave the movie a major boost, ending up with a 9-score. I don't know why I love that little brat so much! I'll be very disappointed if Takako doesn't continue to be a major character in the series.... Well, she is at least listed as a character in the second season of the new TV adaptation.... So yeah, since I see this movie as a good standalone work but it also has a sizable original manga and a new adaptation with 24 TV episodes (so far?), this could be one of the few franchises that end up on both my standalone anime movie and favorite series lists, if/when I read the original manga and/or watch the TV anime....
Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda. (The Anthem of the Heart): (4 Jun 2019) Oh boy! It's been a while since I've had one of these movies get a solid 10 from me! Yes, I loved this movie. I cried a lot. Not surprising since much of the creative staff also created AnoHana and handled the Toradora! adaptation. It was simply a beautiful and touching down to earth story. I really hope there will be a normal US Blu-ray release soon. I'm almost tempted to get the Limited Edition import version, but I'm a little worried about the subtitle quality for that one. I'll also be waiting for a US Blu-ray for I want to eat your pancreas.... *sigh*
Death Billiards: (5 Jun 2019) So I recently got around to downloaded the Anime Mirai short films which came out the same year as the first Little Witch Academia movie. Yeah, I'm back to punking out a bit for some of my "Challenge" items, but whatever. I watched the Death Parade series back in 2017 during the tail end of my Anime Watching Challenge that year and I liked it quite a bit! It got a solid 9 from me and ranked at #62 when I last updated my Top 100 List. Well, while the old Death Billiards short came first and is described as an "alternative version" to the TV series, I think this can easily be considered a bonus episode to Death Parade and probably could have been seamlessly inserted in between two of the episodes near the beginning or middle. It's nice that Funimation included Death Billiards as an "OVA" in their Blu-ray release of Death Parade. I'll have to pick up a copy of that at some point.
Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru (Night on the Galactic Railroad): (28 May 2019) So this is a rather old anime. Having come out in 1985, it's almost as old as me! While this had its interesting points (such as the Titanic people), I was kind of bored through most of it. The 6 that I gave it might be a little generous going off of my personal enjoyment, but I felt that it didn't really deserve to be rated any lower than that.
Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari (Napping Princess): (29 May 2019) I enjoyed this. I thought the lead character was delightful and the supporting cast was also largely a lot of fun. However, while the story was pretty good, its structure was a bit of a mess. It's a bit unfair to make this comparison, but the transitions between the real world and the fantasy/dream world in Napping Princess just doesn't hold up next to Satoshi Kon works like Paprika and Millennium Actress. But I still enjoyed the movie quite a bit and gave it an 8, so the awkward transitions didn't distract too much.
Kimi no Koe wo Todoketai (Your Voice -KIMIKOE-): (30 May 2019) This was another delightful little movie which got a mostly solid 8 from me. Honestly, I don't really know what the heck is up with the reviews on MAL for this, especially the current "most helpful" review. The assumption that the producers were trying to create "something as succefull [sic] as" your name. and A Silent Voice just because of the similarities in titles is simply asinine. I suppose The Princess and the Pilot was just trying to be something as successful as A Certain Magical Index because the original Japanese titles both have "Toaru" and "no" in them, right?! So stupid. Anyway, this is a nice simple slice of life movie with a bit of a gimmick. While not the greatest thing ever, I found it to be rather touching and a nice watch. I feel like the bad reviewers were expecting this to be something that it was never trying to be. Whatever.
Ibara no Ou (King of Thorn): (31 May 2019) This movie was a bit of a mess, but it had enough interesting stuff going on to keep me engaged enough throughout its runtime to squeak by with a 7 from me. I think part of it was just that it was nice to see a bit of a mindless, violent action movie! This seems like a bit of a rarity in more recent anime movies. And although the CGI was a bit awkward (I kind of wish they would have stuck with traditional 2D or the CGI throughout), the action was generally well done.
Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta (Lu Over the Wall): (1 Jun 2019) Oh man, speaking of delightful, this was a joy to watch! Yes, the art style is a bit silly at times, but I found that to be part of the charm. During some segments (mostly the dancing parts) it goes into a very stylized old-school cartoon style. This could probably be a bit jarring, but it just put a big smile on my face. I approve of this film with a heart-felt 9-score!
No Game No Life: Zero: (2 Jun 2019) Okay, so I loved the main No Game No Life, but the "end" of that season kind of bugged me and kept it from ranking a bit higher. I usually don't mind an ending that isn't very conclusive, but this ending felt less like an "and the adventure continues" ending and more like an "and the adventure is just starting" ending, to the point that it kind of felt like very little actually happened in those 12 episodes. The key word being "felt" here, as a good amount of stuff actually did happen.... Anyway, so I finally watched this movie and I have to say that I really loved it! It was a touching story that can almost stand on its own, but it also enhanced my love for the series overall. I ended up giving this the same 9 that I gave the TV series, but it did help bump the franchise overall up a few spots on my working Top 100 Series list. Be nice if we can get more anime, but I feel like I might have to just get around to reading the novels to continue the story....
