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Nov 26, 2012 4:26 AM
#1
The Shrike

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Nov 2009
11580
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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Silly, yet ultimately enjoyable movie. It's strange to watch this film and think that it's made by the same Mamoru Oshi that later did Ghost in the Shell, Angel's Egg or Sky Crawlers. This is all goofball comedy and romance, hardly the dense dialogue driven stuff he did later. Highlights are the 100,000 bishounen raid on the wedding, as well as Lum's crashing of the same wedding inspired no doubt on "The Graduate".

Ataru Moroboshi is easily one of the most exasperating characters in anime. How Lum insists on sticking to that rude womanizing idiot is beyond me.
"Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii

There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov

Oct 29, 2014 1:20 PM
#2

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Jul 2011
498
Marzan said:
Ataru Moroboshi is easily one of the most exasperating characters in anime. How Lum insists on sticking to that rude womanizing idiot is beyond me.

It's almost like that's part of the joke.
Nov 20, 2014 9:52 PM
#3

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Jun 2010
1873
I like how the clock tower scene echoed a very similar scene in the first episode of the TV series. I miss Shinobu's rage over Ataru's transgressions.

When Shinobu rescues Mendou from being turned into an icy trophy she tells Elle not to "mix up the hotblooded passion between man and woman with frozen tuna". The Japanese word she uses here is maguro which is indeed a kind of tuna but is also slang for a woman who doesn't move during sex. Seems pretty appropriate for Elle's cold (male) lovers.

The playground flashback was interesting. I'd think most portrayals of this situation would use a prosaic time-travel idea and hide the characters as they secretly watch the young Ataru and Elle. This intentionally non-logical, dreamlike sequence where the characters instead seemed to be submerged in a tangible memory was much more creative.
Apr 18, 2015 5:53 AM
#4

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Jul 2014
2800
I was surprised by the direction. Oshii sure had made a better job on this movie rather than on the series.
Feb 21, 2016 7:08 AM
#5
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Jul 2012
152
Parts of Elle planet reminded me of Laputa movie
I jump to watch this after watching ep20 and Love it!
Jan 28, 2017 1:38 PM
#6

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May 2012
25828
This movie was in all points better than the complete series in general I must say!

Really impressive movie I must say, in both character and story development this movie was just great!

Really enjoyed it from start to finish, and if all movies are like this one then I'm sure going to like the following movies!
May 10, 2019 9:44 PM
#7

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Aug 2015
984
What a great movie, really fun!

The war for Ataru is like a gender inverted Illiad, with Ataru being a male Helen of Troy...and not even being that good looking, since Elle even picks Mendou for her collection lol

I can't get over the fact the Mendou army is a bunch of Waffen-SS cosplayers...ick

I can't really get over the stupidity of the childhood promise cliche though, as if anyone expects a contract made between two six year olds to be morally binding

Benten is a real wingwoman (is that the word?) for Lum

They forgot about Cherry, he disappeared after getting vacuumed by Lum lol

The space cops were hot

Mendou's got some gall to cry for Lum to help him, when Shinobu is right there trying to help him. Shinobu is underrated

Seriously, right at the end when Ataru runs out I was just, 'fuck this guy, seriously'
I can sympathize with Megane, even if he wouldn't be much better if given the chance
glassknucklesMay 10, 2019 9:49 PM
May 30, 2019 1:28 AM
#8

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Jul 2015
9999
Pretty good first movie for this anime, never expected Elle to be the female equivalent to Ataru. That ending, typical Ataru move, never bound by someone!

May 30, 2019 9:19 AM
#9
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Nov 2013
4321
Lum’s Ballad is the highlight of the movie, Fumi Hirano’s singing voice is beautiful.
Jun 3, 2020 7:00 PM

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Apr 2008
3747
I liked this movie, it was fun and better than the TV show (so far) in a lot of ways. Not sure why it is rated so low. Movies for TV anime are usually way worse.

That said I feel like the musical sequences were mostly padding.
PlateJun 3, 2020 7:13 PM
Feb 7, 2021 12:59 PM

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May 2010
360
This was really fun. It’s no “Beautiful Dreamer”, but its still a good movie that represents the series well.
Aug 24, 2021 9:54 PM

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Aug 2016
1027
I thought this was pretty meh compared to the series honestly, second half of the movie was at least a lot more enjoyable than the first. I thought it actually looked worse than the TV series, not sure if that's just me.