Piano no Mori: (3 Jun 2019) This movie was a lot of fun and was pretty interesting. At first, it kind of felt like a less fun version of Nodame Cantabile, and I expected it to at best get an 8 from me. But then the "Wendy" stuff happened and gave the movie a major boost, ending up with a 9-score. I don't know why I love that little brat so much! I'll be very disappointed if Takako doesn't continue to be a major character in the series.... Well, she is at least listed as a character in the second season of the new TV adaptation.... So yeah, since I see this movie as a good standalone work but it also has a sizable original manga and a new adaptation with 24 TV episodes (so far?), this could be one of the few franchises that end up on both my standalone anime movie and favorite series lists, if/when I read the original manga and/or watch the TV anime....
Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda. (The Anthem of the Heart): (4 Jun 2019) Oh boy! It's been a while since I've had one of these movies get a solid 10 from me! Yes, I loved this movie. I cried a lot. Not surprising since much of the creative staff also created AnoHana and handled the Toradora! adaptation. It was simply a beautiful and touching down to earth story. I really hope there will be a normal US Blu-ray release soon. I'm almost tempted to get the Limited Edition import version, but I'm a little worried about the subtitle quality for that one. I'll also be waiting for a US Blu-ray for I want to eat your pancreas.... *sigh*
Death Billiards: (5 Jun 2019) So I recently got around to downloaded the Anime Mirai short films which came out the same year as the first Little Witch Academia movie. Yeah, I'm back to punking out a bit for some of my "Challenge" items, but whatever. I watched the Death Parade series back in 2017 during the tail end of my Anime Watching Challenge that year and I liked it quite a bit! It got a solid 9 from me and ranked at #62 when I last updated my Top 100 List. Well, while the old Death Billiards short came first and is described as an "alternative version" to the TV series, I think this can easily be considered a bonus episode to Death Parade and probably could have been seamlessly inserted in between two of the episodes near the beginning or middle. It's nice that Funimation included Death Billiards as an "OVA" in their Blu-ray release of Death Parade. I'll have to pick up a copy of that at some point.
Posted by pluvia33 | Jun 5, 2019 10:07 AM | 0 comments
May 28th, 2019
Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge (Update 6)
Anime Relations: Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space, Colorful (Movie), Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku, Saint☆Oniisan (Movie), Parol no Miraijima, Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai, Pop in Q, Mirai no Mirai
Time for another update! I have 8 new movies to talk about this time around, making it 45 total days that I've done this daily movie thing. On that subject, I've decided that I'll stop this at 60 days/movies. I think that's a good place to stop and I'd like to focus more on my manga reading and trying to finish a bunch of stagnate anime entries on my list. In other news, I'm officially 35 years old! My birthday was over the weekend and I had a nice day of playing board games with friends. Good stuff! Anyway, here are my movie impressions for this batch:
Saint☆Oniisan (Movie): (20 May 2019) To start things off with this batch, we have a story about Buddha and Jesus taking a vacation in the human world, living in a Japanese apartment together. This was a rather nice little "movie" which I enjoyed quite a bit and gave an 8, but I didn't end up ranking it in my standalone movie rankings because it felt much more like a part of a larger series than a standalone movie. Even the movie itself kind of just felt like a bunch of short segments lumped together. That's probably the only real negative I have about this. It just kind of felt like, why is this a movie?? I'd like to explore the series a bit more, though, when I have a chance.
Parol no Miraijima: (21 May 2019) And now I've watched the fourth and final Anime Mirai 2014 piece and I have to say, this is easily my least favorite of the bunch. I have it a 5, but it was really close to getting a 4. The main characters looked like really bad furry-bait and the villain was just stupid. I suppose this was mainly meant to appeal to kids, and that was probably one of the things that saved it from being a 4. Blah.
Mirai no Mirai: (22 May 2019) While I'd heard Mirai come up many times since it'd came out, I never heard a lot about its actual plot. It turned out to be rather touching and I liked it quite a bit. I ended up giving it a low-level 9-score with it currently ranking at #23 on my standalone anime movie list. I'm not all that sure as to why its average score is as low as it is on MAL (7.49 at the moment), but I really liked it. Oh well.
Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space: (23 May 2019) Now I did NOT like this one! Man, this felt like such pretentious try-hard hipster bullshit. Maybe the visuals were a lot more interesting back in the day (it originally came out in 2002), but they just did nothing for me now. The main animation looked like something that a single good Flash animator could produce and the CGI parts just looked like ass. Then the story was mostly incoherent, and then when it came around to make sense it all felt pointless. When things "came together" it didn't provide any kind of cool feeling and the damn thing dragged so badly that its hour and a half runtime felt twice as long.... Ugh. It got a 3-score from me....
Pop in Q: (24 May 2019) This was a nice little movie! I mean, I "only" gave it a 7, but it was a pretty fun little ride. I'm not sure why this one scores as low as it does. I read the 3-score review on the page, but they mostly just called it cliche and that's about the extent of their criticism. Meh. I thought it was a nice kids movie. I'd really like to see a sequel that expands on the stinger "the adventure continues" ending. But with the movie being about two and a half years old, that probably isn't likely. Oh well.
Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku (The Princess and the Pilot): (25 May 2019) I feel like my 7-score here might be a LITTLE generous. But, it is a movie very focused on military air combat which doesn't appeal all that much to me. It did have its moments, though. While the lead characters came off as pretty damn bland at first, they did grow on me by the end.
Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai (Garakowa -Restore the World-): (26 May 2019) Oh boy.... Here's another stinker.... This movie was an absolute mess. It had a few decent points, but it just couldn't really get its act together. I felt that it either should have been half as long to just throw out its ideas in a nice quick way without so much random junk, or it should have been at least double the length, maybe even done as a 12-episode TV series instead of an hour long movie. It could have easily been expanded to that length. I mean, I could have seen just the one or two minute part of Duel seeing that girl in the first digital world being expanded into an episode all its own, with the big stinger-ending being the reveal that it is all a computer-world and the girl being taken over by the virus and such... So yeah, I gave it a 4. Even though I wasn't a HUGE fan of Flip Flappers, that was a very solid series and pretty much is the kind of show Garakowa could have been.
Colorful (Movie): (27 May 2019) Well, time to end strong with a movie that I genuinely loved! This got a high-level 9 from me and currently ranks as my #15 favorite standalone anime movie. While it took me a bit to get a feel for the characters, the main plot point of someone being reincarnated into a recent suicide death caused a situation which kept me very engaged in what was going on in an otherwise very mundane story. I mean, thinking back on it, the set up essentially amounts to a basic "amnesia" cliche, but it was executed in such an interesting way. I really cared about the characters by the end and had a sense for who they were as people. It was a very lovely and heartfelt coming of age story which is another anime movie that I'll be happy to add to my Blu-ray collection.
Saint☆Oniisan (Movie): (20 May 2019) To start things off with this batch, we have a story about Buddha and Jesus taking a vacation in the human world, living in a Japanese apartment together. This was a rather nice little "movie" which I enjoyed quite a bit and gave an 8, but I didn't end up ranking it in my standalone movie rankings because it felt much more like a part of a larger series than a standalone movie. Even the movie itself kind of just felt like a bunch of short segments lumped together. That's probably the only real negative I have about this. It just kind of felt like, why is this a movie?? I'd like to explore the series a bit more, though, when I have a chance.
Parol no Miraijima: (21 May 2019) And now I've watched the fourth and final Anime Mirai 2014 piece and I have to say, this is easily my least favorite of the bunch. I have it a 5, but it was really close to getting a 4. The main characters looked like really bad furry-bait and the villain was just stupid. I suppose this was mainly meant to appeal to kids, and that was probably one of the things that saved it from being a 4. Blah.
Mirai no Mirai: (22 May 2019) While I'd heard Mirai come up many times since it'd came out, I never heard a lot about its actual plot. It turned out to be rather touching and I liked it quite a bit. I ended up giving it a low-level 9-score with it currently ranking at #23 on my standalone anime movie list. I'm not all that sure as to why its average score is as low as it is on MAL (7.49 at the moment), but I really liked it. Oh well.
Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space: (23 May 2019) Now I did NOT like this one! Man, this felt like such pretentious try-hard hipster bullshit. Maybe the visuals were a lot more interesting back in the day (it originally came out in 2002), but they just did nothing for me now. The main animation looked like something that a single good Flash animator could produce and the CGI parts just looked like ass. Then the story was mostly incoherent, and then when it came around to make sense it all felt pointless. When things "came together" it didn't provide any kind of cool feeling and the damn thing dragged so badly that its hour and a half runtime felt twice as long.... Ugh. It got a 3-score from me....
Pop in Q: (24 May 2019) This was a nice little movie! I mean, I "only" gave it a 7, but it was a pretty fun little ride. I'm not sure why this one scores as low as it does. I read the 3-score review on the page, but they mostly just called it cliche and that's about the extent of their criticism. Meh. I thought it was a nice kids movie. I'd really like to see a sequel that expands on the stinger "the adventure continues" ending. But with the movie being about two and a half years old, that probably isn't likely. Oh well.
Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku (The Princess and the Pilot): (25 May 2019) I feel like my 7-score here might be a LITTLE generous. But, it is a movie very focused on military air combat which doesn't appeal all that much to me. It did have its moments, though. While the lead characters came off as pretty damn bland at first, they did grow on me by the end.
Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai (Garakowa -Restore the World-): (26 May 2019) Oh boy.... Here's another stinker.... This movie was an absolute mess. It had a few decent points, but it just couldn't really get its act together. I felt that it either should have been half as long to just throw out its ideas in a nice quick way without so much random junk, or it should have been at least double the length, maybe even done as a 12-episode TV series instead of an hour long movie. It could have easily been expanded to that length. I mean, I could have seen just the one or two minute part of Duel seeing that girl in the first digital world being expanded into an episode all its own, with the big stinger-ending being the reveal that it is all a computer-world and the girl being taken over by the virus and such... So yeah, I gave it a 4. Even though I wasn't a HUGE fan of Flip Flappers, that was a very solid series and pretty much is the kind of show Garakowa could have been.