Also, where was my home boy Cherry at during this movie? After he got carried away with the main characters family, was he ever in it again? I don't remember even seeing him. Real shame.
DancingTheBaAug 24, 2021 10:03 PM
Dec 24, 2022 1:35 AM
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Dec 2013
5759
Kurama is such a slut.
Dec 26, 2022 7:23 PM
Deadhead

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Dec 2018
3955
For the first of many movies, this slapped lol. So many amazing looking scenes with great art and animation, the ship that was used by Elle’s soldiers looked super cool as well as her home planet, so many cool things in this movie lol. The plot was pretty good too imo, really enjoyed Elle as a character, I liked her a lot despite her hot guy cold storage lol, I thought that she actually didn’t love Ataru because of that plot twist but by the end it became apparent she really did, it is hard to sympathize with someone that collects people and freezes them but I did find that pretty touching, I especially loved the time travel scene when we saw Ataru and Elle as kids. Elle was also smoking hot, an absolute peak 80s waifu design, it’s a shame she’s probably a one-off for this movie.

I also enjoyed the Lum and Ataru development in this, of course it ended with Ataru avoiding her again because of the ongoing show at this point but they had some truly great moments together, near the end especially. I also love how the alien girls like Benten, Kurama, Oyuki and Ran were more relevant in this movie giving the plot, Benten was pretty much a main character and she was always great in every scene with her, I’m definitely not just saying that because of my Benten bias lol. Mendou’s army also looked extremely like the WW2 German Army again here, and Mendou even had an MP40 in one scene lol, I do like the reference myself as a history loving person but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the army like this in the remake sadly lol.

And lastly I liked the uses of the show’s EDs in this like “Cosmic Cycler” and “I, I, You & Ai”, while I would have preferred new ones it was nice to hear them here, the 2nd one may have came from this movie originally but I’m not entirely sure. The insert songs were nice too and very fitting for their respective scenes, I’ll have to try and find them soon. If the other movies slap as hard as this one did I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of them!
Jan 22, 2023 2:24 AM

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Jan 2018
3811
When I first watched this movie I didn't like it very much. It didn't feel like a movie. I thought it was just an extended episode of the TV series. And sure enough, that's how the director Mamoru Oshii also felt about this movie too. This was technically his directorial debut in a movie. I say technically because originally this movie had a different director whose identity is still unknown. Apparently, he quit a few months before this movie came out so Oshii became his replacement as he was the director of the TV series at the time.

This history reminds me of the story behind Devil May Cry 2 although it came later. DMC2 originally had a different director who quit so Hideaki Itsuno became his replacement. Although DMC2 sucked, it became directly responsible for the existence of DMC3 which rocked. Similarly, I think without Only You, Beautiful Dreamer probably wouldn't exist.

No wonder Oshii doesn't look back upon this movie fondly. He had to clean up someone else's mess and barely had any creative input because the producer kept asking him to change the movie. But after a rewatch, this movie is a lot better than I initially gave it credit for. It does have an obvious major flaw though. The over-abundance of characters. Seriously, there are way too many characters in it for a single film. So most of the characters get sidelined around halfway though the movie.

Despite all of this though, this movie is the favorite of the author Rumiko Takahashi. I guess it makes sense cause out of all the movies, I think this one is the closest to having the classic Takahashi humor. Additionally, the significant role of Benten in this movie inspired Takahashi sensei to include her more in her manga according to her Tweet in 2022, giving the fans more Benten content to enjoy. This is a rare example of an adaptation inspiring the source material.

I also originally watched the Blu-ray version of the movie. This time I watched the DVD version because I heard the Blu-ray version cut around 12 minutes of the movie. But I couldn't tell which scenes were cut.

Anyway, didn't like this movie at first but loved it on a rewatch almost 2 years later. The best part of this movie for me is probably Lum's Ballad which I think was the first insert song sung by Lum's seiyuu Fumi Hirano.
Jul 20, 2023 5:19 AM

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Jan 2023
115
Lum's spaceship blowing up almost made me tear up 
it was so painful to watch her suffering but still fighting and not giving up
her love for Ataru is admirable and a bit obsessive and again even after Ataru's trash treatment she still went to fight and it would have been so painful to watch her getting injured well it wouldnt have ended with simple injury
but I was so happy to see her safely ejecting out of spaceship that scene got me really worried
and Elle's childhood scene with Ataru was quite wholesome
but damn she is kind of creepy "preserving love" kind of psycho thing to do

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Mar 27, 2015 2:32 AM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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