Colorful (Movie): (27 May 2019) Well, time to end strong with a movie that I genuinely loved! This got a high-level 9 from me and currently ranks as my #15 favorite standalone anime movie. While it took me a bit to get a feel for the characters, the main plot point of someone being reincarnated into a recent suicide death caused a situation which kept me very engaged in what was going on in an otherwise very mundane story. I mean, thinking back on it, the set up essentially amounts to a basic "amnesia" cliche, but it was executed in such an interesting way. I really cared about the characters by the end and had a sense for who they were as people. It was a very lovely and heartfelt coming of age story which is another anime movie that I'll be happy to add to my Blu-ray collection.
Posted by pluvia33 | May 28, 2019 10:35 AM | 0 comments
May 20th, 2019
Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge (Update 5)
Anime Relations: Mind Game, Kaze Tachinu, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, Kuro no Su: Chronus, Bakemono no Ko, Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo. Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai, Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka?, Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome, Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou, Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 1: Futari no Hero
So as I mentioned in my previous post, I tried to make this update last Thursday but got screwed over by the MAL blog system. This post isn't going to have as much information as my old one (I had included two BONUS entries before which I don't feel like doing again), but I really need to get this out before I have too many items to talk about for one post. There's already 10 for this post! So yeah, here are my movie impressions:
Kuro no Sumika: Chronus: (10 May 2019) Another Anime Mirai 2014 work. This is my least favorite so far, getting a kind-of-boring but still sort of interesting 6-score.
Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Futari no Hero: (11 May 2019) This was a nice, fun and somewhat impactful side-story for My Hero Academia. I'm not entirely sure if I care enough to add it to my collection, but it did get an 8 from me.
Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo.: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (The Moment You Fall in Love): (12 May 2019) The sort-of-sequel to I've Always Liked You (as only the last little bit actually took place after while everything else took place before or during that movie). At first I was finding this one a little less interesting than the other, but the new cast grew on me and I ended up giving it the same "nice" 7-score. I still found the song-use to be super awkward. =P
Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou (Maquia): (13 May 2019) Man, this was an interesting one. While I really loved it in the end, giving it a high-level 9-score (currently sitting as my #13 favorite standalone anime movie), the storytelling was a bit awkward and a lot of the characters beyond the main pair felt almost pointless. But man, the story between those two is just hugely touching. While the film's flaws kept it from reaching a full 10 for me, it is at the very top of my 9s.
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari: (14 May 2019) This was also a hard movie for me to judge, but on the other side of things. With this being a historical theme, it was already going to have trouble connecting with me by default, and the folktale stuff didn't really click with me either. It also felt like it was nearly twice as long as it should have been. But it looked so nice! Yeah, I'll probably never watch this again, but it did get a "nice" 7 from me.
Mind Game: (15 May 2019) Holy shit, this movie! Also like Maquia, there were some issues that kept me from giving this a full-10, but it also got a high-level 9, right under Maquia in fact, becoming my current #14 favorite standalone anime movie. While it starts a little slow and seems stupidly pretentious with its weird art style and storytelling, it grew on me a lot and became an absolute blast in the end with its absolutely ridiculously fun bullshit! It's almost more of a spectacle than a film, and one particularly nuts animation sequence literally made my jaw drop. I can't wait to re-watch this when my Blu-ray copy comes in since I watched a rather old fansub that I'd had in my collection for a really long time. It was cool to see the old Jolly Roger fansub group logo, though. ^_^
Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka? (Fireworks): (16 May 2019) Thinking back on it, the 7-score that I gave this feels a little generous, but I guess I'll leave it. This movie had some interesting bits, but it also had SO many problems. The main "love triangle" in particular made no real sense to me. The friend of the main boy seemed like he recognized his feelings for the girl and he was going to step aside for him. But then "things happened" and from that point on he was getting totally pissed when the boy actually went after the girl. Like, what?? But yeah, again, it did have some nice parts, so whatever.
Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast): (17 May 2019) Considering that this movie had anthropomorphic animal characters in it, I ended up liking it a lot more than I would have expected. It was a pretty fun and at times really touching movie which I did end up liking a bit more than The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (by the same director). Got a solid 8 from me.
Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome (Night Is Short, Walk on Girl ): (18 May 2019) While the pretentious nature of Mind Game eventually paid off, I can't say the same for Walk on Girl. This has been one of my most disappointing watches during my movie challenge (about as disappointing as Summer Wars was). I really wanted to like this and the characters were fun, but man did this just feel like some soulless hipster bullshit. I'd only watched one episode of The Tatami Galaxy before, but now I'm not all that sure if I really care to get back into it. I mean, this was "nice" and got a 7 from me, but I really feel like I SHOULD have liked it much more. Oh well.
Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises): (19 May 2019) But this, I was fully expecting it to be around the 7-score that I ended up giving it. Again, I'm not a big fan of historical stuff. And while the war/military stuff (something that I'm also not a fan of) is largely in the background, the focus on aviation history also did absolutely nothing for me. But the first thing to really stood out to be was how BAD the voice acting for the lead character was. I just had to pause it and see who did the voice and it was Hideaki Anno!! I was all like, what the hell is the Evangelion creator doing major voice acting for?! After looking it up, I did vaguely remember hearing about it, but man was it pretty bad. I think the bad voice acting was meant to make the character sound more robotic?? I don't know. But there were some redeeming qualities to the movie. I did like the relationship stuff, even though I'd later find out that key parts about it didn't actually happen to the guy that the character was based on. XD
Kuro no Sumika: Chronus: (10 May 2019) Another Anime Mirai 2014 work. This is my least favorite so far, getting a kind-of-boring but still sort of interesting 6-score.
Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Futari no Hero: (11 May 2019) This was a nice, fun and somewhat impactful side-story for My Hero Academia. I'm not entirely sure if I care enough to add it to my collection, but it did get an 8 from me.
Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo.: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (The Moment You Fall in Love): (12 May 2019) The sort-of-sequel to I've Always Liked You (as only the last little bit actually took place after while everything else took place before or during that movie). At first I was finding this one a little less interesting than the other, but the new cast grew on me and I ended up giving it the same "nice" 7-score. I still found the song-use to be super awkward. =P
Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou (Maquia): (13 May 2019) Man, this was an interesting one. While I really loved it in the end, giving it a high-level 9-score (currently sitting as my #13 favorite standalone anime movie), the storytelling was a bit awkward and a lot of the characters beyond the main pair felt almost pointless. But man, the story between those two is just hugely touching. While the film's flaws kept it from reaching a full 10 for me, it is at the very top of my 9s.
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari: (14 May 2019) This was also a hard movie for me to judge, but on the other side of things. With this being a historical theme, it was already going to have trouble connecting with me by default, and the folktale stuff didn't really click with me either. It also felt like it was nearly twice as long as it should have been. But it looked so nice! Yeah, I'll probably never watch this again, but it did get a "nice" 7 from me.
Mind Game: (15 May 2019) Holy shit, this movie! Also like Maquia, there were some issues that kept me from giving this a full-10, but it also got a high-level 9, right under Maquia in fact, becoming my current #14 favorite standalone anime movie. While it starts a little slow and seems stupidly pretentious with its weird art style and storytelling, it grew on me a lot and became an absolute blast in the end with its absolutely ridiculously fun bullshit! It's almost more of a spectacle than a film, and one particularly nuts animation sequence literally made my jaw drop. I can't wait to re-watch this when my Blu-ray copy comes in since I watched a rather old fansub that I'd had in my collection for a really long time. It was cool to see the old Jolly Roger fansub group logo, though. ^_^
Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka? (Fireworks): (16 May 2019) Thinking back on it, the 7-score that I gave this feels a little generous, but I guess I'll leave it. This movie had some interesting bits, but it also had SO many problems. The main "love triangle" in particular made no real sense to me. The friend of the main boy seemed like he recognized his feelings for the girl and he was going to step aside for him. But then "things happened" and from that point on he was getting totally pissed when the boy actually went after the girl. Like, what?? But yeah, again, it did have some nice parts, so whatever.
Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast): (17 May 2019) Considering that this movie had anthropomorphic animal characters in it, I ended up liking it a lot more than I would have expected. It was a pretty fun and at times really touching movie which I did end up liking a bit more than The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (by the same director). Got a solid 8 from me.
Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome (Night Is Short, Walk on Girl ): (18 May 2019) While the pretentious nature of Mind Game eventually paid off, I can't say the same for Walk on Girl. This has been one of my most disappointing watches during my movie challenge (about as disappointing as Summer Wars was). I really wanted to like this and the characters were fun, but man did this just feel like some soulless hipster bullshit. I'd only watched one episode of The Tatami Galaxy before, but now I'm not all that sure if I really care to get back into it. I mean, this was "nice" and got a 7 from me, but I really feel like I SHOULD have liked it much more. Oh well.
Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises): (19 May 2019) But this, I was fully expecting it to be around the 7-score that I ended up giving it. Again, I'm not a big fan of historical stuff. And while the war/military stuff (something that I'm also not a fan of) is largely in the background, the focus on aviation history also did absolutely nothing for me. But the first thing to really stood out to be was how BAD the voice acting for the lead character was. I just had to pause it and see who did the voice and it was Hideaki Anno!! I was all like, what the hell is the Evangelion creator doing major voice acting for?! After looking it up, I did vaguely remember hearing about it, but man was it pretty bad. I think the bad voice acting was meant to make the character sound more robotic?? I don't know. But there were some redeeming qualities to the movie. I did like the relationship stuff, even though I'd later find out that key parts about it didn't actually happen to the guy that the character was based on. XD
Posted by pluvia33 | May 20, 2019 2:32 PM | 0 comments
May 16th, 2019
Updated Blog Catagories
Anime Relations: Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka?
So I WAS going to post a new Movie-Per-Day update today, and I had it all written up and everything. BUT! I forgot to add Anime Relations and didn't copy the post before I submitted it, so I lost everything. -_-
Man, I really hate the MAL blog system sometimes.
Well, instead of going right back in to try to recreate everything that I lost, I decided to do something that's been a long time coming: Updating My Blog Catagories
Yeah, so here's another little annoying thing about the blog system here: You're limited to 10 categories and they work in some really dumb ways. When a category is created, it is assigned a unique ID and that IS the category from then on.... Actually, it's hurting my head to even think about it. The gist of it is that I've changed nine of my categories into new names, deleted the tenth, and had to manually adjust the categories of every single one of my 136 blog posts so that they have the correct categories attached to them. It was really tedious, but I think I have a set of categories that I'm mostly happy with now and I have one extra that I can create if I have a new idea for a category that I think this blog needs.
So here are the new categories and what they mean:
Article Commentary: This is a specific kind of post in which I'm giving my reaction to a specific article/video/etc. that I found online.
Challenges: Posts about Anime/Manga Challenges on MAL, "official" or unofficial.
Collection: Posts talking mainly about my personal collection of stuff.
Creative Works: Stuff that I personally made in some kind of creative capacity.
Lists: My Top Whatever Lists and other things that are in some kind of list form.
News Stuff: A looser kind of thing than my "Article Commentary" kind of posts; this is usually reacting to something more fact-based as opposed to opinion based.
Personal: Things having to do in some way with my personal life and feelings.
Random: Pretty much anything that doesn't fit into any other categories, usually me talking about and reacting to random things.
Reviews: These are either reviews of things other than a single anime manga; this can be non-Asian animation/manga, anime/manga packaging, a random aspect of an anime/manga not really fitting in a proper review of the material, or just a review of something totally random.
I'd say there's a bit of a fine line between Personal and Random, but I feel like they're distinct enough to be separate. Also, one of my goals for doing this was to make it so most posts would fit into just one category, maybe two at the most. With the categories that I had before, some post would have 4 or 5 categories! Kind of ridiculous.
Anyway, that is all. I'll probably try to re-write my Movie-Per-Day update tomorrow. =P
Man, I really hate the MAL blog system sometimes.
Well, instead of going right back in to try to recreate everything that I lost, I decided to do something that's been a long time coming: Updating My Blog Catagories
Yeah, so here's another little annoying thing about the blog system here: You're limited to 10 categories and they work in some really dumb ways. When a category is created, it is assigned a unique ID and that IS the category from then on.... Actually, it's hurting my head to even think about it. The gist of it is that I've changed nine of my categories into new names, deleted the tenth, and had to manually adjust the categories of every single one of my 136 blog posts so that they have the correct categories attached to them. It was really tedious, but I think I have a set of categories that I'm mostly happy with now and I have one extra that I can create if I have a new idea for a category that I think this blog needs.
So here are the new categories and what they mean:
Article Commentary: This is a specific kind of post in which I'm giving my reaction to a specific article/video/etc. that I found online.
Challenges: Posts about Anime/Manga Challenges on MAL, "official" or unofficial.
Collection: Posts talking mainly about my personal collection of stuff.
Creative Works: Stuff that I personally made in some kind of creative capacity.
Lists: My Top Whatever Lists and other things that are in some kind of list form.
News Stuff: A looser kind of thing than my "Article Commentary" kind of posts; this is usually reacting to something more fact-based as opposed to opinion based.
Personal: Things having to do in some way with my personal life and feelings.
Random: Pretty much anything that doesn't fit into any other categories, usually me talking about and reacting to random things.
Reviews: These are either reviews of things other than a single anime manga; this can be non-Asian animation/manga, anime/manga packaging, a random aspect of an anime/manga not really fitting in a proper review of the material, or just a review of something totally random.
I'd say there's a bit of a fine line between Personal and Random, but I feel like they're distinct enough to be separate. Also, one of my goals for doing this was to make it so most posts would fit into just one category, maybe two at the most. With the categories that I had before, some post would have 4 or 5 categories! Kind of ridiculous.
Anyway, that is all. I'll probably try to re-write my Movie-Per-Day update tomorrow. =P
Posted by pluvia33 | May 16, 2019 11:50 AM | 0 comments
May 10th, 2019
Movie-Per-Day Self-Challenge (Update 4)
Anime Relations: Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki, Eve no Jikan (Movie), Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki, Hanasaku Iroha Movie: Home Sweet Home, Harmonie, Ookii 1-nensei to Chiisana 2-nensei, Doukyuusei, Zutto Mae kara Suki deshita. Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai, Orange: Mirai
I’ve been falling a little behind on these little updates, so I have 9 movies to talk about this time around! Aside from this, things have mostly been good other than the fact that I’ve been slacking on my manga reading since I got back from my training TDY. I read about 13 volumes worth of stuff during the 5 days of my trip! But I’ve read absolutely nothing since getting back last weekend. Oh well. Hopefully I’ll make some time to get back into manga this weekend. But for now, here are my movie impressions:
Doukyuusei (Movie): (1 May 2019) This was a nice, fun shounen-ai story; sweet little romance with amusing characters. However, I do think it was funny that I watched this while I was still reading Shimanami Tasogare because that manga had such a down-to-earth, more realistic depiction of LGBTQ themes and characters that it made some of Doukyuusei’s more typical shounen-ai/yaoi style come off as very cheesy and a little hilarious in comparison. Still a nice watch, though; gave it an 8.
Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home: (2 May 2019) I’d forgotten how much fun Hanasaku Iroha was! I’d really like to re-watch the TV series if I had the time. This movie was a great little add-on, perfectly on par with the core series, in my opinion. It’s kind of sad that this movie was the last thing to be made for this franchise, back in 2013, since there’s still so much that can be told with these characters. Maybe the manga version expands on things a bit? I’ll have to check it out sometime. But yeah, the TV series holds a solid 8 for me, therefore so does this movie.
Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki: (3 May 2019) Well, this sure was a thing! If you want to see some very weird and very low-budget animation (even for 1992 standards), give this little movie a watch. It was an absolute mess, but it was so bizarre that I couldn’t score it lower than the 6 that I gave it.
Eve no Jikan (Movie): (4 May 2019) Ahhh, the Time of Eve. I’d watch the ONA version of this a while ago and really liked it and now I FINALLY watched my movie-version Blu-ray which I got via Kickstarter years ago. I really like this story and the movie version expands on it quite a bit. Probably my only big complaint about the movie version is that you can kind of see the seams a lot of the times with where they edited together the original episodes, but it’s not that big of a deal. After seeing this version, I felt that my new, in-the-works Top Standalone Anime Movies list is a better place for Eve than my big Series list. So yeah, 10-score and currently sits at #9 on my working movie list!
Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children): (5 May 2019) This was an incredibly sweet story. Honestly, I came into this movie with a bit of a bias against it. I’ve heard good things about it, but the thought of the kind-of-furry content turned me off a bit. But when I actually watched it, there were only a few moments in that area that bothered me. Overall, I absolutely loved the movie. I really enjoy the intimate story of their small family and the two kids (especially Yuki) are so cute! Wonderful all around and it got a 10-score and currently sits at #11 on the movie list.
Harmonie: (6 May 2019) After watching Eve no Jikan, I wondered to myself if Yasuhiro Yoshiura/Studio Rikka had made anything else since that. Well, for one I’d COMPLETELY forgot about Patema Inverted, but then there was also this little thing that they did as part of Anime Mirai 2014. This was a rather nice and simple story about two high schoolers building a connection with each other, but with an interesting almost-supernatural twist to it. This got a solid 8 from me and now I want to track down all of the Anime Mirai short movies, if for nothing else than to have a bunch of 25 minute movies to fall back on for when I’m not really feeling like watching a full-length movie for this challenge. XD
Orange: Mirai: (7 May 2019) I finally watched the Orange movie! Yeah, it was mostly on par with the TV anime, so it also got an 8. Not too much else to say about it.
Zutto Mae kara Suki deshita.: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (I've Always Liked You): (8 May 2019) Hmmm, this movie felt very peculiar. It was pretty cute, but also kind of bland and empty. The characters had some nice quirks, but also felt like cardboard cutouts. It felt like it was trying to reach out and be a truly great rom-com anime, but ended up just being “good” in the end, with me giving it a 7. I don’t know. It’s a very odd thing. I am interested enough to watch the sequel movie, though. I think the weirdest thing for me was all of the music. Seriously, I think there were 6 songs that played during this movie, like full-blown 1.5 minute or longer insert song segments. It was very jarring. But I guess according to the “Background” section of the MAL entry for this, that is kind of the shtick of the series; it was adapted from a music video series of some sort? Whatever. Weird but good.
Ookii 1 Nensei to Chiisana 2 Nensei: (9 May 2019) And last night I went ahead and watched another one of the Anime Mirai 2014 films! This was a pretty cute little story about a first grade boy who is big for his age and a second grade girl who is small for her age (that’s pretty much the translation of the anime’s title). The boy is a little scaredy-cat though and the girl takes care of him. But one day the boy ventures out on his own. Yeah, it was a nice, cute story and got a solid 7 from me.
And with that, I figured there has been enough movement and new additions to post an updated working list of my Top XX Standalone Anime Movies! I have a pretty solid Top 20 so far as all of those I have at a 9 or 10 score right now, while the rest of the list are 8s. Still not sure where I’ll make the cut-off when I make the official version of this list:
1. Kimi no Na wa. (your name.)
2. Uchuu Show e Youkoso (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW)
3. Paprika
4. Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World)
5. Sennen Joyuu (Millennium Actress)
6. Tokyo Godfathers
7. Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)
8. Penguin Highway
9. Eve no Jikan
10. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
11. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children)
12. Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words)
13. Hotarubi no Mori e
14. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
15. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (The Place Promised in Our Early Days)
16. Patema Inverted
17. Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second)
18. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
19. Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)
20. Gake no Ue no Ponyo
21. Pale Cocoon
22. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star)
23. Kurenai no Buta
24. Redline
25. Majo no Takkyuubin
26. Tsumiki no Ie
27. Tonari no Totoro
28. Steamboy
29. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
30. Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns)
31. Omae Umasou da na
32. Mononoke Hime
33. Tekkon Kinkreet
34. Harmonie
35. Vampire Hunter D (2000)
36. Doukyuusei
37. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
38. Kujira no Chouyaku (Glassy Ocean)
39. Atama Yama
40. Onkyo Seimeitai Noiseman
41. Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken
42. Kanashimi no Belladonna
Doukyuusei (Movie): (1 May 2019) This was a nice, fun shounen-ai story; sweet little romance with amusing characters. However, I do think it was funny that I watched this while I was still reading Shimanami Tasogare because that manga had such a down-to-earth, more realistic depiction of LGBTQ themes and characters that it made some of Doukyuusei’s more typical shounen-ai/yaoi style come off as very cheesy and a little hilarious in comparison. Still a nice watch, though; gave it an 8.
Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home: (2 May 2019) I’d forgotten how much fun Hanasaku Iroha was! I’d really like to re-watch the TV series if I had the time. This movie was a great little add-on, perfectly on par with the core series, in my opinion. It’s kind of sad that this movie was the last thing to be made for this franchise, back in 2013, since there’s still so much that can be told with these characters. Maybe the manga version expands on things a bit? I’ll have to check it out sometime. But yeah, the TV series holds a solid 8 for me, therefore so does this movie.
Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki: (3 May 2019) Well, this sure was a thing! If you want to see some very weird and very low-budget animation (even for 1992 standards), give this little movie a watch. It was an absolute mess, but it was so bizarre that I couldn’t score it lower than the 6 that I gave it.
Eve no Jikan (Movie): (4 May 2019) Ahhh, the Time of Eve. I’d watch the ONA version of this a while ago and really liked it and now I FINALLY watched my movie-version Blu-ray which I got via Kickstarter years ago. I really like this story and the movie version expands on it quite a bit. Probably my only big complaint about the movie version is that you can kind of see the seams a lot of the times with where they edited together the original episodes, but it’s not that big of a deal. After seeing this version, I felt that my new, in-the-works Top Standalone Anime Movies list is a better place for Eve than my big Series list. So yeah, 10-score and currently sits at #9 on my working movie list!
Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children): (5 May 2019) This was an incredibly sweet story. Honestly, I came into this movie with a bit of a bias against it. I’ve heard good things about it, but the thought of the kind-of-furry content turned me off a bit. But when I actually watched it, there were only a few moments in that area that bothered me. Overall, I absolutely loved the movie. I really enjoy the intimate story of their small family and the two kids (especially Yuki) are so cute! Wonderful all around and it got a 10-score and currently sits at #11 on the movie list.
Harmonie: (6 May 2019) After watching Eve no Jikan, I wondered to myself if Yasuhiro Yoshiura/Studio Rikka had made anything else since that. Well, for one I’d COMPLETELY forgot about Patema Inverted, but then there was also this little thing that they did as part of Anime Mirai 2014. This was a rather nice and simple story about two high schoolers building a connection with each other, but with an interesting almost-supernatural twist to it. This got a solid 8 from me and now I want to track down all of the Anime Mirai short movies, if for nothing else than to have a bunch of 25 minute movies to fall back on for when I’m not really feeling like watching a full-length movie for this challenge. XD
Orange: Mirai: (7 May 2019) I finally watched the Orange movie! Yeah, it was mostly on par with the TV anime, so it also got an 8. Not too much else to say about it.
Zutto Mae kara Suki deshita.: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (I've Always Liked You): (8 May 2019) Hmmm, this movie felt very peculiar. It was pretty cute, but also kind of bland and empty. The characters had some nice quirks, but also felt like cardboard cutouts. It felt like it was trying to reach out and be a truly great rom-com anime, but ended up just being “good” in the end, with me giving it a 7. I don’t know. It’s a very odd thing. I am interested enough to watch the sequel movie, though. I think the weirdest thing for me was all of the music. Seriously, I think there were 6 songs that played during this movie, like full-blown 1.5 minute or longer insert song segments. It was very jarring. But I guess according to the “Background” section of the MAL entry for this, that is kind of the shtick of the series; it was adapted from a music video series of some sort? Whatever. Weird but good.
Ookii 1 Nensei to Chiisana 2 Nensei: (9 May 2019) And last night I went ahead and watched another one of the Anime Mirai 2014 films! This was a pretty cute little story about a first grade boy who is big for his age and a second grade girl who is small for her age (that’s pretty much the translation of the anime’s title). The boy is a little scaredy-cat though and the girl takes care of him. But one day the boy ventures out on his own. Yeah, it was a nice, cute story and got a solid 7 from me.
And with that, I figured there has been enough movement and new additions to post an updated working list of my Top XX Standalone Anime Movies! I have a pretty solid Top 20 so far as all of those I have at a 9 or 10 score right now, while the rest of the list are 8s. Still not sure where I’ll make the cut-off when I make the official version of this list:
1. Kimi no Na wa. (your name.)
2. Uchuu Show e Youkoso (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW)
3. Paprika
4. Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World)
5. Sennen Joyuu (Millennium Actress)
6. Tokyo Godfathers
7. Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)
8. Penguin Highway
9. Eve no Jikan
10. Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
11. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children)
12. Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words)
13. Hotarubi no Mori e
14. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
15. Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (The Place Promised in Our Early Days)
16. Patema Inverted
17. Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second)
18. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
19. Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)
20. Gake no Ue no Ponyo
21. Pale Cocoon
22. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star)
23. Kurenai no Buta
24. Redline
25. Majo no Takkyuubin
26. Tsumiki no Ie
27. Tonari no Totoro
28. Steamboy
29. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
30. Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns)
31. Omae Umasou da na
32. Mononoke Hime
33. Tekkon Kinkreet
34. Harmonie
35. Vampire Hunter D (2000)
36. Doukyuusei
37. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä
38. Kujira no Chouyaku (Glassy Ocean)
39. Atama Yama
40. Onkyo Seimeitai Noiseman
41. Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken
42. Kanashimi no Belladonna
Posted by pluvia33 | May 10, 2019 5:44 AM | 0 comments